At the end of April I received an email which said, in part, the following:
My name is Grace and I’m a passionate blogger and a content writer. I love writing about pets and wellness. I was crawling your blog page: https://learningfromdogs.com/ and found your articles very interesting. I must admit that your website has a great collection of high-quality articles. Having said that, I’d love to contribute an article to your website as a guest blogger.
I expressed real interest and Grace then came back to me with a list of topics.
I chose the one on canine cancer.
Here it is.
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Four Types Of Canine Cancer: Symptoms And Treatment
By Grace Hawkins, May 21st, 2020
(Deleted at 16:00 PDT on the 27th May, 2020 as a result of a disagreement regarding commercial links.)
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I asked Grace to include a little about herself.
Grace Hawkins is a full time content marketing specialist and a passionate writer who loves to write about pet’s health and lifestyle. She believes in a thoughtful exploration of how you shape your thoughts, experience of the world.
Now there were a number of website links in the article that for some reason didn’t transfer across. For her next article, and I do hope there is one, I will have it sent differently.
May 26th. I subsequently received an email from Grace. It said:
Hi Paul
The post looks great
But it won’t be possible for me to provide another article at this point of time.
Can please edit the article and add this dog food link to the article.
Dry Skin Dogs: Three Steps You Can Easily Do Right Now At Home
I am delighted that Roger Brooks’ submission of guest posts is becoming a regular feature.
Here is his latest.
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Dry Skin Dogs: Three Steps You Can Easily Do Right Now At Home
By Roger Brooks,
4th May, 2020
An itchy dog with dry, flaky skin is worrisome for you and your dog alike. There could be several potential causes for your dog’s skin-related ailment – ranging from seasonal allergies to more severe disorders. In the latter case, you are highly recommended to rush to a vet and get some over-the-counter medication, as such conditions may soon become an incurable medical disorder. The seasonal allergies, cracked skin, redness, dandruff, or scaling may be treated at home by adopting few dietary changes or incorporating dog supplements for dry skin in its regular diet.
Read on to find our three at-home and easy to follow steps to provide natural and instant relief to your dry skin dog!
1. Chamomile Oil and Green Tea Bath
Owing to their age-old healing properties, chamomile oil, and green tea provide immediate relief to the itchy patches on your dog’s skin.
All you are to do is fill a big plastic tub or sink with 10 liters of lukewarm water and put 5-6 caddies of green tea into it. Let them sit well and dissolve their juices into water. It will take 4-5 minutes. Squeeze the tea bags well and take them out of water. Then add a teaspoon of chamomile oil. After mixing it gently with warm water, let your dog lay in and enjoy its soothing hot bath for about 10 minutes.
Alternatively, for relatively small-sized patches, you may choose to prepare this liquid in a glass by one or two green tea bags in warm water. Or preferably boil the tea bags in water for about one minute. Let it cool. Now, you may choose to rinse or spray this water on to your dog’s skin or dip a sponge into this balmy water and apply this water on to any visible redness, rashes on your dog’s skin. You will notice that your dog feels instantly relieved after it.
2. Adding Supplements to Diet
Multiple pieces of research back the fact that whatever your dog eats directly affects its skin. It means dry skin symbolizes that something essential is missing in the diet. Therefore, it is always useful to add coconut and fish oils like omega-3 fatty acids to your dog’s homemade diet. You will find that by feeding your dog with these oils in moderate quantity cures dry skin more quickly as compared to massaging with the same oils.
You might be thinking that the dog food you bought from the market already has omega-3 fatty acids in it. But let me tell you that those processed foods carry a few of these acids in them, which is not enough to resolve the skin issue of your pooch. The reason for this low amount of omega-3 acids in the commercial diet is that they are quite expensive, and the commercial sellers add omega-6 fatty acids instead, which do not cure dry skin. Therefore, it is always wise to add fresh salmon or sardines to your dog’s regular diet. But remember, use them in moderation as excess may lead to diarrhea.
While most of the skin-related issues of your dog will be solved by adding Omega-3 fatty acids in the diet, a few hardcore allergies might require vitamin E, yogurt, or coconut oil, as all of them combat well against skin issues. Yogurt being a natural moisturizer keeps your dog’s skin moist. An additional benefit of adding a little yogurt in your dog’s diet is that it keeps its stomach safe from bacteria and doesn’t cause digestion issues.
Coconut oil and vitamin E possess a high level of antioxidants. Since science says, free radicals cause much of the damage to your dog’s skin. The right amount of coconut oil and vitamin E helps release free radicals and keep your dog’s coat smooth and moist.
3. Set-up a Humidifier
This can also help a great deal in curing your canines’ dry skin and keeping them moist and fresh.
What happens in the chilly cold is that you start keeping your dog mostly indoors to keep it warm. Unfortunately, this makes an entirely feasible condition for your dog’s dry skin as the centrally heated system of your home interior sucks all the moisture away, leaving a sterile environment that makes your dog more vulnerable to skin ailments. This is why outdoor dogs are less prone to skin issues.
Statistics, however, prove there is no significant relation between winter and dried dog skin. Therefore, the fact is established that irrespective of weather and dog breed, skin issues persist in millions of dogs because they are naturally more sensitive.
Setting a humidifier for your dog throughout the year can lessen its trouble with skin by keeping the environment moist and fresh.
In all, let’s not forget that a humidifier alone can do no good to your dog’s dried skin, it should be combined with a nutritious homemade diet, rich in omega-3 fatty acids, Vitamin E, yogurt and other oils as that is fundamental to get fresh and dandruff free skin of your dog.
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John writes with an authority that comes from knowing his topic.
How many others found this post to be of help or of great value.
Dogs are being enlisted in the fight against the novel coronavirus. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are testing a pack of eight Labrador retrievers to find out if their sensitive snouts can detect the pandemic virus by scent, Karin Brulliard reports for the Washington Post.
Humans have trained our canine friends’ finely tuned noses to sniff out other deadly diseases, including malaria, diabetes, some cancers and Parkinson’s disease, reported Ian Tucker for the Guardian in 2018. Other research has shown that viruses give off a particular smell, Cynthia Otto, director of the Working Dog Center at UPenn’s School of Veterinary Medicine, tells the Post.
If the dogs’ 300 million scent receptors can be trained to smell the novel coronavirus they could eventually be used in public places such as airports, businesses or hospitals to quickly and easily screen large numbers of people. Because this diagnosis by dog would depend on the smell given off by people infected with COVID-19 it should have no problem picking out asymptomatic carriers.
The yellow, black and chocolate labs will be trained for three weeks using a process called odor imprinting. Miss M., Poncho and six other dogs will be exposed to COVID-19 positive saliva or urine collected from hospitals and then rewarded with food when they pick out the correct samples, according to a statement from UPenn. When the dogs have the scent, they’ll be tested to see if they can pick out COVID-19 positive people.
“We don’t know that this will be the odor of the virus, per se, or the response to the virus, or a combination,” Otto, who is leading the project, tells the Post. “But the dogs don’t care what the odor is. … What they learn is that there’s something different about this sample than there is about that sample.”
Dogs are also being trained for this purpose in the United Kingdom by the charity Medical Detection Dogs in collaboration with Durham University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, reports the BBC.
“This would help prevent the re-emergence of the disease after we have brought the present epidemic under control,” Steve Lindsay, public health entomologist at Durham University, tells the BBC.
The U.K. trial expects to start collecting COVID-19 positive samples in the coming weeks and will train its dogs shortly thereafter, per the Post. If the trial is successful the group aims to distribute six dogs to be used for screening in U.K. airports.
“Each individual dog can screen up to 250 people per hour,” James Logan, epidemiologist at Durham University and collaborator on the project, tells the Post. “We are simultaneously working on a model to scale it up so it can be deployed in other countries at ports of entry, including airports.”
Otto tells the Post that the trial could inspire an electronic sensor that could detect COVID-19 which might be able to rapidly test thousands of people. But if the dogs’ olfactory prowess can’t be replicated, then the ability to scale up could be limited by another issue: the U.S.’s shortage of detection dogs.
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The list of fabulous skills that dogs have and their ability to help us humans out is practically endless.
To be more to the point, if dogs really can make a difference in determining who has got COVID-19, especially at airports, then this is a step to eventually returning to a more open and normal lifestyle.
May it happen!
I would like to close by returning to that NOVA article and republishing the following:
Put another way, dogs can detect some odors in parts per trillion. What does that mean in terms we might understand? Well, in her book Inside of a Dog, Alexandra Horowitz, a dog-cognition researcher at Barnard College, writes that while we might notice if our coffee has had a teaspoon of sugar added to it, a dog could detect a teaspoon of sugar in a million gallons of water, or two Olympic-sized pools worth. Another dog scientist likened their ability to catching a whiff of one rotten apple in two million barrels.
Animals, especially dogs, can have a profoundly positive effect on us humans.
We had to go to the local tip yesterday morning and there were a couple of other cars in the ‘recycling’ area that had dogs. Both the drivers of those other cars were allowing their dogs to look out through an open window and, in the course of dumping our stuff in the various piles, I approached the dogs and allowed them to sniff my outstretched arm. What struck me later was how natural that was, with the drivers being so friendly towards their dogs and me, let’s face it, practically a stranger. They were only brief exchanges but they were happy exchanges and that’s the point!
Emma is not really a private guest writer; putting all her material on her website Pawstruck.com.
But the value in what she writes totally justifies in my mind what is being said.
What do you think?
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The Many Ways Owning a Dog Can Change Your Life
True-blue dog owners can attest to the fact that life is never the same without their pet pooch. There’s something innately contagious about a dog’s spirit that nurses and nurtures the human soul.
It’s science!
According to a Finnish study, merely looking at your dog releases a flood of oxytocin in your brain. Also called the love hormone, these neurotransmitters lessen anxiety and promote well-being.
For most dog parents, simply receiving their dog’s unconditional love is enough of a reason to keep pumping love, effort, and money into caring for their pet. Still, there are so many more arguments for why having a dog is an experience everyone should try once in their lives.
Dogs Are Mood Boosters
The jolly temperament, silly mannerisms, and unsinkable enthusiasm of a dog at whatever time of day make them the funniest companions. Simply petting your dog or spending a few minutes of fetch each day releases serotonin and dopamine in the human brain. These neurotransmitters are responsible for keeping you in a good mood.
Constant interaction with your pet is also found to manage the symptoms of depression, according to a 2018 study. In many instances, dogs can provide the kind of genuinely reliable relationship that can rarely be found between humans. This feeling of dependability, it turns out, is vital for humans’ mental wellness.
Dogs Keep You Fit
Being a dog parent is a full-time job. That means ensuring they eat well and exercise right. Even if you own a “lazy” breed, all dogs still need to be exercised at least 30 minutes every day to keep fit.
As a responsible owner, you are obliged to attend to these needs and, in the process, also benefit from the task. A lot of people, despite the clear benefits of exercise, refuse to move for lack of motivation. Dog parents don’t get to choose, and sometimes, that’s a good thing.
Make a routine out of your dog’s walking schedule. This way, your body can get used to the new pace and help turn the practice into a habit.
This, coupled with the mood-boosting benefits of a dog’s presence all contribute to a reduced risk of developing heart problems, which are the leading cause of death among older adults in the US.
Dogs Help You Socialize
One of the biggest contributors and symptoms of depression is social isolation. Living alone can exacerbate the situation and cause you to distance yourself even more from family members and your tightest circle of friends.
Whereas if you have a dog, the responsibility of going out for dog supplies, routine vet visits, and daily walks obliges you to interact with people. For natural introverts, the forced socialization may be hard at first. But it will also help you hone your social skills and find new friends aside from keeping the blues at bay.
Dogs Help You Be Kinder to Yourself and to Those Around You
When someone else’s life depends on you, you learn to be more conscious of your decisions. You encourage yourself to take care of your health because no one else will tend to their needs. You learn to be decisive with your choices, from selecting the perfect dog treats to opting for brands with cruelty-free practices.
You cannot pour from an empty cup, as they say, and once you experience your pup’s absolute love, you will realize that the only way to give love back is to love yourself first.
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I asked Emma, as I do with all my guest bloggers at first, to send me a short bio.
This is what she wrote:
Emma Nolan is a blogger, writer, and dog parent to a dachshund and three adorable black Labradoodles. She likes strolling outdoors with her lovable fur babies when not writing about them. She writes about everything pooch at Pawstruck.
To be honest, I much prefer guest posts, even ones with a commercial aspect to them, than the republication of articles from other blogs.
This is an excellent example of what I mean.
John has written down all the key aspects of treating this, luckily uncommon, trait in a dog. It is his second guest post. The first one is here.
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How to Get Rid of Your Dog’s Aggressive Behavior
By John Brooks.
“Dog: a man’s best friend.”
The quote says it all.
A dog is a very lovable four-legged pet that cares and loves its owners. But what stands out the most is the loyalty of the dog towards its owners. You probably have heard of incidents where dogs have saved their owners from many unwanted threats, and even in some cases, they risk their own lives while doing so.
A dog can only do so much for you, so, therefore, it becomes your responsibility too, to take care of your dog as your child. It needs your time and attention, and just like a human being, it can even express emotions of love, sadness, and anger.
But this doesn’t mean that your dog doesn’t like you or anything. Dogs can experience different moods depending on many things. If your dog has been aggressive lately, then you need to find out the right reason and treat the cause immediately rather than just putting up a thick dog collar around its neck.
Reasons for Aggression
First of all, you need to find out why your dog is behaving the way it is. There may be many reasons for the cause like:
He may be Afraid
Fear may very well be one of the reasons why your dog is behaving in such a way. He may have a fear of suddenly seeing a lot of strange people at once. Or children might be poking him and irritating him to the point that he has become afraid and has developed aggression to counter that fear.
Lack of Socialism
If your dog fears crowd places, the chances are that he has not been exposed to a lot of crowds, beforehand and now this has made him anti-social and therefore has developed fear as a result.
Depression
Depression is a real thing not only for humans but also for dogs. Depression may cause your dog to be frustrated internally, and slowly that frustration might creep and turn into aggression later on. The cause of depression can be anything like being beaten up, fear, etc. But these problems should be addressed as soon as possible.
Punishment
Punishment is the last thing you want to do. Beating your dog will drive it to develop fear against you, and this fear will cause it to express in the form of aggression.
Almost in all cases, fear is the one main factor that drives a dog to be aggressive towards its owner or any stranger. It can be a fear of any previous experience when he was a puppy and had to go through any trauma. A fear of anything that he finds unpleasant or unwilling. He may also face fear when he thinks that valuable resources are being taken away or are under threat.
Signs of aggression
You may see some other sign too like the dog may start to crouch with his tail between his legs, or may develop tension around his mouth and jaw. You may notice him becoming stiff and still. Don’t just assume that if your dog is wagging his tail, it means that it is a sign of friendship. A stiff wagging of the tail or a dog wagging tail in crouched position is all signs of him that he is in a state of confusion or fear.
The last stage before attacking will be growling. It is the final stage of warning after which the dogs are sure to strike if the irritating factor is not removed.
How Do you Counter such Aggressive Behavior?
There are many ways you can do to prevent the aggressive behavior of your dog.
Remove the Cause
Immediately remove the cause of its aggression or the thing that is making him frighten or take your dog away from that situation as soon as possible.
Do not Punish him for Being Aggressive
Punishing your dog for being aggressive in the form of beating, yelling or any other bold tone manner will only make the dog more frightened and more aggressive the next time and may directly bite. The proper way to do this is just to show him that you don’t approve of such behavior either by shrugging your shoulders or by leashing only slightly. This behavior makes your dog believe that the owner doesn’t accept its action.
Train Him
You should train him to face his fear in a more fun and less aggressive way. Train him to be less violent and manage his stress. Try to play with him, hang out, and spend time so that he knows that his owner is always there with him so that he can have more confidence when next time he is around stressful situations.
Consult a Professional Dog Trainer or Veterinarian
Sometimes, even with the hardest of your efforts, things don’t work out and then it is time for you to visit the professionals who have been doing this for so long. They can guide you in many ways and help your dog to be better again.
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John’s bio is as follows:
John Brooks is the Professional Content Marketer. He writes a lot of articles on his carrier. Last one year he is working with Orbeen.com as a digital marketing expert. The company provides various types of Digital Marketing services i.e, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Social Media Optimization (SMO), Web design & development, Link Building, Content Marketing & blogger outreach.
I found this a most useful article. I hope you did as well.
Then in a very short time it will be May 8th. Not only my half-birthday but considerably of more note the anniversary of the end of World War II.
I am certain that I am the only one who puts meaning into these dates. I can do no better than to re-post something that I published on May 1st, 2017.
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For all my life this has felt like a very special month.
And, dear friends, at the risk of repeating myself to many of you, this is why the month of May is special for me.
Simply that I was born in London during the closing months of the Second World War. Inevitably, I was unaware of the number of German bombs that were falling on London during those last few months. But there were thousands.
On May 8th. 1945, the day that WWII ended and six months to the day from when I was born, my mother looked down at me and said aloud to me: “You are going to live”. Despite the fact that I don’t recall my mother saying that, it was verified many times later when I was growing up.
Now here we are approaching May 8th. 2017 (now May, 2020) and in a very real sense it seems that we are in another war.
A war of consequence.
A war that we have been engaged in for many, many years.
A war where we are inadvertently fighting on a global battlefield.
A war where 99.99% of us don’t consciously identify the weapons we are using. Weapons that are incredibly effective. So much so that we are in sight of winning the last battle; winning the war.
Yet a war where winning is no win at all. Indeed, where winning this war, this global war, spells the end. The end of life for 99.99% of us humans (and much else besides).
Now what on earth has got me so fired up?
Two things have:
The first is that I am living in my 73rd year of life. (Now 75th.) I have no idea of when my life comes to an end. But that death is a guarantee. Indeed, if one takes note of the average life expectancy of a male today in the USA (75.6 years) , it may not be that far away.
The second thing is that before my death I truly want to know that humankind has laid down its weapons of war against our planet and that there really is an unstoppable mission, a united wave of passion, to live in peace on this planet. Perhaps better put to live in peace with this planet.
Or in the words of an organization that I now want to introduce:
A mission which will require the hard work and dedication of each and every one of us as we do everything in our power as individuals, but also as we galvanize businesses, entrepreneurs, innovators, city planners, communities, people and politicians—all those who share our purpose.
OK! Thank you if you are still reading this! (Someone give Fred in that soft arm-chair over there a nudge; I can hear his snores from here!)
In the last Smithsonian electronic newsletter that I was reading yesterday morning there was a reference to an organization that I hadn’t previously come across. Here is the link to that item on The Smithsonian website. I am republishing it in full in this place. As you read it you will understand why I am republishing it.
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Using a New Roadmap to Democratize Climate Change
A new tool aims to bypass governments and put the power of climate action in the people’s hands
Olafur Grimsson, who was president of Iceland from 1996 to 2016 and saw his country through the worst economic crisis in its history, making headlines all over the world as banks collapsed and the country fell into a depression, is the very picture of an urbane statesman. Collected and poised, with a striking full head of white hair, as comfortable in English as in his native Icelandic, he seems an unlikely revolutionary, not the sort of person you’d look at and immediately find yourself thinking: “Power to the People.”
But Grimsson is one of the primary architects of a quietly radical new idea whose aim is to facilitate action on climate change without any of the usual suspects—governments, countries, international bodies, negotiating parties.
He and several other veterans of the historic 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change were in Washington, D.C., last year, just before COP22, the climate meeting held in Marrakesh in 2016. They were pondering next steps when the conversation took a new and interesting turn, Grimsson says, addressing the question: “Was it possible to have the success of Paris without governments necessarily being in the leading role?”
The group included movers and shakers such as Peter Seligmann, the chairman of Conservation International; Laurene Powell Jobs, president of the philanthropic organization the Emerson Collective; and Andy Karsner, an assistant energy secretary during the administration of George W. Bush. Galvanized by their own query, they decided to try to answer it—to set about creating a new tool to aid in achieving the goals of the Paris accord.
At the Smithsonian’s Earth Optimism Summit, a gathering this past weekend of conservation-minded citizens, scientists and activists, Grimsson explained: “You get governments that are opposed or even hostile to climate action. We decided to bring together in Marrakesh a gathering of thinkers and scientists and innovators and policymakers from different countries in order to discuss a new model of securing the success of the future of the climate movement.”
At the Smithsonian’s Earth Optimism Summit, the former president of Iceland Olafur Grimsson encouraged new solutions to climate change, awarding cash prizes to the winners of the “Make for the Planet” challenge. (The Roadmap)
Grimsson’s group felt that due to changes in information technology and social transformations, the large organizations and structures that used to be necessary to effect change were now not needed. And thus was born Roadmap, a new crowdsourcing tool for anyone and everyone interested in climate action. Still in its very early stages, Roadmap’s founders envision it as a platform for those working on climate issues—from scientist and policymaker to farmer and fisherman—to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and ideas, methods and techniques.
“A new political model is possible—where everyone can be a doer, where you no longer need big government or big enterprises to bring about success,” Grimsson says.
This new model for social change that skips the usual cumbersome channels and processes has been seen everywhere from public health, where the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has redefined the sector, to the hospitality industry, which is working to combat the human trafficking that plagues its businesses, to perhaps most famously the Arab Spring, where the role of social media in bringing about political change is still being debated today.
And this new model is complemented by technological changes. “The innovation in energy technology is such that we no longer have to wait for the big energy breakthrough,” Grimsson says. “We already have the available technologies. Every individual, home, village, community, town and region can execute change. The good news from the climate point of view is that, in addition to the information technology revolution, there has now also taken place an energy revolution. A house can be a power station: If the people who live in that house have extra energy, they can sell their energy through the smart grid. The notion that every house can be a power station is as revolutionary as saying that every mobile phone can be a media company.”
Grimsson admits that it may seem odd for someone in his position to be advocating that ordinary citizens take action apart from the conventional corridors of governmental power.
“For me to say that these traditional political organizations and positions are somewhat outdated is perhaps a strange statement: I was a professor of political science, I’ve been a member of parliament, I’ve been a minister of finance, I was president for 20 years,” he says.
It was during Iceland’s financial meltdown that he first experienced this new kind of social change: “I saw this very strongly through the financial crisis in my own country, which led to a big social economic uprising. All those activities were engineered by unknown people, people who were not part of a big organization, who used Facebook and the information media to bring thousands of people together in one day.”
Right now, Roadmap consists of a website and a lofty manifesto that speaks of raising the value of “moral currency” and creating a “best practices warehouse.” Visitors to the site can fill out a form if they want to become part of its community of “doers.” The practical part of the manifesto speaks of identifying the best methodologies and models; implementing a “real-time system of measurement” and a way to “gauge and understand what is working, what is not, and exactly what is being achieved.” As the platform develops, it will be interesting to see exactly what form these gauges, measurement systems, and warehouses take.
After the Paris Agreement, Grimsson says of himself and his Roadmap co-founders, “We were all optimistic, but we are all also realists.” It is his belief that if you “give people the tools, they can execute the transformation and the change—without governmental leadership.” Perhaps Roadmap will be one of those tools.
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Here’s a video that spells it out in ways that I find impossible to ignore.
Because in hundreds of years time I want others to look at the following picture of Troutbeck Valley in England and know how precious is this one and only planet we live on.
We are witnessing more storms, more unseasonal weather patterns, and I just hope that we wake up soon to the damage we are doing to our beloved Mother that has held us in her eternal arms for so long..
Photo credit: Getty Images
Enjoy the month of May wherever you are in the world!
Closing by repeating a key pronouncement in that RoadMap video above:
I really cannot add any words at the present time. The article says it all!
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Removed because of an alleged copyright infringement.
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This is a very ’rounded’ story about Tricycle, one that shows that love in the dog community is never very far away. Actually, I would go on to say that we adults who also love our dogs, probably putting them above our own needs, offer something very special.
Further emails between Jane and me resulted in the following.
After I published the post about Molly last Thursday, there were further emails between Jane and me.
When I went to bed after I sent you Molly’s story I thought of some other points.
Separation anxiety: presumably the result of, over a period of time, seeing her friends disappear and the family leave her owner. He would feed her, let her out for a run round the garden put her away again. And then leave till some unspecified time.
If – rarely- I’m out for more than a few hours she doesn’t want to know Alan. She waits on the chair by the door looking bereft. Then I come home and …. whoo hoo it’s like the 4th July and she suddenly comes to life; runs and jumps around like a wind-up toy. The obvious joy and relief at seeing me is humbling.
Or if I go out of the room she might follow.
But even letting her out in the garden has been a trauma for her. She rushes out but if I don’t immediately follow she comes back to check where I am – but if she sees me putting my garden shoes on – hey Mum’s coming! and off she scoots. She does go out and stay on her own but likes to know we’re there. That fear of being left is obviously too entrenched to ever leave her.
BUT the most amazing thing is that when my friend boarded her she said she doesn’t bark – they thought they might have heard her bark once. And when we went to look at her, the owner told me ‘she doesn’t bark’.
But she barks now! I talk to her so she talks back! She is a brilliant guard dog. If there’s anyone at the front door she barks and can’t wait to get there. As people often don’t see our bell we wouldn’t have known they were there. And if the phone rings (think the ringtone must hurt her ears) she barks till I answer it.
And despite her traumas she is the nicest little girl I’ve ever known. Not a nasty bone in her body.
Jane x
Jane also sent a further photograph.
Then in a further email that came through shorty afterwords in reply to mine:
That’s wonderful. I may publish an addendum, so to speak, sometime next week and incorporate some of your remarks. (Paul)
Jane asked:
That would be terrific and perhaps I could add the question: Do others have experience of dogs sucking their blanket?
I assume this an anxiety or comfort habit but then again – is it to do with indigestion – considering what she scavenges? It happens when she’s had a feed and is almost like a child sucking their blanket but also reminds me of horses wind-sucking and/or crib-biting.
Obviously she couldn’t do this in her kennel ( she slept on newspaper covered board) but seems to derive comfort from it but does have a penchant for eating paper (my requisition for a chest X-ray to name but one!) and hence the photo of her with toilet roll! Also she had puppies but we don’t know old she was.
Actually the sucking reminds me of cats sucking and kneading.
She will be 11 next month so unlikely to stop now. We got her on 31 December 2016.
Best Christmas present ever.
Can someone answer Jane’s question about dogs sucking their blankets?
Too many years ago, indeed when I had my own company back in the late 70s, I came in contact with Keith Edmunds. He was a Linux expert; still is! He runs a company in the U.K., Tiger Computing, based in Monmouthshire.
The other day Keith posted a story about his dog and I asked for permission to republish. Keith very quickly said “Yes”. He added: “With a link to https://www.tiger-computing.co.uk/not-clever/, yes.”
Here it is:
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Rhys!
My wife is deaf. She caught meningitis when she was four years old, and one of the side effects can be deafness.
But this isn’t a sob story. It’s a joyful story of a chocolate brown Labrador called Rhys. My wife’s hearing dog.
People often ask what he can do. Well, he alerts Cecilia to the doorbell ringing, the kitchen timer going off, voice commands to “fetch mum” and the smoke alarm.
Some people ask whether he responds to the phone. But the answer is no. Cecilia can’t use the phone (she’s deaf); Rhys can’t use the phone (he’s a dog – he can’t speak). Between them you’d think they’d be able to come up with some kind of plan…but nothing so far.
“He’s very clever!,” people say. But really he’s not. I have, in moments of disrespect, mentioned that if he had an IQ one point higher he’d be a tomato.
You see we mustn’t confuse “highly trained” with “clever”.
Yes, Rhys has learnt how to respond to certain triggers. “If this happens, then do that” – It’s very basic.
If the smoke alarm sounds, then find Cecilia, nudge her, lie down and get a treat.
He doesn’t do it because he’s smart enough to know that the smoke alarm means danger. No. That would be clever.
He does it simply because he’ll get a treat for doing this task. He is a Labrador after all…
Clever is the ability to devise or select an appropriate solution to a problem. Clever – at least in adults – is a combination of intelligence, knowledge and experience.
If we apply this to business, then clever might be knowledge and experience in your domain. Right now, a lot of clever people are investigating a little virus called SARS-CoV-2 (the cause of COVID-19).
But clever can also mean knowing when to pull in the experts.
I’m no expert on immunology or virology so I’m leaving the SARS-CoV-2 problem to the talented (and knowledgeable, experienced and intelligent) bio-scientists.
Rhys is leaving the intellectual challenge of pretty much everything to others.
But I am quite clever when it comes to Linux, so if you need a little help with that then be sure to let me know…
Many years ago, when Jean was still in England, she and Jane became good friends. They still stay in touch today thanks to the modern world.
Recently, Jane sent an email that contained a lovely story of her dog, Molly. Or rather I should say Molly, that belongs to her and her husband, Al.
Here is Jane’s story.
ooOOoo
Our beloved Molly. Re-homed, not badly treated but was a working dog. Molly’s owner had a bad accident and his life fell apart.
Got rid of his other dogs and eventually, when boarding her with my friend, asked if she knew a good home for her. We’d just lost our dog and though he’ll never be replaced it’s not a home without a dog. So a friend and I went to see her – fat, scruffy, lived in an outdoor kennel. So, she came home with us.
She’d never set foot in a house so not house trained but SO clever. She quickly learned to toilet outside and now ASKS to go out. Nudges my elbow and if I stand up but don’t act immediately she paws my leg. How clever is that. Quickly learned how to negotiate stairs and not catch birds.
She knows exactly what she’s due – treats, dinner – and you can set your watch by her.
She is the most loving little girl and loves being cuddled. The thought of her being alone in the kennel, no company, frightened in storms, cold, not knowing when she’d see anyone breaks my heart.
The only problem, probably because of erratic feeding, or maybe survival instinct and not leaving scents for predators, is she eats her own poo and out walking I keep constant check or she’ll eat others too.
She had to be spayed and they found cancer last year and that meant a further operation.
She is a scavenger and I watch her constantly to see what she’s got in her mouth – in return for giving it up she expects a reward, she quickly caught on how to get treats!
Well enough, you know all about dogs and their ways – each one unique.
Keep well xxx
A dog can only do so much for you, so, therefore, it becomes your responsibility too, to take care of your dog as your child. It needs your time and attention, and just like a 
Learning from Dogs 