Dogs humans

Discussion in 'Science and Nature' started by travilanche, Jun 17, 2015.

  1. What is with the bond between dogs & humans? Why is this bond so incredible that either will risk their life for the other?

    As I was discussing on another board, I once had a beagle whom I loved with all my heart. Once when I was outside he defended me against a dog (a malamut I think) that was 4x his size, and in turn I risked my safety to save him from this dog. What is it that that causes this kind of connection? I can't explain it. Discuss.
     
  2. My guess is that you care for the dog, show it affection ect. and the dog becomes loyal to you giving you affection in return.
     
    Idk though just a guess lol
     
  3. Wouldn't it be something to travel back in time and observe the first man to befriend a wolf? I have no idea how that transpired...but it must have been epic!
     
  4. Yeah I bet it would be awesome to see too :)
     
  5. I always imagine it as a lone man sitting at a campfire in the dark, eating a piece of mammoth or whatever he has, and a lone wolf comes out of the woods, and looks longingly at the man, and so the man holds out a piece of meat that the wolf gladly accepts, and an epic friendship is born.
     
  6. That's exactly how I pictured it too. Except with more people and no mammoth lol whatever the food they gave the wolves must have been really tasty.
     
  7. Whatever kind of food it was, it started an epic friendship for the ages! Mammoth, sloth, whatever...that wolf must have been happy to receive it. And the wolf and man must have formed a bond that would echo through the ages as epic as fuck.

    God damn I really wish I could travel back and watch that!
     
  8. Dogs have been bred to bond better with humans.. we are all just animals and even in nature, cooperative bonds between different species can form. I'm a dog person, most people call me a dog whisperer even though I hate that name because of that douche on TV.. but we can form bonds with other animals too. Cats can be super protective too, not sure if you've seen the video, but there is one on YouTube of a dog attacking a kid on his bike and the family cat attacked the dog, waited for the mother to get to the kid and then ran after the dog to make sure it was leaving. I'll take dogs over cats any day, but even I think that was an awesome example of people bonding with animals.

    As for how dogs became dogs.. it's a popular misconception that dogs came from wolves like the wolves today. The first dogs weren't much of anything. If you've even seen a feral dog population, that is what the wolves looked like. The wolves of today are more like cousins to the dog, like how chimps are our cousins.. there was one old line of canine and a branch broke off to become dogs and another branch broke off to become the wolves we know today, and the line they both branched off of died off. There is a lot of confusion as to when this happened too.. cause when we look at their DNA, there are genetic markers saying dogs were domesticated like 4,000 years ago, 10,000 years ago, 15,000 years.. and even 30,000 years. The reason for that is because each marker represents a time when man bred the new wolf line into the dog line, each time adding variations which lead to a variety of changes that we picked out and bred for. So in reality, the first dogs were more like dogs than the wolves we know today and wouldn't surprise me if our connection began a lot earlier than what we think. Some of the old wolf line more than likely hung around us for our food scraps, while some of the old wolf line were pushed away from us and pushed deeper into harsh environments that humans weren't populating at the time and forced to evolve into the wolves of today. Being cousins, we could crossbreed them as we spread and ran into wolf populations. While the kind of bonding we have today wasn't always like that, I have a feeling our cooperative evolution was happening while we were still in Africa. Back then they would of just hung out for our scraps and even acted as a warning system, but we weren't bonded enough to where we didn't eat them or invite them into our homes. The bonding came into play as we advanced and bred them for purposes. Then again, that's all mostly theory.. but I've been working with dogs off and on since I was a lil kid and just feel like I naturally know them.

    Oh, and dogs are the only animal to look at the side of your face that shows emotion. With people, when you typically first look at someone.. you subconsciously glance to one side of their face because the one side shows more what you're feeling than the other. Dogs do this too when looking at someone's face.. but they don't do it to other dogs.
     
  9. They're smart, we give them food, they love us back. We're the alphas in their lives so it makes sense their survival instinct is to protect their leader.
    Whaaat, you don't like Cesar Milan? I think he's brilliant.
     
  10. I can't stand him.. never thought he was a true dog whisperer to earn the actual title. He operates under the misconception that dogs originally came from pack hunting wolves of today.. which is where that alpha mindset comes from. Yes, it can and does work.. but dogs and wolves are very different when it comes to the pack. If you had a pet wolf and someone broke into your house, it would run and look to you for protection.. whereas a dog will protect you. That protection comes from their bond with you, and the best way to strengthen that bond isn't with just being an alpha leader, it's being their companion as much as they are yours. A true dog whisperer doesn't have to be an alpha. At work when I run the groups of dogs, I don't try to be dominant over them.. I try to be one of them while letting them be themselves. Sure, if things get heated I'll step in.. but for the most part I am just one of them and my groups were always the largest and yet most behaved. I can run a group of 30 dogs by myself while most people have trouble with 10.. and it's not from being their alpha, but their companion. Being more of a companion than an alpha will trump being an alpha. My sister has a dog and my brother-in-law does that alpha shit.. and the dog listens to him some, but only because it has to.. but with me, she listens because she wants to. He could never stop her from running off after cats and rabbits.. but it took me almost no effort to get her to behave and not run after them. Now a cat could be 10 feet from her and she'll just sit there and watch it.. every once and awhile looking back at me for approval. Of course they're fucked if they come into her territory, our yard, because I let her keep that territorial mindset.. but outside the yard is off limits. It's kind of funny though cause the cats learned that and will sometimes sit out on the road a few feet from the yard and taunt her. If it were anyone else, she'd be snacking on those cats.
     
  11.  
    I think a group of men killed a family of wolves and stole their three puppies
     
  12. #13 yurigadaisukida, Jun 17, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 17, 2015
    the question is based on a false premise.

    "Dogs" don't have a bond with humans. There are many wild dogs that could give two fucks, or abused dogs who hate humans.

    Bonds form between individuals. Your dog loved "you" because you took care of "him"

    Its no different between dogs bonds to eachother or human bonds.

    Its ours and their nature

    -yuri
     
  13. Dogs are unique among all other animals because of the way they relate to people. Even wolves do not display that trait. This was something that came to be through tens of thousands of years of selective breeding. Dogs are pack animals and you are part
    Of their pack. They will defend pack members. And so will you. A number of animals demonstrate THAT trait. But no other animal looks to the human for help when trying to solve a problem. If a wolf wants something he can't get, he will continue trying through his own design until he succeeds or abandons the attempt and that happens even if you, a "human pack member", are present. A dog, however will sooner or later (usually sooner) look you right in the face and try to communicate a desire that you help it. This kind of cooperation is unique and creates the special pack bonds that dogs and people are capable of forming.
     
  14. It's deep rooted in our brain just like the love of the smell of campfire and our love of cannabis.  It goes back thousands and thousands and thousands of years.  [​IMG]
     
    Some things are just part of us.
     
  15. love of marijuana smoke definatly is not rooted in our brains.

    Many people hate the smell

    -yuri
     
  16.  
    This is very similar to how it is thought to have started.
     
    Packs of wolves living in close proximity to camps of humans and feeding off the discarded bones and scraps. Eventually to the point where they are so comfortable with each other that domestication occurred.  There are some really good documentaries about this, wish I knew the titles.

     
    I said nothing about smoke. [​IMG]
     
  17. In the same sense a domesticated wolf may do the same as a dog. Who knows, maybe you heard a story lol. And that's awesome, I prefer your approach over the alpha mentality as well. It's amazing how much communication between dogs is non-verbal, not even body language...more a knowingness, understanding, lovely jubbly...you find that true? Tons to learn from yourself whilst working with dogs.
     
  18. I don't think weed is rooted in our evolution at all. I think this idea roots from sampling only weed users

    -yuri
     
  19.  
    rooted in our evolution I don't know but there is no denying our close connection with cannabis.  There's archeological evidence of us using cannabis as far as 30,000 years ago.  We've brought the plant with us everywhere we've went on this planet, spread it across the whole globe and shaped it into what it what it is today..... kind of like dogs.
     

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