An American Question Answered in : An American Thesis

A Dogs Loyalty to Man

(Is it love or instincts?)

Alyssa Ferri

English 102

Research paper final

12/8/10

A Dogs loyalty to Man

(Is it love or instincts?)

Thesis:

The loyalty and devotion that dogs would demonstrate in a pack mimic the human form of love and friendship; with their ancestry work ethics and intelligence they become mans best friend.

Outline

I.      Introduction

  1. Quote by Alphonse Toussonel.
  2. Why are dogs loyal?
  3. Dogs make us feel…
  4. Thesis

II.      Evolution

  1. Linnaeous
    1. Taxonomy
    2. Candidea family
    3. Three subtypes
  2. Darwin
    1. Different dogs evolved from different candids?
    2. All evolved from wolves.
    3. Research expanded.
  3. Wolf Pack
    1. Social structure
    2. Dr. Nikko’s proof in dogs.
    3. Amanda’s quote

III.      History and closeness

  1. Paleontologists
    1. Been here since the Stone Age.
    2. First fossils of dogs.
    3. Dogs are products of our evolution.
  2. DNA
    1. Dog Genome project
    2. Dr. McConnell quote
    3. Companionship from the Greek times.
  3. Dogs can understand humans
    1. With evolution dogs have developed…
    2. Convergent evolution
    3. Communication = loyalty

IV.      Dogs and work

  1. Plato Quote
  2. Breeds
    1. St. Benards
    2. German Shepherd
    3. Australian Cattle Dog
  3. Medical Field
    1. Sniff out Cancer
    2. AAT and AAA
    3. Other therapy dogs

V.      Occupations

  1. Arson detecting dogs
    1. . Tobacco, firearms and alcohol Fed. Bureau
    2. Can sniff out arson 18 days after fire.
    3. Makes it safer for human workers.
  2. Infestation finders
    1. Humans detect by damage.
    2. Dogs can smell the chemicals released by early stages.
    3. Detects it sooner.
  3. Other
    1. Hunting dogs
    2. Earthquake detectors
    3. Stanley Coren Quote

VI.      Military dogs

  1. World War II
    1. Patriotic owners gave 40,000 pups to draft
    2. Had to go through training
    3. Many hero dogs were shown… Chips.
  2. Vietnam war
    1. Napoleons sighting of dog bravery
    2. Moustache… hero story.
    3. Ending Army quote

VII.      Cognition

  1. Do they think?
    1. Griffin quote.
    2. Stimulus X
    3. Conscious defined
  2. Consciousness
    1. By previous behaviors
    2. Think in steps
    3. Research
  3. The Brain
    1. Similar to humans
    2. Locals the same for senses
    3. Connection

VIII.      Cognition continued

  1. Vocabulary
    1. Dogs know 160 words…
    2. Same as human toddler
  2. Coren
    1. Argument
    2. Example of dog hiding treat
  3. Alder & Alder
    1. Research
    2. Dachshund puppies
    3. Findings quote

IX.      Dreaming

  1. Amanda quote
  2. Researchers believe…
  3. Could be connected to being compassionate.

X.      Loyalty

  1. Definition
  2. Amanda quote
  3. The reasoning behind it.

XI.      1st person

XII.      Conclusion

“ In the beginning, God created man, but seeing him so feeble, he gave him a dog,” Alphonse Toussonel. The All American family is to have a dog, a companion for the whole family. Someone that will be there when needed, for emotional support and well-being. Dogs give unconditional love, loyalty and friendship to their owners. What is the reasoning behind these notions? We know dogs are evolved from wolves but they have become very different with unique skills and abilities that suit humans. Dogs make us feel proud and worthwhile which satisfies our idealizing needs, as in self-psychology. Throughout time there has been obvious evidence of our beloved dogs showing loyalty. In ancient times, the medical field, out on enemy lines, in and in our homes. The loyalty and devotion that dogs would demonstrate in a pack mimic the human form of love and friendship; with their ancestry work ethics and intelligence they become mans best friend. There are many salient characteristics in dog behavior that has evolved from their ancestry.

The domestic dog was originally classified as Canis familiaris and Canis familiarus domesticus by Linnaeus in 1758, (Broome County). Dogs are from the Candidae family, which comes from a larger group called Carnivora. Canidae is divided into three sub groups: Fox-Like, South American and Wolf-like, where dogs fall. Charles Darwin reasoned that different types of dogs could be descended from different types of wild candids. With further research he concluded they are all descended from wolves. ” Normally a wolf population in an area is divided into a pack. The relationships within a pack with concrete structure and devotion show the reason for dogs being social animals, watching the wolves on numerous occasions was their friendliness,” Dr. Adolph Murie. Wolves live in a structure called a dominance hierarchy, this maintains order to reduce conflict and promotes cooperation, (HSUS). Among wolves there is an organization but still an evident amount of genuine friendship and affection. A pack is strong willed and all work together. “It has been rather generally supposed that a pack is based on a family, but it is a matter for speculation whether the general organization or the family exerts the greater influence in keeping the pack together,” (Rutter&Pimlot 47).   In a pack there is a social structure where everyone knows his or her place. There is someone sitting on the top all the way to the very bottom. The top is the Alphas, which are the only ones, allowed to breed. The next after that protect the alpha female and the pups to come. As the line goes all the way to the Peripheral wolf or “underdog”. This wolf has to trail behind and doesn’t do everything with the pack. However, if the Peripheral wolf is somehow removed it must be instantly replaced. Within every pack every wolf knows its social standing with every other wolf. The instant replacement of the Peripheral wolf suggests that there is some psychological need for the “underdog” to keep the organization of the pack. Dr. Niko Tinbergen describes a similar social order in Eskimo dogs. There was a very strict “pack Order.” One was dominant that would intimidate. The next one would lord over the others and so on down to the “underdog,” (Rutter&Pimlot 43). ‘The Lady Dog Whisperer’, Amanda Astley Jones, gives an example of her dogs and herself through an email interview:

“My pack literally follow my lead and therefore live in peace, balance and harmony, and yes, if we want to use a human term, show me absolute loyalty. But, that’s only because I’ve earned it in their eyes, and must maintain clear, calm assertive leadership at all times or chaos and carnage would ensue.”

The similarities in wolves and dog show their evolutionary paths.  “There is suggestion that as in human society, the personal dislike of one influential member might be the deciding factor in excluding outsiders,” (Rutter&Pimlot 81). Even with the similarities dogs still have evolved further.

Paleontologists say that 14,000 years ago a Stone Age man sat next to a fire with a dog. Then, the dog was sentinel, protector and hunting partner. In fact, “The earliest dog fossils, two large crania from Russia and a mandible from Germany, date from roughly 14,000 years ago.”(Broome County). Dogs are the product of thousands of years of evolution in a very specific environment- our homes. We created an entirely new animal- one that still has the DNA of its ancestors, but is more like humans than any animal including our cousins other primates, (Anderson 75). Research has been done for many years on the DNA comparison between humans and dogs to try and figure out the connection. Data from the dog-genome project from Ewen Kirkness of the Institute for Genomic Research did a study on the DNA. They compared the DNA of a poodle to that of a human. They found that humans and dogs have a 75% overlap between genetic codes. The bond between dogs and humans has a lot to do with evolution. “Who dogs are and how they behave are partly defined by who we humans are and how we ourselves behave,” Dr. McConnell.  Humans have developed the dog; we have throughout the years from ancient Greek times. In which, the dog was treasured as a companion animal. The master and dog relationship didn’t die after the master’s death. Sometimes the dog was then killed to be buried with its master. “Research suggests that dogs may have developed the ability to read human social and communication cues through a process known as convergent evolution,” (Anderson 25). This shows the reason why the bond between man and dog may be so easily reached. With the great communication humans can have with dogs adds to human owners being their pack and endowing their loyalty.

Plato said:

“The disposition of noble dogs is to be gentle with people they know and the opposite with those they don’t know…how, then, can the dog be anything other than a lover of learning since it defines what’s its own and what’s alien.”

Dogs are placed to help humans in many situations. Specific breeds are used for specific things that utilize their abilities. For example; St. Benards can hear subsonic tones way too low for humans to hear. That is why they are used to find people after avalanches. “The German Shepherd is distinguished for extreme loyalty, courage and the ability to assimilate and retain training for a number of special services,” (AKC). That is why they are used for jobs like police dogs, agility dogs, conformation animals and service dogs. With their high trainability and extreme loyalty it makes them great for almost anything. Another example would be the Australian Cattle Dog. Their agility, strength and courageousness allow them to easily control cattle and to be a herder. Not just specific breeds have been known to help humans.  In the medical field, Dorothy Harrison Eustis was the first to prove that dogs could give blind humans freedom. She was the founder of the Seeing-Eye Foundation and has many breeds from Collies to Labradors. The medical field has many openings for dog help. With their loyalty to humans and their keen senses some dogs have been able to sniff out Cancer. There have been seven cases recorded of owners calming their dog sniffed out their cancerous mole. Dogs are even being trained to work beside doctors to sniff out certain cancers. “A poodle was detecting lung cancer 85% accuracy. They are also training dogs to sniff out prostate cancer and tuberculosis,”

(Coren 80). Dogs are used for many forms of therapy also. Such as therapy for Alzheimer’s patients, Animal Assisted Activities (AAA) and Animal Assisted therapy (AAT). AAA “provides opportunities for motivational, education, recreational and therapeutic benefits to enhance the quality of life with the use of trained dogs,”

(Anderson 120). AAT “Is a goal directed intervention in which an animal that meets specific criteria, is an integral part of the treatment process. AAT promotes improvement in physical, social, emotional and cognitive functioning,” (Anderson 120). Dogs are also used just to comfort the sick or terminally ill. Optimum health is balance between body and mind. Companion animals excel in enriching human’s lives and encouraging balance. There are many situations dogs are set side-by-side humans also in the working field.

Plato described the dog as a  “Lover of Learning.” With a dogs loyalty and wanting to learn it is easy to train them to go to work. With them working with humans it gives them the pack feeling of structure and organization. With dogs keen since of smell and hearing they make great assets to many human occupations. For example Arson detecting dogs. These are the dog employees of Insurance agencies, the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. “The dogs are trained to detect the presence of flammable liquids that would be used to intentionally set fires,” (Coren 76). Dogs can detect a sent up to eight-teen days after the fire has gone out. This is very useful because then investigators can go safely after the fire is completely out. Dog employees are also used as infestation finders. Humans can’t detect the early stages of termites because they judge the infestation by how much damage is done. A dog can detect them right away because termites give off certain chemicals that dogs can pick up. Another example is hunting dogs. In colder climates dogs are used to sniff out tiny breathing holes in the ice of seals and other animals. The final example which, also suggests a dogs sixth sense, is that dogs are a part of the National Earthquake Warning system. “Their usefulness was proven first in 1975 when officials in the Chinese city of Haicheng were alarmed by the suddenly odd and anxious behaviors of dogs. A few hours later a 7.3 earthquake hit,” (Coren 117). Their sixth sense and bond with humans also make dogs valuable members of the military.

A dog’s loyalty has been proven for many years. So when World War two had hit and patriotic owners drafted their dogs it came as almost no surprise. They gave 40,000 dogs that had to be 55 to 85 pounds and 23 to 28 inches tall, (Watson 5). The dogs had to go through a number of tests and if they passed they went on to boot camp, and there they spent fourteen weeks. During battle in 1943 Chips was a Husky from New York that proved his worth. As U.S. soldiers were to ransack an Italian hut the enemies started shooting, all soldiers hit the ground. Chips broke free and ran into the hut brining out one of the enemies. Although Chips had a scrapped scalp and gunpowder burns he helped capture more enemies along side his handler. “Since 1978 military dogs have been trained at Lackland, more than 300 dogs live on base,” (Watson 4).  During the Vietnam War another tale of loyalty of a dog named Moustache. Napoleon’s troops saw the canine brand of bravery. When and Austrian Soldier killed the French flag barrier and tried to steal the flag, Moustache leaped for the enemies throat and the enemy dropped the flag. Then in turn the dog picked the flag up in his mouth and carried it across the battlefield, (Watson). Dogs are still used in the military today in which there is even a website to celebrate there loyalty. “Dogs are the best piece of equipment the Army ever invested in, they’re always on duty and you could trust your life with them,” Mark Robbie. With all of the occupations and situations a dog can learn and be apart of, they have to have the ability to cognate.

Humans with their dogs may show companionship and up most loyalty, but is it because we think that way or do dogs really have that ability to think? “Some kind of mental activity is being attributed to the animals: that is, there is considered to be some internal sifting and selection of information,” (Griffin 136). The definition of conscious is aware of what one is doing or intending to do, having a purpose and intention in ones actions. An animal is aware of stimulus X if and only if it feels or perceives X. It is conscious of brain processes X, if and only if it thinks of X. the consciousness of an animal is the set of all states of the central nervous system, (Griffin 7). Obviously dogs think and are conscious. Amanda Astley Jones stated that “Dogs, Canids, are highly instinctive animals, who feed off of energy both positive and negative, and I believe their thought processes are based very much among these lines.” Amanda makes a very good point. They do things in patterns, and steps to in the give them what they need for survival. The step a dog takes varies depending on results of a previous behavior. The choice of which past may be because of conscious selection from a large selection of memories, (Griffin 36). A dogs conscious and self-aware is there but not to the same level as humans. Researchers furthering Darwin’s theory proving that nerve cells in dogs work the same as in humans, and human and dog neurons have the same chemical composition also the patterns of electrical activity are the same, (Coren 5). When researchers compared brain function locals they found many similarities. In both dogs and humans vision is located in the back. The hearing is located on the sides and in the stripe going along the top is the sense of touch. To bring dogs even closer to humans to show our connection with them is that they have the ability to learn and dream.

With many occupations they can be trained to do they also naturally know things of human communication. Dogs know up to one hundred and sixty words within the human language, (Clemitt). Some studies have shown that dogs can exceed the knowledge of vocabulary that of a human toddler holds. Dr. Stanley Coren, a dog psychologist, argued that dogs do demonstrate a “sophisticated theory of mind.” Due to a difficult time simulating deceptive behavior within a lab, Coren still supports his claims with examples. One, that a dog hid a stolen treat by sitting on it until the owner of the treat left the room. Alder & Alder did a research on a dog’s genetic predisposition to learn and to imitate behaviors. They gave Dachshund puppies the task of learning the ability to pull a cart by tugging on an attached piece of fabric to get a reward inside the cart. The results as follows:

“Puppies that watched an experienced dog successfully retrieve the reward in this way learned the task fifteen times faster than those who were left to solve the problem on their own. In addition to learning by example from other dogs, dogs have also been shown to learn by mimicking human behaviors.”

The recognition that animals may in fact dream has became a factor. Sleeping dogs for example move and vocalize as if they were dreaming. Amanda Astley Jones stated in an conducted interview with me that: “Dreaming is another human term, but it does seem clear to me that dogs experience ‘dream-like’ processes fairly regularly, some more so than others. Otherwise, how do we explain their cantering legs, moans and groans if not for dreaming?” Some observers believe that their dreams maybe linked to previous experiences. Also recordings of sleeping dogs have been similar to a humans REM sleep, indicating they do dream. With many similarities in brain functions and the ability to think gives proof that a dog may in fact willingly want to be compassionate.

Loyalty is the act of being loyal to someone or something. Although to humans loyalty is classified differently as to the dog mind. Amanda Astley Jones states: “I don’t think that dogs are loyal per say, and only show loyalty-a human trait we choose to infer on our canine cohorts- when they have been given clear leadership with which to be loyal too.” Which makes complete sense. Dogs are instinctively pack animals; they want companionship combined with leadership. If they know we are their Alpha then they will follow our command, if we carry it out correctly.

I stated that since dogs are descended from wolves they have instincts that resemble their pack. In my thesis I said that dogs demonstrate the devotion and loyalty they would in a pack, which then mimics a human form of love and friendship. I believe that I proved this to be true that dogs still hold on to their ancestry and this may be a factor of their loyalty to humans. Although, there is more to the reasoning to dog loyalty. We as humans have created the dog. With our behaviors and notions we have molded this creature to be what we felt it should be. Another factor is; that dogs do cognate and can relate to us on social and intellectual levels. This brings them to have a higher connection with humans. So, even though ancestry and instincts are a lot of why dogs are loyal to humans; they also can think and relate to us.

Dogs are fascinating creatures that are evolved from wolves and then molded by humans. They have been our partners since The Stone Age and have been here ever since. They help in our medical and battlefield, they do have the ability to do human-like tasks with their keen senses and intelligence. The loyalty and devotion that dogs would demonstrate in a pack mimic the human form of love and friendship; with their ancestry work ethics and intelligence they become mans best friend. Although loyalty to them is just them being a part of the pack, it still gives us the feeling of love.

“ We give them love we can spare the time we can spare. In return dogs have given us their absolute all. It is without a doubt the best deal man has ever made,” Roger Caras ASPCA President.

Works Cited

American Kennel Club. The American Kennel Club, INC, 2010.

Web. 16 Nov. 2010.

Becker, Lawerence C., and Charlott B. Becker. “Loyalty.”

Encyclopedia of Ethics. New York: Routledge, 2001.

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Broome County Animal Care Council. Simple Machines LLC,

2006-2009. Web. 23 Nov. 2010.

Coren, Stanley. How Dogs Think. New York: Free Press. 2004.

Clemmitt, Marcia. “Animal Intelligence.” CQ Researcher20.37

(2010): 869-892. CQ Researcher. Web. 27 Oct. 2010.

<http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2010102200&gt;.

“Dog.” All Things Chaucer: An Encyclopedia of Chaucer and

apos; s World. Santa Barbra: ABC-Clio, 2006. Credo

Reference. Web. 29 Nov. 2010.

Griffin R, Donald. Animal Thinking. Cambridge

Massachusettes: Harvard University Press. 1984.

HSUS. The Humane Society of the United States. 2010. Web. 1

Dec. 2010

Jones, Astley, Amanda. ‘ The Lady Dog Whisperer ‘. Interview by

E-mail. 4 Dec.2010.

Rutter J, Russell. Pimlot H, Douglas. The World of the

Wolf. Philadelphia: JB

Lippincott Company. 1968.

Watson, Bruce. “THE DOGS of WAR.” Smithsonian 31.9 (2000):

100. Academic Search Elite. EBSCO. Web. 18 Nov. 2010.

A Dogs Loyalty to Man

(Is it love or instincts?)

Alyssa Ferri

English 102

Research paper final

12/8/10

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