Tapping Other Intelligence

[metalikhan]

How many of you have pets that sometimes exhibit intelligence beyond what's normally considered the intelligence of their respective species (such as canine, feline, equine, etc.)?

I'm not just talking about their ability to do things we train them to do. I'm also thinking about ways they strive to communicate their wishes and how they figure things out for themselves. On the one hand, you could argue these are just aspects of instinct that people don't usually notice; but what do you make of, say, a dog or cat that figures out how to do something or make an aid for achieving what it wants. Or the one that takes some aspect of training to another level without being taught? Or figures some way to express its personality or emotions (displeasure, tattling, humor, conning, impatience, etc) clearly enough to communicate with us but in ways uncharacteristic for its species?

I'll limit examples to three lest this turn into a long shaggy dog tale. One dog couldn't reach the kitchen counter where I was cooling grilled chicken breasts. No problem. She pulled drawers far enough out of the lower cabinets to make a stairway to the counter — not something I ever taught her!
Another time, her sister (a drama queen) failed in her attempts to flirt and schmooze treats from our plates. She threw herself down, kicked, screamed, banged her head on the floor. By then, we were laughing at her antics so she got up, stomped to her kennel, and sat with her nose in the corner huffing and grumbling, refusing to look at us. This was not any form of seizure — this was a tantrum.
One young girl-pup spent several weeks cataloging what she could and couldn't chew. Left black shoe, right black shoe, left tennis shoe, right tennis shoe, sock, sock, rug, left/ middle/right sofa cushion — never repeat-chewing what we said no to before giving her a dog toy to teach her the toy was her acceptable toy. Spool forward in time — she decides that if she wants something, the correct thing to do is offer us one of her things (gnawed cow hoof, slobbery rawhide knot, saliva-slimed tennis ball) in exchange. (Here's my half-chewed pig ear — can I have your toast?)

This goes beyond the Beastmaster, Dr Doolittle or anthropomorphic versions of understanding animal behavior. Studies on autism that have been applied to the studies of animal behavior fail to address these peculiarities. It also doesn't fit with New Age-ish ideas of animal communicators. It's said that humans only use a small percentage of their brains; but when I see animals exhibiting the kinds of oddities I mentioned (and more), I wonder what percentage of their brains have rarely been used (or at least observed). It makes me wonder what intelligence in those creatures God created to serve us might have been obscured from us when the Fall occurred.

I know that the question of animals in heaven has been discussed on another thread — I'm not repeating that. This is more a soft SF question. What I wonder is what ramifications might there be if the communications ability between our species and theirs was less difficult? What applications might be enhanced if we could access their intelligence beyond the current companionship and service levels?

[tris]

I've always thought there was more to animal/human communication than what we typically see. We tend to think only the serpent in Eden could communicate, but I really don't see that. What if all animals could and after the fall WE lost something?

Our family consistently raises cats, all colors, breeds, etc. We've got one geriatric male tomcat that can communicate without a sound. He seldom meows at all. And if he had thumbs, he'd open his own door, thank you very much! We've seen him stretched against the door with his paw on the knob trying to open the door.

And he knows that lamps turn on somehow with a touch. One reason we don't have those touch sensitive lamps is because he'd turn our bedside lamp on before we're ready to get up. We watched him attempt to paw on the lamp one morning when we slept late.

There are just too many cases in history when animals went beyond what we can classify as "instinct" to dismiss the possibility you bring up. One interesting observation we noted while living overseas.....dogs reflect their culture. Ecuadorian dogs act like Ecuadorians. They don't act like their counterparts in the USA and you can't treat them like you would dogs here. We've been in a lot of different countries and the dogs are all different.

On the other hand, cats are cats no matter where you go and they'll respond as easily to 'kitty, kitty," as they do to the local variation. Sometimes I think cats are aliens.

[Spokane Flyboy]

I've had a dog that could sit on the bow of our boat and dive in to catch fish, and he would open round door handles with his paws. I had another another dog that would come sidelong against my knees and stop me if there was a moose or bear nearby.

[JenLenaMom]

My husband's grandmother had a beautiful boxer, named Sarge. One afternoon she was cleaning her little parakeet's cage and the bird got out and flew onto the road. This is a VERY small little country town and it was a one lane road so there was no danger of it getting run over, but she was in her 60's and ill so there was no way she was going to be able to catch it. She said, "Oh, Sarge my bird flew away." He went out to the road, gently picked the bird up in his mouth, brought it back into the yard and set it down by the fence. It started hopping along the fence and she said, "Sarge I still can't catch it." He went over and carefully put his paw on its wing, keeping it still until she could come over and pick it up.

The day we had her funeral he sat on the porch of the church during the whole thing (they lived right across the road).

[tris]

Uncanny, isn't it? There's a lot more going on there than we're aware of. Maybe it's a protection for the animals. Can you imagine the abuse if they really could communicate with humans?

[myrthman]

I've not experienced anything of this magnitude, but I've heard multiple accounts of animals, particularly dogs, being aware of an impending heart attack or epileptic seizure. They make a sound or gesture to tell their owner to sit or lay down just before the event so the person doesn't suffer fall related injuries. To my knowledge, this can't possibly be trained in an animal. I wonder if God put those instincts there to enable an early warning system for us. The other possibilities are wonderful!

[metalikhan]

Some of that ability is because dogs' noses are so sensitive, their sense of smell so powerful, that they can detect the minute chemical changes occuring in a person having an imminent stroke or epileptic seizure. I've also heard about the dogs who can detect seriously high or low blood glucose levels in diabetics.

There's a lady in our city who trains service dogs. One thing I've seen her do is teach Standard Poodles how to open automatic push-button doors at the libraries and other businesses. There are also the handlers who've trained beagles for detecting termites. I worked with a young Sheltie that I was able to teach how to count to four before she went to her new home.

A few years ago, I read an article about training cats to act as "hearing ear" assistants for the deaf. Yes, they can be trained. I saw a demonstration by the Friskies people at a cat show and tried the techniques on my cat. It took double the time that training a dog to do the same task takes. It was not, I think, because she was slow witted but because she had to learn how to learn in a way not compatible with the way her brain naturally worked.

I've wondered why no one has attempted training braces or teams of smaller dogs for S&R, such as in earthquake-damaged areas. They would be able to get into places the larger dogs can't; and a team could cover more area than an individual dog. Terriers in particular could be valuable in such a scenario since most of them were bred for seeking and hunting in the burrows of vermin. If there were still dachshunds bred for hunting rather than companionship, they would be another potential candidate.

Likewise, law enforcement could conduct a building search quickly with a team of small dogs backed up by a larger breed. Imagine a swarm of schnauzers or Manchesters or JRTs converging on some miscreant trying to hide; he thinks he'll just kick the stuffing out of these little pests and about that time one of the no-nonsense big boys shows up. The challenge would be either enhancing communication with the dogs or improving training techniques so the terriers do their job without going uncontrollably ballistic when their firecracker brains get lit in the excitement of the chase (especially the JRTs).

[waldenwriter]

Jul 29, 2009 16:58:11 GMT -5 tris said:

I've always thought there was more to animal/human communication than what we typically see. We tend to think only the serpent in Eden could communicate, but I really don't see that. What if all animals could and after the fall WE lost something?

I always figured the serpent could talk because Satan was using it as a vessel, but then again, we're never told for sure.

I could see the possibility that the animals could communicate with us, maybe not through words (since rational thought and thus speech seems to be solely a human trait) but through other means. After all, we were created to rule over the Earth as God's stewards; plus, Adam got to name all the animals.

I'm reminded of C.S. Lewis's sci-fi novel Perelandra, which essentially retells the story of the Fall, except that it's set on Venus and the Adam and Eve of this story (the Green Lady and the King) don't fall but instead succeed in resisting the temptation to sin. Or as Lewis so poignantly puts it:

"'The world is born to-day,' said Malacandra. 'To-day for the first time two creatures of the low worlds, two images of Maleldil that breathe and breed like the beasts, step up that step at which your parents fell, and sit in the throne of what was meant to be. It was never seen before....'" (Perelandra p. 197)

Anyway, the Green Lady (Lewis's Eve) shows a strong connection with the animals in her state of innocence, and many animals come to witness her and the King coming to their throne. Ransom, the book's main character, sees them and marvels: "'A regular Noah's Ark!' thought Ransom, and then, with sudden seriousness, 'But there will be no ark needed in this world'" (Perelandra p. 203). I think that this shows what we might have had with the animals had Adam and Eve not sinned.

***

In response to the original question, it would be interesting if we could communicate with animals more. One thing I did like about Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy was that in Lyra's world, everyone had a daemon, a visible, physical representation of one's soul, manifested as an animal. Different animals meant different things; like servants' ones were always dogs. One could communicate with your daemon as if it was your best friend. One's daemon was also always of the opposite gender as oneself (for instance, Lyra's daemon Pantalaimon was male), which supposedly would allow you to consider the viewpoints of both genders. That's just one way of communicating with animals, though, I guess, and maybe not the same thing.