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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 04/25/2006 : 14:03:00
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I've actually witnessed this kind of dog behavior. Have you?
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 04/25/2006 : 14:46:43 [Permalink]
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| Yeah, only it was my cat chasing his tale... |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
Posted - 04/26/2006 : 05:17:19 [Permalink]
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| That just has to be partially due to overbreeding. |
"Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong
Check out my art store: http://www.marfknox.etsy.com
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 04/26/2006 : 12:09:13 [Permalink]
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marfknox ordained:quote:
That just has to be partially due to overbreeding.
Here's my "theory":
My understanding is that the hind legs of a dog, unlike its front legs, are more or less autonomously controlled. Normally, they simply follow along unconsciously. In fact, dogs have to be carefully trained to do such stunts as walking along a horizontal ladder, as their hind feet fail to step on the rungs until they've learned to place them consciously. So dogs can learn to consciously control their hind legs, but normally have little reason to pay them much attention.
Using the hind legs to scratch about the neck and head is almost a stereotype of dogs, and the behavior is found in other mammals, such as mice. This is almost certainly an instinctive behavior, done without conscious control.
So here's this perfectly normal dog, who has been given a rare and valued chew treat. He's on his favorite spot on his favorite couch, and he wants to be left alone with his rawhide treat.
I've seen this kind of food-guarding behavior even in oscar fish, where, with a half-swallowed goldfish in its mouth, it would turn toward the corner of the aquarium to prevent other oscars from stealing its catch. (Sometimes in the past, I've behaved much the same, when very hungry. I was very embarrassed afterward, but now I suspect I'd just gone into an ancient instinctual mode.)
Now, back to our dog. Along comes this snaky, hairy intruder reaching toward his treat, as if to snatch it from his mouth. It's not hard to imagine that the dog's brain is compartmentalized, and his powers of logic aren't all that strong. He gowls and displays his teeth in warning, then snaps at the leg when it doesn't take heed. But the snap is restrained to a soft bite. The dog's foot pain nerves are directly are wired to the dog's conscious brain, and the feedback is immediate and unmistakable. He's quickly learned not to bite hard on the foot. Also, note that the leg becomes increasingly hesitant in performing its scratching routine.
So, what I think we're seeing is the result of strong instincts, and the limitations of the dog's brainpower as judged from our human viewpoint. The dog's behavior doesn't really rise to the level of the pathological, because his bite is restrained.
So, in my theory, what we're seeing is actually a minor behavioral success story, but a very silly-looking one from our viewpoint. Another dog would probably see nothing silly in this at all. 
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 04/26/2006 12:36:33 |
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 04/26/2006 : 13:15:15 [Permalink]
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Ricky pontificated: quote:
Yea, but it's just a theory. Wait until the people down in Kansas get ahold of it. You'll have to wear a sticker on your forehead.
You got that right. And technically, my "theory" (and with this in mind, I'd deliberately used quotes when I first employed the word) does not even rise quite to the very high proof and the broad scientific acceptance level implied by the word, "theory," as in the Germ Theory of communicable disease, the Theory of Relativity, or, indeed, the Theory of Evolution. It's just my guess about the goofy behavior of a dog.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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