Dog Behaviour

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Dog Behaviour

Introduction

In this essay I am going to write about dog behaviour, and how that has an impact on other animals within its species. I will write about using dogs for entertainment and using them to help with the police; I will also include about using dogs for hunting and the ethics of this. I will also put in about how training dogs, is exploiting them or not and instinctive and learned behaviour, I will also talk about how people say that dogs as pets show human characteristics and behaviours. I have also done a survey about dog behaviour, to show what people think and see if by having a dog is a different opinion to people who don’t have dogs.

Theory

In this part I will write about anthropomorphism, instinctive and leaned behaviour, imprinting, habituation, Ivan Pavlov, how dogs communicate within their species, the benefits of training dogs. I will write about using them for things like hunting, using them for police and the ethical issues to do with this.

Anthropomorphism is when non humans show human characteristics. Dogs and other pets share so many aspects of owners lives, and their behaviour does often seem almost human they see what you do, they know what you eat. So it’s most likely that they pick up what you do and it will be as if they behave like humans. Although out of all the pets you can have dogs are always the ones who act the most like humans, as dogs seem to become part of the family to the point that people describe themselves as their mummies or daddies. But the problem is that they tend to believe that dogs have the same logical thinking as we do and this is not correct. People often say that their dog can hear every word they say which is not true, as the dog can only understand the tones in your voice, the mood you’re in and your body language. But the dog is also clever at tricking their owners and other people and will often put on a facial expression, to get their own way. It does not take long for the it to learn which expressions work and in what circumstances. When you tell the dog off it sulks off to a corner of the room and looks really sad, ears down and head hung low. Of course the dog is not really sulking, that is anthropomorphism, it is showing respect by staying out the way, but knows if it puts on that expression you will go over give him a cuddle and perhaps a treat.

Some people also stereotype dogs and their owners and say they look alike; this is partly true as a man who acts all tough and has loads of tattoos and goes around throwing things, isn’t going to buy a cute fluffy dog he would buy a big bull dog.  A shy girl also wouldn’t go to buy a big mean dog as she would probably be scared of it she would probably buy a small fluffy dog. Although this is stereotyping people do often buy dogs that are the same as their personalities. I think when people actually do the research on what breed, or breeds, would be right for them and their lifestyle, before they decide what dog to get, that automatically means that dog and owner end up being a lot alike. There have been lots of study on this, and it has shown that owner and their dogs do look alike as the University of California did some research on this. They got 45 dogs and their owners and had them separately photographed. The task they had was to match the photos up and 30 out of the 45 dogs and their owners were matched correctly, so this shows that maybe not all dogs and owners look alike but the majority do.

Instinctive Behavior is something that an animal has inherited from their parents they do the thing without thinking. They are fixed action patterns and unlearned. For example sea turtles, hatched on a beach, automatically move toward the ocean; and honeybees communicate by dance the direction of a food source, all without any formal instruction. The characteristics of dogs can be inherited or it is the simple characteristics of the breed, other times a habit of doing something or trick learnt early in life. For this I will look at the dog’s ancestor the wolf.  Basic instinct that dogs perform in our homes can be attributed to this animal. For example if there is more than one dog in the home there is a natural pack instinct. Strangely it is not always the oldest dog or the largest dog that is the pack leader. A female can be the more important especially, if she has had a lot of puppies and only one is kept. Without any sign of aggression the pack leader can control who drinks from a bowl and stops them playing in the moment. You will find that when this dog dies, there will be a time of decision between the other dogs before a new pack leader is decided. There are also dogs that can escape from the most secure of gardens, scrambling over very high fences in their quest for freedom; they dig the deepest holes under walls to disappear in to distance. These dogs are just following the most basic of instincts to enable them to run free and safe. Dogs will often dig out of boredom. If you leave your dog out alone in the yard for any length of time, he may dig just for something to do. They are also great savers as they dig a hole to keep a bone safe for a rainy day or when they need it. They also dig as deeper layers of soil tend to be cooler, your dog may be digging to find relief from the heat. Dogs can also be very aggressive and some people say they can sense fear, that is why they say not to turn back to them and run as this can make matters worse, the dogs instinctive is to chase its prey like how it chases cats.

A learned behaviour is a behaviour that was observed by an individual that they find it to be beneficial to them in some way. There's a motivating factor behind it. Also it can be conditioned someone can have a stimuli respond to that. A dog that is scratching on the door or barking over and over to be let in from being unsupervised, outside in the back yard is displaying a learned behaviour. If you open the door and let it in, you have cemented the fact that all he has to do is scratch/bark to be let back into the house; that is what he has learned from its owner, that to get let back in he has to bark that is an example of the bad affects of learned behaviour in dogs. Some studies that have observed dog behaviour show that just one or two reinforcements can almost guarantee the behaviour will happen again in the future. Knowledge of reinforcement, and how to be aware of it is important to understanding the dog's behaviour if you are trying to teach or change some behaviour.

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Ivan Pavlov was a Russian scientist who did experiments on a dog. While Ivan Pavlov worked to unveil the secrets of the digestive system. He also studied how when a dog encounters food, saliva starts to pour from the salivary glands located in the back of its oral cavity. This saliva is needed in order to make the food easier to swallow. The fluid also contains enzymes that break down certain things in the food. Pavlov became interested in studying reflexes when he saw that the dogs drooled without the proper stimulus. Although no food was in sight, their saliva ...

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