Study: Dogs Can Identify Other Dogs by Sight

[GentleLake]

Another study demonstrating what we dog people already know.

 

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/dog-spies/do-dogs-know-other-dogs-are-dogs/

 

I've had a coupe dogs who do what the recent study with either gorillas or chimps demonstrated, that they can recall animals in videos and anticipate them as well.

[aschlemm]

I'm always surprised by how my dogs recognize "dog friends" by sight, at a distance, even when I don't! I did have a female BC that when she met an ACK Old English Sheepdog had a reaction that was very much "WTF is that!" until she sniffed, "Oh, I'm sorry, you are a dog."

[Root Beer]

Oh good. Science has "proven" it. Now it's true.

 

[GentleLake]

I always have to chuckle at the people who do studies to prove things that are very obvious to people who have dogs (or other animals). But John Pilley, the psychologist who did all the studies with Chaser, explain the reasoning very nicely in his book about Chaser.

 

Unless the studies are done according to scientific method the observations aren't scientifically valid and therefore won't convince people who are skeptical. So it's not for the benefit of people who've observed these things themselves and know the dogs (or other animals) to be perfectly capable of intelligence and understanding (or other qualities such as empathy, jealousy, grief, etc.), but for other people who don't believe.

 

I think in this context it's important to remember that not so very long ago science's basic assumption was that non-human animals possessed no intelligence beyond base instinct and in many cases felt no pain, despite what was readily observable to the contrary. Stanley Coren, another psychologist, discusses this in his book The Intelligence of Dogs as well.

 

So yeah, while I roll my eyes at science "proving" what I've known for a long time, I also see the value -- and the benefit to animals -- to science "proving" that they're thinking, feeling creatures deserving much better treatment than humans have historically given them.

[Root Beer]

I definitely see the value in studies like these - a value that goes beyond even "proving" these things to skeptics.

[JohnLloydJones]

What I find fascinating is not just that dogs can recognize their kind -- even from photos -- but that they recognize other canids (e.g. a coyote) as non-dog (and know they are scary).

[simba]

The other thing is that there are lots of things that have been thought to be 'obvious' and 'common sense' that weren't true. So it makes sense to have a policy of proving 'common sense' things- because even though you KNOW it's true, you recognise something more than that is needed. Because the person who's wrong also 'knows' that, and even though you are right, how can you maintain that unless you have some kind of standard beyond 'because I say so'?

[moosikins]

Cal used to see her dog friend, Lambchop, from blocks away and HAUL my husband or me down the street to meet up with her.

 

I followed the poor older woman who had her to her house one day because Cal dragged me there.

[Islanddog]

The interesting thing is that what the study really proves is that dogs can recognize pictures of dogs, and distinguish pictures of dogs from pictures of not-dogs. A photo is not a dog, it is a 2-D representation of a dog. Very interesting.

 

Anecdote: I had a neighbour who had a dog that 'watched' tv (specifically HD TV)). He liked animal shows, and recognized them. He got very excited about certain scenes where various animals showed up, and was indifferent to humans on screen. His behaviours were different from 'dog seeing animals out the window' too. A weird ritualized jumping up and down vs the usual dog sees something interesting behaviour.

[GentleLake]

The interesting thing is that what the study really proves is that dogs can recognize pictures of dogs, and distinguish pictures of dogs from pictures of not-dogs. A photo is not a dog, it is a 2-D representation of a dog. Very interesting.

 

Yep. When Neil deGrasse Tyson was doing a segment on Chaser for a TV show, he and Dr. Pilley set up a test for her. Dr. Tyson, not her owner, would ask Chaser to retrieve various toys by name that were hidden behind the sofa. After asking for a few that she successfully retrieved, Tyson asked her for "Sponge Bob," which they hadn't included, to see if they could fool her. After a little longer than it'd taken for the other toys, she came back with a cloth disc toy and Pilley was obviously disappointed, saying she'd gotten it wrong. But Tyson's jaw dropped as he pointed out that there was a picture of Sponge Bob on the disc. She'd never been taught to recognize pictures rather than the objects themselves, but Chaser made the association on her own when she couldn't find the Sponge Bob stuffed toy among the others.

 

I've had a couple dogs who watched TV. Stew would watch anything including what I'd consider to be uninteresting things like the weather or golf, but he loved any sort of shows with animals in them. His absolute favorite program was Marty Stouffer's Wild America and he even had a favorite episode, one where Stouffer followed a wolf pack through a breeding season. Stouffer's voice would bring that dog flying from wherever he was in the house to the TV when he heard it! He also loved watching sheepdog trial and training videos.

 

After Stew had seen a commercial or show with a dog in it once, he always knew exactly when that dog would reappear and was waiting for it. Tansy, who's reactive, does the same thing. We watch dog sport shows and an occasional conformation show if I can stand to so we can do LAT work. I had to stop watching Person of Interest because the malinois on the show was usually acting aggressively, at least in early episodes, and it sent her into a total reactive tizzy.

[Islanddog]

Thanks, @gentlelake

I went & found the Nova episode and watched Chase in action. Fascinating.

[border_collie_crazy]

yup! we have these 2 Malamutes at work that look a LOT alike, its obvious from up close who is who, but if I see one at a bit of a distance, I have no idea which is which. so the malamutes are Timber and Jasper, Timber was best friends with a Husky named Bella, well, Timbers dad got a GF who has a farm, so we so dont see Timber much anymore, we decided to try Bella with Jasper...and it was the saddest thing in the world. Bella saw Jasper in the distance and lost her mind thinking it was Timber, she was dancing and singing and galloping over to him, then she got closer..realized it was NOT Timber, and her face just fell, she hung her head and walked away. it was both hilarious and heartbreaking