Source.

If dogs are pretending to love us, then they are damn good actors.

I have some issues with Masson’s work. I would have loved it if he’d included a description a dog preying on some animal in Dogs Never Lie About Love.

He covers every part of their natural behavior but that one. If you see a dog acting as a predator, it can be a moving experience. It can also be terrifying if you’ve deluded yourself into believing that they don’t have these instincts. For someone like Masson, I think he would find it rather disconcerting.

He’s also one of those animal rights people who talks about these issues in a way that reminds me of how the Christian right talks about abortion.

The fact that he’s on the left makes no difference. It puts me off.

I think a better discussion of the issues can be found here.

That said, I do believe most birds and mammals do have emotions and can experience pain and suffering.  And all of them will experience a certain level of suffering at they live their lives.

Most wild animals die horrific deaths. A hunter’s bullet causes far less suffering than the other “natural” ways these animals die.

We have to accept that this world is partially maintained through death. Despite our intellect, man has not created a world that transcends the simple realities that all things die and in most deaths, there will be some pain and suffering.

We can either deny these realities, or we can work to mitigate them.

And that’s where our focus should be.

***

Why is it that dogs are able to form bonds with species other than humans?

It has more to do with agriculture than the fact that dogs just like making friends.

When we domesticated other species, we culled those dogs that tried to eat our sheep and goats.

Those dogs that formed bonds with our sheep and goats and protected them  from predators were given special treatment.

Charles Darwin noticed that most Western dogs learned very quickly to leave domesticated stock alone, while dogs from South Pacific and Australia could never be trusted around sheep. Darwin, like Masson, believed that it was the love of man that caused Western domestic dogs to leave stock alone.

I think it’s more likely the result of this early selective breeding.

Of course, Western dogs are not universally safe with stock, but I have known some fierce hunting dogs that learned to leave pet ducks alone.

When I was growing up, a predatory Norwegian elkhound and even more predatory farm collie learned to never touch my pet Muscovy ducks.  The elkhound did kill one duck because it was eating out of dog’s food bowl. The elkhound wanted to discipline the duck for breaking pack rules, and the duck didn’t survive the punishment.

I also know of Walker coonhounds that can kill a raccoon in less than a minute but think the world of their owner’s cats.

Somewhere in domesticating the dog, the animal has evolved an ability to recognize which animals are prey and which animals it should befriend. For a predatory animal, that is quite an accomplishment.

I think some study is needed on this aspect of dog behavior.  Maybe this will fit in nicely with the theory that dogs are very good at following rules. Rule following in dogs is being extensively studied in Hungary at Eotvos Lorand University’s Department of Ethology.