r/aww • u/thetinydancer1 • 10h ago

Our Pomeranian plays Bruiser Woods in Legally Blonde. She waits for her cue, then walks onstage all by herself

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u/Foe117 10h ago

i am pretty sure doggo's can be smarter than we take them for. like the pupper knows the context of what they're doing is for the stage, but it likes what it's doing on cue.

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u/AvalancheOfOpinions 9h ago

You'd like the book, "Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know," by Alexandra Horowitz, the director of the Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard College. You're right, they're definitely much smarter or at least much more aware than we give them credit for. For instance, they memorize facial expressions, so they know when you're angry or happy just by your look. They're also deeply in tune with human eye contact and use their own eye contact as communication.

But they see the world in an entirely different way too, so stuff that's obvious to us isn't obvious to them and vice versa. Like they have incredible senses of smell and hearing and ours is relatively awful. They "see" the world through scent more than sight. Imagine trying to navigate while blindfolded, only through smell. They can detect marks months after they've been made. If we had their perception, it'd seem like a super power.

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u/rcknmrty4evr 7h ago

Something that really opened my eyes to how much dogs truly learn and keep track of their humans is having two elderly dogs throughout my life. My first was my childhood dog that lived until 20~ (found as a stray so not sure exactly, but minimum 20), and my current dog who is 16. They spent YEARS picking up our subtle gestures and doing the same routines what not, and even in their old age with very poor hearing and/or eyesight, they immediately understood commands, what we want them to do, what’s going on etc.

I mean this may seem obvious and not that crazy, but sometimes I’ll barely even move and my 16 year old dog, who is very close to, if not, 100% deaf and poor eyesight, immediately understands what’s going on and does it before I even really start the gesture I was going to do to direct him. He still understands people’s emotions, he can tell when people are sad or mad or happy.. sometimes it’s just surprising how little he acts like he’s losing his senses.. until there’s a loud noise he has zero reaction to or someone walks in the house he hasn’t seen in a while and takes a minute to smell and remember who they are lol.

It’s also interesting how smooth the transition from verbal/visual commands to visual/physical was. I can usually give visual gestures to command him, but if he’s doing something like barking out the sliding glass door because he thought he saw something lol, I can walk up and gently tap him and he just goes and lays down or whatever else. It’s not something we ever specifically trained or taught, he just picked it up as he lost his hearing.

Dogs pay attention to a lot more than many give credit to.

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u/bwaredapenguin 8h ago

You think a dog knows what a stage musical is and that it's an actor?

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u/coldize 9h ago

i am pretty sure we anthropomorphize anything we like.

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u/aledba 9h ago

Okay but we're also animals. All sentient creatures have a psychology about them. You just have to know what to look for

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u/gettingitreal 8h ago

Wow, excuse your mouth. My dog is right next to me and was pretty offended to read this.

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u/Trips-Over-Tail 7h ago

I cynomorph anything I like. Dogs are easy. People react badly. Cats are a fun challenge. Works very well with sharks, until it doesn't, but great up to then.

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u/MothmanIsALiar 9h ago

Anthropomorphize is a nonsense word because humans are animals.

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u/SynisterJeff 9h ago

Anthropomorphize just means for a human to attribute non-human things with human traits, it doesn't have to be animals. The movie Toy Story anthropomorphizes toys.

And even with the point you were making, human behavior and intelligence is so far removed from any other animal. There are some animals that compare in some ways, but they still don't come close in most aspects, and you could still give them many human traits that they lack. The word would still hold meaning.

It comes from the word "anthropic", which just means to be related to humans. Which also comes from the greek word for human, "anthropikos". You could say cars are anthropic, because they are strictly related to humans.

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u/sharkattax 4h ago

oh i just gave a two sentence answer and scrolled down to see you made my point much more thoroughly. you even included examples !!

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u/MothmanIsALiar 8h ago

What evidence do we have that emotions are attributed to intelligence?

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u/ohliamylia 8h ago

What are you responding to? Where did someone connect emotions to intelligence?

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u/SynisterJeff 7h ago

I never said it was or wasn't, and what does that have anything to do with the meaning of anthropomorphize.

If you're trying to say that stating a dog feeling any kind of emotion wouldn't be anthropomorphizing them, then I would agree. Dogs are capable of having and showing their own emotions.

If you're trying to say animals have the same emotional responses as a human, then I would say that's anthropomorphizing. Sure, some animals have the evolutionary trait of showing emotion, but their brains, chemical make up, etc. are all different to a human's. It would just be impossible for anything that is not a human to experience anything as a human would, and vice versa.

Saying "That dog looks like it is enjoying itself." might not be anthropomorphizing. Saying "That dog is just as happy as anyone else out there." would be anthropomorphizing.

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u/finnjakefionnacake 9h ago

i think we all understand what it means though. humans are animals, but all animals are not humans.

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u/IzarkKiaTarj 8h ago

but all animals are not humans.

This is false; the set of all animals does, in fact, contain humans as well as not humans.

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u/Ppleater 7h ago

I think they meant not all animals are humans.

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u/IzarkKiaTarj 7h ago

I know, I was being a smartass and my reply made me laugh, so I posted it.

Thank you for attempting to explain, though! I hate it when I get downvoted and I don't know why because no one replies. But I totally understand this one, I was being super pedantic.

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u/superluminal 9h ago

Whatever, square

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u/MothmanIsALiar 9h ago

Human is a nonsense word, too.

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u/ColdCruise 8h ago

All words are made up

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u/ohliamylia 8h ago

And the points don't matter!

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u/sexual_lemonade 9h ago

"The real animals were the humans we found along the way"

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u/Cactuas 9h ago

It's not nonsense to point out that animals are usually not experiencing certain situations exactly as humans would. We are all animals and we all experience emotions, but it's a leap to assume dogs experience the same emotions as humans do, just as it would be a leap to assume a cat experiences the same emotions as a dog.

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u/MothmanIsALiar 9h ago

I think its silly to assume that emotions are new rather than an integral part of the evolutionary experience. I have emotions. Chimps have emotions. Why wouldn't squirrels have emotions? We all have a common ancestor.

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u/Ppleater 7h ago

It's not about assuming that animals don't have emotions, it's about understanding that animals don't always express the same emotions in the same way for the same reasons. It's the species version of being ethnocentric, assuming that your experience is the default. It's arrogant and often results in harm for the animals. Chimps showing a fear grimace look to a human like they're happy because it resembles a smile, but chimps are chimps, with their own unique experiences, culture, and ways of expressing emotions that are not going to be the exact same as humans. If you assume that a chimp is happy when it isn't, you will continue to do things that make the chimp afraid while assuming you're making it happy. That is not fair to the chimp. And then the chimp freaks out lashes out, hurts someone, and people on reddit go around talking about how chimps are violent, psychopathic, and evil, instead of recognizing the chimp's perspective and experience as something that does not conceptualize the world the exact same way humans do.

Anthropomorphizing is assigning human motivation, logic, and morality to something that is not human, then judging it by those human standards, instead of acknowledging and respecting the animal for what it actually is.

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u/Cactuas 8h ago

Yes, all animals have emotions. But that doesn't mean animals always experience or express emotions the same way that humans do.

For example, a person who doesn't know anything about dogs might see a dog panting and think "Oh, that dog is smiling, it must be happy." In reality the dog is panting because it's hot, not because it's happy. That's anthropomorphization.

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u/ColdCruise 8h ago

But we are able to process and understand emotions in a way that no other animal can. We experience them differently because of this.

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u/rcknmrty4evr 6h ago edited 6h ago

Where has anyone said animals don’t have emotions? I feel you’re unintentionally (hopefully) building strawmen.

Also that doesn’t make sense anyway. There’s plenty of different animals with common ancestors that don’t share countless traits.. that’s why they’re different animals.

You seem to be confusing your ignorance and naivety with enlightenment, and insisting on your argument being one extreme and any disagreeing argument being a direct opposite extreme even when no one claimed so.

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u/textingmycat 9h ago

...why would a cat not experience the same emotions as a dog? do you mean in the same situations they wouldn't have the same emotions? because that's also a pretty big leap to a blanketed statement.

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u/Cactuas 8h ago

I'm not saying they don't experience any of the same emotions. I think there is almost certainly some overlap in the way dogs, cats, and humans experience emotions. But they are different animals with different brain structures, which means they're going to experience many things differently.

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u/Crapcicle6190 9h ago

That’s the dumbest thing I’ve read on Reddit, and I’ve been here a long time

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u/MothmanIsALiar 8h ago

Are you familiar with "Animal, vegetable, mineral"?

If humans aren't animals, are they vegetables or minerals?

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u/sirgandolf007 8h ago

To anthropomorphize means to attribute human traits, emotions, intentions, personalities, or physical forms to non-human entities, such as animals, gods, objects, or natural phenomena.

Straight from Google. You have misattributed the word.

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u/rcknmrty4evr 6h ago

Okay so you just don’t know what anthropomorphize means.

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u/Crapcicle6190 8h ago edited 8h ago

Anthropomorphize: “the ascribing of human personality, appearance, conduct, cognition, or other attributes to non-human entities”

There’s nothing in the current form of the word or the root word (from the Greek root word anthrōpómorphos which means "having human form") that says that it’s anything related to the relationship or similarities of animals to humans.

What are you even referencing?

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u/MarcusRoland 9h ago

Now that is a point I haven't heard before. I like it a lot. Keep telling people we are just smarter fancier animals and they don't like it.

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u/Ppleater 7h ago

It's a really stupid point because the word anthropomorphize has nothing to do with whether humans are animals or not.

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u/Onion_Dipper 9h ago

... though there are probably fundamental differences in the psychology of a sentient, conscious being shaped by historical and cultural contexts non-humans can't understand.

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u/Ppleater 7h ago

It's not a nonsense word, you just don't understand it and assume that means it must be nonsense. The word isn't the problem, it's you.

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u/rcknmrty4evr 6h ago

Yeah waaay too many people confuse their ignorance and naivety with enlightenment.

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u/eternali17 7h ago

There is still a difference and that difference is relevant to the word..

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u/FattyWantCake 9h ago

That's a category error. It's like saying because boats are vehicles, all vehicles float.

Just because we're animals doesn't mean all animals experience the world/life the same way.

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u/sharkattax 4h ago

anthropomorphizing means attributing human characteristics to nonhuman things. what did you think it meant ?

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u/Lopsided_Photo_9389 19m ago

the point is that people like to assume that animals, dogs especially, understand the world in a same way we are. this can be harmful to the animals. like if you cuddle with your dog when it's scared - in your mind, you're soothing a dog like you would your human friend or a kid. but the dog sees "oh the human is making a big deal out of this, there's probably a good reason to be scared!", and now you created a fear in your dog, because you anthropomorphized him. congratulations. lot of situations like that.

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u/Bad-dee-ess 8h ago

We literally anthropomorphized dogs by evolving them along with us!

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u/Mattarm51 9h ago

Have you considered using words like "pupper" and "doggo", and joking that your dog has 1 braincell has encouraged you to consider intelligence to be a human trait and not one of the natural world.