How do dogs know what guns are?

[brassnuts]

Yesterday I bought a Sig P220. It's stainless steel two-tone, nice looking gun. Anyways, I took it out of its case today, and my dog immediately cowered. I didn't even point it at her, but I motioned toward her with it in a questioning manner and she ran away. She's never seen or heard a gun. How would she know what it does?

[ThaSaltCracka]

I think dogs may have some sort of sense which just knows that the item may harm them. I mean, dogs and other animals act funny before an earthquake comes so clearly they have some other senses we don't.

[wacki]

TV?

[whiskeytown]

it's probably not the gun, it's the action...

take your finger and point it like you're pointing a gun....I think a lot of dogs are used to that motion as meaning "bad dog" and reacting that way.

RB

[A_C_Slater]

recyclical carnation memory?

Maybe dogs have more sustained memory of previous lives and incarnations. If so, he might have been around many guns in his past life as hunting dog/and or killed/maimed by a gun when police or war dogging for an ancient roman army?

And don't say it's not possible.

[miajag81]

[ QUOTE ]
recyclical carnation memory?

Maybe dogs have more sustained memory of previous lives and incarnations. If so, he might have been around many guns in his past life as hunting dog/and or killed/maimed by a gun when police or war dogging for an ancient roman army?

And don't say it's not possible.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah those Carthaginians had some pretty impressive firearms. Wonder how the Romans beat them?

[M2d]

Grand Tourismo and other video games. I don't think dogs feared guns until nintendo duck hunt came out. it's been getting worse and worse ever since.

[A_C_Slater]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
recyclical carnation memory?

Maybe dogs have more sustained memory of previous lives and incarnations. If so, he might have been around many guns in his past life as hunting dog/and or killed/maimed by a gun when police or war dogging for an ancient roman army?

And don't say it's not possible.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah those Carthaginians had some pretty impressive firearms. Wonder how the Romans beat them?

[/ QUOTE ]


Oops. I meant to say Napoleonic army. Actually the Turks took Constantinople when it was part of the Western Roman Empire with gunpowder.

[CallMeIshmael]

[ QUOTE ]
I think dogs may have some sort of sense which just knows that the item may harm them. I mean, dogs and other animals act funny before an earthquake comes so clearly they have some other senses we don't.

[/ QUOTE ]

I dont know the answer... but I would assume that this is almost certainly not it.

A sense that differs from humans (ie. dogs can hear sound at different frequencies than us) can be explained by evolutionary pressures.

There are no such pressures on a dog to be afraid of a gun. Thus, it is almost certainly some sort of a learned and not innate behaviour.

[gorie]

you let your dog watch too many violent shows on tv.

either that or blame one of the ghosts in your house.

[CallMeIshmael]

[ QUOTE ]
Yesterday I bought a Sig P220.

[/ QUOTE ]

Off topic, but... may I ask why you want a gun?

I just cant understand the need for a person to own a gun.


(FWIW... I am not american)

[A_C_Slater]

I am not American


Then you will never understand.

Americans must have guns

They just do.

[Scotch78]

My money is on firecrackers. Your dog has probably smelled gunpowder at some point, and if you also bought any bullets or if the gun had ever been fired before, she should be able to identify the gunpowder smell.

Scott

[brassnuts]

[ QUOTE ]
Off topic, but... may I ask why you want a gun?

I just cant understand the need for a person to own a gun.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not a die hard "Give me my gun or give me death!" American, but I like guns because it's fun to shoot stuff. I hope to God that I never have to fire it at anybody.

[AncientPC]

Because it's fun to shoot stuff.

I don't own a gun nor go hunting, but I've gone to the shooting range with my friends and it's fun.

[A_C_Slater]

Let's not sugarcoat the issue here.

I mean really, let's keep it real.

Americans just like to shoot and kill things indiscriminately and for no real reason.

That's just the way we are.

For real.

An American male that doesn't own a gun is like a European male that doesn't have a dick. You're just not a man without one. Gun/Dick what's the difference, really?

[i wanna be me]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't think dogs feared guns until nintendo duck hunt came out.

[/ QUOTE ]

but i thought the dog got all happy when he had a duck to go collect?

[jokerthief]

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I don't think dogs feared guns until nintendo duck hunt came out.

[/ QUOTE ]

but i thought the dog got all happy when he had a duck to go collect?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah but when he would laugh at me after I missed, I would pop a few caps in his ass. Take that Bitch!

[Matty]

Clearly you need to experiment more. Point a fake gun at her. Then a drill.

Maybe you got an erection when you opened your new phallus. I'd run too.

[Wozza]

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Americans just like to shoot and kill things indiscriminately and for no real reason.


[/ QUOTE ]

Precisely the reason most civilised countries use America as a good example of how not to behave...