Inside Of A Dog Part 18

To name a dog is to begin to make him personal-and thus an anthropomorphizable creature. But we must. To name a dog is to a.s.sert an interest in understanding the nature of the dog; to not name the dog seems the pinnacle of disinterest. Dogs named Dog Dog make me sad: the dog is already defined out of being a player in the owner's life. make me sad: the dog is already defined out of being a player in the owner's life. Dog Dog has no name of his own; he is only a taxonomic subspecies. He will never be treated as an individual. What one is doing when naming a dog is starting him on the personality that he is to grow into. When trying out names for our dog, calling words out at her- has no name of his own; he is only a taxonomic subspecies. He will never be treated as an individual. What one is doing when naming a dog is starting him on the personality that he is to grow into. When trying out names for our dog, calling words out at her-"Bean!" "Bella!" "Blue!"-to see if any prompted a reaction, I felt that I was searching for "her name": the name that was already hers. With it, the bond between human and animal-wrought of understanding, not projection-could begin to form.

Go look at your dog. Go to him! Imagine his umwelt-and let him change your own.

Postscript: Me and My Dog

I sometimes find deep recognition in photos of her in which her eyes were not distinguishable from the darkness of her coat. It represents to me the way in which there was always something mysterious about her existence to me: what it was like to be Pump. She never laid it out there in the open. She had a privacy about her. I feel privileged that I was let into that private realm.

Pumpernickel wagged into my life in August 1990. We spent nearly every day together, until the day of her last breaths in November 2006. I still spend every one of my days with her.

Pump was a total surprise. I didn't expect to be changed const.i.tutionally by a dog. But it quickly became apparent that the description "a dog" didn't capture the astounding abundance of facets to her, the depth of her experience, and the possibilities of a lifetime knowing her. Before long, I felt pleasure simply at her company and pride at watching her act. She was spirited, patient, willful, and disarming all in one great furry bundle. She was sure of her opinions (she had no truck with yipping dogs) and yet open to new things (as the occasional fostered cat-despite each's unwavering disinterest). She was effusive; she was responsive; she was great fun.

What Pump was not was a subject in my research (at least, not intentionally). Still, I brought her with me when going to watch dogs. She was often my pa.s.skey into dog parks, and into dog circles: without a dog companion, a person may be treated suspiciously by dogs and owners alike. As a result, she wanders through many of my videos of bouts of play-through and out, as my video camera was trained on my unwitting subjects, not on my Pump. Now I regret my camera's unemotional oversight of her. Though I captured the social interactions I wanted, and was eventually, after much reviewing and a.n.a.lysis of the behaviors of the interactants, able to discover some surprising abilities of dogs, I missed some moments of my my dog. dog.

Every dog owner would agree with me, I suspect, about the specialness of her own dog. Reason argues that everyone must be wrong: by definition, not every dog can be the special dog-else special becomes ordinary. But it is reason that is wrong: what is special is the life story that each dog owner creates with and knows about his own dog. I am not exempt from feeling that, even from a scientific vantage. Behavioral scientific approaches to dogs, far from displacing this story, simply build on the singular understanding of the dog owner-on the expertise that each dog owner has about her dog.

When Pump was nearly at the end of her life, undeniably old, she lost weight, her muzzle grayed, she slowed sometimes to a stop on walks. I saw her frustrations, her resignations, her impulses pursued or abandoned; I saw her considerations, her control, her calm. But when I looked at her face, and into her eyes, she was a puppy again. I saw glimpses of that unnamed dog who so cooperatively let us plop a too-big collar around her neck and walk her out of the shelter and thirty blocks home. And then thousands of miles since.

After knowing Pump, and losing Pump, I met Finnegan. I already cannot imagine not knowing this new character: this leaner on legs, this stealer of b.a.l.l.s, this warmer of laps. He is incredibly unlike Pumpernickel. Yet what she taught me has made every moment with Finnegan infinitely richer.

She lifted her head and turned toward me, her head pulsing slightly with her breathing. Her nose was dark and wet, her eyes calm. She began licking, full long licks of her front legs, of the floor. The tags of her collar clonked on the wood. Her ears lay flat, curling up a little at the bottom like a felted leaf, dried in the sun. Those days her front toes were a little splayed, her paws turned clawlike as though in preparation to pounce. She did not pounce. She yawned. It was a long, lazy afternoon yawn, her tongue languidly examining the air. She settled her head down between her legs, exhaled a kind of har-ummmp, har-ummmp, and closed her eyes. and closed her eyes.

Notes and Sources

In addition to the sources listed by chapter below, I refer to the following books frequently. Each is a scholarly yet accessible approach to dog behavior, cognition, or training; I recommend them all for anyone interested in further details of dog science.

Lindsay, S. R. 2000, 2001, 2005. Handbook of applied dog behavior and training Handbook of applied dog behavior and training (3 volumes). Ames, Iowa: Blackwell Publishing. (3 volumes). Ames, Iowa: Blackwell Publishing.

McGreevy, P., and R. A. Boakes. 2007. Carrots and sticks: Principles of animal Carrots and sticks: Principles of animal training. training. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Miklosi, a. 2007. Dog behavior, evolution, and cognition. Dog behavior, evolution, and cognition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Serpell, J., ed. 1995. The domestic dog: Its evolution, behaviour and interactions The domestic dog: Its evolution, behaviour and interactions with people. with people. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

PRELUDE.

on determining species brain differences:

Rogers, L. 2004. Increasing the brain's capacity: Neocortex, new neurons, and hemispheric specialization. In L. J. Rogers, and G. Kaplan, eds. Comparative Comparative vertebrate cognition: Are primates superior to non-primates? vertebrate cognition: Are primates superior to non-primates? (pp. 289324). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. (pp. 289324). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.

UMWELT.

on the dolphin smile:

Bearzi, M., and C. B. Stanford. 2008. Beautiful minds: The parallel lives of Great Beautiful minds: The parallel lives of Great Apes and dolphins. Apes and dolphins. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

on the fear grin in chimpanzees:

Chadwick-Jones, J. 2000. Developing a social psychology of monkeys and apes. Developing a social psychology of monkeys and apes. East Suss.e.x, UK: Psychology Press. East Suss.e.x, UK: Psychology Press.

on eyebrow-raising in monkeys: Kyes, R. C., and D. K. Candland. 1987. Baboon (Papio hamadryas) visual preferences for regions of the face. visual preferences for regions of the face. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 4, Journal of Comparative Psychology, 4, 345348. 345348.

de Waal, F. B. M., M. Dindo, C. A. Freeman, and M. J. Hall. 2005. The monkey in the mirror: Hardly a stranger. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102, 102, 1114011147. 1114011147.

on chicken preferences:

Febrer, K., T. A. Jones, C. A. Donnelly, and M. S. Dawkins. 2006. Forced to crowd or choosing to cl.u.s.ter? Spatial distribution indicates social attraction in broiler chickens. Animal Behaviour, 72, Animal Behaviour, 72, 12911300. 12911300.

on muzzle biting and standing-over in wolves:

Fox, M. W. 1971. Behaviour of wolves, dogs and related canids. Behaviour of wolves, dogs and related canids. New York: Harper & Row. New York: Harper & Row.

on shock experiments:

Seligman, M. E. P., S. F. Maier, and J. H. Geer. 1965. Alleviation of learned helplessness in the dog. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 73, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 73, 256262. 256262.

on umwelt, ticks, and functional tones:

von Uexkull, J. 1957/1934. A stroll through the worlds of animals and men. In C. H. Schiller, ed. Instinctive behavior: The development of a modern concept Instinctive behavior: The development of a modern concept (pp. 580). New York: International Universities Press. (pp. 580). New York: International Universities Press.

on pessimistic rats:

Harding, E. J., E. S. Paul, and M. Mendl. 2004. Cognitive bias and affective state. Nature, 427, Nature, 427, 312. 312.

on dog kisses:

Fox, 1971.

on the dog's sense of taste:

Lindemann, B. 1996. Taste reception. Physiological Reviews, 76, Physiological Reviews, 76, 719766. Serpell, 1995. 719766. Serpell, 1995.