young babies can understand dog barks and body language

Humans and canines have lived together for hundreds of thousands of years and we understand each other pretty well. It's surprising, however, to find that babies just six months old can look at photos of angry or welcoming dogs and match the pictures correctly to recorded barks, snarls or yaps.

Dogs were chosen for the experiments at Brigham Young University, reported in the Journal of Developmental Psychology, because they are a species that communicates with body language and with sound - as we do.

Here's a quote from a report at Physorg.com:

In the experiment, the babies first saw two different pictures of the same dog, one in an aggressive posture and the other in a friendly stance. Then the researchers played - in random order - sound clips of a friendly and an aggressive dog bark...While the recordings played, the 6-month-old babies spent most of their time staring at the appropriate picture. Older babies usually made the connection instantly with their very first glance.

I'm glad to have come across this Physorg site. It looks interesting.

Penny ate a little bit of chocolate

Penny believes every walk is a foraging expedition. And when she finds something, she has to swallow it quickly, before her humans steal it.

We've just returned from a walk around the block, during which she nabbed some chocolate from a neighbour's driveway. I'm used to the sound of chop bones being crunched - you can usually grab them out of her mouth. I'm used to the disappointing snap and pop of cooked chicken bones going down her gullet before I can retrieve them. But who expects chocolate?

Given that we're a household of chocaholics, we've done well to make sure Penny has never scoffed any chocolate in the house. (Well, there was that huge packet of sweet biscuits that disappeared from the inaccessibly high kitchen table when Penny was a puppy...)

After we arrived home I drove back to check it was milk chocolate, and then I hurried home to look on the Net for information about the symptoms of poisoning. I''m feeling more relaxed since I read a report that says a dog her size (33pounds/ 15 Kilos) would have to eat 33 ounces of milk chocolate to be in danger.

At Net.Pet Magazine I got more details. The half-life of the dangerous ingredient - theobromine - is 17.5 hours. (I like that, because it sets a time limit on my worrying.) Milk chocolate has 44 mg of theobromine per ounce of chocolate. Therefore the toxic dose for a 50 lb dog would be 50 oz of milk chocolate. I don't quite understand the maths of that, but it comes out to the same amount as the other site.

On the other hand, following a link from Dolittler, my favorite veterinary blogger, I arrived at the ASPCA and read:

Chocolate contains large amounts of methylxanthines, which, if ingested in significant amounts, can cause vomiting, diarrhea, panting, excessive thirst, urination, hyperactivity, and in severe cases, abnormal heart rhythm, tremors and seizures.

Wait a minute! I've just got my head around one big word. What is this 'methylxanthine'?

And then, on a medication guide for humans, I discovered that theobromine is a type of methylxanthine, which solved that little mystery!

At a site for vets to share information I was interested to note that dogs may, however, show symptoms at a much lower dose, as low as ten percent of the fatal dose. However, the vet says the danger from milk chocolate is very low.

But, by my calculation, that's only 3.3 ounces. So I'll be keeping an eye on her. She's barking up a storm at the front door at the moment, but I think that's just her usual reaction to next door's cat being in our front yard.

the final day of K9 Kompany

Tonight Penny and I went to the get-together to celebrate all the good times we have had at K9 Kompany in Lilydale. I won't put a link to it this time, as I've done so often...because it no longer exists!

K9 Kompany, the wonderful place where we learned so much, and laughed and relaxed together, has been closed because the parent organisation, Coldstream Animal Aid, can't afford to maintain it. They spent so much time and money on helping animals in the February bushfires that they can no longer afford to subsidise the K9 Kompany.

I feel sad at the closing of this uniquely special training venue, where we have done canine freestyle, agility, flyball practice, tricks and even some basic film work. It was simply fantastic.

But life goes on. One great thing is that Cindy, our teacher, is setting up her own business. At the moment she's concentrating on dog training, pet minding and dog walking, but I've got my fingers crossed that she might set up her own agility and tricks training classes in the future. She intends to set up her own site, so I'd suggest local dog owners might want to check it out regularly to see whether she has it up and running.

We are going to join her social walks group in the meantime.

Penny was quite surprised, when we arrived at Lilydale tonight, to see all the rules had been relaxed and she could roam around the area freely. However, she stayed close to me most of the time, so it was easy to keep an eye on her.

cleaning dog hair off carpets with a Grip-It brush

I was brushing Penny's long hairs off my pants today, using a Grip-It brush that we bought for removing pilling from woollen clothes, when I suddenly had a thought...Would it work on the carpet to remove Penny's long hairs, and would it be even better than the damp cloth I've been using?

The answer is...yes, and yes.



We've had this Grip-It for a long time, and I can't remember where we bought it, but in searching for the link above I discovered it's possible to buy them online and that replacement pads are available - though I can't figure out how to take the old one off and put on the new one. However, I feel sure we'd be able to do it if we had to.

playing doggie online games instead of walking in the park

Penny might have to nudge me a bit harder if she wants to go for a walk, because I've come across an addictive little doggie game.

It's here. I read about it in an email from my local library's Web 2.0 site.

It loads quite slowly but it's fun to help the little dog get the bone. (Don't click on the advertisement for Bubble Buster that comes up while you're waiting , if you want to play the doggie game.)

wandering the laneways with a dog

Penny and I often walk along the local laneways, enjoying the quiet pace of life off the main roads.



A few days ago we decided to explore some of the laneways that have not been "developed" as walking tracks, the ones that are mostly unused.





I suspect it's the existence of these often overgrown, hidden tracks that explain why our area is Snake Central! I'll be on the alert once more from October to May, and we won't be wandering so carelessly up these lanes. Also, I think there must be a population of foxes roaming them, too, to judge by the number of animal bodies we came across as we walked.

I think the first one was a ring-tailed possum.



Then we saw two dead birds - magpies, I think.




It's sad to see these dead bodies, but I guess they are part of the cycle of nature. Certainly, their bodies were decaying into the soil, and it seemed as if something had eaten them away.

But it was good to see a live magpie. And even though it's still the middle of winter, this bird was building its nest, so we'll be looking out for swooping magpies in the future.

bones of pre-conquest dog found at Cambridge in England

A hoard of historic finds, including Roman pottery, medieval remains and the bones of an 11th-century dog have been found at the heart of Cambridge University during an excavation to mark its 800th anniversary.

In our twenty-first century suburban household, Penny works hard for her keep. She brings us joy by making us laugh; warns us of approaching visitors or strangers; makes sure the possums stay up in the treetops; maintains our fitness levels by taking us for a long walk each day; keeps us young by making us go to classes for agility, canine freestyle and sometimes tracking; teaches us how to rest and how to stop to smell the roses (well, smell something along the way).

Dogs have always earned their keep. I've posted previously about how they changed the history of Tasmania by assisting their convict owners to hunt kangaroos without guns. And there are countless ways in which dogs assisted past societies to make ends meet.

In Cambridge in England, in the heart of the ancient University, the skeleton of a dog has been found, along with boundary markings and signs of quarrying, all proof of a vibrant Anglo-Saxon settlement before the Norman invasion.

Richard Newman, site director with the Cambridge Archaelogical Unit, believes the dog would have been a valuable ally for the self-sufficient family that owned it.

He said:

"It would have been a working animal and an essential part of the household at the time, used for tasks such as catching rabbits. A dog would also have given people security, it was useful when it came to protecting your possessions, and it was cheaper than a lock!"

If you'd like to read more, go to News for Medievalists. It's a fascinating blog for those interested in medieval history around the world.