From a science survey:

In a new, year-long University of Pennsylvania survey of dog owners who use confrontational or aversive methods to train aggressive pets, veterinary researchers have found that most of these animals will continue to be aggressive unless training techniques are modified.

The study, published in the current issue of Applied Animal Behavior Science, also showed that using non-aversive or neutral training methods such as additional exercise or rewards elicited very few aggressive responses.

From a Christian survey:

Women are prouder than men, but men are more lustful, according to a Vatican report which states that the two sexes sin differently.

A Catholic survey found that the most common sin for women was pride, while for men, the urge for food was only surpassed by the urge for sex. The report was based on a study of confessions carried out by Fr Roberto Busa, a 95-year-old Jesuit scholar.

The Pope’s personal theologian backed up the report in the Vatican newspaper.

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...

24 replies on “Dogs and Humans”

  1. is it really a surprise that if you are not using positive training methods your dog will turn out to be an asshole?
    nope. not surprised.

  5. I asked Charles what these articles had to do with each other, and he just smiled waved his fingers at me spookily.
    Then the waitress came and asked him if he’d like some more tea, and he said “When one butters the flower of a child’s truth (a proud moonrise), what is the nature of that mind? A thick polymer which weeps in the corner, clawing at the release valve.”
    I shook my head at the waitress and mouthed “no thank you.”

  6. @2: they are anonymous confessions, so no. priests are surveyed about the numbers of sins confessed by each sex, and no names are attached. how is that unethical?

  8. Would not the study also have to look at people who don’t take there dog in for behavior therapy. I am sure 100% feed their dog so why not correlate that as well.

    I am not saying beating your dog is a good thing, but to do good science you need to actually see if these types of training are more often found in dogs that are aggressive and if that relationship is causal.

  12. This is stupid. All it tells you is what Christians confess, as if there’s any truth value to that. This study is worthless as evidence for what men and women really want.

  13. The revised list included seven modern sins it said were becoming prevalent during an era of “unstoppable globalisation”.

    These included: genetic modification, experiments on the person, environmental pollution, taking or selling illegal drugs, social injustice, causing poverty and financial greed.

    I find the one on social injustice ironic.

  14. To be more specific: it would be more seemly for a Christian woman to confess to pride than to lust or gluttony. And a Christian man is likely sensitized to the “sin” of his lust, but less likely to recognize excessive pride, which is more acceptable in men.

    These people’s “sins” reveal more about their socialization, and what is acceptable to admit, than about who they really are.

  16. Pride and an urge for food and sex are sins? That partly explains why so many current and former Catholics have eating disorders. The church wants to warp our basic natural and positive traits so they can fill our minds with drivel from the gospels and the Vatican. They really want people to be disgusted with themselves. I guess they figure that once you buy transubstantiation you will swallow anything.

  19. I would have thought that the biggest sin would have been ignorance and magical thinking.

    in both cases.

    btw, Dakota, i think charles was putting you on but your own insecurities got the best of you again…

  23. Easy. Humans are by nature lustful proud and greedy; the dogs are naturally aggressive. Both techniques used to socialize them, namely, the abusive kennel and the Church attempt to sublimate these natural impulses in a way that has demonstrably failed. Presumably, the analogous situation to the ‘kind shelter’ is some more “benevolent” state-run institution. A few good names spring to mind: the Committee for Public Safety, the Ministry of Love….

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