Category: Education

A beautiful photograph

Of a hummingbird!

Thursday was a chaotic day for me and I only got to my desk at 3pm. Then I found that I didn’t have any posts to share about dogs.

I was mulling what to do and then came across this article on Treehugger and wanted to share it with you.

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Hummingbirds Are Able to Smell Danger

Vultures aren’t the only birds who recognize odors, study finds.

By Mary Jo DiLonardo September 9, 2021

Mary Jo DiLonardo
Tongho58 / Getty Images

Glittery and graceful, hummingbirds hover and flit in midair as they gather nectar. But it’s not just their athleticism that helps them source food. 

New research finds that these tiny birds have a great sense of smell that helps them detect potential danger when they are hunting for nectar.

“In the last 10-15 years, researchers have just now begun to realize the importance of smell in birds in general. For a very long time, it has been known that some birds, such as vultures, have a keen sense of smell and use it to find food,” study co-author Erin Wilson Rankin, an associate entomology professor at the University of California Riverside, tells Treehugger.

“However, the role of olfaction in most birds has only been recently recognized. That may be in part because many birds do not appear to use odor to help them locate food.”

In earlier studies, researchers were unable to show that hummingbirds preferred the smell of flowers that contained nectar. Also, flowers that have been pollinated by birds don’t have strong aromas, like those that have been pollinated by insects. That’s why scientists didn’t believe that birds had the ability to smell odors.

But with this new study, researchers believe otherwise.

For their experiment, Rankin and her colleagues observed more than 100 hummingbirds in the wild and in aviaries. The birds were given the choice between feeders that contained just sugar water, or sugar water with the addition of one of several chemicals with a scent that meant there was an insect present. The feeders otherwise looked exactly the same.

The scents included one deposited on flowers by European honeybees, a chemical produced by Argentine ants, and formic acid, which is released defensively by some formica ants and can injure birds and mammals.

“If a bird has any exposed skin on their legs, formic acid can hurt, and if they get it in their eyes, it isn’t pleasant,” Rankin said in a statement. “It’s also extremely volatile.”

In the experiments, the hummingbirds avoided the feeders with the sugar water that contained the ant-derived chemicals. They didn’t react to the sugar water with the honeybee scent, even though it’s been known to keep other bees from visiting flowers.

To make sure the bees weren’t avoiding the feeders due to a fear of a new smell, the researchers performed an extra test with sugar water and ethyl butyrate, which is a common additive in human food.

“It smells like Juicy Fruit gum, which is not a smell known in nature,” Rankin said. “I did not enjoy it. The birds did not care about it though and didn’t go out of their way to avoid it.”

The results were published in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

Avoiding Danger 

For hummingbirds, recognizing smells isn’t just about finding a meal. They use their sense of smell much differently than vultures. These birds use the massive olfactory bulb in their brain like an “airborne bloodhound” to detect decaying carcasses.

Instead, hummingbirds use their excellent vision to locate flowers from which they collect nectar.

“Flowers, while specific species may be patchy in distribution, are much more common and numerous than the animal carcasses that vultures rely on. Thus, it is not surprising that vultures use their sense of smell to find carcasses which they then scavenge,” Rankin explains.

Hummingbirds use their ability to smell in a different way.

“Rather than using odors to find flowers, they will avoid flowers or feeders that have specific insect odors on them, such as formic acid or an Argentine ant aggregation pheromone. A hummingbird can use the chemical cues associated with ants to help them determine if the hummingbird should feed from there, or avoid it because it’s already occupied by ants, which can drink the nectar first or potentially harm them,” Rankin says.

“Ants are also very hard for hummingbirds to see until they are up close, so being able to smell them even when they are hidden deep in a flower could be advantageous. By avoiding defensive chemicals, hummingbirds can avoid interactions with ants and focus on feeding at safer food resources.”

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As long as I shall live I will never stop being amazed at what science discovers and then reports. And the photograph is gorgeous!

A short but interesting video

CBS present an item about dogs.

I was a bit tight on time yesterday and just looked for a YouTube video that might please.

Anyway, I quickly came across this from CBS. It goes back 7 years but so what, it is still very pertinent today.

People will tell you it’s not what you say to a dog that counts, it’s how you say it. But now researchers say dogs respond to much more than your tone of voice. They say brain scans confirm that canines can understand exactly what you’re saying. Michelle Miller reports.

The way dogs think

They are incredibly intuitive but not in such a broad way as us humans.

On Friday morning Oliver got lifted up onto the bed. It’s a daily routine and one that Jeannie and I love.

Oliver – He has magnificent eyes.

On this particular early morning I decided to switch the lamp off next to me and snuggle under the covers for a bit more shuteye. At the moment the light went out Oliver moved from his regular position somewhere over my knees to the bottom of the bed in between me and Jean. He has never done that before.

Of all our dogs Oliver is the one that seems to sense what is happening. That is not to say that the other dogs are dumb, far from it, but that Oliver is extra intuitive.

So that’s why this from Science magazine is being republished today. Because it is right on the money, so to speak.

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Dogs Know When You’re Lying to Them

By the BEC Crew, 25th February, 2015

We all know that dogs can sense our emotions, whether happy, sad or angry, but now researchers have found that they can also tell when you’re lying, and will stop following the cues of someone they deem untrustworthy.

Researchers led by Akiko Takaoka from Kyoto University in Japan figured this out by using the old ‘point and fetch’ trick – a human points at the location of something, like a ball, a stick, or some food, and the dog runs off to find it. They wanted to figure out if dogs were just blindly following these cues, or if they were adjusting their behaviour based on how reliable they perceived the person giving the cues to be. And if they didn’t perceive this person as being reliable, how quickly would they learn to mistrust and disobey the humans who pointed in the wrong direction?

Working with 34 dogs, the team went through three rounds of pointing. The first round involved truthfully pointing out to the dogs where their treats and toys were hidden in a container. In the second round, after showing the dogs what’s in the container, they pointed out the location again, but this time, it was a trick – the container was empty. In the third round, the team pointed to the location of the box, which was filled with treats again.

They found that the dogs were following the age-old adage, “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me,” because by round three, many of them were done believing the actions of the pointing volunteers.

A second experiment was performed in exactly the same way as the first one, except the person was replaced by an entirely new one. The dogs happily started the process all over again, and were fully open to trusting their new ‘friend’. “That suggests, says Takaoka, that the dogs could use their experience of the experimenter to assess whether they were a reliable guide,” Melissa Hogenboom writes for BBC News. “After these rounds, a new experimenter replicated the first round. Once again, the dogs followed this new person with interest.”

What’s going on here, the researchers report in the journal Animal Cognition, is that the dogs were ‘devaluing’ the reliability of the human when they experienced their lies. “Dogs have more sophisticated social intelligence than we thought,” Takaoka told Hogenboom. “This social intelligence evolved selectively in their long life history with humans.” 

The experiment reaffirms what we know about the nature of dogs – they love routine, but they also love new things. In round one, they learnt how the activity goes: the human points, I sniff out something great. But in round two, the rules changed and the dogs became stressed out. But when round three came along, the human who broke the rules was replaced by a different human, and the dogs were happy to trust this one because of their love of trying new things.

“Dogs are very sensitive to human behaviour but they have fewer preconceptions,” Bradshaw told the BBC. “They live in the present, they don’t reflect back on the past in an abstract way, or plan for the future.” And they certainly don’t approach a situation by “thinking deeply about what that entails”, he said. 

Something to think about when you consider inflicting the ‘fake tennis ball’ game on your dog. It might work a few times for hilarious effect, because your dog trusts you way more than the dogs in the experiment trusted the strangers they just met, but how long will it last?

It also explains why dogs are so unsure about magicians:

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So to all the dogs in the world I say this: “Keep on trusting us humans!” And to the millions of dog owners in the world, I say this: “Never lie, especially to a dog!”

Where to pet a dog?

A more informative way to do something most of us don’t think about!

The Dodo recently had an article about petting a dog. I was about to ignore it and then decided to read the article. I am glad I did because The Dodo went to a veterinarian in New York City for the answers.

Here’s the article.

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These Are The Best Places To Pet A Dog, According To A Dog

Your pup will always tell you what’s up 🐶

By DANIELLE ESPOSITO, Published on the 21st July, 2021.

Some dogs love all the pets from all the people, while others can definitely be more finicky.

When it comes to where she’s petted (and who’s petting her), your dog probably has some personal preferences —so it’s important that you learn her boundaries.

Typically, most dogs share safe zones that are OK to pet — as well as areas on their bodies that are totally off-limits.

To help, The Dodo reached out to Dr. Stephanie Austin, a veterinarian at Bond Vet in New York City, who explained the best places to pet a dog — and where to avoid.

Where do dogs love to be petted?

As a general rule of thumb, the neck, chest and shoulders are places that many dogs like to be petted. 

But it’s important to keep in mind that not all dogs are created equal when it comes to where they like to be touched. “For example, some pups love belly scratches or petting on the rump area, while others may be more guarded about those parts of their body,” Dr. Austin told The Dodo. 

How to pet a dog the right way

If you’re not sure what a dog likes or doesn’t like when you first meet her, your best strategy is to let her come to you and sniff your hand. 

“If the dog is friendly and relaxed, try gently petting the neck, chest or shoulders. Don’t reach for their head from above, as this could appear threatening to a dog,” Dr. Austin suggested. 

You can usually tell if a dog is enjoying being petted because she’ll get closer to you, act relaxed and happy and even lean into your hand where you are petting.

“If a dog becomes tense or standoffish, this may be a warning that they aren’t comfortable with the petting,” Dr. Austin said.

Where to not pet a dog

According to Dr. Austin, there are some places — in general — where dogs might be uncomfortable with someone touching.

Questionable spots include:

  • Paws
  • Legs
  • Tail
  • Face

“And even though many pups appreciate a good belly rub, they may also be protective of their belly and the underside of their body,” Dr. Austin said. 

And be wary of any areas on the body that might be particularly sensitive.

“Some dogs may have areas of the body that are sensitive due to underlying health conditions — for example, if a dog’s hips are painful due to arthritis, they might not like someone pressing on or near their hips,” Dr. Austin said.

It’s also important to keep in mind that some dogs just don’t like to be touched by strangers. So if your dog prefers to warm up to people, advocate for her and let others know that she just needs time. Don’t force her to be uncomfortable by accepting unwanted interactions from other pets!

Of course, the best thing you can do when getting to know a dog is to start off slow and check in with her body language. She’ll usually tell you exactly what she’s comfortable with.

And once you figure it out together, your bond will be even stronger!

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Now Jeannie and I are biased because our six dogs love being fondled in so many ways including much of what is cautioned by Dr. Austin. But we certainly agree with the last few word about the bond being even stronger!

This is still good advice because there are so many different personalities with our six dogs and many just have a single dog.

But Dr. Austin’s advice applies to Jeannie and me and we would never be as relaxed when we have visitors. Then the strong advice is to let the dogs chose in their own time when and how to approach the guests.

Paws Give Me Purpose

I am delighted to share this website with you!

If I were to mention the name of Lea Brandspiegel I suspect that many of you wouldn’t have a clue as to whom I was referring to.

But if I were to add that Lea is the CEO and Founder of Paws Give Me Purpose Inc. and to include a little from the About page on the website then that would make you sit up!

Here it is:

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Welcome to Paws Give Me Purpose! We look forward to sharing our purpose, knowledge, laughter and tears with all of you. We hope you enjoy the time you spend here with us.

Paws Gives Me Purpose Incorporated is dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating, caring for and providing sanctuary to difficult to adopt dogs. We believe that all dogs deserve a second chance at life – especially seniors, those with physical disabilities, terminal illness, behavioral issues, have been abused and need someone to care for, love, and understand them.

Located in Southern New Jersey, we provide for our pups dependent upon the donations of generous friends, family, businesses, individuals and out of our own pockets. We are limited on both space and funding, as well as physical ability. We are able to take in and provide for only a limited number of dogs at any given time. 

We also feature, network and sponsor shelter and rescue dogs looking for their forever homes. All of the dogs we feature here on Paws Give Me Purpose have been waiting far too long for their chance; oftentimes, these dogs do not get the exposure they need, and we want to change that! For us, education is key; this is why one of our ultimate goals is to change the way that humans think of, and treat, dogs with special needs.

Paws Gives Me Purpose exists on the kindness of strangers, dedicated supporters who follow our efforts, the loyalty of friends, veterinarians, hospitals, rescues, shelters, and private individuals who view us as a staple in the rescue community. We are strictly a volunteer-run organization and all donations go directly towards the care of the sanctuary animals. Know that you are helping to make a difference in dogs’ lives and that you are the driving force behind us.

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So there is the introduction and I will have great pleasure in sharing more stories about the dogs that Lea has rescued and found homes for.

Oh, a postscript! If you fancy making a donation then that page is here. (And it really doesn’t need me to say that I have no relationship at all with Paws Give Me Purpose Inc.)

Perfect families!

What are the best dog breeds for families.

Again I am drawn to The Dodo and to an article that was published earlier this year. It is not a long piece but it seems to be full of common sense.

Have a read and tell me your thoughts.

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These Are Some Of The Best Dog Breeds For Families

And why you should find one at a rescue 🐶👪

By SAM HOWELL, Published on the 26th April, 2021

Adopting a dog is one of the most exciting ways to grow your family.

But you might be wondering if certain dog breeds are better for living with families than others.

The Dodo spoke with Iris Ulbrich, a behavior consultant and owner at Trust Your Dog in Los Angeles, who explained why you should actually pay more attention to a pup’s personality than his breed.

The best dog breeds for families

While there are some dog breeds that tend to be a bit more inclined for family life, it’s super important to remember that breed is not everything.

“Yes, there are characteristics that are tied to dog’s breed, but a lot has to do with the quality of breeding as well as the first few months of a puppy’s life,” Ulbrich told The Dodo.

What’s most important is an individual dog’s personality because, ultimately, that will determine whether or not he will work great in a family environment, regardless of his breed.

With that in mind, here are some dog breeds that — on average — tend to have traits that make them good family pets:

  • Labradors
  • Golden retrievers
  • Collies
  • Wheaten terriers

“Both [Labradors and golden retrievers] are very friendly, active, good with kids and eager to please,” Ulbrich explained.

As for wheaten terriers, they don’t shed. So if someone in your family has allergies, these terriers could be a good fit.

“Collies are very devoted family dogs and can be both very active but also know how to relax and be calm at home,” Ulbrich said.

That being said, these are just generalizations! There are some labs out there who are absolutely terrible with kids — and literally millions of individual dogs from breeds not on this list who are perfect family pets. 

Which is why your best bet is to go to a rescue center, where adoption counselors can match you with a pup who has the exact personality you’re looking for.

Personality traits that make a dog the best fit for a family

Since personality is far more important than breed when finding your perfect pup, you should know which traits to look for in your family’s potential new addition.

After all, a rescue is going to help you find a dog that’ll vibe with you and your loved ones, since you’ll be able to pick a pup with a fully formed personality. If you get a puppy from a breeder, on the other hand, you’ll have no idea if he’ll grow up to be a good match for your family.

When it comes to finding the best dog for your family, here’s the personality traits Ulbrich recommends you look for.

“A healthy amount of energy in combination with eagerness to please their owner is usually a great combination,” Ulbrich said.

And since families are all different, it’s actually most important to look for a dog that’ll mesh with your family’s interests, hobbies and lifestyles.

“An active and outdoorsy family with slightly older kids that live in a house would pick a different dog to a family that lives in an apartment and has twin toddlers,” Ulbrich explained.

In those cases, both of those potential pups might not even be any of the breeds listed above, since it all boils down to each individual pup’s personality.

“A dog’s demeanor also plays a big role in [a] successful family integration,” Ulbrich said. “I try and recommend people ask a trainer to temperament test a puppy before making a final decision on breed and particular puppy within a litter.”

And since that individual temperament is so important, any dog breed can be the best dog breed for your family.

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I hadn’t thought of it before but Iris Ulbrich stating that personality was far more important than the breed of the dog. Of course! Perfect sense! And always take in a rescue dog!

Signs of anxiety in dogs

Eight signs for you to keep an eye out for!

Now I have republished items about this subject before but not for some time. This article which appeared on The Dodo was thorough in my opinion and, therefore, worthy of a republication.

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These 8 Signs Might Mean Your Dog Has Anxiety

By DANIELLE ESPOSITO, Published on the 21st July, 2021

Have you ever wondered if dogs can get anxiety?

Turns out, dogs totally can. And it’s important that you know what to look out for when trying to figure out if your dog does have anxiety.

According to Dr. Walter Burghardt, Jr., a veterinarian at BluePearl Specialty and Emergency Pet Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, there’s a spectrum of anxiety-related behaviors in dogs, ranging from mild to severe (just like in humans). 

These are some of the most common signs that your dog has anxiety, according to Dr. Burghardt.

Signs your dog is experiencing mild anxiety

She’s lip-licking

A common sign of mild anxiety — or just being plain uncomfortable — lip-licking usually means that your dog feels uncertain about whatever situation she’s in.

She’s yawning more than usual 

Dogs don’t only yawn because they’re tired. If you’re noticing your pup is yawning more than usual, or not anywhere close to bedtime, it could be because she’s feeling anxious.

She’s more inactive (or active) than usual

If you notice your dog is keeping to herself more than usual — or, on the other hand, if she’s more hyper than normal — this could be a sign that she’s feeling anxious and unsure of how to deal with those feelings.

Signs your dog is experiencing moderate anxiety

She’s tucking her tail

If you notice your dog’s tail is tucked, that’s a sign that she could be experiencing a more moderate case of anxiety.

Her ears are flattened

If you see your dog’s ears are pinned back, it could be a sign that she’s experiencing increased anxiety.

Other signs of moderate anxiety include an increased heart rate, respiration and dilated pupils.

Signs your dog is experiencing severe anxiety

She’s trying to escape

If your dog seems to be doing everything she can to escape or get away from a situation, it could mean she’s feeling severely anxious.

She’s hiding

If you’ve noticed your dog is trying to hide from a scary situation, it could be a sign that her anxiety is severe.

She’s being aggressive

If your dog is showing signs of aggressive behavior, it could mean that she’s feeling very fearful or stressed.

Other signs of very severe anxiety could be that your dog freezes, or just doesn’t move at all.

How to help an anxious dog

If your dog is diagnosed with anxiety, her treatment could depend on a few things:

  • The source of the anxiety
  • The intensity and duration of the anxiety
  • How often your dog’s behavior is affected by anxiety

“For more severe and more frequent cases, anxiety is usually treated with one or more medications to help reduce distress and physiological arousal, environmental changes to reduce the distressing characteristics of a scary event, and behavior modification aimed at improving the patient’s confidence in the scary situation,” Dr. Burghardt said.

If your dog is experiencing more mild anxiety, this can usually be treated by desensitizing your dog to the scary situation and working on building your pup’s confidence — all with the help and advice of your vet or dog behaviorist.

If you suspect your dog is suffering from anxiety, contact your vet to see what you can do to help her feel better.

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Now I left out of the post three recommendations “You can also try some tried-and-true tricks to help calm down an anxious dog” (my italics) because I didn’t think you wanted products from Amazon.

But I would love to hear how common it is to have a dog that shows anxiety. Do you want to leave me a comment?

Multiple Brands Dog Food Recall

It has been a little while since we had a recall.

The following came in on the 30th July and I made the decision to wait until today to share it with you all.

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Six Dog Food Brands Recalled Due to Dangerous Mold Toxin

Corn mold producing dangerous aflatoxin

July 29, 2021 — Sunshine Mills is recalling six dog food brands due to dangerouslevels of aflatoxin.

Aflatoxin is a potentially deadly toxin produced by Aspergillus mold (typically found on corn)… and which can be harmful to pets if consumed in significant amounts.

What’s Recalled?

To date, no illnesses have been reported in association with the related products. No other Sunshine Mills pet foods are affected by this announcement.

Sold Nationwide

The affected products were distributed in retail stores nationally. 

Retailers who received the recalled lots have been contacted and asked to pull these lots from their inventory and shelves. 

There are no other Triumph®, Evolve®, Wild Harvest®, Nurture Farms®, Pure Being®, or Elm products or other lot codes of these products affected by this recall.

Message from the Company

“While no adverse health effects related to these products have been reported, Sunshine Mills, Inc. has chosen to issue a voluntary recall of the above-referenced products as a precautionary measure in furtherance of its commitment to the safety and quality of its products.”

What to Do?

Pets that have consumed any of the above recalled products and exhibit symptoms of illness including sluggishness or lethargy combined with a reluctance to eat, vomiting, yellowish tint to the eyes or gums, or diarrhea should be seen by a veterinarian.

Consumers who have purchased the recalled dog food should discontinue use of the product… and may return the unused portion to the place of purchase for a full refund. 

Consumers may contact Sunshine Mills, Inc. customer service at 800-705-2111 from 7 am to 4 pm Central Time, Monday through Friday. 

Or by email at customer.service@sunshinemills.com for additional information.

This is a voluntary recall being conducted in cooperation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

U.S. citizens can report complaints about FDA-regulated pet food products by calling the consumer complaint coordinator in your area.

Or go to the FDA’s “Report a Pet Food Complaint” page.

Canadians can report any health or safety incidents related to the use of this product by filling out the Consumer Product Incident Report Form.

Get Lifesaving Recall Alerts by Email

Get free dog food recall alerts sent to you by email. Subscribe to The Dog Food Advisor’s emergency recall notification system.

There’s no cost. No spam ever. Cancel any time.

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There you go. Please share this with other pet owners.

And stay safe!

Dogs and tummy rubs!

I have discovered a useful website!

I was browsing the internet yesterday and came across, quite by chance, the website PetMD. It looks like a great resource and I want to publish some of their introductory text:

About PetMD

PetMD is the online authority for all things pet health. Our goal is to provide the most accurate, reliable, up-to-date pet health information to help you navigate the everyday ups and downs of pet parenting. As a pet parent, you deserve to have access to the tools, tips, and insights you need to keep your pets healthy. With PetMD, you’ll find answers you can trust from qualified veterinarians. By working closely with veterinarians since 2008, PetMD has become the go-to resource for pet health and care.

Vet Team

PetMD collaborates with pet experts that know the most about pet health and care—veterinarians. Our network of credible veterinarians is essential in our mission to bring you the most detailed and current information. Meet some of the trusted veterinarians that we partner with to bring you the most up-to-date information. 

What I was looking for is a reason why dogs love having their tummy’s rubbed.

This was a great article and I am pretty sure that republishing it is within the rules of PetMD.

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Why Do Dogs Like Belly Rubs?

PetMD Editorial

Updated: June 28, 2017, Published: April 07, 2017

By Chris Illuminati

Some dogs love belly rubs almost as much as playing fetch or chewing on a really good bone, yet others could go without the show of human affection. So why do dogs like belly rubs? And is it weird if some dogs don’t?

“Belly rubbing is a comforting action,” explains Dr. Peter Brown, chief medical officer of Wagly, a veterinary-based pet service provider with campuses in California and Washington. “It’s an opportunity for bonding and part of our relationship with our dogs.”  

Christine Case, an anthrozoology instructor at Beacon College in Leesburg, Florida, offers another idea about the origin of belly rubs for dogs. Case, a member of the Association of Professional Humane Educators and the International Society for Anthrozoology, feels that humans have modified canine behavior over the last thousand years due to domestication.

“Rolling on their backs is a submissive behavior that dogs exhibit toward humans.” Case explains. “I think it would be difficult to determine whether dogs truly like this activity or if they have been trained to do so. The context of the situation should be evaluated.”

Michael Schaier, a certified professional dog trainer and author of “Wag That Tail: A Trainer’s Guide To A Happy Dog,” concurs with Case’s assessment, but adds that affection is one of the greatest training tools a human can use on a canine.

“A dog rolling on his back is a submissive action and puts the canine in a vulnerable position,” says Schaier, “but dogs have been bred for 10,000 years to be social animals and coexist with humans.”

Studying Back Rolling Behavior in Dogs

A dog rolling over on his back doesn’t always mean the animal is being playful, submissive, or looking for a belly rub, especially in instances when other dogs are close by. In 2015, two teams of researchers from the University of Lethbridge in Alberta and the University of South Africa set out to investigate the meaning and function of dogs rolling over during play with other dogs. The researchers wanted to know if a dog rolling over onto the back is really an act of submission that serves to stop aggression or a tactic executed for combat purposes.

The researchers examined videos showing dogs playing together and staged play sessions with a medium-sized female dog paired with 33 dogs of different breeds and sizes. Then, they sat back and observed.

The researchers concluded that while dogs may roll when playing, the move might also be used to gain an advantage in fighting. Of rollovers observed, none of the dogs rolled over in a submissive response to aggressive behavior by another dog. Researchers noted that dogs rolling on their backs in front of other dogs used their position to block playful bites and launch attacks on the aggressor.

Should You Rub Your Dog’s Belly?

If pets are comfortable with belly rubs, pet owners should feel free to pet away. But Brown warns that a dog who suddenly doesn’t enjoy a good tummy scratching might be conveying a different message. “If your dog normally likes belly rubs, and then stops, that can be a sign of a sore belly or possibly an issue where their back is causing pain.”

There are, however, some dogs who can survive without the constant stomach rubbing.

“Past experience could affect the dog’s like or dislike for the activity,” Case remarks. “If a dog does not like to have its belly rubbed, it does not mean there is anything wrong—perhaps it’s just [the dog’s] preference. It’s up to the individual animal”

But most experts agree that when dogs ask for belly rubs or petting of any kind, it shows how comfortable they feel as part of the family.

“The greatest reward you can give your dog,” adds Schaier, “is the touch of your hand.” 

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Those last two paragraphs say it all and it comes down to touch. Even a brief touch of the hand on the head of your dog is bliss. For both the human and the dog but especially for the dog.

Capturing the moment of my daughter hugging her best friend, Oreo, in the woods. Photo from Unsplash.

Case made!

Resilience Thinking – a review

A book to make one think anew.

Let me make myself absolutely clear about this book, indeed I can do no better than to publish part of an email that I sent to the authors last Saturday:

To say that I was inspired by what you wrote is an understatement. More accurately it has changed my whole understanding of this planet, of the natural order of things, of the politics of the Western world, of vast numbers of us humans, and how precarious is our world just now. It has opened my eyes radically, and I thought before that I was fairly in touch with things.

Resilience is a simple idea but in its application has proved to be anything such. On page 2 the authors set out as they saw it The Drivers of Unsustainable Development. Here’s how that section develops:

Our world is facing a broad range of serious and growing resource issues. Human-induced soil degradation has been getting worse since the 1950s. About 85 percent of agriculture land contains areas degraded by erosion, rising salt, soil compaction, and various other factors. It has been estimated (Wood et al. 2000) that soil degradation has already reduced global agricultural productivity by around 15 percent in the last fifty years. In the last three hundred years, topsoil has been lost at a rate of 200 million tons per year; in the last fifty years it has more than doubled to 760 million tons per year.

As we move deeper into the twenty-first century we cannot afford to lose more of our resource base. The global population is now expanding by about 75 million people each year. Population growth rates are declining, but the world’s population will still be expanding by almost 60 million per year in 2030. The United Nations projections put the global population at nearly 8 billion in 2025. In addition, if current water consumption patterns continue unabated, half the world’s population will live in water-stressed river basins by 2025.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) 2004 Annual Hunger Report estimates that over 850 million people suffer from chronic hunger. Hunger kills 5 million children every year.

It goes on ….!

Now I want to quote from the end of the book, from their section on Resilience Thinking.

In our opening chapter we observed that there were many pathways into resilience thinking and suggested readers not worry too much if the finer details of a resilience framework are a bit obscure. We emphasized that what is of much more importance is an appreciation of the broader themes that underpin such a framework. Those broader themes revolve around humans existing within linked social and ecological systems. These are complex adaptive systems, and attempts to control or optimize parts of such systems without consideration of the responses that this creates in the broader system are fraught with risk. Much of this book has been spent on attempting to explore the consequences of such an approach.

In the broadest sense, optimizing and controlling components of a system in isolation of the broader system results in a decline in resilience, a reduction in options, and the shrinkage of the space in which we can safely operate. Resilience thinking moves us the other way.

It is our hope that readers who are persuaded of this basic premise will be encouraged to explore the inevitable consequences of such thinking. Even if you are not completely clear on the basins of attractions, thresholds, and adaptive cycles, if the concepts of ecological resilience and dynamic social-ecological systems have any resonance then you are in a better position to appreciate what is happening to the world around you.

The phrase complex adaptive system was new to me but intuitively I got what the authors meant. As they state on page 35: The three requirements for a complex adaptive system are:

  • That it has components that are independent and interacting,
  • There is some selection process at work on those components (and on the results of local interactions),
  • Variation and novelty are constantly being added to the system (through components changing over time or new ones coming in),

This was my eye-opener. It was now obvious that many processes, especially in nature, that I had hitherto regarded as constant were changing albeit usually on a timescale of many decades sometimes centuries.

And the other conclusion that was inescapable was that we humans were largely responsible for those changes because we couldn’t see the longterm consequences of what we were doing.

As I remarked in a previous post :

David writes that firstly carbon dioxide is not like other pollutants, for example like air particulants.  Then later goes on to say:

The second difference is that climate change is irreversible.

As Joe Romm notes in a recent post, New York Times columnist Joe Nocera slipped up in his latest column and referred to technology that would “help reverse climate change.” I don’t know whether that reflects Nocera’s ignorance or just a slip of the pen, but I do think it captures the way many people subconsciously think about climate change. If we heat the planet up too much, we’ll just fix it! We’ll turn the temperature back down. We’ll get around to it once the market has delivered economically ideal solutions.

But as this 2009 paper in Nature (among many others) makes clear, it doesn’t work that way:

This paper shows that the climate change that takes place due to increases in carbon dioxide concentration is largely irreversible for 1,000 years after emissions stop. Following cessation of emissions, removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide decreases radiative forcing, but is largely compensated by slower loss of heat to the ocean, so that atmospheric temperatures do not drop significantly for at least 1,000 years. [my emphasis]

My last piece in this review is to republish a graph that is shown on the NASA Global Climate Change website:

For all our sakes, dogs and humans and many other species, let us all please change our behaviours! Soon!

Back to the book: It is a remarkable book!

I will close with quoting one of the praises shown on the back cover. This one by Thomas Homer-Dixon, professor of political science, University of Toronto, and director of the Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies.

Resilience Thinking is an essential guidebook to a powerful new way of understanding our world – and of living resiliently with it – developed in recent decades by an international team of ecologists. With five clear and compelling case studies drawn from regions as diverse as Florida, Sweden, and Australia, this book shows how all highly adaptive systems – from ecologies to economics – go through regular cycles of growth, reorganization, and renewal and how our failures to understand the basic principles of resilience have often led to disaster. Resilience Thinking gives us the conceptual tools to help us cope with the bewildering surprises and challenges of our new century.

Please, if you can, think about reading it.