[nagdu] how dogs learn

[Ann Edie]

Hi, Katrin and Julie,

Has either of you seen the detailed description of the games used in this
program?  Has either of you tried them with your dogs?  The reason I ask is
that, without seeing the actual package of games, it sounds as if a lot of
them have to do with eye contact by the dog or with the owner pointing out
things with eye gaze or hiding information by covering their eyes, etc., in
other words a lot of the games seem to involve vision-related activities.
I'm wondering whether guide dogs might score differently on some of the
games because the relationships we have with our animals is not vision
based.  I'm also wondering how good I might be at indicating things with eye
gaze since this is not the usual way I communicate with my animals.

Just wondering whether anyone has gone into this program deeply enough to
explore these questions.

Best,
Ann

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Katrin Andberg
Sent: Friday, August 30, 2013 6:26 AM
To: nagdu at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [nagdu] how dogs learn

There is actually a tremendous amount of research currently happening in the
field on canine cognition and learning.  There is a researcher who has
developed a website with activities called Dognition that owners can log
into and do various at home tests with their dogs to help figure out how
their dog best learns and takes in information.  And the data helps the
researchers learn and further study dogs as well.  It's really very cool.
Website is:  https://www.dognition.com/  

 

In one of the veterinary behavior research journals I read, about a year or
so ago there was an article about research done on guide dogs and their
learning and using lateralization through hair whorl patterns to help figure
out if a dog was left or right side dominant and therefore help programs to
hopefully down the line after further research better determine if a dog
should be trained for work on the left or the right of the handler.  That
too was cool.

 

There also has been further research on how dogs interpret the world through
their senses, how they integrate senses especially olfactory in with vision,
auditory, tactile, taste, etc.    

 

This is an amazingly fast growing field with fascinating research.

 

Katrin 

 

Katrin Andberg

katrin at maplewooddog.com

 

 

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