sly dogs

[Paul Mackin]

"I am a British dog, Sir. No one owns me."

Another form slacking off I've noticed dogs doing is when you're at home
and someone comes to the door they bark like the end of the world is
coming. But I've been told by people who came to my house when no one was
home that the dog didn't let out a yip but just wagged her tail in
welcome. Love 'em though. 

			P.





On Sat, 24 Jun 2000, Vaska Tumir wrote:

> Totally off topic but irresistible to this dog-person here.  Lovely to contemplate Pavlov's misery, but especially frustration, as his "subjects" turned to civil disobedience -- of sorts.  Excerpted from Ian Hacking's "Our Fellow Animals" in the current New York Review of Books.
> 
> 
> "But first consider Pavlov, who performed grotesque operations on the glandular
>  systems of his dogs so he could measure the secretions that were produced by
>  the scent of food, or by "conditioning" stimuli like ringing bells. It is less well
>  known that the dogs responded with passive resistance. As soon as they were
>  put in their stalls, they became sleepy, and often went to sleep.5 This was
>  potentially disastrous for Pavlov, who was running a knowledge factory, with a
>  vast corps of trainee doctors, all of whom had to publish a research dissertation
>  before qualifying. Sleeping dogs equals no doctoral theses. 
> 
>  Pavlov and Köhler make a pretty contrast. When Sultan sat still, contemplating
>  a new arrangement of bananas, Köhler said he was solving problems. Pavlov
>  scoffed at such anthropomorphism. Sultan was just resting. But because
>  Pavlov's lab processed so many dogs, distinct personality types were
>  recognized. Different dogs had different characters! Passionate dogs are easily
>  excited by the sight of food, easily teased by experimenters playing around with
>  the food. Other dogs are self-possessed and cannot be teased. Others see
>  through the experiments "as if they understand the deceit being practiced on
>  them, and turn their back on the preferred food, apparently from a sense of
>  insult." "Suspicious" or "depressed" dogs. "The older the dog the more
>  restrained and peaceful it is."  The personality of the dog was the "main enemy"
>  of the experimenter—but could be put to good use, for you could blame bad
>  results on psychic idiosyncrasies of individual dogs."
> 
> Vaska
> 
> 
>