PSYC 311 1st Edition Lecture 4Overview of Current Lecture-DVD – Dogs Decoded - Understanding the human-dog relationship - There are more pet dogs in the world than babies- Human emotions are more reflective in the right hand side of the face, but the left hand side of the face can tell more o Dogs look to the middle of the face, and then immediately left Dogs only do this with humans, not with each other – this could be why we believe that dogs are so in tune with our emotions - Differentiation in the types of barks dogs emito Frequency, tonality, interval analysis- Role of oxytocin in the dog, owner relationship o Peak of oxytocin during petting (in the human and the dog) Lowers heart rate, blood pressure and stress level Having a dog can actually lengthen your life; you are more likely to survive a heart attack if you are exposed to the health benefits of having a dog - When/how did they domesticate?o Turn of the hunter and gatherer lifestyle- Dog intelligenceo May think more like us than any other species Dogs are the only animals that responds to human pointing commands - Extremely in tune to human social cues – even eye glanceso Betsy the Border Collie Over a 300 item vocabulary - Very high in comparison to human two year olds – scale modeling and representation through pictures o Wolf cubs – despite being brought up like puppies, you cannot turn a wolf into a dog Cubs avoided eye contact and did not respond to human pointing commands Dogs are not just socialized wolves- Domestication processo Silver foxes – Trut Farm Fox Experiment (reading) Only the tamest foxes are allowed to breed- Generation 3 – aggressive behaviors subside – tail wagging and affectionate gestures observed Difference in tame and aggressive foxes is almost entirely genetic- Tame foxes produce less adrenaline and therefore are calmer Tame foxes are independent like cats, but as devoted as dogs (would makegreat pets) Change in appearance – began to look more like dogs when selected against aggression - Floppy ears, curly tails – favoring juvenile traits o We respond to dogs because they have features similar to those of children Humans are genetically “made” to need to nurture children- Boxer breed can be used as models of man to find genes causing diseaseso Boxers susceptible to cardio myopathy Researchers have found that chromosome 17 in dogs is the gene that causes them to be disease susceptible – fast tracked the study of human diseases o Dog research is a relatively new
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