----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Shell"
Subject: Re: PESO: Tanja
On Dec 11, 2005, at 12:19 PM, William Robb wrote:
Dogs are quite capable of showing basic emotions, deceit requires a
level of reasoning that they are incapable of.
And you know this how?
Having lived with the little critters for 25 years, by attending several dog
behavioural seminars and teaching dog behaviour for the past several
years......
This just happened in my house this morning:
We have a house guest who is trying to integrate into the "pack", as she
will be with us for a few months. This morning, she got up and atended to
the dog's needs (thereby letting us sleep in).
She let them out for their morning constitutional, let them back in and fed
them.
About an hour later, my wife got up and was met by 3 dogs who were trying to
convince her they had never been let out, hand never been fed.
Deceitful dogs telling lies?
Well no.
Merely creatures of habit.
Every morning, either my wife or I get up and let them out and then feed
them. This is the way it always happens, therefore, when my wife appeared,
they felt they should be let out and then fed.
No deceit, just creatures of habit wondering what was wrong with this
picture.
Pretty much all dog behaviour can be figured out with a little logic, and a
little knowledge about how they are motivated to act, without trying to
affix the motivations of a different species with different motivations onto
them.
We want little people with fur, something akin to Heinlein's junior
citizens, but with more complex thought.
The motivations we assign them are often based on what we know, not on what
they know.
William Robb
