Konrad Lorenz, one of the fathers of ethology and the first to speak about the “feelings” of dogs

throughout history, There weren’t many who devoted themselves to researching animal behavior. In fact, when Charles Darwin publish his book Expression of emotions in humans and animals In 1872, many strangers who asked what feelings a animal.

Fortunately, Darwin was not the only one who wanted to understand animals more: the world of physiology Ivan Petrovich Pavlov and zoology Konrad Lorenz They are today two pioneering personalities who taught us the foundations of what we know today in terms of animal behavior this means.

In fact, the two researchers advocated the same ideals but Show the world different theories But these, in a way, together form the foundations of the science we know today as animal behaviour.

Lorenz’s relationship with dogs

A few years after Pavlov, Konrad Lorenz (1903-1973) was a zoologist, ethologist and ornithologist, who studied animal instincts, especially the common geese and the western crow. He is considered one of the founders of modern ethology, the study of animal behavior. In fact, he shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1973 with behavioral scientists Nicholas Tinbergen and Karl von Frisch for their discoveries in individual and social behavior patterns.

Among his findings, highlights imprint principle It is the process by which some non-cow birds (i.e. birds that leave their nest early) instinctively bond with the first moving object they see within the first few hours of hatching.

These investigations are known to Lorenz in the world of behavioral science, but the truth is that The ethicist was a pioneer in terms of methods of experimentation, Since he was determined to change the method of scientific study of animal behavior (moving from experimental to observational methods).

See also  They managed to establish a health center for the care of monkeypox - Al-Diario

Thanks to Konrad’s observational methods, we today understand the behavior of other species as we immerse ourselves in their environment, and see how they perceive it, how they relate … and why, in his research work, “Lorenz starts from lower animals to reach man, who is unconcerned about applying conclusions drawn from his constant observation of the animal kingdom.in the same way that he has never before shown any hesitation in applying all those complex concepts of the soul, which are traditionally a special and exclusive characteristic of man over an animal”, in his work When The Man Met The Dog (1984).

The ethicist, in this new summary of his research, is dedicated to Observe the actions and reactions of their animals, Including dogs, then list their results.

Talking about the psychology of the animal, its desires, desires, fears, inhibitions and oppression, Lorenz is exposed in the anthropomorphism that some of his critics scold him. In his work, he says, “Anyone who has lived with a dog and is not convinced that dogs have feelings like us is a psychopath and even dangerous.”

In his studies and in that embodiment that distinguished them, he said, Today many theories of behavior in dogs are based onSuch as ancient domination theory (already obsolete) or operant conditioning.