You gotta love our species. (This is my version of “Bless Your Heart.”) Sometimes we can’t stop using our brains too much.
While looking for that viral video of one dog’s barking setting off an entire Zoom screen of other dogs barking (couldn’t find it anywhere… you?), I ran into a controversy on pets joining Zoom meetings. The New York Times ran an article that includes the importance of keeping pets and kids out of Zoom calls. In it they stated “Our families are more important than anyone, but that doesn’t mean our colleagues want to see our partners in their bathrobes, our cats sitting on keyboards or our children throwing toys.” Ah, but we do, we really, really do.
That one seemingly innocuous piece of advice (“keep your pets and kids out of your calls”) backfired big time. So many people jumped in, defending the value of seeing people in their actual real lives, that the NYT back pedaled and said “Our tweet on online video etiquette wasn’t the best and we deleted it. We love your pets and kids. Stay safe.”
I’m the first to admit that barking dogs are not always conducive to getting things done (more on that later in the post) but I absolutely adore seeing people’s family members, two and four legged as part of call. I love seeing news casters’ book cases, art on their walls and cats laser focused, as cats always are, on where our attention is directed. I love it that we actually have REAL reality TV, instead of the pretense that is inherent to studios. Example: Maggie started barking when I was live with Ken Ramirez on his podcast, and we both loved it, cuz it reminded everyone that the dogs of well known trainers bark at the wrong time too, and how we deal with it without getting stressed out.
It also tells us a lot about who people really are, such as this annoyed weather caster whose dog is not making his life any easier.
I can’t resist linking to a complication of seven “pet interrupts video call” site. My favorite, absolute favorite, is the very Revd Dr Robert Willis, Dean of Canterbury, who speaks with such kindness and sincerity as his cat literally gets the cream. (Scroll down in the link a bit for this one.)
Falling down the rabbit hole on a sleepy Sunday afternoon, I found these “conference call fails” (not nec’y pet related but oh so worth it, especially the first one. Just try not laughing out loud.)
And then, of course, the all-time favorite of many of us, Andrew Cotter’s hysterical Zoom meeting with his dogs. His “sports announcing” based on his dogs’ behavior was a highlight for many of us when they first came out. I’ve seen the canine conference call many a time, but it deserves a replay at least once a month until this long, dark winter is over. (It’s also another example of true Reality TV. If I wasn’t married to the most wonderful man in the world, I’d go after Andrew Cotter like a Labrador on a block of cheese. The annoyed sports caster, yeah, not so much.)
I did promise I’d include some advice for the times that you really, really don’t want your dog to mess up your video call. Here’s some good advice from Dr. Karen London.
You? Any funny pet-related conference call video to share? This week seems like the perfect week to indulge in a whole lot of laughter, it being the darkest day of the year.
MEANWHILE, back on the farm: The snow and occasional sun has made life so much nicer than the endless brown of November and early December. However, one bright part of that time was the effort to create a birthday card for a good friend. Her 40th birthday was last week, and her husband asked friends to make cards that somehow celebrated the number 40. Between John Wentz’s sheep, and the photographic skills of Steve Dahlgren, we pulled it off. Here’s the final version of the card:
Here’s the video of “the making of the card.” Don’t hesitate to fast forward if you’d like while Maggie and I move the sheep across a long pasture to the sorting chutes. Watch the guard dog make Maggie’s life more difficult when moving the sheep into the pens. (I knew she wouldn’t hurt Maggie, but didn’t realize how much she interfered until I watched the video. Good girl Maggie for never giving up. And good guard dog, really, for protecting her girls!)
My favorite part: John’s only job was to count out 40 sheep, not 39, not 41, while Maggie and I pushed them into the sorting chute. But, as it turns out, the number of sheep coming out of the pens is 41, not 40. (This discovered long after the fact.) As we were moving the sheep into a good area for a drone still photo, one ewe broke off and dashed back to the pens. Maggie gathered up the group, moved them to the single, (never try to move a single ewe–a lone sheep knows exactly what the odds are of being the one in trouble), gathered them back together and got the shot. Apparently that one ewe could count, and was trying to fix it for us. Foolish humans didn’t listen.
But now I have an even better story about the Making of the Card, the recipient loved the story as much as the card, we had great fun doing it, and I have teasing rights for the rest of my life on John. Win win win win. Can’t beat that.
What about you? A favorite animal-related Zoom call? Or any wins wins this week? We’ll savor them all.
I’ll be on vacation next week, and won’t post a blog, although I will of course love reading your comments. I’ll be taking long walks with the dogs, seeing friends and family, whether in person or on line, and doing jigsaw puzzles. See you next year — may it be a year full of light and love for us all.
Timaran says
What a fun concept! A couple of weeks ago, my male GSD, Ronan decided to “help” in a video conference call that included our office’s management team and supervisors. While people were giving their weekly updates, Ronan suddenly put his fore-paws on the arm of my chair and pushed his head in front of me on the screen. I was suddenly invisible and Ronan was in full screen glory. He gave a little bark just to say hello and then jumped down. The whole group burst out laughing and my supervisor commented that Ronan’s head is bigger than mine (true). Great ice breaker and made a boring meeting more enjoyable.
Laura says
Wow, NYT, out of touch much? Anyway. I love seeing cats photo-bomb, or in this case, video bomb things. They pick the best, funniest times to do it. I get to see my coworkers cats all the time on zoom, and right now, it does my heart so much good. I always made sure to show them Seamus whenever we were on a zoom call, and they’d coo and call to him. He never interrupted in a big way, but did whine on occasion to go out. They all miss him, and I find support in that. My coworker was hugging and smooching her big, fluffy orange tabby last week, and all of us started commenting on what a cute kitty butt he had. Yup, we love animal butts around my office.
I also love kids on zoom. My supervisor has kids, and she’s always apologizing for them making noise. I just shrug. She’s got children, it’s ok to have kids and animals. They are what make our lives worth living. I’ve got a short work week this week, and then am going to enjoy some much needed time off. I’m going through serious doggie withdrawl right now. I just miss having a dog. The house is so weird and empty with out my boy. Still, things are gradually getting better. Anyway, I hope you have some wonderful time off, and we’ll see you in the next year! Hug the fluffs for me!
LisaW says
I started wearing headphones or earplugs on zoom meetings because we would often end up with a round of dogs barking — one would start, and another one under someone else’s desk would hear that one barking and start barking, and on and on. With earplugs in, Olive can only hear me talking, she can’t hear the other home-office dogs. It works well. If given the opportunity, Olive is a bit of a camera diva.
I like seeing people’s lives — messy or tidy, barky or meowy, kids or partners, it adds a small dose of humanity to a remote world.
Olive and Mabel will be very sad when he goes back to work! What good dogs.
I feel asleep trying to see if it was 39, 40, 41, etc., sheep 😉 (You could just say that this year no one is following the Gregorian calendar so it could very well be 41 or 39!)
My win-win this week is finding out my 97-year-old mother had her second Covid test come back negative (as well as her first). Her caregiver tested positive a few weeks ago, and they both have been in separate quarantines since. As my mother said: “I passed my test.” The other thing she asked me was when her “warranty was out.” She meant quarantine, but we had a good laugh when I explained her warranty had run out years ago :-0
Happy Holidays and cheers to a new year.
Kat says
At the end of one meeting we’d actually put into the agenda under good of the order show everyone else our pets. D’Artagnan is a 103 lb Great Pyrenees. You’d think it would be easy to get him into the camera shot but somehow my giant dog managed to do everything I asked while never getting into camera view. It was comical how effectively he managed to avoid being seen. They did get a brief view of his back but that was it.
Mabel and Olive are wonderful and have provided a bright spot in the midst of all of this. I was surprised to discover that quite a few of my friends have been taking comfort in the photos I’ve been posting of our parks and trails adventures (a local challenge to visit all the parks and trails in our county in a year) especially the photos with D’Artagnan in them. Now that we’ve documented all 226 parks and trails there was an outcry of worry that they’d be missing out on D’Artagnan photos. There were so many people who wanted photos of him that I created his own Facebook and Instagram page “Floof About Town”. I’m trying to post to his page several times a week, just a photo and a sentence or two. My giant white Therapy Dog is finding ways to do his job even when he can’t visit in the flesh.
Loved the card idea. And on the bright side you can use it again next year when the number of sheep is correct.
pat says
happy birthday,Meleia!!
lak says
I loved the zoom meeting with the dogs, still laughing! Merry Christmas to you!
Nina says
Our dog Georgie loves to bring squeaky toys over to my husband when he’s on Zoom calls. I think she doesn’t like that he’s paying attention to someone other than her! Interestingly she doesn’t really do it with me on my calls. I think it reflects the different relationship dynamics we have—I’m more the boundary-setter, he’s more the sucker she knows will let her get away with anything. 😉
Ruth says
I host Zoom meetings for members and their pet partners of Dogs On Call (DOC). We are certified therapy teams that have not been able to “work” since March when the Pandemic stopped all volunteer visits everywhere. We all try to include our pets in the calls. We haven’t experienced a barking frenzy yet, but I can guarantee our Zoom meeting would be considered a HUGE success if it did occur. Happy Holidays to everyone and their pet family members too.
Deborah Mason says
Itake a twice weekly Zoom chair yoga class. At the end we get on the floor, our legs in chair for a guided relaxation. At the beginning of class one it both dogs come looking for attention. When I get down on the floor the younger comes back, looking for an opening to luck my face. Then again as I’m getting up for the final exercise of the class. He’s a determined licker.
Molla says
I am in a zoom writing group and we take about twenty minutes to write then share our writing. When we started writing I was told to mute myself because my CVC spaniel was snoring.
Julie says
One of my organization’s team building/social activities during the pandemic was a virtual pet show! It was so fun. We all sent in photos, so there was a slide show and then we took turns introducing our pet. It was really nice (and sometimes funny) to hear what my coworkers say about their pets 🙂
Marty K says
Bring on the pets! To any and all Zoom meetings. 🙂
Marcie says
I teach. If we are remote one of my corgis LOVES to yell at the Meet. I keep a can of Easy Cheese beside me. No barks results in a shot of cheese, bark, then no reward. The kids think she is hilarious, me not so much.
Most of the time I teach under a hybrid model.I have had to designate the first ten minutes of homeroom time as pet time. If they get a few minutes to see each others pets, then the pet doesn’t seem to visit as often during class time.
Anne Johnson says
I’m multi-tasking often, handling dogs, horses, and helping my 87 year old mom navigate zoom bible study. One time while live I had a visitor out back with the horses. All three dogs were letting us know we had visitors. The women said they were amazed at our odd sounding door bell! Totally worth every bark!
Jacqui Nichols says
Wonderful Birthday idea ! The photos of your farm are always wonderful.
I think we can all claim a pet/zoom experience as a new thing this year. I know that my pets were thrilled when I started working at home more.
MaryBeth says
I have a litter of pups in the house born Nov 2nd. COVID has been a blessing for these pups because they have had non stop care and enrichment since I dont leave for work. My coworkers beg me to sit with my laptop in dog room so they can watch pups!
But the funny one was a couple days ago. Im working the hotline for COVID questions. Im returning a guys call when I hear my coonhound warming up for a big one. Normally hes so quiet you can’t hardly even find him curled up in the house. I say to the guy, hold on one second Im sorry but my hound is about to bay. And he lets loose with a LOUD bawl mouth cry. The kind that rocks the floorboards and makes the rooster a quarter mile away sing back. Lol. I then quietly asked him for inside voice please and returned to my call. I love that dog!
lin says
I went back to work in May, but did have some Zoom meetings with our library staff. My dog, Mr. B., was nonchalant about being background at the meetings, but when I got the idea to beta him as a Zoom ‘Read to a Dog,’ he decided that looking at someone on a screen (my co-worker) was just too weird, and would NOT look at the iPad screen, even when I held a treat next to it, ending up turning his head completely away. Then I ended up being transferred to Disaster Service work, and we couldn’t try it with our real therapy dogs.
Diane Mattson says
I think anyone who says no one wants to see your pets or children on a zoom call is a joyless kind of person!
Happy story. My daughter is fostering young cat over Christmas. Cat just weaned her kittens and was dropped off at shelter. She’s undernourished and in heat so no one slept last night. Loves the toddler which was the concern, and is super sweet. The fostering is pretty much adopting. She’s charmed the whole family. 😊
BARBARA MARS says
Pure magic. Watching Maggie do what she was bred to do and the movement of the sheep in unison was mesmerizing. At times it looked like there were black sheep in the flock due to the shadows. To top it off, you walking along in the red coat brought a spot of color against the landscape and the whiteness of the sheep. Kudos to the photographer Steve Dahlgren.
Stephanie says
Definitely used a dog to hook a few students into coming to live Zoom classes for the semester. A good handful of them will forever associate the theory of Behaviorism with a certain over-enthusiastic tail blocking the camera.
On the other hand, actually signed up for Zoom dog training session and BOTH dogs slept solidly through the entire thing. Seriously.