Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know (45 page)

sounds made, 98–108 bark.
see
barks

breathing, 103
cackling laugh, 103–4
chatter, 103
context and, 99–100
cry, 101
duration of, 100
growl, 62, 100, 102, 221–22
grunt, 101–2
high-frequency, 93, 101
howl, 100, 101, 103
method of production, 100
moan, 100, 101–2
noisy breathing, 103
pitch of, 93–96, 98–108
play slap, 103, 201
range of hearing in dogs, 92, 93–94
range of hearing in humans, 21–22, 23–24, 92–94
scream, 101
shriek, 103
sigh, 27, 153
snarl, 102
sneeze, 68
snuffling, 103
social panting, 103–4
sonorous mouth licking, 152
squeal, 101
ultrasonic, 91, 93, 241–43
whimper, 101
whine, 100, 101, 153
yawn, 110, 280–81
yelp, 98, 100–101
sour taste, 30
spaniel, 3, 49, 50, 114
species, nature of, 38n
spelling, 167
sporting hounds, 49

springer spaniel, 3
squeal, 101
standing over, 18–19
Stanley (Jack Russell), 245
staring, 15, 45–46, 110, 292–93
Stein, Gertrude, 161
Sterbak, Jana, 245
stimulus enhancement, 184–90
strange dogs, 79n
stranger barks, 107
stray dogs, 63
stress response
cortisol in, 172–73, 279–80
eye contact and, 45–46
in fear, 79–81
genes and, 36–37
sounds in, 104
tails in, 112
yawn in, 110

stroboscopic vision, 131 submission

body language showing, 110–11, 112, 114
in electric shock research, 19n
eye contact in, 147
licking and, 30–31
in training dogs, 57–61
in wolves versus dogs, 18–19
suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), 212–13
surrogate mothers, 268–69
sweat, 20–21, 75, 76, 80
sweet taste, 30
synchrony

of assistance dogs, 43, 134–35, 162, 274 in regulation of time, 274–79

tail
docked, 114
in greetings, 3, 31, 256–57

meaning of wags, 3, 31, 112–13 use of, 111–14

tapetum lucidum,
125
taste
importance of, 122
reception, 30
types of flavors, 30
teeth
showing, 110
tooth-snapping, 100
television-watching, 157
flicker-fusion rate and, 131–32
in observing animals, 14
see also
vision
tells, dog, 292–93
temperament, 47–48, 55
termites, sounds made by, 93
terriers, 5, 47–48, 49, 50, 53n, 56
territory marking, 83–84
testosterone, 172
see also
hormones
theory of mind, 190–207
children and, 192–93, 218, 234–35
comparative psychology and, 206–7
concept of, 190–92
dog mind and, 193–206
false belief task, 192–93, 201
nonverbal test of, 192–93
play and, 196–205
rudimentary theory of mind, 204–5
self-awareness and, 217–22
thermotactile sensory probe (Fox), 269
threshold differences, 52–55
ticks, deer, 20–22
time, 211–17, 251–56
boredom and, 216–17, 288–89
bumblebee use of, 215
circadian rhythms, 88, 212–15, 227–28

dog "pacemaker" and, 212–15
dog years and, 222n
memories and, 119, 222–28
odors and, 72, 77, 78–79, 84, 227–28, 254–56
regulation of, 274–79
temporal patterns in bonding, 274–79
time-telling by dogs, 227–28
Tinbergen, Niko, 147n
tool use, 44–45, 177
tooth-snapping, 100
tortoises, sniff in, 69
touch
as element in bonding, 266–71, 293
between mother and child, 267–69
petting, 266–67, 293
sense of, 122, 269–71
see also
licking
toy dogs, 49, 290–91
toys
ball retrieval, 126–32, 154
color vision and, 128–29
dog beds and, 25
dog naming of, 96–97, 98
object displacement and, 177–79
size of objects, 247–50
tracking, 48, 57n
olfaction in, 76, 77–78
style of dogs, 48, 57n
style of wolves, 57n
vision in, 123–24, 143
training
associative learning in, 10–11, 167–68, 182
clickers in, 256n
dogs' reading of trainers in, 166–72
domestication of dogs and, 33–34
for emergencies, 240
guidelines for, 285–86
learning from others, 176, 181–83

to obey commands, 182–83, 189–90, 204n, 285–86

by owners, 10–11, 25–26 pack analogy and, 57–61

"psychic powers" of animals, 163–72, 251–52
punishment versus reward in, 60–61, 286
for scent recognition, 76, 77–78, 81–82
successes in, 11
wolf versus dog behavior and, 55–61
see also
learning
trotting, 290
tuberculosis, detection of, 81
typhoid fever, detection of, 81

ultrasonic sounds, 91, 93, 241–43
umami taste, 30
umwelt
"acting into,"23#8211;24
anthropomorphism versus, 14–17, 23, 31–32, 263n, 294–96
of blind companion, 134–35, 162, 274
de-animalizing of dogs, 295
defined, 20
of dogs, 13–19, 22, 23, 24–26, 31–32, 132–37, 241–58, 287–88
functional tones and, 24–26
of humans, 21–22, 24–26, 93n
impact of dogs on human, 283–84
of ticks, 20–22
unfriendly behavior, 171–72
uniformity of species, 8–9
urine
as communication, 22, 82–84, 114–18
in detection of cancer, 81–82
ground scratching associated with, 85
hippopotamus marking, 84
licking, 73, 74
marking behavior, 22, 76, 82–84, 114–18
mongoose marking, 84
odor of, 22, 76, 82–84, 114–18
pheromones in, 73, 74, 83
punishment associated with, 60–61

vasopressin, 261
see also
hormones

veterinarian, smell of fear and, 84–85

video cameras, 5–6, 113, 198–99, 231–32, 245, 291–92
vision, 121–37
anatomy of dog eye, 124–32
animal behavior affected by, 15n, 126–32
animal observation of humans, 161–73
area centralis, 127
balls and, 126–32, 154
color vision, 128–29, 250, 252
dog companions for blind persons, 43, 134–35, 152, 162, 274
dog visual field, 135–37
flicker-fusion rate, 130–32
foveae in, 126–27

human visual perception, 21–22, 67–68, 72–73, 135–37, 141–44 lateral versus panoramic, 124, 127–28

motion sensitivity and, 48, 54, 123–24, 129–32, 167, 244–45, 249, 250–51
night vision, 48, 125, 128–30
photoreceptors, 48, 126, 127–32, 168
purpose of, 122–24
retina in, 125, 126–32, 135–36, 249
sclera, 125
tapetum lucidum,
125
television-watching, 14, 131–32, 157
in tracking prey, 123–24, 143
visual attention, 139
visual streak, 127–28, 287
of wolves, 123, 125
see also
eye contact; eyes
vocabulary
of birds, 145n
of dogs, 96–97

voles, 261 vomeronasal organ, 122–23

in animals, 73–75, 79

as explanation for wet nose, 69, 74–75, 77
in humans, 74
pheromone detection in, 73–75

von Uexküll, Jakob, 20–22, 24

wagging tails, 3, 31, 112–13
walking, 169–71
allelometric behavior, 275
described, 290
smell walks, 284–85
weaning, 262n
whales
brain size of, 9n
communication of, 91
whimper, 101
whine, 100, 101, 153
whiskers, 67
whistle, dog, 93
Whiten, Andrew, 188n
Wild Animal Park (Escondido), 4–5, 15n
wild side of dogs, 61–64
willpower, 226–27
Wilson, Edward O., 265n
Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 253
wolfhound, 1–2, 124, 205–6
wolves
attachment in, 63–64
behavior of, 29–30, 45, 89–90
Canidae
family and, 34, 38
developmental differences between dogs and, 10, 42–45, 50–52, 55–64
divergence of, 38–47
DNA differences between dogs and, 39–40, 62
domestication of, 38–47, 55–61
dominance and submission in, 18–19, 40, 147, 148
hunting behavior of, 34
hunting by, 38–40, 43, 57n, 58
packs in, 38, 40, 41, 43, 57–61, 103

physical cognition tasks and, 44–45
physical differences between dogs and, 43–44
problem-solving by, 180
as scavengers, 39, 40, 43
socialization of, 38–47, 63–64
social organization of, 38, 40, 41
tails of, 112
touch and, 269
vision of, 123, 125

Woolf, Virginia, 119 working dogs

assistance dogs, 43, 134–35, 152, 162, 240, 274
companions for blind, 43, 134–35, 152, 162, 274
guard dogs, 252
herders, 49, 53, 54, 71, 262, 287
hunters, 43, 49, 53–54
linguistic ability of, 95
rescue dogs, 79, 166, 237–39
self-awareness of, 221–22
trackers, 76, 77–78, 79

yard dogs, 180 yawn

contagious, 280–81
as sign of stress, 110
yelp, 98, 100–101

zebra finches, leg band preference in, 296n zoos

animal behavior in, 4–5, 8, 14–15, 158–59, 216 petting, 267

Alexandra
Horowitz
earned her B.A. in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in cognitive science from the University of California at San Diego, studying dog cognition. She is currently a term assistant professor of psychology at Barnard College and continues to research dog behavior. In addition to her work with dogs, she has also studied cognition in humans, rhinoceroses, and bonobos. She previously worked as a lexicographer at Merriam-Webster and a fact-checker for
The New Yorker.
She lives in New York City with her husband and Finnegan, a dog of indeterminate parentage and determinate character, and the fond memories of dogs past.

Of course, researchers soon found brains bigger than ours: the dolphin's brain is larger, as are the brains of physically larger creatures such as whales and elephants. The "big brain" myth has long been overturned. Those who are still interested in mapping brain to smarts now look at other, more sophisticated measures: the amount of convolution of the brain; the encephalization quotient, a ratio that includes both brain and body size in the calculation; the quantity of neocortex; or the gross number of neurons and synapses between neurons.

This was made most evident for me one day collecting data of the behavior of the white rhinoceros. At the Wild Animal Park it is the animals who roam (relatively) freely, and the visitors are restricted to trains that travel around the large enclosures. I was situated in the narrow patch of grass between the track and the fence, watching a typical day of rhino socializing. As the trains approached, the rhinos stopped what they were doing and moved quickly into a defensive huddle: standing with rumps together, heads radiating out in a rough sunburst. The animals are peaceful, but with poor vision they can be easily startled if they do not smell someone approaching, and they count on each other as lookouts. The train stopped, and everyone gaped at the rhinos who, it was announced by the guide, were "doing nothing." Eventually the driver moved on, and the rhinos resumed their ordinary behavior.

This is similar to what was discovered by midcentury behaviorist researchers who exposed laboratory dogs to an electric shock from which they couldn't escape. Later, put in a chamber from which there was a visible escape route, and shocked again, these dogs showed
learned
helplessness:
they did not try to avoid the shock by escaping. Instead, they froze in place, seemingly resigned to their fate. The researchers had essentially trained the dogs to be submissive and accept their lack of control of the situation. (They later forced the dogs to unlearn the response and end the shock.) Happily, the days of experiments wherein we shock dogs to learn about their responses are over.

Not on this list are
hyenas.
Dog-sized and -shaped, with erect German shepherd–like ears, and prone to howl and vocalize like many garrulous canids, hyenas are in some ways doglike, but are not in fact canids. They are carnivores more closely related to mongooses and cats than to dogs.

†

Raisins are now suspected of being toxic to some dogs, even in small amounts (though the mechanism of toxicity is unknown)—leading me to wonder whether Pump was instinctively averse to raisins.

What (some) genes do is regulate the formation of proteins that assign cells their roles. When, where, and in what environment a cell develops all contribute to the result. Thus the path from a gene to the emergence of a physical trait or a behavior is more circuitous than one might initially think, with room for modifications along the way.

There is some debate over whether dogs should be considered a separate species from, or a subspecies of wolves. There is even debate over whether the original Linnaean classification scheme that demarcates
species
as a fundamental unit is still helpful or valid. Most researchers agree that describing wolves and dogs as separate species is the best current description. Although the two animals can inter-breed, their typical mating habits, their social ecology, and the environments they live in are very different.

Mitochondrial DNA are chains of DNA within the energy-producing mitochondria of cells, but outside the cell nucleus. They are inherited, without any change, from the mother by her offspring. The mtDNA of individuals has been used to trace human ancestry, and to estimate the evolutionary relationships among animal species.

There is also a large breed difference. For instance, poodles don't show avoidance behaviors or begin to play-fight until weeks after huskies do—when weeks represent a goodly chunk of the puppy's life. In fact, huskies develop more quickly than wolves in some ways. No one has studied how this affects their rapport with humans.