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Dogs can remember names of toys years after not seeing them, study shows

theguardian.com

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Re: Dogs can remember names of toys years after not seeing them, study shows

#111

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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…

We have 2 french bulldogs. They're loosely related. one is smart as a whip. One is dumb as hell.

The former, I'm not sure they'd remember toy names from 10 years ago but I've been impressed time after time after time at her ability to understand the world around her.

THe latter, he's just lucky to remember how to walk down the hall.

Sometimes it is the luck of the draw.

Re: Dogs can remember names of toys years after not seeing them, study shows

#112
post #86

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Wolves naturally don't usually eat everyday either, we just make dogs do it because we do it.

My dog must have missed the memo. He'll come over at EXACTLY 6 o'clock (to the minute) to remind you about dinner if it hasn't yet been served. He used to do the same in the morning but eventually we reached a truce on the concept of sleeping in from time to time.

That's why you never feed them at an exact time.

We have a time frame of roughly 3 hours in which we feed the dog.

That way we can have a nice dinner too, go to a musical etc. pp.

A friend of ours made the same mistake as you. His dog becomes a real diva after 6pm, if she hasn't eaten

Re: Dogs can remember names of toys years after not seeing them, study shows

#114
post #3

My parents dog tends to not eat his food unless they start pretending that his friend poppy, who died years ago and who used to love eating his food, is at the door. He panics and eats up his bowl, lifting his head up anxiously to look at the door every few mouthfuls.

My dog (who recently passed away at the age of 13) used to do something similar. When she was a puppy, she spilled her food bowl and I swept it up with a broom. And since then, whenever we wanted her to eat her food, we'd just bring out the broom and start sweeping the kitchen floor - she'd immediately start eating her food, watching the broom nervously, because she's seen it eat her food before.

Condolences. Losing a dog of thirteen years is heartbreaking

Re: Dogs can remember names of toys years after not seeing them, study shows

#115

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Not all dogs are motivated by food. Our high energy, water-loving, labradoodle is only motivated by one thing: frisbee.

IME all are... Labradoodles are loopy, like most of the bred-for-instagram breeds. Got to expect the abnormal

I have a xolo that has been diagnosed anorectic by a veterinary. I'll agree it's not common tho, I didn't know dogs could get such a diagnosis until my own dog got it

Re: Dogs can remember names of toys years after not seeing them, study shows

#116

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.

My grandfather's dog (some bastardized belgium shepherd) was annoyed at some electric cable hanging too low in some place where he would go for a walk ; after a storm the pylon fell a bit and he would jump up and bite the cable (which was isolated of course), and bark a lot at it.

Years later after everything was fixed, going to walk in this area the dog would always look up at this exact spot and bark a few times. Like "heck don't you dare coming low again I'm watching you".

Re: Dogs can remember names of toys years after not seeing them, study shows

#117
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Yes the idea that all dogs are equal and it’s just a mattering of training is a very harmful idea. People get soft about it though because they hit some cute/fuzzy dopamine thing in their brain and don’t take that reality seriously.

[deleted]

Re: Dogs can remember names of toys years after not seeing them, study shows

#118
post #60

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What do you mean by that? Of course sharing food is a way to build social bonding and positively motivate social conformance. It is with people too, which is why it's so natural for us to carry it over to our relationship with dogs. How or why is that depressing? It's good that we crave what helps us thrive and that we can recognize who makes it easy for us to have more, and there's a beautiful elegance to that fact…

I ride a lot of bike. I love it when dog owners see someone approaching on a bike, tell their dog to sit and give him a treat. These dogs will then stop when they notice a bike approaching while the owner is distracted. I am always so grateful that I say thank you to the owners. Then there are those who just don't care to train their dogs.

> Then there are those who just don't care to train their dogs.

There is a worse option.

The thin extending dog lead at maximum extension while walking the dog in twilight on a cycle path. What could go wrong?

Re: Dogs can remember names of toys years after not seeing them, study shows

#119
post #14

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That poor dog will be perpetually disappointed. You should hide some sausage there every once in a while before your walks.

Reminds me of the search and rescue dogs used for finding people in collapsed buildings after, say, an earthquake. Apparently the dogs get depressed after finding nothing but dead people, so the humans seed the rubble once in a while with a live human for the dogs to find. https://allcreatureslargeandsmall.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/t... "As time passes without survivors found, search-and-rescue dogs — especially those…

I am half serious and wondering if they do the same for drug-sniffing dogs.

Re: Dogs can remember names of toys years after not seeing them, study shows

#120

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Every time I encounter resistance to your points here, I feel like an alien among humans. 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.…

I am in no way religious, and I don't think we are fundamentally different than other animals, but I don't think it is surprising that most of us (myself included) think of human emotions and intelligence as being on a completely different level than animals. The complexity of human language, social structure, and technology is not even in the same ballpark as animals. Humans make iPhones and travel to space and writ…

> The complexity of human language, social structure, and technology is not even in the same ballpark as animals. Humans make iPhones and travel to space and write War and Peace. We dominate the world, changing its very climate and wiping countless species off the planet, and no other species even tries to stop us.

That's true only for a small subset of humans. 99.9% of humans achieve no feat as you describe.

You can easily make the case for attributing these feats to smaller subsets. E.g., Africans, Native Americans do not make iPhones, travel to space, etc. And therefore its ok to colonize them. I think that sounds familiar to history.

If you go by this notion, it would rather make sense to attribute these feats to a small elite and not humans entirely. And by that logic, this elite is siphoning money, creating riches for their own benefit. Which is probably what is happening in most countries (more so if they are authoritarian).

I think its simply about a feeling of superiority, might makes right. If you can, you abuse others for your own benefit. Whether they are a human or another animal.

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