[HN Gopher] Dogs orient and move in synchrony with family members
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Dogs orient and move in synchrony with family members
        
       Author : pseudolus
       Score  : 125 points
       Date   : 2021-03-17 11:12 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nytimes.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nytimes.com)
        
       | lalabert wrote:
       | Cats don't!
        
         | nicwolff wrote:
         | From the last paragraph of the article:
         | 
         | > _She and her colleagues also are interested in studying the
         | bonding and interwoven movements of people and other types of
         | pets, particularly cats. "We've done a little work with cats
         | and, so far, they blow everything out of the water in terms of
         | being socially responsive to their owners' behavior," she
         | says._
        
         | nicklecompte wrote:
         | "Humans orient and move in synchrony with their cat owners"
         | 
         | (I certainly do! The cats run the show here.)
        
         | astrange wrote:
         | Don't they? I think the problem is we don't know how to read
         | them and every cat has a different language because they don't
         | learn it from each other.
         | 
         | https://www.gwern.net/Cat-Sense
        
         | whalesalad wrote:
         | Depends on the cat. Ever met a dog-cat?
        
       | aaron695 wrote:
       | I'd like to hope they address the issues of the fake news
       | research around "Google Earth shows that cow and deer herds align
       | like compass needles" and "Do Dogs Have Their Own Poop Compass"
       | 
       | I see the difference between the controversial ideas around
       | magnetoreception in many mammals and what I'd see as un-
       | controversial, animals have some level of herding with humans and
       | it will be different with children for various reasons.
       | 
       | But clearly people are misusing the difficulty of measuring
       | alignments on animals to get exciting research.
       | 
       | Can't see the paper online for free -
       | https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-020-01454-4
        
         | dreen wrote:
         | Cows dont tend to align NS? This isn't new and I never heard of
         | this being debunked
        
         | dmurray wrote:
         | Everything in the study can be completely explained with a
         | mechanism no more powerful than "dogs tend to follow their
         | owners". Plus a little bit of quantifying whether they are more
         | loyal at following adult owners/shelter workers/children.
         | 
         | "Move in synchrony" is a very clickbaity way to suggest that
         | there's something magical or insufficiently understood here
         | (like magnetoreception). That seems to be editorializing from
         | the NYT, rather than the authors of the study.
        
           | staticman2 wrote:
           | Synchrony is the term from the scientific study: your beef
           | isn't with the NYT on that term.
        
             | yostrovs wrote:
             | Why have the New York Times when you can read the study
             | yourself with all the scientific jargon included? I thought
             | their purpose in covering science is to make it easier to
             | understand for a layman. What is synchrony? Do you think an
             | average person actually knows? I'm educated in the sciences
             | and I'm not sure of what it really means.
        
       | npsimons wrote:
       | Anyone else think of "A Fire Upon the Deep" by Vinge?
        
       | echelon wrote:
       | What's a paywall technique that works now? I tried googling the
       | article title, but that failed.
        
         | jamesgreenleaf wrote:
         | https://archive.is/8THWO
        
         | ct0 wrote:
         | Paying
        
           | dsnr wrote:
           | Sure, let me get my credit card real quick to pay for the
           | article about how dogs move in synchrony with their family
           | members. I'm sure most of the readers here have subscriptions
           | for nytimes and 100+ other publications.
        
             | ct0 wrote:
             | They asked for a paywall technique that works. Paying
             | always works.
        
             | anoncow wrote:
             | Nytimes and a few other subscriptions, yes.
        
             | Cthulhu_ wrote:
             | Sounds like you're not interested enough to pay for it,
             | which is fine. You're not _required_ to read it, you 're
             | not _entitled_ to read it, and you _can_ move on from FOMO.
             | 
             | It's fine to miss out. It's fine to not read content. It's
             | fine to not want to pay for a publication if you're fine
             | with not accessing it.
        
               | dsnr wrote:
               | > It's fine to miss out
               | 
               | Oh, I thought I was required to read this specific
               | article. You saved me a yearly subscription, I was about
               | to click on ,,buy with your second newborn" when I read
               | your comment. Thanks!
        
             | jdavis703 wrote:
             | The New York Times is arguably the nations newspaper of
             | record (more Californians subscribe to the NYTimes than New
             | Yorkers). I'd expect lots of people who value being well
             | read to have subscriptions.
        
               | oh_sigh wrote:
               | The NYTimes has 7 million subscribers per the NYTimes:
               | https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/05/business/media/nyt-
               | earnin...
               | 
               | A safe bet is to assume that someone doesn't have a
               | NYTimes subscription, no matter how much they value being
               | well read.
        
               | aksss wrote:
               | A lot of well-read people don't give money to the NYT out
               | of principle.
        
               | dsnr wrote:
               | > more Californians subscribe to the NYTimes than New
               | Yorkers
               | 
               | This is saying more about the political affinities of
               | both Californians and NY Times than about the quality of
               | the newspaper.
        
           | strathmeyer wrote:
           | Well judging on the comments the people who pay are morons.
           | Want to discuss this e mail I received with a lot of
           | misspellings?"
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | poundofshrimp wrote:
         | In most cases, they already serve the entire content to the
         | browser and just put a paywall overlay on top. It's usually
         | trivial to remove the overlay in a desktop browser by
         | inspecting the source. You may also need to enable scrolling
         | with css if it was disabled.
        
         | macksd wrote:
         | If it's an article about research, you can always find the
         | original paper or at least the abstract:
         | https://thehumananimalbond.com/publication-media/. I usually
         | find the news articles about them don't have much more value
         | than letting me know a new study exists, and in fact they often
         | misunderstand the research and overstate the conclusion.
        
         | kjehg87 wrote:
         | https://twitter.com/paulg/status/710513549349552128?lang=en
         | 
         | On a secondary note, if you are on firefox, before the page
         | loads you can click on "reader mode" works on most sites.
        
           | _Microft wrote:
           | If that fails you can even type _about:reader?url=_ into the
           | adress bar yourself and append the URL of the page you want
           | to load in reader mode.
        
       | jonmc12 wrote:
       | PBS NOVA's "Dog Tales" (2020) is a good watch and explains this
       | behavior. https://www.pbs.org/video/dog-tales-vskr2y/
       | 
       | They demonstrate that a wolf can be domesticated, but will still
       | keep its distance and act independently from the domesticating
       | humans.
       | 
       | Surprisingly, domesticated wolves test higher than dogs on
       | intelligence tests. The show attributes dog behavior to a genetic
       | mutation from their wolf ancestry. A similar mutation occurs in
       | humans at 1:10k frequency called Williams Syndrome. One feature
       | in this mutation is a form of learning disability; another is
       | friendliness.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | ambivalents wrote:
       | This is obvious if you have a dog, but cool to see it studied.
       | 
       | My dog is a velcro dog, he follows me everywhere. If I change
       | direction he will too. If I start to run he will too. One amusing
       | thing on our walks is he will walk confidently, determinedly in
       | one direction, as if he is rushing to a destination. Then if I
       | change direction, he immediately does too, as if forgetting about
       | his original destination in the first place. Anthropomorphizing a
       | bit I know.
       | 
       | This article suggests all dogs are like this, mine just might do
       | it to a stronger degree.
        
         | noodlenotes wrote:
         | Dogs also spend a lot of time on leashes where they'll get
         | yanked around if they don't pay attention to their human's
         | movements. And many families specifically train and reward dogs
         | to move in sync with them (heeling, agility). It seems obvious
         | that synchrony is something that humans both train and
         | selectively breed dogs for. I guess the point of this study is
         | that synchrony is another way to measure social connection
         | between dogs and humans and that this connection extends to
         | children.
        
           | lordgroff wrote:
           | Incidentally, my dog behaves and is far more synchronized off
           | than on leash, so much so that I'm trying to train her to be
           | leash free. She listens a lot better like that for some
           | reason.
        
             | viklove wrote:
             | In a lot places, leashes are required by law. Something to
             | keep in mind even if you do train your dog to be leash-
             | free.
        
             | vulcan01 wrote:
             | > She listens a lot better like that for some reason.
             | 
             | Maybe because the leash is uncomfortable for her?
        
             | ska wrote:
             | Maybe she's training you to reduce leash use...
        
               | joedevon wrote:
               | underrated comment
        
       | phonebucket wrote:
       | My dog moves when my two-year old does and is generally still
       | otherwise. But I attribute this to my dog's survival instinct
       | rather than an emotional bonding.
        
         | _fs wrote:
         | Nothing gets my dog moving like when the three year old grabs
         | the food scoop and heads to the garage.
        
         | INTPenis wrote:
         | Yes exactly, also small children tend to leak food.
        
         | elliekelly wrote:
         | A few years ago I was in the Galapagos and met a German
         | evolutionary biologist who pointed out some fur seals sleeping
         | on the beach. It was a hot day but they were arranged in a neat
         | line to sleep so they were touching.
         | 
         | He explained it was a group evolutionary advantage - if one of
         | them wakes up because of a predator attack, for example, they'd
         | all be woken up and hopefully most of them would manage to get
         | away. I specifically remember him mentioning that dogs and
         | puppies still have a slight preference for sleeping the same
         | way.
         | 
         | I haven't for the life of me been able to remember the word (or
         | phrase?) he used to describe the behavior and every so often I
         | Google in vain for more information. I can't even recall
         | whether the term he used was in english or german. Perhaps
         | someone here can point me in the right direction?
        
           | IncRnd wrote:
           | The posture for a sleeping fur seal in water is called a jug
           | handle. When seals are awake on the beach, they often lay in
           | a banana pose, where they hold up their heads and tails out
           | of the water.
        
             | noodlenotes wrote:
             | Jughandle is also apparently a type of ramp common in New
             | Jersey where drivers who want to turn left have to take a
             | ramp on the right. TIL.
             | 
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jughandle
        
               | bobo_legos wrote:
               | Every Pennsylvanian who lives by the New Jersey border
               | knows about jughandles and how absolutely ridiculous
               | these things are. We also know about the idiocy that is
               | the New Jersey traffic circle. Do not get these
               | abominations confused with the modern roundabouts because
               | they're nothing alike.
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_traffic_circles_in_
               | New...
        
               | sweetheart wrote:
               | Is this not a universal thing!?
        
           | nappy-doo wrote:
           | I can't help you with the term you're looking for, but as far
           | as seals are concerned, they're genetically very close to
           | dogs. I'd expect similar behaviors.
        
             | lostlogin wrote:
             | A friend who works in a conservation role was telling me
             | about the time he took a seal to the beach to get it off
             | the road in a small town. The window was open, and like a
             | dog it was happiest with its nose in the breeze.
        
               | munificent wrote:
               | The mental image of cruising down a rural road, windows
               | down, with a seal leaning out and enjoying the breeze is
               | truly delightful.
        
         | InitialLastName wrote:
         | Emotional bonding can be a survival instinct. If your dog has
         | built a psychology (for lack of a better word) that leads it to
         | mirror your family's behavior in appropriate ways, you're
         | probably more likely to keep it (on the margins).
        
       | lelanthran wrote:
       | In other news, water is wet?
       | 
       | Seriously, dog owners know all this already. They know that me
       | puting my hat on means I'm going outside, if I grab my keys they
       | know I'm leaving the yard, when I pick up a ball to throw, they
       | know to look at my face (facial cues) to determine which
       | direction I am going to throw it in.
        
         | rakoo wrote:
         | But people who don't own dogs might not. This research might be
         | interesting for everyone else
        
         | jinkyu wrote:
         | came here to say this.
        
         | tsdlts wrote:
         | One thing that strikes me about my dog's awareness is he picks
         | up on landmarks really easily. Once we get within a mile of the
         | vet his demeanor changes and he becomes sulky. On the contrary,
         | once we're in a mile or so from my mother's house he perks up
         | and gets extremely excited. It'd be interesting to read
         | research on how good a dog's spacial awareness is and how they
         | manage to find themselves home while being miles away.
        
           | selectodude wrote:
           | Their ability to smell is hundreds of thousands of times
           | better than ours. We think outside smells like outside. They
           | think every sidewalk tile smells a little different. They
           | know that landmark because that smell reminds them of the
           | vet.
        
         | amelius wrote:
         | A scientist has even found that dogs know when their owner is
         | coming home [1]
         | 
         | Rupert Sheldrake had a Google Talk about this in 2008 [2]
         | 
         | [1] https://www.sheldrake.org/books-by-rupert-sheldrake/dogs-
         | tha...
         | 
         | [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hic18Xyk9is
        
           | worik wrote:
           | As a child my dog was always at the top of the drive when I
           | came home from school.
        
         | jessaustin wrote:
         | I suspect all domesticated animals, and many non-domesticated
         | animals that live in close human contact, also display such
         | behaviors. My horses respond to hearing the door of the house
         | close early in the morning, knowing that grain is soon on the
         | way. My cattle hear the tractor start and start moving in their
         | slow fashion to the hay feeder. If I holler in a particular way
         | that often presages grain, they'll stampede to the location.
        
           | worik wrote:
           | Yep they have minds, and they use them.
        
         | dan-robertson wrote:
         | I think I'm ok with studies determining that things we think
         | are obviously true are true.
         | 
         | 1. Sometimes they turn out not to be true so it is good to do
         | the study
         | 
         | 2. It would be bad to do the study looking for a surprise, find
         | no surprise, and then not publish the results. Probably some
         | university PR department is trying to come up with something to
         | say.
        
           | corpMaverick wrote:
           | Also. Somethings are obvious but they are difficult to test.
           | These experiments help us make progress on how to design
           | experiments.
        
       | notJim wrote:
       | The lab this is from has a nice page with some of their
       | publications here: https://thehumananimalbond.com/publication-
       | media/
        
       | hackeraccount wrote:
       | Read the article for the line, "[cats]blow everything out of the
       | water in terms of being socially responsive to their owners'
       | behavior"
       | 
       | i.e. You do your thing human and I'll do mine. See you later if I
       | think you're nice and there's nothing better to do.
        
         | say_it_as_it_is wrote:
         | Your cat won't even notice or care if you're gone
        
           | staticman2 wrote:
           | You sound like someone with no experience with cats.
        
           | pessimizer wrote:
           | Cats can like you. The difference is that dogs think of you
           | as a big upright dog, and cats think of you as something
           | other than a cat. Dogs think of you as a peer, cats think of
           | you as a pet or a fancy piece of furniture.
        
             | worik wrote:
             | You cannot read their minds.
        
           | Cthulhu_ wrote:
           | Oh they do, it's just that they pretend not to when you're
           | there. It's all on their terms.
        
             | buu700 wrote:
             | Cats are tsundere:
             | https://soranews24.com/2019/08/17/japanese-people-love-
             | cats-...
        
             | PeterisP wrote:
             | I seem to recall brain scanning research that showed that,
             | unlike how it might seem from their behavior, cats
             | recognize being called by name as good or better as dogs,
             | they just often chose to ignore it.
        
               | worik wrote:
               | My dog does that. Easy to train, but not obedient.
        
               | blonde_ocean wrote:
               | Anecdotally, my cat definitely responds to his name being
               | called. Often around feeding time
        
           | noir_lord wrote:
           | Except that is simply not true of some cats.
           | 
           | I have two - one is remote, aloof and probably wouldn't
           | notice I was gone.
           | 
           | The other is affectionate, cuddly, always wants to sit on my
           | knee and cries on a night when they get locked in the living
           | room.
           | 
           | Personality wise complete opposite ends of the spectrum.
        
             | quesera wrote:
             | An interesting note about cat personality:
             | 
             | If you fall to the floor dead, your cats will eat you
             | _before_ they are starving. Dogs will wait.
             | 
             | I view this as practicality vs. sentimentality. I'm not
             | sure which one I prefer, but I hope it is an accurate
             | measurement of animal behavior.
        
               | noir_lord wrote:
               | > Like all pure creatures, cats are practical. - William
               | S. Burroughs
        
               | slacka wrote:
               | > Dogs will wait.
               | 
               | Often, wait to starve to death.
               | 
               | "Your faithful golden retriever might sit next to your
               | dead body for days, starving, but the tabby won't," she
               | writes. "Your pet cat will eat you right away, with no
               | qualms at all. I've seen the result."
               | 
               | https://nypost.com/2014/08/03/a-million-ways-to-die-in-
               | new-y...
        
             | dmos62 wrote:
             | Tangential, but I wonder how does it affect the cats having
             | nearby another cat that's different personality-wise. I've
             | a guinea pig that's kind of insecure, and planning to get
             | another that's probably more outgoing. Can security be
             | learned by osmosis?
        
               | clairity wrote:
               | in my experience, there's a limited amount of osmosis. i
               | adopted my current (female) cat as a kitten when my prior
               | (male) cat was declining toward death, in the hopes that
               | she would provide some youthful companionship after his
               | sister had passed away a few months before (they were
               | littermates, got them as kittens).
               | 
               | surprisingly, he became solemnly composed and accepting
               | of her almost immediately, despite spending his whole
               | life trying to dominate his sister (out of both
               | competitiveness and territoriality, i imagine). i picked
               | her from the kitten rescue specifically for her mild
               | temper, knowing how dominating and insecure he could be.
               | she was playful but respectful, and i'd like to think he
               | was a little less lonely in those last few months with
               | his sister already gone.
               | 
               | fast forward a couple years, and i have an accidental
               | (male) foster kitten who's a crazy ball of energy next to
               | my mild-mannered, now-adult cat. otherwise pretty lazy,
               | she's learning how to play more energetically and
               | socialize with the little devil (as i socialize him as
               | well--his first-time cat owner didn't seem to know if or
               | how to do this).
               | 
               | so yes, there's some osmosis going on, as cats learn from
               | each other and the social structure shifts, but it's
               | limited. no wholesale changes in my experience.
        
               | munificent wrote:
               | I used to have a weird dog that wasn't food motivated
               | (which made it _really_ hard to train her), had a lot of
               | separation anxiety, and pooped when we left the house. At
               | least she was otherwise well potty-trained and didn 't
               | pee inside.
               | 
               | We got another dog to teach our first one how to be a
               | normal dog and keep her company. Dog #2 was a rescue that
               | had grown up on the streets. He was good about eating
               | food but never learned to not pee inside.
               | 
               | We ended up with two weird-ass food-disinterested anxious
               | dogs that pee and poop indoors.
        
               | triceratops wrote:
               | > We ended up with two weird-ass food-disinterested
               | anxious dogs that pee and poop indoors.
               | 
               | Ouch.
        
               | whalesalad wrote:
               | Can't speak to cats but with dogs generally the answer is
               | no. These are engrained personality traits.
        
               | lenzm wrote:
               | Guinea pigs are social animals, I'd get the second asap.
               | The insecurity may be from being alone.
        
               | noir_lord wrote:
               | In the case of my pair they mostly ignore each other -
               | brother and sister pair - they played together when they
               | where young and they aren't aggressive, they just rotate
               | opposite ends of whatever room they are in.
        
               | dominotw wrote:
               | > I wonder how does it affect the cats having nearby
               | another cat that's different personality-wise
               | 
               | I've had cats all my life. I would say it all depends on
               | the cat. For some cats there is nothing worse that having
               | another cat in their territory but some are more social.
               | 
               | I've had older aloof cats come to life, perk up and
               | become more social when there is new social cat in the
               | house.
        
         | moosebear847 wrote:
         | If you raise a cat from kitten so it doesn't experience
         | negative memories/associations with humans, consistently and
         | empathetically analyze what it wants, and earn it's trust, they
         | will be unbelievably affectionate and attached.
         | 
         | If they meow at you or otherwise try to get your attention,
         | they are trying to communicate something. I used to think they
         | were just being cats doing random useless things like sniffing,
         | pawing or meowing, but nearly every single time there was some
         | scent I needed to deal with, a desire to poop/eat/move or
         | something real that they were trying to communicate. If you
         | consistently ignore their attempts at communication, they will
         | stop trying after a few times (wouldn't you?) unless they're
         | like starving. But if they know you pay attention and respond,
         | they will communicate their wants to you pretty clearly.
         | Nothing they do is random, there is always a reason for it.
        
           | leetcrew wrote:
           | I agree cats are much more intentional in their communication
           | than people appreciate, but sometimes you can't just give the
           | cat what it wants. my cat mainly meows for two reasons. he
           | either wants food or he wants to go in the kitchen.
           | unfortunately he can't be free fed because he will quickly
           | become overweight. he's not allowed in the kitchen because he
           | eats plants and jumps up on the stove, sometimes right next
           | to an open flame. serious question: how would you handle this
           | situation?
        
             | aksss wrote:
             | Probably depends on how old the cat is. I would aim towards
             | a day where the cat can go into the kitchen without worry.
             | Time is on your side because eventually the cat won't find
             | the energy expenditure of jumping that height worth it (nor
             | the risk of recovering from a bad jump). Start with
             | supervised trips to kitchen but long term never leave
             | anything up there that a successful cat burglar could
             | access as a reward. If seen, I would react negatively
             | (maybe spray bottle if u use that, loud remark, physically
             | picking cat up off counter and putting on ground
             | immediately). Never let cat have freedom or peace on the
             | counter. I would watch for the cat's preferred landing
             | spots on the counter and put some temporary barriers in
             | place (e.g. 1lb sack of flour, etc), just so it has to
             | think twice about its movements (don't let the path upwards
             | become automatic/unconscious), and may doubt its ability to
             | safely alight on the counter (remember it can only see
             | what's on the ledge). I would also be sure to interrupt the
             | action of jumping up before it happens - like you can see
             | the cat's wheels turning as it stares at the counter, bobs
             | it's head around slightly to accurately gauge distance,
             | depth, etc. at that time, interrupt the thought process.
             | Distract it with something else, maybe even something good,
             | so _not_ jumping is a positive association. I think that
             | pattern interrupt is really powerful with cats, but you
             | have to be watching the cat to catch the right moment. You
             | could also let the cat in the kitchen with no other purpose
             | than to watch for and interrupt those moments. There's a
             | few other tricks like this to interrupt the action (moving
             | a barrier according to its intentions) that just frustrate
             | the cat into eventually losing interest. Cat ownership
             | occasionally involves small battles of will power.
             | 
             | Regarding food, I can't say enough about the value of
             | robots here - timed food distribution. Get a cat feeder
             | that will release _x_ amount three or four times a day. I
             | think cat binging behavior is an outcome of an
             | unpredictable feeding schedule, basically food insecurity.
             | When the cat just knows that every day at these predictable
             | times it will have food available it will be a happier,
             | less anxious cat for sure. Cats don't have watches, but
             | they'll show up at the feeding station like clockwork
             | anticipating the food drop. The flip side is the binging
             | will stop just because of scarcity, but also the cat
             | worries less about food security and develops behaviors of
             | moderation. If feeding cat wet food (which I wouldn't
             | recommend unless cat is very young or very old) you've just
             | got to dole it out yourself on as a predictable basis as
             | possible.
             | 
             | Anyway, just my two cents, worth what you paid for it. Will
             | be curious to see other people's input.
        
               | leetcrew wrote:
               | so I actually do have an automated feeder. unfortunately,
               | I think he remembers the time before we had the feeder
               | when humans would put food in his bowl. he waits
               | patiently in the morning for the most part (maybe he
               | realizes it's futile while I'm sleeping), but he usually
               | starts meowing for food a few hours before the feeder is
               | scheduled to dispense it in the afternoon. BTW, the
               | portions are exactly what the vet recommended; he's not
               | starving.
               | 
               | with the kitchen, I do let him in if I'm going to be in
               | there for a while. I think he really just wants to be
               | where the people are. I don't use spray bottles or
               | anything like that. I've read that sometimes the animal
               | forms a negative association with the human rather than
               | the proscribed behavior. I just put him out the first
               | time he jumps on the counter or chews on a plant.
               | 
               | anyways, it's not really a big deal. I don't find the
               | meowing terribly annoying. I just want, if possible, to
               | be sure I'm making the distinction between ignoring his
               | requests and acknowledging them but "saying no".
        
               | doctorfoo wrote:
               | My cats very rarely go on a counter - since they were
               | kittens, if I ever saw them there I would clap loudly and
               | shout, shoo them off with my hands.
        
               | aksss wrote:
               | Yeah, I don't use a spray bottle either. I think there
               | are better ways to modify behavior, such as that pattern
               | interrupt. Cats are also way more empathetic than they're
               | given credit for, so I do think that they understand when
               | main human is not happy with them.
               | 
               | My cat has an uncanny ability to ask for food right
               | before my alarm goes off. I've often wondered how it
               | pulls this off even after a DST changeover, and figured
               | it was because she could hear the rest of my neighborhood
               | start to get active so not unreasonable to bug us. Simple
               | fix: I set the first food drop about 15mins before my
               | alarm. By the time I'm up she's already chilling out
               | post-feed. The cat and I agree that more food=better,
               | particularly in frequency, with the caveat that I'm just
               | trying to keep her from gaining or shedding any
               | significant weight between vet visits, so that's really
               | the only limit I put on it. A decent pattern for us seems
               | to be four times during my normal waking hours. Like
               | morning, noonish/early afternoon, late afternoon, mid-
               | evening. She's a little scrounger though, definitely
               | interested in whatever I'm eating, particularly cheese,
               | and will try to convince any stranger that she hasn't
               | eaten for days and is on the verge of death (OmG). But
               | yeah, healthy weight and stable.
        
             | Alupis wrote:
             | A properly fed cat, with an established routine, should
             | only start going crazy around it's normal feeding time.
             | 
             | Most cats and dogs crave a routine. Unfortunately,
             | sometimes a routine is difficult to establish if your work
             | hours don't permit, or other activities get in the way.
             | That was the original intention behind the free-feeders,
             | however as you noted that can lead to obesity in your pet
             | (not all pets, some regulate their intake well on their
             | own).
             | 
             | So, if you're one that is establishing a feeding time, make
             | sure you stick to exactly the same time every day (like
             | clockwork, seriously). You may even consider providing
             | "breakfast" and "dinner" to your cat (again on a fixed
             | schedule), dividing the daily intake into two meals.
             | 
             | Your cat wants into the Kitchen because they are curious
             | creatures, and you've made the Kitchen some fun forbidden
             | zone. Ideally you're in the Kitchen when the stove is on,
             | so you can prevent burns. You could also try training them
             | into a negative association with the stove by squirting
             | them with a squirt gun (low pressure) every time they walk
             | on it... same with nibbling the plants.
        
       | Etheryte wrote:
       | > People who take up dancing together, for instance, often
       | express greater closeness and cohesion afterward. Moving in
       | tandem seems to generate intangible, intimate bonds.
       | 
       | As a dancer in my youth, it's a bit funny reading someone writing
       | this as research. Dancing is physically close, intimate, other-
       | person-way-closer-than-your-regular-comfort-zone by nature. Add
       | to that that eye contact, again inherently intimate, is crucial
       | for coordinating any nuanced moves and you'd be hard pressed to
       | find anything other than the above result. There is no way to put
       | in the hours of rote practice, sweat, awkward mishaps and more
       | without becoming intimate with your dance partner. I'm not saying
       | it's bad there's research into this, I'm more so surprised this
       | is something that was only strictly established by research in
       | 2015.
        
         | chrisweekly wrote:
         | "becoming intimate" -- do you mean literally (ie, becoming
         | emotionally close with feings of trust and connectedness), or
         | as a euphemism for sex?
        
           | aksss wrote:
           | In this context it means becoming close and connected, not a
           | euphemism for sex.
        
           | noodlenotes wrote:
           | The entire reply is about how contrived physical closeness
           | leads to emotional closeness so it seems out of left field to
           | think this was a euphemism for sex.
        
         | notsureaboutpg wrote:
         | >Dancing is physically close, intimate, other-person-way-
         | closer-than-your-regular-comfort-zone by nature. Add to that
         | that eye contact, again inherently intimate, is crucial for
         | coordinating any nuanced moves and you'd be hard pressed to
         | find anything other than the above result.
         | 
         | Also puts in new perspective the early 20th century attitudes
         | towards Jazz, Rock N Roll, dancing, flappers, etc.
         | 
         | There is anecdote that Sayyid Qutb really turned away from
         | modernity and towards Islamism when he witnessed a Church in
         | Colorado (he was at UC Boulder) that held a mixed dance in one
         | of the Church buildings.
        
         | shuntress wrote:
         | Maybe it took until 2015 because people thought it was too
         | obvious to bother recording.
        
         | mudita wrote:
         | From the way you're writing about dance, I assume that you mean
         | couple dances like tango or waltz?
         | 
         | This study is not about a couple dance, where one has physical
         | contact with one dance partner, but about synchronised movement
         | to music in a group.
        
           | Izkata wrote:
           | I was actually imagining ballet when reading their
           | description.
           | 
           | Competitive cheerleading as well isn't just physically close,
           | there are moves where you're literally putting your life in
           | your teammates hands.
        
         | germinalphrase wrote:
         | I feel similarly about wrestling. The culture can be extremely
         | macho (often to its detriment) - but the physical contact and
         | trust involved similarly builds bonds.
        
           | TrispusAttucks wrote:
           | Wrestled from an early age. Totally agree. Takes a lot of
           | trust to let someone shoot in trip and slam you. Knowing that
           | it's your turn next. You truly know someone's strength and
           | skill and all the social tough guy posturing means nothing
           | when it's just two people on the mat.
        
             | leetcrew wrote:
             | > You truly know someone's strength and skill and all the
             | social tough guy posturing means nothing when it's just two
             | people on the mat.
             | 
             | I ultimately decided wrestling wasn't for me, but I did
             | appreciate this part of it. there were quite a few matches
             | in highschool where some scrawny kid got matched against
             | one of the "athletic" types. often turned out to be quite
             | the upset if the scrawny guy had actually been paying
             | attention to the coaches.
        
         | dylan604 wrote:
         | this is the reason you're supposed to "leave room for jesus"
         | when dancing. the evils of dancing have been propogated by
         | religious beliefs directly because of its known proclivity
         | towards initimate behavior.
        
           | toiletfuneral wrote:
           | my conservative christian school told us that holding hands
           | is as bad as pre-marital sex because it was the first step
           | towards fornication.
           | 
           | that place was terrible
        
             | proc0 wrote:
             | They were wrong in teaching it to children, but I don't
             | think many people would want to see their significant other
             | holding hands with someone else. There is a lot of wisdom
             | in ancient religions but it's often wielded by less-than-
             | capable people.
        
               | toby wrote:
               | This is pretty cultural and contextual -- in many social
               | groups, at least on the west coast, holding hands and
               | cuddling between friends is common. In some Asian
               | countries you often see two boys walking down the street
               | holding hands. I don't really agree that there's wisdom
               | in teaching people jealousy over perfectly innocent
               | behavior.
        
               | worik wrote:
               | As a Pakeha boy in Aotearoa in the 1960s I used to hold
               | hands with my friends quite often. Especially if we were
               | in conversation. Never even though twice about it. Eight
               | years old
        
               | proc0 wrote:
               | I said there's wisdom in ancient religions that have
               | observed something about human nature that is otherwise
               | hard to observe from a single individual's vantage point
               | (not to mention trying to explain it in a concise/precise
               | way). Saying it's equivalent to "teaching people
               | jealousy" is illustrating my point, that teachings are
               | often reduced and bastardized and then taught to
               | children. Regardless, point taken and I agree there is
               | cultural context, but even in hand-holding cultures,
               | there will be an equivalent of an exterior but subtle
               | show of attraction and the point Christians make (IMHO)
               | is that you can be dishonest with yourself and then fall
               | into the "trap", so it's almost a reductionist approach
               | to morality, since if you intend never to "cheat" then
               | why would you even be interested in the "first step",
               | whatever that is for the culture.
        
       | slacka wrote:
       | As someone who grew up in a family of pet owners, the joke is
       | anytime there is a story with "study" and "dog", that any dog
       | owner could have told them that. This study is what we refer to
       | as the "invisible leash" that dogs have with with their masters.
       | The article also touches on mirroring behavior, which is also
       | well known and even has a whole class of dog training based
       | around it called "Do as I Do"[1] I trained my dog this way as a
       | pup. AMA.
       | 
       | Dogs spend their lives trying to figure out what we want and the
       | meaning of our words. Science has year to catch up to learn just
       | how much they understand and how in-tune they are with their
       | adopted pack.
       | 
       | [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC3OqbjlxkM
        
         | ska wrote:
         | There is a tendency to feel this way when anything in day to
         | day experience (pet ownership, parenthood, career experience,
         | etc.) overlaps with scientific study.
         | 
         | It's tempting to say "well, obviously" but it's a slippery
         | slope. Beyond the obvious potential for confirmation bias,
         | etc., when you do the science carefully, sometimes you find out
         | what people "knew" was just wrong.
         | 
         | This happens often enough to make it worth the effort.
        
           | postalrat wrote:
           | In the case of dogs you will probably find more things that
           | is common knowledge with dog owners that science got wrong
           | vs. things where science showed that owners were wrong.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-03-18 23:01 UTC)