What do dogs think?

Great Debates
1

I don’t know if there’s a doper ethologist (are they called that?), but even so, I don’t know if there really is a factual answer, beyond conjecture.

First, some groundwork:
Brain - intelligence - mind.

Animals have brains. Some species have brains that can handle things and are thus intelligent, even though it might not be what we consider intellgence. On the top are animals with minds. For the sake of argument, I posit that in order to have a mind, the animal must posses self-awareness.

Daniel Goleman has written about ‘emotional intelligence’ and leaving most of that aside, I found it interesting that some of our base emotions have clear evolutionary values, or at least survival values for the individual: fear, anger, joy, interest. We humans might have a cortex that helps us interpret (or misinterpret) those emotions, but the emotions themselves rest in a deeper layer of the brain.

Now to dogs. It’s quite obvious that dogs have these base emotions, as have many other animals. Fear, Anger, Interest. All are appearant for anyone who’s spend just a short time with a dog.
Also, they dream. I think.
My doggie yelps and moves his paws - as if he’s running - in his sleep and shows clear signs of dreaming. All dog owners I know are convinced that their dogs dream. And I find it hard to believe that dreams can take place without a clear sense of self, an I that does the dreaming.

The vocabulary might not be that great, at least according to Gary Larson who joked that it is only one word: Hey! with different intonations or inflection. And there might not be a lot of logic reasoning going on in the doggie brain, but I think it’s obvious that they do think. I can feel the frustration from my dog when he’s trying to solve a problem or trying to understand me. Typically he tilts his head and looks quizzically at me.

So, any WAGs or really informed opinions about what dogs think about?
And do wolves behave the same way or did humans give minds to wolves and created the dog in the process?

2

You have hit upon one of my own great curiosities. I’ve always wondered what dogs think…and do they have a self-awareness. I.e., do dogs know that they are dogs?

On the other hand, having now spent 8 years in corporate America, I found that I was asking the same questions there about a different species: upper management. This really hit home a few years ago when our lab head was giving us a canned presentation about the latest quality initiative at our company. He was clearly on our side in his cynicism during the presentation. At the end of it, really my one burning question was this: “How high do you have to go before people have so little self-awareness that they take this seriously?” His answer was: “Well, let me put it to you this way, if ‘J.C.’ [my boss’s boss’s boss] had been in this room today, he would have been pissed at me.”

So, to this day, both questions remain unanswered in my mind.

3

“Huh, huh, huh! I’m a good dog! I’m a happy dog! Yup, I’m a happy good dog, awright! Yup, yup, yup. Who’s a good dog? Uh… Me! I’m a good dog! Did I get it right? Oh, food!”

:stuck_out_tongue:

4

“Hummanna hummanna hummanna hummanna hummanna hummanna hummanna hummanna hummanna hummanna hummanna hummanna hummanna hummanna hummanna.”

5

“Ah, outside. time to bark annoyingly”
My theory is that animals are MUCH closer genetically and generally than we often think. So I think most animals think a bit like humans, but without words. They’ll think about food, their fellow pack members (the ones that walk on their back legs and make strange noises with their mouths) their last walk, the cute bitch they saw last week.

6

No useful comment, just have to mention the hilarity of a poster named The Gaspode asking what dogs think.

(Gaspode is a dog’s name in Pratchett’s Discworld series)

7

I wonder if we can ever understand how they think. I believe they do, but it’s totally non verbal. I think in words, so I have a hard time imagining any word-free thoughts. Exceptions would be total overwhelming fear–I’ve experienced that, but it was raw emotion, no real “thoughts.”

They also live completely in the moment. While they may be completely obsessed with the hot bitch they see right now, I don’t think they ponder or even remember the bitch they met last week. Of course, that could be because my dogs can’t even remember that the ball they had such fun playing isn’t gone–it just rolled under the couch.

8

Maybe dogs do think in words. Afterall they do know them.

“Jess walk, food walk sit jess jess food. Be quiet walk sit jess walk”

9

“Woof, bloody woof. Bark-bark.” :smiley:

:snort:

Hmm. In a way. But I think there’s more going on. Most dogs love solving puzzles. Last Christmas, my mom got my puppy some treats, gift wrapped, and a few dog toys, also gift wrapped. She asked me if we should unwrap it for Buster, but I said no. We just put the gifts on the floor and he got to unwrap them himself. Unwrapping (as with humans) was more fun than the actual gifts.

I’m kinda with you, Lobsang. But since they don’t use words, and we think a lot in words, I wonder what their thoughts look like.

10

I always figured dogs’ thinking was limited to:

  • “Can I eat that? I think I’ll try.”
    and
  • “Can I fuck that? I think I’ll try.”

Maybe mixed up with a little … “What can I do that will make the big hairless ape scritch me behind my ears again. I kind of dug that.”

11

I’m not so sure. My dog can certainly anticipate things and wait eagerly for them to happen. And while he probably doesn’t remember the yummy-smelling bitch he met last week, getting a wiff of her wee will certainly stir up emotions again.

Another clue is that they recognize individuals. When he sees his best boxer friend, Bruno, there’s no hesitation. They’ll get down to serious rough and tumbling as soon as they meet, and will recognize each other from far away. I also know that if I tell him, before we get in the car, that we’re gonna meet Bruno, he’ll whine and be restless all the way there. Normally, he’s relaxed when riding in the car.

12

It surprises me how much memory skills and “object-thinking” (I don’t know how to describe this concept … just the idea that objects are out in the world, they exist, and you want to do things to/with them) some dogs have. One of my friends has a dog that is crack-addicted to tennis balls. He pesters people to throw them so he can fetch them, etc., ad nauseum (literally, as they get pretty slobbery…). But when his owner tires of it, she sticks the tennis ball up in the rain gutter above her porch. That dog, even days later, will come back and look longingly up at the gutter, clearly aware that the ball is still probably up there.

It’s also fun to watch the desire/reasoning process he goes through after he fetches the ball, as he waffles between wanting to sit and keep the ball to himself, and wanting to release the ball to a human being so that it can be thrown again. He literally will start heading towards you, then turn away briefly as the desire to keep the ball grows, then turn back towards you as he realizes the joyous rewards that giving you the ball to throw could bring. Poor dog. Such a torment to endure.

13

An anecdote.

When I lived in L.A. one of my neighbours had a big yellow lab named Sebastian. Sebastian liked me. He showed his affection by leaning on me. Aside from his owner, I’m the only one he’d do that to.

I talked to my neighbour after I moved to the PNW. She said that she was walking Sebastian one day when Sebastian saw someone approaching. At a distance, the guy apparently resembled me. Sebastian was very excited and strained at the leash to reach the man, who was (I’m told) expecting to greet and pet a happy dog. But when Sebastian got close enough to him, he realised the man wasn’t me. Sebastian snubbed him totally.

14

From my girlfriend’s coffee cup:

15

I think dogs generally prefer Kerry.

16

Not mine. He growls whenever he sees a horse on tv.
:stuck_out_tongue:

17

I don’t have an answer to what dogs think, but I’ve always found it odd how many people assume dogs, or any animals, don’t think. We’re not that different from them, though most of us are a bit less hairy.

Are some people a little threatened by the idea that animals can think because of what changes that might force on their worldviews?
Dogs have memories, can solve puzzles, have likes and dislikes that aren’t biologically necessary (such as preferring beef and cheese Snausages to beef Snausages), have habits, anticipate other beings’ behaviors, display something that looks like lot like shame, display something that looks a lot like pride, display something that looks a lot like hatred, and display something that looks a lot like love.

There’s obviously some thinking going on in some of these behaviors, but how can we determine what the thinking looks like? Do we think in words because they are available, but would think in a different form if we had no words? Does a blind and deaf child think in words the same way a sighted and hearing child does?

18

Dogs are clearly intelligent. My dog does amazingly complex things. When bored, she’ll seek out her favorite toy, and play with it by herself. She’ll throw her own ball in the air and catch it. She anticipates the arrival of my daughter, waits expectantly for car rides, wheedles me for treats. She gets petulant if she doesn’t get what she wants. She has moods. Sometimes she’s playful, other times subdued. If I’m away from her for an hour, she’s reasonably happy to see me. If I’m away for two days, she’s ecstatic. She clearly has some conception of the passage of time.

But lacking language and knowledge, I imagine her thoughts are formless. She probably lives more by impressions and disjointed memories. She may not understand that she’s an individual being (I remember reading that there were only one or two animals who seemed to be ‘self-aware’ in the sense that if they saw themselves in a mirror they would clearly understand that they were looking at themselves). She has no concept of death, no way of predicting the future. So she’s very much a creature of the present. Her life his guided by how her memories and impulses affect her temperament in the present.

Of course, I could be totally wrong. Maybe she’s working out quadratics while licking herself.

ImhungryImhungryImhungryImhungryImhungryCAT!ImhungryImhungry…

19

Well, Auggie, The Cutest Dog on the Ploanet, knows a few words- his very best doggie buddy’s name is Hoover (how cute is that?), and if I say “Hoover”, he runs all over the place, looking for Hoover. Auggie also knows the difference between his 2 leashes. If I put hijm onm the flexi-leash, he knows he’s going for A WALK! and will turn right up the driveway as soon as he gets out the door. If I put him on the 6-foot leather leash, he knows we’re getting into the car, and will go straight to the car.

 He also knows the names of our 2 cats.  He knows some of his toys- he has a gazillion toys, and if I say "get your gator", he gets his stuffed alligator.  If I tell him to "get your cowie", he gets his stuffed cow,  Those are the only toys he knows.     

 How much of this is "understanding", the same wasy he puts his butt on the floor when I say "sit", and how much of it is actually language recognition?  I have no clue.  

 But I could swear that he looks at me really sweet when I tell him I love him
20

I don’t think a sense of self awareness is necessary for dreams. In fact the only thing you need is a sense of other stuff, like other dangerous dogs, or a cat, or cold water.