Bark Blog

Robot Dog

Have you seen the Robotic BigDog video? I found it strangely hypnotic and more than a little unnerving in its critterness not to mention its potential lethal applications.

Liver treats to The Daily Dish, where I first bumped into this seriously wrong science project.

Lisa Wogan

Oprah Exposes Puppy Mill Horrors

On Friday, April 4, tune in to Oprah Winfrey's show for an undercover investigation of the horrors of puppy mills. These commercial breeders provide purebred puppies to pet stores nationwide.

The American Kennel Club contacted its community of dog fanciers with pre-emptive concern about Oprah's subject matter. The statement read:

"Dear Fancier: As you probably know, Oprah is airing a show tomorrow (Friday, 4/4) on the topic of "Puppy Mills." While the show was previously taped, we have been in touch with the producers about our desire for responsible breeders to be represented, and they have allowed us to submit a 2 line statement which they said will be incorporated into the show. They have also stated that there is no specific intention to malign purebred dogs or the AKC.

"We will be watching the show along with you and, if warranted, we will respond publicly. However, it is our hope that Oprah's interest in animal welfare will help open up a dialogue on the issue and that AKC and the dog fancy will continue to be engaged."

If AKC wants to demonstrate a sincere interest in animal welfare, it will no longer allow commercial breeders and pet shops to register puppies with AKC and do its part to educate the public as well.

Julia Kamysz Lane

They're Smarter Than We Think

Check out the wonderful story on the state of the study of animal cognition with luscious animal portraits by Vincent J. Musi in the current issue of National Geographic (April 2008). The report—which features a pair of smarty-pants Border Collies, of course—explores how more and more we realize "we are not alone in our ability to invent or plan or to contemplate ourselves—or even to plot and lie."

What I found especially interesting was how human cognition science reacts to discoveries in the animal realm. After one researcher complains that folks on the human side constantly raise the bar on what constitutes uniquely human cognition, Virginia Morell writes:

Whenever [animal researchers] find a mental skill in a species that is reminiscent of a special human ability, the human cognition scientists change the definition. But the animal researchers may underestimate their power—it is their discoveries that compel the human side to shore up the divide.

I wonder, why maintaining the divide so all-fired important?

Lisa Wogan

100,000 Dogs Nearly Poisoned

Every year, worldwide, there are approximately 35,000 human deaths caused by rabies. That might sound horrific, but what's worse is that 60% of those rabies-related deaths occur in India alone. This past Thursday, March 6, Indian Kashmir authorities announced its plans to poison 100,000 stray dogs with strychnine in an effort to stop rabies. Thankfully, once the public was made aware of this inhumane solution, authorities were persuaded to work with welfare organizations on a stray sterilization program.

Julia Kamysz Lane

Sponsor A Dog, Save A Cheetah

In the south African country of Namibia, farmers have been caught between cheetah conservationists and and keeping their livestock safe from the spotted predator. So the non-profit organization The Cheetah Conservation Fund initiated a win-win solution. The Livestock Guarding Dog Program provides the farmer with an Anatolian Shepherd puppy who is raised with the livestock and will defend them as an adult. The large, barking dogs deter cheetahs from preying on domestic animals and farmers no longer feel the need to shoot the big cats to protect the herd. You can learn more by clicking on Adopt an Anatolian.

Julia Kamysz Lane

PETA No Fan of Best In Show

Animal-rights organization PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is no stranger to stirring up controversy. In the past, some dog owners have questioned PETA president Ingrid Newkirk's canine devotion as a fundraising ploy or worse.

So it comes as no surprise that PETA debuted a provocative ad campaign (one commercial compares purebred dog breeders to the Ku Klux Klan) during Westminster Kennel Club's annual show, the Superbowl of dog shows. You can watch all three commercials through You Tube or the New York Times.

What do you think of the new PETA commercials? Are they fair? Or too over the top?

Julia Kamysz Lane

More ticks, more places

When I was a kid growing up in Colorado, I got a wicked case of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever after my dad somehow used a match to entice a blood-bloated tick out of my scalp. So, I flinched when I read that a recent study has found tick populations are not only increasing in number, but also in reach. The data revealed the presence of at least three tick-borne diseases, Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, and ehrlichiosis, in every state in the country. Apparently all three can cause health complications and even death in humans and dogs, if untreated. The results were presented during the North American Veterinary Conference (NAVC) in late January in Orlando.

Lisa Wogan

Decoding Doglish

Researchers in Hungary have created software that can identify the context and the "speaker" based on a dog's woof. It should be said, with widely varying degrees of accuracy. According to lead researchers, early results challenge the common idea that dog barks originated as a by-product of domestication. Brian Hare at Duke University in Durham, N.C., told New Scientist:

“This is animal behavior research at its best. You see a pattern that no one else knew was there because we can’t hear the difference ourselves.”

The story ran in many publications, I think because editors couldn't resist headlines such as, Bytes that give away a dog’s bark and Dog barks translated almost arf the time! I first read about the bark-o-meter in The Vancouver Sun, in a piece that also reported on a study that determined kids are afraid of clowns. We needed researchers to figure that out?

Lisa Wogan

No more dog sacrifices in med schools

The new year began with a piece of good news. Case Western Reserve School of Medicine will end cardiology lessons wherein students examine the beating heart of a live dog, which results in the animal’s death. This brings an end to the long-standing tradition of using live dogs in all American medical schools.

According to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), which tracks “live dog labs,” med students overwhelmingly supported finding alternatives to live animals. It’s hard to know if the ethical concerns alone would have turned the tide, but advances in medical simulation technology and computer-based interactive learning, plus a push for human-based models sealed the deal.

Learn a little more about the recent history of using of live animals, and particularly dogs, in medical schools.

Lisa Wogan

Does Rabies Vaccine Last Seven Years?

Thanks to a grass-roots effort of dog lovers who raised much-needed funding, the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine is conducting the first long-term challenge studies on the canine rabies vaccine. Dr. Ronald Schultz, Chair of the Department of Pathobiological Sciences, is overseeing five- and seven-year challenge studies that will determine how long the rabies vaccine truly immunizes dogs. For more info or to learn how you can help your dog be healthier, go to the Rabies Challenge Fund.

Julia Kamysz Lane

How Could This Happen?

When this story first came to my attention, I just couldn't believe how someone could do such a thing. A litter of dead seven-week-old puppies were discovered behind a convenience store in Georgia. As if that wasn't bad enough, they were beaten to death and the likely culprit is a 20-year-old lab technician who worked at the University of Georgia’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital. If you can stomach to read more, go to UGA Vet School Worker.

Julia Kamysz Lane

Taboo Treats & Chocolate Chart

Do you give your dog a grape every now and then? How about the occasional chocolate-chip cookie? If so, pick up the October issue of National Geographic and get the scoop on why these seemingly harmless treats can be dangerous. The feature story, "Canine Taboos," focuses on foods toxic to dogs, such as grapes, chocolate, coffee, onions and more. You might be surprised to find what's on the list.

Unfortunately, I have first-hand experience with this kind of food scare. Several months ago, I came home to discover an open bag of semisweet chocolate chips on my kitchen floor. One of the dogs had managed to open up the pantry door and get into my baking supplies. At first, I wasn't too concerned because we have four dogs and I figured the chocolate was divided among my entire pack. But then I realized that if only one of them ate all of the chocolate, s/he would be in trouble. I called my vet and she recommended we make all of the dogs vomit. Turns out that one dog -- our Dalmatian, Darby -- did indeed eat the entire 8-ounce bag of chocolate chips all by herself. Fortunately, she was fine but it was frightening nonetheless.

If you're concerned about the effects of chocolate on your dog, National Geographic also provides an interactive "chocolate chart." You can adjust the weight of the dog and the amount of chocolate ingested to determine the real-life symptoms. It can also help you determine if a vet visit is in order.

Julia Kamysz Lane

Canine Rabies Going, Going, Gone?

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the canine rabies virus no longer exists in the United States. But don't throw out your dog's rabies tags just yet. While a dog cannot transmit rabies to another dog, the deadly, untreatable virus can still be found among raccoons, skunks and bats, who in turn can infect dogs with rabies.

Sound confusing? I'll say. I was hoping this news meant we'd no longer have to vaccinate our dogs for rabies period. There has been a lot of discussion about the possible harm of overvaccinating our pets. Some of my friends choose to blood titer to determine if their dogs have enough of the protective vaccine in their system rather than automatically get the annual (or in some cases, three-year) rabies shot. Titering is more expensive, but why add more chemicals to my dog's bloodstream if he doesn't need them? For more info on overvaccinating and an important future rabies study headed by Jean Dodds, D.V.M., check out Rabies Challenge Fund.   

Julia Kamysz Lane 

Trail Dogs

Fresh from hiking with my dog in Montana’s Tobacco Root Mountains and South Dakota’s Black Hills, I’m disappointed to run into a news brief in New Scientist. In response to a perceived lack of evidence in the debate over dogs in natural areas, researchers in Sydney set out to quantify their impact. They found that people walking a dog on a leash in national parks frightened away 41 percent of the birds in a 50-meter area. (People alone, even two people, frightened away about half as many). The complete study is available for a $30-download fee from Biology Letters.

I’m all for keeping dogs (as well as miners, loggers, road builders, ATVs, etc.) out of sensitive conservation areas, but I hope these results won’t be used to constrict even further areas where well-behaved, trail-savvy dogs are permitted. During research for a recent book project, I interviewed several folks who hike regularly with their dogs, including members of the excellent Yahoo.com Traildog group. I heard story after story of how dogs enhanced wildlife sightings by quietly signaling the presence of owls, moose, bear, grouse and so on.

For me, and many others, getting my dog OUT is the impetus to hike in the first place. I believe almost anything that deepens our connection to and appreciation for the backcountry is good, because it inspires us to protect it.

Lisa Wogan

p.s. Of course, it goes without saying that trail dogs should be under control at all times and that hikers should apply leave-no-trace practices to their canine trail buddies, including burying or packing out dog waste. Just like everywhere else in our lives with dogs, people who don’t hike smart make it a lot tougher for the rest of us to win acceptance for dogs.

Food for Thought

Did you know that Carnation and Upjohn tried to market a birth-control dog food in 1985? Or that the second most important factor for most people in buying a dog food is the size and character of the resulting stool? On Sunday, September 2, take some time to read “They Eat What We Are,” Frederick Kaufman’s story on the state of the dog food industry in The New York Times. Kaufman traces the interconnected evolution of human diet and dog diet. The piece is loaded with some grim truths about how we got to where we are and also some interesting predictions, including nutrition professor Marion Nestle’s conjecture that the dog food market will split and that only about 5 to 8 percent of dogs will enjoy better, fresher foods, while the other 92 to 95 percent will see an ever more industrialized diet. Still, there is good news in the grass roots, slow food, socially responsible pet food campaign. Don’t miss it. (If you’re registered with Times Select, you can take an early look.)

Lisa Wogan

Farewell Jake

Some dogs make Lassie look self-absorbed. Such was Jake. The abandoned Labrador Retriever puppy had a broken leg and dislocated hip when Mary Flood of Oakley, Utah, rescued him 12 years ago. He went on to be become one of only 200 U.S. government certified search and rescue dogs—combing the debris at Ground Zero and the rubble left by Hurricane Katrina. He was also a therapy dog for children at a burn camp and senior citizens. Flood announced that Jake was euthanized yesterday after a cancer fight. His contributions carry on in the SAR dogs he helped to train. In addition, a necropsy will be performed at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine as part of a study of the long-term health impacts of 9/11 on search dogs.

Lisa Wogan

Full Moon Mischief

"Gee, is it a full moon?"

The moon has been held accountable for all sorts of things, and a new one has recently been added to the list.

According to a 10-year study at Colorado State University's College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, it might be a good idea to keep an especially close eye on your dogs and cats when the moon is near or at its fullest. The study, which involved almost 12,000 animals, tested the belief that veterinary emergency rooms were busier on full-moon nights, and found that indeed, they often were. Though the study's conclusions are interesting, they're not conclusive, say its authors.
Susan Tasaki

Questions about Canine ‘Prozac’

Advertisements and promotional materials for Reconcile—a chewable, beef-flavored tablet with the same ingredient as Prozac—overstated the drug’s success in treating canine separation anxiety. The Federal Drug Administration found that the drug maker Eli Lilly failed to make clear that dogs in trials received behavior modification training in addition to Reconcile. Read the FDA’s findings.

Lisa Wogan

Good Genes, Part II

In the spring, I wrote a story for Bark (May/June 2007) about the new Canine Heritage Breed Test, which is designed to help people with mixed-breed dogs learn their dog’s genetic origins. In the spirit of the thing, I sent in a cheek swab of my dog’s saliva for testing. I’ve always figured Lulu is a mix of Husky and Labrador Retriever. But her DNA did not match up with any of the 38 most common breeds to any statistically significant degree. There was a smidge of Siberian Husky “in the mix,” along with Chow Chow, Chinese Shar-Pei and Akita, but not enough to certify her heritage.

In May, when I blogged about these inconclusive results, I received a note from Charlie Passantino, a vice president at Mars Veterinary. In September, his company will offer the Wisdom Panel, a mixed breed DNA analysis (identifying up to 130 breeds) based on a blood sample drawn by a vet. He offered to test Lulu for free. Within days, a little vile of her blood was at the lab.

Last week, I received a four-page report. According to this analysis, my dog is part Labrador but she is also German Shepherd and, to a lesser extent, Brittany Spaniel. These results jibe with her physical appearance, and, based on breed profiles supplied with the results, the temperaments and behaviors line up as well.

Obviously, I can’t say why the results were different in the two tests, or that one is definitively better. Pasantino suggested that a blood sample yields more DNA for testing, which is an advantage. He also mentioned that in pre-pilot studies, the more common breeds were shown to have weak genetic signatures that can make them hard to pick up. At the same time, some rare breeds have stronger signatures making them easier to pick up. He explained that Mars has created a proprietary mathematical algorithm to compensate for this tendency. Perhaps this made the difference.

What is clear is that these direct-to-consumer genetic tests are around to stay. Most of the mixed breed guardians I’ve talked to actively speculate about their dogs’ origins and some among them will shell out the cash for scientific corroboration. I’m thinking it may be harbinger of what Freeman Dyson calls the “domestication of biotechnology.” In the most recent New York Review of Books, the esteemed physicist paints a picture of a biology-centered future where, among other things, do-it-yourself bio-tech kits allow people to design genomes at home. It’s worth a read.

Lisa Wogan

Walk that Dog

A recent study by the American College of Sports Medicine found that dogs owners are fitter than their dog-free counterparts and that people who walk their dogs are fitter than those who don’t. Not exactly shocking. But what I found surprising is that the study’s dog owners (in Baltimore and Seattle) spent an average of only 25 minutes per week walking their dogs and that 30 percent spent no time walking their dogs. These are the sort of results that make big pharma salivate.

Lisa Wogan

Dog As Guinea Pig

The front page of The New York Times this morning features a thought-provoking story about the intended and unintended consequences of DNA screening in dog breeding. It’s a must-read. Reporter Amy Harmon explores what happens in the drive for “genetic perfection” when the ethical concerns guiding the human DNA debate are pushed aside.

This story is part of an ongoing, fascinating series on the impact of genetic technology on humans. To read more, check out The DNA Age.

Lisa Wogan

Clever As A Dog

The old cliché needs revamping. Yet another study reveals that dogs are brainier than some folks are ready to admit.

Lisa Wogan

Good Genes

Last Thursday, Dennis Fantin from MMI Genomics called me with the results of my dog’s Canine Heritage Breed Test, a new DNA-diagnostic that identifies certain breeds in your dog’s gene composition (Bark, May/June 2007). Fantin called (instead of sending a certificate) because my dog’s DNA didn’t match up with any of the 38 breeds in the test.

I was certain Lulu’s cheek swab would reveal her to be a Labrador Retriever/Husky mix because that’s what she looks like. And while there was a little Siberian Husky “in the mix,” along with Chow Chow, Chinese Shar-Pei and Akita—none of it was “statistically significant.”

Fantin offered to refund my $65. I said, no. After all, I learned what my dog is not. I figure that’s something. I discovered that my pigeonholing certain behaviors as Lab-like or Husky-like was pure fancy. Meanwhile, Fantin has flagged Lulu’s sample for the next generation of testing in a few months, which will include around 100 breeds.

Now that some of the results are in, I wonder why I did the test in the first place. It wasn’t for some high-minded reason—so I could anticipate breed-centered health issues or better refine my training techniques. It was pure curiosity. Maybe that’s fair for those of us who adopt from shelters; we want some of the history other people take for granted when they buy a pedigreed dog. But now that my pup is more an enigma than ever, I’m not sure I want mystery solved.

Lisa Wogan

More on the dog genome

Following up on Mark Derr's previous post ... here are some of stories on this topic in today's major news outlets (some sites may need log-ins; find them here):

Genetic map of dog may help humans, L.A. Times

Team of scientists maps out 99% of dog genome, Boston Globe

Dog's genome could provide clues to disorders in humans, New York Times

In dog genome, scientists see man's best hope, Washington Post

Man's best friend shares most genes with humans, San Francisco Chronicle

Genetic secrets of man's best friend revealed, Scientific American

Tasha offers up the genetic secrets of man's best friend, Telegraph (U.K.)

Dog genome mapped, shows similarities to humans, National Geographic

And, of course, the piece from the journal Nature, but you'll need a subscription for that.

Dog genome exposed

Right off the presses: The dog officially joined the Age of the Genome in the guise of Tasha, an inbred boxer, representatives of nine other breeds—German shepherd, Rottweiler, Bedlington terrier, beagle, Labrador retriever, English shepherd, Italian greyhound, Alaskan malamute and Portuguese water dog -- grey wolves from China, Alaska, India and Spain, and a California coyote. Researchers sequenced virtually all—98 to 99 percent—of Tasha's genome, the 2.4 billion base pairs of DNA (A [adenine], which binds with T [thymine] and C [cytosine] which binds with G [guanine]) that form the genetic code for her in particular and the dog in general.

The goal, of course, is to use the genome to find genes responsible for the more than 450 genetic diseases in dogs, some 350 of them shared with people, and also to study the genetics of morphology and behavior. The genome should also provide a tool for exploring the genetic basis for the dog's evolution from the wolf—for domestication. Since much in the dog sorts by breed and since breeds retain a fair amount of genetic variability, despite high levels of inbreeding, they are ideal populations for such studies.

A detailed description and analysis of the sequence is published in this week's, December 8, issue of the science journal, Nature (subscription probably required). A press conference today in Boston, where members of the sequencing team from the Broad Institute at MIT and Harvard and Agencourt Bioscience, Corp., of Beverley, Massachusetts, led by Kerstin Lindblad-Toh, will doubtless generate many stories a well, but we're not linked to them because they're not out yet. Behind its wobbly editor-at-large The Bark is chugging along at the head of the pack. We'll link to the best stories later, and The Bark will carry a complete report in January. Here are some highlights.

Basic science:

With approximately 2.4-billion base pairs of DNA and 19,300 genes, the dog genome is slightly “smaller” and “cleaner” than the human genome with its 2.9-billion base pairs of DNA and approximately 22,000. The dog genome appears to have fewer duplicated elements and to have lost some sequences belonging to the “common mammal ancestor.”

About 72 percent of the genes are orthologous between dogs and humans—meaning they look the same, even if their function is different. These genes make up 1 to 2 percent of the genome and are part of a larger block covering approximately 5.3 percent of the genome. In addition to genes that block contains RNA, regulatory elements, structural elements, and “other stuff.” Researchers believe it is inherited in all mammals from the “common mammal ancestor” and is involved in development of neural networks and other fundamental processes and organs. It is also subject to intensive “negative selection,” meaning that mutations are weeded out.

--That said, the research team found tantalizing evidence that some sets of functional genes, like those involved in brain development, have evolved in dogs and humans in similar ways.

Dog stuff:

Researchers chose Tasha because she was the most inbred of 120 dogs from 60 breeds they sampled. Because her genome had less variability, it was easier to sequence. It then had to be assigned to its proper chromosomes—the dog has 39 pairs, including the sex, compared with 23 for humans.

To navigate this genetic code, the scientists used changes in a single base or letter, called “single nucleotide polymorphisms, SNPs (pronounced “snips”), which occur randomly throughout the genome—in genes they can cause lethal diseases.--to create a SNPs map. They drew SNPs from their nine breeds, the wolves, the coyote, and the poodle, Shadow, the majority of whose genome was sequenced several years ago by a team working for genome entrepreneur Craig Venter.

In vast non-coding portions of the genome, SNPs are used to identify sections of code, called “haplotypes,” that are used to study inheritance, disease, and in the dog, morphology and behavior.

Here's what they found:

--The dog has passed through two major genetic bottlenecks. The first was at its origin some 9,000 generations ago from perhaps as few as two wolves. It could be more; it could have happened multiple places, Lindblad-Toh said, which leaves multiple questions unanswered. Her team calculates a generation at 3 years, putting the origin of the dog at 27,000 years ago. Three years seems wrong to me, but I've been unable to find a generation time for dogs and welcome suggestions, either here or at markderr@bellsouth.net.

Hans Ellegren, an ecologist at Uppsala University, Sweden, in a commentary on the genome in the same Nature, suggests that Lindblad-Toh and her colleagues failed to account for what might have been frequent back-crosses to wolves over the dog's long history. If they had allowed for them, their date might have been different, he says.

Archaeologists object because there are no dogs in the fossil record at 27,000 years.

Clearly, the question of the origin of the dog is far from settled.

--The dog passed through another bottleneck 30 to 90 generations ago with the creation of modern breeds through inbreeding and the overuse of favored sires. At that time tremendous pressure was placed on just a few, overlapping chromosomes, carrying the genes underlying the desired traits, as well as those nasty diseases.

--As a result of this recent bottleneck, most purebred dogs, like Tasha, are a mix of homogeneity and heterogeneity at a ration of 62 percent to 38 percent, respectively.

--In testing out their SNPs map, they scanned the genomes of 20 dogs from breeds and one dog each from 24 breeds, from the Glen of Imaal terrier to the Irish wolfhound. While the overall pattern remained nearly the same and while there was sharing of haplotypes among different breeds, there are also differences between breeds in terms of which haplotypes appear in the genome and how frequently they do so.  Of a total of 7 to 10,  4 are most commonly found in each breed.

--This structure will help find those genes, especially once a promised SNP chip becomes available to researchers and vets.

These are Western breeds, of course, and more work needs to be done with dogs from elsewhere and our own curs and feists and purpose bred dogs. Indeed, the completed sequence raises more questions than it answers, as it should -- Mark Derr

Yips and Yowls

'Harley, a story"

(Forgive this bit of book keeping, but with permission, assumed, of the blogmeisters, I'll make my entries under the general title , Yips and Yowls, with a more appropriate subtitle to follow.  And while I'm at it, henceforward I shall use the genderless 3rd person plural, "they," not only in its standard form but also as the genderless 3rd person singular pronoun, in place of the standard but sexist, generic "he" and the genderless but awkward, "he/she," or "he or she," or whatever, unless, of course, the reference is to a specific "he" or "she."  There simply is no better solution in English--at least not one that I've seen offered--and the street has long since adopted the change.}

I had wanted to address the claim, popular among some dog "experts" that the dog is a social parasite, but that will have to wait while Harley looks tangentially at issues raised elsewhere on this site about seeking help for dogs that are risks to their humans and the notion that contemporary Americans are somehow unique in their capacity to spoil and anthropomorphize their dogs.  There are more dogs in the U.S. than in any other country, and many Americans do lavish attention on them, dress them, and generally try to turn them into little four-legged humans.  But that's a venerable crosscultural phenomenon.  The question gets asked because a writer or editor hears about this theory that dogs are just social parasites that have wormed their way into our affections--proof being offered in the form of a rhinestone collar, etc--while causing us to act like fools, and decides to "investigate."   Not surprisingly, they find what they are looking for--because they keep looking until they do--and then they generalize.  Of course, it takes very little to make humans look like fools, because we are fools--present author certainly not excepted--but in the rush to judgment, that little bit of wisdom is overlooked, if it was ever learned.  It's far easier to be smug.

But, more on the bogus notion of social parasitism later.  (Suffice it to say for now that that people making the claim are making their livings off dogs, which might qualify as a form of parasitism, according to their own definitions.)  For now, I'll observe that anthropomorphism is a strawman in need of composting.  In the 18th and  19th centuries, naturalists, including Darwin, routinely ascribed emotions,  intellect, consciousness, and the ability to communicate to animals.  Darwin  even thought they had a conception of the supernatural, by which he meant ghosts and  God, a notion that should put a hitch in the get-along of the intelligent design folk, had they ever read Darwin.  He also envisioned a continuum, an interrelatedness in evolution. 

But the view of animals as little more than biological stimulus-response machines that felt no pain and lacked self-consciousness, not to mention intellect, gained ascendancy by the early 20th century.  The argument that had everything to do with intellectual fashion and little to do with science or animals. Over  the past few decades, attitudes have  turned again, thanks to the persistence of a small and now growing band of scientists, philosophers, and activists, as well as people who simply live with and know animals.  Still, for many people, to ascribe "human" characteristics to animals is to raise uncomfortable moral questions regarding our "place" in the world, our treatment of wild and domestic animals, not to mention meat eating.  Ascribing emotion and consciousness, the ability to feel pain and communicate to animals ultimately forces us to reconsider and drop the artificial barriers between humans and animals and between the human-made and "natural" or wild worlds that are the now the norm.  We then have to integrate ourselves into the world and take responsibility for our actions.

But I digress.  Living with animals wild or domestic is, as readers of this blog surely know, not always an easy walk in the park.  Hyperaggressive dogs are a problem not just because they injure and sometimes kill people but also because they are threats to other dogs, especially in dog parks.  "Dog thugs"--many of them doctors, lawyers, reporters, business people, professionals--are people who are clueless about their dogs and let them charge or stalk other animals, hackles up, teeth barred, on their tiptoes, saying, "oh, they just want to play," even after the fur has started flying.  "Dog thugs" are also people who know damn well what their dog is about and do nothing to stop its attacks--or actually encourage them.  For those people, dogs are instruments of aggression.  I'm interested in hearing how people deal with the "dog thugs," short of combat.  I tend toward to confrontational myself, as have others in our park, to no avail.  Repeated ticketing by the police has also failed to break the worst offenders of their bad habits.  For now, they at least avoid us, and Harley at 2 years and 6 months--50 pounds of solid muscle--has shown a remarkable ability to stand aggressive dogs down, but he would rather play. Unfortunately, the more aggression he encounters, and it's considerable, the more he learns to suspect every strange dog, and that's not something we want to encourage. 

Our Kate is an obsessive-compulsive genius among dogs.  While still a puppy, our Kate was stalked by several different rottweilers, pit bulls, and boxers, and she now hates all of them, generically.  Although she dislikes most other dogs, when our old hounds died a couple of years ago, she fell into depression.  She needed a companion, but only a certain sort--preferably a ginger or blond dog.  I'm serious.  Katie's a black and tan kelpie.  She'll tolerate black dogs if she's known them forever and they stay our of her way.  But, she will run across the park to greet a big white or ginger dog, except for golden retrievers.  So we decided to look for a red or he answer was a red (ginger) kelpie who had washed out on a ranch in Oklahoma and needed to be a "pet" somewhere.  So here's this dog, Harley, who at 10 months is popped on a plane and arrives in Miami, where the first words he hears are in Spanish.  He was an existential dog.

He'd been hand-raised as young puppy because sick and then put in the kennel to learn to work goats and cattle--polartec is killing the sheep industry and in any event Harley wasn't to be a trial dog.  He'd never seen stairs and refused to come down, caterwauling and yowling as if he were being killed.  I enticed him down the first time by placing little pieces of cheese just out of reach, one step at a time.  The second time I dispensed with the cheese and just praised him.  After he made it down, he turned and ran up and down the stairs three times in rapid succession--who says dogs don't practice?

Harley didn't really know the difference between dogs and people, didn't know how to behave in polite society, thought cars and trucks were herdable objects, and had the doggie equivalent of attention deficient disorder.  Fortunately, he had a great disposition, and Katie loved him from the start.  Their current favorite game is "dueling teeth," the doggie equivalent of snapping scissors at hyperspeed around another person's face while they do the same to you.

Harley needed to "learn" how to live with us in the city, and he needed some basic training--consistently coming when called for example.  A couple of friends who are super trainers put him on a long line, and we all watched as this exuberant dog became tentative.  He anticipated a correction, we decided, and, indeed, I subsequently learned that Harley had been in the hands of a traditional trainer, who, in the words of my informant, "puts those dogs on a long line with a choke collar and then jerks them right off their feet when they do something wrong."

We saw the enduring effect a month ago, after Harley'd been here some 18 months, when I again took him to my trainer friend, Lourdes Edlin.  Like all top trainers and teachers, Lourdes has an ability to understand what motivates the pupil to perform, what allows learning to take place.  Using first tiny pieces of chicken hotdogs and then his fetchable Kong, she had Harley flying through the tunnel on her agility course.  But then as she prepared to call him through again, i crouched to hold him until time for him to go and inadvertently stepped on his  leash.  He took off, but as soon as he felt the leash tighten, he froze, expecting a correction.  It took fully five minutes of intensive effort to get him back where he had been--a system restore far better than the crap on Windows XP Professional but still time consuming.

The experience somehow liberated Harley.  For the better part of 16 months, he had wallowed in the pool on the steps and perfected a way of perching precariously on the edge while splashing his Kong toward the wall until it got close enough for him to grab.  Occasionally, he would fall in and in a panic flail for the wall, not the steps, and hoist himself out.  But the day after our visit to Lourdes, he fell in, got out and jumped in; two days later, he was performing the more difficult task of diving to the bottom of the pool.  Harley still has mornings when he can't give his Kong up because he's convinced he's back in the kennel.  But if he doesn't give it up, he doesn't get it thrown and so at the next session, he's ready to go. 

People into training dogs--conditioning them tot perform certain tasks, might sneer at what I'm doing with Harley, but they have other concerns.  I want him to use his mind to figure things out, to learn.  he had too much conditioning when he was younger, and it didn't work.  I might not like the way he goes about figuring things out, and I try to steer him and encourage him, but finally Harley has to decide.   

Enough for now.

Mark Derr