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The Age Old Debate...
- Thread starter Apebrains
- Start date
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2009
- Messages
- 412
my local council offers a $10- bounty on feral cats and a $100 bounty on feral dogs.
so, i suppose i prefer dogs
my two 14 month old Border Collie pups also skew my vote somewhat. <3 mah dawgs.
Hey brother, I'll be out in your neck of the woods in a month. I'd love to meet your pups! Nothin' better than Border Collies... :thumbup:
Post some pictures!
After thousands of years of research and development, man finally came up with an indoor flush toilet that is efficient and sanitary. To keep a healthy animal in your home that you have to manually do what you wouldn't do for yourself is a little nuts.
Don't misunderstand. Cats are fine and noble creatures, obviously smarter than their owners. The kind of person that would be servant to a cat is what befuddles me.
Don't misunderstand. Cats are fine and noble creatures, obviously smarter than their owners. The kind of person that would be servant to a cat is what befuddles me.
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2009
- Messages
- 412
Minnesota
BANNED
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2010
- Messages
- 394
I love dogs, I loooove dogs. But I gotta give it to the cats. They are more interesting than dogs to me. They seem to be smarter then dogs. I voted to fast though, I thought it was the cost of owning and I voted cats. Cats will piss on anything if they are mad at you. With some cats a pissing can be provoked by just not petting him or shoving him off the bed when he keeps batting your toes. It's like 40% goes to dogs, and 60% to cats if it was a pie chart.
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2009
- Messages
- 2,696
Dogs. Cats are kind of cool for the novelty factor, and they're great if you live in an apartment and are never home, because they pretty much take care of themselves.
Dogs are infinitely more rewarding to own. Fun to play with, great to take into the great outdoors, etc... But take much more responsibility compared to cats, especially if you want it to stay well behaved.
My English Springer Spaniel. Actually my parents' dog, and I just moved out again and miss the hell out of her. But she's the single best dog I've ever had, VERY smart, VERY well behaved, not Border Collie smart but she's up there. She peed inside ONCE as a puppy, she learned after that not to, NEVER pooped inside. Learns voice commands like nobody's business, etc...
Dogs are infinitely more rewarding to own. Fun to play with, great to take into the great outdoors, etc... But take much more responsibility compared to cats, especially if you want it to stay well behaved.
My English Springer Spaniel. Actually my parents' dog, and I just moved out again and miss the hell out of her. But she's the single best dog I've ever had, VERY smart, VERY well behaved, not Border Collie smart but she's up there. She peed inside ONCE as a puppy, she learned after that not to, NEVER pooped inside. Learns voice commands like nobody's business, etc...
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2010
- Messages
- 130
When forced to come down off the fence, I voted "dog," but it was close. My wife and I don't have kids, and our pets are our babies. We have 'em both, and love 'em both. People come over and it blows their mind to see the gun and knife nut with Dobermans talkin' baby talk to his cats. I don't care, either. I'm "secure in my masculinity," as they say.
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2009
- Messages
- 5,975
Mostly a dog person, although I've always owned cats too, and a few of those I truly liked. Problems all cats have:
- They leave hair and dirty footprints everywhere. And I mean EVERYWHERE.
- They wreck your furniture. The degree may vary but they all do it.
- They vomit. Some more often than others but still.
- They kill animals they're not supposed to kill. They can't know that, but that cute or rare bird is still dead.
Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against cats. I have a 15 year old pure white kitty right now. They are a lot easier to take care of and easy to deal with especially if you work late or go on vacation.
But there is just something about a dog. He is always glad to see you no matter what. You can have a lousy day at work, fight with your wife and have your kid disrespect you and your dog still thinks you are the greatest. Someone once said "I wish I could be half the man my dog thinks I am" and when I have a dog I always feel better.
But there is just something about a dog. He is always glad to see you no matter what. You can have a lousy day at work, fight with your wife and have your kid disrespect you and your dog still thinks you are the greatest. Someone once said "I wish I could be half the man my dog thinks I am" and when I have a dog I always feel better.
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2009
- Messages
- 412
Dogs automatically imitate people
Some dogs may look like their owners, but all dogs imitate their human companions
by Jennifer Viegas
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, dogs often shower us with praise. New research has just determined dogs automatically imitate us, even when it is not in their best interest to do so.
The study, published in the latest Proceedings of the Royal Society B, provides the first evidence that dogs copy at least some of our body movements and behaviors in ways that are spontaneous and voluntary.
In other words, they can't really help themselves when it comes to copying people.
"This suggests that, like humans, dogs are subject to 'automatic imitation'; they cannot inhibit online, the tendency to imitate head use and/or paw use," lead author Friederike Range and her colleagues conclude.
It's long been known that humans do this, even when the tendency to copy interferes with efficiency.
"For example," according to the researchers, "if people are instructed to open their mouths as soon as they see the letters 'OM' appear on a screen, responses are slower when the letters are accompanied by an image of an opening hand than when they are accompanied by an image of an opening mouth."
In a scientific first, Range a University of Vienna researcher in the Department of Cognitive Biology and her team tested this phenomenon on dogs. Ten adult dogs of various breeds and their owners, from Austria, participated in the experiments.
All of the dogs received preliminary training to open a sliding door using their head or a paw. The dogs then watched their owners open the door by hand or by head. For the latter, the owner would get down on the floor and use his or her head to push up or down on the sliding door.
The dogs were next divided into two groups. Dogs in the first group received a food reward whenever they copied what the owner did. Dogs in the second group received a food reward when they did the opposite.
All of the dogs were inclined to copy what the owner did, even if it meant receiving no food reward.
"This finding suggests that the dogs brought with them to the experiment a tendency automatically to imitate hand use and/or paw use by their owner; to imitate these actions even when it was costly to do so," the authors report.
The scientists suggest owners would do well to match their own body movements, whenever possible, to tasks at hand during training sessions.
For example, if an owner is trying to teach a dog to shake "hands," the person might have more success if he stretched out his own hand to demonstrate. The observing dog would then be inclined to stretch out a paw, mirroring what the human did. At that point, a food reward could be offered to the dog, reinforcing the behavior.
The owner is reinforcing bonding and cooperation with the dog, too.
"Researchers have known that human beings prefer the behavior of other people who subtly imitate their gestures and other affects," said Duane Alexander, M.D., director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child and Human Development.
Alexander worked on another study showing that non-human primates automatically imitate each other. Certain birds do this, too, but it may be very rare in the animal kingdom for one species to almost subconsciously imitate the behavior of a completely different species.
The dog-human bond may therefore have few, if any, parallels.
"Dogs are special animals, both in terms of their evolutionary history of domestication and the range and intensity of their developmental training by humans," Range and her team explain.
"Both of these factors may enhance the extent to which dogs attend to human activity," they added, "but the results of the present experiment suggest it is the latter training in the course of development which plays the more powerful and specific role in shaping their imitative behavior."
Some dogs may look like their owners, but all dogs imitate their human companions
by Jennifer Viegas
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, dogs often shower us with praise. New research has just determined dogs automatically imitate us, even when it is not in their best interest to do so.
The study, published in the latest Proceedings of the Royal Society B, provides the first evidence that dogs copy at least some of our body movements and behaviors in ways that are spontaneous and voluntary.
In other words, they can't really help themselves when it comes to copying people.
"This suggests that, like humans, dogs are subject to 'automatic imitation'; they cannot inhibit online, the tendency to imitate head use and/or paw use," lead author Friederike Range and her colleagues conclude.
It's long been known that humans do this, even when the tendency to copy interferes with efficiency.
"For example," according to the researchers, "if people are instructed to open their mouths as soon as they see the letters 'OM' appear on a screen, responses are slower when the letters are accompanied by an image of an opening hand than when they are accompanied by an image of an opening mouth."
In a scientific first, Range a University of Vienna researcher in the Department of Cognitive Biology and her team tested this phenomenon on dogs. Ten adult dogs of various breeds and their owners, from Austria, participated in the experiments.
All of the dogs received preliminary training to open a sliding door using their head or a paw. The dogs then watched their owners open the door by hand or by head. For the latter, the owner would get down on the floor and use his or her head to push up or down on the sliding door.
The dogs were next divided into two groups. Dogs in the first group received a food reward whenever they copied what the owner did. Dogs in the second group received a food reward when they did the opposite.
All of the dogs were inclined to copy what the owner did, even if it meant receiving no food reward.
"This finding suggests that the dogs brought with them to the experiment a tendency automatically to imitate hand use and/or paw use by their owner; to imitate these actions even when it was costly to do so," the authors report.
The scientists suggest owners would do well to match their own body movements, whenever possible, to tasks at hand during training sessions.
For example, if an owner is trying to teach a dog to shake "hands," the person might have more success if he stretched out his own hand to demonstrate. The observing dog would then be inclined to stretch out a paw, mirroring what the human did. At that point, a food reward could be offered to the dog, reinforcing the behavior.
The owner is reinforcing bonding and cooperation with the dog, too.
"Researchers have known that human beings prefer the behavior of other people who subtly imitate their gestures and other affects," said Duane Alexander, M.D., director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child and Human Development.
Alexander worked on another study showing that non-human primates automatically imitate each other. Certain birds do this, too, but it may be very rare in the animal kingdom for one species to almost subconsciously imitate the behavior of a completely different species.
The dog-human bond may therefore have few, if any, parallels.
"Dogs are special animals, both in terms of their evolutionary history of domestication and the range and intensity of their developmental training by humans," Range and her team explain.
"Both of these factors may enhance the extent to which dogs attend to human activity," they added, "but the results of the present experiment suggest it is the latter training in the course of development which plays the more powerful and specific role in shaping their imitative behavior."
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2008
- Messages
- 4,833
I dunno...my cat never picked up on how to track a deer through the woods. Or do anything other than tear up furniture. I would say, in a general sense, that cats are not smarter than dogs, but they are smarter than their owners.
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2009
- Messages
- 412
Dog chews off owner's toe -- and may have saved his life
Katy Batdorff | The Grand Rapids Press
Jerry and Rosie Douthette play with their terrier, Kiko, at their home in Rockford, Mich., on Sunday.
Melissa Dahl writes: We've done stories before on dogs sniffing out diseases their owners didn't even know they had. Now a little terrier named Kiko has one-upped all of them: He went ahead and performed surgery. Kind of.
According to a bizarre story reported in The Grand Rapids Press, Kiko smelled an infection in his owner's right big toe and set about "amputating" it. Which in doggie terms, of course, means he ate it. All the while, Kiko's owner, Jerry Douthett of Rockford, Mich., lay passed-out drunk in his bed. (We told you it was bizarre.)
Douthett awoke to find a bloody stump where his big toe used to be, and he and his wife rushed to Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, Mich. There, they discovered Douthett actually had type 2 diabetes and was suffering from a dangerous infection in his big toe. Doctors finished the job Kiko had started, and amputated what was left of his toe.
Douthett's wife, Rosee, a registered nurse, had actually suspected her husband had diabetes and insisted he get checked out. But before he did so, he had a few beers. And then a few margaritas. After that, he went home, passed out, and Kiko got to work. Weird story, but Bruce Rossman, a media relations manager at Spectrum Health, confirms that it's true.
Awesome.
Katy Batdorff | The Grand Rapids Press
Jerry and Rosie Douthette play with their terrier, Kiko, at their home in Rockford, Mich., on Sunday.
Melissa Dahl writes: We've done stories before on dogs sniffing out diseases their owners didn't even know they had. Now a little terrier named Kiko has one-upped all of them: He went ahead and performed surgery. Kind of.
According to a bizarre story reported in The Grand Rapids Press, Kiko smelled an infection in his owner's right big toe and set about "amputating" it. Which in doggie terms, of course, means he ate it. All the while, Kiko's owner, Jerry Douthett of Rockford, Mich., lay passed-out drunk in his bed. (We told you it was bizarre.)
Douthett awoke to find a bloody stump where his big toe used to be, and he and his wife rushed to Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, Mich. There, they discovered Douthett actually had type 2 diabetes and was suffering from a dangerous infection in his big toe. Doctors finished the job Kiko had started, and amputated what was left of his toe.
Douthett's wife, Rosee, a registered nurse, had actually suspected her husband had diabetes and insisted he get checked out. But before he did so, he had a few beers. And then a few margaritas. After that, he went home, passed out, and Kiko got to work. Weird story, but Bruce Rossman, a media relations manager at Spectrum Health, confirms that it's true.
Awesome.
