Dogs
Hi Mia,
Such good eye candy in your last post. I don't know who is cuter, the less fat version of Sampson or the young child he's running with. But I did have a little giggle when watching that live news segment. It's supposed to be all about Sampson's physical appearance yet he's hidden beneath a dog coat, and it's nighttime so he's barely visible. Even when they zoom in, you still can't see anything. Am I making fun of the news program? Hmm maybe it got late, and I got tired.
But something I will not make fun of are those comments on your post!! Matt Flavel suggesting it's not necessarily that we are stuffing our dogs silly -- obesity in dogs could have something to do with dogs' gut microbiome. Apparently, data will reveal more and this story is to be continued...
So yes, topics about dogs can be layered and complex, but sometimes we can be superficial about dogs -- even talk bling in dogs.
Bling in dogs
I'm sure you can relate. When I'm walking down the street, I'm constantly checking dogs out. Of course, I'm interested in what they are doing, but other times I'm just looking at the way they look. Sometimes my response is, "YES! YOU LOOK GREAT!! I LIKE YOU!" and other times, the sentiment is more like, "pass."
At the Horowitz Dog Cognition Lab, we wanted to know what it is about the way dogs look -- their physical appearances -- that we find attractive. This is what I presented at our first meeting at the Canine Science Forum in Barcelona (awww).
We wanted to exclude from our study any breed preferences as well as the human desire to mush every puppy we see. To do this, and simply focus on the way dogs look, we used images of adult, mixed-breed dogs in our study.
We explored: are there certain physical attributes that people always prefer when they look at dogs? And is it possible for these preferences to be subconscious and reported through an implicit preference test? Do all people have the same preferences? Or maybe animal people and non-animal people have different preferences. Are big eyes and a large forehead (the infamous "cute factors") always preferred?
So what did we find? Marc Bekoff summarized our findings for Psychology Today in the blog post, Dogs: Looking At the Way We Look At Our Best Friends.
I will say that our findings are somewhat related to what you were talking about the other day regarding fat -- not phat -- dogs. We found that humans don't always prefer what's in dogs’ best interests. To quote from the Bekoff piece, “While 'animal people' seem drawn to dogs with larger eyes, big eyes can be associated with health issues like brachycephalic ocular syndrome and exposure keratitis. And although participants didn’t implicitly prefer larger nostrils, what if that physical attribute would enhance many dogs' ability to breathe?”
What humans deem aesthetically pleasing in dogs might not always be in dogs' best interests. Frown face...
Night night,
Julie
Referenced
Bekoff, M. Dogs: Looking At the Way We Look At Our Best Friends. Psychology Today. August 21, 2012
Hecht, J. Where should dogs put their tongues? Dog Spies. September 27, 2011
Hecht, J. & Horowitz, A. 2012. Physical prompts to anthropomorphism of the domestic dog (Canis familiaris) Oral presentation at the Third Canine Science Forum, Barcelona, Spain.
© Julie Hecht 2012
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Dogs
Superficial: What do we find attractive? (Part 1)
Hi Mia,
Such good eye candy in your last post. I don't know who is cuter, the less fat version of Sampson or the young child he's running with. But I did have a little giggle when watching that live news segment. It's supposed to be all about Sampson's physical appearance yet he's hidden beneath a dog coat, and it's nighttime so he's barely visible. Even when they zoom in, you still can't see anything. Am I making fun of the news program? Hmm maybe it got late, and I got tired.
 |
| JLo and her bling |
But something I will not make fun of are those comments on your post!! Matt Flavel suggesting it's not necessarily that we are stuffing our dogs silly -- obesity in dogs could have something to do with dogs' gut microbiome. Apparently, data will reveal more and this story is to be continued...
So yes, topics about dogs can be layered and complex, but sometimes we can be superficial about dogs -- even talk bling in dogs.
Bling in dogs
I'm sure you can relate. When I'm walking down the street, I'm constantly checking dogs out. Of course, I'm interested in what they are doing, but other times I'm just looking at the way they look. Sometimes my response is, "YES! YOU LOOK GREAT!! I LIKE YOU!" and other times, the sentiment is more like, "pass."
 |
| Apparently Boo embodies "cute" |
We wanted to exclude from our study any breed preferences as well as the human desire to mush every puppy we see. To do this, and simply focus on the way dogs look, we used images of adult, mixed-breed dogs in our study.
We explored: are there certain physical attributes that people always prefer when they look at dogs? And is it possible for these preferences to be subconscious and reported through an implicit preference test? Do all people have the same preferences? Or maybe animal people and non-animal people have different preferences. Are big eyes and a large forehead (the infamous "cute factors") always preferred?
So what did we find? Marc Bekoff summarized our findings for Psychology Today in the blog post, Dogs: Looking At the Way We Look At Our Best Friends.
I will say that our findings are somewhat related to what you were talking about the other day regarding fat -- not phat -- dogs. We found that humans don't always prefer what's in dogs’ best interests. To quote from the Bekoff piece, “While 'animal people' seem drawn to dogs with larger eyes, big eyes can be associated with health issues like brachycephalic ocular syndrome and exposure keratitis. And although participants didn’t implicitly prefer larger nostrils, what if that physical attribute would enhance many dogs' ability to breathe?”
What humans deem aesthetically pleasing in dogs might not always be in dogs' best interests. Frown face...
Night night,
Julie
Referenced
Bekoff, M. Dogs: Looking At the Way We Look At Our Best Friends. Psychology Today. August 21, 2012
Hecht, J. Where should dogs put their tongues? Dog Spies. September 27, 2011
Hecht, J. & Horowitz, A. 2012. Physical prompts to anthropomorphism of the domestic dog (Canis familiaris) Oral presentation at the Third Canine Science Forum, Barcelona, Spain.
© Julie Hecht 2012
- Post-sandy And The Power Of Cute (kawaii!!)
(Post-Sandy reunited)Hi there Mia, This is all incredibly moving. When natural disasters strike, the damage looks so different depending on geography. Our natural disasters don’t tend to include koalas, although Sandy did cause major trouble for...
- What Does Rescue Mean For Companion Animals?
(Source)Hi Mia, Given everything that's been happening since Sandy touched down, I've been wondering, "What does rescue mean for companion animals?" When a natural disaster strikes, humans understand what rescue means and looks like. Emergency...
- You Are Science. Citizen Science.
What a big eye you have! Oh, you're doing science!Mia! You are 1,000% right. Your rightness is statistically significant. Citizen Science is awesome. To keep with the awesomeness of Citizen Science, here are a few more Citizen Science websites...
- A Moment For Humping
(source)Hellooooo! You have editor friends? Such a big deal! I reference Grammar Girl often, but I always prefer live, personal feedback. I was really taken aback by those photos you posted because logically, I know that when breeding for (1) physical...
- So Much Dog To Talk About. All The Time In The World!
(source)Hi Mia, Yowzer!! We have so much to talk about! Dogs eating poop, welfare assessment, behavioural needs, enrichment and the “guilty look” are only the beginning! Speaking of which, I’m sure you have at least 7,000 more words...