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cwalt

MH
Posts:180

10/31/2008 12:09 PM
We have evidence that man and dog have been together for perhaps 35,000 years and in that time there has been some evidence of coevolution. We have dogs that almost seem to instinctively understand human emotional states and human body language but even more interesting is the behavior of humans that seems to instinctively adapt to dog body language. It is almost automatic for humans to encourage a dog to approach by squatting down and holding out the hands. This behavior is naturally a releaser for the approach of an uncertain dog. Why does spreading out the arms encourage a dog to come to a human? We have many unlearned responses and behaviors that trigger innate behaviors in the domestic dog that seem to be automatic body language interactions understood by the dog. I can easily understand how a body language sensitive social animal such as the dog can learn to respond to humans but how do humans instinctively know so much about dog behavior? Why do dogs "grin" at humans and yet never display this signal to other dogs? Why does the heart rate and blood pressure of both dog and human fall when they are in physical contact? What is the reciprocal calming effect that both man and dog experience when a man strokes a dog's back? Dogs have been selectively adapted to man but it also seems that man is selectively adapted to dogs. After examining my own emotional responses to dogs I find that I respond to them in ways that don't occur to me when I encounter a wolf, fox or coyote. Part of this difference is learned but part of it is innate. As far as I can tell humans can easily learn to read a dog but it is a far more difficult task to learn to read a wolf or coyote. When it comes to sniffing, that is scent investigation by a dog, dogs selectively determine what parts of another dog or person are sniffed. These body areas are different for mature dogs and puppies and they are equally different for adult humans and children. Why does a dog instantly recognize a juvenile human and sniff different body areas than it does with an adult human? With children dogs sniff the face and head but with adults they sniff the same body areas that they do with other mature dogs, a social distinction made by no other animal species. We are interesting paired species. Cj

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