Ever Wonder How Animal's Think?

Not talking about animals in general but pets..
IMO, they are MOSTLY emotion driven!
Geneticaly they are never relaxed anough to take their time and think,so to speak..like we did some two million years ago. He-he...well ..some of us.

I have noticed that dogs will have several different barks too.

1 They have a play bark - ruff, ruff, ruff

2 They have a bored bark where they just bark at the moon all night bu,ru,ru, ru, ru, ru, ru, ru,ru,and one final ru. Over and over and over.

3 They have a full out what I call a panick bark where they rush to the fence when someone has invaded their visibility. That one goes like this boooooooooooooo,ru.ru,ru,ru ,ru, and repeats over and over until the threat has passed by. There are probably countless others, these are some that I have observed.

It's instinct...not intelligence...

Most of us have an "internal voice"...Just as the OP pointed out; I am thinking (or saying) exactly what I am typing as I type it to myself inside of my head.

In general, I would postulate that most people talk to themselves "inside their heads" more than "outside" (via their mouth/tongue/vocal chords).

There are exceptions, however...

Recently I began to work with a woman who constantly and incessantly talks non-stop. She even says things that everyone else would say "internally" out loud. She is a very low-IQ person, disgusting body hygiene and suffers from some kind of genetic disorder that causes her to smell like rotting fish (she is un-aware of it though).

I have come to realize that because of her decreased mental capacity, she does NOT think/talk to herself internally. Everything she thinks, she says out loud. She is basically like an animal that makes squawks and barks when expressing itself rather than reflecting internally.

I suspect animals are the same.

Wow thanks for all the detailed replies people

I don't have time to read all of them now......
I just wanted to let you people(that sounds like Rush Limbaugh) that I haven't abandoned the thread.

Will post soon
PS
Great job ATS for throwing in spell checkers now!!!!
about time

If plants can secret chemical signals to warn other plants of injury and or presence of danger it would not surprise me if animals , (higher order?) do the same and more in terms of thinking. insects when approached either flee or attack, thinking might be..can I eat it or will it eat me? certain species of ants show cooperation by hiding in pores of branches, and when food walks over the branch they attack and dismember the poor prey. teenage male dolphins will cooperate and chase and hold female dolphin captive, take turns guarding/keeping her captive for very long periods. Bacteria stake out a territory and send chemical signatures to like bacteria and another to different bacteria to keep out. Animal pets like dogs and cats study our behaviour better than I think we do theirs. some behavior is clearly pavlovian, some projection by us, and others like alerting owners to a fire, pulling people out of fire, traveling hundreds of miles to find their owners, puts that in my view a different level. They dream, as ive seen my dog wimper, and growl, other times light barks while asleep. Clearly some kind of imagery is going on internally. and while we don't say thats a language, a picture is worth a thousand words, and if they have images, and have feelings, then a soul is not far behind.

IMHO animals "think" little...They react to the situation. To be a cow would suck....A fish in a tank even worse.

I don't think that animals can think in woof woof and bark barks, and i also dont think they communicate with each other that way. I don't think they can communicate at all actually

Of course animals communicate with each other. Especially social animals like dogs, it's necessary for their survival.

It's instinct...not intelligence...

Instinct and intelligence. Just like humans have instinct too.

I know animals have their own language which with observation we can learn. My daughter did a talk in 4H on the language of horses. She learned it through reading and observation. Horses have a whole range of information they communicate not only through sound but as we do with body language. The first thing she learned is the difference between prey animals (horses) and hunters (dogs, cats) and how they use body language differently. Very fascinating stuff. Natural horse training evolved from people such as John Lyons observing this.

there was a doco i seen on an eastern grey parrot in USA.
he could distinguish shapes + colours and was tested to have the intelligence of a small child of about 4years.

his trainer would hold up a triangle and say "what is it", and the bird would reply "corner.... red corner.."
his trainer would ask for a shape, or a colour in a mixed pile and the bird could pick the right one.
they tried to trick the bird by removing a shape altogether and asking for it - "pick the square" and the bird would reply "gone"
last doco i seen on him he was being used to train another young bird so they could pass on his knowledge quicker.

i have 2 dogs (labrador X shepherd) and while one is your normal smart lab the other really is something special with his intelligence.

i honestly beleive he has a sense of humour, maybe not to our level but he knows how to make me instantly laugh regardless of the situation.

he also does his own problem solving.
if he has ball #1, he'll see ball #2 and taught himself how to pick it up in his mouth with one ontop the other.
he then approaches with balls stacked in mouth, head held very high and bit of a cocky walk as if to say "im so smart, i got both of em"

if he has a frisbee and sees frisbee #2 he will attempt to pick it up. if he cant he swaps and carries #2 while trying to pickup #1 (if i cant hold this and pickup that, ill hold that and try pickup this)

if you give him a frisbee and a tennis ball he will again try various ways of holding one item while trying to pickup the other, swapping which one he holds if it doesnt work right.

because of his size we got him a soccer ball. he was so fascinated with the way i could move the ball around with my foot to where i wanted it before kicking it.
he then started to try kick it himself and within no time he can kick it from any end of the yard back to my feet within 20sec or so, only using his front 2 legs to kick + direct the ball as needed.

we taught then to think of each other, they not only share food but if one is outside the other will get up and open the back door for the other. (saves me getting off my arse everytime they want in)

i am happy to put up video footage to prove my claims if needed.

everyone who has met him as been astounded by his intelligence and personality.

you see i always try connect with my dogs so i can understand them (dogs) better, and i swear he is doing the exact same thing to me (by watching and learning why i do things + what comes next)

edit: oh and i think they have inbuilt alarm clocks, coz he ALWAYS hassles me for dinner at 6pm sharp, give or take 10mins.


[edit on 8/7/07 by Obliv_au]

Originally posted by MystikMushroom
There are exceptions, however...

Recently I began to work with a woman who constantly and incessantly talks non-stop. She even says things that everyone else would say "internally" out loud. She is a very low-IQ person, disgusting body hygiene and suffers from some kind of genetic disorder that causes her to smell like rotting fish (she is un-aware of it though).

I have come to realize that because of her decreased mental capacity, she does NOT think/talk to herself internally. Everything she thinks, she says out loud. She is basically like an animal that makes squawks and barks when expressing itself rather than reflecting internally.

I suspect animals are the same.

I also "talk to myself" out loud. Does that make me a low-IQ person? Out of personal experience ,I developed a habit of "talking to myself" when I think nobody is around... Some people thought I was crazy at one point. But I feel free/happy/relaxed when I talk to myself. Maybe its a habit of hers as well, maybe its just her kind of personality? Or maybe she's an extrovert? I wouldn't know, because I don't know who she is, how she lives (habits, etc), how she looks like...

One question, is this woman, of whom you speak of, attractive or (really) unattractive? If it is the latter, then it is quite understandable to me, that she expresses her thoughts out loud. As for the rotting fish smell... it might be body hygiene (which really I doubt), or it might be her environment she lives in (have you ever noticed when after you had a bbq, you would stink like burnt wood/whatever you used, and didn't realize it until someone told you? Or worked real hard and your full of sweat, which usually stinks, and didn't realize it?).

Anyway, don't take this as a personal attack... but don't judge other by there looks/scent/habits/IQ before you really know them.

On-topic: I personally believe animals (the domestic kind and the wild kind) do think... well not in a language we know. A simple bark can mean something to them and other dogs (and it includes cats with their meows). I walk down a street were there is a lot of dogs, and all of them bark like crazy, but the thing is they don't bark at the people that pass by, instead they bark at each other from across the street (and not in a violent/aggravated way). Its quite cute to watch them bark at each other... it feels like I started a conversation between them (which usually ends minutes after I passed by)

Originally posted by DarkSide

It's instinct...not intelligence...

Instinct and intelligence. Just like humans have instinct too.

Really...I'd love to (And so would the scientific community researching Dogs) see any proof you have of a Dog acting intelligently and not instinctually.

P.S. I really hope you say "Well you can teach a dog to sit, stay and roll over" go ahead...say it...please....

[edit on 8-7-2007 by DisabledVet]

[quote=from gorilla foundation koko.org]During the course of the study, Koko has advanced further with language than any other non-human. Koko has a working vocabulary of over 1000 signs. Koko understands approximately 2,000 words of spoken English. Koko initiates the majority of conversations with her human companions and typically constructs statements averaging three to six words. Koko has a tested IQ of between 70 and 95 on a human scale, where 100 is considered "normal." Michael, the male silverback gorilla who grew up with Koko, had a working vocabulary of over 600 signs

The project has shown that an animal can possess qualities that were previously considered exclusively human, such as thought processes, imagination and feelings.
Koko can talk via fluent sign language as used by deaf people.. she even has her own pet kitten and treats it lovingly exactly as any normal human does until it escaped and was killed by a car. she expressed great sadness with words like "cry, kitty sleep, sad"

alex foundation, named after alex the african grey parrot i referred to earlier

PBS Science - Entertaining parrots pbs scientific american frontiers is some very good video of alex in action with alan alder (star of m.a.s.h. tv series)

talking female african grey parrot, "einstein"

animal world communication kings, BBC article

edited to fix a few links


[edit on 8/7/07 by Obliv_au]

[edit on 8/7/07 by Obliv_au]

[edit on 8/7/07 by Obliv_au]

I think animals do have some level of intellect, or at least the ability to leanr things.

A cat I had was playing with our doorbell, which lights up red. It took a couple of times opening the door to realize it was the cat ringing the doorbell. Anyway, from that single experience, it learned that once he was ready to come in, he just rang the doorbell, and we opened the door.

Another cat we had, did the long-distance travel thing. He was was a really playful cat, and drooled heavily. After moving across town, he had got out one night and never came back. Long story short, he made his way back to our old house. After we got him back, he was no longer playful, and always glared at us... like it was our fault he went through all he did.

My current pet, a Chihuahua breed (Chinese Crested Powder Puff), is the strangest animal, yet my absolute favorite. We got him just after he was born for my brother who had been hit by a truck. So I got to train him and tweak him into the dog I wanted. As a puppy, and even now.. he doesn't bark, unless he sees a stranger, in which case he won't stop. He would always kinda make a circle with his lips, like how we would whistle, and make strange sounds varying in pitch, like he was trying to talk to us or something. And other times, he'll move his mouth when "talking" which makes it sound even more like he's trying to actually speak to you.

He does know many words. For example, he LOVES car rides. And I would always say enthusiastically "Lets go on a ride!!" and he would bolt to the car. But one day, I just said real plainly, "go get in the car" Which I haven't ever said to him before, yet he bolted there and waited.

When fighting "playing" with me, he knows the words Stop and Go. When I say stop, he'll immediately stop playing and just kinda lay there... and the second I say go, he gets up again and starts trying to fight me. He can also tell when he's hurt you. If he bites you or something, and you pull your hand back fast, or say "Ouch" he will immediately stop playing and start licking you where he thinks he hurt you.

And when he is in trouble... he knows it. A few times he might have gotten into the trash or something, and instead of yelling for him... I'd call his name like I do any other time... but he never comes. Instead, I find him cowering behind something, with his backend always out of sight. Somehow, even though I'm not expressing any anger in how I call him, he just knows he's in trouble.

Also, if he doesn't use the bathroom outside, he uses it in our bathroom. Somehow he managed to figure out, hmans go to the bathroom in the bathroom... so should I.

And then lastly, even though this doesn't really help his intelligence, he acts like a cat. He grew up for short period as a puppy with a few cats. So he will only eat cat food, will not eat the dry dog food, dog bones, that kind of thing. And if he can, he will try and use the litter box, since thats what he grew up with with the cats.

So not only did he learn things from humans, but from cats too. My dog, while he can have his off days, he is by far the most intelligent animal I've ever seen.

Also, I forgot to mention. The dog I have is a breed that has Hair... not fur. Which means the stuff keeps growing until you cut it. Anyway, the dog has eyebrows, and he uses them to show emotion. he'll have them high when he's happy or excited, he'll have them curved down when he's angry or annoyed, and when he's confused, he'll actually somewhat do the single eyebrow lift.

I've found my dog to show emotin and feelings good bit using his facial expressions, which I didn't know dogs could do until I got him.

He, like many others have said, has reams where he kicks his legs, barks, etc. He would also have the tendency to sit up in the chair, and the lean and fall back, so it was almost like he was sitting in a chair, much like we do. He would never sleep on his stomach, he ALWAYS sleeps on his back.

[edit on 8-7-2007 by DarkHelmet]

From what I have observed animals especialy domesticated pets seem to understand many phrases and words uttered by their masters. This would seem to show that animals not only use primaraly body language to communicate with each other. (while also utilizing a linguistic form of communication.) They also understand and respond to the master's language. It could be argued in a sence that animals "think" in the parent/master's language or something strikingly simmilar.

Cats on the other hand have a complete grasp of the parent/master's language they just don't give a darn

I almost for got about this documentary I saw. This basically proves that African Grey parrots are capable of understanding speech.

I cant find the doc but here is the experiment.....

www.sheldrake.org...

and the more detailed analysis
www.scientificexploration.org...

If anyone can find the Documentary associated with this test post it here.

This is the most incredible thing I have seen any animal do. This is perfect for ATS


Thanks people
Great work

[edit on 8-7-2007 by IMAdamnALIEN]

Originally posted by DarkHelmet
A cat I had was playing with our doorbell, which lights up red. It took a couple of times opening the door to realize it was the cat ringing the doorbell. Anyway, from that single experience, it learned that once he was ready to come in, he just rang the doorbell, and we opened the door.

Thats incredible!

So are all animals capable of putting 2 and 2 together. This would suggest abstract thought patterns, "If I do this this will happen." Or in other words perceiving what your actions WILL do, not just living in the moment reacting to stimuli.

Great people, Thanks for the replies!

Originally posted by DarkHelmet
Also, I forgot to mention. The dog I have is a breed that has Hair... not fur. Which means the stuff keeps growing until you cut it. Anyway, the dog has eyebrows, and he uses them to show emotion. he'll have them high when he's happy or excited, he'll have them curved down when he's angry or annoyed, and when he's confused, he'll actually somewhat do the single eyebrow lift.

I've found my dog to show emotin and feelings good bit using his facial expressions, which I didn't know dogs could do until I got him.

He, like many others have said, has reams where he kicks his legs, barks, etc. He would also have the tendency to sit up in the chair, and the lean and fall back, so it was almost like he was sitting in a chair, much like we do. He would never sleep on his stomach, he ALWAYS sleeps on his back.

[edit on 8-7-2007 by DarkHelmet]

You have fascinating animals man!

Sleeping on his back Dogs are so damn funny

Originally posted by whatukno
Cats on the other hand have a complete grasp of the parent/master's language they just don't give a darn

I wonder why most cats have this "don't care" attitude. Its almost like they think they are better than us........"You wanna pet me, you wanna pet me" "Too bad, I will come to you when I'm ready" and just casually walk away shaking its a$$ like its taunting you. Stuck up prissy cats!!
I still enjoy their company, they just seem too good for you.


*REMEMBER IF ANYONE FINDS THE AFRICAN GREY TELEPATHY DOCUMENTARY PLEASE POST IT HERE!!!!!!!!!!!*

The name of the bird is N'kisi thats all I remember

Thanks