Dogs are More Like Humans than Chimpanzees?

re: Dogs are More Like Humans than Chimpanzees?

7ladybug7 — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 04:30:51 GMT

I understand that cats, dogs, and people sometimes develop neurosis, but a normal healthy cat doesn't gulp down all his food, though it a cat is very, very, upset he will pee on an offending person's property. I had a cat that ate like a pig all the time, turned out he was ill with what the vet called a thyroid problem. As for being ill tempered, what kind of childhood did your cat have?

A few years ago I had a rescue dog, and from the papers I got with him I learned he was 7 years old and had been a show dog. He was ill tempered, bit me several times when I tried to groom him, and had to wear a muzzle when he visited the groomer, any groomer. He was in bad shape and I got him healthy, but his disposition never improved. He seemed to hate me yet he wanted to be close at the same time. I just had to wonder if he had been abused some time during his first 7 years.

I do prefer cats, but recognize many like dogs better.

Live and let live. As for dogs being smarter, I'm not convinced. The cat just doesn't care to show off his talents as does the dog.

Having said that in cat's behalf I would much rather be closer to any dog than any monkey or ape. Such disgusting creatures, can't even be house broken.

re: Dogs are More Like Humans than Chimpanzees?

well_dun — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 04:17:49 GMT

I am a "practicing skeptic" When I think about the concept of the universe, it boggles my mind. Where does the universe begin & end? And what is beyond that? Another universe. And beyond that? When & how did it start? And what was before that? And on & on. Researchers are finding answers to some of these riddles, but when I think about the above questions, my brain starts hurting! If I turn these same questions to the concept of "god", I come away with the possibility that there could be a supreme being, altho the idea of the "Biblical God" that meddles in everyone's day to day lives seems like so much superstition to me. And organized religion(s), while being of some benefit, cause much harm & divisiveness. Even in my small town...quick!... who's got the true religion, the Lutherans or Presbyterians? Depends on who you talk to.

And now I'll make the non-religious people dislike me too...The word for dog in one (or more) of the Native American languages translates as "eater of feces" (from Patricia McConnell, Calling All Pets, NPR) & I can attest to that! They are annoyingly noisy, especially at 3 in the morning, pesky (constant poking with a slimy nose to be petted), & often smelly. Whereas you have to earn a cat's friendship, a dog is all over you, whether you want them or not. I always thought that was the reason why more men are dog-lovers, they like that slavish devotion! Here's the kicker, for me- a cat licks itself to groom itself all over, while a dog will lick, and lick, and LICK his "unmentionables" with what seems like sheer relish, and then gets up & wants to lick ME! Yuck! And I have seen dog owners kiss their animals on the mouth- double yuck!

And no- I don't hate all dogs - I am friends with a few well-behaved ones- and I always have doggy- treats for the ones that come around at Halloween!

re: Dogs are More Like Humans than Chimpanzees?

katke99 — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 21:56:06 GMT

Yikes...I was just enjoying the Mercola and Becker info and POV and decided to go to the end of the comments and what else comes in as more than a thread--religious views and rants on science. Why it has to evolve into this is a pain. I wonder if they ever enjoy anything without this useless venting. Peace...

re: Dogs are More Like Humans than Chimpanzees?

Mopan — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:50:08 GMT

Well, of course! That's because chimpanzees are more intelligent than humans. Plus no one has to whisper to a chimp. Anyone out there ever read "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn.

Meanwhile I'll keep trying to be the person my dog thinks I am.

Come to think of it, I starting to believe that dogs are more intelligent than humans too.........

re: Dogs are More Like Humans than Chimpanzees?

doggiemomma — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:36:43 GMT

I am not a religious person, but I do believe that everyone has the right to form thier own opinions and make their own choices. It does make me sad to see that every blogged post on here ends in a battle over religios beliefs/disbeliefs. The post was about DOG not GOD! and yet the last two pages of posts have competely(yet again) eluded the topic. I agree that it is tiresome to have someone push their beliefs onto others when it is unwelcome. But there is no excuse from either side! I don't believe in God, but why try to take it away from those who do? At least they have found hope in the hopelessness! As for the others that don't believe in God, at least they have found hope in themselves! Evolution does not disprove God, God does not disprove evolution. Nobody can say for FACT God does or does not exist. AND back to the ARTICLE:Thank you Dr Mercola for another intriging topic, My dog DIABLO and I look forward to the new site!

re: Dogs are More Like Humans than Chimpanzees?

Rivkah_203 — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 09:55:58 GMT

"A new paper argues that dogs should serve as the "new chimpanzees" in comparative studies designed to shed light on human uniqueness." I just hope that this isn't use to justify any horrid testing on man's best friend :/ Our little Sophia (8 year old lab mix pound "puppy") is the apple of the family's eye.

re: Dogs are More Like Humans than Chimpanzees?

Eagle Gal — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 06:54:20 GMT

Regarding evolution vs. creationism: I am still working on reading Genesis - after more than 50 years, I just can't get by the image of the children of Adam and Eve having sex with each other, which would be illegal in most countries today and what does that do to the gene pool? Whoa. I love my brothers but I think it is illegal and immoral to have sex with them and have not done so.

re: Dogs are More Like Humans than Chimpanzees?

MaudeAnderson — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 03:35:48 GMT

Agree absolutely with the comments. It is no coincidence that the Soviets first used a dog to examine Mammalian response to space flight.

kind regards to all readers from Perth Australia

re: Dogs are More Like Humans than Chimpanzees?

Jonathan B — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:49:20 GMT

Socially mankind and dogs are far closer than Mankind and chimps, because dogs have been a part of our society since pre-history and before

written history.

When man lived in hunting-gathering societys, they had dogs for hunting and herding of domestic herd animals, and for guarding

the camps.

There have been some societies that did not have a close relationship with dogs, and I suspect these societies did not use dogs as

hunting companions, but the dogs were trash eaters, scavengers, camp guards, and camp followers.

Even in these instances, dogs served a useful purpose, in that they kept spoiled food from breeding disease, and kept the camp clean, killed vermin,

and ran off bears and wolves.

I suspect that cats also came into human history for the reason that they were scrap eaters, vermin killers, and camp followers.

Cats must have proved invaluable when human agriculture started, since they would have hunted and killed insects, mice, rats, and other vermin that

would have decimated crops, which may be why the Egyptions kept them in such high esteem as to create Bastet, a deity modeled after cats.

I am also of the belief that dogs have shaped human behavior in much the same way that we shaped their behavior, in that humans tend to hunt in

packs, establish dominance in their groups, and sit on watch at night when in the wild, in much the ways that dogs do. Males especially seem to

model dogpack behavior, while women seem to be more similar to cats. Cats, I suspect, shape human behavior in that they give us attention and

purring when we are doing something they like, and they reject us, when we do not show them attention or respect.

re: Dogs are More Like Humans than Chimpanzees?

andyd — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:38:28 GMT

I so wish Dr. Mercola would stick to what he knows and excels in. I find his insights into natural medicine and health issues so informative but only find myself getting irritated (and starting to question his wisdom) once he starts delving into divisive worldview issues like his opinions on evolution. Dr. Mercola: why do you alienate potential members of your community with these kind of articles that are totally off topic to your main expertise?

I am a Biblical Creationist (which is really only somebody who believes what the Bible says, instead of trying to reinterpret it) and believe that dogs are simply the result of genetic specialization (some would call it "speciation") from the originally created "wolf kind", one of the original "kinds" created on the sixth day. All the rich genetic information for the characteristics we see today in dogs was already contained within the DNA of that original wolf kind. Evolution has no plausible mechanism to create new genetic information within the DNA code.

For those who are asking "who created God", you need to read your Bible as it clearly tells you the answer to that question. God is the uncreated one, He has always been and always will be (omniscient) and created even time itself. You are either going to believe in an uncreated God or you are going to believe in an uncreated universe, either way you have to believe that something came from nothing and are faced with a dilemma that the human mind cannot wrap itself around.

re: Dogs are More Like Humans than Chimpanzees?

OhZone — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:32:45 GMT

I don't think that humans either evolved or were created on Earth.

Evolution is about survival.

Humans did not "evolve" in a way that made us better able to survive on Earth.

Everything about us is weaker and inferior to every other species on Earth.

In our natural state we could not survive.

When the so-called scientists start thinking outside of the box, they may consider that we were actually brought here from another planet somewhere in the Universe where life is a lot easier.

re: Dogs are More Like Humans than Chimpanzees?

Track Record — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:03:58 GMT

This information provides a good service to the general public. Currently society is gene obsessed. Scientific quacks can explain almost anything by classical genetics and a great deal of money is being made from genetic analysis purported to be more valuable than it really is. The truth is we know very little as of yet about genes; for example we have tremendous difficulty even counting them. Since the human genome was "decoded" the total number has fallen from approximately 100,000 to 20,000. Where did the other 80,000 go? nobody seems to know. In the dog breeding world a dangerous trend has developed to overemphasize the use of genetic tests. The unit of natural selection is not the gene as is commonly stated, it is the phenotype. The obviousness of this is exemplified by this article. If this were not true then the genome of dogs and humans would have gotten closer over time as they adapted to each other. What has actually happened is that the phenotypes of human and dog have gotten closer. Phenotype may be difficult to understand, you can look it up on Wikipedia, but a simplified explanation is that it is the manifestation of everything that makes up the being. The classical genome definitely is a component but not the whole thing, and in fact the way that the phenotypes of man and dog have drawn closer is quite possibly due to epigenetic programming of the genes. Yes that's right, few will admit it, but 20,000 classical genes cannot contain enough data to build a human. The way nature got around it is that the genes are not simple replicas but are intrinsically programmable and it is the epigenetic reprogramming of the genes that is manifested in the phenotype. So until we learn a heck of a lot more about genetics we should select animals for breeding by phenotype selection the same way all the breeds we have today were created by the hard-earned breeding intelligence of the old time breeders.

re: Dogs are More Like Humans than Chimpanzees?

pink carnation — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:08:11 GMT

Ceasar Milan would agree wholeheartedly with this article ! :-)

http://www.cesarmillaninc.com

This is one of the best shows I've ever seen.

Even helps with childrearing !!

re: Dogs are More Like Humans than Chimpanzees?

aurora55 — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:01:31 GMT

You mention The Dog Whisperer as being Caesar Milan, and although he has a lot of interesting insights into dog training, reading his book made me scared of my little puppy (a VERY sweet golden retriever). Instead, I recommend the work and training techniques of THE ORIGINAL DOG WHISPERER - PAUL OWENS. Paul uses a much kinder, and in my opinion more effective, approach to training and raising your pooch. He is also more naturally oriented, sanctioning a raw diet, for example. I trained my puppy to do "down" in about thirty seconds (seriously) using his training methods, and I've learned that she really just wants to please me. What a dramatic difference!!!!!!

re: Dogs are More Like Humans than Chimpanzees?

taterbug1999 — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:44:04 GMT

I am not a Creationist, per say, but I do believe in God, our devine creator. The point I would like to make for discussion is that while at the Creation Museum, the Creationists make the point that in the story of Noah, there wouldn't have been millions of species on the Ark, but rather a main parent species or few for the animals we see now. For example in the article above, it is revealed that all dogs came from the gray wolf and then the species diverged over time into all the breeds we have today. As the Creationists present it, this "parent" species would have left the Ark and then bred and changed as it and it's offspring spread out into different parts of the earth, demanding differing specializations of their species. This is very interesting, as I recently watched a show discussing how all cats came from a common ancestor and that all cats are similarly related as dogs. I wanted to point this out because many people are bunking the idea of creative design, but these examples are rather interesting points that I feel are worthy of taking note. I have noted on here in the past, that even if you believe in evolution and the big bang as our beginnings....who or what created the things that went bang so they could "evolve"? I have yet to receive a good viable for that question.