All those Lassie episodes and news stories on dogs that dialed 911 notwithstanding, will Fido really get help you are in trouble? Or will man's best friend let you die? Someone actually did the scientific study to find out. Here's the story, from Alex Boese's Elephants on Acid and Other Bizarre Experiments.
If you were trapped down a well like Timmy, what would your dog do? Would it run to get help, or would it wander off to sniff a tree? If you own a trained rescue dog it would probably get help, but what about an average dog, the kind whose greatest passions in life are (a) bacon, and (b) barking at the neighbor's cat? Would it figure out what to do in an emergency situation? The First Experiment: Fake Heart Attack To find out, researchers Krista Macpherson and William Roberts from the University of Western Ontario arranged for twelve dog owners to pretend to have a heart attack while walking their dogs through an open field. The owners all performed the exact same actions. When they reached a predesignated point in the field, marked by a target painted on the ground, they began breathing heavily, coughed, gasped, clutched their arm, fell over, and then lay motionless on the ground. A video camera hidden in a tree recorded what their dogs did next. In particular, the researchers were curious to see whether the dogs would seek help from a stranger sitting ten meters away. The dogs - from a variety of breeds, including collies, German shepherds, rottweilers, and poodles - didn't do much to promote the theory of canine intelligence. They spent some time nuzzling and pawing their owners before taking the opportunity to roam around aimlessly. Only one dog- a toy poodle- directly made contact with the stranger. It ran over and jumped in the person's lap - not because it was trying to signal that its owner was in distress, but because it wanted to be petted. It probably figured, Uh-oh! My owner's dead I need someone to adopt me! Concerned that the heart-attack scenario may have been too subtle for the dogs - perhaps they thought their owners were just taking a nap - and that the presence of the passive stranger might have suggested to the dogs that nothing was wrong, the researchers designed a second, more dramatic test. The Second Experiment: Trapped Under a Bookcase They arranged for each of fifteen dog owners to bring their dogs into an obedience school, greet a person in the front lobby, and then walk into a second room, where a bookcase then fell on the person. (Or, at least, the bookcase appeared to fall on the person. In reality, the researchers had shown each dog owner how to pull the piece of furniture down in such a way that it would look like an accident without actually hurting the person.) Pinned beneath the shelves, each owner let go of his or her dog's leash and began imploring the animal to get help from the person in the lobby. Once again, the canine response to the emergency was somewhat lacking. The dogs spent a good deal of time standing by their owners, wagging their tails, but not a single one went to get help. The researchers concluded that "the fact that no dog solicited help from a bystander - neither when its owner had a ‘heart attack' nor when its owner was toppled by a bookcase and called for help - suggests that dogs did not recognize these situations as emergencies and/or did not understand the need to obtain help from a bystander." In other words, don't expect Fido to save your life. The researchers were quick to point out that in some cases, dogs clearly have saved their owner's lives by seeking help. The media loves to report these stories, since they provide feel-good tales to end news broadcasts with - "Stay tuned for the dog that dialed 911!" But the researchers argue that such stories should not be considered indicative of typical dog behavior. So much for the urban legend of the life-saving pooch. Did Timmy Actually Fall Down a Well? And while we're on the subject of urban legends, here's another one. "Timmy fell down a well" is perhaps the most quoted line from the Lassie TV show. So much so that Jon Provost the actor who played Timmy, titled his autobiography Timmy's in the Well. However, although Timmy endured many calamities during the show - including falling into a lake, getting caught in quicksand, and being struck by a hit-and-run driver - he never once fell down a well. Macpherson, K., & W.A. Roberts (2006). "Do Dogs (Canis familiaris) Seek Help in an Emergency?" Journal of Comparative Psychology 120 (2): 113-19. |
This article, titled "Lassie, Get Help!" is reprinted here with permission. The internal headings are added here for clarity and ease-of-reading on your browser. Alex Boese, author of the popular book (and website) Museum of Hoaxes and Hippo Eats Dwarf, is back with another excellent read: Elephants on Acid and Other Bizarre Experiments. In this book, Alex described real scientific experiments that are outrageous, amusing, and bizarre. Why can't people tickle themselves? Would an average dog summon help in an emergency? Will babies instinctively pick a well-balanced diet? Find out the answers in Alex Boese's Elephants on Acid and Other Bizarre Experiments [Amazon]. |
Dogs sense things differently. I think dogs might go and get help if there was an immediate proof that something was wrong.
I'd like to see how these dogs would react if each of the owners would somehow be able to induce a little blood (since dogs sense of smell tend to be really powerful) and looks helpless at the same time.
I agree with Andy too. I am convinced my dogs know when I am sad/angry/bad mood in general. Sometimes they even pace and cry, but I was genuinely feeling that way. Tears might smell like "distress" to dogs too.
Blood + tears + helpless/trapped might get the dog to get some help. Imo.
I do think most dogs (not all) are able to recognize immediate danger and play, in any case much better than what most people can.
I have trained and worked with dogs for years and IMHO this experiment doesn't prove much. IMHO, dogs focus more on the owner's emotional/physiological state than in what position they are in. If I "fell down" in a field like in the experiment, my collies would wonder what kind of bizarre thing I'm up to now but they wouldn't be that upset. OTOH, I have fallen for real while trail running (tripped on a tree root or slipped in a muddy spot) - I usually yell in surprise, I hit the ground hard and my heart is racing. In those cases, my collies have acted very concerned until I tell them I'm OK and I get back up. I think it's very difficult for a person to fake an emergency with their dog.
And last year my smooth collie Lucy actually found her inner Lassie and helped in a emergency.
I was at a dog training facility out in the country side. At one point after the class, we were all outside chatting with our dogs off-leash when we realized that one dog (Bree) was missing. We all thought Bree must have spotted a deer and took off. So we put our dogs in our cars/vans and fanned out in the fields searching and calling for Bree. After an hour with no luck, Bree's owner was getting frantic and, on a whim, I decided to take Lucy with me for another try at searching the nearby fields. After a half hour I was getting extremely annoyed with Lucy - from my perspective she was being most unhelpful. Every time I called Bree's name, Lucy would pull back and try to head back to the training facility. This was very odd behavior for Lucy but I thought she was upset because of the general level of anxiety among the searchers.
Tracking trainers (people who work with dogs/handler teams trailing scent) say you should "trust your dog" (it knows better than you where the scent/object/person is). So, on a whim and because I was getting really ticked off dragging 45 lb of reluctant collie, I let Lucy lead the way. She lead me directly to one of the training building doors, which I opened to find Bree.
(We had trained outside that day and hadn't used the building which is why no-one had thought to check it. One person, however had gone in to grab a couple of poop-bag and Bree had slipped inside unnoticed.)
CJ
A person having a real heart attack will sweat profusely, and will probably excrete stress-related chemicals in this sweat, indicating to any olfactory-sensitive animal that they are in distress. The same is true for someone who is injured by a fallen object, or who is frightened by some other dangerous situation.
Once, when watching TV, an ad came on for a scary movie. The ad itself was very frightening, and I know that I was sweating unusually because of it. As a result, our dog, who is generally indifferent to the TV unless it is showing a herd of sheep, bristled and barked at the TV set. I had to change my attitude and reassure her that the 'danger' had passed.
So, a better experiment may have to induce stress-related pheromones in some way, to clue the dog that there's something going on.
http://www.pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF234-Finneas.jpg#217
Charlie: That story that the animals knew the tsunami was coming is something of an urban legend. There were in fact many animals killed by the Tsunami.
Anyways I do think this study isn't exactly the nail in the coffin, but that doesn't mean we should just dismiss it completely. What would be interesting would be to look at what dogs have done in real life situations not just the ones that make the news.
These experiments seemed to have been designed by people who are not pet owners.
You can't fake a heart attack or seizure and expect the dog to be fooled. When stuff like this happens chemicals in your body as well as your scent changes for that short time and the dog picks up on this and responds to the change accordingly. The owners aka actors pretending to keel over and pass out obviously wasn't fooling their pets...now if one of them actually DID have a problem, you'd see a change.
If you ever knew someone who was epileptic and had a dog, before a seizure you notice the dog seems to suddenly get your attention to go somewhere safe or to get your attention in general by barking a moment or so before the seizure starts...you'd know this. I also watched a documentary regarding this matter and they were interviewing a person who has seizures and during said interview about 30 seconds before she started to convulse and fell on the floor the dog was jumping and barking TRYING to get her to go on the couch or somewhere more suitable instead of having to fall on the floor.
Fear and other emotions also changes the scent our dogs pick up on us and dogs will all respond accordingly depending on the situation. When I'm really distressed and upset, my dog picks up on this and wants to make sure I'm okay. I know other dogs who pick up on the scent of emotional changes.
Overall I think you need to try better experiments and do more research before concluding something like this. If the experiments were flawed, so are the results, and that makes you wrong.
Lassie was a Sheltie not a Collie.
And, dogs will stay with their primary owner when ill and see if they will eventually walk around.