Aw

[Fred56]

WHEREAS, recognizing that the animal subspecies Canis lupus familiaris has, since time immemorial, demonstrated a unique capacity for loyalty, devotion, love, friendship, compassion, and service to humankind, and have earned the colloquial sobriquet of “Man’s Best Friend”

ORLANDO COUNTY ORDNANCE 2006

[insane_alien]

dogs are only like that because we bred them that way. if they were still wolves then they would be a bit less loyal.

[Spyman]

From my understanding wolves are as loyal to their pack as dogs are to humans.

 

I think a tamed wolf can show equal or higher social capacity than a dog.

 

Much debate has centered on the relationship between the wolf and the domestic dog, though most authorities see the wolf as the dog's direct ancestor. Because the canids have evolved recently and different canids interbreed readily, untangling the relationships has been difficult. But molecular systematics now indicate very strongly that domestic dogs and wolves are closely related, and the domestic dog is now normally classified as a subspecies of the wolf: Canis lupus familiaris. The main differences between wolves and domestic dogs are that wolves have, on average, 20% larger brains, better immune systems, a better sense of smell, and are generally larger than domestic dogs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_Wolf

[Sisyphus]

Indeed. Wolves are highly social animals. We've just bred them to be less aggressive and see us as social beings, too, instead of predator/prey.

[ParanoiA]

WHEREAS, recognizing that the animal subspecies Canis lupus familiaris has, since time immemorial, demonstrated a unique capacity for loyalty, devotion, love, friendship, compassion, and service to humankind...

 

Do they really though? I absolutely love my dogs, I talk to them like family and give them more attention than my human pack members many days - but I've always wondered if these attributes were accurate or if they're far more self-interest driven and just patronize me to get food and shelter.

[PhDP]

I think a tamed wolf can show equal or higher social capacity than a dog.

 

Not really. Dogs like to interact with human, it's in their gene, wolf are not really interested.

[Spyman]

Do they really though? I absolutely love my dogs, I talk to them like family and give them more attention than my human pack members many days - but I've always wondered if these attributes were accurate or if they're far more self-interest driven and just patronize me to get food and shelter.

Well, they have personality just like humans, and humans can behave like that too. The big difference is in the loyalty, a high priority for the dogs self-interest is the family(/pack), while for humans relationships can change radically.

 

One of my dogs, will protect me to his death if needed, the other one is more inclined to hide behind me, in threatening situations.

 

 

Not really. Dogs like to interact with human, it's in their gene, wolf are not really interested.

Wolves also have need for social interactions, it's in their gene too...

Wolves function as social predators and hunt in packs organized according to strict, rank-oriented social hierarchies. It was originally believed that this comparatively high level of social organization was related to hunting success, and while this still may be true to a certain extent, emerging theories suggest that the pack has less to do with hunting and more to do with reproductive success.

For a tamed wolf the human family would be the pack and they are very interested to interact with their pack.

[Sisyphus]

Do they really though? I absolutely love my dogs, I talk to them like family and give them more attention than my human pack members many days - but I've always wondered if these attributes were accurate or if they're far more self-interest driven and just patronize me to get food and shelter.

 

The way I see it, we do anthropomorphize them, yeah, but then, they do the same to us. Well, not the same, but they think of us the same way they would think of a dominant member of their "pack." It's not the same as how humans relate, but it's not totally different, either. I think it's at least analogous to things like loyalty and friendship (albeit not quite the same as we experience those things) and not purely stomach-driven.

[Spyman]

they think of us the same way they would think of a dominant member of their "pack."

I would say as any (ranked) member of their "pack" instead of dominant, they don't view children as dominant, they realizes the differense in age and threat children accordingly, with a lot more patience and care than with adults, that goes for oldtimers and sickness too.

 

Some dogs brought up badly can view themselves as the dominant leader.

[Fred56]

What do you think the story was with dogs (wolves or whatever) joining the ranks? Do you suppose (the walrus said) that they were the first we "domesticated"? Probably they hung around looking for food at first, but what happened next? When did we start using them for things like hunting, and herding other animals ?

[DrDNA]

What do you think the story was with dogs (wolves or whatever) joining the ranks? Do you suppose (the walrus said) that they were the first we "domesticated"? Probably they hung around looking for food at first, but what happened next? When did we start using them for things like hunting, and herding other animals ?

 

You mean when did we stop eating them?

[Fred56]

LOL, or they us. I guess there must have been some kind of gradual "togetherness" happening, in terms of resources and needs, or something. Probably would have been a lot easier to domesticate young ones, which I guess we cottoned on to.

[PhDP]

Wolves also have need for social interactions, it's in their gene too...

 

Not with humans. Dogs have evolved very specific traits which make human-dog communication easy;

 

Hare, B., & Tomasello, M. (2005). Human-like social skills in dogs? Trends in Cognitive Science, 9, 439-444

[Spyman]

Not with humans. Dogs have evolved very specific traits which make human-dog communication easy;

I agree that dogs can have some advantage in the communication part, but thats not all social skills there is...

 

Less communication skill doesn't mean that wolves is without skill or don't want to interact with humans. Wolves are intelligent and curios pack animals, a tamed wolf would try its best to communicate and can still beat a dog in it's "capacity for loyalty, devotion, love, friendship, compassion and service".

 

Does a blind, deaf or dumb human have less social skills ?

 

Depending on personality and requirements of both human and wolf, I still say that:

I think a tamed wolf can show equal or higher social capacity than a dog.