Incredible Avalanche 40 Years Ago At Alpine Meadows And The Amazing Dog Who Saved A Woman's Life

This post is in memory of the first avalanche dog in the U.S. to save a buried person. Roberta Huber's German Shepherd Bridget found and saved 22-year-old Anna Conrad's life 40 years ago.

The recent Sierra storms have prompted thoughts about late season storms. We're so grateful for the precipitation of the last few days. While significant, it's nothing compared to what can happen.

In 1982, it started snowing at the end of March. While accounts of snow totals varied, most agree that somewhere around 11 or more feet of snow fell in four days. Despite constant avalanche control efforts throughout the duration of the storm, a massive slab avalanche swept down Alpine Meadows on March 31st. (Just northwest of Lake Tahoe.) 

The slide snapped off massive old-growth trees, took out chairlifts, crushed the three-story base lodge, and buried the parking lot 15 feet deep. The resort had been closed due to the storm and avalanche danger, and most of the people had left. But seven of those who hadn't yet gotten out were killed. One more, Anna Conrad, was nearly killed. She was buried for five days.

Many people searched for days. Five days after the slide, Huber's dog Bridget was searching when she picked up Anna's scent. The dog was excited and nervous with barely controllable energy. The dog knew what she had found: A live human.

Search workers followed Bridget's lead and dug out Anna. The young woman had eaten no food for five days and had only snow for water. The cold had taken its toll, and the woman lost one leg and the toes on the other from frostbite. But she survived thanks to Bridget.

When we first moved to Tahoe in 1990, there were very few trained avalanche rescue dogs. Now all the resorts have full-time avalanche rescue dogs on staff. Goldens, Labs, and others. They have saved multiple lives.

Moral of the story? Never underestimate what the weather (and a dog) can do.

Russ, the Pit Bull, An Incredible Dog Story

Paula Peterson, writing for South Tahoe Now dot com, reported the story of Russ, a black, three-year-old Pit Bull from Riverside County. His owner was on a short-term job in South Lake Tahoe back in August. Russ got lost two days before the Caldor Fire forced the town to evacuate.

Russ's owner filed a lost-dog report but then had to leave town without him. Talk about heart-wrenching.

Four months later, we had the huge storms. A snowboarder and skier saw Russ in a tree well on the side of Twin Peaks, the small mountains just across Highway 50 from the airport. Russ was trapped, unable to move. They contacted Tahoe PAWS, a group that searches for lost pets. Multiple people were involved in the dramatic rescue with dog and humans being taken down the mountain on a sled.

Russ survived and was reunited with his owner.

How Russ survived on his own for many months is a mystery. He must be incredibly tough to have found food and shelter. When the snow got too deep, he was lucky that some back-country skiers found him.

Here's the link to the story: 

https://southtahoenow.com/story/01/06/2022/dog-missing-caldor-fire-evacuations-rescued-snowy-south-lake-tahoe-mountainside

If You're Tired Enough, You Can Snooze Anywhere

 Big snow coming, so I stopped at the station to get gas for the snowblower. I was distracted by a sleeping dog. 

There was a pickup with the passenger window open. A dog was draped over the window sill the way a cat drapes herself along the back of a couch. When I walked over a little closer to take a picture, the dog opened its eyes. But it still didn't lift its head up off the sideview mirror. 

Caldor Fire Evacuation... And One Thing To Brighten The Mood

One week ago, the Caldor Fire required the entire South Shore of Tahoe to evacuate. The order was issued for some areas on Saturday, our neighborhood on Sunday, and the rest of town on Monday and Tuesday.

The sheriff's deputies came through our neighborhood and made us leave in minutes. (They were kind and polite, but FIRM.) 

We took our computers and the clothes we were wearing and almost nothing else. That's stressful, not even having an overnight bag. It's easy to be gone for almost any length of time when you can have several hours get ready. The Evacuation Warning system normally gives you a day.

On Sunday morning, our area was not under Evacuation Warning. Then the wind shifted, the falling ash went from white snow to black charcoal chunks, and we were suddenly under Evacuation Order. (We never got the warning stage.) Thus we ran.

Now we will worry for days? weeks? about whether our house is going to be there when we're allowed back in. According to the current map, our house is okay. The firefighters were amazing. In nearby Christmas Valley, the fire came over Echo Summit, swept down the mountain on the west side of the valley, blew across to the east side of the valley, and swirled everywhere through the forest. Yet the fire fighters stayed near the houses and appear to have spared most of them from the flames.

We are very glad for the efforts of both law enforcement and the firefighters who throughout the Caldor burn have saved houses even as the wildfire roars right up to them.

Here is a link for one of the most up-to-date maps of the fire burn area. You can zoom in on the map and see, for example, how Christmas Valley burned and yet many of the houses were spared even though the fire came on all sides.

Now we'll watch the fire report and evacuation map for when we'll be allowed back in.

As for mood brightener... We had some business to take care of in Sacramento, but the only way to get there was to head east out of the Tahoe Basin, go north to Reno, then west down Interstate 80.

One of the best things about Sacramento is the American River with 30 miles of parkway on each side. Walking paths, biking paths, acres of green grass. Another good thing is its beauty, as you can see below.

So we took a break on the river and walked for miles.

One of the dogs we saw was a Golden Retriever. This one's owner was tossing sticks in the water, and the golden jumped in to retrieve them. When the owner tired of the game, the dog decided it could play by itself. Run into the water. Swim for awhile. Run back out. Find a stick. Take that into the water. Swim with the stick. Run back out. Drop the stick on the ground and look at it. Will it to move. Okay, it's not moving. Pick it up, run down the shore, and go swimming there. Come back out. Run to its owner. Drop the stick at its owner's feet. Will the owner to throw the stick. Okay, the owner's not moving, either. Run back into the water and swim. Come back out. Shake vigorously, throwing water all over the owner. That'll teach him.

Throughout this activity, the Golden gave that famous smile. Maybe I'm anthropomorphizing. But those who know dogs know that Goldens give you a smile unlike any other dog. (By comparison, Great Danes don't smile, but they can do a vigorous wag that is unlike nearly any dog, a wag that can raise bruises on your legs.) Like other dogs, Goldens have so much fun, it's hard to not believe they're smiling. And all it takes is water and a stick.

Decide for yourself.

Dogs Can Smell Covid... Of Course

 We all know that dogs can smell pretty much anything, no matter how elusive or faint. Woe to the bad guy who is trying to smuggle drugs or explosives and finds that the cops or TSA people have a trained dog.

We've also learned that dogs can sniff out all kinds of cancer, diabetes, malaria, some types of Parkinsons. They can sense an impending epileptic seizure. The list goes on. 

Now a group of scientists at the University of Pennsylvania is training dogs to identify people with covid.

The Munsterlander is particularly good at smelling covid. Here's an article in National Geographic about how they train the dogs to find covid.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/see-dogs-trained-to-sniff-covid

Once again, our favorite pets have astonishing abilities that no machine or robot can touch.

Guaranteed Covid Depression Cure

 I was in the supermarket parking lot and saw one of the employees come out and begin gathering the shopping carts. She was clearly depressed, stooped, bundled up against winter cold, walking with no energy. She looked like it would take a miracle for her not to turn in her resignation in the next five minutes.

She saw a wayward cart over at the far edge of the parking lot and began trudging her way over toward it.

There was a man with a German Shepherd on a very long leash. The dog saw the woman and pulled toward her. The woman saw the dog and veered toward it. The dog and woman met and touched, then hugged, then romped. It took about 60 seconds for the complete transformation.

The woman became joyous and light on her feet. She smiled and gestured, hugged the dog some more. She did a pirouette in her snow boots. She attempted to move away to get the cart, then turned back and went back to the shepherd for another dog fix of love and happiness.

Eventually, she succeeded in separating herself from the dog. As she came a good distance from the dog, she came near me. I couldn't help noticing that the sad woman was now happy. Instead of frowning, she was grinning to herself. She turned for a moment and glanced back at the dog. When she turned back to the cart she was smiling even more. 

It was a profound example of what dogs do for people. A strange dog transformed this woman's life. Maybe for five minutes, maybe for five hours, maybe for five days.

Good News? Not So Much

 Yes, a lot of stuff sucks right now, starting with the misery that can be traced to politicians, moving through natural disasters, and ending with dreary stuff in your local community.

So what is happening that's still good?

The answer may be predictable from a writer whose most popular fictional character may be a dog.

Of course, unless you're an animal intelligence scientist, dog stuff isn't considered lofty and intellectual. But here's the beauty of dogs, no matter how prosaic it is.

They love you no matter how stressed you are and no matter how difficult life can be. 

So go and give your dog some attention. He or she will make you feel better.

Do Animals Have Rights?

We love our dogs. But do they have rights?

Do other animals have rights?

It appears to be such a simple question. Our impulsive answer seems to be "Of course, animals have rights." Or, "They certainly should have rights."

But immediately, the idea becomes complicated. 

What would those rights be? The right to be left alone? The right to not be tortured? The right to have their territory undisturbed? The right to not have their culture (or whatever you want to call it) be destroyed? The right to not face unnecessary pain? The right to not be treated in a way that we wouldn't treat humans? The right to not be imprisoned in a small cage? The right to not be killed for sport (fun)? The right to not be forced to do degrading work? The right to not be eaten?

Let's go to the most basic right of all, the right to live. Do animals have that right? Do humans have that right? Is the human right to live greater than an animal's right to live?

In my recent book, TAHOE HIT, a character poses a question about this to Owen. To make it more poignant, the question comes with a spin. Instead of asking if a man has more right to life than a dog, the question is, "Does a very bad man automatically have more right to life than a very good dog?" The questioner goes on to elaborate that the bad man could be abusive and violent and wicked, while the dog could be sweet and kind and a friend and protector of its human family. I made those qualifiers to put the question in sharper focus.

Obviously, I wanted the question to be thought-provoking. I assumed (and still do) that some people would say that all humans have more right to life than any animals. I imagined the subject would - or could - fall into the realm of "God made humans to be very special, and humans thus have a sacred right to life, more so than any other creatures." I even assumed I'd get some angry email on the subject.

What's interesting is that of the many people who have sent me email, all said something like, "A very good dog absolutely has more right to life than a very bad man."

Of course, people love their dogs. And elephants and dolphins and birds and horses. Are our feelings about them influenced by how beautiful and lovable they are? Can we reconcile laws that say you can't sell horses or dogs for slaughter for their meat, but it's okay to squish spiders? What about mice? Squirrels? If a skunk takes up residence in your crawl space, refuses to come out, and makes your house unlivable with its spray, is its right to life any less?

Of course, we might say, this is my house and I was here first, and you can't invade and live in my house.

But when the housing and shopping mall developers bulldoze the land and "homes" of thousands of animals, have we not done the same thing? The deer and birds and bear and fish and gophers and mountain lion were doing just fine without us. Then we came along and destroyed their world. And we justified it by saying that people needed the housing and the jobs. 

Beneath our behavior lurks a familiar hubris. We humans are the lords of the Earth. Animals are just, well, animals. If our supertankers leak oil and destroy ocean habitat, that's simply part of the price of running our cars and heating our houses and creating all those trillions of plastic things that we throw away, some of which wash into those once-pure oceans. If our greenhouse gases melt the arctic ice and the polar bears and penguins go extinct, that's also part of the price.

The implication is that whatever the rights of those animals, our rights supersede them.

In TAHOE HIT, there is mention of the great naturalist Aldo Leopold. 100 years ago, he proposed that we leave "Blank spots on the map." Areas with no roads, no development, no wilderness trails and campsites, no hotels, no fishing or fish stocking of lakes, no dams, no hunting, no airplane overflights, no mosquito insecticides, no people."  

It doesn't take much observation to realize that people have gone everywhere on the planet, even to the depths of the deepest ocean trenches. And everywhere we've gone, we've taken over and dominated. There are no more blank spots on the map. From the perspective of most animals and other life, we've made the Earth much worse, not better.

Scientists say we're in the midst of the 6th greatest extinction in Earth's history. Previous mass extinctions of plants and animals have come as a result of huge volcanic activity or impacts by asteroids, events that made our planet inhospitable to life for many years.

This new mass extinction that is unfolding is called the Anthropocene Extinction. A fancy word that refers to the fact that this new extinction of life is caused by human activity. Greenhouse/fossil fuel gases that lead to climate change. Habitat destruction that takes away the "home territory" of millions of lifeforms, both plant and animal. Scientists say that millions of plant and animal species have already gone extinct, mostly from climate change. Some, of course, we've directly killed off. The California Grizzly. The Passenger pigeon.

What makes the tragedy worse is that we have the technology to stop and even reverse this decline. We know how to make renewable energy - wind farms and solar farms, etc - and we know how to implement conservation sufficient to create a "carbon neutral" society. (More fancy words to describe an economy that doesn't burn oil, which produces all those greenhouse gases.)

What's in the way of making this better, less-damaging world? There are lots of reasons. The biggest may be spineless politicians who don't have the political will to make a better world. Why? Because they are afraid that whoever is unhappy with change (there are always some people who are unhappy with change), they will lose votes and be out of their cushy jobs. So many politicians spread fear and distrust, as they always have through the ages. And some politicians support policies that nearly everyone knows are bad for the Earth. Why? It's hard to know. The drill-baby-drill attitude and the effort to take away protections of remaining wilderness areas only make sense if you want to appeal to people who don't care about the future of the planet or who believe in the unimaginable conspiracy/hoax notion that the Earth isn't actually changing. Those dry mountains that used to be covered in vast glaciers, that's photo-shopped. Like the moon landing was photo-shopped. Like the Earth is flat.

Meanwhile the rights of animals - whatever those rights are - will continue to be trampled by people.

Maybe if we step back from all the arguing and simply look at all the beautiful animals, we can frame things differently. What's good for the zebras and the tuna and the flamingos, is good for us. Stop arguing about the current events.

Instead, consider your dog. Does he or she have rights? What are you going to do to ensure the continuation of those rights? Somewhere in your answer may be the survival of our Earth, what Carl Sagan called our Pale Blue Dot, floating lonely in the vastness of space. Protecting animal rights might just result in protecting our planet.

A Dog Who Watched The Westminster Dog Show

My cousin has a Havanese dog named Izzy. As Wikipedia describes them, they are dogs of "immense charm." So it was of no surprise that when the Westminster Dog Show came on, Izzy staked out her place in front of the TV to watch.

Who cares about the Super Bowl when you have some real serious action to watch?

Go Izzy.

Dog In A Victorian

You know how cats love to lounge in a sunny window...

I was in San Francisco this week, doing some research for my next book. We came upon a classy Victorian.  It had plenty of windows but no cats that we saw. But look at the left of the top-most windows. There was a dog lounging, jaw stretched out, resting on the windowsill. Looking north toward Alcatraz. Waiting for its owner to come home from work? From prison? There's a story in there someplace...

Even Dogs Get Shut Out By Phones

We've all seen it, the couple or family at a restaurant, and one or more of them are on their phones. Anyone not on their phone, whether it's the husband or grandmother or little kid, is locked out of that world. They sit alone even as they should be part of the group.

It happens to dogs, too.

Dogs are very social and focused on people. It used to be that people were focused on dogs. Now it seems that people care more about what's on their phones. Dogs are shut out.

Maybe it's time that we rethink our priorities. Maybe a phone addiction should be treated like a cigarette addiction, limited to short periods of time, outside, away from other people and dogs. Others, people and dogs, don't want our secondhand smoke. They probably don't want our secondhand attention either.

What Your Dog Can Do That Chimps Cannot

Chimps, Bonobos, and the other great apes are our closest relatives. They are highly intelligent and have complex societies that are surprisingly like ours. Yet there is something that your dog gets that they don't.

Pointing.

With very little training, your dog knows what you mean when you point at something. It will look where you're pointing because it knows that you want it to. Maybe it's which cup to knock over to find a treat. Or maybe it's a bird off in the next field.

But despite lots of effort, researchers can't seem to get our primate cousins to understand this basic skill.

Sure, there are no doubt lots of perfectly good reasons why chimps and bonobos don't understand pointing. Or maybe they do understand it, but don't care. (Cats, anyone?)

Two of our Great Danes got excited when we pointed. It didn't matter if it was a squirrel in a tree or a plane in the sky or a tennis ball in the grass or a treat we'd hidden. When we'd point, they would immediately turn and stare, frowning, focusing, looking for whatever it was that we were trying to indicate.

Smart animals, those dogs we all love.

Doggles!

We were hiking in the woods the other day and came upon a couple with two German Shepherds. The dogs wore goggles.

While we watched, one of the couple held the dogs while the other person hiked far into the woods and hid a blue "bone." When that person rejoined the spouse and dogs, they waited a bit, then gave the command "FIND."

The dogs raced off into the forest. A short time later, the dogs ran back. One of them had the blue bone in its mouth. A great game of course. The first time we'd seen it with dogs wearing goggles.

If your dog has a head injury you don't want it to scratch, you put a big cone collar on it. The dog will of course try to get that cone off.  I would have thought that once out of the observation of humans, the dogs would shake and paw-off those pesky dog goggles as well. Shows what I know.

The people explained that the dogs like the goggles because, as with people running through trees and brush, the dogs don't have the stress of branches poking at their eyes.

Wow, and I thought the dogs I've seen wearing sunglasses just did it to please their owners.

Another example of dog smarts.

A Bomb-Sniffing Dog At Work

We humans have a small-but-regular assorment of bad individuals among us. We've developed a lot of techniques to identify the bad eggs. Our techniques are useful in varying degrees. But one of the best ways to save us from ourselves is to bring in a dog.

Despite amazing machines we've developed that can sniff the air for any indications of chemicals that are associated with bad intentions, none is yet as good as a dog's nose.

A few days ago, we were coming back from Italy and caught the new JetBlue non-stop from JFK to Reno. The airport was a mob scene, with thousands of summer travelers lining up to go through airport security. The TSA was doing their best to cope. (I wouldn't have that job for anything.)

As the line grew, they suddenly interrupted the routine and stopped all the inspections. The crowds piled up. We couldn't tell why they would suspend the searches. The Airtrain and cabs and shuttles and Uber drivers kept dropping off travelers, and they flowed into the JetBlue terminal with no place to go except to get in the line, which went back and forth through the maze they'd set up to organize a huge crowd.

After 30 minutes of no activity, we finally got a hint of why they'd stopped the inspections. A Department of Homeland Security officer appeared with a German Shorthair Pointer, one of the preferred breeds (along with Belgian Malinois and Labs) that they train to sniff out explosives.

The dog had a DHS vest on. The handler took her around the edges of the maze that contained the crowd, letting the dog get familiar with the ambient scents of the airport. Then the handler brought the dog to a place adjacent to where the people in line would pass through once they started moving.

Other officers shouted out instructions to the crowd.

"Do not pet the dog. Do not reach out to the dog. Walk through the line. Keep moving."

They opened the end gate of the maze and let the people start to pass.

The dog stood, head down as if sniffing near the floor. The crowds moved past. The dog never looked up. Her job was just to sniff the air. If she smelled any of the scents she was trained to notice, she'd sit down next to her handler.

The huge crowd all walked past the dog, single file. The dog stared at the floor, her nostrils flexing. Her focus was intense. She radiated intelligence.

It was an impressive scene. Hundreds of travelers and an entire airport terminal were shut down. Whether or not the system would restart was dependent on the response of a single dog.

We eventually got past the dog's inspection. The flights eventually continued.

The travelers were of course worried. Having a DHS dog brought in to assess a crowd suggested that the TSA/DHS had acquired some disturbing information. On the other hand, when the DHS dog didn't "alert," it made us all feel much safer.

We can know that there are armed Federal Air Marshals incognito on the planes. But that does us no good if there is something really bad on the plane. So, in the end, the giant operation that is an airport comes down to a single dog, focused, well-trained. An animal with the concentration, and smarts, and a nose so powerful that it can detect the equavalent of a half teaspoon of sugar (or whatever else) in an Olympic swimming pool of water.

Let's all give thanks to dogs.

Apparently, Dogs Pass The Mirror Self-Recognition Test After All, As Long As It's A Smell-Based Mirror

The "Mirror Test" is a well-known way to show which animals have self-awareness and self-recognition. The basic idea is that you take an animal - say, an elephant - and, without them knowing, put a dab of red paint on their forehead. Then have the animal look at itself in a mirror. If they see the red paint and immediately focus on the red paint and maybe reach up with their trunk to touch it, then you know that they have an understanding of "self." i.e., "That guy in the mirror is me and why the heck is there red paint on my face?"

Elephants and dolphins and gorillas and chimps and bonobos and orangutans have this understanding of "self."

But dogs do not. At least, not in the conventional way. Put something outlandish on a dog's face and have him look in the mirror, he will be indifferent. A dog clearly does not realize that the image in a mirror is "him."

Except maybe we've got it all wrong.

A mirror is a visual device. Dogs are olfactory oriented. The major part of their world is perceived with their sense of smell.

So what if we could create a olfactory mirror?

I recently started reading "Being A Dog: Following the Dog into a World of Smell" by Alexandra Horowitz. (She also wrote "Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know." )

In this book, she quickly asks this obvious question, suggesting that we foolishly judge dogs in a visual way, when they are mostly focused on the sense of smell.

So she and her colleagues devised a "mirror" that was smell-based instead of vision-based.

The basic idea was to use dog urine as a way to judge how a dog perceived itself as opposed to other dogs. The reason is that urine is one of the richest sources of information available to a dog. (Yes, your urine, too!) A sniff of urine can tell a dog an astonishing amount of information about whoever left it. What kind of animal, the sex of the animal, how long ago the animal left the urine, whether the animal was stressed or fearful or happy, whether the animal was pregnant or sick or hungry or... The list is endless.

And one of the basic ways a dog interacts with its environment is to add a bit of its own urine to the environment. When urine is added to previous urine, that previous urine is considered "marked" by the new additional urine. The result is that there are, very broadly, three categories of urine out there when viewed from the point of view of a dog. Urine that belongs exclusively to a particular dog. Urine that has been "marked" (added to) by another dog. And, third, any combination of urine that contains urine from the dog who is investigating.

In other words, the researchers wanted to know if a dog can recognize its own urine. And if so, could it recognize and be aware of when its own urine is marked by another dog, i.e., a form of looking into a mirror and discovering red paint on its face?

So the researchers collected urine from a wide range of dogs. They also collected urine that had been added to ("marked") by other dogs. Then, with careful controls, they allowed the dogs to "discover" the different urine combinations.

What happened?

There were three main reactions.

1) When a dog sniffed its own urine, it was not interested at all.
2) When a dog sniffed another dog's urine, it was quite interested and spent a lot of time investigating.
(These first two concepts say a great deal about self-awareness. But read on...)
3) When a dog sniffed its own urine that had been "marked" (added to) by another dog's urine, the dog found it very interesting. (Red paint on your forehead.)

The scientists were, of course, quite careful in their controls. Scientists always take great pains to not jump to false conclusions.

Nevertheless, the experiment seems very much like it demonstrates self-awareness on the part of dogs.

No doubt, more research will be coming. But it looks like dogs do pass the mirror test as long as the test is based on smell instead of vision.

Dogs Have A Thing For Human Faces

There's a new study out that shows what happens in your dog's brain when she gives you that intense, focused, you're-the-most-important-thing-in-the-universe stare.

Most other animals, including our closest primate relatives, don't really care much about us. And when they look at us, it's pretty much the same as when they look at regular stuff in their environment. We're just not that important.

But unlike those other animals, when a dog looks at your face, multiple areas in her brain "light up." If a dog looks at other things or animals, not so much. It turns out that looking at you is a big deal, and a dog devotes a lot of brain space to this.

How did people figure this out?

Scientists trained dogs to sit still in an MRI. Then, while scanning the dogs, the scientists projected a wide range of pictures on a screen in front of the dogs. Most pictures are just processed in the dog's occipital cortex, the area where most vision is processed.

But show a dog a person's face, and multiple parts of their brains sit up and pay attention.

Is this dog dedicated to helping science or what?

Once again, we see science illuminating the amazing link between dogs and people. As all of you dog owners know, you and your dog have a powerful connection. Now we can see that connection in brain scans.


If you want an abridged version of the study, try this article: Dog Perception of Human Faces


If you want all of the involved and fascinating scientific details, here's the link: Full Study of Dogs and Human Faces.

Dogs Don't Use Tools, Or Do They?

Do dogs use tools?

Everyone who studies animal intelligence makes special note of species that use tools, something once thought to be the exclusive domain of people. (Oh, our hubris!)

First, what is it that qualifies as this special thing we call using tools? One of the basic tool usages is manipulating an object (a tool) to achieve some goal distinct from the tool. Usually, the tool is used to get food.

For example researchers started noticing that Chimpanzees make spears to use in hunting smaller primates. They strip certain twigs of leaves to use for fishing termites out of holes. They use stone hammers to crack open nuts. They even use some kinds of leaves to make sponges and then use the sponges for washing.

Gorillas cut sticks of certain lengths to use as walking sticks and as gauges to measure water depth.

Sea Otters use stone hammers to crack open shells.

Elephants make fly swatters. They plug up the openings to narrow water holes to keep other, smaller animals from drinking all the water. They drop logs over electric fences to short them out.

Crows drop walnuts into intersections so that vehicles will drive over them and crack them open. Then the crows watch the stoplights. When the light turns red and stops the traffic, the crows fly down and safely get the walnuts.

Dolphins pick up marine sponges and use them to sweep the bottom of the ocean to stir up prey that is hiding in the sand.

Orangutans make whistles out of leaves to use in communication.

But do dogs use tools? Yes, they are man's best friend, and we love them dearly. And we know that it is easy to teach a dog to pick up an object and do nearly anything with it. But what about a dog that dreams up some kind of tool use on its own? Come on, really? Tool use? Taking an object, doing something with it to turn it into a tool for a specific use?

Watch this video of a Beagle when its owner is gone. He moves a kitchen chair across the floor so that he can use it as a step stool to get up on the kitchen counter, open the toaster oven, and steal the food inside. It will remove any doubt you may have about dogs using tools!

Here's the link: 

Beagle When Owner Leaves

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyQiPWufjwU

Dogs Keep Getting Smarter...

You dog owners know this feeling. You come home after a long day at work. When you open the door, your dog doesn't have her normal enthusiasm. One look at her face tells you that she got into trouble when you were gone. Her look of guilt is obvious.

But until now, scientists were almost unanimous in claiming that your perception that your dog felt guilty was nothing more than anthropomorphism, ascribing human emotions to your dog, emotions your dog isn't really capable of.

Except, oops, it turns out that those scientists are probably wrong.

Many of these questions and their answers hinge on a concept called Theory Of Mind. It is an awkward phrase that refers to the ability of humans - and elephants, dolphins, and some other primates - to understand that different individuals have different points of view. Different minds. And when one animal understands that another animal has a different perspective - a different mind - they respond accordingly, often with empathy, acknowledging and caring for another creature who may have different desires. Another individual who may, let's say, not appreciate that you ripped up the bed while they were gone.

This is important stuff, and scientists have devised lots of tests to figure out which, if any, animals might have this Theory Of Mind ability.

One of the reasons that scientists haven't spent a lot of time testing dogs may be that they simply take dogs for granted, assuming that dogs are fun, loyal pals who love to play and will learn nearly any trick if rewarded with a treat but that may not be worthy of much research. Another reason dogs may have been overlooked by scientists is that dogs are clearly not as brilliant (IN SOME WAYS) as a few other creatures.

For example, dogs fail the "mirror test." If a dog walks into a room where one of the walls is a solid mirror, he will see his reflected image, realize it is a dog, and respond with interest. But when he walks over to "that dog," he discovers that it isn't another normal dog and that it is on the other side of glass. Soon, he loses interest, because that other dog doesn't have dog smells and doesn't act much like a dog, i.e., sniffing him all over, etc. So the dog acts as if the dog in the mirror is some strange quirk that doesn't keep his interest. Most importantly, the dog never realizes that the dog in the mirror is his own image reflected back at him.

Elephants and dolphins and multiple primates DO understand mirrors. So any scientist who doesn't look at dog intelligence with awe might be forgiven. Even so, researchers kept finding evidence suggesting that dogs do understand Theory Of Mind issues. 

One of the best indicators is a series of experiments that have been done. There are lots of variations, but a typical version involves two people, let's call them Joe and Paul, a few buckets, and a treat. The basic principle is that a dog sees Joe come into a room and drop a treat in one of the buckets, let's say, the left bucket. The dog is allowed to go to the left bucket to get the treat. If Joe leaves and then returns, the dog will respond in some fashion that indicates he remembers what Joe did. So he'll likely go over to the left bucket and beg, look into the bucket, then look up at Joe, and wag, making it clear his wish for another treat.

But what if a different person, Paul, comes into the room? Will the dog engage in the same behavior, going over to the left bucket and begging for a treat? No. The dog doesn't act the same with Paul because he knows that Paul never previously brought a treat and put it in a bucket. The dog knows that Paul has a different mind than Joe. Just because Joe leaves a treat in the left bucket doesn't mean that Paul will do anything similar, and the dog understands that.

The dog knows the difference between different people, understands that each person has their own perspective, their own "mind." Dogs may not "get" mirrors, but they "get" those aspects described by Theory of Mind.

As I was researching this, I came upon one of those "Hello, duh, how did we miss the obvious" moments. While researchers were painstakingly demonstrating that dogs can understand  the concept of different "minds," they noticed something very basic. 

Your dog exhibits bad behavior now and then, but he won't get into trouble if you are in the house because your dog knows you will catch him. Leave for any length of time, however, and watch out. Not only that, but your dog can usually tell how long you will be gone.

If, when you leave your dog alone and he recognizes the signs that you are going to the corner store, he knows that you'll be gone an unpredictable length of time, and he won't get into trouble. But if he knows you're going to work for the entire day, he may well get into trouble. This clearly shows that he understands what you want and that if he's going to succumb to the temptations of trouble, he'll choose to only do it when you're gone long enough that you won't catch him in the act. 

Great Dane stealing a steak defrosting on the top of the fridge

As any dog owner knows, your dog sometimes acts guilty because he knows he's done something you don't want. He anticipates your displeasure before you even come home to discover his bad behavior.

Once again, the more we learn about dogs, the smarter they get.

Many of you also have cats, and you know that even while cats don't have the enthusiasm and the "I'm-so-eager-to-do-stuff!" attitude of dogs, they are smart. How smart? Well, those researchers made many attempts to put cats into the same scenarios as the dogs, hoping to discover if cats have "Theory of Mind" capability.

What did they find out? Nothing, because not one of the cats they tested could have cared less about the researchers' objectives. They refused to care about the treats, or look in the buckets, or pay any attention to whether Joe or Paul was in the room! No matter how smart cats are, they won't submit to what they must think are silly research projects.

Among hundreds of videos that demonstrate just how well dogs understand that what people want is not the same thing that dogs want, this is a great one: A Pit Bull waiting to be sure that his owner is gone for good before he gets up on the bed to play.
Here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D5bPLxU8U8

P.S. Watch the cat, too.

The One Animal Whose Eyes Can Change Your Brain Chemistry

Yet another study is out showing the remarkable relationship between dogs and people.

This study got fancy. Japanese scientists found out that both dogs and people who gazed into each other's eyes developed elevated levels of a hormone-like chemical called Oxytocin. Sometimes referred to as the "Cuddle Hormone," Oxytocin creates a wide range of positive effects that lead to bonding, attachment, and it plays a significant role between mothers and babies.

The study demonstrates that dogs and humans have a special - maybe even unique - relationship. When we spend time with dogs and stare into their eyes as they stare into ours, good stuff happens to our brains and to dogs' brains as well. 

Here are links to information about the study:
Scientific American
NPR
Today Health
Medical Daily

All pets are valuable. But dogs provide something extra to celebrate. Dogs are good for us, and we are good for them.

Now go give your dog a pet, look into her eyes, and watch how she looks back at you. Aside from dogs and people, no other animals on the planet will ever look at you that way.

What Happens If You Lie To Your Dog?

She won't believe you the next time you tell her something.

Yeah, it's true. Yet another study demonstrates the amazing abilities of dogs to understand human behavior. 

This study used a simple yet clever approach, and they tested it on 34 dogs. The results were clear. If you show a dog where to find a hidden treat, the dog will appreciate it and check out the next hiding place you point to. But if you "lie" and show them the wrong place, they will realize that you can't be trusted, and they will ignore your subsequent advice.

Lesson to learn? Play fair with your dogs. They're as smart as young kids, and, like kids, they will respond to you in accordance with how reliable and trustworthy you are.

Read about it at Huffington Post