I don’t which dog woke me up first; the one licking my face or the one licking my feet. July and August have kept me unusually busy and I’ve had no time for blogging and a lot less for the dogs, but even under trying times I make time for the dogs. Typically we wake…
I’m worried about the future of the Malinois*. On June 26 MGM will release the movie Max and I hope it tanks. I really do. Movies can influence dog choice and the upcoming release of this movie threatens to make the Malinois the trendy dog to have; this effect can be felt 10 years…
I’m nearly finished with Pat Shipman’s book ‘The Invaders‘ and thought about writing something on it; during the preliminary research I came across Kevin Behan’s take on this book. His post is the usual pseudo-science babble and mystical energy nonsense but one part caught my attention for its brazen dismissal of well documented history. Behan…
Cesar, you once wrote: “When I learned how to be calm-submissive to my wife, it improved my marriage 100 percent!” But you are now divorced. Did your recipe for an “improved” marriage lead to its eventual breakdown? Were you resentful about being submissive? Was your wife looking for a partner and not a prisoner to…
We can divide dog training into two distinct philosophies; and no I don’t mean aversive vs rewarding, I’m thinking of those that divide dogs into active learners and those which favor passive learning. Trainers that create opportunities for the dog to find the answer and trainers that give (often by force) the answer. I thought…
In 2013 there was a bit of excitement when a group out of Missouri U reported finding Y-chromosomal DNA in the blood dogs that had given birth to male pups. The first time fetal microchimerism (FMc) has been detected in dogs. During pregnancy there is a small exchange of cells between mother and…
The DailyMail’s article on dog play was an excellent example of lousy reporting but being familiar with this paper I blame it on their general laziness and not a malicious attempt to lie to their readers. We can’t say the same about Kevin Behan who has no problem lying to his gullible followers. In the…
Too often, it is difficult to know what is reliable information and what’s junk. If you read this blog with any regularity then you know I strongly emphasize the importance of going to the primary source because there is a lot of bad, bad, bad stuff out there. While it’s easy to dismiss a one-off…
. The study reports curiosity not only makes one a better learner of the target subject but also improves recall of incidental information. With animals the word ‘curiosity’ tends to be avoided in scientific literature, instead we find terms like ‘neophilia’, ‘exploratory’ and ‘novelty-seeking behavior’; probably to avoid charges of anthropomorphism. Despite literature’s reluctance to describe…
“Low to ground, long in body and short of leg” – AKC Dachshund breed standard Few studies are quickly explained with 3 graphs, this is one of them. It also neatly illustrates one problem associated with arbitrary exaggeration of certain traits. Interested in determining how relative back length is related to Intervertebral disc extrusion risk…
Science and Dogs 
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