Originally published at: Watch: A retired racing dog living vicariously through his successors | Boing Boing
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I tried this with my pup. He just yawned and ignored the TV. Guess he’s enjoying retirement.
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They really should hire this doggo as a color commentator.
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It is neat to have confirmed for me that dogs are actually smart enough to recognize a two-dimensional tv’s images as representations of reality.
Other people who’ve actually owned dogs already knew this, I’m sure. But I wasn’t aware that dogs’ conciousness was this advanced. It makes sense in retrospect, as I’ve heard smart dogs can be about the intelligence level of a 3-4 year old human child.
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This is the sweetest picture. I bet the dogs loved racing for the most part, too bad many of the tracks are being shut down.
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Well, my friends’ dog sometimes barks at cars, tractors, etc. he sees driving along a road at the far end of their property–maybe a half mile away. He barks and the cars run away (i.e. drive behind trees): property successfully protected.
That would appear as a moving 2D image at that distance, so maybe to some dogs see TVs as some kind of window that they can see something through. They respond, the objects on the TV seem to respond sometimes: behavior reinforced.
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Their careers do not always end happily once they are passed their prime, which is sad because they often have a sweet nature.
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I’ve known a couple of ex-racing dogs and they all had the same sweet, gentle, curious temperament. It always struck me as odd that they were so socialised because my understanding is that they were raised as working dogs, not pets.
And to see them accelerate from a standstill is awesome to behold!
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Impressive barking!
Our greyhound barked just once –– at a monster that looked like a trash bag.
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rare video that both starts way too soon and ends way too soon
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Given the Australian accent of the commentator I’d say this is a very rare sight to see an old ex racing greyhound as most are killed when they stop making money. Much like in horse racing it is not economically viable to ‘keep’ an animal after it stops making money.
They over breed greyhounds so there is more chance of finding ‘winners’ and the healthy left overs are euthanised by the new owners. Of course this is illegal.
So is the internet finally starting to quiet the snooty scientists who loudly proclaim that we are anthropomorphising every time we see an animal do something that requires any level of cognition?
I’m not sure whether it’s really scientists or rather internet know-it-alls
I am speaking about the widely held and largely pre-internet biases against animals having any sort of human like intelligence or emotion. See Science from the 1800’s through the 1970’s.
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I remember reading (pre-internet) an article quoting a scientist who said we don’t know why dogs bark, and that dogs don’t know why they bark, and they probably bark for no reason whatsoever. One of his pieces of evidence was that he once saw a dog in a field by itself, barking.
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