From the dog’s mouth — How do you become a police dog?:

NZ Police gets all manner of questions on its recruitment facebook page. One potential recruit even asked “how do you become a police dog?” We decided to speak to a police dog and find out.

It’s not always easy to locate our precious native animals like geckos so we can conserve and protect them. So that’s where the services of a lizard dog come in handy:

Gecko watch.

Border collie-cross Manu joined her owner, lizard expert Marieke Lettink, at the Denniston BioBlitz on March 2-4 to track down skinks and geckos. Manu reveals how she copes as a canine superstar. …

Q: why are geckos so hard to find/so few and far between?

A: There are heaps more geckos out there than the humans know about! They are hard to find because geckos have excellent camouflage and like to hide themselves away in tight spaces to avoid being eaten by predators. This fools the humans, but not my nose with its 220 million smell cells (a dog sense of smell is a thousand times better than a human’s). But even my nose doesn’t help in some places — I can’t find geckos in places where there are lots of predators that eat them (cats, ferrets, stoats, weasels, hedgehogs, possums, rats, mice, and some birds like magpies and kingfishers).

[Via Forest & Bird » Blog Archive » My life as a lizard dog.]

I recently wrote Dangerous or endangered dogs? about a dog behind a fence on its owner’s property that bit a stranger who touched its nose. Today news comes that the owner has been found guilty of owning a dog that attacked:

A man charged after his dog bit a stranger who touched its nose protruding from under his closed front gate has been found guilty. …

The dog had only its nose jutting out from under the gate, which was set back from the footpath, when the bite occurred.

The 51-year-old male victim had the tip of his left thumb bitten off in the incident.…

In his decision, Judge Rea said that as the dog could get its muzzle and paws under the gate, it was not “confined” in the way the legislation required. “In my view the requirements to confine the dog must mean all of the dog,” Judge Rea said.

[Via Owner found guilty over dog attack - National - NZ Herald News.]

Beware of the passer-by!

I find this judgement incredible. It implies that all of us responsible owners who believe we’re doing the right thing confining our dogs behind fences and gates could be found similarly guilty in similar circumstances.

Our dogs are confined by a low wooden paling fence. There are plenty of gaps someone could stick their hand through. It would be easy for anyone to reach over the fence and provoke the dogs.

I think it’s entirely unreasonable that someone who actively seeks out a confined dog and reaches out to touch it can be seen as an innocent victim. If I were sitting in my own yard minding my own business and a passerby reached out to prod me in the nose I expect I’d lash out too. Wouldn’t you?

If you think you’re clever because you taught your dog to sit, try teaching it to climb into an MRI machine and lie perfectly still for a while.

Callie, a two-year-old Feist, or southern squirrel-hunting dog, in an MRI machine mockup.

Researchers at Emory University trained two dogs to do just that so they could scan the dogs’ brains while the dogs were awake and responsive.

The fMRI scans are intended to help decode the mental processes of dogs. Results so far show part of the brain lighting up when the dog expects a treat.

The dogs are also trained to wear earmuffs to protect against the noise of the scanner.

The dogs were trained to wear earmuffs, to protect them from the noise of the scanner. They were also taught to hold their heads perfectly still on a chin rest during the scanning process, to prevent blurring of the images.

We know the dogs are happy by their body language, says Mark Spivak, the professional trainer involved in the project. Callie, in particular, seems to revel in the attention of breaking new ground in science.

She enters the scanner on her own, without a command, sometimes when it’s not her turn, Spivak says. She’s eager to participate.

Source: What is your dog thinking? Brain scans unleash canine secrets.

In airports around the world dogs are helping to keep their countries safe from biohazards such as insects being carried in food. Izzy is a Beagle who works in New York sniffing out food in baggage:

Her nose never fails to spot a trace of food, sometimes even picking up the scent of a snack that was removed from a bag hours before. During one lap around a carousel, as they wove in and out of startled passengers, Izzy paused before a pile of bags, tail wagging.

Caffery looked around and called out: “Whose bags are these?”
The young man who claimed them acknowledged, upon further questioning, that there were indeed an apple and a banana inside. Caffery marked down the items on a blue Customs declaration form.

Izzy stayed put, waiting for a piece of food to emerge from Caffery’s pocket: Her reward for a successful find.

[Via Airport dog finds illegal food stowed in luggage - USATODAY.com.]

It’s hard to beat the sensitive nose of a dog.

As responsible dog owners our property is fenced and the dogs are contained. So far, so good.

We keep an eye on the dogs, and have (sort of) trained them not to bark too much. We live in a quiet area, so there’s not too much coming and going to provoke them.

I hope that sounds like caring for and controlling our dogs, because that’s our intention.

Oshi behind the fence.

And on the other side of things I expect passers-by to do just that: pass by and ignore our dogs.

Unfortunately one passer-by in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, didn’t ignore a dog behind a fence, with tragic consequences for the dog and its owners:

A Hastings man has been charged after his Labrador bit a stranger who touched its nose protruding from under his closed front gate in what a court heard could have massive ramifications for all dog owners.

The 5-year-old dog, which was taken by council’s dog control officers, was also destroyed with the family’s consent after five months of continued impoundment. …

The dog had only its nose jutting out from under the gate, which was set back from the footpath, when the bite occurred on May 31, 2011.

[Via Charges follow dog bite at Hastings gate | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay. Please do go and read the whole thing. ]

Now, the only things I know about this story are what I read in the article I’ve quoted above, but the whole thing sounds utterly unreasonable.

Clearly the dog was controlled and contained. A photo with the original article showed it was a solid fence the dog probably couldn’t see through.

The stranger went over and touched the dog instead of walking on by leaving it alone on its owner’s property. It’s not surprising if a dog bites someone who’s prodding its nose. If someone prodded my nose I may well bite them too.

I don’t know the laws on trespass, but it seems to me the dog’s owner would have a case to accuse the passer-by of trespass.

The passer-by had a responsibility to mind his own business and not approach the dog, which after all was securely contained on its owner’s property.

What do you think? If the dog’s owner is found guilty of the charges it means all of us who think we’ve controlled and contained our dogs are at risk. And, of course, our dogs are at risk too.

People should take responsibility for their own actions. If you touch something you have no business being anywhere near and get injured then whose fault is that?

Keep a good eye on your dog. Some people are unscrupulous, as one resident of Hamilton, New Zealand found out recently:

Snowflake was in the car, near the central city bus station, with Karen and two grand-daughters one minute and seemed to disappear the next. No-one seems sure what happened. …

With her daughter, Karen set about distributing what seemed like hundreds of posters offering a $2000 reward. An advertisement was placed in the lost and found columns.

She and her family responded to text messages which eventually saw Snowflake back at home after following instructions and passing over the cash.

[Via Dognappers operating in Hamilton | Waikato News | Local News in Waikato.]

I had no idea there were a dozen dogs on the Titanic, and one was responsible for saving lives too. Stanley Coren tells the story:

Finally, the Carpathia began to pull away from the area, unknowingly on a course directly bearing down on the unseen little lifeboat. Its passengers were simply too weak to shout loudly enough to avoid being run down by the ship. Yet, somehow, Rigel was still strong enough to bark. Carpathia’s Captain Arthur Henry Rostron heard the dog and ordered the ship to stop. Swimming in front of the lifeboat, the dog marked the location of the survivors and all were hauled up the starboard gangway.

[Via The Heroic Dog on the Titanic | Psychology Today.]

Go and read the whole thing, though — it’s not long, but very interesting. And hooray for Rigel the Newfoundland!

It’s hard work becoming a guide dog.

Hard work becoming a guide dog.

Support Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind guide dogs in training. With your help, they can do so much more.

Donate to Red Puppy Appeal, 30 March — 1 April 2012.

And here’s an idea: bake a difference for Red Puppy Appeal by baking and selling puppy-shaped bikkies to your friends and colleagues.

If you love to bake or to eat, you’ll love Red Puppy Bikkie Day! It’s a great opportunity to bake a difference in support of RNZFB’s guide dogs in training.

[Via Bikkie Day - RNZFB.org.nz.]

Yesterday I watched a fascinating 1 hour BBC TV documentary, thanks to this article, The Silver Fox Experiment: How Dogs Became Dogs:

Half a century of Siberian science, or why your furry best friend is really a developmentally stunted wolf.

The programme, The Secret Life of the Dog, had a lot of information about how intelligent dogs are, how they may have been domesticated, whether we understand them and whether they can tell what we’re thinking or feeling.

It mentioned various experiments to domesticate foxes and wolves, with varying degrees of success.

If you’re at all interested in dogs, I strongly recommend the article and the linked TV programme.

Research into dogs is gaining momentum, and … dogs are fast turning into the new chimps as a window into understanding ourselves.

Where does this relationship come from? …

Why are dogs so good at reading our emotions? …

[Via BBC Two - Horizon, 2009-2010, The Secret Life of the Dog.]

Also watch Betsy the dog retrieve dozens of items by name or after seeing a scale model or looking at a photo of the item. Remarkable!