C A N I N E T I M E N E W S L E T T E R (tm)
Copyright 2000 CFNA Inc
Issue No. 92, Vol.4, March 16, 2000
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Contents
>Surfer Dog
-- Why Do We Love Pets More Than We Love People?
>In The News:
-- Reward Fund for Dog Murdered in Road Rage Incident
Pushes Past $100,000
>Health:
-- Advice On Use Of Flea Products
>People and Pets:
-- The Impact Of Humans On The Dog's Mind
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S U R F E R D O G
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Here's Reading Surfer Dog Found Online This Week:
*** WHY DO WE LOVE PETS MORE THAN WE LOVE PEOPLE?
On My Mind Editorial by Carole Simpson, ABCNews.com
copyright 2000 ABCNews.com
Simpson ponders why we are appalled at animal tragedy, but
seem nonplussed by human tragedy. Why, she says, do we "side with
the animals?" She has heard people say they love their
pets more than family members. Why is this, she wonders? She
considers the horror of the Leo story (see news below) but
wonders if the situation merits two full-time investigators.
READ THE STORY:
http://abcnews.go.com/onair/worldnewssaturday/onmymind.html
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I N T H E N E W S
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REWARD FUND FOR DOG MURDERED IN ROAD RAGE INCIDENT
PUSHES PAST $100,000
In just a few weeks time, animal lovers around the world have
donated approximately $110,000 to fund the award offered for
information leading to the arrest and conviction of the man who
allegedly killed Leo, a Bichon Frise, during a bizzare road-rage
incident in California.
The man was reported in the national media to have thrown Leo
into three lanes of highway traffic just outside the San Jose
International Airport in February, after his sport utility vehicle
was fender-bumped by the 10-year-old dog's owner, Sara McBurnett.
He is alleged to have grabbed Leo from McBurnett's lap, while
she was still seated in her vehicle, and thrown the dog into traffic.
Individuals have donated about $59,000 now, while Our Animal Wards,
an animal welfare nonprofit organization in Virginia, has pledged
$50,000.
To contribute to Leo's Reward Fund, send checks to the Humane
Society of Santa Clara Valley, 2530 Lafayette Street, Santa Clara,
CA, 95050. Make the checks payable to the Humane Society and write on
the check "LEO'S REWARD FUND."
To contact the shelter, call 408) 727-3383 or visit their web
site at:
http://www.scvhumane.org/
If a reward is not given, the funds will be transferred to the
Humane Society's Cruelty Investigations Program to advance their
mission of protecting animals.
Anyone with information regarding the road rage incident can
call the San Jose Police Department at 408-277-4161 and ask for
Sergeant Mason or Detective Johnson.
Police have released a composite sketch of the suspect. He
is described as a white male between the ages of 24 and 28, of
medium height and wiry build. The black SUV he was driving is
reported to have Virginia license plates. A composite drawing can be
seen online at: http://interstice.com/leo/
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WEB SITE:
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H E A L T H
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ADVICE ON USE OF FLEA PRODUCTS
As flea season is approaching, The ASPCA National Animal
Poison Control Center (ASPCA NAPCC) is providing the following
counsel to pet owners:
-- Never use insecticides on young, pregnant, debilitated, or
elderly animals without consulting your veterinarian. You may want to
consider avoiding the use of some insecticides directly on your pet.
Instead, you could comb the fleas off the animal with a flea comb
then submerge the fleas in a small container of soapy water. This
would also be a good alternative for pets that love being groomed but
who violently refuse baths or the application of a spray.
-- Before using any product on your pet read the label instructions
completely. If you do not completely understand the instructions, you
should contact the manufacturer or your veterinarian for
clarification. Observe the species and age requirements listed on the
label. Never use a product labeled "for use on dogs only" on your
cats. Cats react very differently than dogs to some insecticides.
Some dog products can be deadly to cats, even in tiny amounts.
-- Always use caution when using shampoos, sprays, topical spot-ons,
or mousse near your pet's eyes, ears, and genitalia. Inactive
ingredients could cause irritation to these sensitive tissues.
-- When using a fogger or spray, make sure to remove all pets from
the house for the time period specified on the container. Food and
water bowls should be removed from the area. Allow time for the
product to dry completely before returning your animals to your home.
Open windows or use fans to air out the household before returning
your pets to the treated area. Strong fumes can be irritating to your
animal's eyes and upper respiratory system.
-- If you are uncertain about the usage of any product, contact the
product's manufacturer or your veterinarian to explain the directions
BEFORE use of the product.
-- Insect growth regulators like lufenuron, methoprene, and
pyriproxyfen can be used in combination or alone with flea control
products. They can help break the flea life cycle by inhibiting flea
maturation. Growth regulators have minimal adverse effects and can
improve the efficacy when used in combination with adult flea
insecticides.
-- Just because a product is labeled as "natural" does not
mean that the product is completely safe. Many natural
products can be harmful when used inappropriately on pets. For
example, d-limonene and linalool are citrus extracts that are used as
flea control agents. Though they are natural products, they still can
have serious side effects if used on sensitive animals or if used
improperly.
-- Observe your pet closely after using flea products. If your pet
exhibits unusual behavior, or becomes depressed, weak, or
uncoordinated you should seek veterinary advice immediately.
-- Always read the label. This could save the life of your pet!
The ASPCA National Animal Poison Control Center, an operating
division of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals (ASPCA), is the only animal-oriented poison control center in
North America. It provides an emergency hotline for 24-hour-a-day,
7-day-a-week telephone assistance. The Center's hotline veterinarians
can quickly answer questions about toxic chemicals, dangerous plants,
products or substances found in our everyday surroundings that can
prove poisonous or fatal to animals.
For online information about the ASPCA/NAPCC visit the web site
at http://www.napcc.aspca.org.
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P E O P L E and P E T S
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THE IMPACT OF HUMANS ON THE DOG'S MIND
by Kate Douglas
I HAVE a confession to make. I'm not a great dog lover.
I simply can't trust a designer wolf.
You may see man's best friend, but I see a wild animal that has
inveigled its way into our homes and hearts.
I've always suspected that this beast might leap at my throat
without a second thought. After all, dogs just don't understand that
such behavior is socially unacceptable.
Or do they?
It turns out that far from being an interloper and socially
inept, the dog is the product of tens of thousands of years
of evolution in a very particular environment -- our homes. In recent
years, evidence has emerged that dogs and humans have been living
together for much longer than anyone ever expected.
Genetic evidence suggests that we began to domesticate dogs
while we were still hunter-gatherers, living in caves and mastering
the first grunts of language. Researchers are just starting to
reveal how this strange partnership has shaped the way canines think
and behave.
"The dog's natural environment is the human family or other
human social settings," says Vilmos Csanyi of Eotvos Lorand University
in Budapest.
Because humans and dogs evolved together he believes we share
certain patterns of thought that allow us to live together.
"Dogs are interested in the emotional and intentional content
of the human mind and they are able to learn and to maintain the
rules of human social settings," says Csanyi.
So while others look to apes to shed light on social cognition,
his team is pioneering the study of dogs. One of the first things
they did was to investigate the bond between humans and their
pooches.. Dogs and their owners are clearly emotionally attached,
and selective breeding has favored infantile canine features.
But, does the relationship between the two species really
resemble the bond between a human parent and child?
To find out, researchers from Csanyi's lab gave dogs the
"strange situation test," originally devised to study the special
attachment between an infant and its mother or primary carer. A
securely attached baby behaves in a characteristic way in a strange
situation. Provided the mother is nearby, the infant shows little
fear and is happy to explore a new environment.
When she leaves, the infant becomes distressed but will
usually settle with a stranger. The preference for the mother is
clear, however, when she returns and the baby is eager to greet her.
An associate tested how 51 dogs responded to a similar strange
situation. The dogs were keen to play and explore in an unfamiliar
room, as long as their owner was there. When the owner left, the
dogs didn't play as much and showed other signs of anxiety such as
barking and waiting by the door.
Even if they eventually settled, all well-attached dogs greeted
their returning owners enthusiastically.
"It seems that dogs and infants behave very similarly and we
think this is a result of evolutionary domestication."
Csanyi says there are two stages to forming this relationship.
First, comes a form of imprinting.
If 6- to 12-week-old puppies come into contact with people,
their innate capacity to bond leads them to accept humans as a member
of their own species. Thereafter a dog can develop an attachment to
any person who shows it affection.
The researchers believe that the attachment to people might
explain why dogs sometimes appear stupid.
Back in 1980, Harry Frank from the University of Michigan-Flint,
described how a wolf that could not be trained to sit on command
learned to manipulate a complicated door catch simply by watching
another wolf open it. But trained dogs couldn't master the catch even
after years of seeing the door open and close.
Frank concluded that through domestication dogs become obedient
and trainable while losing some cognitive abilities such as problem
solving. They have a decreased capacity for insight because
throughout their evolution human intervention has detached them from
the consequences of their actions.
Many people believe that any domestic animal is not as
intelligent as its wild relative. Dogs certainly have smaller brains
for their body size than wolves, particularly in the areas associated
with vision and olfaction. But domestication is not necessarily to
blame.
One likely ancestor of dogs, the small Asiatic wolf, had a
smaller brain than other wolves. What's more, dogs don't seem to have
lost other mental abilities that would have helped their ancestors
hunt in packs. They understand object permanence--that things don't
just disappear even when they can no longer see them.
According to scientists, dogs are maybe at a similar level
in this ability as apes. And they are capable of making mental
maps to allow them to find new routes through familiar territory.
Researchers Topol and Miklsi suspected that the poor
problem-solving ability of canines did not stem from a loss of mental
abilities during their evolution, but from the way an individual
dog's behavior is shaped by its relationship with its owners and by
training. The stronger the attachment between a dog and its owner,
the researchers suggested, the more likely the pet was to behave in a
socially dependent way, relinquishing its powers of independent
thought and action.
To test the idea they asked 28 owners to fill in a questionnaire
showing the extent of their anthropomorphic attitudes to their dog.
Questions included, "How often do you allow the dog into your bed?",
"Do you celebrate your dog's birthday?" and "To what extent does your
dog identify with your emotions?" The dogs were then given a problem
to solve. They had to work out that they could get a food reward by
pulling on the handles of plastic dishes that protruded from
underneath a wire fence.
Sure enough, the more intimate the bond between dog and owner,
the worse the animal at solving the problem.
But the differences disappeared as soon as the owners encouraged
their dogs to get the food.
"Dogs with an intimate bond did not perform worse but showed
dependent behaviour," says Miklsi. "It is not that they don't
understand the problem." Csanyi and his team can back up this claim
with further evidence from their studies of interactions between
blind people and guide dogs.
"In this case, we find the best problem-solving dogs are those
that are strongly attached to their blind masters," says Csanyi. Here
the bond allows a dog to cooperate with a human to negotiate
difficult situations. So, although guide dogs are trained to take
control, the researchers found that once an animal develops a bond
with its master, it hands over the decision making only to step in
when the need arises.
Until now only humans were supposed to be capable of this kind
of sophisticated cooperation, where the initiative is constantly
shifting between two parties. Other animals only work together where
they share interests and objectives, such as those hunting in packs,
or defending young offspring.
Obeying The Rules
In Csanyi's view, domestication has in fact increased the dog's
cognitive abilities, not reduced them as Frank believes. By selecting
individuals that form strong attachments and are tractable, we have
produced an animal that is genetically predisposed to learn and obey
rules. While this is central to the guide dog's abilities, it also
means all dogs can fit into their particular social environment.
Even without formal training, dogs become socialised simply by
being with people. They have a talent for working out the underlying
rules.
"They easily extract them from games and from observing other
dogs or humans," says Csanyi.
Marc Bekoff from the University of Colorado has studied
how dogs, wolves and coyotes play. "All animals learn certain codes
of conduct about their own species' morality through play," he says.
"I think dogs learn codes of conduct from humans through dog/human
play."
They learn the ground rules for acceptable behavior, such as
how hard they can bite without harming. And, like any animal, when
dogs play, they hone the behaviors they will need elsewhere.
There is little research into the evolutionary effects of such
interactions between dogs and humans, but Bekoff suspects that they
have enriched the mental life of dogs. A study in his lab reveals
that playful interactions between puppies are much more varied than
those between young wolves or coyotes.
He thinks dogs have evolved more varied forms of behavior
because of the sophisticated games people play with their pets and
the selection for dogs that are good at such games. "It would feed
over into other areas," says Bekoff. "In general ways it would make
the dog more cognitive."
HAS THE HUMAN RELATIONSHIP WITH DOGS ENHANCED OTHER CANINE
COGNITIVE ABILITIES? Learn the answer in next week's issue, when
this article continues.
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EDITOR'S CUBBY
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Hello There:
I want to thank the many Canine Times subscribers who wrote last
night, hoping that all was well here. The storm was more like a dog
with a large bark and no bite. It came. It roared. We flew home.
And then, it just poured and poured.
My 10-year-old son said to me this morning, "Mom, don't we have a lot
of excess water?" Yep, lad. That's what we have! I was not only
fascinated by my son's description of the situation, but by
Kate Douglas' article on the impact of human contact on the
evolution of the dog's mind. What a stimulating article. Let's
talk about it at the Canine Times forum online at:
http://www.cfnaonline.com/cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?29/29
I also want to thank all of you who have signed up to get paid
while your surf the web, by visiting the website at:
http://www.cfnaonline.com/cgi-bin/track/tracker.cgi?aa
We now have 144 people who have joined. That's great. It really
does beat paying a CT subscription fee. The huge corps are
paying for it instead! Love the net, no?
Warm regards,
Sunni
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