Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
He was stunning. I had already fallen for the pup's mother, Kathy's trailing and article-search
dog, Reza. She made everything look easy. She'd toted around toys until she realized she was
in labor: Whoops. Excuse me. Got to deliver some pups. She would go back to the toys soon
enough, bringing them to the pups to play with. She fell into the category of “fun mom.”
I watched the three female pups emerge on Facebook, via messages and photos, with
Danny holding up each one for Kathy's camera, three moles getting their first mug shot.
One had a drifting trace of umbilical cord still attached. She held both pink paws up, almost
as though trying to protect her homely squinty face from the camera's unforgiving lens. I
couldn't tell if she was pushing her right paw out more than her left. Two females were be-
hemoths right out of the womb, both more than a pound. The third female, black like one of
her sisters, was half their size. Nine ounces. Kathy named her “Little Bit.”
We assume puppies learn all sorts of things from their mothers. But do they learn by
watching and then imitating, or is it instinctive, like a mama cat leading a kitten to the litter
box or a mare leading a colt to water? Nancy suggested that Solo could teach the pup a thing
or two. Of course, not all teaching is good teaching. I'm pretty sure Megan's raucous behavior
encouraged Solo to bark when the UPS man arrived, but she could simply be infecting the
air with bad-dog vibes, ramping up Solo's arousal level.
Older dogs aren't immune from teaching. Steve Sprouse discovered that Aaron had a few
issues with water: He hated the hose, the sprinkler, and the swimming pool. His life as a stud
dog clearly hadn't been halcyon. Probably someone had used water to discipline him, or to
separate him from females after breeding. But patrol dogs need to tolerate water in Florida;
they're surrounded by it. Steve watched Aaron watch Casey, their female shepherd, run into
the sprinkler after her toys. Aaron liked Casey a lot. Soon Aaron was diving after his toys as
well. Though it was a good first step, it wasn't all wonderful emulation. DJ has a bad habit of
spinning in his kennel when he's hyper. Now Aaron spins in his kennel.
Most cognitive psychologists would ascribe Aaron's behavior to something other than im-
itative behavior. To mimic behavior after witnessing it was thought to be distinctly human.
While we call it “aping” or “copycat” in a denigrating manner, watching someone do
something and then trying to do it yourself isn't a low-level cognitive act. It's part of what
makes the machinery of human culture chug along. The old joke about a new bride's brisket
applies: Sylvia makes her mother's perfect brisket recipe by cutting of the ends of the roast,
the way her mother always did. She asks her mother why, and her mother tells her that's the
way her mother did it. Sylvia finally asks her grandmother. Because, her grandmother informs
her, the pan she has is so small, the only way the brisket its is with its ends cut off. This is
what it means to be human.
Ascribing imitation only to humans is starting to change, one peer-reviewed article at a
time. Dogs aren't leading the experimental way, but they are part of a diverse animal pack,
