love this. On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 11:41 AM, Larry C. Lyons <[email protected]> wrote: > > http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-human-beast/201011/why-dogs-are-so-different-wolves > > Why dogs are so different from wolves > > By Nigel Barber, Ph.D. > Created Nov 16 2010 - 6:38am > > A recent PBS documentary highlighted some of the remarkable > differences between wolves and domesticated dogs (Nova: Dogs Decoded, > video). The Nova segment is a remarkable distillation of recent > evidence about how humans have altered dogs through artificial > selection, and been altered ourselves in the process. > > As I discussed in an earlier post, there is much controversy about how > long our mutual admiration society has been in operation, with > estimates ranging from about 10,000 to 100,000 years. > > However long our association with dogs has gone on, we have altered > them radically from ancestral wolves although they can still > interbreed and are thus the same species. The primary factor that > humans selected for was tameness, or low levels of aggression. The > main mechanism through which this was accomplished was neotenization, > or retention of juvenile low aggression into adult life. We also > selected animals who paid attention to us. > > The resulting differences between dogs and wolves are striking. When > wolves were raised in human homes, they were a great deal more > aggressive and less respectful of human rules. Although wolf cubs are > cute, they quickly mature into wild animals who have little interest > in their masters. > > Apart from the more obvious anatomical signs of juvenility, such as > shortened snout and more domed skull, adult dogs are remarkably > sensitive to human social cues in a way that hand raised wolves are > not. > > Dogs are exquisitely sensitive to gestures, such as pointing, and are > very good at finding hidden food when we point to it, something no > other animal can do. Another uncanny canine capacity is their facility > at reading our emotions. You don't have to tell your dog whether you > have had a good day or not. > > How dogs decode our emotions may be complex and is poorly understood. > One of the more fascinating recent discoveries is that when dogs look > at human faces, they gaze to their left, fixating the right side of > our faces that convey more emotion than the left side. > > In the course of exploiting their niche as our best friends forever, > dogs evolved a varied repertoire of barks to signify various emotions. > Wolves evidently have less range in their vocal repertoire although > the Nova claim that they have only one bark (for anger) is a mistake > (at least for pack animals in the wild). Recent research finds that > domestic dogs have at least eight different barks that people can > distinguish (e.g., when the dog is left alone, when it encounters a > territorial threat, when it is frightened, or dejected). > > If all of this were not enough, it seems that dogs are very much > better at understanding our words than we are at deciphering their > barks. Witness the border collie who recognizes words for some 300 > different objects that it will fetch on demand. > > It seems that the process of domestication has had profound genetic > effects for dogs. Dogs also allowed our ancestors to become much more > effective hunters and their services as herders likely played a role > in domesticating other species. > > > -- > Larry C. Lyons > web: http://www.lyonsmorris.com/lyons > LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/larryclyons > -- > People need to realize that the plural of anecdote is not data. > >
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