This past weekend my wife, son, and I went out to dinner in the wonderful small town of West Chester, PA. The town is the county seat, and in addition is home to a large state university, West Chester University (one of our swimming archrivals when I was in college). The town has done a … Continue reading Is It Just Me, Or Do You Also Think This Is Disgusting and Inappropriate?
In today's Wall Street Journal, Susan Pinker shares the results of a 2019 study led by Lauren Powell, now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. The study looked at whether getting a dog improved the owner’s activity level, cardiovascular health, and psychological state. On the physical side, owning a dog did not seem … Continue reading Research Suggests Help for Loneliness
For the past few months, when we've come back home from having been out for a while, our dog Nellie jumps up off the couch and runs right to the cabinet where her snacks are kept. She sits there, tail wagging, barely able to control herself, with her eyes shifting back and forth between us … Continue reading Who Trained Whom?
I'm sure our dog is no different than most dogs. When it's time to eat, she can barely contain herself. She starts spinning around, jumping up on us, pawing at the door where we keep her food, and running around the kitchen. It's the highlight of her day. But then it's over so quickly. She wolfs … Continue reading Thanks to Harlan Coben, Now I Know What It’s Like to Be My Dog
That is the conclusion of a paper just published in the current issue of the journal Learning and Behavior. In other words, dogs are not as smart as people believe. The researchers set out to study dogs from three different perspectives: phylogenetically, as carnivoran and specifically a canid; ecologically, as social, cursorial hunters; and anthropogenically, … Continue reading “There Is No Current Case for Canine Exceptionalism”
Borden's Blather 