# Can my mom's dog tell I'm her son? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 22, 2012, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-my-moms-dog-tell-im-her-son/616505 "2012-03-22T15:12:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2012, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-my-moms-dog-tell-im-her-son/616505/21 "2012-03-23T20:28:22Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > As for your dog’s reaction to your parents, my educated guess is that your dog treats your dad as an obvious pack leader and your mom, not so much. Contrary to popular belief, romping and snuggles do not necessarily endear you to a dog. Calm authority does. Dogs aren’t children, they are adult animals of another species. That’s an interesting argument that I hadn’t thought about. My mother held complete rule over the household but she always acquiesced to my father, whether she wanted to or not. She still does this. I don’t know why but it’s not her true nature. But dogs were bred to be “children” versions of wolves. It’s why they still bark while wolves stop barking when they grow up. I was going to say that I wondered why he doesn’t play with her but well, he doesn’t play with anyone. And I’m the pack leader in my home, and I’m also the foremost snuggler. 😉 Seriously, I think my dogs, every one I have had, just “know”. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-my-moms-dog-tell-im-her-son/616505/22 "2012-03-24T01:27:17Z")
> [@Sister\_Vigilante](#): > > But dogs were bred to be “children” versions of wolves. It’s why they still bark while wolves stop barking when they grow up. Dogs do exhibit various levels of neoteny, but whether they were bred for it exactly is another question. Raymond Coppinger posits that dogs split from wolves to become commensal animals (like pigeons and rats) to human settlements, long before they were strictly speaking domesticated. The lowered fear response, smaller brain, and weaker dentition all occurred as a result of their adaptation to a very different ecological niche – present-day pariah dogs which live off human refuse all over the third world are, according to this theory, examples of dogs in their original form. Lack of fear of humans was selected for because those garbage-enticed wolves that came in closer with less stress, ate when the more cautious ones starved. Selection for tameness in canids, whether by the hand of nature or man, is apparently linked to other signs of immaturity such as dropped ears, and white markings (non-completion of pigmentation in utero). The famous Russian fur fox experiment (in which selecting for tameness inadvertently produced white markings etc.) would be the classic study. To anyone who wants to shake up their ideas about dogs, I recommend Coppinger, who taught at Hampshire College for many years and has done fascinating fieldwork. ---
**Author:** ![reddog\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@reddog\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reddog_1)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-my-moms-dog-tell-im-her-son/616505/23 "2012-03-24T19:53:00Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > To anyone who wants to shake up their ideas about dogs, I recommend Coppinger, who taught at Hampshire College for many years and has done fascinating fieldwork. I second this. He completely changed my beliefs on many aspects, and now I find it tiresome to discuss dog evolution with anyone who hasn’t read his work ha. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2012, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-my-moms-dog-tell-im-her-son/616505/24 "2012-03-25T04:41:22Z")
Oddly enough, I was going to ask this same question years ago. My mom has a dog. She doesn’t like strangers. Any strangers. Except of course me. She liked me from the very start. How the hell can that be? ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2012, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-my-moms-dog-tell-im-her-son/616505/25 "2012-03-25T20:49:40Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > Oddly enough, I was going to ask this same question years ago. > > My mom has a dog. She doesn’t like strangers. Any strangers. Except of course me. She liked me from the very start. > > How the hell can that be? Don’t know, if it didn’t meet you as a pup. But dogs have exquisitely calibrated sensitivities for difference/relatedness, and whether something or someone “belongs” or “doesn’t belong”. It’s why we can have police dogs, for example. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2012, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-my-moms-dog-tell-im-her-son/616505/26 "2012-03-25T21:13:08Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > It’s why we can have police dogs, for example. How so? ---
**Author:** ![Modevo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Modevo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Modevo)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-my-moms-dog-tell-im-her-son/616505/27 "2012-03-26T01:56:09Z")
Maybe, maybe not. If dogs could sniff dna, I think they would be being used in law enforcement for example to track down relatives of wanted criminals or whatever. But since they aren’t… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-my-moms-dog-tell-im-her-son/616505.md?page=1)