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Too Dog Tired to Avoid Danger: Dogs Engage in Riskier Behaviors...

Discussion in 'Training & Behavior' started by Vicki, May 6, 2012.

  1. Vicki

    Vicki Administrator Staff Member

    Too Dog Tired to Avoid Danger: Like Humans, Dogs Engage in Riskier Behaviors When Their Self-Control Is Depleted

    ScienceDaily (Apr. 2, 2012) — Like humans, dogs engage in riskier behaviors when their self-control is depleted.

    How do dogs behave when their ability to exert self-control is compromised? Are they more likely to approach dangerous situations or stay well away? According to a new study by Holly Miller, from the University of Lille Nord de France, and colleagues, dogs that have 'run out' of self-control make more impulsive decisions that put them in harm's way. The work was just published online in Springer's Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.

    To avoid danger, people often exert self-control over their behavior. When they do not and they behave more impulsively, they may unintentionally put themselves in dangerous situations e.g. pedestrians jaywalk across busy streets, children stick objects into electrical outlets, and teenagers join dangerous gangs. Miller and colleagues' work is the first to demonstrate that this phenomenon of 'self-control depletion' also has significant behavioral implications in animals: mentally fatigued dogs do not think straight and are more likely to inadvertently subject themselves to risks that may result in physical harm.

    The researchers recruited ten dogs and trained them to sit still for ten minutes, thereby exerting self-control; or not, by putting them in a cage where they were free to move around. Afterwards, the dogs were walked into a room in which a barking, growling dog was caged. The dogs spent a total of four minutes in the room but were free to choose where in the room they spent their time. Although approaching the other dog was the natural response for the dogs, it was also the riskier choice.

    Those dogs who had exerted self-control by sitting still beforehand spent more time in close proximity to the aggressive dog compared with those dogs who had not exerted self-control (i.e. the caged dogs) -- 59 percent compared to 42 percent. These results show that initial self-control exertion results in riskier and more impulsive decision making by dogs.

    Miller and team conclude: "The present research provides evidence that the phenomenon of self-control depletion, once believed to be uniquely human, can be found in dogs. Using work in animals may provide a greater insight into the physiological and neurobiological processes that affect self-control."

    Too dog tired to avoid danger: Like humans, dogs engage in riskier behaviors when their self-control is depleted
     
    Vicki, May 6, 2012
    #1
  2. babedulce

    babedulce Big Dog

    So that's why I see so much dog roadkill, about 1 every 20 feet, along the highway from my town to the city - because the dogs couldn't exert self control and cross the road when no cars where passing - who woulda figured? God damned dogs why can't they just learn completely adapt to human cognition, I mean sometimes they do act like humans, right? why not all the time?
     
    babedulce, May 6, 2012
    #2
  3. Taichi Bulldog

    Taichi Bulldog Pup

    though i know you jest i felt compelled to say something.

    i have heard most of my life about how this dog or that dog/ animal acts like us/human.
    frankly it grates me the wrong way. why. simply because the ego of many of us are so huge that we always compare other so called intelligent life to us. as if we hold the original master template on brains/behavior.

    Most of the creatures that we compare with us act better then most humans do for the most part.
    so to me when someone says stuff like they usually do i cringe a bit and get angry lol.

    Caesar Milan get's my vote for letting all those novice owners know that we have to deal with them based on their thoughts, instincts, habits etc. not our own. nuff said
     
    Taichi Bulldog, Aug 30, 2012
    #3
  4. babedulce

    babedulce Big Dog

    Of course animals act better than humans!!!

    Animals adapt to the conditions of their natural environment with minimal exploitation in ways that are mind boggling to humans, because all that humans know how to do for the most part for a long, long time is manipulate our natural environment to suit so called human needs. Nowadays in modern times those needs are way fucked up, if one considers how far we have diverged from any natural path we could have forged as a human civilization, yet we relish in modern day technological advances anyway. The members of this forum communicating via the WWW is but one of those technologies that for many seems like necessity not luxury. But the sheer amount of extraction, exploitation, and engineering that has completely eradicated the natural face of the majority of the earth just to make the WWW is inconcievable to ponder lest we stop functioning in this synthetic reality we have now carpeted over land, rock, sand, and dirt. That manipulation is what we call our dominion over the earth, and some would charge a god-given right, a product of our superior intelligence as earth's only creature with such an ability....We are a truly awesome contradiction, and I don't mean it like "awesome dude."

    A by product of course of our "superior" intelligence is to humanize as much as possible any phenomena that cannot be understood in and of itself like dog's ability to adapt to their environment, coincidentally an environment that mankind predominates as dog's masters. So dog's are only doing what is naturally their ability, which is adapt, but we selectively notice it as it embodying human qualities. It's a matter of perception.
     
    babedulce, Aug 31, 2012
    #4
  5. jeromebery

    jeromebery Pup

    Interesting to know that. Such researches largely help in understanding the behavior of dogs and in improving their relationship with humans further.


    Police Dog For Sale
     
    jeromebery, Sep 17, 2012
    #5

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