I just read a post on ScienceBlog.com titled “Emotional Robot Pets”, featuring the work of two Taiwanese researchers who are looking at “a new design paradigm that could see the development of a robot vision module that might, one day, recognize human facial expressions and respond appropriately.”

Who cares? It’s still a robot, so any response to my emotions would be totally artificial. No, thanks.

When it comes to dogs and cats, there’s nothing like the genuine affection you feel when your pet curls up on the sofa next to you and looks at you with complete trust and love. Do you really think you’re going to get that same heartwarming connection from a bucket of bolts with fur?

Researcher Wei-Po Lee says, “With current technologies in computing and electronics and knowledge in ethology. neuroscience and cognition, it is now possible to create embodied prototypes of artificial living toys acting in the physical world.” For me, the operative word is acting.

I don’t want a pet who “acts” like he or she loves me anymore than I want my husband “acting” like he loves me. I’m human, and I can tell the difference.

While I understand that animatronic pets may be answer for people who live in places that don’t allow real pets or are allergic to pet fur and dander, I can’t help but wonder what’s next–substitute humans for people who can’t get along with anybody? Facebook, Twitter and all the other social networking sites have already begun to replace actual human contact with virtual contact, so we all have hundreds of “friends” who wouldn’t know us if we sat next to them on a bus. We’re actually changing the very definition of friends. So someday down the road, when I can buy robotic friends who are programmed to my wants and needs, why would I need the real thing? True, meaningful friendships will become obsolete.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m dazzled by human progress and advances in technology, but–like superior weapons of mass destruction–not all advancements serve humanity in a positive way. When my pooches cuddle up next to me and lick my face, I’d rather feel the love than some cold piece of metal scraping my cheek.

Hi, folks! Max here, with a guest post from one of our best friends, Susan, who’s having a little difficulty in the dog department. I’ve never had this problem, so I don’t know how to help her. When it comes to training, I’m always on the receiving end. So I’m asking all of you to help her out with some good solutions.

Thanks, Max! This is driving me crazy, and I don’t know how to stop it! What makes it worse is that I’m not sure which of my German shepherds is doing it. I have a 3 1/2-year-old 90 lb. shepherd and a 4-year-old 60 lb. shepherd, and either one could be the culprit. (That’s not them in the photo, though they look amazingly like my two sweeties. But I digress.) Here are the facts:

• They’ve both been housebroken for three years, except for the occasional accident, which might be anywhere in the house.
• The dogs are crated while we’re at work.
• I let them out as soon as I go home, opening all the doors required to get them into the fenced backyard, where their bathroom is located.
• Every few days I discover one of them has urinated in the same place on a corner of the love seat in our family room, so it’s pretty well marked, though I clean it as best I can every time it happens.
  
• We close off the area at night so they can’t get into the family room.
• We let them out first thing in the morning when they get up.
• We’ve been renovating our whole house over the summer, so the house has been in disarray and occasionally full of painters, plumbers, etc., but the urinating started before we began the renovation.
• We’re out of ideas on how to stop it.

I need your help. What can I do to eliminate this problem? Thanks for your help! S

What he’s done for cats, I want to do for dogs. A fellow with a big heart, Craig Grant, bought a tree farm far away from the city and turned it into a sanctuary for all the cats he’s rescued. He lives there with the cats and provides lots of love, care and companionship. As you can see from these photos, it’s truly pussycat paradise…

A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A

A
A
A
A

For decades, I’ve dreamed of doing this exact same thing for dogs. I have nothing against cats, of course. Some of my best friends have cats. I just have this thing for dogs. I truly believe I’m a dog in another existence, because I feel so connected to them. And frankly, I wouldn’t want to live in a world without dogs–the ONLY animals who love and protect their owners.

All I need is about $3M and a nice, big piece of land in the North Georgia mountains. If you can help me out, just let me know! When it’s up and running, you can visit my puppy paradise any ‘ol time you want…

A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A

Yet another reason to love your pooches! Just got this story from CBSnews.com and had to pass it along!

(CBS) A Michigan man says he has his dog to thank for saving his life by chewing off his infected big toe as he lay in a drunken stupor.

For months, Jerry Douthett had refused to see a doctor for the festering digit, in spite of his wife’s pleas and her suspicion that he had out of control diabetes.

About two weeks ago the couple went to a bar, where Douthett told the Grand Rapids Press that he drank four or five beers.

“Jerry had had all these Margaritas, so I just let him sleep,” his wife Rosee, a registered nurse, told the paper. “But then I heard these screams coming from the bedroom, and he was yelling, ‘My toe’s gone, my toe’s gone!’”

Kiko, the family dog, had suddenly become a surgeon.

“It wasn’t an aggressive attack. He pretty much just ate the infection, so he saved my life,” Jerry Douthett said.

He was treated at Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids where physicians said he had type 2 diabetes and was suffering from a dangerous toe infection. Surgeons amputated what was left of the digit.

“Maybe he thought it was not part of Jerry’s body,” Rosie told the Grand Rapids television station WOOD-TV, “that it was a dead animal laying on the bed. But he chewed off the infected part so he knew when to stop, which was great.”

Jerry Douthett says Kiko, a white terrier with brown ears, is a hero. Now that he knows he is diabetic, he has given up drinking.

Max here with some news! Not that I’m going to move to Provincetown, MA anytime soon, but I noticed that Dog Fancy magazine will be naming their top 40 most dog-friendly cities in the US in September, and they teased us with the top ten. Provincetown, MA is numero uno.

Why 40? Because Dog Fancy magazine is celebrating its 40th anniversary. Congratulations, Dog Fancy! And congratulations to all the winners. (I’m betting my city is somewhere in that top 40. I love where I live!)

What Makes These Cities the Best?

The criteria used to select the winning city include lots of dog-friendly open spaces and dog parks, events celebrating dogs and their people, sufficient veterinary care, plenty of pet supply and other services, and municipal laws that support and protect all pets.

The next nine cities in the top ten are:

* Carmel, Calif.
* Madison, Wis.
* Benicia, Calif.
* Fort Bragg, Calif.
* Lincoln City, Ore.
* San Diego, Calif.
* Virginia Beach, Va.
* Sioux Falls, S.D.
* Salem, Ore.

I think every city in America should do whatever it takes to win this competition next year!

Yippee!  We celebrated the first day of summer on Monday, and you know what that means?  It’s time to hit the road and travel.  My Mom and Dad love to hike and do anything outdoors, so it’s a cinch for me and Mittens to tag along.  But a lot of pets don’t have it that easy.  Their vacation is spent in a boarding facility.

Now, don’t get me wrong, boarding is necessary because there are lots of places that we can’t go and that’s the best option.  But if your family is planning a trip across town or across the country, you’ll be glad to know that there are plenty of hotels and motels that will make you feel at home.

Whether going away for a day trip or a week-long getaway, we’ve always found it helpful to plan our route using a couple of websites that identify pet-friendly hotels along the way.  Saves a bunch of time and research because all the information is right there.  Many of them even list attractions and events we might want to check out while we’re there.  Some useful website are:

Dog Friendly.com – http://www.dogfriendly.com/

Pets Welcome.com – http://www.petswelcome.com/

Dog Travel Club – http://www.dogtravelcompany.net/Home.php

You’d be surprised at the number of major chains, bed and breakfast spots and cottage rentals there are out there that welcome domestic animals–even the big dogs can find their place in the sun!  With all of this information right at your fingertips, now, when your family plans a vacation…the WHOLE family can go.

Now I gotta tell you, I’m so impressed with this little Beagle named Belle.  Of course, I think all dogs are great, but this one has really made me proud.  Now, I don’t normally buy gifts for dogs, but in this case, I’ll have to make an exception.

Most dogs are able to run and get help, drag an owner to safety or something heroic like that, but I’ve never heard of a dog being able to make a phone call!  But, that’s exactly what she did.

Seeing her owner Kevin Weaver of Indianapolis, IN lying unconscious on the kitchen floor from a diabetic seizure, she immediately fetched the cellphone and bit down on the number 9.  It had been pre-programmed to call emergency services. Belle repeatedly barked into the phone at the emergency dispatchers, who immediately sent help. When paramedics arrived, they found that Weaver had suffered severe hypoglycemic shock and had collapsed on the floor.  As they rushed him to the hospital, Belle rode along in the ambulance to make sure her “patient” would be okay.

How’d she get so smart?

It seems that Weaver has had type 1 diabetes most of his life, but when the seizures became more frequent a year ago, he enlisted the aid of his faithful friend, Belle, and trained her to become a diabetes alert dog.  It took about nine months, but as you can see, the specialized training paid off.

Impressive?  But that’s not all!

As if being one of the first dogs to actually dial a cell phone in an emergency wasn’t impressive enough, she can also help monitor Weaver’s blood-sugar levels.  With a keen sense of smell, she is able to detect when levels are abnormal.  The dog periodically licks Weaver’s nose to take her own reading of his blood-sugar level.  If something seems off to her, she will paw and whine at him.

“Every time she paws at me like that I grab my meter and test myself,” Weaver said. “She’s never been wrong.”

Every good dog has its day!

Her good deeds haven’t gone unnoticed. She is the first non-human to receive the VITA Wireless Samaritan Award. The Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association awards the VITA award to individuals who “demonstrate the courage and instinct to think of their wireless phones as a life-saving device during demanding emergency situations.” The name VITA (which is Latin for “Life”) is so appropriate since that’s what she gave her owner a second chance at.

~Max

Long story short: Sadly, the long-fescue sod is losing.  We desperately needed to renovate our backyard, which had become a large expanse of dirt sloping toward our recessed patio. When it rained, the mud poured onto the patio and into our home via many muddy paws.  The inside of our house is a disaster area which we’re determined to renovate and paint this summer, but we first had to stop the tide of mud entering the house, so the backyard had to be our first project.  You’ll have no problem recognizing which photos are before and after . We were thrilled…for about two days.

At the moment, we have three German Shepherds—two of our own and a foster. Those giant paws running rapidly from one end of the yard to the other several times a day are tearing it up slowly. But that’s not the big problem…

Hindsight Is 20-20

I’m still working on training all three to relieve themselves in the far-back part of the yard, which is mostly brush and trees.  Not happening as quickly as we’d like.  After a few days, the yellow spots began to appear, followed by  big patches of dead grass and dirt.

About that same time, I noticed an ad for a product that neutralized the high nitrogen content and high ph in dog urine to prevent this problem. I hit the dog-supplies trail and purchased two products—one for the dogs and another to spray on the yellow spots and neutralize everything at the point of contact (which, of course, means I have to watch them while they’re in the yard to see where they go and run outside with the spray bottle, hoping I’ll remember the exact spot where the stream landed. Easier said than done.)  So, right now, it’s hard to tell if it’s working. We wish we’d started them on the edible prevention well before the sod went down.

It’s Not Too Late For YOU!

If you have dogs and you’re planning to install new sod, the easiest protection may be to simply train your dogs to do their business in one spot specially designed for them, filled with either river pebble or Astroturf for easy clean-up. But just in case,  you should know about the different kinds of urine neutralizers. There are products on the market for both dogs and lawns. Ingestible urine neutralizers are available as chewables or liquids/sprays for their food or water.  And you can choose from a number of lawn treatments on the market.  I’m off to do some research on repairing my lawn before the problem gets any worse. Meanwhile, our beloved dogs are enjoying the heck out of their new backyard “digs.”

Hi, friends! Max here! You know, flower and vegetable-garden season is upon us, and I’d be willing to bet there are multitudes of loving dog owners who plant backyard beds, only to discover their dogs are garden-fresh food lovers, too.

Not that we precious pups are alone in our passion for home-grown peas, potatoes and petunias—rabbits, deer and other critters will also invite themselves to dinner at your expense. A fenced yard can help keep the feral feeders to a minimum, but what about us four-legged fur kids?

No matter how many dog treats you give us, we’re still going to be tempted by the rows of delightful choices (veggies, flowers and shrubs) you nurture diligently over the summer months. (My exception is lima beans. You can plant acres of them, and you won’t have to worry about me eating even one. They’re all yours.) For us, it’s like a trip to the grocery store. At the risk of disappointing all my buds (no pun intended) out there, I thought I’d give you some help, especially because my buds and I might ingest something we shouldn’t (like lima beans,) so it’s important to all of us. We learned these great tips for designing a dog-friendly garden from Judi Gerber at Care2.com, a blog that’s all about green living. Here they are…

• When planning your garden, create some dog-friendly elements so that your garden isn’t a more attractive place than his or her own area. Include designated paths that your pooch knows where it’s okay to roam.
• Usually a dog uses the same path over and over. (You should see the trails I’ve mapped out in Mom and Dad’s backyard!) Use pavers or some other kind of hardscape to clearly delineate the paths, Don’t use  something loose, like gravel, mulch or bark—that’s an open invitation to dig and bury things.
• Eliminate any bare dirt areas with some pet-friendly plants, grasses and ground cover to deter not only your dog, but bothersome weeds, too.
• Design a separate spot for your dog to dig and play in. If you consistently play with your pooch in that area and leave some favorite toys in there, he or she will come to recognize it as his/her “turf.”
• Create raised beds and fencing. Looks nice. Dogs stay out.
• If you don’t have room to fence off a separate area, use tomato cages around tomatoes and other small, tender plants. Trellises and tepees will keep dogs off the plants, and so will growing the plants close together, because it’s easier for dogs to go around clumps of plants.
• Playful, unstoppable pup? Put your most delicate plants in containers, hanging baskets or window boxes.
• Most important—avoid planting things in your garden that are toxic or harmful to your furry babies. Check aspca.org/toxicplants for a complete list.
• Consider your dog before growing  spiny or thorny plants, which can grow at a level that can cause serious eye injuries to dogs. And take care of those overgrown weeds with foxtails or seedhead that are sharp—bad news if your dog swallows or inhales them.
• If you must, ALWAYS USE NON-TOXIC fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides.

Thanks to Judi and YOU for protecting us pups from our own curiosity. On behalf of my buds and me, Way to Grow!