In “Natural Dog Training” in 1992 I posited the notion that learning in dogs was a function of emotional bonding. In other words a dog applies a social construct to all situations, he has a group mind perspective of reality. Even a seemingly innocuous physical act has a social connotation. This means that dogs become […]
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/19/science/coldblooded-does-not-mean-stupid.html?ref=science&_r=0 The Neo-Darwinian theory holds that a process of natural selection sifted through a huge genetic pool of slightly variable traits and eventually complex social behavior and the capacity to learn emerged in higher species. Driving this evolutionary process is said to be the need, or “urge” of genes to replicate. In the Neo-Darwinian model […]
Russell has introduced us to the power of Control Theory, and in this video one can witness it being put into expression as the complex coordinated behavior of quadcopters. http://www.ted.com/talks/raffaello_d_andrea_the_astounding_athletic_power_of_quadcopters.html I would like to add that underneath the algorithms, sensors and computer processing of these remarkable machines is an even more fundamental and even […]
(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 […]
Learning To Bark Is A Wave Alwynne writes an excellent blog about her dog “Cholula” which among other themes documents the trials and tribulations of teaching a dog to speak on command. http://sweetslugabed.com/blog/2012/10/09/cholula-shows-her-speak/ What’s interesting about the bark-on-command is that some dogs get it instantly whereas for some dogs it can take a long, long…………long, […]
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 […]
On Evolution: “Most people think that evolution is something that we can at best imagine, because it took an enormously long time to happen. This view is wrong. We can witness evolution all we want, if we look at the changes in our technology, movement, government, and standard of living.” “Forget biomimetics. No live thing […]
Perhaps on a drive through prime horse country you’ve found yourself taken by the view of gleaming, magnificently muscled horses grazing contentedly within fenced in fields presided over by stately barns and manor. Some of these horses are worth many hundreds of thousands of dollars as would of course befit such multi-million dollar equestrian complexes. […]
THE THEORY OF EMOTION AS THE BASIS OF THE ANIMAL MIND (which is easiest to see in the behavior of dogs). When a dog is wandering about a roadway and a car approaches, even if it is frightened because it had just been abandoned or had escaped from its yard, the dog unlike a cat […]
It’s true that anyone can claim to be natural and in one sense, everyone is being natural because in the final analysis, the dog responds to what the trainer does through a naturally evolved temperament and so it’s always the dog’s nature that’s being affected no matter how arbitrary the training approach. The term natural […]
