Some thoughts on dog domestication and cognition

From the user neonas85.

This is one theory about how dogs came about.

However, I think that human agency in this is a bit stronger than Coppinger does. Also, I think that before we began our wide-scale persecution of the wolf, the animal’s nature and temperament was fundamentally different.  I don’t think that ancient people produced enough garbage to allow for a niche to develop.

It is true that domestication has reduced the size of the dog’s brain, along with its teeth, the length of its muzzle, and the size of its skull. These traits exist in all domestic dogs, even the molosser breeds that have what appears to be large heads. Their heads are smaller than those of wolves. And head size is really important for bite strength.

However, I’m less sure that dogs are dumber than wolves, because intelligence in humans is a nebulous thing. And I don’t think we have all the answers when it comes to dog intelligence. If you want to look at some new ideas on this subject, check out this book. One of the main findings in this book’s research is that dogs can learn better from humans because they have evolved cognitive skills that allow them to learn from us.  (Coppinger doesn’t like this at all. Here’s a really good critique of what Coppinger says.)

Basically what these studies are showing is that wolves have bigger brains than dogs. They are like computers with lots of hardware. However, these computers lack a word processor. No matter what you do, you cannot compose anything on them.

Dogs have smaller brains, but they have the program for reading people. That’s why we have dogs like Rico, who responds to over 200 words, and we have guide dogs that can intelligently disobey their handlers to prevent them from walking into traffic. No wolf has ever done this, despite its big brain.

It is commonly said that dogs can’t coordinate hunts to bring down large prey. However, very few large dogs get to wander the countryside. In the Italian study group on which all of this information based, along with other urban dog studies, the dogs had lots of garbage to scavenge. In the Italian study, there was such a paucity of prey that even the wolves lived at the dump.

Now, I know that  there situations in which large dogs are allowed to form groupings in rural parts of the United States. The dogs do kill deer, running them down in packs. It’s much more common with dogs that have learned to hunt other game, such as foxhounds. (I remember my grandfather telling me a story about how a fox hunt broke up after six dogs took off after a herd of deer. The dogs ran the deer nearly 10 miles before swarming it, and they killed it. The dogs were allowed to eat the deer before they were collected several days later,  because the landowner didn’t want a rotting deer carcass on his property. In those days, having a fox hunting permit for a pack meant that the local conservation officer could not issue fines for killing a deer by accident. Those times have certainly changed.)

I also remember a dog the college town where I got my BA. This dog knew that the police would pick up any dog wandering the town on his own. So he find someone walking along the street and walk close beside that person. He would look up with adoration in his eyes, trotting as if he were at a perfect heel. He wasn’t really interested in companionship, though, because as soon as his human shield turned in a direction contrary to his destination, he would wander off and look for another person to walk beside. He was a very clever dog, looking both ways to cross the street. His owners were forever trying to keep him confined, but it was nearly impossible.

So dogs have evolved a different sort of intelligence as they have developed into neotenous forms of wolf.