Dogsey

That was a very interesting article although I am sure that we all know that our own dogs are extremely clever and have empathy with and towards us. But then, of course, we are biased towards the dogs that share our lives.

However, the comment that dogs could understand human pointing while chimpanzees could not surprised me slightly, as I had always thought that chimpanzees understood sign language.

I know that people with a deaf dog use sign language to "talk" to their dogs, and I use quite a bit myself with Pereg, but somehow I had thought that chimpanzees would also understand it.

The article shows that I was wrong though.

That's a good point, Malka.

Agree... we already knew this While chimps are clever, they are less likely to know human language and gestures such as pointing (with fingers, or eyes) because they haven't lived by our side long enough - or at least that was my understanding of it.

quote "perhaps even a humanlike morality" what a pompus arrogant remark, typical of the academic research snob who thinks he/she knows it all. Maybe there are some humans who have a canninelike morality but they sure don't exist in the unniversities and research establishments of this world.

I cannot see that dogs can have any actual morality at all - instinct yes, morality? I do not think so.

Accepted that dogs do know if they have done something they should not have done, but are they aware that it was wrong? No. They just know that they should not have done it, which is not really the same thing. Knowing right from wrong needs cognitive ability and is not the same as, say, a dog taking some food from a counter when they know that they should not have done so.

They do not know that it is wrong - they just know that they should not have done it. To know it is wrong is to have the cognitive ability to understand the difference between right and wrong.

Morality is a fascinating concept. In effect, just like dogs, we learn right from wrong because of what we are taught from babies.

We teach our dogs what they should and shouldn't do. It has a number of similarities