The Code of the Rottweiler
Charming Billie got spayed this week and so I am once again reminded of this important tenet of the Rottweiler code:
- Pain is as nothing
...especially when one must bark at the mailman or chase a squirrel.
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Charming Billie got spayed this week and so I am once again reminded of this important tenet of the Rottweiler code:
...especially when one must bark at the mailman or chase a squirrel.
...I'm pretty sure they would spend an inordinate amount of time talking about squirrels.
Stephen Budiansky has an interesting book called, If Lions Could Talk, on animal intelligence and some of the flaws of current research in the field, in particular how often we overlook the idea that animal intelligence and animal 'values' may be fundamentally different than our own.
I think he also misses some important things--the role of scenting ability in how animals interpret information and solve problems--but it's an interesting book with loads of good information.
A recent article at CNN.com comes to the conclusion that: Dogs are smarter than people think
This is such a profoundly stupid article that I'm stuck as to where to begin.
One group of researchers find that dogs use a range of barks to convey meaning. Well, duh....
The article goes on to describe this research:
The canines were shown treats and then a screen was lowered and the goodies were left as they were or some were added or taken away.If a treat was added or taken away the dogs looked at the treats much longer than they did when the goodies were not disturbed, presumably because they had done their sums and the numbers did not meet their expectations.
I mean, really.
Once, John Henry and I stayed in a cabin for a week. One night a mouse crept out of the broom closet and munched away on John Henry's food while we were sleeping. I could hear it in the kitchen happily eating, while John Henry was lying on the bed next to me, oblivious. The next morning, he stood in the kitchen, looking at his food bowl, looking at me, looking at his food bowl. Little did I suspect that he had counted each piece before he went to bed and was counting them again to see how many were missing.
Maybe dogs can tell when we swipe food out of their bowls. But how can we tell that they're counting by how long they stare at it? What if it looks different? What if it smells different? What if they're just wondering about the state of the universe or the effects of global warming on the continued regularity with which they will be fed?