I’ve had that thought as well. So far it doesn’t look like dogs spontaneously use the buttons to communicate among themselves (they mostly don’t have the opportunity though). Some of Bunny’s neighbor dogs’ owners got on the button craze as well, so maybe we’ll see some of that.
I think the mama dog would still likely teach it to puppies as a way to communicate with humans, even if it’s not used as a way to talk between them.
I’m not aware of any existing “dog culture” that is passed between generations, but I’m not aware of any reason it’s impossible either.
I suppose wolf packs might teach the young adaptations relevant to local conditions, but it’s not clear to me how to use that hypothetical evidence.
My dog does this unusual roundhouse butt attack when she’s playing with other dogs. It’s unusual enough that people comment on it.
I’ve definitely noticed other dogs start doing it too after playing with her a bunch.
There also SEEMS to be a thing where in e.g. Berkeley the dogs at the park play quietly. I wondered how they taught their dogs not to bark while playing, because this is NOT the case in midwest dog parks. But apparently it’s “cultural”. If the dogs don’t bark at the dog park you frequent, your dog will also not bark.
Imitation seems like an important part of teaching/learning, and apes have famously high ability to imitate, and humans are the best imitators among the apes. This may put a limit on how difficult concepts a species can transfer to the next generation.
Humans love copying what others do, and that may be useful at learning habits that are not immediately useful, so the learning at the beginning is not rewarded by anything other than being intrinsically desirable.
Also, training animals is difficult; I probably couldn’t teach a dog to communicate. How much would belonging to the same species help the dog to teach its puppies?
I wonder if this could be made more scalable by having a dog who has learned this teaçh its puppies. 🤔
I’ve had that thought as well. So far it doesn’t look like dogs spontaneously use the buttons to communicate among themselves (they mostly don’t have the opportunity though). Some of Bunny’s neighbor dogs’ owners got on the button craze as well, so maybe we’ll see some of that.
I think the mama dog would still likely teach it to puppies as a way to communicate with humans, even if it’s not used as a way to talk between them.
I’m not aware of any existing “dog culture” that is passed between generations, but I’m not aware of any reason it’s impossible either. I suppose wolf packs might teach the young adaptations relevant to local conditions, but it’s not clear to me how to use that hypothetical evidence.
My dog does this unusual roundhouse butt attack when she’s playing with other dogs. It’s unusual enough that people comment on it.
I’ve definitely noticed other dogs start doing it too after playing with her a bunch.
There also SEEMS to be a thing where in e.g. Berkeley the dogs at the park play quietly. I wondered how they taught their dogs not to bark while playing, because this is NOT the case in midwest dog parks. But apparently it’s “cultural”. If the dogs don’t bark at the dog park you frequent, your dog will also not bark.
Imitation seems like an important part of teaching/learning, and apes have famously high ability to imitate, and humans are the best imitators among the apes. This may put a limit on how difficult concepts a species can transfer to the next generation.
Humans love copying what others do, and that may be useful at learning habits that are not immediately useful, so the learning at the beginning is not rewarded by anything other than being intrinsically desirable.
Also, training animals is difficult; I probably couldn’t teach a dog to communicate. How much would belonging to the same species help the dog to teach its puppies?