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Imitation In Dogs Matches Humans and Apes

Posted by Unknown on from the that's-where-fido-picked-up-his-bad-habits dept.

sciencehabit writes "The next time your dog digs a hole in the backyard after watching you garden, don't punish him. He's just imitating you. A new study reveals that our canine pals are capable of copying our behavior as long as 10 minutes after it's happened. The ability is considered mentally demanding and, until this discovery, something that only humans and apes were known to do."

18 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. THAT explains it! by Freshly+Exhumed · · Score: 5, Funny

    Stop chewing on your wife's best shoes and the dog will stop doing that too! Oh and also don't chew on the sofa cushions either.

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    1. Re:THAT explains it! by l0ungeb0y · · Score: 4, Informative

      That's behavior that most mammals do when they teethe due to physical discomfort.

      Just give your puppy his own chew toys that he KNOWS are his and quickly correct him when he tries to chew on things not his and he'll soon learn what he can and can't chew on. Of course, different breeds are easier to train than others so YMMV.

    2. Re: THAT explains it! by nbritton · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Easy fix... put the shoes away. It's all about operant conditioning with dogs. I suggest an e-collar, an alternative him to chew on, and positive reinforcement when he does something you want. I hear imitation also works, you could fetch some of his toys to chew... ;-)

      The other neat thing that dogs can do is figure out what you mean when you point at something, apes just can't seem to grasp this. NOVA did a documentary that attempted to qualify ape intelligence by showing the diffrences between human children and other animals. It was eye opening, particularly the use of tools and the crafting of weapons to kill prey by chimps. I think animals are a lot smarter then we give them credit for, anyhow here is a link: http://m.video.pbs.org/video/1200128615/

    3. Re: THAT explains it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      If your dog misses a joke in the next 10 minutes now you'll know why.

    4. Re:THAT explains it! by ikarys · · Score: 5, Funny

      Dog: Woooooooofsh!

    5. Re:THAT explains it! by Cryacin · · Score: 4, Funny

      Come on guys, that was ruff.

      --
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    6. Re: THAT explains it! by rikkards · · Score: 3, Insightful

      E-collar? Put that on your kid and see how they react (or Children's aid). The latter two suggestions are the right answer. If you have to resort to shocking your dog then you are doing something wrong.
      Your second paragraph is very true, we are becoming more and more aware that animals are not purely instinct driven. Well they are but so are we, we just don't realize our needs and wants are just that.

    7. Re: THAT explains it! by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Funny

      E-collar? Put that on your kid and see how they react (or Children's aid).

      There are a LOT of children that need that. I fully support the deployment of these things in schools for kids that are troublemakers.

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    8. Re:THAT explains it! by flyneye · · Score: 4, Funny

      My Jack Russell is pretty good at copying. He now sits up against the back of the couch and watches T.V. He'll snipe your beer, right from the bottle. Sleeps on his back with his head on the pillow. Shits on the neighbors lawn. Just like me!

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    9. Re:THAT explains it! by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 3, Funny

      Stop chewing on your wife's best shoes and the dog will stop doing that too! Oh and also don't chew on the sofa cushions either.

      Also, it's a very good reason not to have sex with your wife in front of your pets.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    10. Re:THAT explains it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      The first rule in training puppies is that you need to be at least as smart as the puppy.

    11. Re: THAT explains it! by Will.Woodhull · · Score: 4, Interesting

      More to the point, dogs and man have co-evolved. They are symbiotic species: they evolved in such a way that each species had a much better chance of raising progeny to mating age than either species had on its own. That's a strong natural selection process.

      Part of this is that dogs and man learned to communicate with each other to a greater degree than dogs in a pack communicate with each other. They seek eye contact and use a rich gesture language to communicate their feelings to each other. Human pointing is an extension of that. The evolutionary advantages of pointing are pretty much obvious.

      It should not be surprising that many of man's social structures-- lodges, tio-spayes, clans, small villages, high school cliques, gangs, etc-- are more dog-like than they are ape-like. Humans would not be like they are if they had not teamed up with dogs.

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      Will
  2. So when i see a dog licking the balls by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I know i shouldn't kiss the girl that owns him

  3. MPIAA by codeButcher · · Score: 4, Funny

    I did not copy that song! I Swear! It was my dog!

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  4. Re:Humans Co-evolved with Dogs! by Joining+Yet+Again · · Score: 3, Insightful

    P.sure that evolution is about retention of particular traits more suited to the environment. Whether that environment is dominated by non-organic or organic processes, and whether those organic processes are floral, bestial or human, is irrelevant. So, a breeding programme is an excellent demonstration of evolution at a fast pace.

  5. Re:Humans Co-evolved with Dogs! by jamesh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Dogs didn't evolve from wolves. Dogs were bred from wolves. There is a world of difference. And that breeding program was designed to maximize certain aspects of canine intelligence. A dog is a man-made creation that has no relation to evolutionary development. In this light, the fact that dogs exhibit mimicry while almost no other animal does is not surprising.

    The difference is purely semantic. The difference is that dogs didn't evolve from wolves through natural selection, they evolved via human selection (which may still considered natural), but it's still an evolution.

  6. That explains it.. by sjwt · · Score: 3, Funny

    So this is why I see many fat dogs lately..

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  7. Cats Can Do This, But Most Can't Be Bothered by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My cat imitates my actions, but then again he's a rare breed that has a reputation for acting more like dogs than cats. He's a Turkish Van who barks (short, loud verbalizations to get my attention instead of the traditional "meow"), fetches (some other cats can be taught to fetch... Turkish Vans teach their owners to play fetch), and generally exhibits the behavior of a pack animal that wants the favor and attention of the alpha animal (the human).

    As for imitative behavior, he loves to watch me wash dishes. Turkish Vans are fascinated by water (in nature they swim for fun and fish for food), so he has to be on the counter watching whenever I'm washing dishes. He sees me apparently rubbing my "paws" together under the stream of water, and if I turn to put the dish in the drying rack, he will invariably start pawing at the stream of water, and then rubbing his paws together under the stream. He's invariably very confused because he doesn't understand what this accomplishes, but he keeps doing it because he sees me doing it.

    Cats have the intelligence to imitate behavior, but they don't exhibit it because most domesticated cats do not have the pack mentality. They do their own thing unless there is a reward for doing your thing. You hear about people teaching their cats to flush the toilet, but that's usually because they're fascinated by the "reward" of getting to watch the whirlpool. Turkish Vans and dogs, however, will do things because they see you doing it and they want to win your approval by doing what you do.