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Most dogs are, yes. I train dogs at an animal shelter, and I can tell you that not all dogs are motivated by food. Some will just turn their nose up at even the tastiest of treats. Some of those dogs might rather have a pet on the head or some praise. A rare few don’t seem motivated by much of anything. But for the 80% case, yeah, grab some string cheese and a clicker.[0] [0] https://www.rover.com/blog/clicker-traini…
Perhaps overfed? Have owned dogs all my life, also trained 4 rescues, and various friends' dogs and never yet met one who can resist chicken. Relativity small sample size of about 20 dogs I admit
It always bothers me how little intelligence we assume of and thus ascribe to the animal kingdom. Especially to our mammalian brethren, who have many of the same underlying neurological mechanisms (though in differing quantities). Dogs have co-evolved with humans for thousands of years. Remembering names seems like a useful albeit unsurprising skill, especially when it comes to recognizing/avoiding danger. “The bear/…
It's almost as if we have some type of coping mechanism. If we recognized more of ourselves in our animals, we would need to treat them more humane. Just look at all the cases in human history where other people were reduced to primitive beings and could be treated more cruelly. If we can rationalize these actions towards fellow humans, I assume that the barrier for accepting animal emotions is even harder to break
I've had my Labrador for 12 years, she was about 1 when we rescued her. In the first week I was walking her and passed a bus stop mainly used by school kids. There's a small wall behind it and she dashed around and emerged with half a sausage roll hanging out of her mouth. To this day, every time we pass that spot she enthusiastically pulls and goes round to inspect.
I've never understood people who say dogs are hard to train. They are SO motivated by food
Orwell wrote two books which purported to sketch different societies from his own mid-century english one: In 1984 , the inner party sell the story of "english socialism", although closer inspection reveals a tripartite distinction in which they (nomenklatura) derive most of the benefit from a system administered by the outer party (apparatchiks, kept on a tight leash) and staffed by the proles (who have more freedom…
In the case of animal farm, it’s not so much that the dogs are more intelligent than the other animals as that Napoleon takes advantage of their disposition to unshakeable loyalty and need for a master. Likewise, unfortunately, in life. If you have to rank the animals by intelligence, second (or first, even?) is certainly Benjamin the donkey.
[In the 80s, Rabinovich was allowed a tour of Europe. He sent telegrams from everywhere: "Greetings from free Bulgaria. Rabinovich" "Greetings from free Romania. Rabinovich" "Greetings from free Hungary. Rabinovich" "Greetings from Austria. Free Rabinovich"]
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I've never understood people who say dogs are hard to train. They are SO motivated by food
Depends on the dog. I’ve trained two puppies this year. The first one was stupid easy to train. Food motivated and could be refocused in every situation with food. Picked up commands quickly. Would do training basically any time of day. Second dog just stares at me if she doesn’t want to be trained or feels the task is too hard. When she gets distracted, it doesn’t matter how high of a reward I give, she won’t take i…
It always bothers me how little intelligence we assume of and thus ascribe to the animal kingdom. Especially to our mammalian brethren, who have many of the same underlying neurological mechanisms (though in differing quantities). Dogs have co-evolved with humans for thousands of years. Remembering names seems like a useful albeit unsurprising skill, especially when it comes to recognizing/avoiding danger. “The bear/…
I think it cuts so deep into people's psychology, and frequently religion. The very notion that we are not the apex of anything. And that we no longer need to eat other animals to live and be healthy. Too much to bear for many, so it frequently results in low-quality conversation, laden with emotions.
The fact remains, however. Non-human animals are not that different from us. Pretty much all mental behavior is represented in the animal kingdom. They, in so many ways, are us. And we are them.
Why should it be otherwise, after all? It would be strange to have a quantum jump in mental behavior with humans, and only primitive behavior in all other animals.
It'll probably take some centuries for humans to see other animals as inherently worthy of respect.
I've had my Labrador for 12 years, she was about 1 when we rescued her. In the first week I was walking her and passed a bus stop mainly used by school kids. There's a small wall behind it and she dashed around and emerged with half a sausage roll hanging out of her mouth. To this day, every time we pass that spot she enthusiastically pulls and goes round to inspect.
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That's kind of fucked up. They're reinforcing the fact that he should be worried about his food. They're training him to be anxious. If he doesn't want to eat, there's no reason to make him. He'll eat when he's hungry.
Perhaps once it's in the model, it's so hard to re-train that the animal will starve itself in service of the training data?