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The recent popularity of "designer" dogs, cats, micro-pigs and other pets may seem to suggest that pet keeping is no more than a fad. Indeed, it is often assumed that pets are a Western affectation, a weird relic of the working animals kept by communities of the past.
About half of the households in Britain alone include some kind of pet; roughly 10m of those are dogs while cats make up another 10m. Pets cost time and money, and nowadays bring little in the way of material benefits. But during the 2008 financial crisis, spending on pets remained almost unaffected, which suggests that for most owners pets are not a luxury but an integral and deeply loved part of the family.
Some people are into pets, however, while others simply aren't interested. Why is this the case? It is highly probable that our desire for the company of animals actually goes back tens of thousands of years and has played an important part in our evolution. If so, then genetics might help explain why a love of animals is something some people just don't get.
[...] The pet-keeping habit often runs in families: this was once ascribed to children coming to imitate their parents' lifestyles when they leave home, but recent research has suggested that it also has a genetic basis. Some people, whatever their upbringing, seem predisposed to seek out the company of animals, others less so.
Is the desire to keep pets really hard-wired in our DNA?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday October 01 2017, @02:05PM (18 children)
Your opinion is your opinion. I might even agree somewhat, that pet owners homes are less clean than people who don't keep pets. You simply CANNOT get every last hair, dander, flea, muddy pawprint - pets are dirty. But then, you have all the same problesm with the human animal. But, pet owners are generally healthier than non pet owners. I've read so vary many articles and blurbs on the subject - mental and emotional health, more than physical health.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/danielle-hark/pet-ownership-health_b_3187960.html [huffingtonpost.com]
https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/mood-boosting-power-of-dogs.htm [helpguide.org]
http://pets.webmd.com/news/20110713/pets-boost-owners-emotional-physical-health [webmd.com]
Maybe, as you say, genetics select for people who are more tolerant to the dirt that animals produce and collect. If that is true, maybe you should get yourself a pet?
An added benefit of having pets is, the pet is often an early indicator of how friendly a stranger might be. Personally, if my dog doesn't like a stranger, I don't encourage that stranger to hang around.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 01 2017, @02:16PM (11 children)
I tolerate pets for the sake of my friendships, but I cannot really stand them for too long; yet, despite my antipathy, animals seem to cozy up to me much more quickly than they do most other people, or so I have been told again and again.
So, your pet loves me, and would signal to you that I'm an all-right kind of fella, even though I secretly harbor a great deal of disgust for your pet (and, by extension, you).
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday October 01 2017, @02:33PM (8 children)
You haven't refuted anything that I said. Do you meet people with pets whom you intend to take advantage of? For instance, do you case the joint, so that you can return later to burglarize it? Have you gone to a single woman's house, with the intention of raping her? How likely are you to beat a person to death in his own home, so that you can take his money and possessions? Have you molested any children? Animals seem to sense things that we humans overlook.
I say, ignore your pet's trust and/or lack of trust of strangers at your own peril.
And, it's no secret that pets - especially cats - will tend to cuddle with a stranger who doesn't like cats. Obviously, the cat thinks that you are harmless, so you probably mean me no harm either. Meanwhile, the cat enjoys causing you whatever form of stress you endure while he rubs all over you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 01 2017, @02:38PM (7 children)
You have no idea what these "strangers" have in mind—you are concocting the worst sort of intentions to make yourself feel like your pets give you some sort of advantage. They don't. They're just filthy animals.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday October 01 2017, @02:59PM (5 children)
You're so busy trying to make pet owners look foolish, that you're ignoring something so obvious that most pet owners simply take for granted. It is well known that the dog's fate, his health and well being, depends strongly on his ability to sense and understand his owner's feelings, thoughts, motivations. The dog studies his owner constantly for cues. That same dog will study a stranger for similar cues. The dog will sense, usually long before I do, whether you mean me good, or ill. The dog will even more readily sense whether you mean HIM good or ill. A creature that has spent it's entire life, emulating his forebears, studying the human animal's whims, is probably a lot more perceptive than either you, or me. Whether he is MORE perceptive or not - his senses are different. He will key on your smell, which I am very unlikely to key on.
Have you read any stories about dogs detecting diseases? There have been at least three dogs in recent news stories, probably more that I've forgotten.
https://www.quora.com/How-are-dogs-trained-to-smell-cancer-or-any-other-diseases-in-the-human-body [quora.com]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/25/dogs-smell-cancer_n_3142135.html [huffingtonpost.com]
Dogs sense hormones and pheremones readily, as well. The pheremones at least, help to indicate your intentions. You're feeling amorous? Of course the dog can sense that. You're acting furtive and evasive? Well, duh - the dog can sense that as well.
I am virtually blind, from a dog's point of view - I don't sniff butts to learn how good, or how poor, an associate's health might be. I don't sniff butts to see which women might be inclined to breed. That butt sniffind tells me nothing at all, so I don't indulge in it. But, I do recognize that the dog's senses have their value, and that the dog's judgement may have value to me. As blind as I am from the dog's perspective, you seem to be even more blind.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 01 2017, @03:05PM (2 children)
What you imagine to be the case is not necessarily reality.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday October 01 2017, @04:41PM (1 child)
It is at least equally valid to point out that you may not be in touch with reality. Why would you waste time and energy denying that dogs and other animals have different sensory perception than humans?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 01 2017, @05:12PM
I made no such denial.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 01 2017, @08:58PM (1 child)
Now I am doubly confused. So why do you sniff butts, Runaway?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday October 02 2017, @08:16AM
Just for the fun of it, of course. You should try it some time!! It'll drive your mate crazy, too!
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 01 2017, @03:28PM
Maybe you should declare a jihad on them, Mohammed.
(Score: 3, Informative) by tfried on Sunday October 01 2017, @07:21PM
Plausible, esp. for cats. For the most part, they dislike being looked in the eye, people approaching them (rather than the other way around), or even being followed around. Instead you're probably trying to ignore the cat as much as you can and - voila - you seem like a nice guy to the cat.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 02 2017, @04:08AM
Same here. I also get disgusted when my friends smile at cute little Fido when he wants to paint me with his filthy tongue that he just used to clean his ass or balls. I always feel like I need a shower when I leave. And I NEVER stay for dinner. I prefer to eat from a clean kitchen. I don't enjoy picking out the fur from my food. It's kinda like hanging out with a smoker. They don't realize just how nasty they really are or how bad they smell.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by acid andy on Sunday October 01 2017, @02:20PM (1 child)
Yep. It always makes me smile when people complain about pigeons* or squirrels being "disease vectors". Well, maybe some of them, but other humans are amongst the biggest disease vectors out there, especially in cities. And many (most?) of them seem to have much lower standards of hygiene than your average moggy. A lot of diseases that can afflict a squirrel or pigeon might not transfer to humans but with another human it seems likely that a much bigger proportion of their own diseases will.
*They're doves really. Pigeon is a food term.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: -1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 01 2017, @02:35PM
... it's just not acceptable to do so publicly, anymore. It's considered intolerant (and often "racist") to suggest that people should be living better, cleaner lives.
Suck my cyber cock, SoylentNews, you trash.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by tfried on Sunday October 01 2017, @07:35PM (3 children)
I'd love to see a double-blind study of that popular idea, that pets (dogs) will somehow smell people's bad intentions. Obviously, if you feel tense in the presence of a stranger, your dog is pretty sensitive to that, and will tend to dislike the stranger. Now, if you willingly take the other part, and suspect bad intentions in the stranger that your dog happens to dislike, you've just teamed up for a perfect positive feedback loop. Said stranger will have a tough stand, indeed, and will quickly respond to your antipathy in kind - vicious circle complete.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday October 02 2017, @08:29AM (1 child)
Mmm-hmmm - I agree that a good double-blind study would be great.
One anecdote for you. Met a guy years ago, with whom I worked, off and on, on several construction jobs. I kinda liked him. Not a best buddy or anything, but I thought pretty highly of him, both from a professional point of view, and personally. Had reason to bring him to the house, and the dog did NOT like him, and, in retrospect, the dog positively would NOT allow him to get close to the kids. I didn't worry to much about it, neither the associate nor the dog seemed to go out of his way to provoke the other, and the kids had little interest in the man.
About two years later, dude was arrested for child molestation. I happened to know one of the kids involved, and eventually we talked over a few beers one evening. The arrest wasn't any mistake, if anything, there weren't enough charges filed. Seems that the man would groom 12 and 13 year old kids, and by the time they were 17 or 18, he no longer had any use for them. One of those rinse and repeat things.
Maybe a feedback somewhere in there, but I can't see it.
If that were an isolated incident, I would be less convinced that dogs can sense on things like that.
As for that young man - he was a little messed up for awhile, but eventually got his shit together. Give him the opportunity, he can still cry in his beer, and curse the son of a bitch who molested him, but he's pretty stable and productive.
(Score: 2) by tfried on Monday October 02 2017, @08:10PM
An anecdote for an anecdote.
I'm rather a cat-type person, not much into dogs. However, I usually get along fine with dogs, and in fact many dogs seem to distinctively like me. But then there was this one time, when a friends' dog was dead serious about attacking me. Call me a coward, but when that cross-breed with a lot of German Shepard in it came running onto me, I chose to flee into the bathroom, and wait for my friends to lock away the dog before opening the door, again. In hindsight, I think I do understand (some of) the path of events that lead up to this. Importantly, I did not respond well to some early signs of the dog's aggression towards me. But for all I can tell, it's still absolutely fair to say that this dog was hostile to me from the start (several visits earlier).
At any rate, that encounter with this dog did leave a permanent mutual dent in my relation with those friends.
Well, maybe I am a bad person, after all. But then I seem to be able to fool a whole lot of other dogs, quite successfully.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 02 2017, @04:08PM
I agree. For example, the "guilty look" phenomenon, which appears to not be a real thing:
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/dog-spies/the-guilty-looking-companion/ [scientificamerican.com]
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0376635714003210 [sciencedirect.com]
I also vaguely remember some study where they show photographs of dogs to dog owners and asked if they looked guilty, to which everybody said no. Then they showed the same photos to another group of dog owners and said it was taken right after the dog broke something, and everybody said the guilt was obvious in the photos.
People like to anthropomorphize animals and ascribe to them false attributes. Add that to confirmation bias, and hidden feedback cycles between the dog and the owner (e.g. how drug sniffing dog handlers can get their dogs to flag false positives), and you have a recipe for confusion.
There is too much pseudo-science of pets, in my personal opinion.