(UPDATED 11/19/10: Dogs Decoded is available on Netflix Streaming. Watch it here. You need to have a Netflix account. Thank you Nick Boosk for this info.)
(UPATED 11/17/10: Unfortunately this video is not longer available for viewing at the NOVA site.)
Well I did. And, I was so bummed. Then yesterday Mary Haight of Dancing Dog Blog sent the URL to me in a comment to my post Is ‘Pack’ a Four-Letter Word? (Thank you, Mary!) She had received it from Mary Slade Doane of Mary’s Dogs Blog. The two Mary’s write awesome blogs. If you’re not familiar with them, be sure to check them out.
Below is the link to NOVA’s Dogs Decoded. Just click on the image. Then, click on the same image again at the NOVA site to start the video.
I’m very curious to hear what you think about it so I’m not going to write a full blown review. I will say though some of the researchers interviewed for the video make thought provoking remarks such as: Without dog domestication, civilization just would not be possible.
The myth that dogs are wolves is debunked. There’s some research mentioned that was new to me, for example dogs focus on the right half of the human face presumably to read emotion which, according to other research, is in fact the more emotionally expressive side of the face.
Then there are the ‘pointing experiments’ that suggest dogs, more than chimpanzees or wolves, understand human gestures such as a person pointing to a container that covers a bit of food. This very research, interestingly, was challenged by studies recently conducted at the University of Florida. Patricia McConnell does a nice job of summarizing the Florida findings, which were presented at APDT last month, in this post, Canine Cognition and Pointing Gestures: An Update.
Enjoy!
Thank you (and the Marys)! I missed it too. I’ll watch it later and let you know what I think.
Oh good.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Deborah Flick, Kenzo. Kenzo said: Did You Miss NOVA's "Dogs Decoded"? – http://bit.ly/aVp1YT via @boulderdog1 […]
I cannot watch the movie as not available for viewing in Canada! What kind of bull is that?
Either way, I got people describe for me what it is about.
Dr. Stanley Coren was publishing these things for a long time now, with some evidence provided. It makes sense to me and I do believe it to be true.
Particularly since if Jasmine had thumbs she’d be working for Nasa by now.
LOL
I’m surprised to hear you can’t access the video. I’m sorry.
Firstly, “Dogs Decoded” is not a new show. It first aired at least a year ago. That said, it was good to watch it again. I really wish they would re-run “Dogs: and More Dogs” which had a long interview with Raymond Coppinger- but that’s another story.
I do believe dogs have made humans who we are- I can’t imagine our society if agriculture weren’t possible. How did our ancestors realize that animals could be domesticated? If dogs were indeed the first domesticated animal, then just the knowledge of the fact that animals could be domesticated to fufill human needs would have been extremely important in moving humans from hunter gatherers to farmers and ranchers. Only agricultural societies can support the number of people that we now have in cities. I think we owe our entire modern way of life to the dog.
The pointing experiments:
I’ve always questioned these for the following reasons:
1. I have to teach dogs how not to just look at the finger that is pointing when teaching “look at that” from “Control Unleashed”. It often takes the handler pointing not only with their hand, but looking at the object, turning their head toward it, pointing their shoulders in that direction, etc.!!! Out of a 100 dogs maybe 1 will not have to be taught this and automatically look at what the handler is pointing at.
2. I noticed by watching “Dogs Decoded” the first time around that the chimp was behind a plastic panel and the dog was directly in front of the experimenter with no barrier. Are we so naiive that we don’t think a dog can smell which cup has a treat in it? Dogs have been shown to sniff out cancer and alert to an impending siezure (which is probably also detected by smell- though we don’t know that for sure)- we don’t think they can sniff out a treat from across the room?
3. I also noticed that the experimentor was pointing with her face and her gaze. Just read Stanley Coren “How to Speak Dog” dogs read eachother’s intent by watching eachother’s gaze and watching which way their face is pointing. Coren did an experiment with his own dog sending it over an obedience jump one on the right and one on the left. He started by just looking at the jump he wanted the dog to go over- the dog did pretty well, then he tried verbal cue only- the dog didn’t do so well, He even tried the experiment with a cone on his face which exagerated his head movements and repeated the head turn portion of the experiment- His dog did really well!
My first question was, are the dogs actually picking up on the point? Or are they picking up on the gaze and head movement? How about dogs who are not well-socialized? Would they be able to do as well as the dogs in the experiment?
I do think there is something about the human dog interaction that is genetically provided for- if there weren’t, horses, cats, tamed skunks, cows, etc would be dogs; and clearly they are not. The fact that dogs look to us for help and look to our faces for clues is clearly selected for- but I think we tend to watch too many Nova programs and read too many Science Direct articles with no attempt to get our hands on the actual research and see for ourselves if the secondary sources summerized the experiment and it’s conclusions correctly.
Crystal Saling, CPDT-KA, KPA CTP
Thank you for your very thoughtful comment and for mentioning “Dogs: and More Dogs”. I made a cursory effort to find it free on line. I’m still looking.
Hey Deborah, thanks for the mention! I was going to post something on this too, just because I think readers who are not trainers or in the industry would be really astonished by many of these findings. All part of the debunking process, too:)) And thanks for the link to McConnell’s article!
Thank YOU for the link!
Deborah, I’m delighted that the two Marys could supply the info about this wonderful documentary. I just loved it and realized after the first few minutes that it was actually that series that came out a few years back called the “Secret Life Of Dogs”… that was produced by the BBC, I think.
Got me thinking that maybe one of our open chats for #BarkOutLoud could be a chat about this documentary….
Thanks so very much for the mention!
Great idea to have a chat about Dogs Decoded. And, thanks so much for passing the url to Mary Haight so she could pass it on.
This is available on netflix streaming – watched it last night.
Great news!!! Thank you!