The following is a “pass along” newsletter from Just Labs magazine.

Pass Along JL
April 09

Dog Facts

Some interesting and entertaining things about canines from Spott’s Canine Miscellany by Mike Darton of the U.K. We make no endorsement of the veracity of any of this stuff, but it’s fun to read:

Tale of the Tail: A dog wags its tail as a form of communication — when a dog is alone, no matter its mood, it doesn’t wag. The communicative wagging is essentially because dogs don’t see immobile objects as well as they do movement. Wolves and some other wild Canids, for example, have bushy tails so movement and therefore communication can be seen at a distance. And how about this? Tail-wagging is a learned behavior — pups don’t start it until they’re about seven weeks old and have been hanging out with other pups that they need to communicate with. Some Italian research suggests that dogs wag their tails to the right when they see something familiar, like their owners, and to the left at things unfamiliar. Many victims of dog bites don’t understand why Fido gave them the big chomp, because he was wagging his tail — was he? If the thing is sticking straight up and only the tip is moving, he’s spooked and not in the friendliest of moods.

Did I say “bites”? Here’s some dog-bite facts: 90 percent of dog bites come from dogs the victim knows, most are kids bitten in the face or neck, and female dogs bite at a rate twice that of male dogs.

And that left-right thing? When dogs use their paws to manipulate something, they are right-or left-pawed, like humans are right- or left-handed. Studies suggest that males dog are more likely to be lefties. (Who researches this stuff, and is our tax money paying for it?)

All dogs do the dog paddle, but for at least one, it doesn’t do any good. Because of the heaviness of its bones, basset hounds can’t swim — sink like bricks, they do.

If you think the “Labradoodle” Lab x poodle cross is new, forget it. There are actually 60 known poodle x something else crosses. Maybe there’s something to those French lover legends after all. And the most popular breed in France? Poodles, of course. Second place, Labradors. In Spain? Labs again. In the U.S. — we know that one: Labs.

Again with the “speaking of,” speaking of lovers, we love our dogs. How much? Well, in a 2004 study, there were more dogs in households in the U.S. and Canada than there were human children. (Who researches this stuff?) But then, the dog doesn’t break curfew and wreck the car, either.

It’s no secret that domestic dogs were once wild canines — wolves — but have any dogs gone from domestic back to the wild? Yep: the Australian dingo came from domestic dogs introduced to the continent eons ago. No naturally occurring Canids Down Under. (One day long ago…There was a farmer had a dog and Dingo was his name-o. Sorry.) They aren’t just is Australia, either. And the “wild dog” of Africa is naturally occurring and not a domestic dog gone wild.
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The following is a “pass along” newsletter article from the Pointing Dog Journal.

Pass Along PDJ
April 2009

Mistakes

This is a little different issue, the likes of which we have not produced before and maybe no one else has, either.

If you are a novice golfer or, if like me, even after years of trying you still play like one, you likely think the best way to shoot a good score is to put together a series of hero-shots — wedges to within two feet of the flag; sinking 40-foot putts from the fringe; 280 yard drives that split the fairway.

But, the good, really good, and great golfers know that a good round comes to he who makes the fewest mistakes: Make sure that wedge shot doesn’t fly the green and end up in a sand trap; don’t run that 40-footer 15 feet past the hole; keep the drive out of the woods and the water.

Other sports are the same way; it’s axiomatic that an NFL team that turns the ball over a half-dozen times is probably going to lose, regardless of how good their running or passing game is. A baseball pitcher who could throw a strawberry through a brick wall will never make The Show if he can’t hit the wall. And a hockey team that can’t keep its players out of the penalty box is unlikely to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup.

Well, what we do when we train dogs and when we hunt birds is a lot the same. We make mistakes, and those mistakes cost us, the price being too often semi-trained dogs and empty game bags. That’s what this issue is about. Instead of our writers saying, “To be successful at this and that, you have to do thus-and-so,” this time around, they are writing about the mistakes that their vast experiences have shown them keep the average person from being a better hunter or dog trainer. Instead of saying, “Do it this way,” they’re saying, “Don’t do it that way.” It’s the stuff they’ve seen in the field for years; some of it’s a little tongue-in-cheek, some not. You’ll be able to scan a story and spot the mistakes pretty easily because they’ll either be subheadings, or we’ll put them in a bold-italic format.

Aside from some of us being able to juggle — one thing that separates humans from the other species is the ability, if not always the willingness, to learn from both our own and someone else’s mistakes. So even if you haven’t made a lot of these or haven’t had the opportunity yet to make them, we hope this issue will be a learning experience anyway.

Until next time,

Steve Smith
Editor

Please do us a tremendous favor and forward this e-mail on to your pointing dog friends!