Ah, who doesn't love a good bed? Anyone who has traveled knows the value (and rarity) of finding, Three Bears style, just the right bed. It appears that our dogs share the joy of a perfect sleeping place, and I thought it would be a useful discussion to ask all of you what your dogs like best. I won't suggest that I have any "perfect" answers. First off, there is no such thing, because surely dogs vary as much as people in what they like best. I remember once, while traveling for a sheep dog trial, putting a blanket I'd brought onto the bed and gleefully asking my dogs to jump up and sleep with me. They didn't get to do that at home and I assumed that both Luke and Lassie would be thrilled. (Okay, I was probably most excited of all of us.) Both dogs lept up onto the bed Read More
Archives for 2012
Dogs and People Both Achieve the Runner’s High
We're happy to introduce Karen London, Ph.D. as a guest blogger for The Other End of the Leash this week! Enjoy! If people go running by your home accompanied by their cats, geckos, ferrets, parrots, or rats, then you live in a very different neighborhood, perhaps even a different world, than I do. It’s just not part of our relationship with those species, however close we may be to them. Yet running is something that many of us share with our dogs, to the point that it’s almost cliché for people to swear that their dog is the best running partner they’ve ever had. There are so many reasons why people choose to run with their dogs beyond just knowing that their dogs need the exercise. Unlike most human running partners, dogs don’t ever have meetings that go late. They wouldn’t Read More
fMRI on Dogs: Too Wonderful!
When I was doing my PhD research in the 1980's I wanted to see how a dog's brain responded to different types of sounds before and after training. This was in the 1980's, and the only method available for animals was to do Evoked Potential tests, in which simple, tiny electrical sensors were glued to the scalp. This allowed one to measure activity in the brain in an extremely general way: What kind of brain waves does one see in the Temporal versus the Parietal lobe, for example, after hearing or seeing specific stimuli? Evoked Potential tests are logistically easy to do on adults: You shave tiny areas of the scalp, glue on the sensors, and ask the subject to stay still for a set period of time. The research subject mustn't move, because muscles move through electrical stimulation in Read More
Are Military Dogs “Equipment” or “Members”?
Here's a political issue I'm happy to discuss on the blog: The classification and treatment of dogs in the American Military. Dog lovers may or may not support the use of dogs in the military, but I can't imagine anyone not in support of working dogs being treated well after their service is over. We, in this country anyway, have all heard the horror stories of dogs in Viet Nam being abandoned or shot, and that just can't happen anymore. Ever. I know that things have improved, but pure and simply, not enough. A big part of the problem is that dogs are now categorized as "equipment" rather than the living, sentient beings that they are. This makes it difficult not only to transport dogs back home after their service, but almost impossible to release money to fund veterinary care for Read More
Preventing Dog Bites
A million years ago, my first Border Collie Drift lept up and nipped a man's nose at the Wisconsin State Fair. Even though the man was clearly not injured, with virtually not even a red spot on his nose, I was shook up and appalled. He was furious. "Your dog attacked me!" Well, he did. Just because the man wasn't injured didn't mean he didn't feel attacked. And it didn't mean that I didn't feel horrible. Drift and I were about to perform in front of huge crowd by doing a sheep herding demo, and found ourselves jammed into a crowd against the building wall. The gentlemen in question charged up to Drift, grabbed his face in his hands, and yes, you guessed it, bent down to kiss Drift on the nose. It was the same exact context in which newscaster Kyle Dyer was bitten by a Dogo a few months Read More
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