What does your dog do when you aren’t home? Sleep? Gaze out the window longing for the sexy little Lhaso across the street? Or, relevant to today’s post, does he wish he could call and talk to you wherever you are? Maybe a quick text?
That’s the premise of a study that NYT journalist Christine Chung told me about, (not the texting part!) in which a device was designed to let dogs call their owners and see them on a screen. You can read about it here, in an article titled “Forming the Dog Internet“. I’m stretching it by calling it a study, because it involved one dog, and one person. The bulk of the work, the real experiment I’d say, was done trying to create a device that would give a dog the ability to contact their owners, and see and hear them on a computer screen. The authors argued that although there are multiple devices that allow people to remotely keep track of their pets (Petchatz), or to keep the animals engaged while they are alone (Puppod), none of these devices truly give animals agency, or control over the communication. What if they want to contact their owner rather than wait for their owner to contact them? Don’t call me, I’ll call you?
The bulk of the article is what the authors went through to find a suitable device that would attract the dog and be usable as an interactive device. I give them credit; they spent a lot of time figuring out that a soft, squishy ball-like thing would be the best alternative (for this particular dog at least), and figuring out how to set its sensitivity so that just the right amount of movement, caused by the dog, would turn on the screen. What’s unclear is whether the dog actually learned to use the device, and as a trainer I was itching to give them feedback on how to train the dog to use it.
There are two threads here that we could follow; I’m happy to go down either one with you. First, the whole world of companion animal technology is one I personally know little about. Sorting out communication between three species (human, dog, and sheep) feels complicated enough for me. However, I am in thrall about all the work that’s been done with dogs interacting with computer screens (or ACI, Animal-Computer Interaction). Dr. Karen London in Bark magazine had an interesting article a few years ago about dog-computer interactions; here’s the study it was based on. So we know that dogs at least can respond to computer screens, but not that they necessarily understand who they are looking at if a picture of their owner appears. We know even less about how a dog feels if it sees and hears its owner talking through a screen.
That’s the second thread I want to go down. Not can our dogs use this kind of technology, but would it make them happy to do so? Would our dogs be happier if they hear us talking to them through a computer screen? I’m not so sure. I’m not saying they wouldn’t, or couldn’t, I just haven’t seen anything to convince me that dogs are happy to hear their owners voice if it’s disembodied from their body. My experience with dogs and phone calls is that most dogs ignore their owner’s voice on the phone. The others look interested, and then equally confused, if not distressed. I can just imagine some canine version of: Where is my human? What happened to them? What nightmare is this that I can hear them but they’re not here? After all, many people were afraid of telephones when they first came out, thinking they might make you deaf, or crazy, or that the world could listen in. (Not an unreasonable fear, since we all had party lines when I was young.) I wonder if hearing a voice without a real live body would be like a science fiction horror show to a dog.
On the other hand, I like the idea of giving dog’s agency. And perhaps there is a way that this could help dogs with separation anxiety? Surely we could teach dogs to associate our voice coming out of a machine with us, and find a way to make that soothing? Or interesting? And yet, the behaviorist in me thinks about all the dogs I’ve seen who got overstimulated when home alone because the squirrel/other dog/cat/bird/whatever drove them crazy when they watched them through the window. What made these dogs happiest was to settle down in a quiet corner and go to sleep. And so I wonder: Do interactive/remote toys also over stimulate dogs, or do they give them something to do to relieve the boredom? Would knowing they could “call” their owner help them settle down, or agitate them? You know that my answer to everything is “It depends,” so no doubt different dogs would react differently. But which dogs would it be good for, which not? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, my ears are pricked.
My dogs are lucky. They are never left more than five hours alone in the house (and that rarely now). We crate them because Skip and Maggie play rough enough that it makes me nervous leaving them out alone. They go into their crates cheerfully enough (thank you Greenies), and Skip often chooses to lie in his crate when we’re home. I’m not inclined to bother them when I’m gone, because I’m pretty darned sure they are sound asleep, and that feels like a good thing.
MEANWHILE, back on the farm: The novel is progressing! Fifteen chapters and a pretty thorough plot, although there are some loose ends to be tucked in. How does the protagonist know that X was the one who did Y? Why did the police arrest A instead of B? And where is the missing dog, anyway????? There’s months and months of work to go, most of the 15 chapters were written earlier, I’ve just been editing them down to the bone. (The most fun part of writing without question.) The next chapters, well over half the book, have to be written from scratch, always the hardest work for me. But I’m having a great time working on it, and I’m beginning to believe that I might actually pull something off that resembles a mystery novel. Wheeee!
Here are some photos from the farm: The fall color in the photo below is now long gone, this is from a few weeks ago. It was just before sunset when the sun was glowing on the trees above the field. Lovely.
But the skies were crazy blue (truly, it seemed unreal) this last weekend when I went up to check on the sheep. It’s the first weekend of gun season, so I had on my bright orange parka. The cones in the field (to help the dogs and I practice aiming for gates) fit right in.
I sat on the ground and just hung out for awhile (no dogs), which seemed to confuse the sheep. Eventually I couldn’t resist giving the dogs verbal cues (Walk Up, Come By), and then laughed as the sheep looked all around for the dogs, who, remember, weren’t there. You could just hear the internal ovine conversation: Do you see a dog? I don’t see a dog? Where is he? But I finally stopped teasing them and sat quietly for awhile, and they seemed as happy to loll in the sun as I was.
Did I mention I miss color in winter? Here are my Peter Max tulips, which are colorful enough in real life but I started playing with adjustments in Photo and came up with this. Fun what you can do with some grocery store tulips on top of your freezer in the pantry.
There not much color here, but I love these seeds and seed pods in my Japanese Anemones.
Maggie watched me out the window while I was wandering around with the camera. She’s perched on her favorite place, the arm of our living room couch. After loving how adorable she is (her new name is The Gal Gadot of Border Collies, because she is beautiful and off the chart athletic), I noticed how dirty the window is. Oh, whoops. I considered deleting the photo, but in the spirit of Dog Owner Full Disclosure, decided not to. I’m hoping you laugh like I did, rather than shake your head in disgust. Looks I’ll be cleaning the window soon.
Mr. Skip, aka Mr. Big, is responsible for all the nose marks on the window. He loves to look out the window. Here he is in the dining room, giving me his usual “What?” look.
Many of you will be reading this the week of Thanksgiving. I hope that, no matter your circumstances, you find a lot to be thankful for, no matter how small or fleeting. I’m overwhelmed with gratitude for so much of my life, and you, my thoughtful, respectful, and wise readers, are one of the things I’m grateful for. Lucky lucky me.
Please chime in with your thoughts about remote interactions with our dogs, cats, birds and . . . ? Can’t wait to hear what you think.
Kat says
I’m always fascinated with ways to allow our dogs to communicate with us in ways we more easily understand. The buttons dogs can push to tell their person what they need, K9 sign language, and now this. I’ve never used the buttons but I did teach Ranger a few words of K9 sign and it was fascinating how he used them. He labeled the cat he played with as toy and indicated he had no label for the other cat. He called his puzzles as food toy. It was fun seeing his mind at work. I don’t think he would have been interested in calling me when I wasn’t with him. He was an independent minded dog and as much as we were partners he was not dependent on me. D’Artagnan is much the same way. He has his own life that isn’t dependent on me being there. Finna on the other hand might have really liked being able to check in on me. I was her whole world.
I do wonder how much video means to dogs. I know there are some that show every indication that they are watching what happens on the TV but mine have never shown any interest it. D’Artagnan has done a few virtual Therapy Dog visits and he’s been more puzzled than anything. He did a series of virtual READ to the Dog visits this summer. After four visits he’d figured out that I liked it when he looked toward the screen when someone said his name. He recognized his name but coming out of the computer it was meaningless until he realized that I like it when he looks toward his name. In other words I don’t think he ever made the connection that it was a person calling him but only that he should look toward the sound. Maybe the next time I’m away from home I should set up a zoom call with him and see how he responds.
Gregory Lee says
That window is not dirty, that’s nose art, and it’s very special. I can’t bring myself to even consider cleaning a certain window, it has nose art from my girl that passed away last June. After thinking about it, when I sell my house next spring, I’m taking that window with me.
Charlotte Kasner says
I addition to everything mentioned, I worry that owners use technology as a substitute for providing dogs with the human contact and enrichment that they really need.
Dogs are weighed down with head collars and harnesses as a substitute for teaching loose lead walking. Dogs are left in crates for hours.
Such tools may be useful when dealing with serious aggression or monitoring and mitigating separation disorder but I suspect that they may be seen as a magic wand and create even more problems for dogs.
The farm looked stunning – dull fall here in the UK.
LisaW says
Like you, our dogs were never home alone for more than 4-5 hours, luckily for all of us. And in the past several years, not more than 1 or 2 hours, lucky for them, unlucky for us due to an early, health-related, “retirement” for my husband. My work has been remote for two years now and prior, I was a consultant so there has been someone around the majority of the time. I think our dogs have quietly hummed the little ditty: “How Can I Miss You When You Won’t Go Away” more than they longed for remote communication.
I hadn’t noticed the dirty window or Jim in the background on first glance. Our sliders were always covered in nose “prints.” And is that a bit of drool on Skip’s lower lip? Is he not a fan of the camera? Olive used to feel that way, but now if she sees a camera or phone, she sits right in front and awaits her photo shoot.
Exciting news on the writing/editing progress! Happy week of thanks to all for all we have to appreciate and acknowledge.
Carole says
That window is pristine compared to my front door…giant Brody has contributed nose prints and swirling strings of drool, which not only seem to dry in an instant, but also require a magic eraser to remove. It’s not his fault… that damn mail carrier and the Amazon delivery driver must be chased away often. It is clearly only Brody’s vigilance that keeps them from coming into the house and dog-napping Jax, Dusty, and Baxter (and possibly Cullen the cat too). As for the interactive tech, at least for my dogs, I believe it would be meaningless. I have cameras, through which I can speak, set up to check on them when I’m not home. Every time I’ve looked in, they were all sleeping. The few times I have spoken to them through the camera, their only reaction was to look around, shrug, then go back to their naps. I’ve had two dogs who paid attention to the TV. Marcia the Borzoi would stare so attentively at the screen that you’d swear she was following the plot line of the show. Wyatt the Rottweiler was mesmerized by dogs or horses on the screen. Once, when he heard puppies on the computer, he spent a ridiculous amount of time checking the back of the laptop trying to find them.
Amy says
This is so much anzo on so many levels, I am THRILLED to start my day with this brain chocolate! I kind of am surprised I didn’t think of the idea to test the concept of ‘dog-calls-human’ myself because interspecies communication fascinates me (maybe because I don’t live with a dog).
Years ago, I was curious if our two house rabbits had any perception of screen imagery. We had recently been cat-sitting and the two felines seemed to like watching their video of gerbils running around and birds at feeders. The timing of the season was perfect to put the Decorah eagles livestream on my laptop. I set it in the floor near the buns, with eagle mama clearly onscreen. As predicted, no response from either rabbit. Given their sense of vision, I was not surprised. I believe it takes something physical shapeshifting in their actual environments to signal threat. (Or sudden or strange noises. And sometimes, novel smells.) I will say, as conclusion to my ‘study’ I left the result open to interpretation: rabbits do not perceive screen imagery -or- they are too smart to be fooled by a virtual eagle 🙂 “Mom, we know that’s just onscreen, duh.”
I, too, have mixed feelings about this dog idea… agency vs. annoyance/anxiety-provoking?? And I appreciate Kat’s story above. What is meaningful communication to a species? And I, too, worry the screen/tech substitutions that reduce actual interactions (for all species). And! Yes to the nose art :o)
(Trisha, I am including my website address in the field here because if you ever take a look at mine, I’d be so honored. It’s my covid-era passion project. Still growing and shifting into what it might be.)
Beth says
You mentioned something that peaked my interest.
You mentioned “over stimulation “ I recently had a problem with one of my dogs having an anxiety attack on the way home from a show. He has been riding in the van inside his crate since he was a pup and although he has never liked car rides, he has never had an anxiety attack. This worries me very much and I am now trying to figure out how to prevent this from happening again.
Maybe I will try covering the crate.
Terrie says
I have a pet cam that allows me to talk to my dog. I never, ever use that feature. My dog is very, very confused and distressed by being able to hear, but not see, me. I even have to be careful about calling him from another room if he doesn’t know where I am. This might work for some dogs, with some training, but all it would do for my guy is upset him.
Melissa says
Interesting questions, and I guess because of my most recent experiences, my mind goes to that. Yesterday my elderly dog was at the vet for a dental. I always feel bad having my dogs go under a general. We can’t explain to them what to expect. I went to pick my dog up once he’d properly woken up, and when I greeted the receptionist and said my dog’s name, my dog started whining loudly from the kennel he’d been recovering in out of sight. So, while he has in general been a dog that was more confused than anything when we have tried to Skype with him when one of us was away from home, I wonder if there is a role this kind of thing could play for dogs that have been separated from their owners and are also themselves in unfamiliar surroundings. Would it help them to hear a familiar voice in such circumstances?
Disembodied voices of familiar figures have routinely created confusion and distress with my dogs over the years, but I wonder if it’s possible to resolve this for the dogs if there were enough signals to allow them to grasp the situation. For example, would it help if they got our voice plus a live image of us TO SCALE so that it’s the size and orientation they would expect to see when we spoke to them? Or would this create an uncanny valley effect and make them even more distressed??
LunaGrace says
I got a bumper sticker for the back of my car that reads:. My windows aren’t dirty – that’s just my dogs’ nose art. Problem solved!
HFR says
I have a camera in my living room. I have it mostly for my super senior dog who has mobility issues and will sometimes fall and can’t get up. Consequently I never leave the house for more than a couple of hours. The only thing is I never want to check the camera. What if I see him lying in a corner somewhere? I know I’d want to jump in the car and race home, which usually isn’t an option. So I just hold my breath until I get home and usually he’s fine. Sometimes it’s better not to know stuff.
As for the screens, what is the science on what dogs can see on a screen? I remember once reading that their vision isn’t good enough to see screens clearly. Or maybe it’s distorted which would be really scary for them. I honestly think our dogs want warm bodies, not voices and pictures. It takes a certain level of consciousness to be able to appreciate that seeing someone on screen and talking to them is the next best thing to being with them. But as we know from the pandemic, it’s a poor substitute.
lak says
I am a nurse, I have worked the night shift for decades, this can be the loneliest time for patients. Generally few visitors, difficulty sleeping, worry, you name it. It is funny how often people talk about their beloved pets, and how much they miss them, and worry for them. Once most people had answering machines, I would encourage them to call home and talk to their pets. Most had never thought about this, but realized when you leave a message your voice was heard throughout the vicinity of the machine. I overheard more than a few crooning to their pets, and sometimes discussing what was going on with them (Daddy will be home soon, be a good boy/girl). I am not sure how much it did for the pet, but it sure helped a lot of owners! It never ceases to amaze me how much animals give to us humans! Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, like you I am profoundly grateful, looking forward to reading the new book!
Beth says
When Jack the Corgi was a puppy, he’d be very interested if he and I were together and he heard my husband’s voice on the phone. After about 2-3 phone calls, he quickly decided that the voice never amounted to a whole person appearing and seemed to decide to ignore it. (Whether he knew it was “his person” or not is open for debate. How on earth would you know?).
Ditto for the tv screen. After a short time (and a couple attempts to catch a scent or look behind it) he realized nothing ever materialized from the screen and mostly ignore it.
I’m not sure that a dog, with their relatively limited vocabulary compared to ours and their own ideas of what is rewarding, would take any comfort in communicating with an absent us. After all, it’s not like we can laugh together when they share a story of the squirrel fight they saw in the yard.
I’ll be interested in seeing future research, though.
Beth says
On what is a vaguely related note, Jack the Corgi knew the names of all his toys and would get one when I’d say “Where’s …?”
One time my husband was out and I thought I’d see if he also recognized words for his people. I said “Where’s Daddy?” He trotted to the space where my husband would normally sit in the evening, looked with what I can only describe as alarm when he saw the empty chair, then looked at me with an expression that clearly said “I thought YOU knew where he was??!” and immediately got anxious. Jack was not a dog who fretted in our absence.
I have to think that many dogs who are fine being alone might actually find a communication device distressing because it would call attention to our absence when they were otherwise happily living in the moment. Seeing and hearing us but not being able to reach us and not possibly being able to comprehend where we are could create separation anxiety where none existed
B says
My dogs would not be ok with hearing me talking to them while I’m not home.
I know my sweet senior would start looking for me and it would cause more distress than comfort.
That said, I would love to set up a cam to see what they do during the day!
The nose art looks like my car windows 😉
I also just realized that Maggie and Skip have opposite upright ears- bookends!
lin says
I’ve often wondered if our voices sound distorted or unrecognizable though telephones and speakers Maybe there is too much electro-noise for dogs’ hearing. Our dogs have never recognized either my or my husband’s voice on the phone. Neither have been interested in looking at the tv, either. Mr. B, however, does have an affinity for nose art, and likes to paint the front window.
Happy Thanksgiving! Hope it is lovely for you and Jim and family and friends.
Frances says
Given that most young people no longer use their ubiquitous phones for speech calls, considering them intrusive and stressful, I wonder if this development is a little behind the fair. If my dogs could contact me on the rare occasions I am away from them for an hour or two I suspect the message they would want to convey is “Come home NOW – and bring food!” A really good recording of my voice telling them calmly and gently to settle down quietly and be good might perhaps not upset them; a waft of relaxed-me-smell to reinforce that left behind and make them less aware of how long I have been gone might be better (I have read research indicating that dogs measure the length of their humans absence by how much their scent has faded); a warm facsimile me that could be used for snuggling against might be best; I can think of lots of technological toys that would be further up their wish lists.
I had a similar experience to Melissa – Poppy spent the whole day at the vets on a drip and medication, and only starting yelling when I arrived to collect her and spoke to the receptionist, several rooms away from where she was. I suspect hearing the beloved voice would have most dogs increasingly frantic to greet their human.
Trisha says
Frances, you got my brain smoking thinking about using scent to help dogs who are home alone. I can imagine that being far more calming than hearing a disembodied voice, but the fact that it is rarely discussed is a good example of how oblivious we often are to such an important sense, especially for dogs. Maybe you’ll get some researchers motivated!
Trisha says
lin, love hearing about the “nose art” of Mr. B. Happy Thanksgiving to you too!
Trisha says
B: Bookends exactly! We called them that the day Skip came home and I have to admit I find it simply charming. So funny that something so irrelevant to anything (health, behavior, skill at working sheep) would cause me such joy.
Trisha says
Beth, I love the Jack story. I have one that’s about opposite: When Jim drove up to the farm I’d say “Where’s Jim?” to Willie. Soon enough I could say “Where’s Jim?” and he’d run to the window where he could see Jim get out of the car. One day I said “Where’s Jim?” when Jim was on the couch, and, you guessed it, Willie ignored Jim and ran to the window. We both knew what the cue meant, we just defined it differently.
Trisha says
lak: What a beautiful image for you to send to us. I too can imagine talking to my dogs at length if I was alone in a hospital room. How good of you to help people do that–just a reminder to me that nurses should run the world. (I swear it’s nurses that have saved several of myh family members in hospitals, just saying.)
Trisha says
HFR: I’m with you about “ignorance is bliss.” I’ve thought of putting up a cam for when we are out of town and there is a sitter at the house, but I’ve decided I only hire people that I’ve vetted carefully, and if I watched the dogs when I was gone I guarantee you I’d find something to fuss about that wasn’t important in the least. Re what dogs can see on screens, I saw one study that suggested that size matters. Dogs did better at discerning people if their image was life sized. Makes sense to me…
Trisha says
LunaGrace: Thanks for adding to the comments about ‘nose art’. Where have I been that I’ve never heard that?
Trisha says
Melissa, I think you points are critically important–first, the image should be life sized (apparently there is some research that supports that), and second, it would probably work better if we trained the dogs to make an association between voice out of speaker and voice out of us. Well said.
Trisha says
Terrie: I think a lot of dogs react the same way, which makes sense to me… would be so weird if you didn’t understand.
Trisha says
Beth, so sorry about your dog’s anxiety attack. Eeps. Hard to know what to say–could it have been a reaction to something physical? I would indeed try covering the crate, but I’d also ask lots of questions about what caused the behavior, could have been so many things…. (Example, I thought Maggie was bloating one night when she paced and whines and was extremely distressed. Emergency room found no problem. Now I think she had acid reflux, which is pretty horrible if you’ve ever had it.)
Trisha says
Amy: First, I did check out your website, and anyone who says “I’m going to plant the shit out of this yard” is a friend of mine. I love your website, and share with you the joy of watching life blossom and diversify after changing an expanse of grass into a varied and nutritious garden for a variety of critters. Second, I loved getting a rabbit perspective on this issue! Give them a pet for me.
Trisha says
Carole: Ah, yes, the drool. I had a St. Bernard once, Cosby. My husband then, Doug McConnell, and I used to measure what we called his “sand drools” at the beach. He’d produce long strings of drool that dragged in the sane and sopped it up, ending up with stalactites drooping from his maw.
Trisha says
LisaW: Always a great observer! Love that you noticed the bit of drool on Skip’s lip! Skip has the wettest mouth of any BC I’ve ever had, just giving him treats gets one’s hand all soppy. I wonder if somehow that relates to his ease of overheating and lack of stamina?
Trisha says
Charlene: I agree completely about the danger of thinking you are “connecting” through technology. We already know it’s not working very well for people as a true substutute, aren’t we?
Trisha says
Gregory Lee: So sorry about your dear girl. I say take the window with you if it helps. Hugs.
Trisha says
Kat, I love hearing about D’Art learning to look at the screen just because you liked it. Do try a Zoom call and see what happens! I’d love to hear.
Karen says
I would think most dogs hearing is too acute to recognise an individual voice over a speaker, and while they might recognise a name or a voice in general the way we electronically reproduce sound does nothing to help them know who it is. If they do have some idea its a human and have any sort of seperation anxiety I would think this will make it worse.
Gayla says
I had read about this experiment earlier. Cute idea. Ingenious gizmo. But I agree. I can’t see it being comforting or rewarding for the dog. (Not sure my ego could handle knowing my dog could call me if she wanted to, – but was choosing not to! :>)
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Kat says
I have to come back and tell a cat story. My sister and I chat usually on a weekly basis. While we chat we’re often doing something else so have our phones on speaker. My cat Catpurrnicus is fascinated by this rectangle that talks. He’ll try to bat it around, he’ll curl up on it, and generally wants to engage with it somehow. We joke that he loves my sister but the truth is she’s the only one I talk to on speaker and the phone isn’t interesting unless it’s talking. This evening while I was out doing errands I called my daughter who was at home with the critters to check something. Catpurrnicus was curled up on her lap and when grabbing her phone she accidentally put in on speaker. Niccus sat up straight staring at the phone when my voice came out of it. My daughter tells me how he’s reacted so I call his name and he puts his face up to the phone then when I speak to him again using his name he hops off her lap and leaves the room. I’m guessing that when it’s my sister it’s an interesting toy making noises but when it was me and I wasn’t really there it was “not right” so he wouldn’t engage with it.
Trisha says
Love this!
Timaran says
Re the window: I just call it “nose art” and live with it. 😉
Jude Beach says
It seems the importance of scent is overlooked. When my husband was in the hospital for a month every night I would bring home something he wore that day and throw it on the floor. His dogs would smell it intently for a long time. They seemed fine – until he died. Then the dogs were crazed for days. I wonder what their reaction would have been if I’d had the presence of mind to bring home something he died in? I’ve worried that around for a long time! Jude in WY