Dog rescued from armchair

Lyn Kirkwood of Salford was looking for her dog Cagney when she heard a whimper and found the Lhasa Apso stuck head first in a reclining armchair. Cagney was unable to get out and Ms Kirkwood could not extract her herself.

Ms Kirkwood had no option but to contact emergency services and the RSPCA. Firemen were eventually able to free Cagney by dismantling the armchair. A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue reports that Cagney then "wandered off for a drink".

Cagney has not responded to inquiries as to how she came to be stuck in the armchair in the first place.

more (BBC)

Everyone has a good side, including Mike Read

DJ Mike Read has been in the news recently in connection with his support for the anti-EU and anti-immigrant party UKIP. Mr Read had recorded a pro-UKIP novelty pop single in which he sang a calypso style song in a faux West Indian accent. Among other things, the lyrics complain about the numbers of foreign people who have come to the UK. The combination of subject matter and Mr Read's accent led many to dub the song racist.

Mike Read is no stranger to controversy. Older readers will recall that he instigated BBC Radio 1's banning of Frankie Goes To Hollywood's 'Relax' back in the early 1980s.

Nearly all people have good and bad sides. Earlier this year, Ms Sarah Prior saw Mike Read's good side in action. She was out walking her six month old puppy Digby in Henley when the naughty dog decided to chase some ducks into the river Thames. Ms Prior called out in dismay as she saw Digby being washed away by the surging waters, with the dog showing no natural aptitude for swimming.

Fortunately for Digby, Mike Read happened to be passing. He immediately leaped into the water and rescued the bold puppy, earning Ms Prior's gratitude. Digby was none the worse for wear but his opinions on the incident have not been recorded.

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[science] Dogs and their understanding of human voices

Scientists in Hungary have been investigating how the brains of dogs and humans react to different noises. This has involved training dogs to lie still while undergoing MRI scans. The trainers used positive reinforcement strategies ("lots of praise", says Dr Attila Andics of the Hungarian Academy of Science's Eotvos Lorand University).

The scientists then played a variety of noises to their human and dog subjects. These included dog vocalisations, human sounds and various environmental noises. They discovered that when dogs and humans heard the human noises, in both cases there was activation in the same part of the brain (the most anterior part of the temporal lobe). Furthermore, the activity in human and dog brains was remarkably similar when exposed to emotionally charged human sounds (such as the sounds of laughter and crying).

For other sounds, human and dog brains reacted differently. The human brain responded far less strongly to recordings of dog vocalisations. And dog brains seemed far more engaged by environmental sounds, which is not particularly surprising to anyone who has ever seen a dog excited by a barely perceptible sound off in the distance.

These differences in human and dog responses to other noises make the similarities in response to human noises all the more fascinating. Dogs have of course been selectively bred for closeness to people for a long time now, so it is not too surprising that they would have some sensitivity to human voices. But the apparent emotional engagement with human vocal sounds is rather interesting and suggests perhaps that our canine friends really are able to tell when we are happy or sad.

More (BBC article by Rebecca Morelle, from which come the images)

Even more (Article in Current Biology, so you won't be able to read it unless you have a subscription)

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Clever Dog Helps Child

Charlie is a Great Dane. He lives in Co. Clare with the Lynch family. Three-year old Brianna Lynch suffers from a form of epilepsy that means she suffers from frequent seizures, during which she can injure herself. Charlie however is able to tell when Brianna is about to have a seizure. And he has learned this important skill without any training. When he senses that a seizure is imminent, he holds Brianna gently against a wall to prevent her hurting herself and waits for someone to come to her attention.

Charlie does not just look after Brianna when she is having a seizure. He also makes sure that the Lynch's other dogs do not knock her over when they are engaging in boisterous activity.

Brianna's parents are trying to raise money for the purchase of an ambulatory EEG machine in Limerick University Hospital. This which would help identify where in her brain the seizures are occurring.

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The Lion-Dog of China

Visitors to a Louhe city zoo in China's Henan province were looking into the cage labelled "African lion", perhaps thinking the beast inside was smaller than expected, when the animal astonished them by making a noise. However, instead of making a majestic roar, the cage's occupant let out a bark. Investigations revealed that it was not actually a lion, but a Tibetan mastiff, a large and hairy breed of dog, whose head hair could perhaps be mistaken for a lion's mane if you had only ever read descriptions of that fearsome feline's proud coiffure. The zoo's lion had been taken away to a breeding facility and the mastiff placed in its cage because of "safety concerns".

Elsewhere in the zoo, another dog was in an enclosure labelled as a wolf, while a leopard's cage was found to contain a fox.

For all that this is basically being presented as a comedy story, the grim-looking cage shown in the picture, coupled with the falling apart sign, suggests to me that this is one of those zoos based on earning a quick buck from animal cruelty. I hope it is shut down and its inmates moved somewhere nicer, released back into the wild (where appropriate), or else humanely killed.

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Lion and dog are good friends

In an American zoo with a laxer approach to animal welfare than we might be used to here, a lion called Bonedigger has struck up an unlikely friendship with a little dachshund called Milo. Here we see Milo giving Bonedigger a kiss (or trying to get at something in his teeth).

It turns out that Bonedigger is not just friends with Milo but with an entire pack of dachshunds. The mystery of why he sees the little fellows as his friends rather than lunch might just be explained by his own background. Bonedigger had been bottle-fed as a cub, which may have habituated him to people and to the more general idea that non-lions are not necessarily things to be eaten. He also seems also to have been introduced to dachshunds at an early age, so now he sees them as playmates rather than prey.

I would still have to question the wisdom of letting small dogs play with a fully grown lion, but I agree that it does make for great pictures.
More (Guardian, with video of Milo and Bonedigger, image source for Milo and Bonedigger)

Even More (The Blaze, image source for little Milo and dachshund)

Both links feature footage of Milo and Bonedigger.

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Capybara adopts dachshund puppies

In Arkansas in the United States, some gobshite dumped a load of dachshund puppies in a plastic bag behind a church. Fortunately the short-legged dogs were rescued and brought to the Rocky Ridge Refuge. They might have proved something of a handful there - had Cheesecake the Capybara not been on hand to look after them. The giant rodent hopes to inculcate the prime Capybara virtue of sensibleness into the young dachshunds.

The little dachshund puppies are adoptable (as are many other animals at the Rocky Ridge Refuge), but Cheesecake is not; she is needed in the refuge in case any further abandoned puppies need to be looked after.

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The Rocky Ridge Refuge

I learned about this important story from the Rev. Richard Coles.

Good dog saves small child

A three year old child in Poland wandered off from her backyard and got lost in nearby marshy woods. The girl was missing overnight as temperatures dropped to -5C. However, when she was found, she was still alive, because a little black dog she had been playing with had snuggled up to keep her warm through the night.

The little girl is being treated for frostbite. News sources are frustratingly vague about the fate of the little dog, but my impression is that he is continuing to live as a popular stray in the village of Pierzwin.

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Dogs are clever, discovers scientist

Science suggests that dogs are cleverer than previously thought. In particular, experiments into dog behaviour by Dr Juliane Kaminski indicates that they are capable of understanding situations from a non-canine point of view. Her experiment saw a human forbidding a dog from eating some food. Dogs were four times more likely to eat the forbidden food if the lights were turned off. Apparently the dogs understood that with the lights out, the human would not see them sneaking over to and eating the tasty food.

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