Aren't humans a funny shape?

Their feet are the shape of a head, more or less, which makes them a great place to rest your weary head. Their heads are the shape of basketballs. Their ears are stubbornly immobile. They are mostly hairless except for random places. Sometimes their hair just doesn't know when to stop. They have great big noses which aren't all the better for smelling with. They plod around on two legs when it is obviously faster on all fours. 

I am not anti-human. I love humans. My favourite beings are human. I am just saying, that's all. What do you find odd about them? 

Life is great when you are well proportioned and sensibly built and life is great when you are not. 

Strange Human Behaviour

I am a keen observer of human behaviour and yesterday I saw something I had never seen or heard of before. Tim went to the phone just before lunch. We have a business line which is used for outgoing calls as it is cheaper. He dialled a number and the home phone rang. He answered it, said "hello" three times, each after a short pause, the last two with a quizzical tone of voice. Then he suddenly burst out laughing and hung up. It was most baffling. It was only after he made another call that I could figure out what had happened. 

He had intended to call his parents but dialled his own telephone number instead. It was only after answering his own call that he realised what he had done. I would like to know if this kind of behaviour is common to humans or is it just Tim.

Life is great when you have humans who provide much behaviour for your study and general entertainment.  

How to Care for a Human

This is a message to all dogs on how to properly look after your people. Obesity is becoming a big problem in many countries so it is important that you take your person for a walk everyday. A person who is well exercised will be healthier and happier. Another problem of modern society is that some people are becoming isolated, so you need to socialise your people. A good place for this is the dog park. Even though it is called a dog park, there are just as many humans as dogs. The people in the dog park are usually not in a hurry and are happy to talk. It is important to show affection to your people as they thrive on this. Affection can be given in many ways; kisses, leaning on them, gazing lovingly at them or simply sitting at their feet. Occasionally it is necessary to give corrections to your people when they step out of line. Foe example, if they are eating something good-smelling and they haven't offered you any, you might have to give them a look which says, "how could you eat in front of me and not give me any when I am clearly starving?"

Having a person or people is a big responsibility. You need to look after them well. Remember; a person isn't just for Christmas.

Life is great when you have people.

Learning about Humans

We are a mixed-species pack. Tim and Mandy often read books about dogs so I thought I should read books to learn how humans work. I picked up a book about NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming.) Mandy is an NLP professional and is excellent at her job. She can help you to quit smoking, to lose weight and with many other things. Check out her websites. The book is called "Using your brain for a change" by Richard Bandler, who is one of the pioneers of NLP. It was an interesting read and an eye-opener. Apparently, what a lot of humans do is have an experience that makes them feel bad and then play it over and over in their mind. They also have something called a sense of humour which allows them to laugh at themselves but usually not for a long time after the event, and in the meantime they prefer to watch the movie again and again and feel bad. Fascinating creatures.

Richard Bandler says that usually when they play the movie and feel bad, they are in their bodies. When they can laugh at themselves is when they are outside their bodies and being an observer. He says;

"The best kind of humor involves looking at yourself in a new way. The only thing that prevents you from doing that with an event right away is not realizing that you can do it. When you get good at it, you can even do it while the event is happening."

I think it is good to look at things from a new perspective. I like to think about things from a human's point of view sometimes. I hear that some dogs actually write blogs under their humans name and pretend they are human. Personally, I think this is taking things too far.

Life is great when you get a new perspective on things.

Humans, the intelligent species?

A lot of non-human animals out there will find this a very baffling notion. They see humans as having dull senses and very poor observational skills. But I say, just look at some human inventions, such as television, yo-yos and twenty20 cricket. To investigate this anomaly let's look at Clever Hans.

Clever Hans was a horse that was taught to do difficult mathematics. He would stamp his foot to give the correct answer. It turned out he was picking up on subtle body language from the humans around him to know when to stop stamping his foot and give the correct answer. He couldn't do maths at all. 

Elizabeth Marshall Thomas makes a good point about Hans in The Social Lives of Dogs, "Today his name is synonymous with hoax and fraud, since few seem willing to acknowledge that, as the only one in the barn who noticed the various, extremely subtle signals in the body language of questioners, he proved himself to be a better observer than the most prominent scientists of the day." 

It is not that humans are less intelligent, it is just that they have a different intelligence. Because they are sometimes wrapped up in their thoughts, ideology, worries, selves and stress, they can appear to be a few kangaroos short in the top paddock. Yet they show flashes of genius. So the jury is still out.

Life is great when you go on a morning walk.