In this month’s Science magazine, on page 1213, there is a short piece under the heading of In Other Journals.
I share it with you.
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Canine Behavior Friends from the start
By Sacha Vignieri.
Dogs, unlike wolves, are highly responsive to human voice, gestures, and eye contact. CREDIT: ISTOCK.COM/HNIJJAR007
The closest relative to dogs, “man’s best friend,” is the wolf, a wily predator that generally avoids human interaction. For decades, researchers and dog owners have wondered how the leap to domestication occurred.
The main hypothesis invoked very early selection for wolves that “liked”—or least tolerated—humans, and the connection strengthened from there.
However, there is still some debate about whether the degree to which dogs interact and communicate with humans is a learned trait.
Two recent studies appear to close the book on this learning hypothesis. Bray et al. looked at about 400 puppies and found that at this young age and without much human interaction, they were adept at following human gestures and positively responded to high-pitched “puppy talk.” Further, there was variation in these responses with an association between relatedness and social communication skills, which supports a genetic driver.
Salomons et al. compared dog and wolf puppies and found no difference in general cognitive responses, but much greater responsiveness to human gestures and eye contact, in dog puppies. Importantly, this happened even though the dog pups had received less actual human interaction than did the wolf pups.
These studies confirm that dogs’ interest in communication with humans is an evolved trait unique to their lineage.
Curr. Biol.31, 3132, 3137 (2021).
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That is fascinating. Dogs have evolved this trait on their own, so to speak. It further underlines the precious nature of the relationship between dogs and humans.
I wasn’t going to publish a post for today but then yesterday I read this article on The Conversation and wanted to share it with you. In fact it shares much of what I posted on the 1st, The Big Question. Because time and infinity are beautifully connected.
Imagine time running backwards. People would grow younger instead of older and, after a long life of gradual rejuvenation – unlearning everything they know – they would end as a twinkle in their parents’ eyes. That’s time as represented in a novel by science fiction writer Philip K Dick but, surprisingly, time’s direction is also an issue that cosmologists are grappling with.
While we take for granted that time has a given direction, physicists don’t: most natural laws are “time reversible” which means they would work just as well if time was defined as running backwards. So why does time always move forward? And will it always do so?
Does time have a beginning?
Any universal concept of time must ultimately be based on the evolution of the cosmos itself. When you look up at the universe you’re seeing events that happened in the past – it takes light time to reach us. In fact, even the simplest observation can help us understand cosmological time: for example the fact that the night sky is dark. If the universe had an infinite past and was infinite in extent, the night sky would be completely bright – filled with the light from an infinite number of stars in a cosmos that had always existed.
For a long time scientists, including Albert Einstein, thought that the universe was static and infinite. Observations have since shown that it is in fact expanding, and at an accelerating rate. This means that it must have originated from a more compact state that we call the Big Bang, implying that time does have a beginning. In fact, if we look for light that is old enough we can even see the relic radiation from Big Bang – the cosmic microwave background. Realising this was a first step in determining the age of the universe (see below).
But there is a snag, Einstein’s special theory of relativity, shows that time is … relative: the faster you move relative to me, the slower time will pass for you relative to my perception of time. So in our universe of expanding galaxies, spinning stars and swirling planets, experiences of time vary: everything’s past, present and future is relative.
So is there a universal time that we could all agree on?
The universe’s timeline. Design Alex Mittelmann, Coldcreation/wikimedia, CC BY-SA
It turns out that because the universe is on average the same everywhere, and on average looks the same in every direction, there does exist a “cosmic time”. To measure it, all we have to do is measure the properties of the cosmic microwave background. Cosmologists have used this to determine the age of the universe; its cosmic age. It turns out that the universe is 13.799 billion years old.
Time’s arrow
So we know time most likely started during the Big Bang. But there is one nagging question that remains: what exactly is time?
To unpack this question, we have to look at the basic properties of space and time. In the dimension of space, you can move forwards and backwards; commuters experience this everyday. But time is different, it has a direction, you always move forward, never in reverse. So why is the dimension of time irreversible? This is one of the major unsolved problems in physics.
To explain why time itself is irreversible, we need to find processes in nature that are also irreversible. One of the few such concepts in physics (and life!) is that things tend to become less “tidy” as time passes. We describe this using a physical property called entropy that encodes how ordered something is.
Imagine a box of gas in which all the particles were initially placed in one corner (an ordered state). Over time they would naturally seek to fill the entire box (a disordered state) – and to put the particles back into an ordered state would require energy. This is irreversible. It’s like cracking an egg to make an omelette – once it spreads out and fills the frying pan, it will never go back to being egg-shaped. It’s the same with the universe: as it evolves, the overall entropy increases.
It turns out entropy is a pretty good way to explain time’s arrow. And while it may seem like the universe is becoming more ordered rather than less – going from a wild sea of relatively uniformly spread out hot gas in its early stages to stars, planets, humans and articles about time – it’s nevertheless possible that it is increasing in disorder. That’s because the gravity associated with large masses may be pulling matter into seemingly ordered states – with the increase in disorder that we think must have taken place being somehow hidden away in the gravitational fields. So disorder could be increasing even though we don’t see it.
But given nature’s tendency to prefer disorder, why did the universe start off in such an ordered state in the first place? This is still considered a mystery. Some researchers argue that the Big Bang may not even have been the beginning, there may in fact be “parallel universes” where time runs in different directions.
Will time end?
Time had a beginning but whether it will have an end depends on the nature of the dark energy that is causing it to expand at an accelerating rate. The rate of this expansion may eventually tear the universe apart, forcing it to end in a Big Rip; alternatively dark energy may decay, reversing the Big Bang and ending the Universe in a Big Crunch; or the Universe may simply expand forever.
But would any of these future scenarios end time? Well, according to the strange rules of quantum mechanics, tiny random particles can momentarily pop out of a vacuum – something seen constantly in particle physics experiments. Some have argued that dark energy could cause such “quantum fluctuations” giving rise to a new Big Bang, ending our time line and starting a new one. While this is extremely speculative and highly unlikely, what we do know is that only when we understand dark energy will we know the fate of the universe.
So what is the most likely outcome? Only time will tell.
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Let me explain, in part, entropy. Because while I and many others sort of understand it, the principle behind entropy is much more detailed.
It is explained pretty well on WikiPedia, from which I reproduce the first paragraph.
Of course when I want a photograph of the teeth of one of our dogs then none is available. So this photo of Sweeney kissing Jean taken in 2018 will have to do.
But the question of dental care and attention for dogs is yet something else we dog owners need to know. That is why a recent article in The Dodo is a great share for you all today.
You probably think that if your dog needs dental work, you’ll be able to tell by looking at his teeth — right?
Turns out, that’s not always the case.
The Dodo spoke with Allyne Moon, a registered vet technician with Free Animal Doctor in California, who explained what you need to know about dental work for dogs — and why it’s so important to get regular check-ups.
How to tell if your dog needs dental work
Your dog’s dental health is super important, so you need to be able to identify when your pup’s pearly whites might need some work.
“Pet parents should check their dogs’ teeth regularly,” Moon told The Dodo.
During those check-ins on his chompers, you should know what to do and what to look for.
“Look all the way at the back teeth by gently pulling the corner of the lip back,” Moon explained. “If the teeth appear discolored, [if the] gums are very red [or ‘angry’], [if] any blood or [pus or] discharge is present or if teeth are loose, they should seek a consultation with their veterinarian.”
If your pup’s breath is so bad that it almost makes you wish you didn’t have a sense of smell, that’s also a pretty solid indication that your dog needs dental work.
“If your dog’s breath smells bad, even if the teeth look OK, it is also an indication to have your pet evaluated by your veterinarian,” Moon said.
Signs your dog needs dental work
Some general symptoms that might mean your pup needs dental work include:
Having bad breath
Experiencing excessive drooling
Pawing or rubbing his mouth (more than usual)
Getting lumps on his face under his eyes
Dropping food when eating
Eating less
Appearing like his mouth is in pain
Refusing to let you look in his mouth
If you’re noticing any of these signs, you should give your vet a call.
Common dog dental problems
According to Moon, your dog can be at higher risk for certain dental problems based on his size.
“In my experience, the most common dental problems in … small breed dogs [are] heavy dental tartar, calculus and crowded [or] diseased teeth,” Moon said. “Large breed dogs [can have] broken teeth, requiring … root canal, endodontic therapy or extraction.”
Now, that doesn’t mean that tartar buildup only happens in small dog breeds, or that big dogs are the only pups who have broken teeth.
These problems can happen in any dog, no matter his size or breed.
If your pup is experiencing any of these things, or any of the symptoms above, it’s crucial to bring him directly to the vet ASAP.
“I would absolutely NEVER take your pet to a ‘nonanesthetic pet dentist’ [or] run out [to] a grooming shop,” Moon said. “At best, these people only provide a cosmetic service. At [worst], you’ll be spending a lot of money for something that gives you a false sense of confidence and can ruin your pet’s health … If your pet is lucky, the only thing they will waste is your money.”
How to stay on top of your dog’s dental care
“Unfortunately, once your dog’s teeth have reached the stage of significant tartar buildup, foul breath or loose [or] broken teeth, there’s nothing a pet parent can do at home to help beyond scheduling an appointment with their veterinarian,” Moon said.
However, there are things you can do to try to prevent things from getting to that point.
The best way to keep your dog’s teeth clean at home
According to Moon, it’s key to use an appropriate dog toothpaste.
“The onset of many dental problems can be delayed by having pet parents brush their dogs’ teeth with a pet-approved enzymatic toothpaste,” Moon explained. “The beauty of an enzymatic toothpaste is it works without scrubbing.”
This is great if your pup can’t stand it when you try to get in there with a toothbrush.
“If all you can do is get the enzymatic paste on the gums and teeth, that is fine,” Moon said. “People have gotten good results by just smearing the paste onto their dog’s gums and teeth.”
It’s also important to know what should — and shouldn’t — be in your dog’s toothpaste.
“Whatever product people use, it should be labeled for dogs, work by using enzymes, NOT have fluoride in it and come in a flavor your pet enjoys,” Moon explained.
(Ed: Two entries for products listed on Amazon removed. Please go here if you need to see the details.)
Between regular at-home dental care and cleanings at your vet’s office, there’s so much you can do to keep your pup’s teeth pearly white — and smelling good.
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And I will close with another photograph, this time of Brandy, but again with his mouth tightly closed!
The last few days have been sidetracking me from writing the blog. Apart from editing my third book The One We Feed and dealing with critical fire conditions and hoping with all our hearts for the rain due on Friday night to materialise, and … You get the message!
Anyway, The Dodo came up with a lovely snippet on the 20th August. Here it is:
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Diner Spots A Guy Out On The Sweetest Date With His Dog
The other day, Gemma Colón stopped by a restaurant in New York City to grab a bite. But the visit ended up satisfying more than just her appetite.
“I was presented with one of the most unexpectedly heartwarming views,” Colón told The Dodo. “I noticed this dog seated across from his owner, perched up on a chair, acting like an absolute proper gentleman.”
The dog and his owner were apparently on a date.
GEMMA COLÓN
Colón was fortunate enough to be seated in view of the adorable pair — basking the sight of the good thing they have going.
“[The man] was doing a crossword puzzle and sipping a glass of red wine with his meal. His date (the dog) was enjoying his own bowl of water, which he slurped politely,” Colón said. “It was really amazing how well-behaved the pup was. I saw better table manners displayed by this dog than I’ve seen from some humans.”
While the man and his dog dined, Colón saw other patrons smile at the sweet scene as well. No one had the heart to interrupt their meal to comment on their cuteness, but Colón did overhear an exchange with their server — revealing that this wasn’t just a one-off outing.
“I heard a waitress comment on how good the dog was at one point, and the man replied saying he brings the dog with him everywhere,” Colón said. “It definitely seemed like a very pleasant date, with lovely company.”
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This is really a delightful story but it isn’t surprising. Because dogs that are loved and cared for by us humans are so loving and caring in return. As the waitress heard the man brings his dog everywhere. He is never separated from the dog.
The following photographs were sent to me by Jess Anderson. But first here is the story:
For years, photographer Tanja Brandt has made it her mission to capture magnificent photos of animals and wildlife and has drawn accolades in the German and international photography world with her heart-warming animal portraits.
Recently, the German artist found a new challenge when she photographed the unique bond between two unlikely friends: Ingo, a Belgian Shepherd, and Poldi (Napoleon), a one-year-old owlet.
The owlet and canine have a special protector-protected relationship. Their affection toward each other couldn’t be any more evident. Ingo lovingly guards Poldi, who apparently doesn’t know how to live free.
The owlet hatched two days after his six brothers and sisters, therefore, has always been very vulnerable due to his small size. They respect each other and they can read each other, says the photographer.
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These photographs are truly unique. Plus they are astoundingly beautiful.
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.”
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!
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!”
Yesterday morning while sitting up in bed I was browsing the internet on my iPad. I looked up TED Talks and fancied watching the story of Mark Pollock and Simone George. It turned out to be 19 minutes of incredible viewing and it is reproduced below as a YouTube video.
Towards the end Mark refers to his guide dog Larry. More of that later.
Then I came across a comprehensive entry on WikiPedia. From which the following is taken:
Pollock enrolled in a course to help come to terms with his disability. He left for Dublin with his guide dog Larry and began putting himself forward for job interviews. Prospective employers were uncertain as to how to approach him. Eventually the father of one of his college friends assigned him to organising corporate entertainment. He returned to rowing and won bronze and silver medals for Northern Ireland in the 2002 Commonwealth Rowing Championships. He engaged in other athletic pursuits, including running six marathons in seven days with a sighted partner across the Gobi Desert, China in 2003 when he raised tens of thousands of euro for the charity Sightsavers International. On 10 April 2004, he competed in the North Pole Marathon on the sixth anniversary of his blindness.
Then I discovered that Larry had died: “My great mate Larry The Guide Dog died on Sunday night. An amazing Guide Dog and amazing friend.”.
He died on the 2nd May, 2010 just a couple of months before Mark’s terrible accident.
Finally a photograph of Mark and Larry!
“Who do you rely on most? When I was just blind, it was my guide dog Larry who empowered me to live life independently.”
For the first day of September I wanted to change the topic to an item that was recently published by The Conversation.
Space has always been fascinating to me. One of my enduring memories was standing on the roof of my Land Rover in 1969 during a long journey around the interior of Australia. We were in the Nullabor desert and it was flat, and lonely, for miles and miles. This particular night I clambered up onto the roof and just took in the night sky. There was not a single spot of human-caused light pollution and the night sky was beautiful beyond words.
Later on when I was sailing I used to regard the North Star as my friend.
What is beyond outer space? – Siah, age 11, Fremont, California
Right above you is the sky – or as scientists would call it, the atmosphere. It extends about 20 miles (32 kilometers) above the Earth. Floating around the atmosphere is a mixture of molecules – tiny bits of air so small you take in billions of them every time you breathe.
Above the atmosphere is space. It’s called that because it has far fewer molecules, with lots of empty space between them.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to travel to outer space – and then keep going? What would you find? Scientists like me are able to explain a lot of what you’d see. But there are some things we don’t know yet, like whether space just goes on forever.
Planets, stars and galaxies
At the beginning of your trip through space, you might recognize some of the sights. The Earth is part of a group of planets that all orbit the Sun – with some orbiting asteroids and comets mixed in, too.
You might know that the Sun is actually just an average star, and looks bigger and brighter than the other stars only because it is closer. To get to the next nearest star, you would have to travel through trillions of miles of space. If you could ride on the fastest space probe NASA has ever made, it would still take you thousands of years to get there.
If stars are like houses, then galaxies are like cities full of houses. Scientists estimate there are 100 billion stars in Earth’s galaxy. If you could zoom out, way beyond Earth’s galaxy, those 100 billion stars would blend together – the way lights of city buildings do when viewed from an airplane.
If you could watch for long enough, over millions of years, it would look like new space is gradually being added between all the galaxies. You can visualize this by imagining tiny dots on a deflated balloon and then thinking about blowing it up. The dots would keep moving farther apart, just like the galaxies are.
Is there an end?
If you could keep going out, as far as you wanted, would you just keep passing by galaxies forever? Are there an infinite number of galaxies in every direction? Or does the whole thing eventually end? And if it does end, what does it end with?
These are questions scientists don’t have definite answers to yet. Many think it’s likely you would just keep passing galaxies in every direction, forever. In that case, the universe would be infinite, with no end.
Some scientists think it’s possible the universe might eventually wrap back around on itself – so if you could just keep going out, you would someday come back around to where you started, from the other direction.
One way to think about this is to picture a globe, and imagine that you are a creature that can move only on the surface. If you start walking any direction, east for example, and just keep going, eventually you would come back to where you began. If this were the case for the universe, it would mean it is not infinitely big – although it would still be bigger than you can imagine.
In either case, you could never get to the end of the universe or space. Scientists now consider it unlikely the universe has an end – a region where the galaxies stop or where there would be a barrier of some kind marking the end of space.
But nobody knows for sure. How to answer this question will need to be figured out by a future scientist.
Zola’s always known she was a big dog in a small dog’s body. The 2-year-old corgi refuses to let her short legs hold her back from getting what she wants.
And what Zola really wants is to play with her neighbor, Rocky.
Haley Smith
About three weeks ago, Haley Smith noticed that whenever Zola went out in the yard, she’d make a beeline for the fence.
“She started really going crazy and barking at the fence, and we weren’t sure why,” Smith told The Dodo. “She would sit by the door and we would let her out, and she would sprint to the fence and start jumping. We thought it was odd.”
Haley Smith
Smith didn’t understand what was so attractive about the cinder block barrier until she caught a glimpse of a sweet black and white spotted face looking over. But no matter how high Zola jumped, she couldn’t reach the dog on the other side.
“We peeked outside and lo and behold, she was just trying to talk to the big paws and head that were peering over at her,” Smith said. “She really wants to get to Rocky. She will take a running leap at the fence and try to jump to his height.”
Haley Smith
Rocky and Zola’s meetings have since become a nightly affair. The two have yet to meet without the barrier, but that just makes the pups even more interested in each other.
“Rocky is very gentle,” Smith said. “At first he barked back at her. Now, he jumps up and just watches her quietly. He seems very curious about her.”
But Zola doesn’t seem to like that their meetings are a little one-sided. “One theory I have is that she’s a little jealous that Rocky can see into her yard but she can’t see into his,” Smith said. “She probably wants to know how to get to him so they can sniff and play.”
Zola loves other dogs and always pulls to sniff each one she sees on her walks. The fact that she hasn’t been able to reach Rocky is the ultimate challenge, and she’s constantly trying to figure out how to get to his level.
Haley Smith
Smith has no doubt that Zola will soon reach him, and the two will finally be together.
“Zola is too smart for her own good,” Smith said. “She’s pretty sure she will figure out a way to get to the top of the fence.”
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In a way dogs are so human but then again dogs are a very different species. We know from years of personal experience that dogs have pure unconditional love for their doggy friends and for us humans. That is what makes them so special!
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Learning from Dogs 
