When it comes to dog learning, I wonder if any of you have come across Cesar Millan (a.k.a the dog whisperer). There's an example of him at work here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3u1ilylgLcAlthough he's been criticised in the past, his approach to dog behaviour (or more often misbehaviour) is based largely on understanding social relationships and inter-species communication from the dog's point of view. His tag line is 'I rehabilitate dogs, but I train people' and his principal dog-training partner was a pit-bull named Daddy.
His approach to understanding animal behaviour bears a certain similarity to Gregory Bateson's ideas on animal communication in 'Steps to an Ecology of Mind' and some other writers on animal phenomenology. The basic idea is that if you don't have a digital mode of communication, like language, then you have to communicate by making statements in analogue form via emotion and relationship with the behavioural repertoire available to your species. Bateson for example argues that when a cat rubs its head and purrs at the refrigerator door, it's not saying 'feed me', it's more likely saying 'be mother to me'. From a human point of view, the two amount to the same message, but the theoretical implications are quite different. Millan suggests that owners often neglect to understand the relationship element of animal communication and end up fostering precisely the behaviour they don't want. Bateson's followers have applied his ideas on this topic to areas of miscommunication like psychosis and marital therapy.
Millan might not have read the work of an obscure British anthropology or even more obscure European phenomenologists, but uses similar insights all the time training dog owners to understand the dog's analogue responses to digital communications in the context of the way dogs phenomenologically 'understand' relationships. Worth a look if you haven't seen it, just for the entertainment value and definitely helpful in overcoming any fear of dogs you might have, as my wife will attest.
Just as an aside, I found some of his techniques work quite well with a classroom of teenagers!
Enjoy your summer
Liam
Liam Greenslade
Research Fellow/Project Officer
Changing Mindsets: HEFCE/Catalyst Project
Learning & Teaching Enhancement Unit
Learning Development Advisor
Academic Learning Development
Canterbury Christchurch University
email:
[log in to unmask]Tel: 01227 922363
twitter: @greenslade_liam
-----Original Message-----
From: learning development in higher education network <
[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Ian Johnson
Sent: 17 July 2018 11:13
To:
[log in to unmask]Subject: Re: Hoping folk think these questions of relevance/interest - can dogs be educated? can dogs be educators?
What struck me as I was pondering these questions is that while (as some earlier contributors have noted), dogs and indeed other animals seem to 'learn' initially through behaviourist principles ('if I behave like this, I get this reward' etc), the results of those learnings turn into something very different. Rather than just displaying desirable behaviours, dogs learn to enact these in combinations, which in turn closely resemble human emotions, like 'anger' or 'love'. These emotions from dogs can look and feel very much like their human equivalents. And in terms of whether the dog can become a teacher ... humans (children and adults alike) can observe a dog displaying love/affection and learn to replicate the pattern. It's definitely an argument that many humans might acquire the ability to replicate an emotion better by observing it from a dog (who displays it flawlessly and largely unconditionally) than a human (who might display it subject to caveats). I guess this explains the growing popularity of canine and equine therapy too. So yes, I believe dogs can be learners and teachers and that it goes deeper than behaviourism. Fantastic thread, and I would love to know what motivated this question, Gordon!
Best,
Ian Johnson
Learning Development Tutor
University of Portsmouth
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