One of our two dogs -- Jasmine or Jaz, for short -- loves to play fetch. It doesn't matter what the object is. It could be a ball, bone, stick, toy, yogurt container, toilet paper or my wife's underwear (though Della is never pleased with the latter item)!!
Often, when I first come downstairs in the morning, I'll ask Jaz four or five times in an animated voice, "Jaz, where's your ball?" The first time or two I ask the question, she looks at me as if she has no clue whatsoever what I'm saying. Yet, usually by the third or 4th go around, she "gets it" and starts looking for her ball. If it is in the immediate vicinity, she runs over to pick it up and brings it back. We then spend several minutes playing fetch around the living room.
However, if I can see the ball, but Jaz can't seem to locate it, I try to steer her in the proper direction. Like a lot of people, I often will point with my hand. "Jaz, your ball is in the dining room. Go get it." If you have a dog, then you know what happens when you point at an object several feet away. The dog does not look in the direction you are pointing; he/she looks at your hand instead!
From the standpoint of humans, we say that the ability to perceive the representation of directional perception (that could probably be stated better) is one of those things that places us on the top rung of the evolutionary ladder. The fact that a dog looks at the hand pointing and not the objected pointed at illustrates why a dog's perception is not as keen as a person.
In my estimation, the problem with this belief is that we are only able to see this situation from our own perspective. From the perspective of a dog, it may not be important at all. In fact, having such an ability might prove to be a hindrance!
For some reason, we think that human perception is the end-all, be-all in the universe. We judge all other life forms by OUR standards. If it serves our species well, then we assume it would serve other creatures just as well IF they possessed the abilities and capabilities that we do.
But as the Taoist sages suggest, each form has its own internal nature. What is valuable for one may not be valuable for another. What we like to think is higher consciousness may be simply one form of consciousness that is not greater nor lesser than any other.
Besides, we humans often suffer from the same "deficiency" as dogs do. We tend to focus on the finger pointing at the moon and confuse it for the moon itself!
Often, when I first come downstairs in the morning, I'll ask Jaz four or five times in an animated voice, "Jaz, where's your ball?" The first time or two I ask the question, she looks at me as if she has no clue whatsoever what I'm saying. Yet, usually by the third or 4th go around, she "gets it" and starts looking for her ball. If it is in the immediate vicinity, she runs over to pick it up and brings it back. We then spend several minutes playing fetch around the living room.
However, if I can see the ball, but Jaz can't seem to locate it, I try to steer her in the proper direction. Like a lot of people, I often will point with my hand. "Jaz, your ball is in the dining room. Go get it." If you have a dog, then you know what happens when you point at an object several feet away. The dog does not look in the direction you are pointing; he/she looks at your hand instead!
From the standpoint of humans, we say that the ability to perceive the representation of directional perception (that could probably be stated better) is one of those things that places us on the top rung of the evolutionary ladder. The fact that a dog looks at the hand pointing and not the objected pointed at illustrates why a dog's perception is not as keen as a person.
In my estimation, the problem with this belief is that we are only able to see this situation from our own perspective. From the perspective of a dog, it may not be important at all. In fact, having such an ability might prove to be a hindrance!
For some reason, we think that human perception is the end-all, be-all in the universe. We judge all other life forms by OUR standards. If it serves our species well, then we assume it would serve other creatures just as well IF they possessed the abilities and capabilities that we do.
But as the Taoist sages suggest, each form has its own internal nature. What is valuable for one may not be valuable for another. What we like to think is higher consciousness may be simply one form of consciousness that is not greater nor lesser than any other.
Besides, we humans often suffer from the same "deficiency" as dogs do. We tend to focus on the finger pointing at the moon and confuse it for the moon itself!
magicians use pointing to misdirect the audience away from where the real trick is, so that the audience is fooled. i've read that little children (less than age 5?) are very difficult for magicians to fool in this way, because children that young have not yet learned to look where the magician tells them too, the children look where they feel like it.
ReplyDeleteunrelated to the above, but along the theme of your blog, i once saw someone write on a forum a great line: "jesus was a finger pointing to the moon. and now 2,000 years later, christians are still intently examining the finger."
--sgl
Sgl,
ReplyDeleteGreat point! (But, the again, you ALWAYS leave such insightful comments.) :-)
yep, i can attest that toddlers do not often look where you are pointing. :) they mostly look at your finger or something completely unrelated.
ReplyDeletealso, humans use our hands to reach for things, so it's not hard for us to make the leap between reaching for something and pointing to something out of our reach. dogs wouldn't understand that because they reach for things with their nose! so, sometimes it helps to look at the object (instead of looking at the dog) or "pointing" with your body. even then, since a dog's body is much different than a human's, it's pretty easy for things to get lost in translation.