onethousandk said:
SWIMfriend said:
onethousandk said:
after creating a link between the ringing of the bell and the serving of food...
Yes, once a link is created many things can be accomplished. But links aren't made with twenty minute lapses between key elements!
A dog which doesn't speak "pizza ordering English" simply should have no way to connect a
pizza-ordering phone call to a pizza delivery twenty minutes later IN FAVOR OF a
chit-chat phone call. The connection between those events is obviously made by a "higher level" of cogitation beyond "conditioning."
There is absolutely a way to connect the two. I'm going to venture a guess that it wasn't the first time you've ordered a pizza in front of them that they showed this behavior. They probably first linked you getting your wallet as you answer the door or the smell of pizza coming up the driveway to the idea of pizza. Then maybe they noticed your propensity to look out the window or a change in pheromone as your body anticipates pizza. Then they might have linked your phone use or change in tone or again another pheromone shift. Now we're 20 minutes out, but still have a link of stimuli that link action to pizza. Was it these exact triggers? Probably not. Was it something like this? Probably.
Try an experiment. Tell your dogs you are ordering pizza. Then go online to order it and sit at your computer until the pizza arrives doing your best to ignore the fact that a pizza man is on the way. See if they still sit looking at the door.
Let me say first that I'm not trying to say anything except: dogs (and other animals) IMO sometimes show considerably more "intelligence" or "awareness" than is generally given credit for.
And I'll explain the phenomenon again: By the time my dogs were 2.5-3 years old (I had the male and female pick from a litter of dobermans produced by two "extreme prize-winning" German schutzhund dogs bought and imported to America by a very wealthy hobbyist who actually hired dog experts to travel to Germany and choose five or six of the ABSOLUTE best German schutzhund dobermans that could be bought for essentially ANY PRICE. The events I describe, btw, occurred around 1994. Both dogs have since passed away--but I now own two sons of the original male) they had learned--on their own--by their own observation, and not by any effort from me to "teach them"--that when they heard me order a pizza on the phone that in 20-30 minutes or so, a pizza man would come with the delivery. I noted they had LEARNED that because they started to show their ANTICIPATION of the driver coming, by going to the windows and looking out, pacing, etc. Pizza delivery times vary, of course--sometimes it would take 40 minutes--and they would CONTINUE their agitation UNTIL THE PIZZAMAN ARRIVED.
Did I signal the dogs? I have no doubt I did. I MADE NO EFFORT TO TEACH THEM, I only noticed, after awhile, that they were doing it. Probably, I myself would go to the window and check, etc., if the delivery was late (back in those days I wouldn't have been surprised if we ordered pizza a couple of times a week). After we NOTICED THEIR BEHAVIOR then we tried to decide if they were only cuing from us (my girlfriend at the time was a veterinary student whose father was in fact a quite well known animal behaviorist and professor of psychopharmacology. We were both quite interested in animal behavior--she used to do her own formal animal behavior experimentation).
So, we did some experiments and tests (fake phone calls, being very determined about not showing anticipation ourselves, etc.) and determined that it was clear and undeniable: they had LEARNED, ON THEIR OWN, to detect 1) The tone of voice, or character of call, that meant a pizza delivery, 2) That the call meant that there would be a DELAY of about 20 minutes before the pizza would arrive. Indeed, the male, who was extremely "high in drive" would sometimes rush to the window RIGHT AFTER THE CALL; but then he would appear to "realize/remember" that it would be awhile.
Another important thing to note was that these two dogs seemed to activate EACH OTHER. The effect was almost like they used their two weak minds to make ONE POWERFUL MIND, i.e., a thing that neither dog could figure out on its own could often be figured out by both dogs "working together." The female ultimately was much "smarter" (you could practically "watch her thinking" ), and the male was much more "aggressive" about things--the female would allow him to lead in "activity."
Since that time, I haven't had dogs who could learn that behavior on their own (i.e., had that level of intelligence AND drive). I also think the fact that they were a "male/female" team somehow contributed to their really extreme perceptual and learning abilities. Their "working together" was so obvious and deeply instinctual.
www.newscientist.com
