The Domestication Project is the study of how the pets we have today became how they are. The Domestication Project had us learning about genetics like Mendelian squares and how genes are passed down, and how we began to make them the pets we have in our homes today.
My Project followed the studies of how my pets reacted with each other in a household. I have two cats and two dogs and I wanted to find out why they sometimes got aggressive with each other. and so my studies started. almost every day for 15 minutes I would watch my cats and dogs near the food or in my living room, or even by the kitchen.
what I discovered is that my dogs caused 60% of observed events, 40% of which was caused by my female dog. the reason for these events transpiring is because cats and dogs have different ways of acting in situations. Dogs tend to rush in to a place to say hello or to discover an new smell. Dogs also have the need to focus on one thing. Cats on the other hand have a different way of surveying a situation, they tend to sit back and watch the situation as a whole. So cats and dogs don't fight out of hatred but out of a misunderstanding. when dogs and cats meet, dogs want to run up to them to say hello and the cats take that as a sign of aggression so they run away, and the dogs take that as a sign of play, so the dog chases after them, which then causes the stereotypical cat and dog tussle. the way to avoid this is to take your time introducing dogs to cats, unfortunately there is no other way for you to get you pet to get along other than pandering to the cat. what you will have to do is to take your dog into a room with no distractions, and just the cat. When your dog acts calm and doesn't lunge at the cat, you can give him a treat, but when the dog gets excited you have to take them out of the room and wait for them to calm down. eventually that dog will learn that being calm around a cat will get him rewards.
lastly the question I still have about my project is, why haven't more people known about this method of training your pets, and how can I get this knowledge to be shared with pet owners around the world?
My Project followed the studies of how my pets reacted with each other in a household. I have two cats and two dogs and I wanted to find out why they sometimes got aggressive with each other. and so my studies started. almost every day for 15 minutes I would watch my cats and dogs near the food or in my living room, or even by the kitchen.
what I discovered is that my dogs caused 60% of observed events, 40% of which was caused by my female dog. the reason for these events transpiring is because cats and dogs have different ways of acting in situations. Dogs tend to rush in to a place to say hello or to discover an new smell. Dogs also have the need to focus on one thing. Cats on the other hand have a different way of surveying a situation, they tend to sit back and watch the situation as a whole. So cats and dogs don't fight out of hatred but out of a misunderstanding. when dogs and cats meet, dogs want to run up to them to say hello and the cats take that as a sign of aggression so they run away, and the dogs take that as a sign of play, so the dog chases after them, which then causes the stereotypical cat and dog tussle. the way to avoid this is to take your time introducing dogs to cats, unfortunately there is no other way for you to get you pet to get along other than pandering to the cat. what you will have to do is to take your dog into a room with no distractions, and just the cat. When your dog acts calm and doesn't lunge at the cat, you can give him a treat, but when the dog gets excited you have to take them out of the room and wait for them to calm down. eventually that dog will learn that being calm around a cat will get him rewards.
lastly the question I still have about my project is, why haven't more people known about this method of training your pets, and how can I get this knowledge to be shared with pet owners around the world?