I was sent this email today about the intelligence of dogs. I think we all believe our dogs are smart, it is great when there are studies that demonstrate that.

Dogs Think Similarly to Young Children and Can Learn Words, Counting Skills and More

Dogs have an intellectual capacity similar to that of a two-year-old human child, researcher and author Stanley Coren said at a presentation to the 117th annual convention of the American Psychological Association.

"One of the most recent breakthroughs is that people began to use tests which were originally designed for young humans -- for pre-linguistic or limited-linguistic humans -- to see whether dogs had certain capacities," Coren said. "And that allows you then to do a whole bunch of things, not only to determine whether a dog has a certain thinking skill but to place him in terms of where would you be in terms of human beings, as well as in terms of other animals."

According to Coren, who has written more than a dozen books on understanding dogs, recent studies have confirmed that the animals have a higher cognitive capacity than scientists had thought. They are able to learn the meaning an average of 165 words, including hand signals; the record for most words learned tops 200. Coren said that dogs are also capable of performing basic arithmetic that involves counting up to four or five, and that they have been shown to intentionally deceive humans or other dogs.

Coren also reported on studies comparing the intelligence of different breeds of dogs. He noted that there are three different kinds of dog intelligence: instinctive intelligence, which is highly breed-dependent; adaptive intelligence, which involves problem-solving and learning from the environment; and working and obedience, which involves trainability.

According to measures of working and obedience intelligence only, the top seven "smartest" dogs are border collies, poodles, German shepherds, golden retrievers, dobermans, Shetland sheep dogs and Labrador retrievers. The hounds have the lowest degree of obedience intelligence.

"We all want insight into how our furry companions think, and we want to understand the silly, quirky and apparently irrational behaviors [that] Lassie or Rover demonstrate," Coren said. "Their stunning flashes of brilliance and creativity are reminders that they may not be Einsteins but are sure closer to humans than we thought."

Note: I taught my son to read at 8 months. At one year he had 50 word reading and vocabulary skills. Animals tend to remember what causes an emotion in them, like food or attention. 'Dog Beach' is a good example so remember this if you intend on training your take to talk or read!-)

Sources for this story include: www.usatoday.com; www.apa.org.

Overweight owners own overweight dogs

I found this article in the Australian newspaper this weekend.

Strange but true

THE adage that dogs look like their owners is true, at least when it comes to being overweight. Researchers weighed dogs and cats and their owners at a veterinary clinic. There was a strong link between the dogs' weight and the body mass indexes of their owners: fat dogs were more likely to have large owners. In contrast, the cats' weights weren't related to their owners', the study in Public Health Nutrition showed. Does this reflect cats' independence?

Public Health Nutr

2010;13:102-106

(Nijland M, et al)

This finding does not suprise me much at all. There is so much more need to control dogs eating and exercise habits. Dog owners can much more easily control how much food they give out and how much walking they do. In contrast it is very diifiuclt to exercise a cat or even refuse a demanding cat food. In saying this vets also need tobe very sensitive when talking about overweight dogs

another busy day at work in the life of a vet

I knew it was going to be another busy day when I arrived to find 3 patients waiting for me. The first patient was a dog already in heart failure now drinking excessively, I took bloods and sure enough it had elevated urea and creatine, most likey renal failure but the owner was keen to start treatment , so we placed the little dog on fluids. that was only the beginging of the day, we had to euthanasie a dog that was a long term client, we had treated the dog for everything from cushing, diabetes, vestibular syndrome, arthritis and many other condtions. it always especially sad when you know the dog. we had a 4 week old kitten suffering from neurological signs, apperently they had taken it to a pet shop and they had placed a spot flea treatment onto a small kitten, the next day the kitten was showing neurological signs. unfortunealty the the people had no money to treat the kitten at all, euthanaisa was the only option they where heart broken. I have noticed there is no warning to not treat very young kittens, just advice not to. Next we had two puppies with vomiting and diarrohea, one tested positive for parvo and the other negative, the puppies where 6 months old and never vaccinated, also full of fleas. again after much discussion they euthanasised the sick puppy and took the other one home, again much tears and angusih. ahh the life of a vet!

Aussie, our cat's birthday today

Our Cat Aussie turned 9 years old today, well it was exactly 9 years ago that we found a little kitten near the milk factory after the Australia Day celebrations at Southbank. Aussie has certainly used up several of his lives, being bitten by a snake, hit by a car, and has been in several nasty cat fights. So it is great to be able to celebrate his birthday today. We gave Aussie a tin of smoke tuna and plenty of attention. I hope we have many more birthdays with Aussie.

Home from Holidays,

We came home to find that one of our gold fish had died, well I thought he looked like he was going to die many years ago as he had a tumour hanging out of his head. But I think it was cleaning the fish tank well just before we left that might have been too much. We bought these fish when Patrick was born, almost 6 years ago. Jim our house sitter did a great job looking after our pets, he put the Goldfish in the freezer. So when we arrived home we had a little funeral for the fish and we buried him in the front garden along with other fish. All our other pets look well, in fact Rainbow our Labrador appears very fat. No more treats for Rainbow. I think it was a very good thing having a pet sitter as they did not have to go into kennels

trying a house sitter for holidays

Well we are going away again, camping at Ammoor, near Gympie and we must leave the pets behind again. This time we are trying a house sitter, my Brother in law knows this man and he looked after his dog well. So we are trying Jim out. We have written up detailed instructions to look after the dogs and cat and gold fish. I hate to leave the pets behind, but options for taking them with us are limited. I was looking on the Internet and I found several large business behind pet sitting such as www.housesittingservices.com.au/ I think it would be a great option when I am retired and would like to go travelling. Well I hope we a have good holiday and the pets are well looked after at home.

Cockatoo dies under anesathetic

I had several operations today, including a large fat dog spey that had just had puppies. But the operation that was most on my mind was a wing amputation of a wild cockatoo. The client wanted to rehabilitate the bird, but it was very emaciated. The operation was going well and we had just about finished when the bird stopped breathing. I was very upset as I knew the client had great hopes to rehabilitate the bird. They where heart broken when I told them the bird had died. I think ringing owners to tell them their pet has died under anesthetic is one of the most difficult parts of being a vet.

Holidays without pets, Aussie in Cat fight.

We have been away in Noosa for most of the week. My Mum was house sitting the pets, I came home for 3 days to do some vet work, and Mum told me she had not seen Aussie our cat, I did not see him on Monday night, that is sometimes a worry but especially so If my Mum had not seen Aussie either. It was late on Tuesday night I opened the garage to see if I could find Aussie, and thankfully he came in but I noticed he had a rather bad limp. On closer inspection I realised that he had been in a Cat fight, his nails where shredded and he had an abscess on his front paw and a cut on his left paw. I gave him some antibiotics and took him into work the next day. I felt awful that I had left Aussie behind, as I realized I had not given my Mum instructions about letting Aussie in. At the Surgery, I had to give Aussie an anesthetic and then clean up his wounds. I felt so sorry for him, it certainly seem so different treating your own pets, You hope and assume they will forgive you for giving them lots of needles. I had to leave Aussie at the vet surgery as I was going straight up to Noosa at the end of the day. The cage was probably the best place to rest for a couple of days.
I will think again before I leave the cat behind at the house for holidays.

Grief and Guilt over a dying dog.

A lady came into the vet surgery today distraught and wanted to talk with me. Her 13 year old German Shepard had died of Bloat on Sunday morning, She awoke late on Sunday morning to find the dog's abdomen swollen and the tongue blue, but by the time she had rung the emergency vet the dog had died. She felt so very guilty, why had she slept in? Why had not she taken more notice of the vomiting the night before, why had she let her friends dog come over to play that day? What could have she done to save this dogs life? I could only tell her it would have been very difficult to save a 13 year old dog from bloat. But I could see that she felt tremendous guilt and grief about the loss of her dog. I tried to tell her that is very normal to feel guilt and grief after losing a great friend. One of the best things to do is to focus your energy into remembering what a great dog she had. To put effort into making a memory of the dog. I also suggested she talk to a pet loss counsellor if her feeling became to much. I recommend Penny Carroll. Her details are on my pet loss website www.petsandpeople.com.au I was glad that I had time to listen, I was amazed by the intensity of feeling.

Rainbow on Stradbroke Island

We had a great weekend at Stradbroke Island, We took Rainbow down to the beach, and as I took her off the lead the joy and exhilartion in her face was unmistakeable, She ran in and out of the surf, chasing waves, and meeting other dogs and people. She loved chasing the ball on the beach because as the ball ran across the smooth surface it seemed to go twice as far as normal. When we where back at the beach house Rainbow was happy to hang out on the Verandah as she could always see us. I was sorry that Ruff Ruff could not join us, but I don't think it would have worked out so well as she is not so other dog friendly. It is great to go on holidays with your dogs as you feel as if you have the whole family. We will be looking for more holidays in the future where we can take our dogs with us.