Woof - We'd love to share this portion of Dogster with you, but first you'll need to login.
If you don't have a Dogster account yet, you can register in about 60 seconds. Registering allows you to use all our free features while allowing us to create a safer, more meaningful environment for the community as a whole.
Registering is fast, free and lets you create your dog page(s), find adoptable dogs, save your favorites, connect to your Pup Pals and more.
do you think dogs can think and plan ahead or realize that his actions have consequences.
DO wild canines then,manage to PLAN hunting forays,communicate where they have found game and actually carry out a planned attack?they must remember their actions, to recall that they stashed or buried food (in the case of foxes, sometimes for months)?Maybe dogs DO have fairly long recall. When presented with the "evidence" they sure do act guilty,even days or weeks later. Millie got into a bit of trouble and got a good scolding for getting up on the stove and sampling a bit of fudge.I can show her a piece of fudge now,first thing she does is wag her tail, then she seems to "think" and goes into her,"I'm so very sorry" act.She does this all on her own with no scolding.If wolves and foxes and coyotes can plan ahead and remeber,I'll bet domestic dogs are much better at it.
This article:Dogs MOST Like Humans, is pretty interesting. www.msnbc.msn.com
Perhaps dogs DO know what they're doing after all, maybe they are "conditioning" US.
Do dogs realize consequences?
Cast your vote for which answer you think is best!
Answers
Dogs can definitely think. Plan, I'm not sure. Though I'll go out on a limb and say yes--I've heard a few stories of dogs doing this. In a magazine, I read a true story about a German Shepherd who save her humans, who were trapped under several feet of snow. As I recall, she dug a tunnel to their house and helped them walk there by allowing them to lean on her for support.
And, yes, dogs can realize that actions have consequences, just as they can realize that some actions yield reward. We could not train them if they didn't.
Here's an interesting page with several stories showing dogs using reason: home.usit.net
If you caught and corrected Millie when she grabbed the fudge, she understood that was what she did wrong.
If you gave her a talking to and corrected her more than 3 seconds after the act happened you corrected her for coming to you or whatever she did just before the correction and she wasn't acting guilty, she was trying to keep you from yelling at her by being submissive.
It sounds like you have managed to condition Millie to know that she will get into trouble when she sees fudge and better be submissive.
Dogs do remember when something works, that is basic classical conditioning. A dog will repeat a behavior that had a desirable consequence. Wild dogs hunt by instinct and conditioning. They don’t plan hunts like a human would.
Nowhere in the article does it say dogs have the ability for abstract thought or reasoning. It compares them to very young children under 2 years old.
If you really think dogs reason the way people do, then you are guilty of anthropomorphism.
No, dogs do not necessarily think and plan ahead. They do have memory. If they didn't they wouldn't recall any of the training that we do with our dogs they would forget them. Dogs are animals that are motivated by drives, signals, and instincts. These are attributes that we use as evidence to personify them, but in reality the planning of a hunt, are ken instinctive drives, and signaling amoung a group to get the job done. As for a dog that appears to remember that they have done something wrong, dogs react to the most smallest of signals. In dog world this may be a tail that erect, or a tilt of an ear. They see these small subtle changes in ourselfs, such as our facial expression, or our tone of voice. Dogs do not remember the "bad" thing they did days or weeks later. They are conditioned to your "bad dog" signals.
Guest 476219
answered on 11/8/09.
Helpful? /0
As far as hunting, yes, dogs in a pack can communicate through body language and breathing ect.. I have seen it. They can come up with a planned attack.
I have seen a german shepherd stalk, hide and wait bringing down two deer on his own.
Also dogs can just have the need or want to get on counters, us scolding makes them feel bad but really the deed is done. So, just dog proof the kitchen. I remember a new dog in the house eating my homemade mother's day cake, BOL, LOL, I will never forget that day!
I think dogs react on instincts but no I don't think they know what consequences can come of a situation. I think they know of danger or can smell certain things.
If a pan is on the stove even if it is there overnight my dog positions herself in front of it looking at me then the pan. If it is empty she just does the same, so it is a conditioning of the dog that she gets the scraps most of the time :)
My Account
