Talk:Dog

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Foods toxic to dogs section

The refernces to this section seem incomplete. I see a scientific article about xylitol, but the other foods are found in articles at entirelypets.com and peteducation.com which have no scientific sources I can see. Citetation 155 talks about 'various sources' but does not cite them. In 'Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats,' the author (a vet) talks about the danger of food allergies for dogs, but makes no mention of specific foods that are poisonious. I don't know much about this subject and would like to see more science backing these facts. AnandaDaldal (talk) 00:11, 22 April 2013 (UTC)

hi — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.13.136.235 (talk) 05:54, 23 May 2013 (UTC)

Brian Whitlock and Jordan Dale Lucas

The articles Brian Whitlock and Jordan Dale Lucas have been nominated for deletion. You might want to participate in the discussion. IQ125 (talk) 15:25, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

It appears that Jordan Dale Lucas beat his cat. Not to mention, this talk page is specifically for the article Dog. You may want to put a notice about Brian Whitlock at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Dogs. öBrambleberry of RiverClan 15:31, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Canine Embryology

I assume this would be the correct article to put any information on canine pregnancy? — Preceding unsigned comment added by CensoredScribe (talk • contribs) 18:09, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

Canine reproduction would probably be more appropriate. — Reatlas (talk) 06:25, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

Homocentric attitude

I find this below deeply homocentric and lacking any recent knowledge of wolves. It treats domestication as a likely accidental event, more to do with advantages to wolves than to humans, assumes wolves had a hard time without men, and just couldn't wait to hang around their camps waiting for the odd scrap of food they might throw away. This is arrogant homocentric nonsense; the wolf is the prime predator, it isn't and never was a beggar beholden to men for sustenance. It was much more the other way round, although wolves weren't as proactive in helping the white man as native peoples were, perhaps they sensed the deep psychopathy. They certainly much earlier aided the early hominids in surviving and learning to hunt.

'Early roles

Wolves, and their dog descendants, would have derived significant benefits from living in human camps—more safety, more reliable food, lesser caloric needs, and more chance to breed.[50] They would have benefited from humans' upright gait that gives them larger range over which to see potential predators and prey, as well as color vision that, at least by day, gives humans better visual discrimination.[50] Camp dogs would also have benefitted from human tool use, as in bringing down larger prey and controlling fire for a range of purposes.[50]'

This is not based on known facts. Wolves derived [and derive] no benefits from humans, they had reliable food, they were the apex predator and controlled their numbers according to food availability [which before man was plentiful] so 'more chance to breed' is utter nonsense. Also the 'benefited from humans' upright gait' is conjecture without any basis and contradicted by what is known about wolves and their symbiotic relationship with corvids, mainly ravens, which were/are allowed to feed on the kill without interference, play with the pups, and are generally tolerated - even tweaking adult's tails playfully at times. They provide[d] the aerial spotter the wolves lacked, and directed them to herds of prey animals often out of sight over the horizon and invisible to men too. This has been observed countless times. They also brought down prey of all sizes such as bison, musk ox, elk and reindeer, what larger prey did men 'help' them with?

'Humans would also have derived enormous benefit from the dogs associated with their camps.[51] For instance, dogs would have improved sanitation by cleaning up food scraps.[51] Dogs may have provided warmth, as referred to in the Australian Aboriginal expression "three dog night" (an exceptionally cold night), and they would have alerted the camp to the presence of predators or strangers, using their acute hearing to provide an early warning.[51]'

Of course humans 'derived enormous benefit from the dogs associated with their camps' that's why they took wolf pups to raise. Duh.

'Anthropologists believe the most significant benefit would have been the use of dogs' sensitive sense of smell to assist with the hunt.[51] The relationship between the presence of a dog and success in the hunt is often mentioned as a primary reason for the domestication of the wolf, and a 2004 study of hunter groups with and without a dog gives quantitative support to the hypothesis that the benefits of cooperative hunting was an important factor in wolf domestication.[52]'

The 'benefits of cooperative hunting' was the reason why men domesticated wolves and copied their hunting skills, with assistance from wolves. They then set out to wipe out the wolves, their competitors.

'The cohabitation of dogs and humans would have greatly improved the chances of survival for early human groups, and the domestication of dogs may have been one of the key forces that led to human success.[53]'

It was THE key element in early human success at hunting, a skill that isn't instinctive in a monkey. Canids are also much faster than hominids, they can match the speed of prey animals [and exceed their endurance] while humans can't. PetePassword (talk) 10:48, 5 October 2013 (UTC)

Interesting stuff (though not sure what "white men" and "native peoples" have to do with canid domestication). Do you have some sources you could cite for all this? If you don't know how to do them in a Wikipedia citation format, just copying and pasting links to Websites or details of published works here would be great. Barnabypage (talk) 10:55, 5 October 2013 (UTC)

PetePassword, being human-oriented is anthropocentric; homocentrism has a different definition unrelated to humanity. Do some more research: we're descended from apes (though both apes & monkeys have strong hunting instincts) our species were "native" hunter-gatherers when canines were first domesticated. Even when a species does fine in the wild, it generally will benefit from domestication (provided it isn't as food); describing how canines benefited explains why the genetics needed for it flourished long-term rather than continuing to appear only sporadically. —xyzzymage 01:52, 14 October 2013 (UTC)

Suggestion: merge "temperament test" as a section

Suggestion: I ran across the dog temperament test article earlier today, and it seems to me like the topic would work better as (and benefit from being) a sub-section of this one than as the stand-alone piece it is now. —xyzzymage 02:17, 14 October 2013 (UTC)

Do dogs mimic human sounds?

I'm not saying they understand it but stray dogs seem to uncannily mimic sounds humans make when chasing dogs away. Dogs in South India seem to be doing this ("out" sound like a common bark but the language here is distinct). It's frightening. The dog really sounded like "Dae, Dae, Dae, Dae!. 61.3.190.42 (talk) 17:08, 17 November 2013 (UTC)Bumpinthenight

Dogs come from Europe

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/14/health/dogs-domesticated-europe/index.html?hpt=hp_bn13

needs to be in article — Preceding unsigned comment added by 107.199.68.204 (talk) 02:17, 18 November 2013 (UTC)