Dogs Can Be Pessimistic 99
Not that it will change anything, but researchers at Bristol University say that your dog might be a gloom-monger. In addition to the downer dogs, the study also found a few that seemed happy no matter how uncaring the world around them was. "We know that people's emotional states affect their judgments and that happy people are more likely to judge an ambiguous situation positively. What our study has shown is that this applies similarly to dogs," said professor Mike Mendl, an author of the study and head of animal welfare and behavior at Bristol University.
Re:Breeds Used in Study? (Score:1, Interesting)
I am dogsitting a greyhound. It is a miserable dog. It whines when left by itself, it wets the bed, it doesn't play, and I have to muzzle it for each walk because it will try to bite other dogs. Can't ever be allowed off lead either - it has zero recall. Such a contrast to my cheerful, friendly labrador.
But then, greyhounds have been bred for racing, not as pets. And their early lives are preparation for a lifetime of racing, rather than the socialisation and training given to normal puppies. So maybe it's not such a surprise that they make awful, awful pets. If you are looking for a rescue dog, don't be tempted to get a greyhound.
Cesar called (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:From TFA (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd say depressed people are not seeing reality clearly at all. I used to assign very pessimistic reasons to everything. Now that I try to focus on more positive possible explanations for things, I end up being right a lot of the time, and save myself needless worrying and self-deprecation. A silly but representative example would be if someone doesn't turn up to meet me at a certain time I might assume they just aren't going to show up at all rather than the obvious answer that they're just running a bit late.
I have managed to be a bit more "normal" recently. This is partially through improving my diet and getting regular exercise, which help a lot when it comes to having your body and brain chemistry function "normally", but also I have tried to improve my thought patterns to be more positive, and it does all seem to be coming together at last. Even when I get into foul moods I can still try to be logical and not let myself do anything stupid. Depressed people might think they're being realistic about their situations, but I'd say often they're really not, especially when trying to assign motivation to other people's actions.
This makes me think of Learned Helplessness (Score:2, Interesting)
Some dogs never tried to escape the shocks, just giving in and accepting them. Is this technically pessimism? I find this to be a sad study
Re:Breeds Used in Study? (Score:3, Interesting)
I definitely agree with you, but to an extent. I do put a lot of the blame for bad dogs on owners, but I don't think the owner is always everything.
My wife and I adopted two rescued puppies when they were about 6-7 weeks old (their mother had rejected some of the puppies). We've been doing things like taking them on walks since a very young age, and while they are in many ways very good dogs (good with commands and listening--best dogs I've ever had for holding in a sit/lay down until verbally released), they remain to this day TERRIFIED of other dogs. They know the neighbor dogs, and are good on walks, wary around new people, but if a dog in public comes up to them, they get totally scared and pull and whine to get away. It's a behavior I haven't figured out how to get rid of. They're just...scared of new people and dogs. No amount of social interaction seems to make it better either. Oh well.
Re:Being a dog owner ... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:From TFA (Score:5, Interesting)
Fascinating. By contrast, even though I frequently take a cynical view of situations, I find that I'm right about eighty to ninety percent of the time. Maybe it's not that you were too cynical before, but rather that others have just gotten better at fooling you. :-D
But seriously, normal people take an optimistic view when it comes to their friends and a cynical view about the motives of their enemies, and a semi-cynical view of the motives of strangers. The first two are generally right, the third is out of an abundance of caution, and depending on whether the cynical view was right or not, those people get lumped into one of the first two after a period of time. It's just the way our brains work. To me, it sounds less like you are no longer taking a cynical view and more like you've finally relaxed and gotten comfortable with lumping certain people into your "friends" pile.
I was just talking to a lady (Score:1, Interesting)
A little short fat lady who was really strong. Met her in town when I was shopping, saw her loading scrounged wooden pallets onto a trailer. I said, wow you sure are strong! she goes ya, this was my husbands business but he died last year. Oh, sorry says I. So we were talking about this or that, got to the subject of dogs. she goes, dogs are really loyal. They, mostly her husband, had two rottweillers. When her husband died, she says, they went into a funk and *stopped eating* and literally starved themselves to death within a month. She had animal control and the vets look at them, those dogs just would not eat. True or not I don't know, just what she said.
I have a lot of dogs, and I am told they all howl mournfully when I have to leave.
So, ya, I can believe dogs get bummed out. Opposite, I see them when they are happy as clams as well, same with my cats. They have moods just the same as human animals.
Re:Breeds Used in Study? (Score:4, Interesting)
I bet the Dog Whisperer could fix them.
He's had similar dogs and fixed them quickly.
Pretty amazing stuff.
I wonder if sometimes he fails horribly and those don't make the show.
It's amazing the way he stays calm while they bite him.
Re:Being a dog owner ... (Score:1, Interesting)
God, not that site again. You know the "dominance" shit that caesar milan and others love, and claim is based off of wolf psychology, is in fact completely unsupported by field observations of wolf packs? You know, the alpha roll, picking dogs up by their scruff, not letting the dogs walk in front of the pack; none of these are actually done by alpha wolves.