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Do animals have types?

pure_mercury

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Feb 28, 2008
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Of course animals have types. Haven't you ever debated philosophy with bear or politics with a camel before?

Yes, one time in college. Someone made me some mushrooms to eat, but they were really undercooked and tasted pretty bad. Got stuck in my teeth a lot., too Let me tell you: camels are sharper than you'd think, and they have great taste in music. Or maybe it's just the purple ones with the melty faces. I was disappointed by the camel's hawkishness on the war, but I imagine he's been jaded on diplomacy by seeing years of seemingly endless violence in the Middle East.
 

arcticangel02

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From a vague recollection of a discussion on another thread a while back... Can it not be argued that animals can also be either intuitive/sensing?

Naturally, the definitions would be different, simpler, but why is it that some animals seem to have a 'sixth sense' and just 'know' things? Could that be a version of intuition?

Oh, and my giant cat is such an ISFP. ;)
 

Domino

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I swear, my cat Peaches is an ISTJ. My dog was an ISFJ, and so was my horse. We have only one intuitive animal and she's a dingaling. lol
 

arcticangel02

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I used to have a cat called Peaches! She may have even been an ISTJ, too. :D
 

Nonsensical

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that's what I've always though:

My Dog, Molly, is an ESFP, and I love her soo much :)

My cat, TinkerBell is an ENTJ, he's a cute cat

My other cat, Noel is an INTJ, and I don't see much of him, he's usually off hunting..

But yes, that's what I have always imagined, well, I've always thought that everything, even objects, have personalities, and humans are just to impatient to see..
 

Snail

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I have a pet parrot who acts sort of like an ENFJ and an INTPish ferret. Do animals have MBTI types? They have brains just like people, so I would think that they would; then again, their minds work differently. Or perhaps the smarter creatures have types(I can hardly picture typing a snail or a housefly). What do you think?

Snail = INFP

Seriously though, my old neighbor had one dog that was INFP and another that was ESTP, and I was certain of it. When he used the same methods to discipline both, the INFP dog was traumatized and the ESTP dog ignored it. The INFP dog was very sensitive and needed a lot of validation. It didn't always follow the rules despite its desire to please, and seemed to be lost in daydreams half of the time. The ESTP dog was so fearless that he jumped off of a second-story deck just for fun. He never obeyed a single command and no amount of yelling, scolding, rolled up newspapers or shock collars would phase him. He lived for adventure and liked to get in fights with other dogs.
 

6sticks

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Indian Rhinoceros:
Wikipedia said:
This prehistoric-looking rhinoceros has thick, silver-brown skin which becomes pinkish near the large skin folds that cover its body. Males develop thick neck-folds. Its upper legs and shoulders are covered in wart-like bumps. It has very little body hair, aside from eyelashes, ear-fringes and tail-brush.

...

Dominant males tolerate males passing through their territory except when they are in mating season, when dangerous fights break out. They are active at night and early morning. They spend the middle of the day wallowing in lakes, rivers, ponds, and puddles to cool down. They are extremely good swimmers.

...

At least ten distinct vocalizations have been identified: snorting, honking, bleating, roaring, squeak-panting, moo-grunting, shrieking, groaning, rumbling and humphing. In addition to noises, the rhino uses olfactory communication. Adult males urinate backwards, as far as 3–4 meters behind them, often in response to being disturbed by observers.

...

Rhinos will playfully spar, run around, and play with twigs in their mouth. Adult males are the primary instigators in fights. Fights between dominant males are the most common cause of rhino mortality, and males are also very aggressive toward females during courtship. Males will chase females over long distances and even attack them face-to-face.
These ISTP descriptions are getting out of hand.
 

Mole

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Animals aren't even conscious - we project our consciousness onto them.

We project our consciousness onto Mickey Mouse even though we know he is not conscious - he just looks conscious. In the same way, we project our consciousness onto our pets because they just look conscious.

So how natural for us to project our personalities onto our pets.

And we reach the height of absurdity when we assign personality types to animals.

As far as I know, no psychometrician would even dream of writing a personality test for an animal.
 

Leysing

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Of course, animals can't be typed by means of MBTI because of the possible lack of consciousness. (This depends on the species, though. Chimps are considered conscious. And we are animals as well.)

Ivan Pavlov, however, noticed that dogs do have different temperaments.
The dog temperaments
 

Hang

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I've always been say that animals have types.

Besides what religion tells us, I think they do have souls too. Ever looked into their eyes? When it looks like they are sort of crying and trying to tell us something. I think animals are just as complex as humans are.

Pet fish: ISFJ
My friend's cat: INTP
Brother's dog: INFP & INFP
The guard dog: ESTP
Friend's dog: ENTJ
Hamsters: ENTP & INFJ

Just listing the animals I know.
 

mlittrell

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I have a pesonal belief that dogs and higher developed animals (monkeys dolphins ?) also do. Dogs moreso then any other animal. This would be because the amount of interaction and the symbiotic relationship dogs have with humans. It is quite easy to type dogs using the temperaments. Also certain breeds tend to be certain types more often. Example. Guard dogs. What type is a gaurdian, the SJ. Then you have your hunting dogs...SP's. Etc. There is a type of dog for each temperament. The guardians (SJ) the hunter gatherer (SP) the philosopher (NT) and the prophet (NF).
 

VanillaCat

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Hmm.

My black hamster: ENFP, He licks me all the time but he doesn't let me grab him. Once held though, he's pretty friendly. He also doesn't seem to understand how to get thorough obstacles at times. He'll just push things around until something happens. Very curious little thing too.

Beige hamster: ESTP, is usually fighting with my black hamster. Knows how to get over the bars and stuff and loves to run in her ball.

LOL, I'm only guessing though...
 

mlittrell

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Of course, animals can't be typed by means of MBTI because of the possible lack of consciousness. (This depends on the species, though. Chimps are considered conscious. And we are animals as well.)

Ivan Pavlov, however, noticed that dogs do have different temperaments.
The dog temperaments

as far as dogs having different temperaments...i would 100% agree
 

Eric B

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Pavlov was using the old temperament theory, which seems to correspond more with what in 16types theory would be the Interaction Styles. Passivity would be E/I; Extremeness would be directing/informing, but of course, not literally in the "communication" sense, but rather the "responsiveness", which is another name for that factor. The conative grouping (SJ/SP/NF/NF) is what dogs would not have. So they can have the four basic temperaments, but not 16 types.

Also, many have made a distinction between what they call "soulish" animals, which would be the ones more like us. The mammals I know; and I forget where the line is drawn, but bugs and lower stuff like that would be outside of that category. Probably any animal that seems to have emotions.
 

mlittrell

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My thought is that maybe dogs, because they have an almost symbiotic relationship with man, would mimick and pick up on human emotion. Dogs look to humans for help. I saw a documentary with dogs and wolves once and to cut to the point, the dogs would look to humans for help when in need while wolves would try to solve the problem themselves.

Interesting stuff.
 

Pionart

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I would say that mammals in general probably have types in the 16-type/Jungian sense. I don't know about other animals.

One thing I wonder is if dogs of a specific breed tend to all/mostly be of the same/only a few types. (just noticed the first post on this page mentions this)

--

An interesting thing I observed once was that there was a flock of ducks near me, and I as I was getting closer, all the ducks moved away, except for one.

Also, there is the occassional fly that seems to crawl onto you and let you play with it.

What I think, is that separately from Jungian type, some animals are in a sense "special".

(one possible explanation is that by the reincarnation theory, these animals may have previously been human)
 
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