Tuesday, August 31, 2010










EdC said...


Has someone looked at the differences between wolves in a zoo that have never had access to human food and house hounds who have? That would seem to maximize differences in both nature and nurture.
E.g., do wolves react less to cooked food? Do house hounds react less to raw meat? Is there different sensitivity to some animal (beaver?) that city & suburban dogs never enounter? Do wolves react less to corn, rice and veggies that are part of commercial dog food? Is there any difference in response to flowers or perfumes?

Of course, differences in what they react to and what they're attracted to could come from differences in their noses and /or differences in the brain areas that process smells. But I'm personally more interested in the brain differences. That's the only area of me that I might be able to improve.

Bonnie Blodgett said...

In my new book Remembering Smell: A Memoir of Losing—and Discovering—the Primal sense I leaned heavily on Avery Gilbert and Yale neurobiologist Gordon Shepherd in explaining how human and canine olfaction evolved. My understanding was that dogs don't experience flavor, that this evolutionary add-on came about in humans as a result of the formation of our so-called thinking brains. This is the gist of Shephed's theory that humans actually have a superior sense of smell (to that of dogs and other animals). How does this play into the discussion and am I incorrect that my dog doesn't know the difference between a well-seasoned steak or plain old hamburger?

Anonymous said...

Silliness. I own A wolfl and he much prefers cooked delicately spiced steak and chicken.Why make it so complicated, it just tastes better. They are wolves, sentient diners if you will.

Mark Herrey said...

Your post is very helpful, thank you. It’s no surprise that dogs, just like humans, are spread out across the globe, with different breeds belonging to different parts of the world. Diversity is a good thing; it reminds us that the world is not flat, and that there are a lot of options to choose from. See more http://dogsaholic.com/breeds/info/russian-dog-breeds.html

Dog Blog said...

Dog always is the cutiest animal in this planet :)