Inside of a Dog_ What Dogs See, Smell, and Know - Alexandra Horowitz [140]
of wolves, 123, 125
see also eye contact; eyes
vocabulary
of birds, 145n
of dogs, 96–97
voles, 261 vomeronasal organ, 122–23
in animals, 73–75, 79
as explanation for wet nose, 69, 74–75, 77
in humans, 74
pheromone detection in, 73–75
von Uexküll, Jakob, 20–22, 24
wagging tails, 3, 31, 112–13
walking, 169–71
allelometric behavior, 275
described, 290
smell walks, 284–85
weaning, 262n
whales
brain size of, 9n
communication of, 91
whimper, 101
whine, 100, 101, 153
whiskers, 67
whistle, dog, 93
Whiten, Andrew, 188n
Wild Animal Park (Escondido), 4–5, 15n
wild side of dogs, 61–64
willpower, 226–27
Wilson, Edward O., 265n
Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 253
wolfhound, 1–2, 124, 205–6
wolves
attachment in, 63–64
behavior of, 29–30, 45, 89–90
Canidae family and, 34, 38
developmental differences between dogs and, 10, 42–45, 50–52, 55–64
divergence of, 38–47
DNA differences between dogs and, 39–40, 62
domestication of, 38–47, 55–61
dominance and submission in, 18–19, 40, 147, 148
hunting behavior of, 34
hunting by, 38–40, 43, 57n, 58
packs in, 38, 40, 41, 43, 57–61, 103
physical cognition tasks and, 44–45
physical differences between dogs and, 43–44
problem-solving by, 180
as scavengers, 39, 40, 43
socialization of, 38–47, 63–64
social organization of, 38, 40, 41
tails of, 112
touch and, 269
vision of, 123, 125
Woolf, Virginia, 119 working dogs
assistance dogs, 43, 134–35, 152, 162, 240, 274
companions for blind, 43, 134–35, 152, 162, 274
guard dogs, 252
herders, 49, 53, 54, 71, 262, 287
hunters, 43, 49, 53–54
linguistic ability of, 95
rescue dogs, 79, 166, 237–39
self-awareness of, 221–22
trackers, 76, 77–78, 79
yard dogs, 180 yawn
contagious, 280–81
as sign of stress, 110
yelp, 98, 100–101
zebra finches, leg band preference in, 296n zoos
animal behavior in, 4–5, 8, 14–15, 158–59, 216 petting, 267
About the Author
Alexandra Horowitz earned her B.A. in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in cognitive science from the University of California at San Diego, studying dog cognition. She is currently a term assistant professor of psychology at Barnard College and continues to research dog behavior. In addition to her work with dogs, she has also studied cognition in humans, rhinoceroses, and bonobos. She previously worked as a lexicographer at Merriam-Webster and a fact-checker for The New Yorker. She lives in New York City with her husband and Finnegan, a dog of indeterminate parentage and determinate character, and the fond memories of dogs past.
She also likes to sketch her dogs.
Of course, researchers soon found brains bigger than ours: the dolphin's brain is larger, as are the brains of physically larger creatures such as whales and elephants. The "big brain" myth has long been overturned. Those who are still interested in mapping brain to smarts now look at other, more sophisticated measures: the amount of convolution of the brain; the encephalization quotient, a ratio that includes both brain and body size in the calculation; the quantity of neocortex; or the gross number of neurons and synapses between neurons.
This was made most evident for me one day collecting data of the behavior of the white rhinoceros. At the Wild Animal Park it is the animals who roam (relatively) freely, and the visitors are restricted to trains that travel around the large enclosures. I was situated in the narrow patch of grass between the track and the fence, watching a typical day of rhino socializing. As the trains approached, the rhinos stopped what they were doing and moved quickly into a defensive huddle: standing with rumps together, heads radiating out in a rough sunburst. The animals are peaceful, but with poor vision they can be easily startled if they do not smell someone approaching, and they count on each other as lookouts. The train stopped, and everyone gaped at the rhinos who, it was announced by the guide, were "doing nothing." Eventually the driver moved on, and the rhinos resumed their ordinary