Science and Medicine: Dog Behavior

Dog owners have long maintained that their pooches have a lot more going on between their furry ears than scientists acknowledge. Now, new research is adding to the growing evidence that man's best friend thinks a lot more than many humans have believed.

The provocative new experiment indicated that dogs can do something that previously only humans, including infants, have been shown capable of doing: decide how to imitate a behavior based on the specific circumstances in which the action takes place.

Read more in What Were They Thinking? More Than We Knew. (Post, June 4)

Then join Washington Post staff writer Rob Stein and Marc Bekoff, author of "The Emotional Lives of Animals," online, to discuss findings of this new study.

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Washoe Valley, Nev.: As a professional pet psychic, I want to say, "No, duh!" to this article. I have been communicating with all animals for almost 20 years and the depth of their emotions and intelligence is astounding, even to me. I have talked with pets that are concerned with their owners, health, both emotional and physical. They copy behaviors of other dogs as a form of social glue and the list goes on. Animal owners KNOW how smart, emotional and clever their pets are. Why is science always so set on "proving" truth? Terri, Pet Psychic

Marc Bekoff: we need a good blend of what i call 'science sense' and common sense, a point i make in The emotional lives of animals - and indeed i also write about emotions as a form of 'social glue' ...

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Clifton, Va.: All researchers would have had to do is talk to shepherds and dog owners who use their dogs in herding trials or to work livestock. No need for a study. Pups imitate older dogs and shepherds have used this as a training tool for thousands of years. They put a young dog with older more experienced dogs. My older collie Duncan taught my younger collie Kate more about life and herding than I could have ever done. The herding breeds have always used their paws to accomplish tasks. Duncan taught Kate to use her front paws to move a toy away from the wall to play with it or move it. Duncan has also taught Kate not to be afraid of thunderstorms and to go crazy when the pizza delivery guy rings the door bell. One must also remember that the herding breeds on average on significantly more intelligent than other dog breeds because they were naturally selected for their ability analyze and solve problems involved in the herding of livestock.

Rob Stein: There is a fair amount of evidence that animals, including dogs, can learn from one another over time. There's a fair amount of evidence among chimps, for example, that they pass down certain behaviors, such as how to use tools like sticks to get food. This study was aimed at examining a particular type of behavior the researchers call "selective imitation," which had not been demonstrated before in any animal, including chimps.

Marc Bekoff: There is also information that fish can learn about the social/dominance relationships of other fish by observation - there are many 'surprises' coming out almost daily/weekly - but in many ways these aren't surprises because the research hasn't been done - we need to keep an open mind and this current study shows just that ....

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North Myrtle Beach, S.C.: Daniel Povinelli says: "It's so easy for the human mind to look at a dog doing something like this and force our human way of thinking about it on the dog. This ability might happen automatically without any conscious reflection on the dog's part." How do you define consciousness, then? Is "consciousness" only the kind of ego-awareness that reflects, "I, Fido, am learning a new skill"? Why would the automatic nature of the dog's ability disqualify it for awareness? Don't humans also display "automatic" abilities to observe, draw conclusions, and apply them? Just because we can comment on the fact that we did this, and the dog can't, doesn't convince me that the dog is not aware, even though its awareness is more limited in scope than the human's. Could you comment?

Marc Bekoff: I agree - there is no way that the results of this can be interpreted the way he does - and even if animals, including humans, respond automatically to some situations this doesn't mean they respond to *all* situations in this manner - he has always been a reductionist and this is just an extention of his views - dogs and many other animals are self-aware - there are many data that support this even if their own sense of self is not the same as ours ...

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Chicago, Ill.: This might be off topic, but I will ask anyway:

Do dogs have a sense of time? A vet told me once that they don't; that when you leave for work and come home 10 hours later, the dog thinks you have been gone for a few minutes.

Same as with boarding - a week at the kennel is not a week to the dog. Any thoughts? Thanks

Marc Bekoff: dogs and other animals surely have some sense of time but there hasn't been much formal research done on this important and very interesting topic - there are good data that birds and other animals plan for the future - but whether 10 hours is the same as 10 minutes or so for a dog is not known ...

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New Orleans, La.: Those who have and love dogs, and spend a great deal of time with them, as we have had the pleasure to do with our four successive labrador retrievers, have always sensed and seen the sentience and intelligence of dogs. The problem with people is that they judge the intelligence of animals according to what is important to people instead of animals.

Marc Bekoff: right - it's important to 'get into the world of the animal' themselves, and dogs have very special relationships with people ...

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L. Furney, Victoria Canada: Hello Mr.Stein and Dr. Bekoff; Until late last year, we had eight dogs, all trained "house" family dogs, not related to one another. Then within a few short months, the four oldest developed various serious illnesses, each of which we tried extensively to treat, but failed.

How do dogs deal with grief? In your research, does it seem reasonable to wonder if members of the pack may have succumbed to illness after witnessing the illness of others, similar to the way surviving spouses can be at a higher risk for cancer? Do you have any suggestions on how to help our remaining dogs cope and readjust?

Marc Bekoff: There are many examples of empathy in animals, including mice - the ASPCA in the US and other organizations haveexcellent booklets about grief in dogs and cats - I am not an animal counselor but in my own experience I give survivors al the loving care I possibly can to help them through their grief ...

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Philadelphia, Pa.: I just wish to add that, having grown up wiht a dog family of the mother, father, and three offspring, I observed much complex behavior among the family of dogs. People used to say we were crazy that we could distinguish the meaning of several different barks (i.e. one kind of barking if they smell a deer in the yard, another for approaching stranger coming to the door, etc.). I would agree that dogs are very complex and communicate with each other very well.

Marc Bekoff: Thanks - dogs are very good at communicating with us and also among themselves - Dorit Feddersen-Petersen at the University of Kiel in northern Germany has done excellent work on the vocalizations of dogs - see for example: http://www.resteddoginn.ca/bark.php ...

Marc Bekoff:... and also see her excellent essay in my Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior where she summarizes her long-term detailed research ...

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Lisboa, Portugal: Regarding actual feelings and emotions, I have no doubt dogs do have them. They¿re conspicuous components of behaviour and, obviously, absolutely necessary for survival, let alone individual well being. My question concerns the physical nature of emotions - and not only on dogs, in mammals in general. My question is not whether do they have emotions, or what do they have them for, my question is: what do the scientists know about the neurobiology of these complex mental processes in mammals and birds? Where do they reside in the brain, and is this location(s) unique to dogs or general in mammals? How do they come to be, in the neurones?

Marc Bekoff: There is quite a lot known about animal emotions - I summarize current knowledge in my booik The emotional lives of animals - see also Jonathan Balcombe's book Pleasureable kingdom and Jakk Panksepp's research on affective emotions ...

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Greenville, S.C.: I am a dog trainer and a fan of Dr. Bekoff's brilliant work. I'm grateful for his courage in speaking out for animals. I would like Dr. Bekoff to know how much he is appreciated. Thank you, Dr. Bekoff.

Marc Bekoff: Thank you so much - all best wishes!

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Sacramento, Calif.: I don't understand it when it's said dogs have no emotions. Dogs get sick when their owners are gone, even for a short period, and they think as well. If a dog hasn't been trained to rescue and rescues a child, isn't there a thinking process going on? My dog jumped into a pool when a child was at the bottom of the pool. No one knew the child had fallen in. My dog barked and barked and finally I ran out, saw the child sitting on his tricycle at the bottom of the pool, jumped in and brought the child up to the surface. Another, but comical show of thinking. I had 2 dogs, a Malamute and a Collie/Shephard mix. The Malamute considered a certain spot in the living room her space, so when the Collie sat there the Malamute would walk over to him, raise her tail and show you know what. Then she would walk slowly away and the Collie would get up and follow her and the Malamute would run to the spot and lay down. My Collie fell for it every time. LOL Don't tell me that's not thinking.

Marc Bekoff: I agree - and i've written a lot about this especially in my new book The Emotional Lives of Animals ....

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Washington, D.C.: Would you say the results of this study, as well as others, refutes the Behaviorists insistance there is no learning outside of behavior, thus no observational learning? Are cognetive theories of learning a better framework for understanding how dogs learn?

Marc Bekoff: Yes there is no doubt that the behaviorists are wrong in insisting that we can't get into the brains of other animals and make inferences about what they're thinking and feeling - the is no way that the dogs in this study are non-thinking automatons ...

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Boston, Mass.: Clients of dog trainers have told me that trainers teach that dogs live "in the moment," unlike humans. does this make sense based on the research? Or do dog trainers find it to be true in some specific way that helps with the training?

Marc Bekoff: Dogs, like humans and other animals, use past experiences to make decisions in the present moment and also think about the future ... some people say that dogs and other animals are more in the moment but we don't really know that ...

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Fairfax, Va.: After watching my dog for two weeks for me, I picked him up at my mother's home. My mother has a yard, two other dogs (one he plays with constantly), and is home more. Now that I have my dog back, for the past two days he seems depressed, sad, and I feel like he doesn't want to live with me anymore! He just lays around. Is it possible he is depressed because of the change of atmosphere?

Marc Bekoff: yes - dogs are very sensitive beings but i think with time he will recover but this is not my field of expertise so if he continues to be depressed I suggest calling your veterinarian ...

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Rob Stein: I thought I might elaborate a little regarding the question from North Myrtle Beach, S.C. about Daniel Povinelli's comments. He was arguing that there might be simpler explanation for the behavior shown in the study short of saying that it shows awareness. The analogy he used was a word processing program. Just because it can correct the spelling of a word, doesn't mean the program is 'aware.'

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Alexandria, Va.: Could you please comment on the article's reference to Bruce Blumberg at Harvard and the idea that learning must only be a little better than guessing in order to occur?

Marc Bekoff: No i'm sorry i can't - i think that the data in this study show clearly that these dogs aren't merely guessing ...

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Alexandria, Va.: I am fostering a blind and deaf dog, and she has learned to track my other foster in order to find me. Would you call this imitation?

Rob Stein: That's actually a slightly different form of behavior. It's long been known that animals can learn from one another and/or follow their behavior. What's different in the experiment in this study was that it indicated the animals could 'selectively' decide what to do based on the specific circumstances.

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Karen - Harrisburg, Pa.: If a dog will imitate one of his own species to achieve a desired result (a food reward as in this case) how likely is a dog to imitate a human to achieve the same result? Example -- teaching a dog to play the "shell game", knock the right cup over to get the treat. The best, most efficient way to get the treat is knocking the cup over with a paw, yet most dogs end up pushing the cup around with their mouths and often never get the treat. I've demonstrated this with my own "paw" many times to no avail. Any suggestions? Must dogs observe another dog doing it? Thank you!

Rob Stein: That's a very good question, and one of the things researchers hope to explore as they follow up on these findings. The first thing they are going to do is try to confirm these results again in dogs.

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Bridgewater, Mass.: It's not just dogs. We had a kitten we had to take on a long drive along with the dogs, experienced travelers. I planned to pick up a carrier for the kitten on the way out of town, but he went hysterical when the car first started to move. (I know, I know...). He bounced out of my son's lap into the back area with the dogs and careened around there for a while. When I restarted the engine, he looked around at the dogs to see how to handle it, noticed they were curling up to go to sleep, and very nervously went into his sphinx pose. And remained in it as I cautiously pulled out of the parking spot. In five minutes he was asleep, too.

Rob Stein: This study is likely to prompt more research to try to not only confirm the findings in dogs, but also to see whether this ability can be demonstrated in other animals.

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Older Dogs: Can I just do a shamless plug for your local Humane Society or shelter and the great older dogs they have???

My husband has two pure breed dogs from his bachelor days. Both dogs are high strung. And then there is my dog--a mixed breed that I adopted a few years ago when she was six. She is a fantastic dog. We are so lucky we found and then adopted her.

My sister asked recently if we would get an adopted puppy next since you get "someone else's problems" with an older dog. I told her that has not been our experience and we will stick with older dogs.

Rob Stein: I've heard that from any people.

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Wageningen, NL: Is there a worldwide collaboration on research with dogs (dog researcher group)?

Marc Bekoff: not that i know of but usually a google search will turn up quite a lot - i post whatever i get to www.ethologicalethics.org and you sign up for the news postings ...

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Wageningen, NL: why were dogs chosen as study species? I think they are not such easy species because there is so much variation in their life-history and the circumstances in which they live. Maybe farm animals, who have a more similar life-history would be better? Or does this variation only make the result stronger?

Rob Stein: Researchers decided to study dogs because of the growing evidence that they may be capable of more complex cognitive abilities that had been thought. Previous recent reearch, for example, found dogs were particularly adept are reading subtle physical cues from humans -- more adept even than chimps. So researchers were curious to see how they would respond to this kind of test. One earlier attempt to see if chimps could do this failed, but researchers say they plan to continue to explore this with other animals.

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Manassas, Va.: I think that the popular thought that dogs didn't learn from one another, example, or situational behaviors is complete and utter bunk.

I have a podengo who picks things up all the time on her own. For example, she knows unplugging the vacuum stops the noise. She also figured out how to turn on and off the TV and DVD player, unlock and open doors, and assorted other things just by watching. She's also learned some herding from our terrier. And our terrier? Shes picked up some stuff from the podengo.

I never understood why people...people who know dogs...can ignore that this happens.

Rob Stein: Yes, this is the type of behavior that dogs owners have long reported anecdotally. This study was an attempt to try to explore that kind of behavior in an scientifically rigorous way.

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Minneapolis, Minn.: I read the article about your work with great interest and appreciation. What do you think are the implications of a cognitive approach to dog learning for dog training? There are so many schools of thought about what dogs need most to strengthen the bond with their human guardians. High profile trainers today seem to have very different approaches depending on whether they espouse more of a behaviorist or cognitive approach (discipline, no coddling vs. letting dogs be their doggy selves). Your thoughts? Thank you.

Rob Stein: Unfortunately I don't know if there's been any rigorous scientific studies evaluating different types of dog training methods.

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Arlington, Va.: The big mistake people make in training their dogs is substituting human emotion for the dog's emotion. You have to train a dog like its parents and pack members would.

And especially not how some humans train their children these days. Your puppy is trying to learn a new language human. In most cases the human isn't learning dog. Big mistake. Dogs work on visual clues not so much voice. I have learned a lot more about human non verbal communication training my dog.

Rob Stein: Yes, dogs are definitely unusually adept at interpreting physical cues, especially from humans. In fact, research indicates dogs are better at that than chimps even though chimps are more closely related to humans genetically.

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Chicago, Ill.: Your study seems to indicate there is selective learning, is there anything that indicates apparent teaching between dogs?

Rob Stein: Right... this study was focused on a very particular type of behavior the researchers called 'selective immitation' among dogs.

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Alexandria, Va.: Are Standard Poodles really that much smarter than other dogs?

Rob Stein: There really hasn't been a lot of good research comparing the relative intelligence of different breeds of dogs. Intelligence is a relative term for different sorts of skills that are breed specific.

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Greenville, S.C.: Considering the long and intimate relationship between man and dog, I am fascinated as to why it has taken so long to do serious research. What might this say about us as a species?

Rob Stein: Yes, that's certainly a key point about dogs -- their long, close relationship with humans. Many researchers believe that is a crucial explanation for their seemingly uncanny ability to interpret subtle physical cues, especially human body language.

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Alexandria, Va.: Would you please address the question of how these studies are funded?

Rob Stein: The research was funded by something known as the European Community's Sixth Framework Programme.

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Wageningen, NL: do you think that the scientific proof of animals having emotions or a level of self-awareness will influence the society? (for instance how we treat animals)

Rob Stein: That's a good question. That's certainly what many hope, and there does seem to be a growing trend towards treating animals more humanely.

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Rob Stein: Bethesda, Md.: Good morning. I just read the article about the study and have often wondered the same thing about our dog, Maddux, a Pointer or perhaps Brittany mutt. He recently began displaying a new behavior that we did not train him to do, but he may have learned by sensing our reactions to his behavior. He has a squeaky toy and we did teach him the word "squeaky" so that when we say, "Where's your squeaky?" he gets it and starts squeaking it. We praise him and seem very happy. Then he started squeaking spontaneously whenever we seemed happy for other reasons, such as when we come home from work and greet each other. He also started squeaking the toy when we play video games and laugh out loud. Is it possible, then, that he himself inferred that the act of squeaking the toy is itself a joyful thing, and he should join in the fun when we appear joyful? I also suppose it's possible that he thinks there is a cause-effect relationship and that he is solely resonsible for our joyfulness.

Marc Bekoff: It's difficult to know what Maddux is thinking without doing the correct controlled experiments but there is surely the possibility that he enjoys squeaking the toy and that he also knows it makes your joyful

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Rob Stein: Thanks very much for all your good questions!

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