An Untold Story of Dogs: Clandestine Canine Contributions to Science

What is it about?

Familiarity with dogs leads us to overlook their impact on our actions, emotions, and thoughts. In our closely bonded relationship, dogs seamlessly communicate with us. Profound scientific findings can be attributed to dogs’ influence on their human companions. This article presents the stories of several scientists who removed their human-centric lenses and viewed natural processes from their dogs' perspective. One scientist was warned by his father that his “playing with dogs” would ruin him and the family name. Another researcher described his dog, Oreo, as his best friend, opening his mind to “watch animals watch him” and wonder what they were thinking. Yet another researcher, writes about his “conversations” with his dog, Toby. One very quantitatively oriented cognitivist described how watching his dog, Xephos, “companionably on the couch next to [him]” inspired and motivated him to do his daily work. There is even a description by one Nobel Laureate describing his spending summer days swimming with his dogs when "fed to the teeth" with work, politeness, and people and the “very sight of a typewriter filled [him] with revulsion.” Sharing a trans-species, dog’s eye viewpoint not only reveals new processes and variables for researchers to examine, it sparks creativity and motivates the scientist to remain on course against adversity, thus driving the scope of human understanding forward in creative and meaningful new trajectories.

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