To The Dogs
Posted at 5:20 AM on April 16, 2009
by Dale Connelly
(38 Comments)
Yesterday Shelley mentioned her dog Grace was having surgery for hip problems. She asked if many Radio Heartland listeners have dogs. We don't have an answer to that quite yet, but we know several blog readers send their best wishes for a quick recovery for Grace! We'll hope to hear good news today.
And if you keep company with a dog at home and would like to admit it ... Speak!
I have a dog. Here's Diamond considering the Minneapolis skyline from Ridgway Parkway. It's a nice spot to see downtown and hear the steady drone of 35W. Diamond finds it relaxing because the dull roar of the cars masks the infuriating chatter of those naughty squirrels.
Dogs are in the news as much as pirates, with the addition of a canine (finally) to the first household. The New York Times ran an article that actually asked the question:
"Does Bo know he's famous?"
One thing Bo certainly does seem to know in this White House photo - he knows he's supposed to let the Big Guy win this race. As a four-legged speedster, it wouldn't be much trouble for Bo to do a few spins around yonder bust of Jefferson before the president makes it to the end of the hallway, but sometimes it's wise to hold back a bit.
This gets us into questions about animal cognition - what do animals know of their own existence, and when do they know it? Come to think of it, any human who occupies the White House will eventually have to answer some kind of 'what did you know and when did you know it' question, so cognition is inherently an important issue at Casa Obama.
So, what do we think of Bo's level of awareness?
Does Bo know he's famous?
What else does he know?
Does Bo know his name, Bo Obama, is Amaboob when spelled backwards?
I think he does, and I suspect it tickles him.
Comments (38)
Aahhh, dogs. I'm betting this will be a busy blog day.
I can only imagine what a big head the First Dog will get. My two dogs (Rhiannon: Irish Setter and Thorin: Samoyed) are both rescues and live a quiet, no-claim-to-fame life. And even so, they both think they should be addressed and treated as royalty.
Happy day, Heartlanders and hoping to hear good news about Grace!
thanks for the good belly laugh, Dale - Amaboob - how do you do it? Diamond looks like a very excellent dog indeed.
Shelley - how is Grace today?
good morning! the birds are singing in Blackhoof township!
Good Morning! So nice to have darn-near daylight in the early hours of the morning.
How about a guilty conscience being a part of dog self-cognition? Muttley often came to our bedside in the middle of the night to confess his sins. Of course, he often broke house rules in the middle of the night, too.
I particularly remember a loud clatter and 'splang' at about 2am, followed by Muttley's confession with chocolate on his breath - he had knocked over the metal candy dish with M&M's in it, and ate a few before he entered the confessional. Luckily, he suffered no ill effects from the chocolate, which I learned can be big trouble for some dogs.
I always think of Peter Mayer's "Wasting Time" as being about a walk with his dog and other friends. Any chance we can hear it?
Thanks, Dale and Mike!
Good Morning,
I started wanting a dog at seven. Read Terhune's Lad a Dog and the rest of his Collie books, so had to have a Collie...had two. Since 1972, have been without a dog a total of 3 days. Many different colors and breeds and mixed breeds. Current dog is a rescue dog who was born in France...came with fancy pedigree and immigration papers, but was a difficult member of his first family so ended up in the Duluth shelter.
He is a Schapendoes which translates from Dutch to "sheep herding dog". I call him Jacques Brel. He looks like a small version of an English Sheep Dog.
Cognition? It is fun to watch him trying to decide what to do next. He just stands there for a minute, then opts for action. Though many times it is act first, regret later.
Any one read "One Nation Under Dog"?
Cynthia -- thanks for reminding me of some good dog reading! I've had dogs all my life but decided that Irish Setters were the best ever when I was six and Disney's "Big Red" came out (yes, I realize I'm dating myself!). I went out to read all the "Red" books by Jim Kjelgaard. It's been Irish Setters (& Samoyeds) ever since!
Wishing canine Heartlander Grace a speedy recovery!
Having no dog, I won't attempt to understand or describe dog consciousness, but I like The Roches depiction of it their song "Damned Old Dog" from the 1979 album The Roches. In fact, it's the only dog song I can think off the top of my head of that speaks directly to concept of dog consciousness or lack thereof (even if it is really about the humans anyway).
Good Morning!
I'll bet Dale is the first one to think of Amaboob, and I too got a good belly laugh over it! I hope things went well enough for Grace that Shelley is able to laugh a bit. Might take the edge off that bill. I just have Ajax the snowdancer now but used to have quite a fleet of dogs when I was training and showing them.
Good morning RH,
I laughed at Jon Stewart the other night when he called the white house dog, Bo-Bama, but Dale's backward spelling is better. How quaint!
I don't think the Obama's will rear a snobby doggy, but it will be hip and cool, naturally.
Diamond's a pretty girl, Dale. Currently, I'm petless, but will likely change that status come summer.
Barb - I loved reading about Artie in the big boy's pen yesterday. Is he staying put now?
Good Morning!
I'll bet Dale is the first one to think of Amaboob, and I too got a good belly laugh over it! I hope things went well enough for Grace that Shelley is able to laugh a bit. Might take the edge off that bill. I just have Ajax the snowdancer now but used to have quite a fleet of dogs when I was training and showing them. I don't seem to be able to post a link to his pictures and video but it's out there on my blog at wheeldancer.blogspot.com/2009/03/snowdancer.html
Where to posts go when they are waiting for blog owner approval?
Mark, my brother had a Golden named Ajax - he was a very kind, peaceful dog who needed more attention than he got as i remember. i cringe when i think of how we "took care" of our pets as little kids - we (and our parents) didn't know anything about their needs. Mom would feed the kitty leftover mashed potatoes and i can't remember giving them water! if one of the supreme beings is a dog, i'm going to heck for sure. but Ajax was not a vengeful dog. i guess what folks must like about dogs the most is the unquestioning, unconditional love these critters seem to have for their owners. certainly not the case with goats - i have to grovel for every nod.
ps Donna - Artie stayed put but Tammy W was in with the big boys later in the morning - and she was just curled up sleeping and they were ignoring her (thank goodness!)
Excellent, thanks for playing my request Dale! We will be listening when the Duos concert gets played and look forward to it appearing on a CD (please!?)
Thanks for the BD songs, Dale. What a wonderful way to start the day!
Amaboob...that means Diamond=Dnomiad
I read all the Jim Kjelgaard books as a kid, too. I also read Lassie Come Home when I was about eight or nine. I distinctly remember there is an incident in the book where a dog dies - not Lassie, of course - and I was devastated for days.
As for dog cognition, Richard Adams' The Plague Dogs did a pretty good job of getting inside the canine consciousness. I was a little older when I read it, but still had a hard time with the descriptions of abuse - maybe I should've stuck with Jim Kjelgaard.
Dale, you and Gus met my mutt Beatrice when she was a tiny puppy one morning about 8 years ago when you did a live show from the Como Pavilion. She was tiny then and we thought she was going to only be around 20-25 pounds, but today she weighs in at just shy of 65. Her little sister, Vera is also a mix; the only thing we know for sure is that her mother is an American Staffordshire Terrier. Vera is my 5th dog since I was 19. All my dogs have been mutts and rescue/shelter dogs and Bea and Vera are a little disappointed that Bo is a purebred. But I explained to them that that if Ted Kennedy gave us a gift of a fancy purebred dog we would keep it and raise it as if it were one of us. I am guessing that Bo has no idea that he is famous, but he will certainly notice the difference in 8 years when he has to live in a regular house with a regular yard and his human sisters are off to college. I hope that Bo gets to go to a dog park once in a while, but if he does, he might find out that other dogs get to sleep with their human families and not on the floor as the prez has promised he would.
Best wishes to Grace. My Stella (lab/rottweiler mix) had hip surgery at 9 months and the surgeon told me she also had arthritis in her hips at that age. We walked a couple of miles almost every day of her life and she lived to see 12 and has a special place in my heart.
There was a dog in the house when I came home from the hospital as a wee babe - when that dog went to the dog park in the sky (I was a teenager by then), we waited all of about a week before getting a thoroughly loveable and not especially smart black lab mix. After college I got myself a rescue basset hound. I miss that hound - she lived long enough to steal mini-donuts, chocolates, a loaf of cranberry bread, half a head of lettuce (all pretty much without being seen or heard), and to see the birth of my daughter before the arthritis, blindness and other indiginities of old age got to be too much.
Farley Mowat ("Never Cry Wolf") has a quote that says something about dog owners having one dog that is "the dog of their life." Not that that dog is any smarter or better than other dogs we have over time, but that dog is the one who is there for the major stuff of our life - marriages, children, death, figuring out who we are, whatever. My hound was that dog.
There will be another dog in the house hopefully soon (I decided an infant and a puppy did not need to be potty trained at the same time...so we have waited until Daughter is old enough that we don't have to clean up her poo). We do have a cat who seems pretty convinced he's a dog - but somehow it's just not the same...
Best wishes to Grace and Shelley (as well as Bo Bama - who seems to understand the quintessential "I am a dog, I'm good at being a dog, and life as your dog is grand" philosophy).
It strikes me as I listen, that Charlie Chaplin's "Smile" is a great song for dogs...since it seems to be the philosophy and attitude of so many of our canine companions. Wag your tail and smile...life is always worthwhile.
And Anna forgot to mention that Norma basset would moo loudly like a cow when she was rubbed the right way on her belly. VERY amusing!!!
Iwas told dogs are people, meaning they should be treated as though they are people. At my house we think all dogs think of themselves as famous, so we are sure that the White House dog has no trouble being famous.
Some times we think dogs are a little too much like people when it comes to expensive medical treatment such as we have had with our dog. However, we wish the best for sick dogs, including Grace.
There are some songs with people imitating the sound of coon hounds hunting, I think Ralph Stanley does one. If you can find one of these and have time to play it, I think it would go good with the other dog songs this morning
Barb - I personally hope one of the supreme beings is a dog since dogs are the most forgiving creatures on the planet and elsewhere I'm guessing. Gee, dogs as Supremes, I wonder if the RH library has any recordings with that setup?
Oh, Dale, it was not really 101 Dalmations! It had to be Lady and The Tramp!
The Disney Movie with the song "He's a Tramp" is "Lady and the Tramp" Not "101 Dalmations"
Actually Dale, I think the movie you're looking for is Lady and the Tramp. That's where the song He's a Tramp comes from.
My dog of the past 15 years had to be put down 2 months ago due to old age. He would have needed very expensive surgery to help him, which we couldn't afford. I miss him every day. He was a Chow Chow/ Springer Spaniel mix, and the best dog anyone could ever ask for. I want to get another dog, but I currently live in a "no pets" apartment. Someday though...
I've always have dogs, cats, birds, etc but now am petless. I do think that animals have an awareness that goes beyond the way we usually think of them. In most cases, it seems to be mainly love- in all its feathered, furry, brown eyed, green eyed type glory. They seem to be just another but very special expression of life.
It was Lady and the Tramp--a movie that gives little girls the never-dying hope that bad boys (or dogs, in this case) can turn into fathers and change their Tramp-like ways all for love of a naive little girl (dog). Hmmm, what happened to Lady and the kids after the credits? Only kidding--love the movie, esp. the romantic spaghetti-eating scene. And those evil Siamese cats--or as my daughter called them "Sia-means."
Love the show. Miss Jim Ed and the frequent skits, though.
Carolie is right...it was Lady and the Tramp..wasn't Lady a lovely little purebred Spaniel and Tramp "was a "Benjii" type? Peggy Lee wrote the music and was Lady's voice, I believe. I remember especially the Siamese cats' song "We are Siamese if you please, We are Siamese if you don't please..."
Mike probably isn't old enough to have seen Lady and the Tramp the first time around...
Have you played Ann Reed's dog song yet?
Ah! "Lady and the Tramp" it is! My bad. I burst into the studio to tell Dale, "101 Dalmations"!
"Lady and the Tramp" came out in June of 1955, BTW. I think I caught the re-run on "Wonderful World of Disney" one Sunday night when I was a puppy.
Anna, your story resonates with me. We've had 5 dogs over the last 20 years (up to 4 at a time), including a wonderful retriever-spaniel mix who lived through law school graduations, moves, a wedding, and many other life events. He died at the ripe old age of 14 while my husband was deployed overseas. We currently have 3 wonderful pups, a 16 year old terrier mix, a 12+ bass-ador (imagine a very short black lab with a hound head), and a sweet border collie-husky mix. But the "best dog ever" ever for me was my beautiful and gentle box-ador, a brindle boxer-lab mix who left this world suddenly about 1 1/2 years ago after 12 great years. All of them were rescue dogs.
My brother and I had 2 dogs growing up after our dad died. Thunder was a B&W spaniel pup that was rescued from a neighbor's uncle that didn't want him. He didn't live long as he escaped. ran into the street and was hit at only a few months old. Days later we went to the Humane Soc and got Rusty, a Collie-Shepherd mix that didn't really look like either with his reddish coloring but he was very good natured. He died of cancer at about 8 yrs old. That was it until adulthood.
After we bought our house in '92, we got Maggie from the Hum. Soc. She also was a collie mix, but looked more collie-like than Rusty ever did. She was a very special girl that got us through the birth and early childhood of our son (gained most of her weight when he was young and throwing food on the floor!) And she also knew all of our AFS students thus far. She was sensitive to our moods, and a great walker and camper, even after needing Rimadyl for leg and back arthritis. The only thing she really hated was car riding. Due to failing health we had her put to sleep at 14 in 2007. We still miss her. A month later, we rescued 1 yr old Lexi the yellow lab mix from the Hum Soc. She is at least 150% dog. She will probably become more human as the years go by, but so far she is the doggiest.
As to Bobama, I think he chooses to ignore the fact that he is famous. He just wants the limelight and attention of his First Pack!
Hang in there, Grace. Feel better.
I'm really a dog person but my wife is a cat person (yes, a cat person AND an editor), which explains why we have Violet and her son Indigo (both kibble-fueled purr machines).
My little brother (and, yes, he was my little brother) was a b/w English Springer Spaniel named Rockford of Greenhaven, that was smarter than many people I know. But I think that was partially because we treated him like a person. It doesn't take long to figure out that dogs respond to the social pack situations that they are placed in (and, yes, we're the ones that place them in those situations). At the same time, dogs also have personality and intelligence factors that play into that equation, just like people. So, will Amaboob get a swelled head? I think a big chunk of that depends on how his social pack is defined (to include the press?) and how they treat him.
When Rockford wanted a cookie once, we had just run out of Oreos. My Mom was just coming back from the store and she had just gotten some cookies. So, I opened the package and put one on his snack rug. He sniffed it, looked back at me, and said, "Woof." (I taught him to whisper and speak in an inside voice. He only barked loud when he was frustrated or upset.) I told him to eat his cookie but he just woofed louder. I finally looked at the cookie package. Mom had gotten Hydrox and Rockford wanted an -Oreo-. I managed to find one last stale Oreo in the bottom of the cookie jar. He munched it down and walked away from the Hydrox.
Got lots of great stories of him.
man, TGITH, what a commercial for Oreos! ha, ha!
my Grandma told me a story about her dog Rex. she and Grandpa were farmers and Grandma had chickens. way back then, probably in the 1920's or 30's, she carried water several times/day to the chickens. heavy buckets - but Rex, according to Grandma, would duck under a bucket and support it with his back to help her carry. one winter day she slipped on ice and fell, spilling the water. as she lay there, thoroughly disgusted with her life of drudgery, she said "Lord just take me now!" but then Rex came to her side and licked her face and she knew someone loved her - so she got up and continued.
Dale -- thanks for the dog theme today.
Anna - your comments remind me of Princess, the shepherd/collie mix that was one of my main childhood dogs. She was super smart and loyal, however, as the years went by after her death, her stature increased wildly with my dad. He would say things like "that dog was so smart, when I told her to go upstairs and get my slippers, she would go get them". Of course, my dad never wore slippers in his life. My mom and sister and I started to refer to her as Princess, the Wonder Dog whenever my dad would start remembering her!
Enjoy the warm day, Heartlanders!
Best wishes to Shelley and Grace. Our original Airedale, Sterling, had surgery on both hips (one at a time) due to hip dysplasia. He made a full and happy recovery, which I hope Grace will experience. The Elizabethan collar he wore to prevent licking the surgery site was almost worse than the surgery.
As for books about dogs, in addition to James Herriot’s writing, the best book I’ve read about a human and his canine companion is Merle’s Door by Ted Kerasote. It’s a wonderful account of their life together, nicely written.
By the way, I walk Vera and Beatrice every day no matter what the weather. May I use the Trial Balloon for my own PSA? In the spring, I feel like a little bit of a scrooge because people come out of their houses and start riding bicycles and tricycles and are often not safe around pedestrians and, in my case pedestrians with dogs, and I have to admit to being pretty grouchy about that. I also worry about older people walking in my neighborhood with bikes whizzing around them. I thought it was illegal to ride bikes on the sidewalks in Minneapolis, but I looked it up last night online and I was mistaken; it is only illegal in business districts. However pedestrians do have the right of way on residential sidewalks. It seems to me that only children should be riding their bikes on the sidewalks (adults should be able to follow the traffic laws on the streets to stay safe) and it would be great if you all taught your children to yeild to pedestrians. Cyclists are supposed to announce themselves when they are behind pedestrians, and tell them on which side they are passing. I believe that also means if you are on a bike and approaching a pedestrian coming the opposite way, you are supposed to make room for them. I usually pull my dogs off of the sidewalk to let people pass anyway, but if I don't have time to do that, (bikes are going much faster than I am) it could be dangerous for all involved.
It would be great if Bo Obama could be the spokesdog for dog/bike safety! :O)
hi, all---later even than usual today, but here nonetheless---
thanks to cynthia in mahtowa for the goat prayer yesterday---that was wonderful...
i read on a much-forwarded email that dogs basically say: A walk! my favorite! oh, food, my favorite! a ball, oh, good my favorite, etc....
or also saw on a cartoon a dog that was enabled to speak, and mostly what it said was, Hey. look at that! what's that over there?!! and look at that!!!!!
for level of cognition, though, i'm gonna have to vote for elephants and dolphins--size does matter when it comes to brain power. :-)
I grew up with pugs, and now contend with an adorable Welsh Terrier who is easily bored and likes to make her own fun, often with disastrous results. I find that my terriers have been perpetual adolescents, but that no matter how naughty they are they need gentleness and respect, along with a strong alpha presence from their people.
I have always had a dog. My current baby is a German Shepherd dog named (of course) Max. He's not very smart, but I have observed that he has a learning curve, and sometimes you can almost see the light dawning in his eyes. He has severe arthritis; we live in Minneapolis on a hill. During the very icy time this winter he had several falls. After a few days he refused to put even a paw on the sidewalk if it was at all shiny, and would skirt icy patches by taking to the snowbank or to a dirty, scuffed-up patch of sidewalk. He is big and stupid and very, very earnest.
Grace got home last night, very wobbly, fell asleep til this am, very early (even before Dale starts his show, so i walked her and went back to sleep)
she has good drugs to help her through this first week, she'll be confined to the kitchen for a couple weeks and only out on a leash, but after that just lots of walks
i think she'll miss playing with our other dog Harry the most but they play too rough for now
thanx for all the concern
and yes, it cost a lot, but she is worth it
so fun to read about dogs today!
Hey Kay H. - I found this ordered list of the smartest animals, via google:
Man
Chimpanzee
Gorilla
Orangutan
Baboon
Gibbon
Monkey
Killer Whale
Dolphin
Elephant
Pig
Isn't it interesting that only one of these groups feels compelled to correct radio announcers about trivial matters?
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