----- Original Message -----
From: James M. Maloney
To: M-DogSIG@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2004 4:51 PM
Subject: [M-DogSIG] A nordic dog's instincts?








This is Smokey. I was present at his birth in 1992 and at his death in 2003.



During his life, he had an experience that made me think about the possibility
of "inherited" learned behavior, about neuropeptides, and about some of Jack
London's characters (not necessarily in that order).



Smokey's mother was an adopted Siberian Husky. His father was a pedigreed
Siberian Husky.



As far as I know, Smokey never had an experience with thin ice or falling into
cold water during the 11 years of his life.



At his home on Long Island, Smokey had use of a Johnson Pet-Door, a device with
rubber flaps that allows dogs free ingress and egress. The door was mounted in
a window frame. Outside the window was a small enclosed structure on an
elevated platform, from which led a long ramp down to the ground. Inside was a
platform four feet wide by eight felt long, with stairs leading down to the
floor. The platform was originally made of unfinished plywood, but one day I
decided to paint it.



The platform needed a primer before I could paint it. The primer was smooth
white. I kept Smokey out of the room and blocked his ingress to the Pet-Door
until the paint was dry and the room well ventilated. Then I let him in through
the Pet-Door.



When he reached the edge of the smooth white surface, he refused to go any
further. He would not step out onto it. I had to take him in and out the long
way for a few days until I had painted over the primer with a color. After that
he was fine, and would walk over the platform again without hesitation.


Why would this Nordic dog be afraid to walk out onto a smooth white surface?
The only plausible explanation was an instinctive fear of falling through the
ice into frigid water. Yet he apparently had never had such an experience,
which suggests a rather complex inherited behavior pattern.



How could such a thing be mediated? Well, the brain is not only a complex set
of circuitry; it is also a complex set of chemistry. Chains of amino acids
called neuropeptides have been identified. They have very specific "messenger"
capacities. The first one to be isolated was called scotophobin, from the Greek
roots for "darkness" and "fear." It was discovered after scientist trained
rats, which are ordinarily nocturnal, to be afraid of the dark, and then
injected extracts form the dark-fearing rats' brains into the brains of ordinary
rats. Eventually a chain of amino acids was isolated that was found to have the
very specific effect of triggering fear of the dark in rat brains.



An inherited fear of smooth white surfaces would likely be mediated by a
neuropeptide: let's call it leukosurfactophobin, for "fear of white surfaces."
In the cold northland of Jack London's stories, dogs and wolves with brains that
produced leukosurfactophobin would have an evolutionary advantage: they'd be
less likely to freeze to death by falling through thin ice!



Well, that's my hypothesis. I'm sure Mensa SIG will be a good place to float it
(pun intended).



Jim Maloney

www.cybersextant.com



M-DOG SIG
an international Mensa SIG
in formation


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