An overheard line, reported in the NYT's Metropolitan Diary.
I'm no dog expert, but this one is easy. The way a dog knows it's cute is that the people continually tell it it's cute. The same thing happens with children too. If you don't want to find yourself living with a dog/child that knows it's cute, you need to keep a straight face about the cuteness. That will preserve the cuteness of the cuteness.
June 7, 2020
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
20 comments:
Dogs know they're cute? Assumes facts not in evidence. Sounds like projection of human feeling onto a dog.
When they tell my German Shepherd how beautiful he is, he leans his full weight into their legs, then cranes his neck around to look up and give them a big smile. It's absolutely sickening.
But it works.
What we say to dogs: "You are so cute Ginger."
What dogs hear: "Blah blah blah blah Ginger."
The dog knows it's cute only through the human's reaction to it as cute. You're so cute, you're so cute... some people will say that all day long to their dog. It's one of these cases of people finding fault in others when the fault is in themselves.
Too late for bassett hounds. Everybody loves them.
See Gary Larson every word a dog hears is blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. That's the basic structure of the dog intellect.
Religion however is a smile on a dog
I want a dog who knows he is cute and doesn't let it go to his head. Self-moderation is a laudable virtue for people, and pets, too.
Bad ann-alogy.
The problem of a child spoiled rotten by parents who made the mistake of telling him over and over that he's cute is always self-corrected. How? Everyone knows that you're not cute if you go around thinking you're cute. Eventually, one of your peers, siblings, cousins will come right out and cruelly explain it to you— "hey, Jimmy. You know, you are not cute as you think you are."
Problem solved.
In the case of dogs, see GingerBeer's comment at 6:41. Besides, domesticated pet dogs, by definition, are supposed to think in terms of making us think they are cute. That's why we have them.
A dog is incapable of knowing that it's cute and it seems unfair to the dog to conclude otherwise. It behaves as it does because it's trying to please us (mostly) and if it reacts to certain words or gestures, it's not because it knows we think it's cute, it just knows that this will result in approval (and hopefully edible treats of some kind). A dog doesn't understand why the things it thinks are cute don't result in approval, like cornering the family cat and swatting it with its paw or barking madly at the garbage truck or the mailman.
A wise old Southern man went to the pound and took home the mangiest, ugliest, dirt colored mixed mutt of a dog he could find, on the basis that gratitude is a good attitude for a pet to have towards its owner. Best dog ever.
Basically, I agree with ginger beer. I spend a lot of time with my own dog, but also with other dogs at the dogpark. Every dog remembers a person who gives the dog a treat. Most dogs remember a person who gives the dog a tummy-rub or ear-scratch (or whatever kind of patting the dog prefers). My opinion is that no dog responds to or remembers a person who says "you're cute" without following that comment up with a dog treat or a tummy rub. So if you want a dog "who doesn't know that he is cute" just stop rewarding the particular "cute" behavior with treats or tummy-rubs.
ours is irresistibly adorable
...we named him 'You Filthy Cur!'.
Problem solved! Cuteness, but with healthy low self-esteem.
Oh give me a break about whether a dog knows it's cute or not. M family had a bunch of dogs when I was a kid. A Cocker Spaniel, a Colie, half a dozen Boxers etc. Then when I was through with college and law school my wife wanted a Basset Hound (thick as brick between the ears) then we had a succession of mixed breed dogs--it's been going on for 50 years now. We did have Karelian Bear Dog--a very handsome animal who seemed to know that she was "good looking". When I had her out for a walk and people were coming into view, she'd literally start to prance and show off. Dogs do have personalities--some are reserved, some are friendly. some are shy and /or aggressive--often both shy and aggressive at the same time, biting out of fear. Our current very mixed breed rescue dog is extremely friendly and social.
You work with what you have and or see as you start to train a new dog or to live with them. I'm told that the average dog has about the same level of intelligence as a two year old child. There's something to work with between those sets of canine ears. But whether they recognize the word "cute" is beyond me.
"Human selection has resulted in dogs evolving more expressive faces. They have a facial muscle for making the “puppy dog eyes” that melt many peoples’ hearts that does not exist in wolves – the ancestors of dogs."
Anthropomorphization is a clear and progressive problem in ancient, fantasy, and scientific realms.
I always give my dog a lot of compliment and he seems happy all the time. I suppose he understands me. Sometimes, I buy him several dog toys as special gifts when he has done a good thing.
They read dogs minds now?
It is a dog. It doesn't know "cute" from a "convertible". All it knows is: hungry/not hungry, angry/not angry, happy/not happy, etc.
Preferred state of a dog (and most people): happy, dry, not hungry.
All the "cute" dog knows(?) is it gets a lot of attention from "master" and other "humans". If it is good attention, that makes it happy. If you call a dog an "ugly, pathetic, worthless, POS in a cute soothing voice, it will wag its tail and likely lick you.
Sorry, dogs don't know the meaning of words. Dogs know what you want it do to based on sounds it hears and positive re-enforcement.
I have loved all my dogs but they are not "people". This is not rocket surgery...
Ann, you really missed on this one. Perhaps because you don't have a dog.
Many dogs are capable of recognizing words. For example, it's name, "newspaper," "walk," "hungry," and in the case of the best dog I ever had, "golf course." They associate those words with activities they enjoy. But qualitative words like "cute" they only associate by the approving tone, not the meaning humans give to the word. The tone indicates approval by their human. Dogs seek a mutually approving relationship with their human.
One of my present dogs has a tendency to roll in really smelly things she finds in the woods. She has always required frequent baths, which she does not enjoy, before coming into the house. I call her "Stinky." When I use the word, she knows exactly who I'm speaking to and wags her tail because she's getting attention. But she has no comprehension of what the word means -- kind of like "due process" to an L1.
Spoil a kid rotten by constant qualitative words of praise? Quite possible because they understand the meaning rather than merely associating it with an activity. Spoil a dog with the same words? No way.
"
Post a Comment