They say we shouldn’t anthropomorphize animals. We shouldn’t project onto their behaviors human motivations, so goes the advice; maybe we could develop a Maslow’s pyramid for them without stretching too much, but it’d be a mistake to give them them an upper level labeled “self-actualization.”
Still, you know, it’s hard — almost impossible — not to at least ask questions about mysterious animal behavior. Why are they doing X?, What’s the survival or evolutionary value of Y?, and so on.
Given a red-rubber toy like the one shown here, and little crunchy treats wedged into the opening, a dog (they say) will of course attempt to get the treats out. The act of figuring it out, and then executing it, can occupy (they say) a dog’s mind for long blocks of time.
All this theory seems to work just fine with The Pooch in our household. What we can’t figure out is what, exactly, was the… hmm… the decision-making process which led to her particular solution. The solution goes something like this:
- Bark madly in anticipation while toy and treat are being merged by human’s clever forepaws.
- When toy is tossed onto the floor, launch yourself in its pursuit.
- Attack toy by, uh, barking madly as you push at it with the side of your head.
- Occasionally switch to dental-attack mode, until human expresses interest in toy.
- When hapless human expresses interest, get toy immediately out of human reach.
- Carry off toy’s lifeless (or at least deafened) corpse to somewhere safe, where it and the treat may be successfully taken apart.
- Continue barking intermittently, apparently just out of the sheer joy of unchained doggishness.
Now, unlike the stereotypical small dog, The Pooch — a Yorkshire terrier weighing less than five pounds — is not generally a yapper. But give her one of these toys and she loses all mooring in common sense.
Exhibit A, my first YouTube upload ever:
Frightening, eh wot?
s.o.m.e.one's brudder says
Well the reCaptcha today reads “enabled and”, which for me, summarizes what I observed in your first ever YouTube – you’ve enabled her barking behavior and taken glee in doing so. What I’m really interested in, though, is whether there’s a cat equivalent of this toy/gadget as Phineas is suffering the worst cabin fever and we’re fearful that he is soon going to dissemble his owner’s in lieu of his usual outdoor activities (12″ of snow still on ground).
DarcKnyt says
Gotta love dogs, don’tcha? I don’t always know what makes ’em tick, but you gotta love ’em.
And you know what? I think anthropomorphizing them is fair and fine. Why not? We don’t always understand ourselves either. ;)
The Querulous Squirrel says
I don’t see anything wrong at anthropomorphising. If my treats were thrown at me in toys, you can bet I’d be chasing and barking as loud as possible to look bigger and scarier and keep everyone else away from my stuff.
Tessa says
We used to give one of those to our late, lamented hound – the dimmest Golden Retriever in Christendom. But we stuffed it with peanut butter, and she had no problem sucking and slurping it out. It used to keep her occupied for hours. Perhaps your pooch is frustrated by the conundrum of getting square biscuits out of a round hole? Or maybe Squirrel is right – she’s defending her stuff!
John says
I think the whole “anthropomorphism is bad” line was the creation of frustrated theorists who simply hated that they themselves couldn’t make heads or — ha! — tails of animal behavior. (I think I read recently that the pendulum has begun to swing back ever so slightly in the other direction — more like, “Well, be careful and don’t overgeneralize. But yes, they’re almost-sorta-kinda just like us!”)
brudder: Phineas, I’m guessing, is a cat of somewhat advanced years. Right? If so, there may be nothing to cure his cabin fever but powerful hallucinogens. After all, the weather is a bit “nippy,” isn’t it? *chorus of groans*
Darc: I think my favorite moments to watch dogs are when they don’t know they’re being watched. This is actually hard to do, because they’re so attuned to human attention. But catching them in the act of being themselves is great fun!
Squirrel: If someone with your online moniker had begun her comment any other way, I’d have jumped all over it. :) Anyway, the weird thing is that she doesn’t seem to be “yelling” at those who might want to take the toy away, except incidentally: she seems to be yelling at the toy itself. Partially this is because (I think) the toy behaves erratically and unpredictably. When tossed, it bounces everywhere and nowhere in particular. When pushed with the canine face it sometimes goes forward and sometimes rolls right around behind the chin. I think the barking may be a tool of subjugation.
Tessa: Ooooh, I’ve been wondering about stuffing it with something lip-smacking like that. All that’s stopped me was putting myself in the dog’s, er, shoes — I’m not sure how I’d get all that yummy stuff out, either. And I worry that she’d get bored and frustrated, leave it in there, and never play with the toy again.
Sigh. Animals dictating human behavior again…
cynth says
That was such a classic, John! I laughed out loud and then when hubby came in to see what I was laughing at, he thought I was looking at the dog next door, instead of yours…he gets confused easily. I love trying to figure out why dogs (or cats for that matter) do anything and always think that someday I’ll understand them. I never have.
By the way, Phineas loves to play catch or at least “go fetch” –the only cat I’ve ever seen that does it. Perhaps Some could take some time out to play catch with him…for about 3 or 4 hours!
Just a thought…
John says
cynth: Glad you liked it… she’s a charmer!
As for the Phineas aside, that generally seems to be The Pooch’s rule, too — you can engage her in almost anything as long as there’s actual interaction going on. This whole assault-the-toy thing began simply when we tossed it to the end of the hall, but now we actually have to (HAVE TO, did you get that?) talk to her now and then to let her know we’re still interested. Hence the cameraman’s occasional prompts in the video.
Duchess says
My dog – a toy poodle – loves that object. In fact it is almost all that he cares about when it is around, and I have never filled it with any food at all.
A physicist invented it, apparently, and the thing that makes it totally engrossing to dogs is that it bounces unpredictably.
John says
Duchess: It doesn’t surprise me at all that a physicist would have come up with it! It really is ingenious.
There’s another toy made by the same company, which looks like this:
and is called a “Goodie Ship” for what I am sure are rational reasons. If you put a long enough “something” through the center, and toss it, it hops completely crazily — driving The Pooch mad.
We’ve found that she likes us to interact with her while she
plays withattacks these things… to the point, almost, that she won’t play with them on her own anymore.