Yea, you can not really predict the future, if you can not imagine. And without it being able to predict the future, a dog would never be able to be trained.
So, any animal that you can teach something through potential treat must be able to imagine, I would assume.
When my dog brings me a ball, drops it in front of me, pushes it towards me with his nose, and stares at it, I’m pretty sure he imagining me throwing it.
When I pick the ball up and he gets in a “ready to chase” posture, or alternatively runs to the other side of the room in preparation for catching it, I know he’s imagining me throwing it.
I can’t imagine that other animals don’t have imagination. I mean, many of them have dreams. Are dreams not imagination running on autopilot?
Yea, you can not really predict the future, if you can not imagine. And without it being able to predict the future, a dog would never be able to be trained.
So, any animal that you can teach something through potential treat must be able to imagine, I would assume.
When my dog brings me a ball, drops it in front of me, pushes it towards me with his nose, and stares at it, I’m pretty sure he imagining me throwing it.
When I pick the ball up and he gets in a “ready to chase” posture, or alternatively runs to the other side of the room in preparation for catching it, I know he’s imagining me throwing it.
Read the article, the headline isn’t great. This is about playing pretend with imagined objects.