Looking forward to this - very in line with the philosophy my wife writes about https://busydoggie.com/home/blog/
I wag, therefore I am: the philosophy of dogs
51–60 of 102 posts
Re: I wag, therefore I am: the philosophy of dogs
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a dog owner, I agree with you. I KNOW that my dog would never hurt anyone. But I also know that no one else in the world has spent hundreds of hours with my dog, and to them he is a strange and large animal. Inevitably some of these ppl probably have some kind of childhood trauma related to dogs. So I always have him leashed where the rules are to have a leash.
This. As a dog owner, my dog remains on a leash. I don't know you. I don't know your dog. More than once, I've been put in the position where my dog is getting agitated because they're on leash, their dog can't be controlled because they're off leash, and we're rapidly approaching the "Swift kick or risk injury" stage. "My dog is off leash because I want them to have freedom" is a profoundly selfish decision if you'r…
I realize this question is likely not to be appreciated by many, but do you not know whether your dog is male or female?
Re: I wag, therefore I am: the philosophy of dogs
#53The post contains a pretty strong assertion that dogs cannot perform mental reflection: > In the authentic happiness Shadow finds in the most banal of activities, his commitment to life and action is one that we humans find so hard to emulate. This is because of something that happened to us: a great schism in consciousness that we know as reflection. We humans are the world heavyweight champions of thinking about ou…
Is there any evidence that dogs can perform mental reflection?
Anecdote but my dog dreams a lot and sometimes mimics the sounds and motions she makes when we play together. Other times mimics chasing things. Seems like reliving her favorite activities. Might not be intentional but its a form of reflection.
Re: I wag, therefore I am: the philosophy of dogs
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
> When I walk into a room containing my dog and the poo it did on the carpet two hours earlier, it is sorry about what it did. This shows that the dog knows it did something you didn't want it to do, yes. I'm not sure it shows "thinking about ourselves, scrutinising and evaluating what we do and why we do it", which is how the article this discussion is about described "mental reflection". Our dogs have made messes i…
What would a metric for measuring distance on this continuum look like?
I'm not sure since we don't have any good way of quantifying "amount of mental reflection". But that doesn't mean there isn't a large difference between dogs and humans in this regard.
Re: I wag, therefore I am: the philosophy of dogs
#55I like the author's positive outlook on life. Because when I see a dog act like that, especially in a family where a child has taken focus, I mostly see a prisoner longing for freedom. Me and my dog have been exclusive for almost a decade now. We have traveled across europe, always by my side. Off leash even, I have always wanted to give my dog the most freedom possible. To heck with human rules. I've mostly worked r…
> Off leash even, I have always wanted to give my dog the most freedom possible. To heck with human rules. I regularly meet people like that when I'm camping. I find it pretty frustrating. So many rules like that have basis in reality, they are not just meant to annoy.
Unfortunately these rules punish dogs and good owners, while they’re smugly ignored by bad owners.
A well behaved dog off-leash is not a problem - but the rule isn’t against badly behaved dogs or inattentive owners - the rule is against off-leash, period. It isn’t fair to the good ones.
Re: I wag, therefore I am: the philosophy of dogs
#56I would just like to comment that if you love animals, you should hate pets. The amount of animal factory farming (killing of animals often more intelligent than your canine) required to nourish a domesticated animal over the course of their lives is gross in all senses of the word gross.
with a name such as nirmel it sounds a bit like your just salty because garfield has tried to mail you to abu dhabi like 100 times
Re: I wag, therefore I am: the philosophy of dogs
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
"I go to campsites and wilderness areas where dogs are allowed off leash." In the US? I move with my golden retriever back to the states. Should someone have a dog friendly place to rent in NJ close to NYC, Hoboken....
In the US, wilderness area is a specific legal term[1], which have very restrictive rules about what visitors are allowed to do. Very specifically, dogs are _not_ allowed off-leash in wilderness areas, because they can disturb the local wildlife, and the stated goal of wilderness areas is to protect the local wildlife to the highest extent possible. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilderness#United_States
The laws are more nuanced than you suggest. Here is a government website [1] that mentions dogs and says “Dogs must be under control at all times. Dogs can harass, stress, injure or kill wildlife; annoy fellow hikers and introduce disease. Some wilderness areas require dogs be leashed at all times.”
I have recently been in Mount Baker’s wilderness where dogs off leash away from trailheads are fine and also in Mount Shasta wilderness where pet dogs are not allowed even on leash. There is latitude for local tweaks to the rules in specific wilderness areas across the US. The US also has vast swaths of BLM and other lands where all kinds of fun recreation (hunting, dogs off leash, OHV’s, and all kinds of other things are allowed).
[1] https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/psicc/specialplaces/?cid=stel...
Re: I wag, therefore I am: the philosophy of dogs
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
This. As a dog owner, my dog remains on a leash. I don't know you. I don't know your dog. More than once, I've been put in the position where my dog is getting agitated because they're on leash, their dog can't be controlled because they're off leash, and we're rapidly approaching the "Swift kick or risk injury" stage. "My dog is off leash because I want them to have freedom" is a profoundly selfish decision if you'r…
> "My dog is off leash because I want them to have freedom" is a profoundly selfish decision if you're in a place to encounter other dogs. This is cultural, I think. In the UK at least it’s often the norm for dogs to be off leash in open areas like commons (public land, usually grassy or wooded, or a mix of the two), or in other settings where they’re away from roads and won’t encounter livestock. On public footpaths…
Interesting that livestock is the primary concern—I'd imagine interactions with other dogs (which can be highly stressful, though this varies a lot from dog to dog) would be the primary issue these days.
Re: I wag, therefore I am: the philosophy of dogs
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you're right that for a dog to live its best life it needs the ability to spend a lot of time outdoors with relative freedom. Our labrador had the chance to live like that in an excessively very large garden for his last 4 years. I'm glad he got that, I think it made his life much better. Looking back, when he stayed with us in an apartment he must've been depressed.
In the US, people tend to look at me weird when I tell them my dog lives outside. Some of them probably think I’m a heartless or uncaring dog owner. When I first adopted him, I tried inside first, and he was unhappy and anxious, and so much of that went away when he was chillin outside. I think humans often wrongly project their own preferences onto dogs.
Totally normal in the country, in the US. No fence or anything, either, if you’ve got enough land.
Re: I wag, therefore I am: the philosophy of dogs
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Off leash even, I have always wanted to give my dog the most freedom possible. To heck with human rules. Having dogs off of leashes is incredibly dangerous and irresponsible. The amount of children killed or injured by poorly restrained dogs is very high. A dog should be fenced in or on a leash if they are outside, full stop. Dog ownership should really have a license requirement.
> The amount of children killed or injured by poorly restrained dogs is very high. This claim is interesting, if true. Can you back it up? I spent 15 minutes on research, and my preliminary findings, using US statistics (I'm not American but it's just easier to google American stuff) suggest that: a) about 42 Americans die to dog attacks per year (about 0.13 per 100k population) (very high confidence) b) it looks lik…
Injuries are way more common than death.
[edit] Forbes: an estimated 800,000 people each year must seek medical attention after a bite. Hospital bills can be very expensive, and an ER visit could necessitate a dog bite lawsuit in order to recover monetary compensation for damages.
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/legal/dog-attack-statistics-b...
My sister in law was one of them, when she was five or so. Unprovoked run-up-and-bite from an off-leash dog. Had to have a tear duct rerouted and other work on her face. Messed up their finances really bad for a couple years, like “parents not eating dinner tonight, because there’s only one can of spaghetti-o’s” bad (they were fairly poor to begin with)