The Dog Thread

[LFC]

[goldenvalley]

[AnBr]

[RichTBikkies]

May 29, 2021 21:52:29 GMT AnBr said:

That's a Corgi, isn't it? Loathsome little beast! Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother popularised them in the UK. IMO a crime against humanity.

[goldenvalley]

The tale of Max the dachshund and his cicada addiction treatment.    I considering adding this to the cicada discussion but this is so clearly stupid dog behavior.

My name is Max, and I’m a 13-month-old dachshund who loves to eat cicadas. And I’m not picky.

I eat cicadas that are alive with fluttering wings, dead cicadas that are stiff and dried-out, partially molted cicadas frozen in their exoskeletons, and I especially enjoy eating moist cicada nymphs fresh out of the ground.

I can even slurp cicada larvae from their tunnels in the ground faster than my owner can slurp spaghetti noodles off his dinner plate. Mmm.

Some of you may know that cicadas are an excellent food source, high in protein and low in fat, but sometimes their wings irritate my tummy.

When I get sick, it usually happens in the middle of the night after a long day of feasting. My owner always wakes up and rushes me into the bathroom. He must prefer to have my partially-digested cicada carcasses splatter on a tile floor instead of the deep pile carpet. I can’t imagine why.

[AnBr]

[goldenvalley]

Dogs at the site of the collapsed condo in Florida. They are brought in to help the people digging through the rubble...not to search for bodies, but just to be the best friends that dogs can be.  I note no one brings in cats!

[AnBr]

Because cats know better.

[andydp]

[AnBr]

.

Attachments:

[LFC]

The joys of WFH when you own a dog.

[goldenvalley]

The dog was cooperative...he moved to a blank spot on the chyron.

[AnBr]

.

Attachments:

[goldenvalley]

Just what we need...a phone call from our dogs.

Away from home, dog owners can use technology to talk to their pets, track their every movement, launch projectile treats into the air and even spy on them while they’re sleeping.

Dogs themselves can’t do much more than watch longingly out the window. Maybe that’s why the possibility of a “DogPhone” briefly entranced the media world. Who wouldn’t want to take that call?

But the new research that inspired those stories, led by Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas, an assistant professor at the University of Glasgow, was mostly aspirational.

The study only involved one dog. The device was not an actual phone nor is anything of the kind close to market. And the results were, at best, inconclusive.
Using a ball equipped with a motion-detecting device that triggers video calling, Dr. Hirskyj-Douglas, whose specialty is animal-computer interaction, gave her 10-year-old Labrador retriever, Zack, the power to call her by just moving his toy.

Did Zack use the phone?

During the experiment, Zack called Dr. Hirskyj-Douglas about five times a day and more than 50 times in all. Almost all of the calls appeared to have been made by accident, the study said.

“Dog was playing with his pig and accidentally nudged the ball,” the record of one 30-second call reads.

“Dog called by accident (climbing onto sofa) and then went to sleep,” reads the next, lasting 16 seconds.

And in dozens of calls, the dog was asleep when he nudged the motion sensor into action. “Dog sleeping cuddling the ball.”

In the study’s final days, interactions with Zack were longer, and he called more often, whatever his intent.
During their video calls, Dr. Hirskyj-Douglas told Zack about her day and talked about upcoming dog park visits. He was especially engaged, she said, when she flipped her camera to show him the city that she was moving through, walking past buskers and commuting underground.

He was not always so engaged. “Dog rang me but was not interested in our call instead was checking for things in his bed,” Dr. Hirskyj-Douglas wrote of one call. “He was busy elsewhere.”

She noted that Zack never picked up when she called.

"You never write.  You never call!"

[goldenvalley]

[AnBr]

[goldenvalley]

[AnBr]

I have a friend that had a dog that did that with me every time I came over. He said that I was the only one that he would get so excited to see.

[goldenvalley]

Because I'm avoiding work:

[LFC]

This takes "blaming the dog" to a whole new level.

A DUI suspect in Colorado tried unsuccessfully to pin the rap on his dog, according to police in eastern Colorado.

Cops in Springfield, Colo., wrote on Facebook that the attempted switcheroo happened around 11:30 p.m. Saturday when officers pulled over a vehicle driving 52 mph in a 30 mph zone.

“The driver attempted to switch places with his dog who was in the passenger seat, as the SPD officer approached and watched the entire process,” law enforcement officials said Sunday. “The male party then exited the passenger side of the vehicle and claimed he was not driving.”

When police asked the suspect if he’d consumed alcohol, he ran away, abandoning both vehicle and pooch. He was caught about 60 feet from where the incident began.

Charges against the unidentified driver, who allegedly had outstanding warrants, include suspicion of DUI and resisting arrest.

“The dog was given to an acquaintance of the driver to take care of while the party was in jail,” police said. “The dog does not face any charges and was let go with just a warning.”

[AnBr]