Posted on 12/11/2020 6:22:44 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Most of us who have been blessed with having a dog for a friend know how beautiful they are, how loyal they are, and how smart they are. Get any dog lover started on how intelligent his friend is and he won’t shut up.
But what kind of intelligence is at work in a dog’s brain? Most of us have probably shared the fantasy of sitting down with our dog and having a long chat, but the reality is a lot different. In many ways, a dog’s brain is similar to ours but with some vital differences.
We know, for instance, that dogs can understand subtle differences in human speech sounds. But a study done by researchers at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest seems to indicate that dogs are unable to tell the difference between words that sound alike but have different meanings.
To probe these limitations in dogs’ auditory vocabulary (if you will), the researchers conducted an experiment, in which over 40 dogs were brought into the lab, having their brain activity measured non-invasively via electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes attached to their scalp.
While connected to the equipment, the animals heard three different types of words spoken on a recording: familiar instruction words (eg. ‘sit’), phonetically similar nonsense words (eg. ‘sut’), and dissimilar nonsense words (eg. ‘bep’).
The results are about what you’d expect.
The EEG results, based on a subset of 17 animals whose data were considered reliable, showed a clear difference in the dogs’ brain responses – called event-related potentials (ERPs) – when they heard either familiar words or the dissimilar-sounding nonsense words.
On the whole, though, the ERPs suggested dogs weren’t able to distinguish between the familiar instructions (such as ‘sit’) and similar-sounding nonsensical terms (such as ‘sut’), given the phonetic overlap between them.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
She loved to shop. A great day for her was to get in the truck, go to the pet store and walk up and down the aisles looking at (and sniffing) the merchandise. If there was something on an upper shelf she wanted to examine, she would ask me to pick her up. She never asked to buy anything and she never shoplifted, she just loved to shop.
The only time she ever would bark at me was when I spoke to her in German. Obviously I was talking to her, but she couldn't understand what I was saying.
She has been gone for eight years, I still miss her.
My 95 pound bundle of love Rotten Shepherd and I communicate well. When she has to go out, she licks my hand. When she thinks it's meal time, she'll stare at me until I get the message.
She knows what "walk" means, and "it's time to wake the boy up" when our grandson spends the night.
Yesterday, she wore herself out watching over our 6 MO granddaughter, who spent the day with us. You should have seen her jump into action when she heard her crying...she rolled over on the trampoline, and didn't like that one bit.
It was a great day for me, I was able to hold my granddaughter for 90 minutes uninterrupted while she napped.
You ought to see mine when I start preparing a brisket...lol.
#24 Your wife has you trained too : )
One night, I waited longer than normal, as my mom was occupied with something. The dog heard the phone and one ring, and got mom's attention when she didn't react for a few minutes.
“We had an Afghan Hound.”
Yeah but he refused
I'd make breakfast every Sunday morning for the whole family (including Teddy.) Teddy's would be set aside until after the family was done eating. As soon as we'd start cleaning up, he'd start "talking" and creeping towards the kitchen. I'd stare at him and tell him to go back downstairs to the family room repeatedly. My boys would laugh, my (now) ex-wife would complain I made Teddy breakfast.
The game would go on for about five minutes or so until Teddy would finally come in the kitchen and bark at me without stopping until I put his breakfast down.
It's one of those things I still miss to this day. They sure have a way of getting into and staying in our hearts don't they?
I've done similar, lost the guy a few months back, miss those "games".
Yep - we had a skunk incident once too — since she was mostly light-fawn in color, after 3 soaking baths with tomato juice, she was weirdly peach-colored for a few weeks.
Here I am now two and a half years later thinking I'm never getting another one. I'm 58, an empty nester and am enjoying my freedom in being able to come and go as I please. I'll spend several days at a time away from home at the GF's house or travelling somewhere. Still, there are times I do miss my Teddy and the companionship that only a wonderful animal like him provides.
We decided to wait one year. They are a big responsibility especially when travelling and you don't have a simple solution. We boarded ours, one week was about the same a two nights in a luxury hotel.
Fortunately we knew a local dog groomer and called her to ask her what we should do. She told us the best thing to do was to get the dog shaved down since it's near impossible to wash the skunk oil out of a dogs hair once it's set in. So that's what we did.
Poor guy, he was really embarrassed and upset at us for having that done to him. He let us know he was upset too, refused to come near either one of us for about a week.
I agree, they're a huge responsibility and a commitment for their lifetime. I feel somewhat guilty saying I enjoy my freedom too much to get another one while at the same time missing that kind of companionship. I don't think it'd be fair to a dog for me to be gone as much as I am, even if I had a sitter come in and take care of them. That just seems to be cruel.
I get my "fix" by doggy sitting friends dogs when they go away. That seems to work pretty well for me. :-)
Broca’s area in the brain. That’s the key. We have one, dogs have one.
Someone took him.
I have renamed him Biden.
That is why dogs belong outside rather than in the house. I can always smell dogs/cats of a pet owner that keeps their animals in the house.
Was friends with a family in the 80's with a young dog named Red which the youngest kid (Shawn) had found abandoned. Dog was part Golden Retriever and something else, with a good temperament (like most Retrievers. However one particular issue was that he just loved insisted on staying in the back seat of my old 67 Catalina. Once in he simply would not get out and would stay there for hours if I let him. I had to make believe I was mad and look at him sternly and command, Red, get out! If I did not give in to laughing then Red would slowly move to the door and gingerly put on foot outside and then give me a look like, "How could you be so mean?" Once out I would have to close the door quickly so that he would not jump back in. I surmised he must have feared being abandoned again.
Needless to say, that rear seat was a taste of Heaven for him. Well, one day I am some of the family we were at the dairy farm (where he was found) up the street that I worked at, and while it was sunny it had rained, and as the kids played outside I looked at the muddy feet of Red and said "Red won't be able to get back in the car." Up to now Red was sitting peacefully, but as soon at he heard my "dire" words then he immediately started walking, making a beeline for the car. I attempted to call him to stop but that was futile. In thru the open rear windows he went and back into his safe haven.
Now I cannot say he exactly knew what I said, but he certainly understood what it meant!
When are the muzzies going to learn to stick to DU? They don't like dogs and that says it all for me.
How well do they understand? I was enjoying the weather on my porch when sounds of target shooting echoed from down the road. I told Dobbie (a Miniature Doberman - they're actually their own breed), "Hey, they're shooting bad dogs today!" He thought a moment then ran to hide under my bed.
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