Dogs

Clever canines: can dogs really tell when you’re being

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Name: Canis familiaris (AKA dogs).

Age: As a distinct species, at least 15,000 years old.

Appearance: Varies widely.

Common traits: Excellent sense of smell, exceptional intelligence.

What are you talking about? My dog is a moron. It’s more of an emotional intelligence.

Why would a dog need emotional intelligence? They specialise in understanding humans.

Again, not my dog. He speaks barely a word of English. Maybe not, but most dogs can pick up on human gestures without training. For example, they know what pointing at something means.

Big deal. Apes don’t understand pointing.

I thought apes were smart. They are on many levels, but they just aren’t as attuned to human behaviour as dogs are.

Give me another example. According to a new study from the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, dogs can even interpret our intentions.

What does that mean? It means your dog knows the difference between you being unkind, and you being merely hopeless.

How would you go about discovering something like that? Through experimentation. In the study, humans were placed inside transparent boxes, with a small hole through which they could feed the test dogs a bit of food.

I’m more or less with you so far. On some occasions the experimenters pretended to be clumsy and dropped the food inside the transparent box; on others they withheld the food in a teasing fashion. The dogs consistently displayed more patience with clumsiness.

So how do you measure the amount of patience being displayed by a dog? I’m glad you asked: right-tail wagging.

Come again? A tail wagging more to the right is thought to be associated with the left side of the dog’s brain, and with more positive dog emotions.

Seriously? “The rightward tail bias found in the clumsy condition is supportive of the interpretation that

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10 families in Iowa town told to give up dogs by authorities

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KEYSTONE, Iowa (KCRG/Gray News) – Ten families in an Iowa town must get rid of their family dogs after being told to do so by local authorities. The dogs are pit bulls or look like pit bulls.

The Benton County Sheriff’s Office told the dog owners living in Keystone that they had 10 days to find new homes for their pets, according to KCRG. That was on July 22.

MaKinzie Brecht found out her dog Nightmare couldn’t live with her anymore during the course of a normal day.

“My mom told the sheriff where I was,” she said. “He came and spoke to me at my work and let me know that me, along with nine other addresses, were turned in because we had pit bulls or dogs that look like pit bulls.”

Benton County has an ordinance prohibiting dangerous animals; included in the list is “any dog which has the appearances and characteristics of being the breed of Staffordshire Terrier, American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, any other breed commonly known as pit bulls, pit bull dogs or pit bull terriers, or a combination of any of these breeds.” The ordinance dates from March 21, 2000.

According to Preston Moore, Iowa state director for the Humane Society, the Benton County ordinance is “one of the most vague.”

“It doesn’t actually necessarily say a dog has to be proven to be a quote unquote pit bull,” Moore said. “In Benton County, a dog just has to have some characteristics of those dogs. And then a very arbitrary process can take place where somebody can determine this dog happens to look like, sort of, one of these dogs, so it’s not allowed.”

Gabby Gormley is one of the Keystone dog-owners who was told to get rid of her pet because

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Chris Evans shares his approach to dog parenting

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His owner is also actor Chris Evans, which makes the pair’s selfies ten times more “like”-able on Instagram.

Named after a character from the movie “Oliver & Company,” Dodger is a boxer-mix that the Marvel star adopted in 2015. One half of a “pair of dysfunctional codependents,” Dodger has at least as many admirers as his famous owner, who this week announced a partnership with dog food company Jinx in a move that’s as on-brand for Evans, one of Hollywood’s most prolific dog dads, as one could get.

In a conversation with CNN, Evans talks about how Dodger inspired his new business venture, which will have him playing “an active role in the business and creative direction of the brand,” according to a press release, and the humbling pleasures of pet parenting.

This interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

CNN: I was told Dodger was going be here, and I see him roaming about.

CHRIS EVANS: Yeah, yeah. He’s back there.

Not exactly a keep-him-on-your-lap-during-a-Zoom dog.

No, he might take up the whole frame.

Chris Evans announced his partnership with dog food company Jinx on Wednesday.

I’m a passionate dog mom myself, so I wanted to ask you a little bit about your journey as a dog dad, and what inspired you to get involved with a company like this.

I mean, we’re always looking for different partnerships and ways to expand and have fun creatively beyond acting. I had actually been giving Dodger the Jinx treats for a while, and he loved them, and then my business manager brought me this opportunity. When you actually sit down with the company, you get to know the people, it’s so nice to meet people who have a shared passion and who kind of seem like they’re really doing something good in the world and actually helping. Then on

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Dogs can ‘see’ with their noses, study suggests

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Dogs are renowned for their ability to identify and track objects by scent. Now it’s been revealed they enhance this talent with special brain structures that link it to how they see.

A study published this month in the Journal of Neuroscience revealed that vision and the sense of smell are connected in the brains of dogs, something not yet found in any other species.

“The most interesting thing about this research are the connections from the nose up to the occipital lobe, which houses the visual cortex,” said veterinary neurologist Philippa Johnson, an associate professor at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and senior author of the study. 

She and her colleagues studied MRI scans of the brains of 23 dogs that showed neurological connections between the olfactory bulb, where smells are recognized, and their occipital lobe, where vision is processed.

Humans, who rely mainly on vision, have no such connections in their brains, although it’s possible there’s something similar in other animals that depend heavily on scent, Johnson said.

The discovery suggests smell and vision in dogs are integrated in some way, although it’s not known how dogs experience the two senses functioning together.

“Scent contributes to the visual cortex in dogs, but a dog’s experience is hard for us to know,” Johnson said. “But I think they can use scent to work out where things are.”

She explained that when humans walk into a room, they primarily use their sense of vision to establish who is there or how furniture is positioned. But dogs seem to integrate scent into their interpretation of their environment and how they are orientated in it, she said.

That’s borne out by the behavior of dogs that have lost their vision but don’t seem greatly affected by the fact that they have

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How Much Should I Spend to Keep My Elderly Dog Alive?

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I am a 65-year-old single retired woman who has sufficient means to take care of herself, though I need to watch my budget. My 15-year-old dog has been largely healthy for much of his life. I really love him, but I can see that in the next year or two there will be hard choices about how much money to spend on his care as he ages.

I grew up in a farm environment with parents of limited means. We were always kind to our animals, but they were not family members. My entire family believes in quality of life over quantity — so much so that my mom and her sisters chose quality over quantity at the ends of their lives. I also have a strong practical bent, which is why I saved enough for a comfortable retirement during 35 years of working and despite some less happy events like divorce and serious medical issues. But I know the practical doesn’t always carry the day in terms of doing the right thing.

My concern is not just the cost of treatment for my dog but also gauging when his suffering is too much. I can afford to spend a fair amount, in that it won’t impair my lifestyle, but I am not comfortable allocating many thousands of dollars to treatments for my aging dog. However, I am concerned with what I ethically owe this very devoted pet. What do you think is the right thing to do? Name Withheld

Many people think of their relationships with their pets on the model of their relationships with people. They speak of loyalty, gratitude, duty and, as you do, devotion. But there’s a range of opinion, among philosophers and animal researchers, about whether animals are moral creatures in this way, with some

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Top Tips To Stop Dogs Jumping Up At Visitors

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If your puppy or young dog tends to jump up at people – either visitors at home or people you meet on a walk – this behaviour can start to become problematic once they are fully grown.

Even though your dog may simply be excited or trying to be friendly, not everyone appreciates it when a dog, no matter what size they are, jumps up at them. To help, Battersea has revealed a new, four-step training method.

1. Don’t reward jumping

The next time your dog jumps up at you, instead of greeting them, turn your back on them until all four of their paws are back on the ground. Once this has happened, turn around and then reward them with positive attention.

Consistency is key as you will have to react the exact same way every time they jump up at you.

Once all four of their paws are back on the floor, scatter their favourite treat or a few down in front of them to encourage them to focus downwards instead of up at you.

2. Get others on board

This is especially important whenever a visitor comes to your house. Ask them to follow the exact same training steps.

You can consider encouraging those you meet when out walking to do the same to help reinforce the training.

Thanasis Zovoilis / Getty Images

3. Deflect their attention if they begin to get frustrated

If your dog continues to jump up, even when they’re being ignored, Battersea recommends asking your dog to carry out behaviours that they know well, such as a ‘sit’ command.

“Before someone says hello to your dog, try and ask your dog to sit, and ask the person not to give them attention until they do it. When your dog sits, reward them with

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