[lit-ideas] Re: Can't have a gun? Get a dog
- From: Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 22:41:15 -0700 (PDT)
--- Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > But for whatever reason, the dogs in India don't
> behave in the ways that
> > Americans expect dogs to behave.
>
> Interesting. Two things. It's now an article of
> faith that since dogs
> are simply domesticated wolves (canis familiaris
> being a sub-species of
> canis lupus) what goes for wolves goes for dogs
> without qualification.
> I've always been suspicious of this as a
> generalization that admits no
> interesting exceptions. All of the talk about 'alpha
> dogs,' etc.,
> derives ultimately from studies of wolf packs.
*I think that the dogs might have a better
understanding of human social relationships than the
theory outlined above suggests. The dog knows who his
master is, even if it's not necessarily the same
person who gives him food, takes him to walks etc. My
parents' previous dog definitely correctly understood
that my mother was the master, rather than my father
(though he was the one who usually feeded him) or me
or my sisters (though we were the ones who were
usually taking him to walks). Also, the dogs
understand family relationships; my father's current
dog only sees my sisters once a year for a few weeks,
but she knows quite well that they are family and
behaves appropriately. She will never really learn to
like the postman or the local policeman, though she
sees them almost every day.
> Whether a dog on the street challenges you is
> irrelevant to the problem
> of whether at home you or Rover will lead. The dogs
> (mostly Labs and
> wild eyed Cocker Spaniels) who challenge me as I
> pass on the sidewalk
> are dogs who think misguidedly that I want their
> turf, 'their turf'
> being their house, porch, deck, or lawn. In India,
> dogs may not need to
> protect their turf because they have none.
*Owned dogs everywhere protect their turfs, at least
in all the places I have been in. Unowned dogs are
much less territorial.
O.K.
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