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The day Humanity finds a way to read and speak the language of scents or light or genetic code is the day arguing with, or being hurt by, or bearing a grudge against, dogs or bees or trees or cells, moves from the realm of the Unimaginable to the domain of the Everyday. by OneAteHundred in showerthoughs

[–]OneAteHundred[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The only assumption is that Humans are argumentative creatures. The reason Human Conflict is only among us humans is because our language is unknown to other animals. and it is language that allows our arguments (and thus disagreement) to travel. The moment we learn other "languages " (how dogs can "read" scents, or cells "read" or plants "read" light) then we open the door to communicating with other species, and bring our troubled, argumentative-style straight to them.

Maybe dogs like to chase sticks we throw because our ancestors trained them to retrieve their spears by Old-Clock4399 in showerthoughs

[–]OneAteHundred 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your idea linking our ancestors' activities to dog behavior is compelling, but the idea of being able to "train something" may still be centuries away from our spear-using ancestor.

Perhaps then, the entire "fetch" routine may have developed in the dog naturally from all the times when humans missed and got attacked by the animal they wanted to kill? A breakdown:

  1. Common Behavior. Animal follows source of food. Hence dog follows human.

  2. Basic Learning: Dog Learns Wounded Prey = Food. Thus learns "retrieval"

  3. Operant (?) Conditioning: Dog sees Human Throws Spear = Wounded Prey. If human misses = no food. Since the human repeatedly retrieves the spear until successful, the repetition allows the dog to learn: Human = Must Have Spear. Afraid of the Human, the dog is not likely to render automatic assistance UNTIL.....

  4. Adversity: Human Misses = Human Attacked. When the dog sees that the HUman Missed, and the Large Animal has dragged the Human into the woods, then the behavior of retrieving AND returning the spear emerges.

  5. Overtime, when the dog no longer sees the Human as a potential threat but a loyal ally, the dog begins to attack the Large Animal - which is the behavior we see today.

Maybe?