Sparky enjoys novel experiences, so I took him outside for the eclipse. I played it off like we were just going to play with Mr. Moose, but Sparky noticed.
Sparky wasn’t worried about totality.
He had a moment of doubt, but I’m glad my buddy had a chance to enjoy a total eclipse.
Sparky asked if we could go to the next solar eclipse, but when I told him that we’d have to drive back to North Dakota, he didn’t think it was worth it. That would be in 2044.
Dogs understand what certain words stand for, according to researchers who monitored the brain activity of willing pooches while they were shown balls, slippers, leashes and other highlights of the domestic canine world.
The finding suggests that the dog brain can reach beyond commands such as “sit” and “fetch”, and the frenzy-inducing “walkies”, to grasp the essence of nouns, or at least those that refer to items the animals care about.
It’s good to see that researchers have finally caught up with what I figured out after a year with Sparky. After a year of practice, Sparky does not differentiate between Bunny and Mr. Moose. To him, “Moose” means a stuffed animal. “Crate” means run to his crate. “Bed” means run somewhere, but not necessarily to his cushion in my bedroom. We’ve practiced this almost every day, and that’s as far as he will ever get because it seems good enough to him.
One time, I said, “car ride”, and Sparky knew to run down to the garage and rush to the passenger side of my truck. He might have learned “car ride” prior to coming to me, but to know exactly where to go was impressive. Sparky really likes car rides.
During the tests, researchers monitored the dogs’ brain activity through non-invasive electroencephalography, or EEG. The traces revealed different patterns of activity when the objects matched or clashed with the words their owner said. The difference in the traces was more pronounced for words that owners believed their dogs knew best.
I can’t help thinking that dog researchers finally got time on an EEG machine.
While playing with Sparky, I found a related research topic.
When I tease Sparky with Mr. Moose, his eyes are locked on it. If I hold Mr. Moose behind my back, his eyes remain locked on where Mr. Moose should be based on the position of my arm. If I pull my arm out without Mr. Moose, Sparky is completely baffled and starts to look for Mr. Moose.
I don’t know what that means, but it seems like if he saw my arm holding Mr. Moose, my arm is an extension of Mr. Moose. When my arm comes out without Moose, then that connection is broken.
Now that I am a punkwad, I have come to the opinion that dogs and children should not be indulged, but should conform to the customs of the house.
Being two old guys, Sparky and I agree on a lot of things. Sparky doesn’t sleep in my bedroom because I am indulging him, we both just sleep better knowing what the other fella is doing.
When Sparky slept in his crate, no matter what time I woke up, he’d be sitting at attention. He’d come out of the box ready to frolic. I am not a big morning frolicker.
Now, he sleeps in to give me time to shamble around with my coffee. I got out of bed two hours ago and Sparky is sleeping past his 10 am breakfast.
He is such a good dog.
Sparky was feeling cheated for giving up the dead squirrel. He always intends to do the right thing, but he doesn’t see a dead squirrel as a moral question. He needed his faith restored, so I took him for a car ride.
While we were out, he made a compelling case for picking up a rotisserie chicken. After picking it up, the truck smelled great. Sparky couldn’t stop talking about how much fun we’d have eating chicken when we got home.
Eating the chicken wasn’t as wonderful as Sparky had hoped. Being a beagle, his idea of a good time is eating so much chicken, he vomits. Then eating the vomit and taking a nap. Instead, I gave him an amount equal to about 4 human bites with no greasy skin.
He found a squirrel in the brush, and pulled it out to show me. After I told him to drop it, I got his WTF look. To his credit, he did drop and abandon it when I spoiled his fun.
Now that we are back at the house, he is acting like I promised him something even better than a dead squirrel. I’ll take him for a car ride to even the score.
Playing Chicken Run today, Sparky snatched the prize five times.
When the chicken was gone, pepperoni was the prize. It’s aromatic, so got Sparky’s attention. I was concerned that it might mix up Sparky’s innards, so today, we switched to kielbasa.
I found a deer skull in the woods. This counts as Sparky’s Christmas present. We are leaving it outside for now because nobody wants a skull dragged around the house. Well, Sparky does. It might get mounted in his crate. Sparky would like that.
Sparky got his present today, on Russian Christmas, so that may be a cosmic sign that he’s Russian. That would explain a lot. He only understands English when it suits him and he likes bread and salt. Sparky is warm-hearted, fatalistic and reckless, so the epitome of the Russian soul.
Sparky and I have the outline of a good game.
This is the Deadbolt. An FPV camera is mounted on the front and a tray is placed on the roof rack. A piece of chicken is placed in the bait tray.
My advantage is that Sparky gets skittish when Deadbolt is coming at him and the Deadbolt can drive under a couch to be safe.
For the first time in decades, I find myself with no plans for New Year’s Eve. The party hosts are Covid-positive, but not ill. It would not have been hard to come up with an alternate plan, but hanging out with Sparky felt like the right move.
I’ve had to use a Martingale collar for him because his head is so small, he slips out of a regular collar. He’s a good pup, so a little tug is enough to get him back on track. The big problem was when he is up against his instincts. When he sees a new dog, he’s excited to go investigate.
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