Allelomimetic Behavior in Dogs

Allelomimetic behavior in dogs is the imitative behavior found in them and reflects their intelligence. Dogs can exhibit this behavior at any point of time in their life. However, as per the “Genetics and the Social Behavior of the Dog”, a puppy can first exhibit this behavior at around the age of 5 weeks.

More than one adult dogs that stay together – eat, play, sleep together are more prone to exhibit Allelomimetic behavior – one copying the dominating member of the pack. This is a common behavior in dogs is often noticed when a dog joins in barking or howling when his/her partner dog(s) will bark or howl. The other dog who is joining his pack members in barking will just imitate his members without even knowing the reason of barking.

The ability of dogs to induce themselves to act like the other members “in an adaptive manner” in a non-competitive situation brings in the sense of unity in them. Allelomimetic behavior is a type of natural social behavior found in the social animals – most prominent in canines – to imitate or mimic the activities of his/her pack members. This natural behavior is genetically hardwired in puppies – irrespective of breed and is one of the most significant factors and natural process of learning –can also be called “social learning”.

Allelomimetic behavior vs. Social facilitation

Closely resembling, the concept of “social facilitation” and “Allelomimetic behavior” are obviously related, but have subtle differences.

Allelomimetic behavior is a type of natural pack-coordinated behavior based on the natural inclination of any social animal to follow the other members of the pack. Social facilitation, on the other hand, refers to the behavior exhibited in the groups where the presence of a dog results in strengthening a specific behavior. For instance, two dogs staying together may bark more than when they were separate.

Takeaway:

If you have a dog with behavioral problem(s), it is suggested not adopting another dog to be kept together. The presence of the problem dog will environmentally influence the new member to develop the problem behavior. Even if you are adopting a dog from the best bloodline (without aggression problem), your new member is likely to develop aggressive behavior if your existing dog has aggression problem.

If you already have a problem dog, and still planning to get a new one, then you must make an arrangement to keep them separate. There is a pretty good chance that the magnitude of the problem behavior will be developed in your new puppy and will be eventually amplified, stimulated by the presence of a dog with behavioral issues.

Canines are doubtlessly an intelligent species, whether a pedigreed dog or a mongrel and irrespective of breed. Allelomimetic behavior is a reflection of its superb intelligence level. Due to its comparatively higher level of intelligence than many other species dogs can even perceive time. Here is how dogs can perceive time, a post that your will surely be interested to read out.

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Can Dogs Perceive Time? - Part 2

While explaining how dogs perceive time or if dogs can perceive time at all, dog behaviorists have concluded that its actually the dogs' "internal clock" (stimulus that is triggered by biological situations)  that allows them to get an idea about when their special treat is going to hit their feeding bowl! Here are the few facts about dogs that dog lovers may find quite useful.

1) Dogs use their instinct to know when their owner usually arrives each day, or what time they are going to get their meal. This doesn't mean that dogs can perceive time the same way humans do.

2) Humans can remember events that had happened during the past and can plan for events in the future. For instance you can remember what you did in the last Christmas and can plan your forth coming Christmas in the way you desire. Your dog doesn't have this ability.

3) Dogs cannot understand the passage of time, instead they rely on their "internal biological indicators to remember what time regular, daily events happen."

Check out... can animals comprehend and plan for the future?

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Can Dogs Perceive Time? - Part 1

Researcher William Roberts argued back with an explanation about an animal's way of thinking of memories. According to Roberts animals do think of memories at least in the way human does. Roberts explained that "animals might be trained to do things in the same way young children are trained to do things." Just as 4-month kids learn crawling, but without the mental ability to remember where or how they learned how to crawl, animals in the same way do not have the ability of episodic memory, or the ability to remember particular events in the past. Roberts says, "a dog can know how to respond to the command "sit" without having a memory of the specific event in which it learned that command."

But if this be the case actually, then how can your dog predict your arrival time? How can your dog predict that a day is a Sunday, and your are going to take him for a drive? Researcher William Roberts has answers to questions like theses as well! According to his study on how animals perceive time, internal biological rhythms also play immensely important part. Experiments on pigeons have helped researchers conclude that an "internal clock" allows them to get a clue about when and where food would be available for them. In the same way Circadian Oscillators - daily fluctuations of hormones, body temperature and neural activities in dogs help them understand when its the time to get out in the lawn for when their owners will give them their dinner. Dogs cannot understand how much time have passed away after the last feed; they cannot understand that they are going to get the next food at 8 pm. Instead they react to a biological state that they come across at a specific time, which is determined by human through the sophisticated gadgets called clocks and watches. If your dog asks for food in the same way & at the same time each day, you should understand that he or she is reacting to a particular stimulus that is triggered by the biological state, which come across each day at the same time.

So if your dog cannot understand or perceive time, can they comprehend things or event that they might come across in the future? We will talk about this shortly. Meanwhile check out more about how dogs perceive time.

Check out... can animals comprehend and plan for the future?

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Dog Intelligence - A Bit on Canine IQ

Here's something about the Canine IQ test - which Coren called 'CIQ'. Okay, first off, let me tell you that your dog doesn't have to be a 'Caninestein' to be loved. It doesn't really matter how sharp a creature your lovely little pooch may be, he or she should be loved forever... untill the final drop of life! Remember, you have your friends, your chess board, your swiming pool, your golf ground, your novels, DVDs, CDs, and what not? Bruno has no one but you!

Stuff about 'CIQ' - Canine Intelligent Quotient is one of te most interesting subject that would grab readers' attention - I'm sure. The Canine IQ test, we're talking about here, had been formulated by Dr. Coren - Dr. Stanley Coren, who's the professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia and an authority on canine intelligence and an award winning dog trainer too! With such a vigorous profile, Coren stepped ahead to come up with what's called Canine IQ test to determine the most and least intelligent dog breed across the board.

Dr. Coren defines three distinctive dog intelligences - 'Adaptive intelligence', 'Working or obedience intelligence' and 'Instinctive intelligence'; check out my previous post. Coren states that all these three categories of intelligence play their respective roles when it comes to dog intelligence. The breeds that have been found to obey the pre-taught commands 95 percent of times, with at most 5 repetitions for each command have enrolled their names in the Top Ten Intelligent Dog Breeds of the world. Coren treated them to be the best and the brightest specimen.
One of the most significant part of Coren's research work was the attempt to analyze the obedience trial results of AKC. He sent out his survey to all the all-breed as well as breed specific obedience judges in USA and Canada. 208 judges (half of the people who got his survey) hit him back with their valued responses. Coren gave detailed telephonic interviews to 24 judges of them.

Three Parts of Coren's Survey

Part 1: Judges scored the 74 most popular dog breeds on a scale ranging between 7 to 1.

• Position 7: Breeds that ranked top in Obedience trial field.
• Position 6: Breeds that achieved good scores most of the times
• Position 5: Breeds that achieved qualifying scores around 50% of times
• Position 4: Breeds that are expected to qualify almost 50% of times - but practically they might have failed at times.
• Position 3: Breeds that failed to achieve the qualifying scores even less than 50 % of times
• Position 2: Breeds that are expected to fail most of the time
• Position 1: Breeds that are known to be worst when it comes to obedience test.

Part 2: Judges rated the same specimen on the basis of the same scale for their ability to learn new things and solve problems.

Part 3: Judges documented what they considered in the ten MOST and LEAST intelligent canine breed. Time was the most significant parameter that was taken into consideration. Time signifies the 'time taken to learn commands' for various breeds and 'time taken to execute the first command' for various breeds. These parameters are the base lines to analyze the agility, swiftness, concentration level, degree of stubbornness and memory power of various breeds. Judges also considered whether regular practice is an important parameter for a specific breed, and whether the distance at which a particular command is thrown makes a difference.

Good news is that GSDs rank third in the world. It's not that I love them so I say they are intelligent. They are intelligent, so I love them! So why wait? Put your Rex on test... Click here.

One Question of Mine

I am sure all the judges haven't given same numbers to all the breeds in the test. Did Coren analyzed the correlation coefficient taking into consideration of the marks given by the judges? He would have got a clue of how closely these judges had mental match with each other while examining dog intelligence.

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Top Ten Intelligent Dog Breeds - Dog Intelligence Un·veiled

Stanley Coren's 'The Intelligence of Dogs: Canine Consciousness and Capabilities' received a mega hype in media - more than any other dog book published recently. Coren is a dog trainer and an experimental canine behaviorist, who approaches is subject quite seriously, which makes Coren put forth the various historical views of dog's behavior in the most fascinating way.

In his book, "The Intelligence of Dogs", Coren discusses three types of canine intelligence.

• Adaptive Intelligence: This is specific to the individual animal -- depends on individual dog, which is measured by canine IQ tests. Adaptive Intelligence is the ability to learn new things and solve problems.
• Instinctive Intelligence: Instinctive Intelligence is also specific to the individual animal and is measured by canine IQ tests.
• Working /Obedience Intelligence: Working Intelligence or Obedience Intelligence is breed specific. Different breeds of dogs show different degree of Working /Obedience Intelligence.

Coren considered all these three types of canine intelligence while analyzing the dog intelligence. The analysis comes down to the dog's ability to learn, remember and obey the commands that have been taught. Below are the top ten dog breeds (with no 1 being the most intelligent breed of the ten) measured by analyzing the degree of intelligence. These dog breeds require less than 5 repetitions to understand a new command and have been seen obeying the first commands 95% of time.... that means 95% better than any other breeds.

1) Border collie
2) Poodle
3) German Shepherd Dog
4) Golden retriever
5) Doberman pinscher
6) Shetland sheepdog
7) Labrador retriever
8) Papillon
9) Rottweiler
10) Australian cattle dog

Well, that's really an awesome work by Mr. Stanley Coren, but at first I was a bit confused, because I know terriers understand commands too perfectly and owners are really happy with their intellectual companions! I mailed Mr. Clifton letting him know about my confusion, although I wasn't really aware of whether he had already read about Coren's work. I had to wait not more than a day and was hit back with his return reply. He already had read about the dog intelligence and Coren's work. Here's the copy of his short explanation:

"Hi Arindam
Good to know that you are carrying out your studies on the subject. You are perfectly right. I have also seen Mr. Gordon's Fox Terrier, 'Bruno' understands commands perfectly and that makes Gordon quite happy, but not always. Bruno is just a bit too stubborn in obeying Gordon's commands mindlessly, although he's one of the brightest canine companion I've seen ever.

The dogs that are bred to work with human, like the ones you are owning, really do great in obedience. The gene play it's role here and compels the animal to look to the alfa member of the pack (their owners/trainers) for direction.

Thanks and regards
John Clifton"

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