Recently Roger Abrantes (thru Andrea Arden) said the advice I gave someone here required a dog to have “humanlike” intelligence. Not so, dogs are geniuses when it comes to recognizing variances in the emotional tones of their owner’s voice. I replied that if Abrantes doesn’t understand how praise can help cure aggression, he doesn’t know how dogs operate. Arden then posted his bio, as if that proved his level of understanding. Well, I thought, maybe it DOES. And if SO, I want to learn from him…
From DOG LANGUAGE by Abrantes:
“…it is difficult for a lone wolf to get food for itself, but if there are two of them they significantly increase the chance. If there are three they can begin hunting systematically. In some species, selection favors those who are best at inhibiting their aggression, and co-operate instead.”
So Abrantes agrees with me that a dog’s social instincts favor cooperation over aggression, and that pack formation is directly related to the prey drive. He IS smart.
Re:Roger and Me Abrantes: “This [favoring cooperation over aggression] does not mean aggression disappears, rather it assumes other forms through ritualized behavior: [1] greeting ceremonies, [2] pacifying behavior and [3] rank ordering.”
The idea that the aggressive energy assumes other forms in social animals is right on the money. Just watch a football game or spend an afternoon at the NYSE. But in dogs, are these other, assumed forms of aggression really what Abrantes says they are? Let’s examine them.
1) Greeting Ceremonies: I wouldn’t call them “ceremonies” exactly, but dogs and wolves DO exhibit predictable fixed action patterns when greeting one another, and they tend to defuse aggression.
2) Pacifying Behavior: Here Abrantes seems to be saying that one dog is deliberately and intentionally trying to pacify the other. He may NOT be saying that, but if he IS, I'm sorry but I think the first dog is simply reacting to the body language, etc., of the second. His emotions are then reflected
Lee Charles Kelley (NY) 7/30/2006 10:39:10 PM
Re:Re:Roger and Me back through unconscious, non-deliberate changes in his OWN body language. It’s not an intentional act, or a form of communication, but an unconscious dance, a reflexive exchange of tension based on a desire to be in harmony. And desire is a lower level of intelligence than conscious intent.
But couldn’t the first dog simply have a desire to pacify the other? That wouldn’t require intent, would it?
No, but it would require an ability to be aware of the other dog’s internal state. And all our first dog can be aware of—and that just barely--is his own.
3) Rank Ordering: So a dog's inhibited aggressive energy causes him to want to form a hierarchy? Interesting. That sort of makes sense, except that a rank isn't concrete; it's symbolic, conceptual. And since a dog can't chase, bite, or pee on a concept, how can it exist in his mind?
Abrantes (on body language): “The aggressive dog bares its teeth.”
No, he doesn’t. When a dog has a strong urge to bite his lips draw back
Lee Charles Kelley (NY) 7/30/2006 10:40:28 PM
Re:Re:Re:Roger and Me involuntarily in a reflex designed to get the soft tissue out of the way of the teeth before biting something. Some dogs “bare their teeth” as they take a bone. Are they feeling aggressive toward it? No, it’s simply one of the body’s self-protective mechanisms, built into the autonomic nervous system. To imply that a dog "bares his teeth" reflects a more human than doglike thinking.
Abrantes (on body language): “If it [the dog] is dominant … it will make its body appear large and stiff.”
Dogs have no capacity for self-reflection (recognizing themselves in a mirror, a scientific indicator of self-awareness). And if a dog doesn’t know anything about his own appearance, how could he try to make himself look different, or even possibly know what he looks like to others if he did?
Abrantes: “How obvious these signals are depends on rank [etc.]”.
More humanlike, instead of doglike thinking. Packs form for cooperative hunting purposes only. Abrantes says so himself. (Kind of.)
Lee Charles Kelley (NY) 7/30/2006 10:41:03 PM
Re:Re:Re:Re:Roger and Me It seems to me, given my admittedly cursory review of one article, extracted from a larger work, that Abrantes’ view of dogs is much more dependent on humanlike thinking than mine is.
And I still say if a dog is barking because he’s fearful of another dog, praise him. As long as you do it before he gets too wound up, and the praise is strong enough to change his emotional state, he’ll settle down and maybe even make friends. PRAISE WILL NOT REINFORCE THE AGGRESSION. It will be more likely to eliminate it altogether, because behavior comes from emotion. And when you change a dog’s emotional state, you automatically change his behavior. IOW, if you set the emotional tone, your dog will follow. Then, once the dog stops barking and makes contact with the other dog, that’s where the REAL positive reinforcement takes place: he learns that by not barking he gets to make a friend. And beneath all his aggression, what a dog really wants to do is to be in harmony, to make friends.
