Arthur the Awesome Dog

digitalscream

Sorry for the DM link, but here you go:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2846228/Meet-Arthur-stray-dog-followed-extreme-sports-team-grueling-430-mile-race-Amazon-rainforest-refused-leave-finish.html

It astonishes me the lengths to which dogs will go to be with humans. Here's a stray who probably hadn't been around people for a very long time, yet one small bit of kindness and he'd literally do anything to follow them even at great risk to himself.

That's one tough, determined pooch.

hubobulous

Dogs rule

Phil_aka_Pip

hubobulous said:

Dogs rule

That's what the cats like to let them think

jd0272

Awwww.

randomhandclaps

Great story. He's a handsome boy too.

frankus

Phil_aka_Pip said:

hubobulous said:

Dogs rule

That's what the cats like to let them think

Cats are proveably less intelligent than dogs - shorter attention span, worse at problem solving, they're solitary cursory hunters (hunt alone and the prey isn't exclusive), whereas dogs are social creatures (hunting in packs for predetermined prey)

What they do have is selfishness - which I think it's rather telling how many people attribute to higher intelligence.

EricTheWeary

There was some evolutionary theorist on Brian Cox's show who said, IIRC, what distinguishes man from other animals is the capacity for spite. So, maybe we have a natural affinity with selfish cats.

Phil_aka_Pip

Excellent story.

@frankus some cats may display behaviour which we interpret as selfish, but their females will take care of each other's kittens, and they will cooperate in hunting when there's a lot of them living on crowded territory. The cats I have lived with have not shown consistently "selfish" behaviour. Whether they are more or less intelligent than dogs I can't say, but I know they're more intelligent than most humans. They don't go out to work and pay taxes, to start with. They don't write down their rules or tell lies either.

"Dogs look up to us, cats look down on us, and pigs just treat us as equals" - Winston S Churchill.

littlegreenman

frankus said:

Cats are proveably less intelligent than dogs - shorter attention span, worse at problem solving, they're solitary cursory hunters (hunt alone and the prey isn't exclusive), whereas dogs are social creatures (hunting in packs for predetermined prey)

What they do have is selfishness - which I think it's rather telling how many people attribute to higher intelligence.

Not sure I entirely agree. If you had a dog and a cat in separate identical locked rooms, with an open window, the dog would wait for it's owner to return and possibly starve to death. The cat would leap out of the window once it was hungry and had figured out no-one's coming home to feed it. So, to my mind at least, the cat is showing more self awareness and problem solving ability.

I have also noticed after a lifetime of being around cats that they're not as solitary or selfish as purported to be. They are very social creatures, and bond unbelievably closely with their "family". I've seen some of ours grieve intensely when one of the family passes away, human or feline.

Just my 2p, YMMV.

digitalscream

littlegreenman said:

Not sure I entirely agree. If you had a dog and a cat in separate identical locked rooms, with an open window, the dog would wait for it's owner to return and possibly starve to death. The cat would leap out of the window once it was hungry and had figured out no-one's coming home to feed it. So, to my mind at least, the cat is showing more self awareness and problem solving ability.

I have also noticed after a lifetime of being around cats that they're not as solitary or selfish as purported to be. They are very social creatures, and bond unbelievably closely with their "family". I've seen some of ours grieve intensely when one of the family passes away, human or feline.

Just my 2p, YMMV.

Not strictly true - dogs are pack animals, whereas cats aren't. As a result, the dog would try to communicate its way out of trouble (ie barking to try to attract attention), as opposed to the cat which would just eat whatever it can in the vicinity - critters, dead people, whatever - and then bugger off (forgetting for a moment that most dogs wouldn't be able to reach an open window, much less fit through it). That can be seen when cats and dogs feel threatened - cats will just lash out, whereas dogs will give at least one warning before acting.

These are behavioural traits, and nothing to do with intelligence.

littlegreenman

digitalscream said:

littlegreenman said:

Not sure I entirely agree. If you had a dog and a cat in separate identical locked rooms, with an open window, the dog would wait for it's owner to return and possibly starve to death. The cat would leap out of the window once it was hungry and had figured out no-one's coming home to feed it. So, to my mind at least, the cat is showing more self awareness and problem solving ability.

I have also noticed after a lifetime of being around cats that they're not as solitary or selfish as purported to be. They are very social creatures, and bond unbelievably closely with their "family". I've seen some of ours grieve intensely when one of the family passes away, human or feline.

Just my 2p, YMMV.

Not strictly true - dogs are pack animals, whereas cats aren't. As a result, the dog would try to communicate its way out of trouble (ie barking to try to attract attention), as opposed to the cat which would just eat whatever it can in the vicinity - critters, dead people, whatever - and then bugger off (forgetting for a moment that most dogs wouldn't be able to reach an open window, much less fit through it). That can be seen when cats and dogs feel threatened - cats will just lash out, whereas dogs will give at least one warning before acting.

These are behavioural traits, and nothing to do with intelligence.

Not true, cats also give warnings. Albeit non-verbal ones that may be missed if you're not up on feline communication; posture, tail flicks and type of eye-contact. And will growl and spit before clawing.

And as for cats buggering off? Yes, but if they are happy in the environment and the "owner" returns, they will too. I adopted 2 semi-feral kittens who managed to escape after a few months. 5 years later they are still living locally and will come and say hello and be stroked by me but no-one else. Not pack behaviour, as there is no dependance on an Alpha, just being where they want to be. As I said, more of a genuine social structure.

No disrespect to any dog owners here, but it's true that a dog does what it's told. A cat does what it wants.

imalone

Phil_aka_Pip said:

cats [...] They don't write down their rules or tell lies either.

Anyone who's ever gone to let a cat out to then watch it walk off in the other direction might want to disagree with the last one... "What can I make my human do now?"

randomhandclaps

digitalscream said:

These are behavioural traits, and nothing to do with intelligence.

Very true.  I think with a lot of animals it's very easy to confuse intelligence with instinct or behavioral traits.

I've mentioned before that I used to train dogs (and still occasionally do) and it never ceases to amaze me how even across different breeds different instincts and behaviours can make a dog appear smart or dumb in certain situations,  Of our own dogs, we have a Lab and a Boxer currently.  The Lab appears hands down smarter than the Boxer.  He can follow a sequence of instructions incredibly well (even when the kids throw them at him) and reacts immediately to correction.  On the other hand the Boxer, whilst following simple singular instructions well struggles with more than two commands at once and correction causes him confusion.  I am currently training a Vizsla for a family at our school and behaviourally he is very much like the Lab. However when it comes to puzzle solving such as a treat balls or crossing difficult obstacles the Boxer is a far more effecient thinker and problem solver than the other two.

The child gates in our house are easily leapable by all three.  Instead however Boxer has in fact figured out how to open almost all of them.  We have a gate on the kitchen to stop the Lab raiding the bin, fortunately the Boxer is too fussy to eat out of the bin so doesn't open the gate there.  The Lab would desperately love to be able to open it but hasn't cracked it even though the Boxer proves it's doable. 

Despite everybody being impressed with what the Lab and Vizsla can do and usually looking at the Boxer like he's a soppy twat, I am quite confident that if I put all three in a room, left a bowl of food on the outside and then left them that the Boxer would be the one to find a way out whilst the other two whined in the hope you would eventually return.

Wolfetone

frankus said:

Phil_aka_Pip said:

hubobulous said:

Dogs rule

That's what the cats like to let them think

Cats are proveably less intelligent than dogs - shorter attention span, worse at problem solving, they're solitary cursory hunters (hunt alone and the prey isn't exclusive), whereas dogs are social creatures (hunting in packs for predetermined prey)

What they do have is selfishness - which I think it's rather telling how many people attribute to higher intelligence.

It depends by what standard you judge a cat of course. 

You could say that dogs are stupid for trusting a human and cats are more intelligent because they are totally paranoid 24/7.

Cats are OK. However, I do prefer dogs...they give unconditional love.

Sambostar

Heart warming story.  But typically, it all started with food.  I love dogs, they have so much common sense it's not real.

chillidoggy

randomhandclaps said -

Despite everybody being impressed with what the Lab and Vizsla can do and usually looking at the Boxer like he's a soppy twat, I am quite confident that if I put all three in a room, left a bowl of food on the outside and then left them that the Boxer would be the one to find a way out whilst the other two whined in the hope you would eventually return.

And if you put a drummer in room he'd have starved along with the Lab.

jd0272

chillidoggy;424095" said:

randomhandclaps said -Despite everybody being impressed with what the Lab and Vizsla can do and usually looking at the Boxer like he's a soppy twat, I am quite confident that if I put all three in a room, left a bowl of food on the outside and then left them that the Boxer would be the one to find a way out whilst the other two whined in the hope you would eventually return.







And if you put a drummer in room he'd have starved along with the Lab.

Dog would study drummer.

Dog would conclude "Hang on, I can do that..."

Dog feels superior.

Dog eats drummer.

Dog is happy.

randomhandclaps

chillidoggy said:

randomhandclaps said -

Despite everybody being impressed with what the Lab and Vizsla can do and usually looking at the Boxer like he's a soppy twat, I am quite confident that if I put all three in a room, left a bowl of food on the outside and then left them that the Boxer would be the one to find a way out whilst the other two whined in the hope you would eventually return.

And if you put a drummer in room he'd have starved along with the Lab.

I think the lack of stimulus would kill the Lab off before the drummer however.

Phil_aka_Pip

imalone said:

Phil_aka_Pip said:

cats [...] They don't write down their rules or tell lies either.

Anyone who's ever gone to let a cat out to then watch it walk off in the other direction might want to disagree with the last one... "What can I make my human do now?"

That has happened in the past with Roobi. I don't put it down to telling lies. I think she just likes the idea of me opening a door for her as a footman would for Her Maj. It's her way of demonstrating my subservience.

frankus

randomhandclaps said:

digitalscream said:

These are behavioural traits, and nothing to do with intelligence.

Very true.  I think with a lot of animals it's very easy to confuse intelligence with instinct or behavioral traits.

[...] and it never ceases to amaze me how even across different breeds different instincts and behaviours can make a dog appear smart or dumb in certain situations, 

I think that applies to us as much as any other animals - the old saying "if you've got a hammer every problem looks like a nail" sums humans up quite neatly.

Our brain is just as much a collection of organs as the rest of our body.

We've a part of the brain called the interpreter that will justify whatever it is we just did - it sounds like something Douglas Adams would invent but no, it's real. Use post-hypnotic suggestion on someone to get them to bark on use of a trigger word and they're interpreter (part of the brain) will tell them it was a cough or a gasp of surprise. Some people use it to excuse their mistakes (it holds them back), other people use it to begin doing something they don't want to do ... start doing it and the interpreter backs you up..

The Parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems - the SNS takes over in stress situations and provokes the sense of fear or aggression that clouds our judgement... often when the stimulus is taken away, the PNS kicks in and often people fall asleep - Napolean used to use this in battle, trick the enemy into beleiving the threat had passed - the found he needed a tenth the number of the soldiers that the opposition had remaining. People were falling asleep and not from exhaustion.

Our brain releases dopamine (one of the pleasure neurotransmitters) when we perform repetitive tasks, but this also goes for repetitive behaviour, even destructive behaviour.

It also releases cortisol (a stress chemical) when we do something we don't usually do - this can be excitement or fear, but each brain sees it differently - due to conditioning, I don't like heights, the stress it creates impairs my balance, confidence and strength.

Once you take away the misbelief that a God made us and therefore we must be perfect, you see all sorts of regions where the brain misfires even in the normal brain. Conflicts, patterns of dysfunction etc. Most conflicts are created by people being unaware of their brains short-comings, and/or getting caught up in them.

I like cats, I like dogs ... I don't think either are any smarter or dumber than us, they just have different perceptions and values and as the old saying goes "Perspective is worth 80 IQ points"

Drew_TNBD

Cats are wankers.