Yearly Archives: 2008

Dog Fun, Human or Doggy Nature

Poll: Your relationship to your pets

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I saw an interesting poll on my local news website yesterday and wondered how Doggies.com people would respond.  Please use the comments section below:

 

How would you describe your relationship to your pets:

Owner

Guardian

Parent

Locally, people were overwhelmingly picking the last choice (72%), with the remaining 28% split evenly between owner and guardian.  The bad part about polls the way this one was presented is that you can only select a choice, but not give an explanation.  Please tell us your choice and tell us why you chose it in the comments section below.  (Hey, we’re low tech here – no fancy calculations to give instant results!)

Until next time,

Good day, and good dog!

Behavior and Psychology, Breed Specific, Human or Doggy Nature, Top Ten List

Least Aggressive Dogs

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As promised yesterday, here are the dogs that scored very low on the aggression scale in the study recently reported in the Applied Animal Behavior Science journal.  This study, compiled by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, involved asking 6,000 dog owners about their dog’s behavior.  Thirty-three different breeds were catalogued and rated according to how aggressive they are.

 

The dogs that were least aggressive were:

 

Basset Hound

Golden Retriever

Labradors

Siberian Huskies

Greyhounds

 

The Rottweiler, often assumed to be very aggressive, ranked average in its hostility towards strangers. 

 

The researchers did note, however, that even though small dogs headed the most aggressive list and big dogs headed the least aggressive list, the bites from the larger dogs were more likely to have required medical attention than those from the smaller dogs.

 

Until next time,

Good day, and good dog!

Behavior and Psychology, Breed Specific, Dog News, Human or Doggy Nature, Top Ten List

Top Ten Most Aggressive Dogs

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I think most of us would agree that dogs are not born aggressive, they are made that way by the environment in which they are raised.  However, there are some breeds that are more prone to aggresion than others.  The Daily Telegraph in Great Britain reports on a study published by Applied Animal Behavior Science, ranking 33 breeds of dogs according to their owners’ answers to behavioral questions.

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Behavior and Psychology, Human or Doggy Nature, Training

How Does Your Garden Grow?

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Having trouble keeping your landscaping nice because Fido doesn’t understand you just paid someone $1000 to spruce up the yard?  Even if you’re just growing a few vegetables, you’d probably rather the dog didn’t eat them all before you got a chance to harvest them.

Two of my dogs have figured out a way to get over the chicken wire into the garden, but only one has figured out a way to get back out.  More often than not, I have to rescue Penny (the beagle) or she just sits there and howls.  So, I appreciated this article in the Detroit Free Press a few days ago. 

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Health

Hot dog?

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Summertime is upon us, and at least in the Midwestern US, it is finally starting to heat up outside. 

Because dogs don’t sweat, they have to lower their body temperatures by panting, which is much less efficient.  This makes them much more susceptible to heat-related illnesses such as heat stroke.  Dogs with short muzzles and those with any type of airway disease are particularly affected.

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Welcome

The Nose Knows

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Have you ever watched an arson dog work?  It’s fascinating!  Here in Canton, Ohio, the fire investigators will bring their dog out to public events for demonstrations.  If you have this option where you live, be sure to go see it.  They say that the sense of smell is the most vivid of our senses, bringing back memories we didn’t know we even had when we smell something similar.  Now, imagine a dog, whose sense of smell is tens of thousands of times more acute than ours.

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Breed Specific, Training

Top Five Dogs for Public Safety Agencies

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Have you ever wondered why different dogs do so well at different jobs?  Just as with humans, they have different skillsets that are useful for different tasks.  We’re all familiar with the German Shepherd police dog, but you may not be as aware of these other working dogs that provide us with important safety services.

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Behavior and Psychology, Human or Doggy Nature

What Kind of Sleeper is Your Dog?

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I saw an ad in a catalog recently about the different kinds of dog beds.  Never realized that dogs had individualized sleep preferences, so I’m taking a very informal poll.  Please leave a comment below as your answer.

Does your dog like to sleep:

a.  securely enclosed in a bed, with a raised edge on all sides

b. leaning against a back support, similar to a couch

c. sprawled out in all directions

d. burrowed under a cover

To get you started, here’s the skinny on my dogs:

First of all, you should know that my dogs don’t believe in dog beds, or rather they think my bed is theirs. 

Kayla likes the support.  She generally leans against the footboard of my sleigh bed, often resting her head on the top of it. 

Cooper is a sprawler.  He seems to think he needs to take up as much surface area as possible. 

Penny is a burrower.  She’s either under the covers or under the bed entirely. 

Maggie can sleep anywhere.  I can’t say she has an actual preference.

So, what about your dogs? 

I look forward to hearing from you!

Good day, and good dog!