Elizabeth Pennisi's article, Doggie See, Doggie Do for 26 April 2007 of ScienceNOW Daily News, talks directly to even non-scientists in a way that pet-owners and dog-owners instantly understand. Man's best friend for thousands of years, a friend that has developed and been shaped and developed genetically by humans from wolves into the specialized working or companionship roles now assigned to them are now being recognized as possessing human traits and abilities that likely are possessed by nearly all mammals associated with humans. Or are these human traits at all?

For example, my faithful dog Spot, (really, he has one "spot" on him and was named by someone else) has a dog, too. Spot is one of the finest examples of what Elizabeth Pennisi writes about below. Spot wants to be and is naturally and especially protective of me and people he associates with me, or with my (our) "pack". And so is another younger dog, imitating Spot.

I first introduce Spot to new-comers or visitors directly, and Spot does his smell thing, checking them out, and his behavior is imitated by a really gentle bigger dog given to our pack by a neighbor. I have to say, to the visitors, "I want you to meet my dog, "Spot", and also meet Spot's dog, Marcos."

Marcos imitates Spot in checking out the visitors, then stands at a protective attention just like Spot. These two dogs make you believe you could get bitten or at least nipped-at if you move 'wrong' or aggresively in my presence. Marcos learned it all from Spot. By imitating Spot, Marcos learned even and always never to bite anyone. My two dogs let me do the first "biting."

Pennisi writes, "Dog-owners have no doubt that their pets are, in many ways, just like people. Dogs speak when spoken to, play games, and even eat with the family. Now researchers have discovered yet another human trait that pooches possess: selective imitation. Dogs mimic each other's behavior, but only when they think that behavior might be a more efficient way to get something done. The discovery indicates that this type of imitation--a prerequisite for cultural learning--may predate primates."

Pennisi points to the fact that, "Humans regularly evaluate the actions of others and decide whether or not to copy them. In 2002, researchers discovered that infants do this too. In one experiment, 3- to 12-month old babies watched a female researcher turn on a light box by touching its top with her forehead, not her hands. If she wrapped a blanket around her body during the demonstration, the babies activated the box with their hands--a more efficient way of turning on the lights. They recognized that the woman couldn't use her hands and had to use her head. But when the researcher performed the task without the blanket, a second group of infants opted to copy her head-movements, as if deciding that if the woman did it, then it must be a better way to go. This ability to learn selectively by example, which has also been seen in apes, is key to picking up language and other social skills efficiently."

In my case with Spot, I relied upon Spot to teach Marcos the correct dog behavior for social outing's, like "hop into the back of the small pickup and we will go somewhere to a deserted County dirt road and get some running exercise and pickup new smells and stay in the back of the pickup until commanded. "Okay, lets run." And run, but not run off."

When Marcos would stray, Spot would go get him and correct his behavior, making Marcos imitate Spot. The person who had owned Marcos never used sound to communicate with Marcos and I first thought Marcos was deaf. Spot picks up on all hand and voice communication. The great day in Marcos's new life was in learning that the sounds I was making carried meaning! If you are able to remember learning to read, and how our western alphabet's letters represented spoken sounds that have communication value -- you might recognize and remember the same insight this gave to Marcos realizing that when I was talking to him the sounds carried meaning, content.

With Spot's help, and the ability to imitate, Marcos has turned into Spot's dog.

To learn more about the evolution of this selective mimicking, Pennisi writes, ethologist Friederike Range of the University of Vienna, Austria, and colleagues tested whether dogs can also make these decisions. The researchers divided 54 dogs of various breeds into three groups. One group watched a border collie trained to get food by pressing down a bar using just its paws, and not via the easier technique of grabbing it with its mouth. Another watched the same behavior, but this time the border collie had a ball in its mouth. A third group did not witness any demonstrations.

Pennisi reports the group's research, "In the first instance, 83% of the dogs imitated the dog using its paws to get the treat. In the second, just 21% used their paws, and in the third, only 15% used their paws. As with the infants turning on the light box, the dogs only imitated another dog when they assumed its behavior was the most efficient way to get a treat, the team reports online today in Current Biology."

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VRT-4NKBNBJ-6&_user=10&_coverDate=04%2F26%2F2007&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=709d7f4d6b51a2dc2d117c32ad621139

[See the site above for the research paper, and read the summary.]

Pennisi points out the "Chimp with Sharp Sticks have discovered something" human superiority researcher mode in, " The fact that dogs have this behavior suggests one doesn't need the full repertoire of human cognitive skills to selectively imitate the actions of another, says Range."
"What's unclear, she notes, is whether dogs have evolved this ability independently, or because of their close connections with humans." Pennisi observes.

Pennisi quotes, "This is an intriguing study, not just because it's the "first good evidence" of imitation in dogs, but because on top of that, we see a quite sophisticated level of selectivity in what the dogs are prepared to copy," says Andrew Whiten, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of St. Andrews in Fife, the United Kingdom. But György Gergely, a psychologist at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, says further testing--as was later done with infants--is needed to conclusively show that dogs are thinking on the same level as humans.

See similarly approached thinking from researches here:

http://www.xomba.com/primatologists_stunned_imaginations_exceeded_anthropologist_astonished

Where written reports of Chimp behavior is also ignored for several hundred years, again, and where similar researcher behavior is clearly the same behavior of these human types as part of the price of admission to "the field." More imitation.

Elizabeth Pennisi recommends this site:

http://assets.cambridge.org/052180/6852/sample/0521806852ws.pdf

Andrew Meltzoff's work and references are a school of thought and insight too.

One of my early experiments with long gone canines included a clear spatial perceptual ability of dogs to select the largest potato chip of four over other equally tasty and closer smaller potato chips. When offered the choices with an uncertainty as to the number of chips the experimenter would let the subject have, my dog always chose the largest. This is a kind of get your teeth into the mostest, since they might be withdrawn.

Boris (named after Spassky) from 30 years ago, would not jump a fence or a even into a pickup if he did not know or had not seen what was there that he could land upon. I would say "Jump this!" And Boris would sneak a peek around the barrier or leap high enough to observe and analyze what was on the other side to see if there was anything of danger, then come back and perform the requested jump. (Look before you leap -- thinking.) No. I never asked him to jump into danger.

Marcos has not mastered any words in our language, since dogs do not have the vocal apparatus to come close. But when Marcos uses dog-language to talk to me, in dog's gutteral and rangy voicing, I listen, trying to learn what he is saying. There is always a doggy desire he is trying to communicate, and manipulate me into performing the correct action, for him. Simple levels of communication -- of course, "dogs can't do that!" Sure they let you know when they gotta go out! (That's different? Come on. . .)

Sometimes, Marcos and I will sing together, counterpoint. I'll sing a few lines, usually old popular lyrics. Marcos will come in at the end of my phrase, sometimes on top of the last few words. And Spot will come in on the very high notes, some beyond my range of hearing. I still don't know what the sounds mean but it firms up and shores up our "pack."

The behavior is what is important . . . as long as one recognizes that animals can't act in nearly as sophisticated a fashion as humans. . .and because of that, we must exploit them as an opportunity???

Imitation Science?

The field of imitation science is wide open. As more and more of our species becomes less and less involved with life, less connected to other living things, we will surely see this kind of thing over and over. "This kind of thing" being the result of the disconnectedness our urbanites have with both ouir food animals and with our non-food "pet" or domesticated animals.

Science as an endeavor imitates life? Be careful when discussing imitation research -- people might think you are talking about the real thing. Er, uh. . .about real science, or real imitation science.

Intelligence?

Difference of degree, not difference of kind?

This is Elizabeth Pennisi's article's location:

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/426/2