The dog is man's best friend and science seems increasingly interested in understanding the behaviors of our pets. Dogs have long been domesticated by humans and one wonders what the effects are on their lifestyle habits.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
Il dog and the man's best friend and science seems increasingly interested in understanding its behaviors and those of our pets. Dogs have long been domesticated by humans and one wonders what the effects are on their lifestyle habits.
In time, the dogs would become a little less intelligent and more lazy than wolves. A pet depends in part on humans and does not have to face all the problems that instead concern the outdoor life of non-domesticated animals such as wolves. A new study on this has been published by the Royal Society.
Monique Udell, an expert at Oregon State University, subjected 10 domestic dogs, 10 wolves and 10 dogs from an animal shelter to a special assessment test. The animals had to solve a simple game to get food as a reward. At some point it was necessary for dogs and wolves to open a container in order to receive their prize.
Wolves were more successful, as 8 out of 10 managed to complete the assigned task while Only 1 dog out of the 20 selected has made it. Many of the dogs gave up almost immediately and turned to the man for help.
The difference in behavior between dogs and wolves, according to the expert, was evident. THE wolves they spent most of their time trying to complete their task while i dogs they gave up almost immediately. Even when the dogs didn't have people around to turn to, they didn't try much harder.
Here, at this point, the expert has identified one of the key aspects of the situation: it always seems that dogs are waiting for a command from humans in order to act. The wolves, on the other hand, followed their instincts.
Two main aspects emerged from this test: on the one hand it seems that dogs are less awake than wolves when they have to solve a problem on their own, while on the other hand their own dogs are shown to have greater and more advanced social intelligence and to know interact with man.
Udell thinks the two species simply adopted the most appropriate strategies for solving the test based on their lifestyle. Dogs are more inclined to ask for human help, for example, while wolves immediately tend to fend for themselves, just like it happens in nature.
The researcher intends to deepen the subject and remembers that generalizing in any case is not good, since every dog has its own intelligence and that the behavior of pets in general is very variable.
Marta Albè
Photo font: Flickr
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