D’où viennent les chiens, et ce que ça implique


Tout livre, video ou site web parlant des chiens a forcément une section sur leurs origines. Par contre, on ne voit que très rarement une explication des implications de ces informations sur les chiens d’aujourd’hui! Intéressons-nous à ça ..

Comme tout le monde le sait, le chien descend du loup. Mais – est-ce vrai? En réalité, il serait plus exact de dire que les chiens et les loups ont des ancêtres communs; et là est toute la différence. Ce serait comme dire que l’humain descend des singes

Les loups, comme toute autre espèce, ont évolué avec le temps, et le loup qui existait à l’époque, lorsque le chien est apparu dans les récits historiques, n’est pas celui que l’on connait aujourd’hui.

Oui, le chien ne descend pas du loup, et alors? Pourquoi est-ce important?

Autrefois, il y avait l’avant-loup, qui chassait et qui se comportait probablement comme le loup d’aujourd’hui. Puis, quelques-uns de ces avant-loups ont renoncé à cette manière de vivre et ont décidé que la vie était juste plus facile s’ils mangeaient le reste des proies laissées par les humains au lieu d’aller chasser avec les autres avant-loups. Ces individus sont devenus ce qu’on connait aujourd’hui comme nos chiens.

Les importantes conséquences qu’entraînent ces informations sont

les chiens ne sont pas des chasseurs, ils fouillent plutôt les parages

les chiens sont des individus qui ont préférés rester avec les humains au lieu de leurs confrères

les chiens avec le plus de succès d’un point de vue évolutif sont ceux qui pouvaient le mieux lire les humains et leurs intentions

Il y a plein d’autres différences entre les chiens et les loups mais elles ne sont pas pertinentes ici.

Après avoir dit que les chiens ne sont pas des chasseurs, j’ai l’impression que je dois clarifier ce point tout de suite: Bien sûr que les chiens de chasse existent, mais cette ‘chasse’ ne consiste qu’à silencieusement indiquer la position de la proie sans pour autant l’attaquer, ou encore à la rapporter sans lui faire le moindre mal. Ce type de chasse est complètement inutile pour la survie du chien. De plus, cette chasse est une tâche orchestrée entre le chien et l’humain, et n’a strictement rien à voir avec un chien fou qui chasse tout ce qui lui passe sous le nez. Donc, le chien n’est pas un chasseur, comme on peut d’ailleurs facilement repérer en observant les chiens qui vivent dans la rue: ils font les poubelles et cherchent de la nourriture dans la rue, mais ils ne chassent pas leur déjeuner, et ça encore moins de la même manière structurée qu’un groupe de loups.

Le deuxième point est confirmé par la science qui nous dit que, en réalité, les chiens préfèrent la compagnie d’un humain à celui d’autres chiens. Ceci est mesurable par leur hormones: l’ocytocine (hormone du bonheur) est produite quand les chiens interagissent avec des humains et le cortisol (hormone de stresse) est réduit quand un chien est avec son maître, à l’opposé de ce qu’il se passe quand il est laissé tout seul avec d’autres chiens.

Le troisième point a été prouvé d’une manière très impressionante par Brian Hare, qui a démontré que les chiens pouvaient comprendre les expressions faciales des humains ainsi que d’autres types de communication, comme montrer du doigt. Les chiens sont très perspicaces en observant les humains, et très doués lorsqu’il faut en déduire la bonne conclusion. C’est le résultat d’une évolution sur une longue période de temps qui rend la communication avec nos chiens si efficace, comparée à celle avec d’autres animaux.

Bien entendu, il y a aussi plein d’autres caractéristiques que le chien a héritées des avant-loups. La plus importante est certainement le besoin d’une structure sociale bien définie et stable, mais nous en parlerons plus tard.

Il y a une autre espèce très intéressante que je voulais mentionner, qui est le Dingo. Il est le seul chien sauvage descendu du chien domestique. En bref, il a fait l’opposé de ce que le chien a fait avec l’avant-loup! Il existe d’autres chiens sauvages aussi, mais ils ont été séparés sur l’arbre de l’évolution avant même que le chien domestique n’existe, ce qui fait qu’ils sont génétiquement plus éloignés du chien que le loup.

En résumé, bien sûr que les chiens vont profiter du bon temps en jouant avec leurs congénères; et qu’ils vont adorer chasser l’écureuil voisin de temps en temps, juste pour s’amuser. Par contre, plus que tout, ils vont préférer être en compagnie de leur maître. Alors, la prochaine fois que votre chien vous semble inséparable de ses potes, rappelez-vous qu’au fond de son cœur, il préfère votre compagnie avant tout!

Personal experiences with my dog in public life

As I didn’t want to completely blow up another post, I outsourced my personal experience with my dogs in public life here.

I live in Paris where dogs are excluded from most of public life. Most of the parks are forbidden for dogs, and there is no way of getting into a store with your dog unless it sells animals. In the bus and tram, dogs that don’t fit into a bag that you can carry are not allowed (how stigmatizing is that??). Even in parks where they are allowed, there will be closed off places where they are not anymore. And of course, any public building will not let any (non service) dog inside.

However, I can tell you that in Germany things look very much differently! You can go into any store (with exception of food stores maybe) with your dog without anyone turning an eyelid, public transport is no restriction at all, and the concept of fenced parks has not even been introduced. So, when in doubt, you can probably take your dog with you.

More precisely, I want to talk about dogs at work as it typically takes up most of any person’s life, and will therefore affect the dog’s life most.

In Germany, it is not that exceptional to bring your dog to work. It’s really not much of a deal. I myself know of three work places where there were dogs on a daily basis. Another friend who I proposed to get a dog and take it to work didn’t seem very worried about her employer not allowing her to bring one. One girl in university had her dog with her all the time. All this is considering that I only know very few workplaces there.

Now here in France, things certainly look differently. I once asked to bring my dog to work exceptionally, and I got the permission, for 2 weeks. The dog really did nothing else than sleep all day, did not bark once, and everything was fine. I was working in the only room in the building’s basement with only one coworker sharing my room, who was fine with the dog. No one ever comes to that basement except for explicitly seeing one of us.

When I asked whether I could continue bringing my dog, I was told that no. The only reason I got was that clients could come and see the dog and that would be kind of unprofessional. First of all, there were no clients ever there. Second of all, the clients were never going to go downstairs. Third of all, I could have just not brought my dog when there were clients ! It was just a really bad excuse that wasn’t going to be discussed.

Now I changed jobs, and in my new company I asked again whether I could bring either my dog or a fostered guide dog puppy. I reckoned the latter would be more likely as the company does engage in social projects. First, by default, whatever coworkers I asked his opinion said ‘probably not’. When I talked to HR she also said ‘probably not’, but when she verified there was no reason a dog couldn’t legally be brought into the premises. Then a couple of days later, HR told me that the decision was ‘no’ because the direction thinks it is too difficult to realize. They never talked to me about potential issues they might have. It later turned out they were of the style ‘dogs bite, there is always someone who is allergic or afraid, imagine the dog barking and distressing everyone’ etc. Well, knowing my dog, I can assure that he barks about once a month under very specific conditions, he won’t bite anyone, and as he looks incredibly cute and is very well educated, people who are usually afraid of dogs actually really like mine ! But no one would ask me about any of that.

One coworker summed it up very aptly by saying that the biggest problem he sees about bringing a dog into any company is the mental blockage of the French to welcome a dog in the workplace. They just think ‘it’s wrong’. This would also explain the client problem of my first employer: It is the only ‘explanation’ that makes at least halfway sense about why a dog on the job would devalue the actual work in anyone’s eyes.

In case you are interested in what I think about dogs in public places on a more objective basis, please do not hesitate to check out this article.

 

Guide dogs for everyone!

In my opinion, guide dogs and service dogs in general are the best that any person in need of a service could possibly have. Because I think this is so important, I will dedicate an entire article to how you could contribute yourself to match a person in need with a dog that us just right for him or her!

I will illustrate this contribution that anyone (i.e. non-professionals) can make on the example of a guide dog, as this is what I have been explained by this organisation, but I reckon other service dog organisations follow similar guidelines.

So, the idea is that you welcome a service dog in your home and take care of it. It is basically like your pet! Service dog organisations are in need of such foster homes either before the dog’s education starts or after it has been released from the service until the end of his life.

If you decide to take the dog in retirement, typically when he is about 8 years old, you will get a well educated older dog, which means he will be calm, non-destructive and very easily handlable. He might develop some age related problems, but usually the service dog organisations take care of those charges. To me, it sounds like a perfect companion for anyone with a calm lifestyle!

Otherwise, you can take the dog at puppy age, typically from around 4 months until his first birthday, when school starts for him. If you prefer puppies to grown dogs, or if you want to only have a dog temporarily, this could be perfect for you! But keep in mind that puppies are uneducated energy-bundles who need a lot of time and devotion.

In case you go for the second option, are two main responsibilities the service dog association will ask of you:

Train the puppy where to do its needs

Take it everywhere

Anyone who has ever had a puppy knows that it needs to be potty-trained. A future service dog will not only have to go potty anywhere outside but will also have restrictions on the where and when exactly.

The ‘when’ is important because a service dog cannot just interrupt its service to quickly go to the toilet. He will have to go during the ‘breaks’, just like humans in seminars or concerts. Those breaks will be indicated by the handler of the dog, so yeah, the dog will pee and poop on command.

What you will be asked when you get the puppy, however, is to take care about the ‘where’. In many countries, it is forbidden for dogs to pee on public buildings, or to poop on the pavement. Many dogs contravene this rule every day, but if a service dog gets in trouble because of that, then this might imply a serious problem for the person relying on that dog. So while it is important to show any dog from a very small age on where to relieve himself, it is especially so for a service dog to be.

The second aspect is that you have to bring your guide dog in training everywhere where the future guide dog could possible have to exercise his function. The dog is later supposed to lead his handler safely through any situation. If during service it encounters an unknown situation that he does not know how to handle, how can he assure the safety of his handler?

For that reason, the puppies have the same right of access as full-fledged service dogs, meaning you can take him to the opera, the supermarket, the airplane etc. I am currently not aware of any place where guide dogs are not allowed.

Actually, this part of the task is crucial. Dogs accept new situations easily when they are young, and with increasing difficulty when they get older. I don’t know if you have seen scared dogs, but they really get into fight or flight mode in unknown situations, and this would be absolutely inadmissible for a service dog. I claim that the quality of the future guide dog depends to a considerable part on how much the puppy was exposed to new situations. So, if you take on the task, I encourage you to present that puppy to as many situations and environments as possibly imaginable.

This also implies that the puppy cannot be left at home during the work hours of the handler. In general, you should take the puppy just literally everywhere you go, but you might find work to be the biggest obstacle.

Other than taking care of the puppy, there will most probably be some organisational obligations like meetings and follow ups on how you’re doing with your dog. There might be other requirements too, so you will have to inform yourself about the exact procedure in the respective organisation.

So, if you are motivated to do a service for society by just having fun with a little puppy that you’re even allowed to constantly have by your side, I can only encourage you to get information from a service dog society around you, get going and help someone in need!

Dogs everywhere !

Imagine a perfect world where we can just bring our dogs everywhere! We don’t have to leave our furry friends at home, and can have them with us all the time! Wouldn’t that be amazing?

Unfortunately, that’s an imaginary world .. actually, not for all of us! Owners of service dogs do live in such a world! And it works, there don’t seem to be too many problems. So why can’t the rest of us bring their dogs everywhere too?

Of course, there is the problem of uneducated dogs. No one – corporate environments even less – wants to have crazy dogs around that are biting, barking and disturbing everyone. So, no one wants to take this risk and therefore the safe option is usually opted for that forbids dogs categorically.

But I believe there is also a vicious cycle to that problem that goes as follows:

  • As dogs are banned from public places, people have to leave their dogs at home.
  • When the dog gets out it has lots of energy and maybe hasn’t been exposed to lots of different situations because they are not allowed in certain places. It goes crazy because of fear or excess energy.
  • People get these images in their head of crazy dogs.
  • Next time the decision needs to be taken to allow dogs or not, the decision will be ‘no’ with higher probability.
  • The cycle starts over.

If it’s such a hassle, are there actually any reasons to selfishly bring your dog everywhere and annoy everyone?

The average dog owner is collecting evidence for ‘yes’ on a daily basis: walking down the street with your dog, you will make some people stop, take the time to give it a stroke, smile and enter a one-minute friendly conversation (which is obviously good for everyone).

On a bigger scale than just your smiling neighbour, there are also lots of other advantages to having dogs around! Dogs have a calming and therapeutic effect on people, not only their owners but also on strangers. I cannot find scientific studies on the effects of dogs on strangers, but there are big efforts invested in hospital, school (and other schools), airport and even film set dogs, which aim at helping people that are stressed, ill or in pain. These movements gain more and more popularity because people seem to react really well to it.

Not only are dogs nice to have around, but for some people, they really make a difference.

There are new types of service dogs emerging like dogs that can predict a diabetic shock or sleep disease attacks. Also, dogs not only help in health matters, they also support people psychologically: people feel more self-confident and sure of themselves with their dogs. (Again, I cannot find scientific research about this, but lots of reallife experience supports that thesis.) These dogs may or may not yet have been recognized as official service dogs acquiring universal access rights, especially at the birth of new service disciplines. But even if they haven’t, they don’t necessarily present a danger to the public, but they would change the life for their owner!

Even in cases where the fight for universal access rights has already been won, the war is not over. When I asked to bring a guide dog in training, my company denied it to me. As one requirement for guide dogs in training is that you have to bring them to work, this interdiction means that (at least) one less guide dog can be trained. This is not only a pity for me or a dog, this is the opportunity of a different life for a visually impaired person taken away! This occurrence convinced me that dogs are not placed in people’s minds and opinions where they deserve to be, nor should be, for the sake of society.

So, what can we dog owners do to convince the public that the average dog is not crazy and dirty but nice to have around?

There is a reason the article started with service dogs: They represent a social contract that works. They don’t bite, go crazy and make the whole place dirty, and people trust in this.

So, why do we not just take an example in them? Even if your dog won’t make a perfect service dog, you can already start by picking up after your dog, only letting it pee in appropriate places (like trees), giving it sufficient exercise and educating it well. There are always dog schools and specialists that you can consult when you have troubles.

I am sure that if the dog owner population respected these rules, the public opinion about dogs would improve considerably and hopefully in the future reflect in relaxed access rules. It would also have the great side effect that people would not need to be afraid of dogs anymore!

Imagine we managed to allow dogs access to most of the places. Are there actual problems that arise when public life is invaded by an unlimited amount of dogs everywhere?

Actually, I saw a great proof that no, recently when I went to a dog event. There were dogs literally everywhere, even too much for the available space. It was no dog show or sports event, so the dogs did not have any particular skill or education. Just normal everyday dogs. But everything went perfectly fine! No fights, not even excessive barking (even though it wasn’t exactly calm either .. ) and just everyone being happy! Everyone who ever went to a dog exhibition or some dog sports event will have made similar experiences.

So, my call to people is: Educate your dog properly, and then take him out with you as much as you can! Ask in your work and other public places whether it is not possible to take a dog, and let’s slowly infiltrate in people’s minds that dogs in the public are a good thing and to everyone’s benefits!

The result would be the real world but made a truly better place: No more people getting bitten because dogs would be used to people. No more dogs scarily lunging on the leash as they would get sufficient exercise. No more barking until the neighbours’ ears fall off as they wouldn’t need to be left home alone with separation anxiety. And you would get to spend all day with your most loyal companion!

 

 

I finally want to leave some thoughts on allergic people.

Guide dogs have the right to go everywhere. So it could absolutely happen that someone with a severe dog allergy has boarded the same plane where there is a guide dog, without knowing it. Once the plane took off, he cannot just get away. What would be the protocol there?

Also, the projects with dogs in public places (airports, hospitals etc) that I heard of function very well, and there are probably as many people allergic to and afraid of dogs there as anywhere else. There seems to be no substantial problem with that.

However, when I talk about bringing my dog anywhere (e.g. my company), allergy is always the main argument people confront me with when I dissipated all their other concerns. As I don’t have counterarguments to that, I’d really like to know how this is handled in any of those public dog projects, but unfortunately, there is no word to be found about that in any of those projects. However, it doesn’t seem to constitute any major concern or inconveniences.

 

Subscribers of the Süddeutsche Zeitung will find a humoristic plea for the same cause here.

Where dogs come from and what that means

Every book, video or website talking about dogs has to have a section about the origin of dogs. However, I rarely see an explanation of the impact of that information on the dogs of today! Let’s have a look at that.

As everyone knows, dogs descended from the wolves. Or – do they? Actually, a more precise phrasing is ‘dogs and wolves have common ancestors‘; and that makes a big difference. It would be like saying that humans descended from monkeys

Wolves, just as any other species, evolved over time, and the wolf that existed those thousands of years ago when the dogs first appear in history records is not the one we know today.

So, if dogs didn’t descend from wolves, then what, and why does it matter?

Back in the time, there was the before-wolf, hunting and generally probably behaving rather like the wolf of today. Some of those before-wolves then decided to renounce to this way of living and decided that life is easier if they just eat what humans leave over from their prey instead of hunting with their fellow before-wolves. Those individuals developed into what we know today as our dogs.

The important consequences that come from this information are

dogs are no hunters, they scavenge

dogs are the individuals that preferred to stay with humans over staying with their fellows

the more ‘successful’ dogs from an evolution point of view were the ones that could read humans and their intentions

There are lots of other differences concerning dogs and wolves, but they are not of relevance here.

Claiming that dogs are no hunters, I immediately feel like clarifying that point: Of course, hunting dogs have been bred, who like to hunt and are very good at it. But their ‘hunting’ consists in pointing out prey silently without attacking it or bringing back prey unharmed, both of which are utterly useless for the survival of the dog. This hunting procedure also is a highly coordinated task between dogs and humans and has nothing to do with a dog gone wild hunting down whatever comes before his nose. So, as a species, dogs do not hunt, as is easily observable in street dogs: They go through the trash and look for food in the streets, but they do not actually hunt their food, even less in organized group structures like wolves.

The second point is backed up by science that tells us that dogs actually really prefer the companionship of a human to that of other dogs. This reflects in their hormones as oxytocin (happiness hormone) is produced when dogs interact with humans, and cortisol (stress hormone) is reduced when a dog is with his owner as opposed to when he is left alone with other dogs.

The third point has been proven in an impressive manner by Brian Hare who showed that dogs can understand human facial expressions and other manifestations of our communication intentions, like pointing. Dogs are very fine-tuned when it comes to observing humans and drawing the correct conclusions. It is this result of evolution over a long time span which makes communications with our dogs so effective, as opposed to other animals.

Naturally, there are also lots of characteristics that the dog inherited from its wolf-ancestor. The most important one for the dog of today is certainly the need for a stable and well-defined social structure, but we will get to that later in more detail.

There is one more interesting species I would like to point out, which is the Dingo. It is the only wild dog that has descended from the domestic dog. They basically did the opposite of what the dog did on its wolf-like ancestor! There are various other wild dogs too, but they split off in the evolution tree before the domestic dog developed, so they are further away from the domestic dog than the wolf.

So, of course, dogs will enjoy a good game with some fellow dogs; and they will enjoy hunting the neighbourhood squirrel from time to time, for the fun. However, overall, they will prefer to be with their owner. So, next time your dog seems inseparable from his buddies, remember that deep down he still enjoys your companionship more!