Display:
If the animal's sharper-than-human senses cannot detect someone approaching and we cannot effectively communicate with animals, how can you make the claim that their behaviour is a reaction to someone "approaching"?

We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Dec 24th, 2007 at 08:43:12 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I think they're talking about the observation that dogs are often observed to spend more time at the front door of a house when their owner is about to return home. Even granting that this is an actual effect and not just confirmation bias (which is by no means certain), the fact that most people return from work on pretty regular hours makes this is an example of learned behaviour that would have done Pavlov proud. But for some reason a lot of woo-woos seem to prefer viewing it as an example of telepathy.

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Tue Dec 25th, 2007 at 02:08:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Display:
Login
. Make a new account
. Reset password
Occasional Series