[cripplecreek]

I wish God had created dogs to live as long as people.

[Joe 6-pack]

"I wish God had created dogs to live as long as people."

Dogs simply earn their place in heaven much quicker than most humans :-)

[Viking2002]

'I wish God had created dogs to live as long as people.'

Amen to that, my brother. Amen to that.

R.I.P. RHUBARB, Mar. 1999-Sept. 2010

She was my little girl...........

"But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away, for his name is Obama."

[Secret Agent Man]

In this current world, it’s probably for the dogs’ sakes that they don’t live that long. They’d be wondering after awhile why they were supposed to like us so much, if they lived too long.

Now, after we’re made perfect by God and the animals come back, that’s going to be a far better time for all of us.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Selective breeding and science may be of considerable help with dog longevity, but not likely in our lifetimes.

Despite lots of videos of dogs that “talk”, it may actually be possible to evolve dogs enough so that they are able to communicate in a basic way.

That is, a smart dog can understand some 300 human words in context. One dog that was given intense training managed to distinguish 1,000 words. That is a very good level of “input”.

So what is needed is a genetic modification to their vocal area, so they might be able to enunciate perhaps a dozen words in context. This would be an incredible leap to real communication between people and dogs.

One possibility is found in a gene called FOXP2. Most mammals share it, but humans have a unique mutation of it that aids our speech in several ways.

While human FOXP2 has been experimentally transplanted into the DNA of a mouse, the question remains about what would happen if it was put into different breeds of dogs, especially those who already have some features conducive to speech.

Again, nothing too complicated. Perhaps with training they could learn to enunciate a dozen single vowel words, in context, enough so that a human can distinguish them.

Which raises the thought problem: if your dog could only speak 12 words, what words would you want them to be able to say?

[altura]

Me, too. Good dog.