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As someone who grew up in a family of pet owners, the joke is anytime there is a story with "study" and "dog", that any dog owner could have told them that. Th
by slacka 6y ago
As someone who grew up in a family of pet owners, the joke is anytime there is a story with "study" and "dog", that any dog owner could have told them that. This study is what we refer to as the "invisible leash" that dogs have with with their masters. The article also touches on mirroring behavior, which is also well known and even has a whole class of dog training based around it called "Do as I Do"[1] I trained my dog this way as a pup. AMA.
Dogs spend their lives trying to figure out what we want and the meaning of our words. Science has year to catch up to learn just how much they understand and how in-tune they are with their adopted pack.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC3OqbjlxkM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC3OqbjlxkM
- ska 6y agoThere is a tendency to feel this way when anything in day to day experience (pet ownership, parenthood, career experience, etc.) overlaps with scientific study. It's tempting to say "well, obviously" but it's a slippery slope. Beyond the obvious potential for confirmation bias, etc., when you do the science carefully, sometimes you find out what people "knew" was just wrong. This happens often enough to make it worth the effort.
- postalrat 6y agoIn the case of dogs you will probably find more things that is common knowledge with dog owners that science got wrong vs. things where science showed that owners were wrong.