Why Do Gome Dogs and Monsters or Fang or Fluffy in Harry Potter People Fear Doge?
STANLEY COREN Makes me think of Cerberus, the 3-headed dog from mythology Why do gome Dogs and Monsters Or Fang or Fluffy in Harry Potter people fear doge? I expect gornefhing with a light tone
(entertainment?)
You can see Stanley Coren as a guest on numerous television shows as well as in the role of host on his weekly television show Good Dog; you can hear him on radio programs such as Dan Rather, Ideas, Quirks and Quarks, and The Osgood Report; and you can read [pic 1] published in USA Today, The Globe and Mail, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, Time, People, Maclean's, Cosmopolitan, and Entertainment[pic 2]
Weekly. Coren has also published several books about dogs, | definitely a |
including [pic 3] Why We Love the Dogs We Do, The Intelligence ofDogs, and Sleep Thieves. He has published a multitude of academic and scientific writings related to his | "dog" pergon |
research into various areas of psychology and his current role | peyohology |
as a professor and director of the Human Neuropsychology | background |
and Perception Laboratory at the University of British Columbia. If you wanted to meet Coren, you could register for a psychology class he teaches at UBC, you could take a course with the Vancouver Dog Obedience Training Club, or you could attend one of the many fundraising events for the SPCA in which he participates. | intereeting |
Coren was born in Philadelphia in 1942 and educated at the University of Pennsylvania (undergraduate) and Stanford University (doctorate). The prolific writer and researcher now lives in Vancouver with his wife, two dogs, and a cat.
Preparing to Read
One recent cellular phone ad campaign highlights the similarities in appearance between people and the dogs they choose as pets. Do you have a dog? If so, what kind of dog do
you have? What characteristics made you choose that type of dog? Generally, do you think dogs are good pets? Why or why not? How has the role of pets changed over the last century? In this essay, originally published in Saturday Night magazine in May 2000, Stanley Coren outlines the process of bioengineering dogs to adapt to the current technologies and needs of their human owners.
(g barking gtlll desirable in gome gifuafiong? When? Why do more grna[l breeds retain thig barking reflcx?
Today's headlines routinely raise fears about genetic engineering. The biggest concern is [pic 4]creation" to fashion new strains of plants and animals may result in the devastation of the world by upsetting the naturals balance among species. Even Prince Charles has joined the debate, claiming that generic engineering "takes us into areas that should be left to God. We should not be meddling with the building blocks of life in this way." But the genetic mani Illation of s ies is far from new. In fact, it [pic 5]egan at least 14,000 years ago, when human beings created the first deliberately engineered organism—the dog.
The bioengineered canine was not created in a highlevel biocontainment lab; rather, its beginnings were accidental. Wolves and jackals (the domestic dog's predecessors) were attracted to human camps because primitive humans left bones, bits of skin, and other scraps of leftover food scattered near their dwellings. The wolves and jackals learned that by loitering around the settlement they could grab an occasional bite to eat without the exertion involved in hunting. These primitive dogs [pic 6]tolerated by humans because they functioned as de facto garbage-disposal units.
The dogs near the campsite provided another key benefit: security. They barked whenever wild beasts or strangers approached, removing the need for human guards to be posted at night, and thus affordin the villagers more rest and increased safety. Th ark was critica the most effective guard dogs, obviously, were those with loud, persistent barks. And so a selective breeding program was begun: those dogs that barked loudly were kept and bred with other loud barkers, while those that did not bark were simply killed or chased off. In fact, one of the major distinctions between wild canines and domestic dogs today is that domestic dogs bark, while wild dogs seldom do. The persistent racket that irritates so many people is actually a[pic 7]