Above is a picture that I took of Gibson, our friends new puppy. This past summer two of our friends got new puppies and my own sons were insanely jealous. While I never had a pet growing up, I know that many of my students and most of my friends have pets. The relationships between pets and their owners is that of true love.
In National Geographic this week, there was an article about dogs having feelings. Do pets really love their owners? Read the article below (Actually, it is a review of a book by Gregory Burns.):
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/09/dog-brain-feelings-mri-gregory-berns/
Your assignment this week is to write a scholarly paragraph about this article and the niche of a pet. In your paragraph, define what a pet's niche is and if you have a pet how your specific pet fills the niche in your family. Summarize the article and its findings. What do you think? Does your pet love you or just the food? Be sure to mention the findings on both the sea lions and the relationship between brains and extinction.
Finally, I would like you to change your profile picture this week to a cute picture of a dog, pet or any other animal that would make us smile.
I read "Dogs Have Feelings--Here's How We Know." by Simon Worrall. As I was reading I thought to myself I know my dogs have feelings because of the way my dog acts, but I wanted to know how they had feelings. In the text it explained that Simon set up an MRI for dogs and every Sunday people would bring in dogs for testing. Not only did they test their understanding of us, they also tested their smelling system and if they could smell where they are. They then moved on to talk about this tiger who went missing,but it looked more like a dog then a tiger. In the text it states that they call it a "convergent evolution, which means this animal, which comes from a different lineage evolved to look like a dog because of it's environmental niche." A niche is How the role of an organism plays withing its community. Meaning the Tasmanian Tiger played like a dog due to its community and background of dogs. This relates back to me because before I read this I knew my dog had feelings. Sometimes I would pretend to hurt myself or even be dead and he would come running into my room or wherever I was and lick me and cry until I "woke up". That shows the dogs care not just about food and treats and walks, they care about us.
ReplyDeleteI love the example that you gave about your dog caring about you.
DeleteIm a dog owner/lover.My dog is awesome!(sometimes).Now in my opinion when I read this article I was intrigued by the info I learned.The paragraph states things such as that when a experiment was conducted half the dogs supported both praise and food with some outliers liking either treats or praise more.I Believe that this article has some great points.I hope they continue there reasearch.Now I beleive that the pets niche is a certain trait and or characteristic we look for.I know that for me my pets niche is how he always has energy and wants to play all the time!My dog's niche fits perfectly in my family as we always want to play with my dog.But I think my dogs likes treats more than praise :).The article also mentions animals such as sea lions as well as the extinct thylacine and how the thylacine appears to be a evolution to a wolf or a dog.They also explained about how sea lions are to act like dogs for example how they both bark,but what caught my eye was that how they do mimic the same actions like following commands and how one sea lion in california has learned to dance to music rythems.I can conclude on the article that dogs niches are key in some of our lives and that this reasearch has only taped a fragment of this topic.
ReplyDeletePayton,
DeleteDo you think you could teach your dog to dance like the sea lion?
A pet's niche in a family I feel is having another family member in your house. A pet like a dog has a personality and traits that make a pet one of the family. For example my Dog has a very goofy and perky kind of personality that makes a my dog for who it is. In this article it talks about how dogs give signs or do different things that hep them understand us. Some scientists feel dogs may not have feelings because as humans we have languages to express and talk about feelings while dogs can understand commands like sit , stay, lie down, etc. but they don't communicate with humans to understand us. This is also about if other animals besides dogs can follow the commands of humans, the sea lions. Sea lions were able to pay attention to rhythms, Not metronome rhythms but musical rhythms just like humans. I feel pets will love you if you give them food. I have even noticed myself that my dog seems to like my mom more because she is the one that takes care of my dog the most. But also if you give them love and attention, dogs will give the same thing back to you. I thought this article was very interesting, it made me think about how my own dog behaves and why she acts the way she does.
ReplyDeleteJulia,
DeleteDo you only have one dog? What kind of dog is it? Does your dog sometimes seem like she is trying to communicate with you?
In the article, “Do Dogs Have Feelings”, they conducted an experiment, by sending twenty dogs through MIRs to really prove to scientists that dogs have feelings. Another experiment they did, was testing whether they dog would go to the treat or go to the owner who was saying “good boy”. Over half of them preferred the praise over food. In addition to experimenting with dogs, they also tested how sea lions ability to follow rhythmic patterns. Lastly, they investigated a tasmania tiger’s brain, an animal that is extinct,but looked very similar to a wild dog, They concluded it was nothing like a brain of a wild dog’s brain even though the two share a similar niche.
ReplyDeleteThe dog in a family has a huge niche (a niche is how an organism reacts with the biotic and abiotic factors).They cheered you up when you feel down,always bring a laugh or two, and make sure the yard never has squirrels or rabbits in it. Dog’s definitely have feelings, they walk around guiltily when they did something wrong, then walk sadly to their cage when you yell at them. I strongly believe that my dog loves me, and not just the food I give him!
Haley,
DeleteWhat kind of dog do you have?
I agree, I think dogs do love you and not just for the food. They definitely always try to make you happy and cheer you up as well! I agree with you that dogs have feelings.
DeleteScientist Gregory Berns wanted to crack the question if dogs have emotions. To go through with the solution of this, Gregory trained his dog in a special way to go through with the MRI process. Him and his dog went to classes to train and said that scientists find it "hard to believe that animals have feelings'. But, with sea lions, scientists experimented on them to see if they responded the same ways as dogs. The sea lions are for vocally flexible then dogs and they can learn musical rhythms. I believe that it matters how your owners treat you when you are a puppy. If you were trained with treats, then the dog would be bound to enjoy treats. My dog, Kirby, loves me and his food. He is very well trained and responds to you "commands" (example: shake, outside). But, he does respond to the sayings "treat" or "cheese" where he runs to the refrigerator. Scientists will eventually figure out if dogs express their feelings or if they simply love their food.
ReplyDeleteI agree with how you said that it matters how you treat your dog from the beginning. If you treat a puppy badly for its first years, it will lose its respect for you, and then it will just be there for the food.
DeleteSara,
DeleteDo you think that humans also are influenced by how they are treated as children?
I agree with what you said about how a dog's niche is how you treat them as a puppy. If you train a dog a certain way when they are young, they will probably act that way for the rest of their lives.
DeleteA pet’s niche is the specific place where an organism (like a dog) lives. My dogs fill the niche in my family, by making my house feel more like home, and by adding a sense of inhabitants and comfort into my everyday household. The article “Dogs Have Feelings--- Here’s How We Know”, talks mainly about how even though for years it was very arguable about whether or not dogs and other animal species have feelings, they do because they reciprocate the love their owners give them in return. In the article, this was proved by a neuroscientist named Gregory Berns. To prove his hypothesis he got a group of about 20 test dogs together, to train them to do an MRI to track their responsiveness and taught them to learn new tricks that they would associate with either treats or praise. By the end of the experiment, he was able to prove that some of the test dogs responded more when they got praise, and others when they got treats. The article also talked about how the scientist mentioned in the article did an experiment on sea lions, and found out that they are able to comprehend and follow along with rhythmic beats, due to a part of their brain that is allowing them to do this. A factor of this feature is that since sea lions understand the rhythms, it gives them an ability to dance a little. The last main idea mentioned in this article talked about an extinct marsupial called the thylacine. In the article they spoke about how the thylacine is a carnivorous marsupial that looked very similar to a dog or wolf. They brought up this extinct animal to talk about how the thylacine lived in a very similar niche as a wild dog, and that is probably why, it evolved to look so much like a dog. In my opinion overall, I think that pets do truly love you and not because you give them food. I think this because even when you are not feeding your pets, they still show you so much love and affection and they always seem so happy to be around you. Another reason I think this is due to the fact that you can definitely tell if your pet genuinely loves you, because they always make sure to try and show you they do. By reading this article, it made me think even more that pets definitely love their owners because of all of the good points, they made throughout the article, and all of the evidence they had to support their hypothesis.
ReplyDeleteAnnabella,
DeleteDo you think 20 dogs is enough to test?
I agree Annabella my dog makes my house feel more like home too. Without her it would feel kind of empty.
DeleteI completely agree with you on pets actually loving you not just for the treats. Whenever I'm around any dog, not just my own, are always happy. I find just when I come home from somewhere my dog is happy and so excited. I'm sure that dogs love you even more when you give them a treat but they do genuinely love you. I've heard also many times that a dog is one of the only creatures that cares more about it's "master" or owner more than it cares for itself.
DeleteI read the article "Dogs Have Feelings" by Simon Worrall and my first thoughts were I wonder if dogs have feelings. A pets niche is good, they are happy to be living with their owners! At first when you have a pet they might not immediately adjust but over time they adjust! My dog adjusted very well and we have had him for over 7 years and I think my dog has feelings although in the experiment there was only 20 dogs tested so we don't know. Also I think that it's really cool that sea lions can remember a rhythm because I remember being about 4 years old and being a ballerina and it being hard to remember the dances but sea lions can do it.
ReplyDeleteKristen,
DeleteDid you get your dog as a puppy or did you adopt him?
I agree that the 20 dogs they tested was not enough data. If even a couple dogs gave inaccurate information because they were in a different environment that could skew the data and give wrong results.
DeleteYou can never have too many things to test. Especially when were talking about dogs.
DeleteWhile reading “Dogs Have Feelings- Here's How we Know” I started to think of my own dogs back at home. In this article it talks about Gregory Berns and his experiment on dogs and their feelings. He trains dogs to stay still in an MRI. Once in the MRI he shows the dogs different hand signals on if they would get a treat or not, by doing this and many other studies they were able to figure out if dogs really only stayed for the treats. I have to dogs, a boxer and a lab, both are amazing but don’t really get as many treats as other dogs. They still stay with us and are very nice to everyone they meet. Without these dogs in our lives the family would definitely feel the emptiness. The dogs are definitely part of our family just like me or my brothers.
ReplyDeleteA dogs niche is where they live, and their significance in their owners life. My dogs niche in my family is basically filling the hole. They bring us together even more and are extremely loved by our family, but I don't think they act all cuddly just for the food. I think that dogs actually build bonds with their owners and love them, just like we do for them. Sure, they love the food too, but they don't put on an act just to get food. I read the article "Dogs have feelings" by Simon Worrall, and in this article it explained that a scientist trained his dog to stand still in a machine (MRI) so he could monitor his brain. He didn't get very valuable results, so it is still debatable whether dogs have feelings or not.
ReplyDeleteA pet’s niche is where an organism lives, in this case the dog. Infact, I do not have a dog but the pet’s I have are fishes. My fish fills the niche in the family because the fish bring happiness to everyone in my family. In my opinion, I think my pet loves the food more than us even though we love our fishies. I read the article,”Dogs Have Feeling- Here’s How We Know” an animal neuroscientist, Gregory Berns, trains dogs to go inside an MRI scanner. The neuroscientist explains it’s difficult to understand human language and he wants to learn from the brains of animal threatened with extinction. He also hopes to learn why sea lions dance. He started building a MRI simulator in his house and recorded loud sounds the machine made. As time went on he began having classes where people would bring their dogs and were given mock-ups of the MRI for home to practice. Although, scientists found it hard to believe the idea that animals have feelings. Through the experiments they presented objects that would signal when the dogs receive food or when the dogs go over when their owner says “good girl”. Multiple dogs preferred praise over food. Not only did they look at dogs brains and experiments but they also studied sea lions brains. Since they couldn’t used the sea lions in the scanner they obtained brain specimen of animals that died. Also, they compared the brains with humans and other animals. However, sea lions had the ability to follow rhythmic patterns, the ability to dance. Theories scientists believed is that only animals that have a flexible vocal apparatus have the ability to dance because of the rhythm. Although, sea lions aren’t vocally flexible, one sea lion in California can follow rhythms. Scientists wanted to look further more into the brain. The brain is different between humans and dogs but the most striking similarity is the caudate nucleus. This structure is common for all brains. However, one big difference is the size of the brain. Dogs brain are way smaller than a human’s brain. The thylacine, Tasmanian Tiger, has been extinct since 1936. This is animal appears to look like a dog or wolf but it’s environmental niche is the same as a wild dog. Although, their brains compared to a dog’s brain was very different. Scientists want to figure out which animals to help before they go extinct. Climate change and change in their habitats. Due to roads, power lines or other man-made obstacles, it’ll be difficult for animals to migrate. As a conclusion, I think it’s cool how sea lions can follow rhythms and dance as knowing dogs can have feelings too.
ReplyDeleteI think our fish is starting to recognize us as "feeding time" too. I agree that innovations are making it harder for animals to migrate. I think cities should be more mindful and considerate of animals when considering improving infrastructure and more.
DeleteA niche is an organism's role in the environment; where it lives, what it does, what it eats, resources it uses. A pet does not have a niche, as it doesn’t live in the “wild.” But every animal has a niche, so a dog’s niche would be the house it lives in. A dog as a pet is meant for the owner’s to have a companion; someone they can always have. I do not have full experience of this because I don’t have a dog, but I have many friends and family with dog’s and it seems this way with all of them.
ReplyDeleteFor dog’s, they have it easy when it comes to food; they are provided food by their owner’s. This is why dog’s have more energy to spend on other things because they don’t have to work for their food. The resources would also be provided by their owner, such as where/what they sleep on, the toys the are given and other “accessories.”
The article assigned for us to read this week was about someone believed dogs felt emotions and set out to prove it was true. He did this by training dogs to take MRIs. By doing this, he discovered that he was right. He decided to allow other people to test this with their dogs, and he soon had enough dogs to test other things like how their smell system works.
In the sea lion article, someone wanted to know what dogs understood about our speech. After the tests proved they understood some words and action, he tried to test other animals. He found that sea lions can follow rhythm. In the closing statement, he concluded that dogs do have feelings, even though they have no words to describe them. He also said that animals’ “habitats change because of roads or power lines or other man-made obstacles, they can’t migrate and are going extinct.” This means didn’t find a correlation between brains and extinction.
While I do not have a dog I believe, the thought process of the dog is all relative. If the dog doesn’t know the person on a personal level yet, they just want the food. As they get to know the person, though, they will start to feel affection for them.
After reading “Dogs Have Feelings—Here's How We Know” by Simon Worrall Gregory Berns, a neuroscientist at Emory university did many tests on dogs such as teaching one to walk into a MRI to see what they were thinking/feeling. It also stated that a sea lion has learned to dance and follow rhythm. Gregory Berns concluded that pets do have emotional feelings towards their owners. I knew this before, since my cat has never once been given a treat and still acts loving and caring towards us.
ReplyDeleteA pets niche is where the organism lives and how it interacts with its owners and environment. My cats niche is to be something else to socialize with and have care for me/ my family.
I agree. I could tell my dog loved me even before i gave her treats. I find it fascinating how dogs can love their owners as we love them.
DeleteA pet's niche is what it does on a daily basis, and how it interacts with its habitat, a house, and the people that live with it. In other words, how it reacts to both abiotic and biotic factors in its life. My cat fills the niche in my family because she prefers to occupy certain rooms, such as the basement, dining room, and my bedroom. She also only really likes my mom and me. She doesn't feel the need to interact with the rest of my family very much. In the article, "Dogs Have Feelings- Here's How We Know," the scientist, Gregory Berns, mentions dogs and other pets having a niche in a household, leading him to wonder if dogs had feelings. Do they show love and affection for food? Or for seeing certain people? Or for praise? Berns wanted to find out. He began training his own dog to go have an MRI so he could see what the dog was thinking. After successfully getting the dog, Callie, into the MRI and being able to examine brain activity, he asked for volunteers to bring their dogs for testing. Every Sunday, people would bring their dogs to train. Within a year, they had a team of about 20 dogs. I personally believe that 20 dogs isn't enough for this experiment because all brains are very complex, and they work and react differently to various signals and actions. Twenty dogs isn't sufficient for accurate results that can be applied to dogs around the globe. However, the study did show that dogs do experience thoughts, feelings, and emotions. For example, especially when in a state of anticipation, if something happens then the dog has to decide what to do with that information and how to react to it. Berns also discovered that the dogs in his study group were split half and half with what they prefer-food or praise? Berns determined this by showing the dogs one object that signaled they would receive food, and another that signaled that the owner would come into view and praise the dog. I'm pretty sure my cat loves me back- she wants to spend time with me, even though my sister is the one who feeds her, along with our other cat. Overall, I think that this was a very interesting topic to study, and can be a controversial topic among people. I wonder if other household pets would produce similar findings, or if they would be opposite, or if it simply varies from animal to animal. Gregory Berns did not extend his research to other household pets, but he did do some research and experiments with dolphins and sea lions. Since he could not get them into an MRI scanner, he looked at the brain patterns of animals that had passed away, and compared those findings to humans as well as other animals. Berns is studying these brain patterns to see how they compare to the brains of extinct animals. He wants to find the differences and the similarities between the brains, and use that information to predict what animals could go extinct next, as well as what types of animals are more prone to extinction. If he can figure out the brain patterns, we as a population could try to help those animals live longer so that the food web couldn't fall apart.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting when he said an animals brain could affect it's likelihood to go extinct and I think it's really cool that he's going to look further into that.
DeleteI agree that 20 dogs isn't enough test subjects to get truly accurate results. Although I imagine it would take a long time to train a large amount of dogs to walk into an MRI and recognize the meanings of different signals.
DeleteNeuroscientist Gregory Berns presents us his findings from entering the dog and sealion brain in the article “Dogs Have Feelings-Here’s How We Know”. Conducting this experiment required first teaching a group of 20 dogs how to sit and stay in an MRI. From here, they began presenting animals with different tasks and tricks to see whether or not they understood language. They found it's possible to teach animals vocabulary but at the same time, its very difficult. The main focus of the experiment was whether or not dogs had feelings. Berns found that most dogs appreciated praise more than treats which allows me to infer that dogs do indeed have feelings. This experiment was further extended in the sea lion field. To test sea lion’s responses, they took brain specimens and found that sea lions have an ability to follow rhythmic patterns. More specifically, dance. I found this interesting as with previous dance experience, my teachers constantly used the term “feel the music”. I wonder if maybe sea lions express this too. The last organism tested was a Tasmanian tiger. Berns found that this tiger was actually quite asocial but a sophisticated thinker. Relations were made between the Tasmanian tiger and dog as they look alike due to their same environmental niche. The niche of a pet is how it interacts with biotic and abiotic factors in its environment (this being mostly it’s home). I don’t have a dog but I have a fish. My fish mostly fills in the niche for my brother and sister. In the morning they look forward to putting food in the tank and now whenever our fish sees them, he starts swimming excitedly in circles! :)
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article i was very interested. I've wondered before whether my dog actually enjoys me or just the food I give her. It seems like she does and this article proves that to me. My dogs niche in my in my family would be how she interacts with me and my family. She's always excited to see us and follows us around the house. The article says that dogs do like us just for being us but at the same time they do also enjoy the food as anyone else would. I thought the whole training process he described seemed very interesting and strange. However it seemed to work well so I guess that doesn't matter. One thing I never knew was that Sea Lions could dance. That seems like a funny thing to see.
ReplyDeleteThe pets niche in a family household is as if they are another person to the family. I had a dog before and we treated him like a family member. We mostly did stuff based on what would be best for him. The article "Dogs Have Feelings--Here's How We Know." by Simon Worrall is about if dogs actually love you or are they just being loving because of the treats and food you give them. After training 20 dogs over the course of a year to stand still in an MRI machine they were able to carry out the experiment. When doing this experiment they concluded that if differs from dog to dog. Some dogs just love you for the treats and other just love you for you. I personal think that when I had a dog it was both, sometime he loved me for the food and others because of the attention I gave him. They also mentioned sea lions in the article and how you can teach them to dance. They have the ability to do things to a rhythm. They also took mention of an extinct animal called the thylacine. They have traits of our modern dogs and are thought to be relatives to our modern day dogs.
ReplyDeleteThis week i read “Dogs have feelings-here's how we know” I know that dogs have feelings because I can see that when I get home from school they both seem happy to see me because they have been all alone that day. Also, if we want to find out what they think of us we can just see how they react to us like if there head is up high and their tail is wagging then that means that they like us or they are excited about something but if they hang there head it means that they are sad or scared about something they did or about something else. A dog’s niche is basically where they live and where they want to be most of their time. Whenever I feel stressed or frustrated my dog’s are there to make me relax. There is a lot of things that our dogs do for us which is why people call them man's best friend. That proves that they love us and not the food that we give them.
ReplyDeleteI read “Dogs Have Feelings—Here's How We Know” and in the article, a neuroscientist at Emory University, Gregory Berns, has trained dogs to go inside and sit still in an MRI scanner in order to map their brains when they responded to different things. After initially training his dog to sit in an MRI scanner, he began to help train other dogs and also began to test more complex things in the scanner, such as figuring out how a dog could tell if they recognize people and their household by their own scent. Both humans and dogs have similar reactions in their caudate nucleus, the structure of the brain that has a rich density of dopamine. Unlike what they did with dogs, when studying sea lions they had to rely on obtaining the brains of organisms that had passed away, but they learned that there are similarities between sea lions and dogs. Also, one sea lion was able to follow musical patterns. It seems to be that the more developed an organism’s brain is, and the more social it is, determines how likely it is to go extinct. A pet’s niche is to provide companionship and security to those who care for them. I would like to think that my dog, a Pomeranian Chihuahua mix, truly does love my family and me, but sometimes it seems like he only likes the table scraps we give him at dinner.
ReplyDeleteThis week I read "Dogs Have Feelings- Here's How We Know" where neuroscientist Gregory Berns Trained dogs to get them inside of a MRI scanner to map their brains and get a FEEL on their mental capacities. In his research his goal was to figure out if dogs can in fact feel emotions that us human can. Bern's experiment come out that dogs have an equal reaction with praise and food. Bern's expanded his research to test if maybe seal lions could add more to his results. He discovered that seal lions have a higher understanding when it comes to music. While reading his discovery I had my own opinions on his thinking. Personally, I have never been attached to a pet or animal so I never understood pets. To me they're animals but I can comprehend if a pet can fit in a family. They're niche for most people are very significant. I see people around me who say that they're dogs are a big part in their lives. I also find it fascinating that seal lions, like humans, can comprehend music and find a rhythm in music. I wonder how is it that an animal's brain can go in hand with their extinction.
ReplyDeleteAs I read the text, "Dogs have feelings-Here's how we know" by Simon Worrall and it got me thinking is my dog the type of dog who is just in the family for the table scraps or does he show true compassionate love for my family. I looked back and realized Trigg (My dog) begs for food every single night while my parents are making food for dinner but he does love playing BALL (A word he knows) going for WALKS (another word he knows) and car RIDES (Yet another one) however, he does not know the word food, steak, or dinner: he just knows it will benefit him. That's why I believe my dog can see past food before family and knows that he has quality times with us. This also got me thinking about how "man and man's best friend" is a symbiosis matualism relationship, the dog gets food and the human in earlier years got a hunting companion and now affection. My dog defiantly does fill a hole in my family as far as love and play time goes and I will always feel bad when I have to leave my dog for a vacation.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article, "Dogs Have Feelings-Here's how we Know," it explained the crazy experiment on dog's brains. Neuro-scientist, Gregory Berns did an experiment on dogs and how their brains react when they are offered a treat, and if dogs really love us the way we love them, or just the treats. With all of his experiments that included 20 dogs, it was concluded that dogs do actually love us, and not just the treats. Personally, I believe that dogs do love their owners and not just the treats. My dog would still be considered a puppy and he is still learning things. But, when we do commands with him and he listens we don't give him a treat every time. A lot of the time we will just give him lots of praise and he is perfectly fine with it. He would most likely take praise over a treat because all he really wants is attention.:)
ReplyDeleteConnecting to what Berns was saying about loving dogs, they have a specific niche in families. A niche is a specific role that an organism plays in an ecosystem or environment. My dog named Finn definitely has a niche in our family. He keeps everyone happy and can cheer you up. Without my dog everything would seem too quiet. I also found it very interesting how sea lions have rhythm and can go along to a song. It's pretty crazy that they think that these sea lions evolved and were able to follow rhythm before humans. I'm curious to learn more about the evolution of animals like these with their sophisticated minds and how they are able to understand things like rhythms and words.
In the article "Dogs Have Feelings- Here's How We Know", Simon Worrall talks about whether or not a dog has feelings, how their feelings change when rewarded different ways, and eventually goes on to talk about other animals, specifically sea lions, and how far their intelligence stretches. A pet's niche can vary from family to family, for example, a dog's role in one house might be just as a companion and maybe an extra way to clean up dropped food, while in another's it might be a support dog or used to help someone with disabilities. Our dog's niche in my family is mainly for a sense of comfort and the feeling of being with someone when we're alone. After reading the article and the MRI studies of the dog's brain with and without a food reward. I thought it was very interesting to see that it was pretty even against human and food praise. I always assumed that dogs (including mine) would prefer food over love because then they would get a physical reward out of it which would be easier for a dog to understand. Speaking of which, it also goes over the intelligence animals like sea lions, which really surprised me. I thought wild animals were mainly set on food, water, shelter, but to read that a sea lion has the ability to keep a beat was really cool. What I found sad was how extinction is increasing, not just because of climate change, but due to lack of habitat. The scientist is going to study rains of other animals to see why some animals are more prone to extinction then others.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this article about how dogs have feelings I have really changed my perspective on dogs. Some people think that a dog's niche is to act nice in front of their owners to get food, but this is not the case. A lot of dogs like their owner's attention as much as getting a treat. This tells a lot about what the dogs are thinking. I also thought the research on the sea lions where interesting. How they can react to the beat of music. The overall take of the article is that a lot of animals can have feelings, especially dogs. There are some dogs that are definitely just in it for the treats but there are also some that are just in it for the owner's attention. Dogs can be unpredictable so never trust a dog.
ReplyDeleteI agree there are many dogs that love their owners. Dogs will always be there for you no matter what. And also the owners love their dogs.
DeleteAfter reading the article “dogs have feelings-here's how we know” It's about an animal neuroscientist, Gregory Berns, who trains dogs to go inside an MRI scanner. He found that animals truly have feeling or at least respond in ways similar to us. He also wanted to learn about why sea lions dance and for this he found that sea lions follow rhythm.A pets niche in a family is they provide companionship and excitement.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your definition of a pet's niche. It especially makes sense if people have a very energetic pet.
DeleteIn the article "Dogs Have Feelings- Here's How We Know" Simon Worrall experiments on wither dogs really love us or are they just in it for the treats. To conduct this experiment Simon gathered a group of 20 dogs and trained them to go into the MRI scanner so they could see if the dogs brain. A pets niche can be to eat the leftover table scraps or to be a mans best friend also, a dog can also be a service dog to help people in need. In the article they said that animals are very intelligent like sea lions who can keep a beat. I thought that dogs would prefer love over food because my dog always liked to be with me and did not really like treats as much but they were both pretty even. All in all, I thought this article was very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the fact the dogs prefer love over food, as my dog also adores me.
DeleteIn the article "Dogs Have Feelings-Here's How We Know," Gregory Burns, a neuroscience at Emory University, shares what he has discovered while studying different animal's brains. Burn's idea to analyze dog's brains came from him wondering if his own dog "reciprocated any feelings," (Worwall 1), and whether dogs are more motivated by food or just praise. This experiment was conducted by teaching dogs to walk into an MRI and presenting them with a signal that they would get food, and a signal that their owner would pop into view and say "Good girl!"According to Burns, a handful preferred praise over food, while a couple of dogs preferred the food over praise. Most of the dogs however, had equal responses to food and praise. A pet's niche is what it does, and how it interacts with the biotic and abiotic factors in their household. I have two cats, and they fill the niche in my family by impacting our habitat with things like their toys, food, cat towers, etc. Personally I think my cats care for the people in my family as well as food. This is because even though my cats love their food, they also like to be around my family and interact with us, even though not everyone in my family feeds them.
ReplyDeleteA pets niche is what your pet does to the family and how it interacts with them.My dog's niche is making everyone in the family happy and comforting our family(also make us laugh sometimes).The first thing i thought after this article is yes pets definitely have feelings.When a dog gets hurt it cries.When a dog sees another dog it gets excited.The article was about proving that dogs have feelings,one example they used was they love their owners.Sure my dog loves the food we give her,but she also loves us.she likes when we play with her,take her on walks,and give her treats.I think and agree with this article Dogs Have Feelings.
ReplyDeleteI agree Daniel that pets definitely have feelings.
DeleteToday I read "Dogs have feelings-Here's how we know" by Simon Worrall. In the article it talked about weather or not dogs actually have feelings or if they were just in it for the food. Personally I have always believed dogs do have emotions and this article just embraced the fact they do. A dogs niche vary's from family to family weather that is guarding your home , a companion or just a service dog but dogs play an important role in their family. Another interesting thing the author mentioned was that walruses can dance and they learned before us too! This shows us how we need to learn more about the abilities of other animals and how we can use them too. Another interesting point the author made was about how endangered animals and their brains could be related i would like to learn more about that.
ReplyDeleteIn the article "Dogs Have Feelings—Here's How We Know" by Simon Worrall, neuroscientist Gregory Berns trained dogs to sit and stay inside an MRI scanner including his own dog Callie. Eventually he got a team of 20 dogs and tested how their sense of smell works and how they recognize people and their household by their own scent. Also, he taught the dogs the names of two new toys which took a long time. He also talked about how a sea lion was able to follow the rhythm of music. A dogs niche in a household can be keeping the owner company or being a service dog. My dogs' niche is keeping us company when at home or going for walks with my family and I. I believe some dogs prefer treats but that others prefer love over the food.
ReplyDeleteThe article "Dogs have feelings- Here is how we know" shows us if our dog actaully loves us or just loves the food we give them. Eventaully the author goes onto other animals too. After the experiments he finally concluded that dogs really do love us. I believe that because whenever I come home my dogs go crazy and start licking me even when I don't have treats. I usually never give my dogs treats yet they continue to love on me. A pet;s niche can be very different base don what family. For example a god could just be used as a gaurd dog, a dog to help blind people, or a dog just for entertainment reasons. My dog personally is just to have for fun because dogs are very fun to have.
ReplyDeleteThe article showed the amazing dogs and sea lions can do like there was this one dog who was able to learn over 1,000 words! Or how sea lions have rhythm and a way to remember these thing without any language or way to communicate. Which means like the article stated that this trait probably evolved way before humans came about. On the subject of before humans being around, I bet that animals brains were very different back then I mean now scientist are studying how animals brains work just to help them survive global warming. Wall my dogs biggest concern isn’t global warming he still fills his niche by begging for food, stealing things like stuffed animals to play with, and digging himself a crater in the blankets to sleep. I also believe my dog loves me and in my opinion it matters on the relationship you have with your pet-if they love you or they're just there for the food.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article "Dogs Have Feelings- Here's How We Know" I believe generally a pet's niche is to provide company and comfort to their owner and fills the space of another person in most families. I own a small dog but even if she's small she fills her niche as one in the family (and maybe a little bit more). The article was about a group of studies,conducted by Gregory Berns, that asked if animals have feelings. His findings, that some animals are capable of having feelings, were established from observing their behavior with a MRI scans. These tests were used on multiple animals such as sea lions. Personally my dog probably loves me because I give her food and let her sleep in my bed, she also "watches out" for me. So, if we were to compare her to one of the experiments, then she would be one of the dogs that had an equal reaction to both the food and praise. I also believe that the study of sea lions sense of rhythm is accurate because my dog recognizes certain sounds (like a cheese stick opening) and will respond accordingly to them, which is similar to the sea lions recognizing and responding to the beats of music. Lastly though most animals have small brains compared to humans we can still compare them to ours and find out their abilities to solve problems (like in the thylacine) and be social (like dogs).
ReplyDeleteA niche in the conventional sense is what an organism does as well as how it interacts with its environment, and a pet’s niche, while not very similar to the niche of a wild animal, can still be defined by this generalized definition. Take for instance a house cat. My cat, Kitty, has a very specific niche and a rigorous daily schedule. She makes everyone in the house feel loved. She starts each day by visiting each person in the house, fervently reminding us that she exists by butting her head against us while we are attempting to do other things such as getting ready for work or school. This interaction is commonly referred to in our house as “Kitty Love.” There are many different forms of “Kitty Love.” There is the previously mentioned headbutting, walking across the keyboard while one is typing, or, the most dangerous kind, a full invasion of one's personal space. Kitty proceeds to sleep for most of the day, giving “Kitty Love” to remind us when it is time to be fed or meowing incessantly until food is given. With two other cats in the house, Kitty has to regularly assert dominance over the other two, as matriarch of the house. When another cat approaches her, they must show respect and keep their distance when necessary, raising their tails to show that they wish to socialize with her. Sometimes Kitty attacks, biting them viciously on the neck so that they don’t forget their place in the house. There are many perks to being the matriarch cat. Kitty gets the first pick of food and gets the best spot on the bed, with the two other filthy peasants usually sleeping next to her. The matriarch also gets the most amount of attention from us, and she gives back that attention when we need it. When we seem to be feeling sad or have been gone from the house for a very long time, or even struck with an illness, she will be there to cheer us up with large amounts of purring, licking, and pleasant small doses of “Kitty Love.” I read the article “Dogs Have Feelings and Sea Lions Can Dance,” in which a neuroscientist named Gregory Berns studied the brains of animals, specifically dogs and sea lions, to see how their brains work in different situations. He began by studying dogs that were placed in an MRI to see what they were thinking, how they reacted to being offered treats, and how their system of smell worked. He also looked at whether dogs had parts of their brains that could stimulate emotions, as it is a commonly debated topic whether dogs actually have feelings. Something else that he examined was whether dogs actually love their owners or just love being fed. When he looked at dogs, most of them seemed to love praise and food equally. Applying that finding to Kitty, Kitty loves her owners, and she loves those who feed her most. After dogs, Berns studied sea lions. He examined the pathways in their brains and compared them to humans. What Berns discovered that was very interesting was that sea lions had the ability to follow rhythms, or dance. This movement was not just keeping a beat like a metronome but following actual musical rhythms. Similar to tap dancing, there is a direct link between the sounds we hear and our motor functions. Previously, it was thought that understanding rhythm was learned through language, but this research shows that rhythm is a much more fundamental trait in animals. Berns has since been researching the brains of other species, comparing their brains to the brains of humans, and learning more about what distinguishes species from each others. In this way, Berns is working to further our understanding of life on Earth and how that life thinks and behaves, why some species are more prone to extinction than others, and why some are able to survive better.
ReplyDeleteI read dog's have feelings-- here's how we know. A niche is where an organism lives. I have a dog. My dog fills the niche in my family because he makes my family happy. I think that animals love food more than us. No matter how much love we give them, they cannot really understand us. The neuroscientist wants to know why sea lions dance. Even though it's difficult to understand the human language, he still wants to learn from brains of animals facing extinction. He practiced MRI's with dogs, even though it's hard to believe that animals have feelings, many dogs actually preferred praises over food. Since the sea lions could'nt be scanned they obtained brain specimen of animals that died. Sea lions can follow rhythmic patterns and that gives them an ability to dance and some can actually follow rhythms that they are given. The Tasmanian tiger went extinct in 1936, They look like a wolf but their brains were very different when they were compared. Their niche happened to be the same as a wild dog. Some of the changes in habitat are caused by climate change and this is a serious issue.
ReplyDeleteMia i think that true, dogs wont be able to understand the feeling we have food them. They can only understand the good tasting food that we give them.
DeleteI am a dog owner and lover, and reading this article was very interesting because it made me think a lot more about what my dogs really know, and what they do think. Gregory Berns trained dogs to go into an MRI scanner so they could study the dog’s brain. They found that a lot of dogs crave their owner’s attention, and that they respond very similar to humans in some ways. They don’t always just show us love and compassion for food and treats. A dog’s niche can vary, depending on who their owners are. They could be there for comfort, they could be a companion, and many other things. There are more animals, not just dogs, that know a lot more than we think they do. One, for example, is sea lions. I think it is very interesting that sea lions have a great sense of rhythm. It shows that there is probably more going on in their head than we know. All in all, this article was very interesting to read, and it surprised me to find out that my dogs might just love me for who I am!
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article, "Dogs Have Feelings Here's How We Know", I have come to the conclusion that dogs not only have feelings very much like we do but also feel real love for their particular owners.This article talks about how a neuroscientist, Gregory Berns, conducted an experiment to test a dogs brain waves before and after giving it a treat. He was able to observe activity in the reward pathways of the dogs brain which indicated that his technique worked. This dog had been trained previously by the exposure of the loud MRI sounds with specific hand signals indicating when it would receive a treat and when it got none. This experiment was successfully announced to the public and dog volunteers were needed. with all of the dog volunteers, they were able to discover many interesting facts about dogs. Did you know that dogs recognize their household and people by their scent? Another cool fact is that dogs have corresponding parts of their brain to humans. The niche of a pet is the role it plays in its environment. For my dogs, their niche is to love their owners or even to pick up food scraps from underneath the table. I can tell that my dogs love me not only because I give them treats but because I care for them and love them very much.
ReplyDeleteIn the article "Dogs Have Feelings-Here's How We Know" Simon Worall tries to figure out the life long question; do our dogs really love us? Or our food? Simon gathered Many dogs and he taught his dog, along with many others, to walk through an MRI scanner to test their brain function when he tells them he is giving them a treat. A dogs niche is eating our leftover food that we dropped on the ground, or being a helpful dog that goes to hospitals to make people smile. I thought this article was very interesting I have always believed that my dog loved my family and I, more than it did her food. Dogs are known for being good family pets. Why you may ask? My dog Piper has filled many small holes in our family. Piper is a golden retriever and she is 13 years old. I have had this dog for as long as i could remember. If i come home from school and just had a bad day, who do i go to? Usually i would say Mom or Dad, but what happens if their gone? I go to piper. She can't say much that's true, but she can let me pet her and get my mind off of school and friends and watch her be the happy dog that she is. The best feeling in the world, is when I get home from not seeing her in a week or so, and she gets all bouncy and excited to see me. So how all these people say a dog is a mans best friend doesn't seem accurate to me. I have found my best friend and her name is Piper. Not only is she a huge part in my family's lives but in our individual lives she makes a difference. I would not trade her for the world.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading "Dogs Have Feelings-Here's How We Know," Gregory Berns has confirmed for me that my dog truly loves loves me, not just food. In his MRI tests of the dogs' brains, it showed that dogs responded to human interaction with feelings, a prospect that many scientists don't want to accept. A niche is the living and non-living factors an organism interacts with. A dog's niche could be the grass in your yard, the food you give them, and the food they sneak off the table. My dog also interacts with the mice in our yard, he caught one last week. In the article, Berns gathers a group of 20 dogs as his MRI test group. He conducts multiple tests in order to find out if dogs like us or just the food. He also conducted tests on a deceased sea lion brain, and found that they can follow a rhythm. Overall, this article showed me that other animals can do the same things as humans.
ReplyDeleteDo you think it's the same for other animals to, such as cats or hamsters?
DeleteAfter reading the article "Dogs Have Feelings- Here's How we Know, is about an animal neruoscientist name Gregory Berns. He talks about how he trained to dogs to go through and MRI and managed to map there brains while the dogs were being introduced to different stimuli. Berns argues that maybe our pets don't really love us they just love us for the things we give them. I believe that a dog's niche in a household is as a pet that makes us the humans happier. They survive off the resources we give them like food, and water. Dogs could also have many other niches than the one I mentioned, they could be used for protection, hunting, and there are tons more. I own a dog, her name is Emmy and she is a chocolate lab and I love her very much and would like to believe she loves me too.
ReplyDeleteI read the article "dogs have feelings- here's how we know" by Simon Worrall. The article was really interesting because it shoes us that our pets really love us. I taught about it because i have 2 dogs and one time we took one to the veterinarian and the other stayed home barking and his tone seemed really sad (he never barks). Also when people come over and they are close to me my dogs bark at them. The article was cool because he trained his pet to o thru a MRI to be able to tell his feelings.I think my pets niche is to be my pets so that i can feed or take them out to walk. If one day my dogs were missing i would be rally sad and i would feel really weird with out them. In conclusion this article tough me new things and was really interesting.
ReplyDeleteI like how you described how your dogs have their own niche.
DeleteAfter reading the article "dogs have feelings-here's how we know", I learned that dogs actually do have feelings for humans. In a few different tests they responded to the praise of their owner the same they did to receiving food. I believe the niche of a dog, is to make humans happier and their lives better. They don't have to hunt or find shelter to survive, they survive of the resources we give them. I have 2 dogs at home, and they love food, but I also know they love us just from how the act when we get home or how their tail wags when we say their name. Overall the article was very interesting and provided me with new knowledge.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the Article, "Dogs Have Feelings-Here How We Know" by Simon Worrall, I deduced that a pet's niche is what it does where it lives and how it interacts with their family or other humans and anything else in the house. I don't have a pet so I don't know about the treat vs praise idea. This article talks about the study of dogs and their emotions. I think this was a very different kind of experiment. The fact that they had to first train the dogs in going in the MRI machine and get used to the noises, I think makes it even more thought out. Along with dogs, the experiment with the sea lions dancing wasn't super interesting ti me but it was a very fun thing to read about. Now knowing that sea lions can dance to a rhythm even though they don't have a language, boggles my mind.
ReplyDeleteI read the article Dogs have feelings I learned a lot about how much training went into this project. I thought this related to science because they used multiple dogs they trained 20 dogs to go through the MRI and in an experiment you should have multiple tests. I also think this relates to ecology because every dog has their own niche and my dogs niche is my house because I feed him give him a place to live and protect them from the elements
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the national geographic article on "Dogs Have Feelings-Here's How We Know," I learned of the story of Gregory Burns, a neuroscientist at Emory University, in Atlanta. Greg trained dogs to go into MRI scanners and tested their response to certain stimuli. In our households, the niche of our pets differ much from their wild counterparts. For example, I have a golden shepherd named tanner that I've had since I was 7. Tanner eats food 2-3 times a day, takes a walk every morning, and is constantly going outside to mess around in the outdoors. A wild wolf, on the other had, would have to hunt for their food, stay outdoors at all times, and be independent from humans to survive. I believe that my dog loves me, not the treats, because we rarely ever give him treats anymore, and he hasn't changed one bit. He follows the same niche in our family and he is ecstatic to see me whenever I get home from school. Back to the article, Greg continues his research into other species, most notable the sea lion and how it responds to rhythmical patterns. He noted that sea lions responds to certain rhythmic patters by dancing to the beat, like tap dancing, as he describes it. So, does my dog love me, or is he doing it for the food? I personally believe he loves me, but unless if I get myself an MRI scanner, I guess I will not know for sure.
ReplyDeleteAfter I read, "dogs have feelings" I was interested in many parts of the article. It gave some mild science while telling a story. Which is a great thing and one of the easiest ways for me to learn. This story taught me a lot about how human and dogs brains worked. For starters, It showed that dogs and humans think relatively the same. They use the same receptors in the brain. The only difference is that humans have more of these receptors and different feeling. Later we learned that dogs are varied in there thinking. Some felt more towards people and some felt more towards food. This helps us truly see the niche of dogs as pets. Its really about them being part about being a "good dog" and part about food. There job is to act cute in part for owners acceptance and in part for food. And that is how they react with biotic factors. Humans.
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