Several years ago, a team of researchers from France did an interesting experiment with 9 dogs. They wanted to see if dogs could recognize the faces of their own species. They saw 144 pairs of photos drawn randomly from the two different pools - one was a pool of images of 3000 different dogs - purebred and mixed breeds - the other was a pool of images of 3000 other animals and people.
The dogs were rewarded for indicating the dog in the pair. And despite the huge diversity in the photos of the dogs that they saw, the dogs in the experiment consistently recognized and selected the photos of the dogs - they knew which photo in the pair was a dog.
They didn't care what the other dogs looked like. They recognized one of their own. Short hair, long hair, white dogs, brown dogs, dogs with floppy ears, dogs with bat ears, dogs with narrow muzzles, dogs with pug-like faces....they were all dogs. Underneath it all - we are all the same. The dogs didn't show prejudice or ignore certain dogs, based on the way they looked. And their reactions were all the same.
Given the horrible events last week in the US...perhaps humans could take a lesson from us dogs...remember underneath it all - you are all the same...
And while I realize this analogy is simplistic - remember - I'm just a dog...
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