We, the arrogant primates, have trouble when it comes to caring about something other than our own lives. We have pushed, cut and killed our way to the top of the food chain, with little regard to the other animals who inhabit this amazing planet. However, one species has managed to remain close to the hearts of men: Dogs.
Picture credits: Shashank Shekhar Singh
A dog owner will tell you the various advantages of having a dog as a pet. They are loyal and obedient and perform various fun tricks like playing dead, fetching sticks, rolling over, smelling out cancer, sensing magnetic fields and possessing a definite idea that other beings have different and valuable perceptions. Wait, what? Hold up there. All little Timmy does is sniff his own posterior the whole day, those last few points don't seem to match at all. Well ladies and gentlemen, dogs are not the innocent playthings you suspect them to be, to be owned like you own cars, houses, jewellery, as a means to show your status to others. They are complex beings that are actually self aware, a trait which most of us think is exclusive to our species. Here are a few little know facts about dogs, which may cause some of you to love these adorable little creatures a bit more.
One of the most common dream in human beings is where we've given an exam without preparation and have been laughed at by others. We assume because we have dreams we are a superior species. Well, dogs can dream too, and they probably dream about cooler things than you, nerd. Although research into the exact content of a canine's nighttime reveries is limited, research tells us that like rats, dogs have vivid dreams are abstract or may also replay day's events and allow them to learn from their dreams. Maybe they're dreaming about flying or giant bone shaped houses or chasing cats or chasing cats while flying through bone shaped houses. Dog dreams might even be more complex than 'Inception' but we may never know.
The science geeks among you might know that love is nothing other than a few chemical reactions in our brains, producing the neurochemical Oxytocin whenever humans engage in an act of bonding like a hug or a kiss. Research has proven that whenever we are treated with kindness, Oxytocin is released. The same neurochemical is also found to be released by dogs when they are interacting with humans. This means your dogs probably feels the same amount of love which you feel for him, a fact which most dog owners might have already guessed.
A man from Michigan, USA had come home after a wild night partying out with his friend and passed out immediately. When he woke up, he found out that his toe had been chewed off completely by his pet dog. Did the dog develop a taste for human flesh suddenly? No. The man had a long festering infection caused by diabetes which had spread to his bone. After a trip to the hospital, the man was informed that his blood sugar was at a dangerously high level of 506 and the toe would have had to be amputated anyway. The dog successfully saved the life of his owner by using it's keen sense of smell to determine, and using a not so keen logic, decided the right thing to do would be to bite the toe off. Dogs are now being used by various medical researchers to detect a wide array of diseases, including cancer. Cancer has a definite smell, and dogs can sniff it in the early stages, and the only way to smell cancer in early stages is through dogs.
This means that dogs, aside from their amazing sense of smell also have a magnetic sense. There are a lot of stories which talk about dogs returning home even after being left hundreds of kilometers, and the explanation tho these stories could be that they use earth's magnetic field for orientation, to find their way back home.
Emotions are generally categorized into two categories, Primary and Secondary emotions. Primary emotions include basic emotions like fear and anger which almost all animals experience, and Secondary emotions like jealousy, guilt and sadness which were thought to need self consciousness to be experienced. An experiment was conducted by scientists at University Of California, San Diego where humans engaged with three different objects in front of their dogs, one of the objects being a realistic looking stuffed toy dog, and the others being objects like book. When the human was paying attention to the fake dog, their dogs would try to draw attention to them by barking, touching the owners or whining, which was not so prominent with the other objects.
When walking your dog after a healthy session of exercise and pooping, if you stop to pet another dog, your own dog tries to buy your attention by strangling your legs with the leash. Mother dogs often gets jealous of the attention her own babies get by the owner and if the owner is not careful will also get aggressive with the puppies. All of this behavior goes to show that dogs experience a wide array of emotions and feelings which we human beings thought were exclusive to us. All this means that canines are actually quite similar to us, if not better.
Picture credits: Shashank Shekhar Singh
A dog owner will tell you the various advantages of having a dog as a pet. They are loyal and obedient and perform various fun tricks like playing dead, fetching sticks, rolling over, smelling out cancer, sensing magnetic fields and possessing a definite idea that other beings have different and valuable perceptions. Wait, what? Hold up there. All little Timmy does is sniff his own posterior the whole day, those last few points don't seem to match at all. Well ladies and gentlemen, dogs are not the innocent playthings you suspect them to be, to be owned like you own cars, houses, jewellery, as a means to show your status to others. They are complex beings that are actually self aware, a trait which most of us think is exclusive to our species. Here are a few little know facts about dogs, which may cause some of you to love these adorable little creatures a bit more.
1. Dogs can dream.
One of the most common dream in human beings is where we've given an exam without preparation and have been laughed at by others. We assume because we have dreams we are a superior species. Well, dogs can dream too, and they probably dream about cooler things than you, nerd. Although research into the exact content of a canine's nighttime reveries is limited, research tells us that like rats, dogs have vivid dreams are abstract or may also replay day's events and allow them to learn from their dreams. Maybe they're dreaming about flying or giant bone shaped houses or chasing cats or chasing cats while flying through bone shaped houses. Dog dreams might even be more complex than 'Inception' but we may never know.
Picture Credits: Shashank Shekhar Singh
2. Fall in love
The science geeks among you might know that love is nothing other than a few chemical reactions in our brains, producing the neurochemical Oxytocin whenever humans engage in an act of bonding like a hug or a kiss. Research has proven that whenever we are treated with kindness, Oxytocin is released. The same neurochemical is also found to be released by dogs when they are interacting with humans. This means your dogs probably feels the same amount of love which you feel for him, a fact which most dog owners might have already guessed.
3. Smell diseases
A man from Michigan, USA had come home after a wild night partying out with his friend and passed out immediately. When he woke up, he found out that his toe had been chewed off completely by his pet dog. Did the dog develop a taste for human flesh suddenly? No. The man had a long festering infection caused by diabetes which had spread to his bone. After a trip to the hospital, the man was informed that his blood sugar was at a dangerously high level of 506 and the toe would have had to be amputated anyway. The dog successfully saved the life of his owner by using it's keen sense of smell to determine, and using a not so keen logic, decided the right thing to do would be to bite the toe off. Dogs are now being used by various medical researchers to detect a wide array of diseases, including cancer. Cancer has a definite smell, and dogs can sniff it in the early stages, and the only way to smell cancer in early stages is through dogs.
4.Inner compass
Dog owners might know that feeling of irritation when walking a dog. They are extremely picky when in comes to choosing a place to do their business. Well, there is an incredibly unbelievable method to this madness. When stopping during walks to do defecate or urinate, the dogs do so along a north south axis. This means that these furry creatures have an inner compass and are aligned north to south, more so when they need to poo.This means that dogs, aside from their amazing sense of smell also have a magnetic sense. There are a lot of stories which talk about dogs returning home even after being left hundreds of kilometers, and the explanation tho these stories could be that they use earth's magnetic field for orientation, to find their way back home.
5.Feel jealous
Emotions are generally categorized into two categories, Primary and Secondary emotions. Primary emotions include basic emotions like fear and anger which almost all animals experience, and Secondary emotions like jealousy, guilt and sadness which were thought to need self consciousness to be experienced. An experiment was conducted by scientists at University Of California, San Diego where humans engaged with three different objects in front of their dogs, one of the objects being a realistic looking stuffed toy dog, and the others being objects like book. When the human was paying attention to the fake dog, their dogs would try to draw attention to them by barking, touching the owners or whining, which was not so prominent with the other objects.
Not to mention cuter. Just look at them.
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Great going, Manas!! Dogs really are some of our most loyal mates and people should really stop thinking of them as mere property.
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