Dogs
jgoldman | June 14, 2010I've decided I want to cover some recent research on social cognition in domesticated dogs. But first, we need some background. So here's a repost from the old blog.
Today I want to tell you about one of my most favorite studies, ever, of animals. Are you ready? It's a FIFTY YEAR LONG longitudinal study of captive silver foxes in Russia. Gather around, pour yourself a cup of your favorite beverage, get comfortable, and enjoy storytime.
In 1948, Soviet scientist Dmitri Belyaev lost his job at the Department of Fur Animal Breeding at the Central Research Laboratory of Fur Breeding in Moscow…
jgoldman | May 10, 2010...and what can word-learning in dogs teach us about the evolution of language in humans?
What is involved in the learning of a single new word? Consider the word "tiger", being learned by a child with already a modest vocabulary, at least for animal words. First the child must make a new entry in the mental lexicon - that "tiger" is a word in the first place. He has to categorize it as a noun. It has to be categorized under "animal" (a supernym) and related to its hyponyms, like "Sumatran tiger." Then, of course, the child has to learn what actual *thing* the word "tiger" refers to. Now,…
jgoldman | May 3, 2010Let me tell you a little story. When I was born my parents had two cats. One was named Garfield. The other...well, I don't remember what the other one was called. Not long after I was born, and little Jason was coughing up furballs, the doctors informed the parents that their little bundle of skin and hair was allergic to cats. It was then that teams were picked and lines were drawn. It was me or the cats. Luckily, the parents decided to keep me, and lose the cats. Imagine how much it would have sucked if they decided to keep the cats and lose me. I imagine if my younger brother had actually…
grrlscientist | April 23, 2010tags: Things You CAN'T Do When You're NOT a Dog, behavior, silly, humor, fucking hilarious, streaming video
To kick off this week's Silly Saturday, here's a ridiculous look at what dogs can get away with but humans can't. (I've watched this several times and am surprised I haven't used it yet on the blog, so here it is now).
jgoldman | April 21, 2010Animals dream, too!
It's definitely not a seizure, and it's definitely not random motor actions. Those actions are totally coordinated. Poor dog must have been dreaming about a dog fight or something.
mikethemadbiologist | April 16, 2010Maybe I should have worn this hat?
I was going to write a magnus opus about the Tea Bugger rally on the Boston Common on Wednesday. But, as we used to say in more civilized times, meh. Basically, there was an hour of some really schlocky pseudo-patriotic music, wherein every third word was freedom (FREEE-DOM! Gives the whole notion of freedom a bad name). Then between 'songs', we would be regaled with stories of heroic sacrifices by soldiers, followed by other sentences that were heavy with "freedom" and "amen." Because opposing taxes on the wealthiest is just like storming the beaches…
sa smith | April 8, 2010Since Arnie was a street dog when I found him, his parentage has always been in question. It doesnt help that he is a 'pit bull', which could mean any number of things-- line up 50 'pit bulls' and you will get short-and-stout to long-and-lean and everything in between. Black, white, red, big spots, small spots, brown with black stripes, black with brown stripes, everything. 'Pit bulls' are like a Dr. Seuss book.
Arnies round, doe-eyes and alligator smile definitely put him in the 'pit' camp, but his ears/profile are rather labrador-ish, and I think from watching this obedience training…
ddobbs | March 12, 2010Never thought I'd run an ad on my blog. But this is just so ... satisfying. And quite pretty. My favorite part is when the dog's feet leave the ground.
h/t @taylordobbs
razib | February 25, 2010Social Cognition in Dogs, or How did Fido get so smart?. This you know:
Domesticated dogs seem to have an uncanny ability to understand human communicative gestures. If you point to something the dog zeroes in on the object or location you're pointing to (whether it's a toy, or food, or to get his in-need-of-a-bath butt off your damn bed and back onto his damn bed). Put another way, if your attention is on something, or if your attention is directed to somewhere, dogs seem to be able to turn their attention onto that thing or location as well.
Amazingly, dogs seem to be better at this than…
grrlscientist | February 23, 2010tags: Law & Order, Pups & Order, television, music, dogs, pets, comedy, humor, strange, behavior, streaming video
I love Law & Order so much that this one TV show is enough to tempt me into purchasing a television (I've never owned nor possessed a TV, although I do watch TV in "my" NYC pub). But according to this curious video, the theme music from Law & Order is enough to cause dogs everywhere to howl (with delight?).
This video was compiled from a collection of "pups & order" videos. Does anyone have a dog that also howls when the opening credits for Law & Order…
grrlscientist | February 16, 2010tags: dog eating, funny, offbeat, silly, humor, pets, pranks, fucking hilarious, streaming video
This video shows what happens when a guy and his dog have too much time (and a video camera) on their hands.
sastyk | February 4, 2010We spent about 8 months looking for a suitable dog before we acquired Mac the Marshmallow last month. Until a little over a year ago, we had two American Working Farmcollies, half siblings. Rufus, our senior dog was an unusually large dog for his breed - half again the size of either parent or his sister, Mistress Quickly, and he died suddenly at 7 of a hidden heart condition that our vet says sometimes affects unusually large dogs.
We knew that we did not want another farmcollie - or rather we did, we had loved Rufus, but that what we needed in working dog for our family was slightly…
razib | January 20, 2010Sometimes scientists report on research which clarifies what we already know. 'Survival of the Cutest' Proves Darwin Right:
The study, published in The American Naturalist on January 20, 2010, compared the skull shapes of domestic dogs with those of different species across the order Carnivora, to which dogs belong along with cats, bears, weasels, civets and even seals and walruses.
It found that the skull shapes of domestic dogs varied as much as those of the whole order. It also showed that the extremes of diversity were farther apart in domestic dogs than in the rest of the order. This…
razib | January 17, 2010A friend pointed me to this fascinating article about stray dogs in Moscow:
... It has become a symbol for the 35,000 stray dogs that roam Russia's capital - about 84 dogs per square mile. You see them everywhere. They lie around in the courtyards of apartment complexes, wander near markets and kiosks, and sleep inside metro stations and pedestrian passageways. You can hear them barking and howling at night. And the strays on Moscow's streets do not look anything like the purebreds preferred by status-conscious Muscovites. They look like a breed apart.
...
They also acted differently. Every…
sastyk | January 15, 2010Earlier this week I wrote in "Pyr-Buck-Bees-Sheep" that I was struggling to get excited by my present book (still true, although a little better), and that what was keeping me going was farm planning - thinking about what I really want to be doing. I made my list of sustaining plans, to be paid for by the book advance - a Great Pyrenees dog as a guardian for our livestock, a Nigerian Dwarf buck for our breeding program, Honey Bees, and Sheep for our pastures. Oh, and there's some incidental poultry in there, and my seeds and fruit trees, but that ruined the rhythym of my new chant.
Well,…
razib | January 11, 2010Tracking footprints of artificial selection in the dog genome:
The size, shape, and behavior of the modern domesticated dog has been sculpted by artificial selection for at least 14,000 years. The genetic substrates of selective breeding, however, remain largely unknown. Here, we describe a genome-wide scan for selection in 275 dogs from 10 phenotypically diverse breeds that were genotyped for over 21,000 autosomal SNPs. We identified 155 genomic regions that possess strong signatures of recent selection and contain candidate genes for phenotypes that vary most conspicuously among breeds,…
grrlscientist | December 29, 2009tags: dogs, pets, hospitals, organ transplants, comedy, humor, funny, fucking hilarious, television, streaming video
This video is the hilariously stupid dog scene from One Tree Hill, now with suitably awkward closing music.
grrlscientist | December 11, 2009tags: El Baile del Perrito, Un Perro Bailando Merengue, stupid pet tricks, animal training, humor, funny, streaming video
This video documents a Merengue-dancing dog. Despite its cheesiness, it's really an interesting study in excellent animal training as well as a demonstration of how well an animal observes human body movements and body language.
grrlscientist | November 13, 2009tags: atoms, teaching, pets, dogs, chemistry, streaming video
A crack team of PhD-trained golden retrievers illustrate the structure of atoms -- the particles that make up everything around you. They also show how atoms are weirder than you might think.
mikethemadbiologist | October 29, 2009...put down bad owners instead? From Boston's Universal Hub:
Boston Police report seizing a pit bull on Talbot Avenue in Dorchester Tuesday morning after its owner allegedly tried to sic the animal on the young daughter of a neighbor with whom she's been feuding.
Police say the dog may be the same one involved in an incident earlier this month, during which a woman on Talbot Avenue allegedly laughed as her pit bull attacked a girl waiting for a school bus.
Police report on Tuesday's incident:
While the officer spoke with the caller, a black female appeared with an un-muzzled pitbull. The…