robot dogs and real ones in nursing homes

Life in our household has never been the same since Penny came to live with us. I'm sure we laugh out loud more often and we certainly behave like silly kids on a regular basis - that's why the corridor wall is dotted with muddy imprints from tennis balls and the floor is often littered with tug toys. She makes us feel good.

Perhaps we needn't have gone to all the expense of buying a real dog. I've just come across an interesting report on a study in which a robot dog was compared with a real dog in easing loneliness in nursing home residents. People were questioned about their level of loneliness before the study and were visited for thirty minutes each week by either the robot, Aibo, or a gentle dog, Sparky. The conclusion was that there was no difference.

I must say, to me this seems quite an absurd result. I'd want to know how the study ruled out any effect of the experimenter visiting each week to bring the dog or robot. And maybe the residents liked feeling that they were part of this study. I think it's a comment on the practice of expecting people to live out the last part of their lives in such an unstimulating environment that even a machine makes them feel a bit better.

On the other hand, I have happy memories of that stuffed toy dog I had when I was a child. And I sure thought R2D2 was a lovable character in Star Wars - he seemed really alive. Who knows? Maybe in the future when we've killed off all the other species on earth we can all have loving relationships with a pile of animated metal.

I found the reference to the report by following a link from The News Buckit.

the stress of unemployment in dogs

If Penny is getting tired of all the 'bright ideas' that I'm finding on the Internet, she hasn't told me about it yet. But maybe I've gone too far with a tip I picked up yesterday. I read a piece about the stress that dogs suffer when they have no job to do - the writer pointed out that dogs were domesticated in order to work with humans, yet many of our modern pets have nothing to do all day.

The article suggested making dogs work for their dinner. It sounded like fun. So, to Penny's surprise, instead of having to merely 'sit' for her lovely meal of kangaroo meat today, she had to wait in the house while I hid the bowl in a far corner of the yard. She bounded down the stairs and quartered the backyard, nose to the ground until she discovered her meal. By the frantic waving of her tail I think she enjoyed it.

I think she comes from a mix of breeds, one of which used to guard monasteries in Tibet and warn the monks when outsiders were approaching. So, when she leaps to her feet and lets out a startlingly loud bark at the front door, we're resolved to regard this as an example of her doing the work she was bred to do. We usually get up from what we're doing and thank her for the warning, after which she usually stops barking...usually...

Now, as to those pesky possums that hiss at her in the backyard at midnight or even later, when we go out so she can relieve herself, if only we could communicate to her that it isn't her job to bark loudly and fiercely at them!

washing a dog's dirty feet

We started out three years ago resolved to get Penny used to the idea that she would get her feet washed every time she re-entered the house. How optimistic...

Well, maybe we should give it a go again. I've seen a novel device on Spluch. It's a a jug that washes dog's paws. It reminds me of a gadget with vertical and horizontal brushes that I've got outside my back door for cleaning my shoes before I go inside.

There's a cute video designed to convince you that it's just what you need. But I reckon the white dog needs a nose-plunger as well - he's certainly been having fun getting muddy enough to show the paw-plunger in action.

a great video of dog agility training

Penny and I are inspired to try to learn more about agility after watching a video of Johann the Dog training with Silvia Trkman who was visiting the US. It's a great clip because you get to see three runs and to hear the comments that Silvia made to Johanns' mum.

After reading Johann's report I enjoyed browsing Silvia's site. There's lots to see!

dogs, dementia and daytime radio

When Penny and I were in the car going to Gardiner’s Creek to meet Jabari and her mum, I caught a bit of a radio programme about memory and the aging brain. Given that I’m well into middle life I found it engrossing. So I’ve listened to the downloadable version of the show tonight while Penny snoozes nearby.

The programme was hosted by Richard Aedy and the panel consisted of Cathryn Jakobson Ramin, author and journalist; Associate Professor Kaarin Anstey, Director of The Ageing Research Unit at ANU; and Dr Bill Brooks, Senior Researcher at the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute.

It occurred to me that the discussion not only has value for myself, but it also relates to how I stimulate and train Penny.

In relation to humans, Dr Brooks said that to protect the brain against the possible effects of dementia in later life, the crucial time is actually early in life - the education that you have before you are about sixteen. This is the time when you are building up the connections in your brain, the synapses. These connections last throughout your life.

I guess this makes me think that it’s important to give our young dogs a wide range of experiences in which they need to solve problems.

He also places emphasis on the “use it or lose it” advice for middle or later life. He says it’s always worthwhile doing cognitively stimulating activities.

I think that for middle aged or senior dogs we should ignore the idea that you ‘can’t teach an old dog new tricks.’ I’ve certainly seen plenty of proof that this saying is not accurate.

Cathryn Ramin has recently published a book called ‘That Memory Book’ – I couldn’t find it on the Internet, but I’ll be looking to get a copy as soon as I can. However, I did come across a blog post by her called “I Never Forget a Furry Face”. It’s about the common experience of forgetting people’s names. It’s a great read, and I enjoyed her doggy example of using aspects of people’s appearance or background to remember their names. She says:

Although I do not know the name of a single human being in our local dog park, I can reliably greet most of the canine regulars. So many are endowed with names that mirror their physical traits or provenance. There’s Fidel, the Havanese, whose handle reflects his Cuban roots. There’s Einstein, a charmingly disheveled Schnauzer, and Bounce, a Jack Russell mix who came from the pound equipped with heavy-duty rocket thrusters. There’s Speed Bump, a Bassett-Beagle cross, and of course my dog Radar, who never leaves my side. My other pet, Rosie, a shepherd mutt, is more obscurely named, but I rescued her from the Santa Rosa Animal Shelter, a fact that allows people who make the connection to recall her name with ease.

I’ve got an unreliable, massively embarrassing bad memory and that piece by Cathryn Ramin reminds me of a time last year when I met a guy in our local park. He had a mixed-breed dog and I commented to him that I’d met quite a few people lately with that same breed. He replied, “No you haven’t. You’ve met me three times and asked me about my dog each time.”

My face has gone red again as I recall that moment!

So if I visit your blogs and contribute some weirdly dumb comments, please be kind to me…

dog how-to site

I've been wondering how to clip Penny's nails. Now that she is being washed at home instead of going to a groomer I'm beginning to realise that I need to know lots of other things besides the actual washing.

At A Dog Blog there is a short piece about trimming nails but I feel that I need to know more.

I think I'll watch the short video at WonderHowTo. It's a demo by Dr. Candy Olson from Greenbriar Animal Hospital in which she demonstrates some techniques for trimming a dog's nails. WonderHowTo looks like a mine of information - some of the videos are about how to clean a dog's teeth, how to check for fleas, how to clean the ears, how to give an at-home exam.

However, I think before I followed any of the instructions in these clips I would need to ask around my more experienced dog-owner friends to see what they think of the tips and techniques, but it certainly seems like a useful resource. There were 369 clips about dogs when I looked tonight.

I found the link at Bark Blog.

vet recommended home remedies

Recently Penny chased a ball into a blackberry bush and ripped small chunks out of the skin on her belly. We washed the wounds clean and hoped for the best and it seems as if all is well now. However, at the time we wondered what human medicines we could use on her, and made a resolution to keep a canine first-aid kit on had in future.
Therefore, I read with interest a post by Dolittler, one of my favorite bloggers, about six things she, as a vet, recommends dog-owners have on hand.