Dogs are animals of integrity. We have much to learn from them.
Year: 2024
These pictures were sent to me by a person whose name I could not read!
Shame, I would have liked to name the individual for being so kind.
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These are superb! Hopefully there will be other pictures.
Another guest post; this time from Lorna D.
Dogs are so close to humans, as has been reported many times in many places. This guest post from Lorna explores the very latest in scientific thinking.
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Busting Myths: Do Dogs Really Understand Human Language?
By Lorna Dikoff
Dogs are often seen as more than pets. They are companions, loyal protectors, and, for many like me, family members.
Many people think dogs understand our words like we do. This idea has been around for a long time. But is it true?
Let’s look at what science tells us about how dogs communicate. Also, let’s think about what our bonds with dogs teach us. These bonds teach us about trust and loyalty. They also reveal a deeper form of connection.
The Science of Canine Communication
Dogs have been our companions for thousands of years. During this time, they have become very good at understanding human behavior.
In 2016, researchers in Hungary made an interesting discovery. They found that dogs process words and tone similarly to humans. Dogs use different parts of their brains to recognize words and emotional sounds.
But, this doesn’t mean dogs understand language like we do. Instead, they learn to connect certain sounds (words) with specific actions or results. For example, a dog might know that the sound of a leash means a walk is coming. They recognize patterns rather than understanding language.
So while dogs are good at figuring out what we do and say, they don’t understand language the same way humans do. They’ve learned to pick up on our signs, but in their own special way.
But does this mean they understand the full meaning behind those words? The answer is no.
Dogs are great at reading people. They watch our body language, listen to our tone, and look at our faces. Dogs pay more attention to these signs than to our words.
This doesn’t mean dogs are less smart. It shows that they excel in a different type of communication.
The Myth of Full Language Comprehension
People often think dogs understand human language. We want to believe our pets understand us like other people do. It’s a nice idea, but it’s not quite true.
Dogs can learn some words and follow orders. But they don’t understand language. They remember patterns and connect words with actions. It’s not the same as how we understand each other when we talk.
This myth doesn’t make our bond with dogs any less special. It actually shows something even more extraordinary. Dogs are great at connecting with us without words. They tune into our feelings and pick up on how we act. This makes our relationship with them pretty amazing.
Dogs don’t need words to sense when we are sad, anxious, or excited. Their ability to “read” our emotions is what makes their companionship so special.
Trust and Loyalty: The Real Language of Dogs
Dogs and humans have a special bond that is far more profound than language. It’s about trust and loyalty.
These things are at the heart of what we can learn from dogs. Dogs show us how to be honest and true. They teach us about connecting with feelings, not only with words.
Dogs don’t need a large vocabulary to express their loyalty or unconditional love. Instead, they show it through actions. They sit with us when we’re sad and guard us when we’re weak. And they always get super happy to see us, even if we’ve only been gone for a bit.
This speaks to a deeper truth that dogs teach us: communication isn’t only about words. It’s about the trust we build through consistent, reliable actions.
In a world where words can sometimes mislead or fall short, dogs show us a better way. Dogs remind us of the importance of honesty and integrity in our interactions.
The Lesson from Dogs
So, do dogs understand human language? The answer is no, at least not in the way we hope. But their understanding of us is something far more profound.
Dogs teach us that we don’t always need words to talk. They teach us that our actions often speak louder than language. Their loyalty, intuition, and emotional intelligence. makes our bond with them special, more than words can explain.
We often overcomplicate communication, but dogs keep it simple. They show up and act the same way every day.
This teaches us that real connections come from trust and love. Dogs prove that understanding each other is about more than using words.
About the Author:
Lorna is the founder of Furry Friends Advisor. She is a passionate and experienced long-time dog owner with a deep love for animals. Lorna’s commitment to understanding and caring for dogs led her to spend countless hours researching and learning about canine health, behavior, and care. When not immersed in writing for her site, she is pampering her French Bulldog name Lucy. Her mission is to give advice about dog care and nutrition accessible to everyone.
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Thank you, Lorna.
There is no question that a dog’s actions speak so much louder than words.
Trust and loyalty; they are the supreme qualities of dogs and it is a pity that in some quarters these qualities are not seen in humans.
Once more, an article on the changing climate.
Recently, the BBC News reported that:
Global efforts to tackle climate change are wildly off track, says the UN, as new data shows that warming gases are accumulating faster than at any time in human existence.
Current national plans to limit carbon emissions would barely cut pollution by 2030, the UN analysis shows, leaving efforts to keep warming under 1.5C this century in tatters.
The update comes as a separate report shows that greenhouse gases have risen by over 11% in the last two decades, with atmospheric concentrations surging in 2023.
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Shuang-Ye Wu, University of Dayton
Summer 2024 was officially the Northern Hemisphere’s hottest on record. In the United States, fierce heat waves seemed to hit somewhere almost every day.
Phoenix reached 100 degrees for more than 100 days straight. The 2024 Olympic Games started in the midst of a long-running heat wave in Europe that included the three hottest days on record globally, July 21-23. August was Earth’s hottest month in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 175-year record.
Overall, the global average temperature was 2.74 degrees Fahrenheit (1.52 degrees Celsius) above the 20th-century average.
That might seem small, but temperature increases associated with human-induced climate change do not manifest as small, even increases everywhere on the planet. Rather, they result in more frequent and severe episodes of heat waves, as the world saw in 2024.
The most severe and persistent heat waves are often associated with an atmospheric pattern called a heat dome. As an atmospheric scientist, I study weather patterns and the changing climate. Here’s how heat domes, the jet stream and climate change influence summer heat waves and the record-hot summer of 2024.
If you listened to weather forecasts during the summer of 2024, you probably heard the term “heat dome” a lot.
A heat dome is a persistent high-pressure system over a large area. A high-pressure system is created by sinking air. As air sinks, it warms up, decreasing relative humidity and leaving sunny weather. The high pressure also serves as a lid that keeps hot air on the surface from rising and dissipating. The resulting heat dome can persist for days or even weeks.
The longer a heat dome lingers, the more heat will build up, creating sweltering conditions for the people on the ground.
How long these heat domes stick around has a lot to do with the jet stream.
The jet stream is a narrow band of strong winds in the upper atmosphere, about 30,000 feet above sea level. It moves from west to east due to the Earth’s rotation. The strong winds are a result of the sharp temperature difference where the warm tropical air meets the cold polar air from the north in the mid-latitudes.
The jet stream does not flow along a straight path. Rather, it meanders to the north and south in a wavy pattern. These giant meanders are known as the Rossby waves, and they have a major influence on weather.
Where the jet stream arcs northward, forming a ridge, it creates a high-pressure system south of the wave. Where the jet stream dips southward, forming a trough, it creates a low-pressure system north of the jet stream. A low-pressure system contains rising air in the center, which cools and tends to generate precipitation and storms.
Most of our weather is modulated by the position and characteristics of the jet stream.
The jet stream, or any wind, is the result of differences in surface temperature.
In simple terms, warm air rises, creating low pressure, and cold air sinks, creating high pressure. Wind is the movement of the air from high to low pressure. Greater differences in temperature produce stronger winds.
For the Earth as a whole, warm air rises near the equator, and cold air sinks near the poles. The temperature difference between the equator and the pole determines the strength of the jet stream in each hemisphere.
However, that temperature difference has been changing, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere. The Arctic region has been warming about three times faster than the global average. This phenomenon, known as Arctic amplification, is largely caused by the melting of Arctic sea ice, which allows the exposed dark water to absorb more of the Sun’s radiation and heat up faster.
Because the Arctic is warming faster than the tropics, the temperature difference between the two regions is lessened. And that slows the jet stream.
As the jet stream slows, it tends to meander more, causing bigger waves. The bigger waves create larger high-pressure systems. These can often be blocked by the deep low-pressure systems on both sides, causing the high-pressure system to sit over a large area for a long period of time.
Typically, waves in the jet stream pass through the continental United States in around three to five days. When blocking occurs, however, the high-pressure system could stagnate for days to weeks. This allows the heat to build up underneath, leading to blistering heat waves.
Since the jet stream circles around the globe, stagnating waves could occur in multiple places, leading to simultaneous heat waves at the mid-latitude around the world. That happened in 2024, with long-lasting heat waves in Europe, North America, Central Asia and China.
The same meandering behavior of the jet stream also plays a role in extreme winter weather. That includes the southward intrusion of frigid polar air from the polar vortex and conditions for severe winter storms.
Many of these atmospheric changes, driven by human-caused global warming, have significant impacts on people’s health, property and ecosystems around the world.
Shuang-Ye Wu, Professor of Geology and Environmental Geosciences, University of Dayton
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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I maybe approaching my own end of life but millions of others are younger than me. When I see a woman with a young baby in her arms I cannot stop myself from wondering what that generation is going to do.
Learning from Dogs 