• Why Wolves Are Forever Wild, but Dogs Can Be Tamed.
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[TABLE="class: outer_border, width: 600, align: left"] [TR] [TD] [TABLE="width: 550, align: left"] [TR] [TD][h2]Why Wolves Are Forever Wild, but Dogs Can Be Tamed[/h2][B]Dogs and wolves are genetically so similar, it's been difficult for biologists to understand why wolves remain fiercely wild, while dogs can gladly become "man's best friend." Now, doctoral research by evolutionary biologist Kathryn Lord at the University of Massachusetts Amherst suggests the different behaviors are related to the animals' earliest sensory experiences and the critical period of socialization. Details appear in the current issue of Ethology.[/B][/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD] [TABLE="width: 400, align: center"] [TR] [TD="align: center"][quote][IMG]http://images.sciencedaily.com/2013/01/130117152012-large.jpg?1358455679[/IMG][/quote][/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD] [TABLE="width: 550, align: center"] [TR] [TD]Until now, little was known about sensory development in wolf pups, and assumptions were usually extrapolated from what is known for dogs, Lord explains. This would be reasonable, except scientists already know there are significant differences in early development between wolf and dog pups, chief among them timing of the ability to walk, she adds. To address this knowledge gap, she studied responses of seven wolf pups and 43 dogs to both familiar and new smells, sounds and visual stimuli, tested them weekly, and found they did develop their senses at the same time. But her study also revealed new information about how the two subspecies of Canis lupus experience their environment during a four-week developmental window called the critical period of socialization, and the new facts may significantly change understanding of wolf and dog development. When the socialization window is open, wolf and dog pups begin walking and exploring without fear and will retain familiarity throughout their lives with those things they contact. Domestic dogs can be introduced to humans, horses and even cats at this stage and be comfortable with them forever. But as the period progresses, fear increases and after the window closes, new sights, sounds and smells will elicit a fear response. Through observations, Lord confirmed that both wolf pups and dogs develop the sense of smell at age two weeks, hearing at four weeks and vision by age six weeks on average. However, these two subspecies enter the critical period of socialization at different ages. Dogs begin the period at four weeks, while wolves begin at two weeks. Therefore, how each subspecies experiences the world during that all-important month is extremely different, and likely leads to different developmental paths, she says. Lord reports for the first time that wolf pups are still blind and deaf when they begin to walk and explore their environment at age two weeks. "No one knew this about wolves, that when they begin exploring they're blind and deaf and rely primarily on smell at this stage, so this is very exciting," she notes. She adds, "When wolf pups first start to hear, they are frightened of the new sounds initially, and when they first start to see they are also initially afraid of new visual stimuli. As each sense engages, wolf pups experience a new round of sensory shocks that dog puppies do not." Meanwhile, dog pups only begin to explore and walk after all three senses, smell, hearing and sight, are functioning. Overall, "It's quite startling how different dogs and wolves are from each other at that early age, given how close they are genetically. A litter of dog puppies at two weeks are just basically little puddles, unable to get up or walk around. But wolf pups are exploring actively, walking strongly with good coordination and starting to be able to climb up little steps and hills." These significant, development-related differences in dog and wolf pups' experiences put them on distinctly different trajectories in relation to the ability to form interspecies social attachments, notably with humans, Lord says. This new information has implications for managing wild and captive wolf populations, she says. Her experiments analyzed the behavior of three groups of young animals: 11 wolves from three litters and 43 dogs total. Of the dogs, 33 border collies and German shepherds were raised by their mothers and a control group of 10 German shepherd pups were hand-raised, meaning a human was introduced soon after birth. At the gene level, she adds, "the difference may not be in the gene itself, but in when the gene is turned on. The data help to explain why, if you want to socialize a dog with a human or a horse, all you need is 90 minutes to introduce them between the ages of four and eight weeks. After that, a dog will not be afraid of humans or whatever else you introduced. Of course, to build a real relationship takes more time. But with a wolf pup, achieving even close to the same fear reduction requires 24-hour contact starting before age three weeks, and even then you won't get the same attachment or lack of fear."[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD][B]Journal: [/B] Kathryn Lord. A Comparison of the Sensory Development of Wolves (Canis lupus lupus) and Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris). Ethology, 2013; 119 (2): 110 DOI: [URL]http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/eth.12044[/URL][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD][B]SOURCE: [/B] [URL]http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130117152012.htm[/URL][/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]
shit i wanted to ride a wolf
No pet wolf? This makes me sad.
Interesting how psychology plays a big part in how an animal develops and performs in their survival life and interaction characteristics Even more interesting is how the wolf pups explore without their basic senses
I saw an interesting experiment looking into wolves where a group of people basically looked after, fed and nurtured wolf pups from as soon as they were born, and did the same with some dog puppies. The wolves were still friendly with the people when they reached adolescent stage, but the major difference was that in different tests, dogs would always look to humans for feedback or assistance if they were stuck, but wolves would just keep going on as if the person wasn't there, not paying attention to them at all, showing that domestication has been bred into them, and isnt just a social factor.
As a dog puppy owner i find this incredibly interesting. Maybe they will soon explain to me why my puppy likes to rip the newspapers she has pissed on...
What about the wolf man? He's bros with the wolves.
Dogs are also but wolves are the bestest! <3 [editline]17th January 2013[/editline] I fucking love wolves! [editline]17th January 2013[/editline] <- My Deviantart is proof of that.
[QUOTE=ripsipiirakk;39258498]As a dog puppy owner i find this incredibly interesting. Maybe they will soon explain to me why my puppy likes to rip the newspapers she has pissed on...[/QUOTE] I would think that she's trying to basically cover it up with some dirt.
Meinccraft faggot idiot scum will be pissed [highlight](User was banned for this post ("This still isn't 4chan" - daijitsu))[/highlight]
I had a husky-wolf mix, she was born shortly after me and grew up fast. Always did that thing wolves do where she'll peek around a corner before entering an area ...wow I tried looking up a good picture of 'wolf peeking around corner' and all I got was a wall of [url=http://i.imgur.com/G3OeC.png]weird clipart[/url] of a billion things drawn in the same style peeking around corners
[QUOTE=daijitsu;39258787]I had a husky-wolf mix[/QUOTE] Was it a high or low content wolfdog?
So, wolf pups start walking around with only their sense of smell for direction? Wow. I guess that really says something about how strong their sense of smell is compared to ours. [QUOTE=mac338;39258826]Was it a high or low content wolfdog?[/QUOTE] It was a 2% reduced-wolf dog, medium pup, with added calcium, no preservatives, from concentrate.
[QUOTE=mac338;39258826]Was it a high or low content wolfdog?[/QUOTE] Mother was husky/sheepdog mix, father was a wild wolf. The mother is presumably lucky to have come across one that was friendly/mistook her for also being a wolf, I dunno. [editline]e[/editline] she was a really loving dog though, never angry. Loved giving neck-hugs and just kind of sitting around. When she went deaf, she reacted weird though, barking and snarling like she was confused and afraid, not to be threatening but just kind of as an enactment of her feelings.
Darwin wrote of a dog that had a wolf several stages back in its family line, and unlike other dogs with the same training it refused to come in a straight line when called. It was one of his observations that he linked to heredity of traits. "...whose great-grandfather was a wolf, and this dog showed a trace of his wild parentage only in one way, by not coming in a straight line to his master, when called."
Dogs are cool and shit I haven't played with one in a long time :'(
[QUOTE=daijitsu;39258787]I had a husky-wolf mix, she was born shortly after me and grew up fast. Always did that thing wolves do where she'll peek around a corner before entering an area ...wow I tried looking up a good picture of 'wolf peeking around corner' and all I got was a wall of [URL="http://i.imgur.com/G3OeC.png"]weird clipart[/URL] of a billion things drawn in the same style peeking around corners[/QUOTE] What's that? Did i hear someone say JESUS!? [img]http://i.imgur.com/0KUo5.png?1[/img]
Extremely misleading title. The study/experiment did not state that wolves cannot be tamed. It just stated how wolves develop, and unless you can get to them in this critical period of time, you cannot tame them. Currently there's no way we can feasibly do it without harming them. Another thing that isn't taken into account is that you can selectively breed them and we know for a fact that you can domesticate wolves like that. [editline]17th January 2013[/editline] [quote]"... if you want to socialize a dog with a human or a horse, all you need is 90 minutes to introduce them between the ages of four and eight weeks. After that, a dog will not be afraid of humans or whatever else you introduced. Of course, to build a real relationship takes more time. But with a wolf pup, achieving even close to the same fear reduction requires 24-hour contact starting before age three weeks, and even then you won't get the same attachment or lack of fear."[/quote]
[QUOTE=daijitsu;39258787]I had a husky-wolf mix[/QUOTE] Yeah same. She was super protective to the degree that she would growl if my mom came near me. One time she wouldn't let her leave me home alone, though, so not sure what she was getting at. Though I don't think she was a husky-wolf.
[QUOTE=DaysBefore;39260282]Yeah same. She was super protective to the degree that she would growl if my mom came near me. One time she wouldn't let her leave me home alone, though, so not sure what she was getting at. Though I don't think she was a husky-wolf.[/QUOTE] So... What you're saying is you had a dog that behaved normally ?
[QUOTE=SuPeR_MaN;39260337]So... What you're saying is you had a dog that behaved normally ?[/QUOTE] Growling at parents and trying to prevent their owner from leaving home is normal?
[QUOTE=LtKyle2;39260418]Growling at parents and trying to prevent their owner from leaving home is normal?[/QUOTE] if the dog understands that she's the provider and takes care of you, maybe it'd understand that the parent leaving is bad. Lots of dogs tend to be very nervous when owners leave the house, separation anxiety and the lack of understanding when you'll be back.
[quote]Therefore, how each subspecies experiences the world during that all-important month is extremely different, and likely leads to different developmental paths, she says.[/quote] I'm sorry, but doesn't this apply to humans as well? Except that our infancy is longer.
[QUOTE=Gekkosan;39260682]I'm sorry, but doesn't this apply to humans as well? Except that our infancy is longer.[/QUOTE] yes. There's a pretty solid theory about why we outdid neanderthals related to exactly this. They aged very quickly to adulthood, which was great as far as producing numbers and having active hunter-gatherers to feed the family, but our longer child stage allowed us to grow smarter, create better tools, and effectively murder off our stronger cousin species yay humans
Also if I'm not totally wrong the research suggests that a wolf could probably be raised as a non-wild one if it was simply introduced to human home conditions right from birth instead of being born and raised out in the wild.
Relevant: [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesticated_silver_fox[/url] [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_K._Belyaev[/url] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoB0pdhxfZs[/media]
I think having a wolf dog would be awesome But I'd def need a house with a huge yard, lots of time spent training it and just spending time with it and a willingness to deal with a completely annhiliated house for a couple of years. You know, since they are basically like the most ornery of breeds except double, plus they don't really view anyone as masters so you have to spend a lot of time with them and time training in order to get them to see you as an alpha of sorts. [editline]18th January 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=Gekkosan;39260737]Also if I'm not totally wrong the research suggests that a wolf could probably be raised as a non-wild one if it was simply introduced to human home conditions right from birth instead of being born and raised out in the wild.[/QUOTE] This is pretty much what wolves in captivity are like. It's important to note though that they still do "wolfish" things even when born into captivity and around humans. They aren't agressive twoards people at all and they rely on you for food, but by all other accounts they still act and behave like wolves.
Wolf dogs are more of a gamble. There is no universal feature for wolf dog hybrids. I have met ones that you'd never know they were half wolf except for how they appeared. I know there are also ones that go full wolf and are effectively never domesticated. They also come in shades in between though. A friend of my father's years ago had the weirdest wolf dog hybrid. It was eternally torn between being friendly and being aloof. The dog would wait in the woods or bushes and watch you, occasionally changing locations, but always staying inside cover. It would be unnerving except there was one way to always get him to come up to you-pet the other dog. Their other dog was just a lab and was totally normal. If you would pet him, the wolf hybrid would immediately get jealous and approach you to be petted. It worked [I]every[/I] time. The inside of that poor hybrid's head must be so confusing. He wanted attention so badly.
[QUOTE=Zephyrs;39260939]Relevant: [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesticated_silver_fox[/url] [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_K._Belyaev[/url] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoB0pdhxfZs[/media][/QUOTE] I did a bit of research on pet foxes a while back, they're awesome but expensive as hell to get. Also would like them to come in classic red, heh
[QUOTE=daijitsu;39259479]Mother was husky/sheepdog mix, father was a wild wolf. The mother is presumably lucky to have come across one that was friendly/mistook her for also being a wolf, I dunno. [editline]e[/editline] she was a really loving dog though, never angry. Loved giving neck-hugs and just kind of sitting around. When she went deaf, she reacted weird though, barking and snarling like she was confused and afraid, not to be threatening but just kind of as an enactment of her feelings.[/QUOTE] Was the dog able to breed or was it sterile? (similarly to the way a mule is sterile)
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