Finally, science backs up what we all know: Dogs are smarter than cats.
The study looked at the number of neurons in the cerebral cortex of carnivores, including dogs and cats. According to “Research News @Vanderbilt” writer David Salisbury, these are associated with thinking, planning, and complex behavior — “hallmarks of intelligence.” He quotes the study’s author as stating that the findings mean that dogs “have the biological capability of doing much more complex and flexible things with their lives than cats can.”
My favorite line in the study‘s abstract: “We find that the golden retriever dog has more cortical neurons than the striped hyena, African lion and even brown bear, even though the latter species have up to 3 times larger cortices than dogs.” Cali, Jana, and I have always known that golden retrievers are superior beings; still, it’s nice to have evidence.
The study also found no apparent effect on neuron number from domestication. The researchers found that the domesticated dogs and cats did not have smaller brains for their body size than their wild relatives. It also found that larger carnivores, such as bears, have fewer cortical neurons relative to their brain size and that carnivores do not pack greater brain power than their prey.
I like this study because it doesn’t take something irrelevant to one or all species tested and attempt to make a comparison. Dogs’ brains are different in lots of ways from wolves’ brains because dogs’ lives and needs are different in so many ways. For instance, another recent study looked at the ways dogs and wolves collaborate. Wolves were better able to solve a problem that required cooperation to get food. That makes sense. Wolf packs hunt together — or starve. Dogs train their humans to dump food into the bowl at the same time every day and, with varying degrees of success, to hand out snacks at other times of the day. Other studies try to compare the intelligence of dogs and wolves, dogs and chimps, different breeds of dogs … you name it. But too often, they use yardsticks that don’t reflect the ways dogs use their considerable intelligence.
Knowing that dogs have more of the thinking and planning cells than cats makes sense if you look at the different ways dogs relate to people. Thinking, planning, problem solving, and other complex behaviors are the basis of the many ways that dogs and humans work together. While cats may be equally adept at getting humans to take care of them, most cat-person partnerships begin and end there. Canines are more social than felines, and domestic dogs have turned their focus from pack hunting and social living to myriad other tasks, to the great delight of humans everywhere.
You (and your dog) might want to be careful, though, if you live near any raccoons. Raccoons were the brainiest carnivores studied, having the same number of cortical neurons as a dog —packed into a cat-sized brain. Who knows what they are planning!
On the fourth night of Hanukkah, Cali got her wish: Snow. Fluffy, white, untouched-by-dog-paws snow.
It started snowing in the afternoon, and she got a little taste of it on our afternoon walk, but not much had accumulated. I went out to a dinner party and got home a little after 9. I put on my boots, put Cali on her leash, and gave her the best present of her life. We walked a bit, then I just dropped the leash and let her run. There was no one else out, no cars moving in the parking lot, and the space between two apartment buildings was so inviting. All that new snow!
As she has on encountering open spaces before, Cali ran crazy circles and figure eights around the picnic tables. She did something a little different this time, though: Every couple of circuits, she’d bound over to me, play bow, dance a little, then take off again. I scooped up snow and threw it in the air. It was so dry and powdery that I couldn’t make a snow ball to throw, but Cali caught the flying snow and licked it from her nose. She plowed into the snow on the ground with both nose and paws. She ran more laps around the picnic tables.
The next morning, we visited our friend Scarlett (who has a back yard!) and both girls ran around and around in the snow. We played ball in the snow, too. The snow is still here (Cali doesn’t know it yet, but the snow is likely to still be here weeks and months from now…) and she still thinks it is wonderful.
Cali’s head whips around. Her body follows her nose. She’s on the scent.
She started doing this at her second or third “nosework” class — as she ambled around, haphazardly looking for the target. Suddenly, she’d catch the scent and be off, following that now-beloved birch scent to the magic box. All she had to do was touch this box and her devoted servant (me) would start showering her with praise and treats. Really good treats. Yum.
Cali “got it” very quickly. When practicing, I have to put her in the bedroom and close the door so I can hide the magic box. She trots out eagerly, nose in the air. Within seconds, that nose whips around and she’s dancing beside the box.
The road to nosework expertise is not without bumps. At one point, Cali started bashing the box with a large, soft paw. When we switched to cardboard boxes, she thought they might make a nice snack.
Despite the minor hiccups, Cali continues to progress in her scent-detection abilities. She’s putting them to work daily. Though Jana enjoyed the concept of smell walks throughout her life, Cali had never been interested in sniffing her way through town. Now she thoroughly investigates the many (many, many, many …) places along our daily walks that other dogs have marked. I never knew it could take so long to walk around a parking lot!
She’s suddenly developed a deep interest in squirrels, too. Montana squirrels are a lot more interesting than California squirrels, apparently. Especially the one that hangs out near the veterans’ apartment building next to our apartment complex. Oh, and the one that raids our bird feeder any chance it gets, whom Cali seems to enjoy watching.
Back in “nosework” class, we’ve moved from hiding the scent in boxes to moving it around. Cali quickly grasps each new step — at least, in class. Watching her try to understand the new “rules” at home is interesting. She is a living illustration that content and context both affect learning. In plain English — don’t change everything at once. She did find the scent hidden in a plastic container this morning, as well as under the sofa and on a shelf. She’s is following her nose for sure; she can’t see where I have hidden the tin with the scent stick. She’s not very methodical in her search, but she is thorough. And she gets very excited when she finds it.
What’s great about the scent game is that we can play it all winter, indoors, with little changes, and – so far — Cali’s enthusiasm hasn’t faded a bit.
Cali lost her head over Thanksgiving. We spent the week at her Favorite Place in the World, also known as Deni’s Lolo, Mont., house. We were sharing the holiday with Alberta and Mack, two lovely dogs who live there.
Well, the most important thing to know about Deni’s Lolo house is that it has a lot of land and is surrounded by even more open, unfenced land and national forest.
The first day, we set out for a walk around the property and, well, Cali lost her head. She took off running and she ran and ran in giant loops around the meadow, up and down hills, in and out between trees, around and around and around, for several minutes.
The first time Cali spent a summer in Montana, I decided that “Don’t Fence Me In” should be her theme song. When we returned last summer, we stopped at Packer Meadow, which is at Lolo Pass, right on the Idaho — Montana border, about a 30-minute drive from Lolo. Koala was with us, and the two dogs did the same sort of “lost-our-heads, can’t-stop-running” exuberant celebration (see the video for a tiny sliver of their romp).
There is nothing more joyful than watching a dog run free. And dogs seem to know when they are truly free, versus in a large, open, off-leash, but fenced area.
Cali has a good life. Every day, wherever we’ve lived, I’ve taken her someplace that she can play ball and run around off leash. But it’s nearly always a yard or park that is a contained, fenced play area. She loves it, but she knows the difference.
This worried puppy might need comforting, or he might need you to let him know there’s no reason to be afraid.
A reader asks:
People say you should ignore your dog when they get spooked by something, the reason being that if you comfort them, they will think that, since you are comforting them, there must really be something to be afraid of, or else you wouldn’t be comforting them. Are dogs capable of that kind of thought? What should I do if my dog gets spooked?
This is a great question, and if you ask a dozen dog trainers, you are likely to get about a dozen different responses. Here’s what I would suggest.
First of all, I do think that dogs are capable of the kind of abstract thought that you describe. Thousands of years of living and working together have taught dogs to pay close attention to humans’ responses to things and to our emotions.
So what to do when a dog shows fear or apprehension … That depends. No, I am not avoiding answering the question. But it depends on the dog’s age and on the trigger for the fear response.
When I trained service dog puppies, a huge part of the training was getting them out in public and exposing them to various stimuli. One thing I was looking for was whether a puppy showed fear and if so, to what. I carefully selected destinations, and with the youngest puppies (8-10 weeks old), I only took them in groups with volunteer handlers. We — the volunteers and I — also exposed them to lots of things in the puppy “nursery.” We’d put on hats and Halloween wigs or masks, play weird noises, show them movies, run the vacuum cleaner, open umbrellas, play with skateboards, walkers, bikes, toy cars, Christmas decorations … you name it, it showed up in the nursery at some point.
In these cases, the stimuli were things that a dog might encounter in everyday life and that there was no reason to fear. If a puppy spooked, we’d react cheerfully, going up to the scary thing and touching it or interacting with it in some way that made it engaging to the puppy. For a skateboard, for example, I might hold it still and pat it invitingly, offering a really good treat. I’d make sure to expose that puppy to the skateboard in positive ways several times before allowing him to see a moving skateboard again. For a statue (a common spook-inducer), I’d go up to the statue and touch it, make happy sounds, offer treats, etc. The idea was to show that this was not something to fear. Most puppies will approach after a startle response, especially if their human lets them know it is safe.
For an older dog who spooks at an everyday item, maybe a statue or a plastic bag blowing in the wind, I would ignore the fear response or respond with a cheerful voice, saying something like, “There’s nothing to be afraid of. Let’s go!” and carry on walking. This is for the reason you describe; comforting the dog might reinforce his idea that this thing is really scary; you don’t want to encourage this fear response to ordinary things.
On the other hand, what if the dog’s response is to something that might be threatening?
There are different categories here. One is things or, more likely, people, who might be threatening to the dog or to you. If I’m walking with my dog and she has a negative response to an approaching stranger, I pay attention. Jana, whom I still miss every day, was a fantastic judge of people. If she took a dislike to someone, we got away. I would never question her judgment. Cali is a more typical golden. She loves everyone. I don’t necessarily trust her judgment. But if she spooked, I would definitely pay attention.
But those are rare incidents. What’s more likely is a dog’s fearful or anxious reaction to something that might or might not be threatening to him but is not threatening to you. And for these things, the response really does depend on the context. A few examples:
You’re at a dog park and a new dog comes in. The dog is rambunctious and high-energy. You don’t know this dog, and your dog seems nervous. There’s no reason to reinforce the fear or panic, but use common sense. The dog park should be fun for your dog, and if he’s nervous and afraid, he’s not having fun. This might be a good time to cheerfully tell him, “Time to go!” Without reinforcing or even reacting to the fear, just leash the dog and leave.
If you’re not quick enough and the new dog gets in your dog’s face, even if he’s only trying to play but is overwhelming for your dog, your response is different. Your dog needs to know that you’ve got his back. You have to be your dog’s advocate and protector, and this example is exactly when he needs you to step up. Again, the other dog might not be doing anything wrong, but dogs have different play styles. Cali finds large, exuberant dogs frightening. There’s no reason she has to play with them. I just get her out of there. Again, though, you are not comforting the dog or justifying his fear. You are respecting his preferences.
Your dog is afraid of thunder or fireworks. These are common triggers. In these cases, I wouldn’t make a huge show of comforting the dog, but I would make sure to provide a safe space for him to ride out the storm. A dog who’s afraid of thunder? Give your dog a den in an interior space — a crate can work or a cozy corner of a room with no exterior walls. Some dogs just want to cuddle until it’s over; that’s fine. Try not to leave the dog home alone when scary things are likely, and always make sure the dog cannot escape. A dog who bolts in fear and cannot escape the noise might run for miles and can get lost, injured, or killed.
If the dog’s reaction is extreme, try supplements or even medications that can ease anxiety. I’ve used small amounts of melatonin (3 mg. for a large dog; be careful to get melatonin without xylitol) or DAP, dog-appeasing pheromone, in a diffuser. Different things work for different dogs, so experiment a bit with over-the-counter remedies like these or Rescue Remedy, etc. Consult a vet if the dog is extremely agitated; some vets will prescribe anti-anxiety drugs. For me, this is a last resort, but some dogs are so terrified by thunder and/or fireworks that it really is the kindest approach.
Your dog has a fearful (and possibly aggressive, which is related to fear) response to some people. It might be all men or delivery people or anyone who approaches your front door. You might not be able to figure out which people the dog will react badly to. If this is the fear trigger, call a trainer who specializes in working with fearful dogs and who uses positive training methods. This is not the time to double down on “showing the dog who’s boss” or any other common training nonsense. A professional, positive trainer will help you teach the dog that these people are not to be feared; the trainer will also teach you how to manage these situations until your dog is more comfortable. Be aware that, with some dogs, situation management will always be needed. If your dog finds children scary, again, this is a situation for a trainer and a lot of management from you.
This might be more information than you expected! But the bottom line is that it matters whether the dog is a puppy or an adult, and whether what’s triggering the response is a normal, everyday, non-scary item or something that really might be threatening. Above all, be compassionate. You are your dog’s advocate and protector. If he’s really scared, comfort him. If he’s in a situation that he feels is threatening or overwhelming, get him out of it. Let him know that he can trust you to take care of him. Then figure out whether this is a situation where you can teach him not to be afraid, where you have to manage the situation, or whether you need a trainer’s help.
This is actually tougher than it sounds. Teaching Jana this very task, 13 years ago, led to the moment that I first realized how smart Jana was — and how phenomenal dogs’ cognitive abilities are.
The task is opening a closet door. Doors with lever handles, rather than round doorknobs, are easier. The dog can easily be taught to push a door open (or closed) when the door is ajar. It’s also pretty simple to teach a dog to press the lever to release a latch and push open a door that opens inward. (Koala’s got that; see the video.)
The challenge is opening a door that needs to be released, then pulled outward.
Jana had a solid understanding of “open” and “close” the door and was easily opening the inward opening doors when we turned to this challenge. To open a latched door, she’d do an “up,” putting her front paws on the door. She’d release the latch by pressing the lever with one paw, and her weight would push the door open. This worked great for doors that could be pushed open, but presented a physics problem for doors that opened outward. The very weight needed to release the latch also pushed the door shut again.
As a new trainer, I could not figure out how to tell Jana what to do. (Honestly, I still don’t know how I’d communicate it.) I put her favorite toy behind the door and encouraged her to keep trying. Watching her repeated attempts was frustrating. But then …
Jana had an epiphany.
She put her paws on the door, as she had so many times before. She paused, looked at the door, then, slowly and deliberately, moved her right paw a couple of inches to the right. She placed her paw firmly on the doorframe. Then she triumphantly pushed the lever and pulled toward herself in a fluid motion. The door opened.
I was astonished.
That one moment was enough. Jana had solved the challenge.
Koala needs to make that same cognitive leap. She’s older (Jana was several months old at the time) and has had far more training. And Koala is a top-notch problem solver. I’m betting that she’ll get it after only a few tries. I’ll let you know when she does.
In her honor, I wanted to share some tips for helping older dogs stay safe and comfortable.
When Jana started having trouble getting up because she slipped on the smooth floors, I followed a tip from my aunt and got rubber mats. They are not the most attractive addition to household decor, but they work. Yoga mats can be used as well. The most important place to put them is near the dog’s bed(s). We lived in a tiny apartment, and I put them all along the hall and in the bedroom, giving Jana a non-slip path from bed to door. Oh, and the bed? A really nice, big, memory foam dog bed from Costco. Jana sure loved to sleep on the floor next to that bed …
Keep the dog as active as is feasible. Even a slow walk is important. It gives the dog a chance to stretch her legs, move around, sniff and catch up on the neighborhood news. Even when she was well past even pretending to want to play ball, Jana wanted to walk with Cali and me to the park, where she greeted friends, begged for cookies, and rolled in the grass.
Keep nails trimmed. Long nails can hurt when the dog walks. They also exacerbate any balance or joint issues, which are common in older dogs. Many dog owners neglect their dogs’ nails. Even if long walks on sidewalks kept the nails to a reasonable length when the dog was young, an older dog who walks less (and experiences poor balance and possible joint pain) is likely to need more attention to the nails.
Make it a priority to do activities that you know your dog loves doing. A huge regret I have is not taking Jana to the dog beach more often. Other activities she enjoyed included hanging out at the corner cafe (sans Cali), solo walks, sunning herself in the yard, visiting her friend in a nearby office, and any activity that involved cookies.
If there are younger pets or kids in the family, teach them to treat the senior with gentleness and respect, and intervene if necessary to ensure that the youngster doesn’t push the older dog around or treat her roughly.
Make sure that her food and water bowls are in a place that’s easier for her to reach, or elevate them so a large dog doesn’t have to lean (that balance again …) down to eat and drink. Jana seemed to really appreciate her elevated bowls.
Take a look around your house. Are there stairs that the dog has trouble navigating? Does she have trouble getting into or out of the car? We had no stairs, so that wasn’t an issue for Jana. I kept the passenger seat in the car moved up so she could easily step into the foot space and then onto the seat. She needed help sometimes, but preferred to get in and out alone. When she was weak, though, I used a sling to help lift her into the car. A towel works in a pinch. If you do have stairs, and your dog is prone to stumbling or becoming confused, consider blocking the stairs with a baby gate for safety. When we were in a house with lots of stairs, I would block the stairs to discourage Jana from following me if I ran up to get something. She always wanted to follow me, but if I was coming right back, I wanted to spare her the effort and pain of extra trips. She disagreed, so I used the baby gates.
Look into supplements, medications, and alternative treatments than can help with chronic issues, especially pain. I limited the amount of Rimadyl that Jana needed by taking her for regular laser therapy treatments, which reduced her arthritis pain and stiffness. Not all dogs respond to the same treatments, so you might need to try a few different things. But once you hit on something that helps, you will know; the dog will be more playful and happy. Some of the lying around and sleeping is a response to pain, not an inevitable part of aging.
Get regular vet checkups. I took Jana in for checkups and blood work twice a year after about age 8. Watch for behavior changes and discuss them with your vet. Some older dogs get a form of dementia. Learn more about what that looks like on this blog: Dog Dementia: Help and Support. Regular vet visits are a great place to learn about supplements and treatments; I also recommend the Whole Dog Journal and Dogs, Naturally; both are great resources. Also, consider a home visit from a palliative care vet. A veterinarian with expertise on aging issues can look around your house and recommend steps to make it safer and more comfortable for your aging dog. She might pick up on behaviors or problems that you hadn’t noticed or had gotten used to.
Older dogs are great company, and, like any longtime friend, you want them to be with you forever. Keep your senior dog safe and comfortable, and treasure every day you get to share.
Many dogs, including Cali, can calculate the exact place to jump into a river to intersect the tennis ball or stick that is floating along with the current. They do this while racing at top speed along the riverbank. Those same dogs can perform gorgeous acrobatics as they run and leap high into the air to catch a flying Frisbee. Cali executes stunning leaps over hills and turns gracefully in the air to catch her beloved tennis ball. Most dogs can catch a tiny piece of popcorn as it sails through the air, artfully dodging the other dog or dogs angling to snatch the same treat.
These calculations require a complex combination of skills that I, personally, have never mastered. They need to understand geometry, trigonometry, calculus, and, yes, physics. They can perform these feats while running at top speed and rarely, if ever, crashing into anything. Miraculous. They are better multitaskers than any human. These dogs could easily ace a college physics final exam.
Why, then, is gravity so hard for those same dogs to comprehend?
I play ball with Cali on the grass outside our apartment. There’s a fairly steep hill, and I often throw the ball up the hill. Cali races after it, catches it or picks it up, and sometimes, brings it back to me.
This is where we run into the gravity problem. She often drops the ball next to me, on the hill. The ball rolls down the hill. Cali gives it a perplexed look … and sits there, waiting for me to throw the ball again.
But I don’t have the ball. It’s several feet away, at the foot of the hill.
No matter how often this happens, Cali just doesn’t seem to understand.
I ask her to put the ball in my hand. She drops it. It rolls. I ask her to get it again. She looks at me as if I am crazy. I get the ball and throw it.
We repeat this cycle several times a day.
How is it that she understands calculus and trajectories but not gravity? Did she skip the first weeks of class, snooze through the midterm — and only show up for the more advanced stuff?
There is, of course, another possible explanation.
It could be that Cali finds it more entertaining to watch me fetch the ball than to get it herself. Nah, that couldn’t be it …
Photos from the CIA Pupdate: A Pup Leaves the Class.
Have you ever started a job and realized, during new hire training, that you’d made a terrible mistake? Who hasn’t decided that a job just isn’t the way they want to spend the majority of their waking hours.
Well, Lulu, a year-and-a-half-old Labrador, gave up on what many dogs might consider a highly desirable career; she quit her gig as an explosives detection dog during training. Lulu was recruited from a service dog school at a young age, apparently having decided that a life of service was also not her calling. (Often, service dog puppies with exceptionally high energy or drive are released to a career like explosives detection or search and rescue, if their energy level is not suitable for work as mobility assistance dogs.)
Lulu, according to tweets from the CIA K9 training program and articles in the New York Times and Washington Post, gave up the opportunity to work 60-hour weeks with handlers from the Fairfax County (Virginia) police department. Her new life entails playing with her former handler’s children and protecting the family home from squirrels and rabbits.
Not all dogs are cut out to be working dogs. Service dog and guide dog schools that breed are doing well if more than half the carefully bred and socialized puppies actually end up working as service dogs. Some are released for health reasons, but a large number choose, as Lulu did, to just be dogs. I’ve trained lots of Lab puppies: If food and play weren’t enough of a reward to get Lulu to love the training, she really wasn’t cut out for the work. It’s to the CIA program’s credit that they let Lulu go.
“For our K9 trainers, it’s imperative that the dogs enjoy the job they’re doing,” states the “Pupdate” announcing Lulu’s retirement.
That’s a far cry (and very welcome evolution) from the “bad old days” of training, where lackluster performance was punished. Mistakes were also punished. Insufficiently speedy correct responses might also have been punished. Dogs were compelled to do the job. I am happy that more and more organizations, from service and guide dog schools to military and police dog trainers, are learning that punishment is the wrong approach.
Think about it. If compelled, the dog might do the work, but probably not put her heart into it. If your child is lost in the woods, or your city is hosting a large public event, or your city’s buses are plagued by the threat of terrorist bombings, do you want a dog who’s just doing what he has to to avoid punishment to be the search or sniffer dog on duty? Or do you want an eager dog who loves the work, buys into the goal, and puts heart and soul into the search?
It’s also cool to note that the trainer who wrote the Pupdate talked about working through a slump, figuring out what’s bothering the dog, and motivating the pups with toys and food. That sounds like they treat the dogs as individuals with preferences and feelings, not like robots who are just expected to do as they’re told. This is how it should be; dogs are individuals and should be given opportunities to make choices and express preferences.
It also raises an important point that dog trainers and owners do well to remember: The trainee, in this case, Lulu, determines what is motivating. And what is not. Most Labs love food and will do anything for a food reward. Many dogs are delighted to earn a play reward. A dog who doesn’t want to work for these rewards either needs a creative trainer to find what motivates that dog — or she needs a different goal.
Lulu made her preference clear, and I’m pleased that she got her wish. I’m betting that the handler’s children are equally delighted with her choice.
Cali came from the best breeder I know! Do your research before taking home an adorable puppy.
I shouldn’t even need to say this … but don’t ever buy a puppy online.
First of all, you’re exposing yourself to scams. Unfortunately, internet fraud is very, very common, and people are not above making a buck by offering nonexistent puppies for sale to gullible people, lured in with adorable puppy photos. Read more in this Washington Post article, “How much is that doggy on the website.”
A law passed a few years ago attempted to crack down on internet puppy sales by requiring that seller have a physical location where buyers could see and pick up the puppies, but that’s hard to enforce.
A second problem with puppy purchases is, of course, the likelihood of purchasing a puppy mill puppy. This is terrible for so many reasons, among them: It feeds a business model that is based on mistreating dogs; the breeding dogs are often not only mistreated, they are unhealthy and could pass genetic, temperamental, and other flaws on to their puppies; and the puppies’ first weeks are spent in unhealthy, frightening, and damaging conditions. This makes everything from house training to manners and socialization far more challenging and sets up new puppy owners for a lot of unnecessary challenges and, often, failure.
One way to avoid puppy mill puppies is not purchasing online. Another is not purchasing at pet stores. If the risk of puppy mill puppies isn’t enough to convince you, consider that you and your family could also get sick. Another Washington Post article (shout out here to the best newspaper in America!) has more: “People are getting sick from a bacterial disease — and pet-store puppies might be to blame.”
Where should you get a puppy?
If you are particular about getting a specific breed, look for a reputable breeder. Good signs include:
Very thorough interview before breeder will even consider selling you a puppy
Breeder will not ship puppy to you; you must pick up the puppy in person
Breeder does not breed huge numbers of litters
Breeder insists on taking puppy back if you change your mind
Breeder knows where “her” dogs are; all of them, even older puppies whelped years ago
Breeder can prove that genetic and health checks are done on all breeding dogs
Even better — you know dogs who came from this breeder
If you’re less attached to getting a purebred puppy, look at breed rescue and other shelters and rescues in your area. The plus: you will meet your dog before taking him home. The minus: no guarantees on breeding, health, temperament, or early experiences. These dogs could come with a lot of baggage. Then again, so can a well-bred puppy. Don’t believe me? Read The Education of Will for a harrowing example.
The bottom line is, there are no guarantees, but choosing your puppy carefully is an essential first step. Relationships are hard, even when they’re with adorable four-footed fuzzballs.
