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Do dogs whine amongst themselves, or is it a behavior they only use around humans? (like meowing in cats: cats don't meow to other, only to get something from p
by Analemma_ 10y ago
Do dogs whine amongst themselves, or is it a behavior they only use around humans? (like meowing in cats: cats don't meow to other, only to get something from people - it's a trait learned from domestication). I image behaviors learned by domestication behave a little differently: the selection pressure is much greater, and they evolve in response to feedback from a completely different species instead of one's own.
- urs2102 10y agoThat's actually a great question. I'm not sure at all. It's definitely really hard to look at a dog's ability to communicate in a vacuum outside human domestication. Couldn't find any papers on whether they whine amongst each other on a quick Google myself.
- rossdavidh 10y agoIn the case of dogs, we should probably look at wolves to see if the whining was a response to domestication. But I don't know if wolves whine, so I'm not much help there.
- thatcat 10y ago>Idk if wolves whine They do
- jaimex2 10y agoDomestication goes both ways, over time we may have developed a response to them whining. I remember a test done where humans had to listen to dog and cat sounds and identify what the animal was communicating (to humans or other animals) and we were quite good at it.
- dragonwriter 10y agoActually, with meowing, adult cats not raised around humans don't do it, but kittens do it; it's a behavior of kittens that continues being rewarded in domestic situations after maturity and so isn't abandoned.
- Symmetry 10y agoNeotenous behavior isn't at all unusual in domesticated animals.
- Jhsto 10y agoAre you sure about the meowing? I have heard and seen cats meowing at magpies and to each other.
- throwanem 10y agoCats will chirp at birds, but it's a hunting behavior and a different sort of sound. I've never seen adult cats meow at one another the way they will at humans.
- gerbilly 10y agoKittens meow (and loudly) to their mothers if left alone for too long. So it's not a behaviour unique to human cat interactions. As is typical, it is a innate behaviour that seems to be repurposed when interacting with humans. Humans are very auditory, and cats faces are not as expressive as dogs are. So cats seems to [1] discover that meowing is a good way to get a human's attention. Behaviourism predicts that when an organism is faced with a 'problem' to solve it will often run through it's behavioural repertoire, trying each behaviour until one seems to trigger the desired outcome. [1] each cat on his own!
- gerbilly 10y agoThere is also another cat sound that to me seems to signal surprise, that sort of 'mrrrrow' sound. If you wake up a cat, or sneak up on it they consistently make that sound.