Tuesday 20 April 2010

Dogs' ears and kindergarten songs

Via The Portuguese Water Blog I've just visited a new blog, The Teacher's Pets and had a laugh at a photo gallery of dogs' ears to accompany the lyrics of one of my favorite old children's songs, Do Your Ears Hang Low?

I thought there was only one verse, but there are lots. And at least two versions.

I got to thinking about ears. Here are the ears of Scruffy, our Tuesday visitor who is sitting near my computer:




And here are the ears of our lovely GSD friend Jabari:



Expressive ears, I think. And at first I thought Penny's ears, because they droop, don't have a story to tell - until I looked through some old pictures:

Her ears can express calmness.



They can go very flat when she doesn't like the big eye of the camera looking at her.



They can fly with her.





And, momentarily, just after grooming, they can look elegant. (And show she isn't too happy about the grooming!)

13 comments:

Noah the Airedale said...

My...what long ears you have Penny.

Noah x

Molly the Airedale said...

You're such a beauty, Penny! We think you have the best ears of all!

Love ya lots,
Maggie and Mitch

parlance said...

Noah and Maggie and Mitch, I'll never feel the same now about a dog-eared book.

Two Pitties in the City said...

I think it's so funny dogs can use their ears to show emotion.

Slavenka said...

That's a great post and thanks for the link.

Sue said...

All the ears are expressive, but I fell in love with Scruffy's scruffy ears.

parlance said...

sue, Scruffy is lovely - timid and has been hurt by humans in the past, so it's a privilege to have him visit and feel safe.

parlance said...

Schwang, I read a book today that said we've been living with dogs/wolves for 135 000 years, so I guess we're pretty good by now at reading what their ears are telling us, lol.

parlance said...

Slavenka, I'm glad you like the link. It's my thanks for all the great links I've found on your blog.

Mary said...

Parlance, that last picture doesn't look like the same dog, she's so elegant-looking.

parlance said...

Mary, I think she looked so elegant because the groomer cut off the hair around her muzzle. I think it looks great that way. But he cut off her whiskers at the same time and I'm not sure I like the idea of that.

the teacher's pets said...

Hello....Oh my gosh, I had no idea that you mentioned my http://theteacherspets.blogspot.com/2010/04/do-your-ears-hang-low.html to your blogger friends until today when I started reading the comments on another blog that sent me to you! To think that my kindergarten days way back in the DARK AGES of 1996 would eventually lead me to become a professional pet sitter and THEN to post a story about my pet sitting dog's ears and reach all the way to Australia! I am truly honored! Thank you so much for mentioning my blog post! I subscribed to your FEED just now and I hope you will come on over to my blog (all the way from NEW HAMPSHIRE) for a visit! I wish you had a "follow me" google button but that doesn't exist over there....either way, I will be reading your blog often!
XOXO-APRIL, DAISY, HENRY, & BUSTER

parlance said...

Petsitgal, I don't think a kindergarten teacher ever retires, lol, we just start applying what we learned about kids in a different way - to dogs. On the other hand, I reckon if I'd had a dog when I was a kindergarten teacher I might have applied some of the reward-based techniques to the kids!

I've added your blog to y Google Reader so I can keep up with what you're saying.