Yep, it's officially snuggle season. pic.twitter.com/t8xmAJgymc
— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) October 13, 2019
Seems like a lot of people are taking the holiday-for-some weekend as a vacation from politics, not that I blame them. We’re debating whether to spend some time at the Topsfield Fair, or to start planting out the big box of spring bulbs that just arrived.
But speaking of companion animals, here’s a fun story from the Washington Post, which you should definitely click just for the absolutely perfect stock photo illustrating it. “What makes dogs so special and successful? Love”
… Clive Wynne, a psychologist and founder of the Canine Science Collaboratory at Arizona State University, has a new book that walks readers through the growing body of dog science. In it, he argues that what makes dogs remarkable is not their smarts, but their capacity to form affectionate relationships with other species — in short, to love.
Wynne spoke recently with The Washington Post about his book, “Dog Is Love: Why and How Your Dog Loves You.” This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The Washington Post: Many dog owners will think, “Of course my dog loves me.” Why study this?
Wynne: It’s at least worth thinking about that what on the surface appears to be something in our dogs that people are happy to call love might — might — not have deserved that name. It could have been that our dogs were in some sense just faking it to get better treats. Ultimately, this is, to me, about trying to understand the secret of dogs’ success and what makes dogs unique.
Scientists in the first decade of the 21st century were mainly concerned with the idea that dogs have special forms of intelligence and social cognition that were unique in the animal kingdom. From the point of view of those of us that are in the science of studying dogs, the idea that it’s affection and not intelligence that’s the secret ingredient that makes dogs successful is quite a radical idea.
You and I have had conversations in the past where I got the impression you would be on the more skeptical end of the dogs-love-us spectrum.
I’m a reluctant convert. I was somebody who was resistant to the idea that what appeared to be affection radiating from our dogs could really be that. But ultimately, a combination of getting this dog into my life — who’s lying down next to me now, Xephos — and the overwhelming evidence of the studies that my students and I did, and the studies that so many other people have done, it really all adds up to an irresistible picture. I know that sometimes Xephos just wants dinner. But I’m pretty convinced that that’s not the whole picture. She really does feel a bond, a connection toward me that’s as real as any other connection that any other individual in my life might feel toward me…
You also write about how biological research backs up the idea that dogs can love.
If it’s there, it’s got to be in their biology. Their biology has to underwrite their behavior.
A Japanese research group analyzed dogs’ and people’s urine for levels of this hormone oxytocin, which gets called the love hormone because it spikes when two people are in loving contact with each other. They had people and dogs come into the lab and look at each other lovingly. Sure enough, the oxytocin levels went up on both sides of the relationship…
The more biological side that I’ve been involved in is digging right down to the genetic code. In part of the genome of the dog that shows evidence of recent changes, the equivalent part of the human genome is responsible for this syndrome called Williams-Beuren. The most peculiar symptom is what they call exaggerated gregariousness. People who have this syndrome have no notion of stranger, they treat everybody as a friend, they’re extremely outgoing. When I read this, I thought: They’re much like our dogs!
So some people got together and did these very simple behavioral tests for what you could call gregariousness or sociability on dogs and on wolves. And we got DNA samples from those dogs and wolves, and we identified three genes that show the mutation in those genes [is] responsible for a big difference between dogs and wolves in their gregariousness. Dogs are much more outgoing, and this correlates in three genes that independently have been shown to be responsible for the gregariousness aspect of Williams syndrome. So deep into the deepest level of biology, into the genetic code that underlies everything that dogs become, you can find it all the way through.(Note: Wynne writes in his book of his relief that advocates for children with Williams syndrome weren’t offended by this finding. “If they had tails, they would wag them,” one told a reporter.)…
Before we humans get all smug about our lovableness, you should probably explain that dogs don’t reserve their affection for people.
It’s not the case that dogs have special genes or special capacities to form relationship with humans. Dogs just have special capacities to form relationships with anything. Whatever they meet early on in life, they will then accept members of that species as potential friends later on…
A vulgar person might say that this means dogs are basically genetically damaged wolves. Well, from that perspective, we’re genetically damaged chimpanzees, so: good match!
Dog owners are 24 percent less likely to die for any reason, but the life-prolonging benefits are even higher for anyone with cardiovascular disease, according to two new studies https://t.co/4n62PbrPmC
— CNN (@CNN) October 8, 2019
Juice Box
Dog ownership and cardiovascular health from the AHA.
Mary G
Cool. I think we are all overloaded on politics, because so much happened this week.
John Revolta
My dog loves his blanket. I hate that I had to bust it out in the middle of October already, but he ain’t complaining.
columbusqueen
This proves I’m right to not like any human who dislikes dogs, like Mango Mussolini.?
OzarkHillbilly
I don’t know about making it possible for me to live any longer, but the Woofmeister and Percy sure make me laugh a lot more.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Kitten update:
Loki is now officially the first cat we’ve ever had who plays with the toilet paper.
He’s also learned the hard way that one does not just walk up and check out Pixel’s food. Pix has a fast right cross.
It was cool enough yesterday to open the windows, which made Maysie very happy. Loki shrugged and went back to exploring the bottom of the closets.
Maysie has decided that Max is her buddy. Max is less than thrilled with the assignment. Relations with Miles took a downturn when Maysie landed on him instead of jumping over him. And none of the older cats are happy about Loki’s new game of hiding behind the doors and jumping out at them.
Raven
@OzarkHillbilly: I think my dad losing his beloved Molly (who we buried their ashes together in the Phoenix National Veterans Cemetery) was the beginning of the end for him.
OzarkHillbilly
@Raven: Many such cases. Lord knows, saying goodbye to the Woofmeister is gonna be tough
WereBear
Recent study shows cats bond with their owners like dogs do!
I AM VINDICATED.
Related CatMythBusting at my site:
Dogs love their people five times more? Please.
RAVEN
@OzarkHillbilly: Yea, having both these dudes on the downside of the mountain sucks. Bohdi’s wellness exam resulted in “he’s in great shape for 15, that will be $500 please”! Lil Bit goes to her cardiologist Tuesday to see how she is.
OzarkHillbilly
@RAVEN: That’s why I am grateful for Percy’s insertion into our family. He will make Woof’s passing a little more bearable.
satby
@RAVEN: @OzarkHillbilly: I expected my old girl Rosie to shuffle off very soon after her (and my) beloved Hershey died last May. She’s always had health issues and been much older, but she’s only recently started getting slightly more feeble. I think now she may be gone by Thanksgiving. It’s hard with old dogs. But they give us so much.
satby
@WereBear: my latest semi feral porch kitty has adapted to life inside fairly well, though there is still occasional grumbling when I don’t let him outside. He’s made a sort of friend in Rosie, who loves all animals other than squirrels, and he’s developed quite a lap lounger habit. He avoids the other two dogs and could take or leave the older two cats, but likes to tease my other porch kitty rescue. It’s been a much easier transition than I expected for him.
RAVEN
@satby: Yep, in other news the weather doesn’t look as bad as it did, 50% at parade time.
A Ghost To Most
@columbusqueen: Some of us have reasons not to trust dogs. Get back to me when you’ve been mauled by a St. Bernard.
satby
@RAVEN: oh, good! I know your princess really pours a lot of effort into that, so I’m glad it’s looking better.
Spanky
It’s raining here in Tidewater MD for the first time in forever.
Two degrees Centigrade. Where have I heard that number before?* “Unusual” is becoming the new usual.
*- Totally coincidental in this case, actually.
satby
In garden news, I’ve been procrastinating planting most of my bulbs, though I got the new crocus in. I expected to cooler weather to bring a frost, but looking at the forecast for the rest of the month it’s unlikely unless conditions change. A number of the bulbs will be going into the hugelkultur bed in front, but the cannas and dahlias are still growing. The cannas didn’t flower this year, I received and planted them too late, but I have high hopes for next year. The dahlia supports I got were too low at about 8 inches and they’re sprawling all over the place. Pretty though.
This was a learning year for me with these new plants.
A happy discovery I made was that a number of iris I though lost to the weeds in the overgrown bed seem to be recovering now that they can see the sun again. I’m pleased because I haven’t found the same varieties to be able to replace them, so I’m glad I don’t have to.
OzarkHillbilly
Good news from Iraq:
Chyron HR
Um, everybody is 100% likely to die.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: I’ve got some irises I need to find new homes for but I’m just not sure of where to put them, I have so few sunny spots on our place.
OzarkHillbilly
@Chyron HR: In the annals of bad sentences, that one is a star.
rikyrah
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
Awe ??
rikyrah
Good Morning,Everyone ???
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: that’s one of the reasons the iris were in that bed, so I’m glad so many are recovering. It’s a reliably sunny spot. Trees that are in the neighboring lot are shading more of the formerly sunny side of the house. On the other hand, losing the huge limb that nearly brained me in front when it came down has made the front bed twice as sunny as before. So next year’s cannas and dahlias should look great. Assuming I overwinter the tubers successfully.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ?!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
The seeds of the third and fourth presidential terms of Donald Trump, followed by the reign of Donald Trump, Jr. are being planted by earnestly woke progressive academics who produce shit like this:
SpongeBob SquarePants accused of being ‘violent’ and ‘racist’ by academic
Kay (not the front-pager)
@WereBear: Yeah I was going to say, the evidence is that pets help you live longer, not just dogs.
My Reilly is a big dumb goober who is really my husband’s cat. He follows him around the house and sits on his lap every evening.Sleeps at his feet at night. But whenever I’ve had an emotional trauma, like my sister dying suddenly, or serious health problem, like emergency surgery, he’s glued to my side. He always knows just how to cuddle up without bumping into incisions, nudging, head bumping, purring and licking. He was the same with both my husband’s knee replacements. Yes, he’s a big whiny baby when everyone is well, but when one of us is under the weather he’s a loving caretaker.
We have another cat who is “mine,” and my son and daughter-in-law’s chihuahua spends more time with us than with them, but it is Reilly who is the lover of our pet family.
Gin & Tonic
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”
WereBear
I’m sure it’s the pampering :)
WereBear
@Kay (not the front-pager): I have long suspected that a cat’s social ability is always there, but only the Awoke can see :)
Chyron HR
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Mmm-hmm, sure. I guess it’s just too bad that no random right-winger has ever said something stupid, since that would presumably result in Democratic dominance of the country for decades to come?
OzarkHillbilly
Tired of people borrowing books and never returning them? The Dark Ages has a curse for you:
Curses fit for trump
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@WereBear: When we come through the kitchen door after a long absence, the dog is bouncing at the door but the cat is always RIGHT THERE also, usually sitting on the kitchen table.
Either she’s just hanging with the dog or she came to the door to greet us as well (while pretending not to of course). Either way, she’s got affection for somebody here.
oatler.
@OzarkHillbilly: Quoting the Necronomicon, are you?
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@OzarkHillbilly: The public library here usually waits for the 3rd overdue notice before adding the curses.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Chyron HR:
Conservatives say stupid shit all the time – thing is, they’re given free reign, their idiot opinions assigned the status of “earnest statements of true heartland salt of the earth” concerned voters..
Meanwhile, on the left, the house is burning down, and woke progressive academics are arguing about the demographics and pay scales of the fire/rescue crew before they can get working.
I’m happy to punch each and every one of them until they stand down and shut the fuck up.
RobNYNY
@A Ghost To Most:
A classic example of a breed that was ruined by overbreeding. Our neighbors on the next farm had St. Bernards that were a menace to the entire valley.
debbie
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
I can hear Spongebob laughing maniacally reading that theory.
rikyrah
??????
24th Medal at World Championships!!!
Team USA (@TeamUSA) Tweeted:
.@Simone_Biles isn’t just the most decorated woman in world championships history…
She’s the most decorated gymnast in world championships history PERIOD. ? #Stuttgart2019 t.co/sc6P2jmtRP twitter.com/TeamUSA/status/1183352984471654400?s=17
Calouste
@Chyron HR: I’m not convinced that is true as long as Keith Richards is still walking this earth.
Amir Khalid
@Kay (not the front-pager):
Yes, it’s obviously simplistic to equate oxytocin levels with intensity of a complex emotion like love. And one needs to take into account that cats generally don’t express their feelings as exuberantly as dogs do.
NotMax
Howzabout a tune? 1980s music, 1930s style.
Frankensteinbeck
One of dogs’ secrets is eyebrows. Dogs evolved eyebrow muscles that wolves don’t have, which is why dogs have expressive faces. Humans love it. Well developed eyebrow muscles greatly increase adoption rates.
@columbusqueen:
I don’t like dogs or cats, and I am a terrible person who you are morally and practically correct for disliking.
However, I love that you folks love dogs (and cats). The more joy in the world, the better.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly:
True story. My Czech Grandfather chose a simpler curse. In his Bible (really the only book he owned) he wrote in the back:
“You take this book, I break your neck.”
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah:
This is great, but shouldn’t “decorated” be reserved for combat medals? I keep seeing it now referring to civilian awards like the Kennedy Center honors.
debbie
@Immanentize:
We always put our names on record albums for that day when roommates went their separate ways. Years later, when I decided to leave NYC, like an idiot, I dragged boxes of albums out to the curb just to be rid of them. About a half hour later, back in my apartment, I suddenly thought there were albums in those boxes I didn’t want anyone to know I’d listened to (Incredible String Band being one I can think of now), so I ran downstairs, took them back, and dragged them around with me for a few more years.
debbie
@zhena gogolia:
Merriam Webster defines decorate as “to add honor to.” I don’t think it’s limited to military.
Immanentize
@debbie:
I loved Early Fleetwood Mac — World Turning is still one of my favorite songs. So I bought Rumors. There was no pride in owning that album or Frampton Comes Alive
debbie
@Immanentize:
I’ve read FB “friends” denigrating Christine McVee as being inferior to Stevie Nicks. Bastards! It takes more than pretty scarves to be the best!
mrmoshpotato
@Gin & Tonic: And sometimes living in a pineapple under the sea is just living in a pineapple under the sea.
That article is bad, and she should feel bad.
mrmoshpotato
@oatler.: Gesundheit.
Immanentize
@debbie:
So true. And it seems like the majority of FM concerts I went to involved Stevie Nick’s having “nodes” or throat problems.
Here is the relevant Rotters song:
Sit on my Face, Stevie Nicks
Yes, I turned heavily toward English Punk for a while.
mrmoshpotato
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
Hear that sound? It’s Paul Bronks’s Twitter account needing a video of this.
mrmoshpotato
Anyone else always misread Mig’s Twitter account as ‘cheeseninja’?
debbie
@Immanentize:
LOL. Never heard that song until now, but wonder how Johnny Rotten would have made it his own?
A Ghost To Most
@WereBear:
I see it often. Cats love me, even aloof ones; dogs often snap at me. I’ve learned to carry a walking stick on the trails. Many dog owners have big blinders about the public behavior of their perfect pets.
PST
Among the many joys of living with a dog is the way it encourages friendship with other humans. On my 6:00 a.m. walks we both love running into the usual leashmates and meeting new ones. So it pains both of us when we also regularly see human/dog pairs who seem to have chosen the early hour to avoid contact and who repeatedly make a turn or cross the street to avoid any contact. I can appreciate the challenge of living with a “reactive” dog, but this isolation still hits me as a sad thing.
laura
@PST: @PST: I have a reactive dog and I cross the street because I fear a bad outcome. Chet, the weinie was found starved and had been on the hot sacramento summer streets for months when he was scooped up by the City’s front street shelter (shout out to Gina Knepp!). Getting a dog was The Last Thing I needed – my mom’s dementia and psychotic episodes and dad’s inability to care for her in the home demanded my every spare moment as their lives suddenly fell apart. And yet, in a moment of weakness I looked at the shelters adoptable dogs pages. There he was Rambo wearing a cheerful scarf that hid his emaciation and a name so very wrong for a black and tan. A quick call to spouse sealed the deal. He was renamed after broken trumpet player Chet Baker.
It turns out that when my world was so very bleak, this joyful, cheeky, boo who insists that “Now is the moment, and its ALWAYS Now” was exactly what my heart and soul needed. I sing to him every day, he’s the only one who can stand the off-key tunes. I love him so.
We are a bonded pair, and despite years of trying, I cannot break him of his bristling fierceness when we’re out walking. I have failed to train him out of this behavior for 6 years now. He’s still aburrow under his own banky by my side, but we’ll be heading out the door soon. If you see us, I’ll be keeping him on a short leash and crossing the street as he turns into el furiouso and brings disgrace on the both of us.
Keith P.
It’s mid-morning, so my 3 cats have all converged on the area around my office window to sun themselves. That period of the morning after they’ve played (except for the old one) and eaten and are just sunning themselves is very relaxing.
bemused senior
@PST: My precious departed Toro, a beagle chihuahua mix rescued from a hoarder with over a hundred dogs in one house, decided he was happy to be an only dog and reacted like Cujo to other dogs. So yes, his reactivity was a challenge. He was my first dog since childhood, and I didn’t know dog reactivity was a thing. A trainer taught me distraction techniques, which helped over time, but I couldn’t meet other dogs on walks. But I met plenty of dogless neighbors who appreciated Toro’s happy appreciation of people!
germy
This was a smart dog:
MoxieM
I’m off to the big annual fundraiser for my favorite rescue, That Newfoundland Place.
When folk would ask me why in the world I lived with two Newfs–huge furry floof & slimeballs– I would just tell them that they made me laugh everyday. What could be better? Looking forward to adding another goofball to my household, Murphy willing.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Immanentize:
Didn’t we all; it seemed the only reasonable thing in that moment.
Cathie from Canada
@laura: I’m so glad you love him anyway. When we had a “reactive” dog, she loved people but she would growl at other dogs so we felt we had to walk her with a muzzle, and it always made me so sad that as soon as they saw the muzzle, people we met would back off and be afraid of her biting them.
.
Jess
the growing body of dog science
I read this as “the growling body”–so disappointed to be set straight…
PST
@laura: Thank you (and bemused senior) for your comments. I hope mine didn’t come off as criticism, which was not intended, but I can see how it could be hurtful. I am glad to know that what I suspected is true, that these canine-human friendships are full of joys for the parties involved even if that doesn’t include meeting Bernie and me. What got me thinking along these lines today was watching her wag and then sag when approaching other early morning pairs. I have sometimes been told that dogs aren’t particularly visual, but on a quiet Sunday dawn Bernie can spot a furry potential playmate two blocks away. No harm done, of course. No one forgets disappointment and finds new amusement faster than a dog. It rankles that rotten people can so abuse a dog that it can’t enjoy these interactions. Our second walk included a spirited reunion with a couple of gentle giants Bernie has know since she was a baby puppy and 15 minutes of satisfying Trump hate with a human couple my age I’d never met while our dogs got acquainted.
azelie
We had an election in Louisiana yesterday. It’s not unusual for progressives to be downhearted the day after an election here but in my area (Baton Rouge) there were some particularly heartbreaking (though not unexpected) results. The main thing is that we have a part of East Baton Rouge Parish that decided to incorporate as their own separate city, with the ultimate goal of establishing a new and much whiter school district. This will likely result in a slashed budget for the existing school system, and probably won’t go as well as the supporters of the new district expect. The boundaries of the new city were specifically designed to produce an affluent and whiter city – they tried this before and weren’t successful, so they redrew the proposed district to exclude some apartment complexes that don’t match the demographics that they want. I have friends who woke up this morning and are having to figure out whether they’re going to sell their houses because they don’t want to be part of this new secessionist city. I’m going to start by making sure that I don’t contribute to the sales tax revenues of the new city of St. George.
A candidate I backed made it to a runoff for state representative, and another friend fought a good fight but lost (she’s a Democrat in whose district is mostly in the area that seceded from the city). And our problematic Democratic governor, who got our state’s finances in order after the Jindal debacle and extended healthcare access to hundreds of thousands in Louisiana but does not support women’s right to determine their own healthcare need, is headed to a runoff. He got 46% or so and is running against a novice politician/businessman rich guy, but I’m not sure I see him getting the additional 4% out of the people who didn’t vote for him in the first round.
Elizabelle
@azelie:
Burn the witch! I will be sick if John Bel Geddes loses. Take Louisiana off the list of places to visit for a good long while.
mere mortal
Listen up, because I am not going to explain this again.
There are no emotions that you have that are not experienced by all other animals.
If that turns you into a vegetarian, fine. But you need to understand this basic, irreducible fact.
Hilfy
@Kay (not the front-pager): That’s worth reading twice. Go Reilly!
MoxieM
@A Ghost To Most: Yeah, they were nearly wiped out, and then bred back into the dogs we now know as Saints. I know there is some Newfoundland in there, I would guess also a good dollop of Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, and maybe Berner? Anyway, it’s my observation that when humans mess too much too fast with canine genetics, the results are often not so great– all those dumb as dirt Rough Coat Collies (Lassie dogs) with the snappish temps from the narrow skulls–look all the weird conformations of Golden Retriever you see now, since they’ve been American’s Favorite Family Dog–legs too short, wrong coat, head shape all messed up… And big dogs do damage even when they don’t mean to. I’m very sorry you had a wretched experience with a Giant breed. Some are truly gentle giants; some, not so much.