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When did dogs become our best friends?

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Re: When did dogs become our best friends?

#171

Post by ethanbond »

lupusreal wrote: post #103
ethanbond wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think a single parameter like that makes it "definitely" low-trust. In Austria, people are required to deposit money to borrow a grocery cart while shopping for food. Not so anywhere I've been in the US -- ergo Austria is low-trust and US is high-trust? I think not. https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travelbuzz/2004272-euro-coin...

The US has those, Aldi uses them. But isn't this because they don't have cart boys to bring the carts from corals throughout the parking lot back to the front of the store? It's just a different model of cart management, not indicative of trust or lack thereof. If somebody wanted to steal a cart, that quarter is a trivial price for it. It's not an anti-theft measure, just a little thing to encourage honest people to…

Aldi, the German grocery chain infecting our High Trust Society with their Low Trust Germanicism?

> It's not an anti-theft measure, just a little thing to encourage honest people to walk slightly further than normal.

... because they can't be trusted to do it without the deposit...

Re: When did dogs become our best friends?

#172

Post by hasty_pudding »

ChoGGi wrote: post #53
hasty_pudding wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The founding fathers would think that allowing the government to have a database on ANYTHING is a bad idea. Plus dog poop is ecologically good for the environment and fertilizes nature.

Concrete and asphalt don't need fertilizer.

Most dogs are extremely particular about where they poop and don't poop on concrete and asphalt if they have any other choice.

Re: When did dogs become our best friends?

#173

Post by sandspar »

leosanchez wrote: post #161
mckn1ght wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then you have a ton of people that eat beef all the time, vs a ton of people that revere cows; in certain places you can be imprisoned or lynched for slaughtering one, google "cow vigilantism". It always interests me to consider just how relative taboos can be.

> in certain places you can be imprisoned or lynched for slaughtering one Only one country isn't it ?

If it counts, that one country makes up 17% of living humans.

Re: When did dogs become our best friends?

#174

Post by hasty_pudding »

schwartzworld wrote: post #92
nervousvarun wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently, dog poop is not an effective fertilizer and is considered harmful for grass? Was news to me as a dog owner who allows our dog to do her business in the back yard (but would never allow it on a public walkway/area). https://lawnlove.com/blog/is-dog-poop-bad-for-grass/

That blows my mind. I had two dogs as a kid, and if we didn't pick up the poop fast it destroyed the grass underneath. Their corner of the yard was all dead grass.

My dog has pooped in my backyard for years and nothing but thick quality grass everywhere.

probably because most kibble is vegetable based and vegetable based poop is good for the grass.

maybe you fed your dog more meat?

if your dog's poop is killing the grass you're doing something seriously wrong with its diet.

Re: When did dogs become our best friends?

#175

Post by pvg »

magicalhippo wrote: post #89

Reminded me of the experiment to domesticate silver foxes[1]. Apparently they got quite tame foxes in just 30 generations. Interestingly, while they were selected purely for lack of aggression towards humans they started to develop dog-like physical traits. Hasn't been replicated yet, and doubtfully will, but interesting. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesticated_silver_fox

A few years ago someone was raising new questions about the validity of this study, it doesn't seem mentioned in the wikipedia page and I don't know how/if it was resolved or settled:

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/russian-foxes-tameness-d...

Re: When did dogs become our best friends?

#176

Post by b5 »

IncreasePosts wrote: post #109
feintruled wrote: post #83

It's a bit of a fringe theory but there's a suggestion that the human 'alliance' with wolves gave us the edge over Neanderthals and other predators and ensured that it was us who ultimately survived as a species. It's a nice thought for a dog lover.

Why wouldn't neanderthals form an alliance with wolves too? Especially considering Neanderthals had a multi-hundred-thousand year head start in wolf range compared to homo sapiens.

It’s an interesting question. I don’t know if there’s any evidence of wolf domestication by Neanderthals. If they didn’t domesticate them, it would be interesting to try to work out why – maybe there’s a subtle difference in psychology between H. Sapiens and H. Neanderthalensis that enabled us to bridge that gap but not them?

Re: When did dogs become our best friends?

#177

Post by droptablemain »

imzadi wrote: post #127
magicalhippo wrote: post #89

Reminded me of the experiment to domesticate silver foxes[1]. Apparently they got quite tame foxes in just 30 generations. Interestingly, while they were selected purely for lack of aggression towards humans they started to develop dog-like physical traits. Hasn't been replicated yet, and doubtfully will, but interesting. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesticated_silver_fox

It's interesting, though, because anyone who has ever owned a cat knows that they are only barely domesticated. It might be something in the canine brain that makes it easy to domesticate them.

Whereas dogs were trained/bred/selected for specific purposes, I suspect cats were just kind of hanging out, following rodents which were were adjacent to human settlements.

It's easy to imagine humans simply tolerating them because they kept mice under control around grain and other food storage.

Intuitively that matches my perception of the cat-human relationship vs. the dog-human relationship.

Re: When did dogs become our best friends?

#178

Post by hasty_pudding »

imzadi wrote: post #126
nervousvarun wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently, dog poop is not an effective fertilizer and is considered harmful for grass? Was news to me as a dog owner who allows our dog to do her business in the back yard (but would never allow it on a public walkway/area). https://lawnlove.com/blog/is-dog-poop-bad-for-grass/

I think any poop from a carnivore is bad for grass, and everything else. You can compost it and it will be usable after about 1.5 years.

dogs are omnivores.

most kibble is vegetable based

Re: When did dogs become our best friends?

#179

Post by leosanchez »

sandspar wrote: post #173
leosanchez wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in certain places you can be imprisoned or lynched for slaughtering one Only one country isn't it ?

If it counts, that one country makes up 17% of living humans.

I know. I was just curious if there is any other country that revere cows.

Re: When did dogs become our best friends?

#180

Post by matwood »

8338550bff96 wrote: post #94
lenerdenator wrote: post #39

Likely twice as old as written language. https://www.livescience.com/stone-age-dog-burial.html Abuse of a dog or cat is a crime against civilization itself.

I've made this argument many times and it always raises eyebrows and induces shrugs. We as a species co-evolved with some animals and not others. Our partnership with extends deep into the mists of pre-history. We and they have co-evolved to an extent to be better companions. Eating a dog is a profound betrayal unlike that of eating a horse. Come at me

I wouldn't eat a horse either, but otherwise agree. Dogs have evolved the skills to fit in human social structures. They really do become part of families.
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