hunting

Stump A Chump Part Two Re: “Heat Pack” Jun 30, 2017

Sundog asks a good question below that can extend this Stump/Chump immediate-moment problem to a part two. “What has this chump stumped is why hunting becomes collaborative and the circle of temperament synchronizes to get the moose and why it APPEARS competitive/unsynchronized in the heat pack? I realize as networked consciousness it is not necessarily […]

Aborigines, Dingoes and NDT Jan 26, 2016

I found this discussion on James Gorman’s Scientific American blog on dogs and of special note is one particular comment that I’ve copied in its entirety below. Of course we should always post an asterisk besides these kinds of accounts since they can’t be directly verified, but for me it holds the ring of truth […]

Review of “How Dogs Work” – Part One Dec 22, 2015

  Anytime a book merges canine behavior with thermodynamics (the study of how things move) it represents a milestone in Dogdom. “How Dogs Work” by Raymond Coppinger and Mark Feinstein, (University of Chicago Press) is such a book. “It’s not too far off the mark to say that, for ethologists, what evolution really “cares about” […]

Tigers and the Center of Gravity Aug 13, 2015

http://www.newhistorian.com/tiger-hunting-strategy-as-old-as-tigers-themselves/4376/ Neo-Darwinism theorizes that species evolve slowly as slight variations in traits, which supposedly vary at random between individuals, are selected for or against depending on how well these variations adapt the organism to the environment. According to consensus theory, over a long enough period of time and across a wide enough population base, slight […]

The Connection between Emotion and Hunting Part Two Jun 07, 2015

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27675-monkeys-cosy-alliance-with-wolves-looks-like-domestication.html?utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=SOC&utm_campaign=hoot&cmpid=SOC%257CNSNS%257C2015-GLOBAL-hoot#.VXL2Xs7FuRt   In this report we learn of wolves and monkeys developing an amicable relationship that is apparently beneficial for the wolves as hunting around the monkeys increases their success rate in catching small rodents threefold. Having wolves in their midst may confer some benefit to the monkeys as well, for example  keeping other predators […]

Connection between Emotion and Hunting Jun 06, 2015

Which doesn’t belong and why? Emotion, Love, Affection, Bonding, Altruism, Cooperation, Prey-Predator dynamic. Actually it’s a trick question, in my model they all belong although admittedly the final term seems jarring relative to the warm, fuzzy, comforting feeling we get from the others. I have argued, and I invite argument to the contrary, that the oldest […]

The Unsure Unknown Scientist Jul 23, 2014

I’m the object of a regular beat-down on the site of the Unknown Scientist and I return to these “discussions” because they so clearly demonstrate the internal contradict at the heart of modern Behaviorism. {Of course these are the same theocrats who criticized me in the seventies, eighties and nineties when I argued that wolves […]

Hunting is the Canine Nature Jun 18, 2014

Little by little the NDT thesis is trickling into common understanding. Stanley Coren recently took note of the Mammoth Megasite interpretation by Pat Shipman and wrote a very good article in summation. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/canine-corner/201406/dogs-and-mammoths-new-glimpse-early-canine-history However this understanding of the canine mind I discovered simply by studying the behavior of dogs without reading human thoughts into their […]

Cesar and the Latest Science Jun 11, 2014

An article, purporting to be the latest science on dogs, has been making the internet rounds in condemnation of Cesar Millan. http://yodogcast.tumblr.com/post/55504306960/the-damage-of-the-dog-whisperer-a-scientific-critique Cesar Millan is a particularly nettlesome burr under the saddle of progressive learning/training theorists, who believe that animal behavior is driven by reinforcement. Cesar is challenging this view, in effect saying that there is an […]

Making Waves Mar 19, 2014

Thanks for collectively straining over the puzzle as to what flocks of birds cavorting aloft, Orcas porpoising alongside boats, Orcas collectively knocking a seal off an ice flow, a horse and dog playing, and in fact we could extend it to all the things that animals do, have in common. Below is a compilation of […]

Domestication and Natural Dog Training Feb 01, 2014

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131203161715.htm For my entire career NDT has been swimming against the tide of consensus that held that the nature of the domesticated dog is due to its contact with man and to such a degree that dogs were considered to have become an adjunct of human culture. Theorists initially believed that it was pointless to […]

Of Wolves, Dogs, Women and Men Nov 22, 2013

I began in dogdom with the assumption that dogs were descended from wolves given what I learned from my father. At first this meant that an owner should aspire to be the vaunted Alpha pack leader figure. But through my work with protection and police dogs, and which led me to the German view of […]

They Don’t Know What I’m Saying Because They Don’t Know What They’re Saying Jul 21, 2013

http://dogbehaviorscience.wordpress.com/2013/07/21/5-tall-tales-from-1-small-mind/ The Unknown Scientist: “Mr. Behan reaches new heights in ignorance of evolution when he reworks the creationist lament, “Why ain’t monkeys turning into humans?” He puts his own spin on it by asking: “why then haven’t domesticated versions of foxes and coyotes, not to mention other dump scavengers such as rats, bears, raccoons, skunks, crows, […]

Why Don’t Free Ranging Dogs Live In Packs? May 22, 2013

Question: If wolves hunt in packs—and if hunting begat the dog—why don’t free ranging dogs live in packs? Answer: Dogs don’t form functional packs because dogs were domesticated from wolves. The fact that free ranging dogs don’t form working packs is cited by proponents of dog-as-scavenger theory and modern learning theorists as evidence that dogs […]

Hunting Is A Circle Mar 14, 2013

The video linked below is an excellent exposition on the nature of hunting by way of Brad Higgins and his natural method of gun dog training. http://vimeo.com/61679149

The Math Underlying Natural Dog Training Mar 07, 2013

(This is a long article to demonstrate how recent science validates the theory of Natural Dog Training as first articulated in the 1980’s.) Text: Sometimes critics ask for the math that substantiates the theory that underlies Natural Dog Training (emotion=attraction—-feelings=resistance) which is a little tough given that I’m not a mathematician. And the request is […]

Behavior Is Attraction Oct 02, 2012

In this article the author conjoins two studies which demonstrate that wolf hunting behavior is analogous to the mass flocking of starlings. This is an interesting article because these studies demonstrate the exact opposite of what this author is arguing in the article entitled: “To Hunt, Cooperation Is Not Needed.” The evidence the author cites […]

Why Wolves Hunt and Dogs Can Play Sep 29, 2012

The Geometry of Hunting There are two articles about wolves on the blog “Science of Dogs” that merit reading. The first one is entitled: “Freeloading Wolves” and I will analyze it in this post. http://dogbehaviorscience.wordpress.com The author states: “The folkloric view held by some is that of wolves as supreme social predators with some magical […]

Calculating Center Mass Jul 24, 2012

Thanks to Russell for the following: http://phys.org/news/2012-07-herding-sheep-selfish.html Emotion is a calculus of motion, feelings are the capacity to apprehend the midpoint of a flow system. Calculating the motion of individual prey animals renders the center mass of the herd and/or defensive formation. The midpoint is place of maximum vulnerability, thus, the young are concentrated at […]

Hunting Equals Bonding Jul 16, 2012

More evidence that hunting is the basis for the most enduring relationships between human beings and animals. http://www.arkinspace.com/2012/07/fishing-with-cormorants.html  

Making Sense of “Making Sense of the Nonsense” Mar 03, 2012

System: 1) A complete exhibition of essential principles or facts, arranged in a rational or organized whole, or a complex of ideas or principles forming a coherent whole. Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary   When a personality theory (one animal relative to another animal as in a dominance/submissive interaction) introduces a principle of energy in order […]

Anatomy of a Discussion on Dominance Feb 24, 2012

Generally the discussions I get into on/line don’t go anywhere. When I make a point it is typically ignored. This is easy to do because for one thing there are too many points of contention in play at once which mean one can radiate off in a tangential direction and evade the logical consequences of […]

Dogs Decoded Jan 20, 2011

 Thanks to Chris Duncan for highlighting this film. I have to say it’s a stunning confirmation of NDT view of dog nature, domestication and emotional rapport. 1) Relationship between man and dog much older than previously thought and traces to Gray Wolf. 2) The hunting relationship most likely scenario for inter-species entanglement. Furthermore this […]

Mother Knows Best? Sep 20, 2010

Donnie poses the following Stump A Chump question: “In one of the Quantum Canine episodes (can’t remember which) you explain a mama dog biting her young not as a correction but as “imprinting fear” so that when they see large prey they know not to go after the strong, healthy ones. Wouldn’t this imply that […]

Examples of Emotional Projection in the Wild May 19, 2010

Here are some good examples on Youtube of advanced forms of emotional projection and emotional center of gravity. Persistence Hunting The Barefoot Professor Kevin: What’s profoundly compelling to me is watching these hunters get into an almost musical rhythm as they synchronize with the movements of their prey, they pick up the cadence and I […]

Trick Training Run Amok Mar 02, 2010

I don’t want to sound like an ambulance chaser by delving into a discussion of the recent fatal attack by a killer whale against its trainer at Sea World, but I feel compelled to comment because this tragedy speaks to the rise in aggression, in dogs as well, and has direct bearing on how NDT […]

Born Wild, Trained to be Free Jul 28, 2009

“I don’t want to kill my dog,” the man said. He was near tears. He stood in my office telling me that this should be the happiest time in his life. His newborn son had just come home from the hospital, but his dog was aggressive toward strangers and even worse, with children, and now […]

Why Do Dogs Love Car Rides? Jun 01, 2009

Dogs love car rides because they feel as if they are on a hunt. For example, cats never love car rides, or at best merely learn to endure them because when riding in a car cats don’t feel as if they are on a hunt. Why when in a moving car, can a dog feel […]

Books about Natural Dog Training by Kevin Behan

In Your Dog Is Your Mirror, dog trainer Kevin Behan proposes a radical new model for understanding canine behavior: a dog’s behavior and emotion, indeed its very cognition, are driven by our emotion. The dog doesn’t respond to what the owner thinks, says, or does; it responds to what the owner feels. And in this way, dogs can actually put people back in touch with their own emotions. Behan demonstrates that dogs and humans are connected more profoundly than has ever been imagined — by heart — and that this approach to dog cognition can help us understand many of dogs’ most inscrutable behaviors. This groundbreaking, provocative book opens the door to a whole new understanding between species, and perhaps a whole new understanding of ourselves.
  Natural Dog Training is about how dogs see the world and what this means in regards to training. The first part of this book presents a new theory for the social behavior of canines, featuring the drive to hunt, not the pack instincts, as seminal to canine behavior. The second part reinterprets how dogs actually learn. The third section presents exercises and handling techniques to put this theory into practice with a puppy. The final section sets forth a training program with a special emphasis on coming when called.