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Why are dogs so frisky? |
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Dra. Silvia Helena Cardoso
When was the first contact between men and dogs?
And why dogs, even the most ferocious ones, are playful and childlike with
their owners and close people?
Konrad Lorenz, a famous Austrian ethnologist from mid 1900's, winner of
Nobel prize in Physiology and Medicine, has a theory for this fact.
In his book "So Kam der Mensch auf den Hund" ("And so humans
met the dog") he suggests the animals, even the adults and more ferocious,
became more docile because there was a genetic selection artificially caused
by mankind. Approximately 15,000 years ago, when men used to hunt, jackals
(wild dogs) used to follow those hunters to feed on leftovers. More than
that, jackals also helped men stay safe with their barking as a signal of
warning.
Humans started getting close to those dogs and the first puppies were then
taken home, domesticated and the mating between males and females underwent
some type of control.
There were so many genetic alterations caused by natural selection that
a "speciation" was resulted, i.e., there was the emergence of
another species of dog which is today the "canis familiares" (the
species with all is different breeds, approximately 400 nowadays).
No matter what his age is, the dog presents a playful behavior typical of
pups because the childlike characteristics have been preserved up to adult
age. Since he is a sociable animal, he has adopted men as his leader.
It is so much observed in various behaviors that we tend to consider expressions
of joy and playfulness in dogs when in fact they are submissive behaviors
in relation to the leader of the pack.
For example:
1) Why do dogs wag their tails?
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Wagging its tail, the dog spreads its phen-hormone (typical smell
of the animal secreted by a gland in the base of its tail), and that is
an expression he is asking to be acknowledged as a member of the pack. |
2) Why do dogs lie on their back (belly up) and stretch their necks
backwards?
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This is a posture of inhibition of the leader's aggressiveness
in relation to the submissive. It happens in nature to prevent fights from
happening among dogs in a pack because the subordinate dog is exposing his
most vulnerable part to the aggressor. |
Fragments of the book: Scientific Curiosities in Medicine and Biology
Authors: S.H. Cardoso and R.M.E. Sabbatini
Doctor Silvia Helena Cardoso
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