I found out that many times i pat a dog, and its owner comments that it usually doesnt let anyone pat it. feral cats seem to favor me over other people as well.
i just wonder what others experience is.
I found out that many times i pat a dog, and its owner comments that it usually doesnt let anyone pat it. feral cats seem to favor me over other people as well.
i just wonder what others experience is.
...nonetheless they still have the same capabilities and instincts as wolves and domesticated or not are still capable of maiming and killing and there is no way to predict if or when.
Not only is behaviour uncertain, even in the face of a previously tame and family-friendly pet "it's so out of character, s/he's never done anything like that before" but dogs cannot tell you if they are ill, too hot or anything else that can cause them to behave even more unpredictably.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/zoology/animal-domestication3.htm
"Scientists can only guess how dogs and humans first became friendly. A popular theory suggests that humans began taking in wolf pups and eventually were able to tame them. Another theory proposes that the tamest wolves were not afraid to rummage through human trash sites to find food
. Because they fed this way, these tamer wolves were more likely to survive and evolved into dogs through natural selection [source: NOVA].
Because wolves operate in packs, humans easily took the place of the "highest ranking wolf." So the animals quickly learned obedience. As tamer wolves were more likely to stick around humans, evolution naturally (or humans intentionally) bred tamer and tamer wolves, until eventually, we got the dog. "
Animals lower in the pack can and do challenge the higher ranking animal, that's how they get overthrown and new Alpha males (or whatever) take over. Within the pack there is also a "pecking order" and submissive animals can bully others even lower down the pecking order. So even if a dog recognises it's human owner as the leader, any vulnerable child or baby can be considered fair game for no other reason than they felt like it. Animals have personalities too...as any dog owner will tell you.
...nonetheless they still have the same capabilities and instincts as wolves and domesticated or not are still capable of maiming and killing and there is no way to predict if or when.
Not only is behaviour uncertain, even in the face of a previously tame and family-friendly pet "it's so out of character, s/he's never done anything like that before" but dogs cannot tell you if they are ill, too hot or anything else that can cause them to behave even more unpredictably.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/zoology/animal-domestication3.htm
"Scientists can only guess how dogs and humans first became friendly. A popular theory suggests that humans began taking in wolf pups and eventually were able to tame them. Another theory proposes that the tamest wolves were not afraid to rummage through human trash sites to find food. Because they fed this way, these tamer wolves were more likely to survive and evolved into dogs through natural selection [source: NOVA].
Because wolves operate in packs, humans easily took the place of the "highest ranking wolf." So the animals quickly learned obedience. As tamer wolves were more likely to stick around humans, evolution naturally (or humans intentionally) bred tamer and tamer wolves, until eventually, we got the dog. "
Animals lower in the pack can and do challenge the higher ranking animal, that's how they get overthrown and new Alpha males (or whatever) take over. Within the pack there is also a "pecking order" and submissive animals can bully others even lower down the pecking order. So even if a dog recognises it's human owner as the leader, any vulnerable child or baby can be considered fair game for no other reason than they felt like it. Animals have personalities too...as any dog owner will tell you.
