Read Online Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know by Alexandra Horowitz - Free Book Online
Authors: Alexandra Horowitz
Tags: General, science, Psychology, Pets, Dogs, Breeds, Life Sciences, Cognitive Psychology, Dogs - Psychology, Zoology
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determines what will be noticed in the environment—and whatever is noticed itself further shapes continued neural and physical development. As a result, even with inherited genes, dogs aren't just carbon copies of their parents. On top of this, there is also great natural variability in the genome. Even a cloned dog, should you be tempted to replicate your beloved pet, will not be identical to the original: what a dog experiences and whom he meets will influence who he becomes in innumerable, untraceable ways.
So although we have tried to design dogs, the dogs we see today are partly creatures of serendipity. What breed is she? is a question I've been asked about Pump more than any other—and I in turn ask of other dogs. Her mongrelness encourages the great game of guessing her heritage: the resulting hunches are satisfying, even though none could ever be verified.*
THE ONE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BREEDS
Though there is an extensive literature of dog breeds, there has never been a scientific comparison of breed behavior differences: a comparison that controls each animal's environment, giving them the same physical objects, the same exposure to dogs and humans, the same everything. It's hard to believe, given that such bold statements are made about what each breed is like. This is not to suggest that the differences are minimal or nonexistent. Dogs of various breeds will doubtless behave differently when, say, they are presented with a nearby, running rabbit. But it would be a mistake to guarantee that a dog, bred or not, will inevitably act a certain way on seeing that rabbit. This is the same mistake that is made when we wind up calling some breeds "aggressive" and legislating against them.*
Even without knowing the specific differences in the Labrador retriever's and the Australian shepherd's reaction to that rabbit, there is one thing that may account for the variability in behavior between breeds. They have different threshold levels to notice and react to stimuli. The same rabbit, for instance, causes different amounts of excitement in two different dogs; similarly, the same amount of hormone producing that excitement causes different rates of response, from raising a head in mild interest, to a full-on chase.
There is a genetic explanation behind this. Though we call a dog a retriever or a shepherd, it is not the behavior retrieving or shepherding that was selected for. Instead, it was the likelihood that the dog would respond just the right amount to various events and scenes. However, there is no one gene we can point to here. No gene develops right into retrieving behavior—or into any particular behavior at all. But a set of genes may affect the likelihood that an animal acts in a certain way. In humans, too, a genetic difference between individuals may appear as different propensities to certain behaviors. One might be more or less susceptible to becoming addicted to stimulant drugs, based partly on how much stimulation one's brain needs to produce a pleasurable feeling. Addictive behavior is thereby traceable to genes that design the brain—but there is no gene for addiction. The environment is clearly important here, too. Some genes regulate expression of other genes—which expression might depend on features of the environment. If raised in a box, without access to drugs, one never develops a drug problem, regardless of one's propensity to addiction.
In the same way, one breed of dog can be distinguished from others by its propensity to respond to certain events. While all dogs can see birds taking flight in front of them, some are particularly sensitive to the small quick motion of something going aloft. Their threshold to respond to this motion is much lower than for dogs not bred to be hunting companions. By comparison to dogs, our response threshold is higher still. We humans can certainly see the birds taking off, but even when they are directly in front of us, we might not notice them. In hunting
So although we have tried to design dogs, the dogs we see today are partly creatures of serendipity. What breed is she? is a question I've been asked about Pump more than any other—and I in turn ask of other dogs. Her mongrelness encourages the great game of guessing her heritage: the resulting hunches are satisfying, even though none could ever be verified.*
THE ONE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BREEDS
Though there is an extensive literature of dog breeds, there has never been a scientific comparison of breed behavior differences: a comparison that controls each animal's environment, giving them the same physical objects, the same exposure to dogs and humans, the same everything. It's hard to believe, given that such bold statements are made about what each breed is like. This is not to suggest that the differences are minimal or nonexistent. Dogs of various breeds will doubtless behave differently when, say, they are presented with a nearby, running rabbit. But it would be a mistake to guarantee that a dog, bred or not, will inevitably act a certain way on seeing that rabbit. This is the same mistake that is made when we wind up calling some breeds "aggressive" and legislating against them.*
Even without knowing the specific differences in the Labrador retriever's and the Australian shepherd's reaction to that rabbit, there is one thing that may account for the variability in behavior between breeds. They have different threshold levels to notice and react to stimuli. The same rabbit, for instance, causes different amounts of excitement in two different dogs; similarly, the same amount of hormone producing that excitement causes different rates of response, from raising a head in mild interest, to a full-on chase.
There is a genetic explanation behind this. Though we call a dog a retriever or a shepherd, it is not the behavior retrieving or shepherding that was selected for. Instead, it was the likelihood that the dog would respond just the right amount to various events and scenes. However, there is no one gene we can point to here. No gene develops right into retrieving behavior—or into any particular behavior at all. But a set of genes may affect the likelihood that an animal acts in a certain way. In humans, too, a genetic difference between individuals may appear as different propensities to certain behaviors. One might be more or less susceptible to becoming addicted to stimulant drugs, based partly on how much stimulation one's brain needs to produce a pleasurable feeling. Addictive behavior is thereby traceable to genes that design the brain—but there is no gene for addiction. The environment is clearly important here, too. Some genes regulate expression of other genes—which expression might depend on features of the environment. If raised in a box, without access to drugs, one never develops a drug problem, regardless of one's propensity to addiction.
In the same way, one breed of dog can be distinguished from others by its propensity to respond to certain events. While all dogs can see birds taking flight in front of them, some are particularly sensitive to the small quick motion of something going aloft. Their threshold to respond to this motion is much lower than for dogs not bred to be hunting companions. By comparison to dogs, our response threshold is higher still. We humans can certainly see the birds taking off, but even when they are directly in front of us, we might not notice them. In hunting
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