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How are you more familiar with these dogs than the owners, who probably spends dozens of hours per week with them? Is it just because you believe something abo

How are you more familiar with these dogs than the owners, who probably spends dozens of hours per week with them? Is it just because you believe something about dogs in general?

metadat 5y ago
As a dog owner, I agree with the OP. Humans tend to anthropomorphize the heck out of virtually all of their pets. The more emotional the bond, the higher the expected rate of anthropomorphization will be. Anthropomorphize - verb Attribute human characteristics or behaviors to an animal, god, or even an object.
- oh_sigh 5y ago
  Sure. I wouldn't argue that people don't make silly claims about their pets. At the same time, historically scientists have made what now seem to be silly claims about pets in the other direction. Regarding anthropomorphization, what are "human characteristics"? Are those characteristics that can only be found in humans? Or is it just characteristics that we commonly see in humans, but which may be present in other animals as well? Because that list of characteristics was much larger even 20 years ago than it is today.
- elliekelly 5y ago
  How do we know which behaviors or characteristics are uniquely “human”? Maybe humans and animals have more behaviors and characteristics in common than a lot of people would like to admit.
  - refurb 5y ago
    Human behavior is strongly driven by cultural aspects. Smiling during a deal might be seen as “friendly” in the West, while seen as “dumb” in the East. If humans can’t even accurately judge the behavior of other humans why would they be able to judge that of another species?
    - staticman2 5y ago
      But you just made the claim that you can identify the behavior of eastern people vs western people through education. Which contradicts your claim that "humans can’t even accurately judge the behavior of other humans “
      - refurb 5y ago
        Through education - language mostly. When your dog speaks to you and explains his behavior, please get back to me.
        staticman2 5y ago
        There are experts on dog body language and book on the subject- my point being education is also something that can be applied to understanding non humans.
Jensson 5y ago
There have been real scientific experiments done on pets, their remarkable abilities disappear once you remove the owner from the picture. What dogs and other social animals are great at is reading humans and acting accordingly. So what happens is that the owner is unknowingly instructing their pet to behave in a certain way in certain situations and the pet just acts accordingly. The pet doesn't know X, the owner knows X and signals that to the pet.

How are you more familiar with these dogs than the owners, who probably spends dozens of hours per week with them? Is it just because you believe something about dogs in general?

metadat 5y ago

As a dog owner, I agree with the OP. Humans tend to anthropomorphize the heck out of virtually all of their pets. The more emotional the bond, the higher the expected rate of anthropomorphization will be. Anthropomorphize - verb Attribute human characteristics or behaviors to an animal, god, or even an object.

oh_sigh 5y ago
Sure. I wouldn't argue that people don't make silly claims about their pets. At the same time, historically scientists have made what now seem to be silly claims about pets in the other direction. Regarding anthropomorphization, what are "human characteristics"? Are those characteristics that can only be found in humans? Or is it just characteristics that we commonly see in humans, but which may be present in other animals as well? Because that list of characteristics was much larger even 20 years ago than it is today.
elliekelly 5y ago
How do we know which behaviors or characteristics are uniquely “human”? Maybe humans and animals have more behaviors and characteristics in common than a lot of people would like to admit.
- refurb 5y ago
  Human behavior is strongly driven by cultural aspects. Smiling during a deal might be seen as “friendly” in the West, while seen as “dumb” in the East. If humans can’t even accurately judge the behavior of other humans why would they be able to judge that of another species?
  - staticman2 5y ago
    But you just made the claim that you can identify the behavior of eastern people vs western people through education. Which contradicts your claim that "humans can’t even accurately judge the behavior of other humans “
    - refurb 5y ago
      Through education - language mostly. When your dog speaks to you and explains his behavior, please get back to me.
      - staticman2 5y ago
        There are experts on dog body language and book on the subject- my point being education is also something that can be applied to understanding non humans.

Jensson 5y ago

There have been real scientific experiments done on pets, their remarkable abilities disappear once you remove the owner from the picture. What dogs and other social animals are great at is reading humans and acting accordingly. So what happens is that the owner is unknowingly instructing their pet to behave in a certain way in certain situations and the pet just acts accordingly. The pet doesn't know X, the owner knows X and signals that to the pet.