Frequently asked Questions (FAQs) with answers, thoughts and speculations - -
I. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Answers, thoughts, speculations and observations were from many contributors and reports
Scroll down to see the items. New items can be added if you contact us or comment on the Blog (review page).
Are there other ways to trim a dog's toenails than the old-fashioned "cutters"?
Recently we tried a new trimmer which is a “rotary – nail file” – with a battery power. Our dogs got used to it quickly, with a handful of treats under their noses the first times. At first to catch up for the too long nails, trimming about 1/16 inch each week seemed to be OK with our dogs. The “nail-file” machine made the ends of their nails nice and smooth (instead of rough like the cutters always left behind.)
Our dogs still weren’t thrilled at getting a pedicure, but they will do it with the rotary file, for the treats. The brand we tried was called “Pedi-paws”, purchased at Petsmart (about $10)- there are other brands or better ways. Friends said that Dremel and maybe Oster also sell pedicure rotary files. We were told that dogs who have long hair on their feet should have the hair maybe trimmed back enough so that the hair doesn't get on the file (which would pull the hair!)
Our older dog twice tore or broke part of a “finger” nail, within the last year. Each time the V-hospital bill was about $75, plus a week in a cone indoors for the unhappy dog. Traditionally, if you can hear the “click” of their toe nails when they walk across a tiled or hard floor, their nails should be trimmed. Because many blind dogs go more slowly, and perhaps don’t get out as much where their nails can wear back naturally, they are more likely to need “pedicure” help from their people.
We concluded that our older dog have brittler nails than the young dog – same as us older people. Also, this winter they were not getting as much exercise running about on hard surfaces outdoors where they wear down their nails the natural way. Maybe when they were young and pulled on the leash, they wore down their nails better on the concrete sidewalk, so we didn’t need to trim them so often?
For the puppies, we used people-baby nail trimmers, OK except once we cut too short on a puppy “fingernail” by mistake and made the puppy scream. Her mother “spoke” to me about it.
It’s important to trim back only a little each time so that you don’t accidently cut into the nerves and blood supply. If their nails are white, the part that is transparent all the way through is probably OK to be trimmed off. Black nails, you can only be very careful. We discovered that the shears type of nail-cutters seemed OK for the young dogs, but didn’t work well for the old dog because sometimes the cutter cracked a brittle nail.
Nesting: Why do some dog-mothers of deaf, blind, blind-deaf and ordinary puppies "walk" in a circle before they lie down with their newborn puppies?
Answer: Circle walking enhanced the survival of puppies - by the mother walking a "circle" around the outer sides of the nest or box, she collects the puppies in the middle of the "nest" before she lies down. Lying down on the puppies can be fatal to them. We observed that the puppies as soon as they can "swim" are attracted toward their mother when she comes to the nest to feed them. They kept moving toward her as she walked slowly and carefully in a circle just outside (or inside if she couldn’t walk outside) the edge of the whelping box. Consequently the puppies become piled up in the middle, so she could then safely lie down alongside them with her back against the edge of the nest, with her eight nipples toward them. So then they could all safely approach her without risk of being lain or stepped on. With her back against the side of the box, no puppies got lost behind her and lost their chance to nurse. Placing her back against the whelping box’s inner side was learned by the mother dog, from her own observations.
Circling- Blind and blind-deaf circling for “mapping”: Why do blind and blind-deaf dogs sometimes circle when they are indoors or outdoors?
- For medical safety, have a Veterinarian check for an ear infection, which can cause a dizziness, and "leaning" to one side or circling. If there aren't any medical concerns, there are several instinctive or learned reasons why a healthy dog will do "circling" for good reasons.
Many owners described their newly blind dogs going in circles indoors or outdoors. Researchers already knew that ordinary dogs instinctively, without any training, whirl and circle to “map” what’s going on in their surroundings, when they suddenly feel unsure and they need to know. A simple example we often saw, was when our ordinary dog lost track of a ball in flight that was thrown very high, toward her. She almost always spotted the ball as it bounced on the ground somewhere in a big circle around her.
Owners of blind and blind-deaf dogs after observing their dogs for weeks usually report that after newly blind dogs have used circling to discover and map their “space” indoors or outdoors, the dogs usually decrease circling and might cease it altogether when they are in places they know already. Mild scents (like slight lemon-scent on furniture) on objects and places can help each dog to discover and map their “spaces.” Also, for blind dogs that can hear well, echoes of their low-barking, whining or other noises, even from home devices, can be used by blind-hearing dogs for “sonar” mapping just as bats, dolphins and whales (and some people) can.
However, occasionally a dog might seem to be anxiously obsessive-compulsively overdoing the circling, perhaps from boredom, or lack of exercise; or feeling lost and confused from common side-effects of medications. Then we suggest gently interrupting her to get the dog involved in other interesting activities.
Why did some dogs (deaf, blind, blind-deaf) circle before they died? Observations by reliable observer-owners indicated that their dogs who were very sick, probably feeling tired, and quite likely in pain seemed to be searching for a place where they could lie down comfortably and maybe later get up again if or when they felt better. [Adult humans who had been severely injured and had reached nearly the end of their endurance described comparable feelings of needing to find a safe, somewhat comfortable place to lie down, come-what-might.]
Vocalizing to summon or to cause others to move away
Whines, growling, chirping? Why do blind and hearing dogs use higher pitched cries to invite come approach, and low pitch to urge moving away[i]? Answer: A. Miklosi[ii] and S. Coren mentioned research that indicated dogs tend to move toward high pitch sounds (such as puppy cries, etc) and away from deep, low pitch sounds (growls, etc.). Using high pitch sounds to summon might be based on “deep” instinct for going to puppy-birth high pitched "help-yelp, need-rescue" cries to summon their mother (see next.)
"I'm Lost" calls? Why might almost all puppies, within seconds of birth, chirp three times equally spaced, repeatedly, and among the chirp groups bark randomly and make other sounds? Answer: Many books that mention puppies indicated that the puppies immediately after birth relied on warmth (thermal - infrared) detection in the first minutes to search for their local milk supply. During the minutes after births, the puppies and the mother’s tongue and breath are all covered in amniotic birth fluids and blood and placental tissues are lying across much of the local area, so smells could not be of much use by the puppies or the mothers until hours later. Reciprocity, as seen mostly by male scientists, implied that the mother dogs likewise relied on their vision and detection of warmth to find each new-borne puppy.
Rarely was it mentioned that newborn puppies use "beacon" chirp-cries to call for their mother within a few seconds after their birth. Beacon chirp cries that we recorded digitally were usually a triplet of equally time spaced rising pitch chirps, with the triplets randomly separated in time and interspersed by tiny high pitched barks and occasional varied sounds. Of interest, a triplet of three equally time-spaced chirps used the second prime number, which is nearly non-existent among natural random noise. We observed an adult female Border Collie using the puppy help cry to summon an adult male black Labrador dog to the fence. I called her to me with the cry (as well as I could imitate it), and several years later called an intact male Border Collie to me by using the puppy “help-rescue” call. A. Miklosi, 2007 in his Figure 8.5 provided a sonogram of a triplet pulse cry. Some modern radars use pulse chirp signals of similar characteristics to detect targets in noisy electromagnetic environments.
Hygiene (wetting and pooping)
Why do some dogs lift a rear leg when wetting? Answer: Because they clean their feet with their tongue, they like to keep their feet clean.
Are dogs “right-legged” or left legged? Answer: Ours lifted either leg, depending apparently on the terrain and whether they discovered that the “down” foot was getting wet. Mech reported that modern wolves of both genders were leg-lifters, but didn’t indicate which leg they preferred.
Why does a dog sit and "scoot" on dry leaves or wet clean grass (or a carpet!)? Answer 1: Dry leaves or carpets are used because people keep the toilet paper for themselves.
Answer 2: Wet clean grass was apparently a doggish preferred substitute for a bidet.
Eyesight
Why does a dog sometimes tilt her head sidewise at about a 45 degree angle, so she seems to be asking a question (puzzlement) of a human? Answer: Our Border Collies all tilted their head 1) so that they could use "stereo" hearing to discover which way we intended to kick a soccer ball, or 2) see as much of the person’s body-gestures at a single moment as they can.
Why was the dog sometimes “looking (staring)” at a small an angle away from me, so that she was hearing me with just her nearest ear best, or seeing me out the side of her eye? Answer: Technically, that improves her ability to most accurately figure out exactly how far away and in which direction you are, and place your image on a part of her retina that can see very sharply- - (needs to be studied.)
Toy Crunching
Why do young and some adult blind, deaf and blind-deaf dogs often "crunch" a toy repeatedly before surrendering it to an adult human or another dog? Why do most well socialized adult dogs not do that with humans?Answer: When adult dogs bring food to their pups, they instinctively make sure that the food is not going to escape from the puppies, and that it is properly soft enough for their little jaws and stomachs. Well socialized adult dogs usually learned that human females go "IKKKK!" and get excited if they are presented with a well softened meat snack that used to be a cute mouse, squirrel or a baby rabbit. Male adult humans in contrast may say thank you, disrobe the critter, keep it, and claim credit for providing the meat for a human dinner table. [Adult male and female wolves were reported by Mech to do the like if they brought home meat.]
Tails
Why do most modern dogs have sickle shape tails, instead of the wolf style low crescent tails?Answer: From archeology, apparently dogs began to exhibit raised sickle shaped tails soon after human houses/huts/habitats began to use doors. Facts: During 2010 our Border Collie puppies were born with spiral-wound tails that unwound during the first several days of life. “Working” BCs carry their tails with the tips at their ankles, but when playing and acting silly BCs carry their tails over their backs. For dogs living among early generations of humans, species of dogs that signaled peaceful intents by holding their tails sickle-wise over their backs probably were more welcome among humans than those dogs that acted “wolf-like” with lowered tails.
Amusing Speculation: Possibly injuries to wolf-style tails caught in doors were bad for the local species or breed survival, compared to sickle tails which were far less frequently injured or amputated by being caught in a door?
Facts of Life
Do female dogs know where puppies come from?
Answer: An intact “virgin” female BC was impolitely approached by an allegedly Hungarian “Bird-hunting” dog (a handsome intact male), who immediately threw his right forearm over her shoulders and started to mount. She growled, displayed all her teeth and nipped at him. After he backed away, they performed the dog-legal play-bows, they sniffed, and then they played “chase-me.” After she had her first set of puppies, when she saw her Hungarian friend approaching, she instantly sat down, and refused to move until he left the place. After she had her second set of puppies, when she saw her friend approaching she lay absolutely flat on the ground and looked up at him with a “smile.” He looked down at her for a moment and then dashed off to play with his people.
How do Puppies Learn the Golden Rule?
Why are puppies who never develop ordinary eyesight maybe a little slow to learn an inhibited-soft bite, and can be reminded or taught that by an adult dog or human?
Answer: The Nobel Prize winner K Lorenz in 1954 claimed that inhibited bite was totally a genetic fixed action pattern of dogs. However in 1965 Fuller and Scott documented that puppies learn an inhibited (soft) bite from their siblings’ reactions to being bitten. The biters’ play-rejection by its siblings, the screams of the “victim” puppies and peer “punishment” by siblings were solid incentives for each puppy to be nice to the others. Deafness offered only a slight delay in learning to behave properly.
How can we detect Deafness of young dogs?
Puppies that after the third week of age are deaf in both ears are usually easy to spot, because they are occasionally slow to react to noises by being curious or fleeing and don’t react quickly to household sounds when alone. A puppy that is deaf only in one ear might often not be spotted, until someday it obviously looked the wrong way to see the source of a new noise. BAER tests (usually expensive) can be used to obtain a medical certificate that a dog lacks inner-ear nerves that react to sounds that ordinary humans can hear – the exclusively-mechanical vibrations that BAER tests sent to the inner ears. Standard BAER tests for genetic deafness were reportedly designed to exclude and prevent the detection of a dog's use of auxiliary instinctive mechanisms for detecting vibrations of sounds in air, water, or solids.
As separately discussed in this web site, many dogs have been able to adapt to their use of auxiliary mechanisms, such were well described by Dr S Coren, 2004. The effectiveness of brains adapting to use auxiliary mechanisms was documented in scientific research on humans, birds, mice, etc during the recent decade. Blind dogs were reported to apparently use hearing, odors, and probably auxiliary sound detection mechanisms to understand their environment, navigate and generally enjoy a good quality of life with their humans.
Do Deaf, Blind or Blind-deaf Dogs' Ears Move?
Yes, their ears move as well as those of ordinary dog’s ears! Ears of young deaf dogs usually point toward what they are looking toward, or maybe each ear pointing oppositely for general curiosity. Older deaf dogs who have recovered some useful hearing will point their ears to whatever it is they are hearing (and usually are also looking toward) which is a useful clue that what they can now hear better. Blind dog’s ear usually will point toward the source of the sounds they are hearing.Why does putting a "cone" (also called a Victorian collar) around a blind dog's head maybe make the dog seem confused and upset? Thoughts: Our dogs (about 45 pounds) also didn't like wearing cones at first after surgery. Personally, I tried the cone on myself to feel what it was like. I was surprised that for sounds it was sort of an old-fashioned one-ear “trumpet” (a “reverse- megaphone" ) for hard of hearing humans. (But the cone did for both my ears at the same time)
For me it was confusing at first because: outside, I could hear sounds from in front louder but more noisy, and sounds from the sides or in back were almost gone. Also, sounds from in front had a lot of "echoes"-noise so that I couldn't really any longer easily tell where the main sounds were coming from. My guess was that our dogs at first were badly confused by the way the cone changed the ways the sounds "felt" that they were used to? After several days they seemed to get used to the situation & got around OK. [One of the dogs thought it was good fun to "poke" the other with the cone.]
My guess is that any blind dog might be upset at first when they have to wear a cone & if they already know how to navigate with sounds, they might feel kind of confused at first - - - Care & sympathy from their people maybe would help them feel like the world was still safe & OK while they get used to the cone & get it off? These are just our thoughts & offered with the hope that maybe sharing will help others with their beloved companions.
Recently, Sep 2011, we saw on the Internet mentions of “cloth cones” which would reduce or cure the echoes. And we saw mention of guard-visors or shields that let the dog’s ears stick up normally, which would be great as long as it was OK for the dog to scratch her ears with a hind foot if she wanted.
Sometimes our dogs don't need a Cone to keep them from bothering an itchy cut or surgery place, but other times the dogs really need a cone to prevent them?Thoughts: Our Vets and Doctors, for our kids & dogs, when they bothered an itchy surgery, cut or scab, prescribed bad tasting or bad tasting stuff. Also sometimes, the ointment or salve prescribed apparently had a surface "pain-killer" because it would numb our fingertips. Much earlier, as parents, we discovered that our local stores sold some inexpensive "Teething Lotion" for babies that numbed the gums of babies, and it was "food-safe" for humans. --We carefully tried a bit at first on our dogs where they could reach around the cone to get at a bandage or cut. Only once the dog kept on bothering the bandage, but the rest of the times it seemed to relieve their itching enough so they were OK. Always check with a Vet! -
Sometimes in the house my dog stares into "space" without moving while the children and the other dogs are romping and rioting upstairs. What might she be doing?
Blind, deaf, deaf-blind and hearing dogs can "map" (from the airborne sounds and mechanical vibrations (sounds) carried in the floors and walls, and transient odors) what's going on upstairs or in other parts of the house. We suppose that for a dog, that's very like listening to the radio, or reading a book, because the dog must be "seeing" pictures in her mind of what she hears going on. Long ago there were jokes about seeing baseball games on the radio, and the pictures were better there than on early television!
[i] Stanley Coren, 2004, Dogs Think”, Free Press
[ii] Adam Miklosi, 2007, “Dog Behaviour, Evolution, and Cognition”, Oxford Biology
[iii] Scott and Fuller, 1965, “Genetics and Social Behavior of the Dog”
How to build “steps” or a ramp for a blind dog?
Thoughts: Steps for ordinary dogs to climb up onto beds or furniture are available on-line from some pet-stores, because even for ordinary dogs it is hard to build sets that are safe. Converting commercial steps for use by a blind dog, seems to need “sides” be put on to protect against stumbling and falling off the sides, especially going down. It seems to me that on each side a triangle sheet of clear plastic glued – like Plexiglas - or thin plywood could be nailed on? These might be got from a home repairs business like Home Depot?
Why not build a simple ramp instead of steps or stairs? Puppies and us old dogs can have difficulties going up and down stairs, especially those of us with hip & joint pains. Poor eyesight of no eye-sight can make it much harder to do safely. Building steps for a dog is pretty complicated – maybe at least 10 pieces or more, because ideally the step heights are chosen for the specific dog’s size. – Ramps were easier to make- maybe only three pieces fit together?
An inexpensively ramp can be made from a piece of a straight board, maybe plywood, about 3/8 or ½ inch thickness. The ramp might have to be strong enough that it doesn’t break when children or adults step on it. Indoors you might glue or staple carpet on top. Or for outdoors, glue, staple or nail narrow rough cross-pieces across the width of the board to provide traction for their toe-nails and feet, to prevent slipping.
Indoors, the board needs to be long enough to reach from the furniture height such as on a bed or sofa, to the floor at a distance more than twice farther from the top than the height. On existing indoor or outdoor stairs, especially for small dogs, the usual thing might be just to place the ramp firmly on top of the existing stairs at one side of the stairs, so that there is still enough safe space for the people and other dogs to use the regular stairs (cats don’t seem to care?).
It’s needed to prevent the ramp from slipping off and falling flat, maybe surprising the dog. At the top, wide Velcro could be stapled of glued across the “nose” of the ramp so that some of the Velcro reaches underneath to anchor solidly on the fabric of a bed-cover or chair …. If the ramp was always going to be used with its bottom on a carpet, maybe use glue or staple Velcro strips across the tail of the board so that it couldn’t slip around.
If that can’t be done – maybe consider - some stores sold rubber strips to “tractionize” stairs indoors or outdoors against slipping, and those could be wrapped across the bottom “tail” to help keep it from slipping on carpets or even on a wood floor? An option, that also can work on top and-or bottom ends is to cut a section of large enough size rubber garden hose long enough to go across the end of the board, and with strong scissors cut open the full length of the hose on one side so it can be slipped over the end of the board?
How to ‘close’ the sides of the steps or ramp, so she doesn’t fear maybe falling off? Some blind dogs like to slightly lean on a wall as they go along. A ramp without a “side-wall” likely might make such as blind dog feel un-secure – like walking on a high bridge without a railing? Depending on the situation and the size of the dog, there might be several ways to make a “side-wall”. 1) Maybe the simplest for small dogs would be placing a “baby” pad along the sides, like they sell for baby cribs to protect the child from the hard sides of the crib?
2) Also easy maybe, is buying from a dog-equipment store one of the “agility” dog-tunnels in the proper size and tacking or gluing it along the middle of the ramp from bottom to top?
3) Depending on how elegant you want it to be, particle boards or thick plastic-foam panels of the about ½ half of her height could be stapled, glued or nailed on to the sides to the ramp to give the dog a good secure feeling of where the sides are?
4) Nobody seems to advertise rectangular tunnel-ramps for blind and blind-deaf dogs – But there are commercial metal rectangular ducts of various sizes sold for air-conditioning and heating systems of homes and business, which would do nicely especially for outdoors. Those sorts of ducts can be easy to assemble, and would last a very long time. // They could be painted on the outside and decorated to be fairly attractive I suspect!]
A useful book is available from Caroline D. Levin RN, "Living with Blind Dogs", 1998-2003 edt, Lantern Publications: This is an excellent resource book for blind, blind-deaf and low-vision dogs and their people.
MORE FAQS
Question: Blind Dogs Barking at Corners
Question: Are there dog breeds that chirp instead of bark?
To return to the TOP of the page click here
Answers, thoughts, speculations and observations were from many contributors and reports
Scroll down to see the items. New items can be added if you contact us or comment on the Blog (review page).
Are there other ways to trim a dog's toenails than the old-fashioned "cutters"?
Recently we tried a new trimmer which is a “rotary – nail file” – with a battery power. Our dogs got used to it quickly, with a handful of treats under their noses the first times. At first to catch up for the too long nails, trimming about 1/16 inch each week seemed to be OK with our dogs. The “nail-file” machine made the ends of their nails nice and smooth (instead of rough like the cutters always left behind.)
Our dogs still weren’t thrilled at getting a pedicure, but they will do it with the rotary file, for the treats. The brand we tried was called “Pedi-paws”, purchased at Petsmart (about $10)- there are other brands or better ways. Friends said that Dremel and maybe Oster also sell pedicure rotary files. We were told that dogs who have long hair on their feet should have the hair maybe trimmed back enough so that the hair doesn't get on the file (which would pull the hair!)
Our older dog twice tore or broke part of a “finger” nail, within the last year. Each time the V-hospital bill was about $75, plus a week in a cone indoors for the unhappy dog. Traditionally, if you can hear the “click” of their toe nails when they walk across a tiled or hard floor, their nails should be trimmed. Because many blind dogs go more slowly, and perhaps don’t get out as much where their nails can wear back naturally, they are more likely to need “pedicure” help from their people.
We concluded that our older dog have brittler nails than the young dog – same as us older people. Also, this winter they were not getting as much exercise running about on hard surfaces outdoors where they wear down their nails the natural way. Maybe when they were young and pulled on the leash, they wore down their nails better on the concrete sidewalk, so we didn’t need to trim them so often?
For the puppies, we used people-baby nail trimmers, OK except once we cut too short on a puppy “fingernail” by mistake and made the puppy scream. Her mother “spoke” to me about it.
It’s important to trim back only a little each time so that you don’t accidently cut into the nerves and blood supply. If their nails are white, the part that is transparent all the way through is probably OK to be trimmed off. Black nails, you can only be very careful. We discovered that the shears type of nail-cutters seemed OK for the young dogs, but didn’t work well for the old dog because sometimes the cutter cracked a brittle nail.
Nesting: Why do some dog-mothers of deaf, blind, blind-deaf and ordinary puppies "walk" in a circle before they lie down with their newborn puppies?
Answer: Circle walking enhanced the survival of puppies - by the mother walking a "circle" around the outer sides of the nest or box, she collects the puppies in the middle of the "nest" before she lies down. Lying down on the puppies can be fatal to them. We observed that the puppies as soon as they can "swim" are attracted toward their mother when she comes to the nest to feed them. They kept moving toward her as she walked slowly and carefully in a circle just outside (or inside if she couldn’t walk outside) the edge of the whelping box. Consequently the puppies become piled up in the middle, so she could then safely lie down alongside them with her back against the edge of the nest, with her eight nipples toward them. So then they could all safely approach her without risk of being lain or stepped on. With her back against the side of the box, no puppies got lost behind her and lost their chance to nurse. Placing her back against the whelping box’s inner side was learned by the mother dog, from her own observations.
Circling- Blind and blind-deaf circling for “mapping”: Why do blind and blind-deaf dogs sometimes circle when they are indoors or outdoors?
- For medical safety, have a Veterinarian check for an ear infection, which can cause a dizziness, and "leaning" to one side or circling. If there aren't any medical concerns, there are several instinctive or learned reasons why a healthy dog will do "circling" for good reasons.
Many owners described their newly blind dogs going in circles indoors or outdoors. Researchers already knew that ordinary dogs instinctively, without any training, whirl and circle to “map” what’s going on in their surroundings, when they suddenly feel unsure and they need to know. A simple example we often saw, was when our ordinary dog lost track of a ball in flight that was thrown very high, toward her. She almost always spotted the ball as it bounced on the ground somewhere in a big circle around her.
Owners of blind and blind-deaf dogs after observing their dogs for weeks usually report that after newly blind dogs have used circling to discover and map their “space” indoors or outdoors, the dogs usually decrease circling and might cease it altogether when they are in places they know already. Mild scents (like slight lemon-scent on furniture) on objects and places can help each dog to discover and map their “spaces.” Also, for blind dogs that can hear well, echoes of their low-barking, whining or other noises, even from home devices, can be used by blind-hearing dogs for “sonar” mapping just as bats, dolphins and whales (and some people) can.
However, occasionally a dog might seem to be anxiously obsessive-compulsively overdoing the circling, perhaps from boredom, or lack of exercise; or feeling lost and confused from common side-effects of medications. Then we suggest gently interrupting her to get the dog involved in other interesting activities.
Why did some dogs (deaf, blind, blind-deaf) circle before they died? Observations by reliable observer-owners indicated that their dogs who were very sick, probably feeling tired, and quite likely in pain seemed to be searching for a place where they could lie down comfortably and maybe later get up again if or when they felt better. [Adult humans who had been severely injured and had reached nearly the end of their endurance described comparable feelings of needing to find a safe, somewhat comfortable place to lie down, come-what-might.]
Vocalizing to summon or to cause others to move away
Whines, growling, chirping? Why do blind and hearing dogs use higher pitched cries to invite come approach, and low pitch to urge moving away[i]? Answer: A. Miklosi[ii] and S. Coren mentioned research that indicated dogs tend to move toward high pitch sounds (such as puppy cries, etc) and away from deep, low pitch sounds (growls, etc.). Using high pitch sounds to summon might be based on “deep” instinct for going to puppy-birth high pitched "help-yelp, need-rescue" cries to summon their mother (see next.)
"I'm Lost" calls? Why might almost all puppies, within seconds of birth, chirp three times equally spaced, repeatedly, and among the chirp groups bark randomly and make other sounds? Answer: Many books that mention puppies indicated that the puppies immediately after birth relied on warmth (thermal - infrared) detection in the first minutes to search for their local milk supply. During the minutes after births, the puppies and the mother’s tongue and breath are all covered in amniotic birth fluids and blood and placental tissues are lying across much of the local area, so smells could not be of much use by the puppies or the mothers until hours later. Reciprocity, as seen mostly by male scientists, implied that the mother dogs likewise relied on their vision and detection of warmth to find each new-borne puppy.
Rarely was it mentioned that newborn puppies use "beacon" chirp-cries to call for their mother within a few seconds after their birth. Beacon chirp cries that we recorded digitally were usually a triplet of equally time spaced rising pitch chirps, with the triplets randomly separated in time and interspersed by tiny high pitched barks and occasional varied sounds. Of interest, a triplet of three equally time-spaced chirps used the second prime number, which is nearly non-existent among natural random noise. We observed an adult female Border Collie using the puppy help cry to summon an adult male black Labrador dog to the fence. I called her to me with the cry (as well as I could imitate it), and several years later called an intact male Border Collie to me by using the puppy “help-rescue” call. A. Miklosi, 2007 in his Figure 8.5 provided a sonogram of a triplet pulse cry. Some modern radars use pulse chirp signals of similar characteristics to detect targets in noisy electromagnetic environments.
Hygiene (wetting and pooping)
Why do some dogs lift a rear leg when wetting? Answer: Because they clean their feet with their tongue, they like to keep their feet clean.
Are dogs “right-legged” or left legged? Answer: Ours lifted either leg, depending apparently on the terrain and whether they discovered that the “down” foot was getting wet. Mech reported that modern wolves of both genders were leg-lifters, but didn’t indicate which leg they preferred.
Why does a dog sit and "scoot" on dry leaves or wet clean grass (or a carpet!)? Answer 1: Dry leaves or carpets are used because people keep the toilet paper for themselves.
Answer 2: Wet clean grass was apparently a doggish preferred substitute for a bidet.
Eyesight
Why does a dog sometimes tilt her head sidewise at about a 45 degree angle, so she seems to be asking a question (puzzlement) of a human? Answer: Our Border Collies all tilted their head 1) so that they could use "stereo" hearing to discover which way we intended to kick a soccer ball, or 2) see as much of the person’s body-gestures at a single moment as they can.
Why was the dog sometimes “looking (staring)” at a small an angle away from me, so that she was hearing me with just her nearest ear best, or seeing me out the side of her eye? Answer: Technically, that improves her ability to most accurately figure out exactly how far away and in which direction you are, and place your image on a part of her retina that can see very sharply- - (needs to be studied.)
Toy Crunching
Why do young and some adult blind, deaf and blind-deaf dogs often "crunch" a toy repeatedly before surrendering it to an adult human or another dog? Why do most well socialized adult dogs not do that with humans?Answer: When adult dogs bring food to their pups, they instinctively make sure that the food is not going to escape from the puppies, and that it is properly soft enough for their little jaws and stomachs. Well socialized adult dogs usually learned that human females go "IKKKK!" and get excited if they are presented with a well softened meat snack that used to be a cute mouse, squirrel or a baby rabbit. Male adult humans in contrast may say thank you, disrobe the critter, keep it, and claim credit for providing the meat for a human dinner table. [Adult male and female wolves were reported by Mech to do the like if they brought home meat.]
Tails
Why do most modern dogs have sickle shape tails, instead of the wolf style low crescent tails?Answer: From archeology, apparently dogs began to exhibit raised sickle shaped tails soon after human houses/huts/habitats began to use doors. Facts: During 2010 our Border Collie puppies were born with spiral-wound tails that unwound during the first several days of life. “Working” BCs carry their tails with the tips at their ankles, but when playing and acting silly BCs carry their tails over their backs. For dogs living among early generations of humans, species of dogs that signaled peaceful intents by holding their tails sickle-wise over their backs probably were more welcome among humans than those dogs that acted “wolf-like” with lowered tails.
Amusing Speculation: Possibly injuries to wolf-style tails caught in doors were bad for the local species or breed survival, compared to sickle tails which were far less frequently injured or amputated by being caught in a door?
Facts of Life
Do female dogs know where puppies come from?
Answer: An intact “virgin” female BC was impolitely approached by an allegedly Hungarian “Bird-hunting” dog (a handsome intact male), who immediately threw his right forearm over her shoulders and started to mount. She growled, displayed all her teeth and nipped at him. After he backed away, they performed the dog-legal play-bows, they sniffed, and then they played “chase-me.” After she had her first set of puppies, when she saw her Hungarian friend approaching, she instantly sat down, and refused to move until he left the place. After she had her second set of puppies, when she saw her friend approaching she lay absolutely flat on the ground and looked up at him with a “smile.” He looked down at her for a moment and then dashed off to play with his people.
How do Puppies Learn the Golden Rule?
Why are puppies who never develop ordinary eyesight maybe a little slow to learn an inhibited-soft bite, and can be reminded or taught that by an adult dog or human?
Answer: The Nobel Prize winner K Lorenz in 1954 claimed that inhibited bite was totally a genetic fixed action pattern of dogs. However in 1965 Fuller and Scott documented that puppies learn an inhibited (soft) bite from their siblings’ reactions to being bitten. The biters’ play-rejection by its siblings, the screams of the “victim” puppies and peer “punishment” by siblings were solid incentives for each puppy to be nice to the others. Deafness offered only a slight delay in learning to behave properly.
How can we detect Deafness of young dogs?
Puppies that after the third week of age are deaf in both ears are usually easy to spot, because they are occasionally slow to react to noises by being curious or fleeing and don’t react quickly to household sounds when alone. A puppy that is deaf only in one ear might often not be spotted, until someday it obviously looked the wrong way to see the source of a new noise. BAER tests (usually expensive) can be used to obtain a medical certificate that a dog lacks inner-ear nerves that react to sounds that ordinary humans can hear – the exclusively-mechanical vibrations that BAER tests sent to the inner ears. Standard BAER tests for genetic deafness were reportedly designed to exclude and prevent the detection of a dog's use of auxiliary instinctive mechanisms for detecting vibrations of sounds in air, water, or solids.
As separately discussed in this web site, many dogs have been able to adapt to their use of auxiliary mechanisms, such were well described by Dr S Coren, 2004. The effectiveness of brains adapting to use auxiliary mechanisms was documented in scientific research on humans, birds, mice, etc during the recent decade. Blind dogs were reported to apparently use hearing, odors, and probably auxiliary sound detection mechanisms to understand their environment, navigate and generally enjoy a good quality of life with their humans.
Do Deaf, Blind or Blind-deaf Dogs' Ears Move?
Yes, their ears move as well as those of ordinary dog’s ears! Ears of young deaf dogs usually point toward what they are looking toward, or maybe each ear pointing oppositely for general curiosity. Older deaf dogs who have recovered some useful hearing will point their ears to whatever it is they are hearing (and usually are also looking toward) which is a useful clue that what they can now hear better. Blind dog’s ear usually will point toward the source of the sounds they are hearing.Why does putting a "cone" (also called a Victorian collar) around a blind dog's head maybe make the dog seem confused and upset? Thoughts: Our dogs (about 45 pounds) also didn't like wearing cones at first after surgery. Personally, I tried the cone on myself to feel what it was like. I was surprised that for sounds it was sort of an old-fashioned one-ear “trumpet” (a “reverse- megaphone" ) for hard of hearing humans. (But the cone did for both my ears at the same time)
For me it was confusing at first because: outside, I could hear sounds from in front louder but more noisy, and sounds from the sides or in back were almost gone. Also, sounds from in front had a lot of "echoes"-noise so that I couldn't really any longer easily tell where the main sounds were coming from. My guess was that our dogs at first were badly confused by the way the cone changed the ways the sounds "felt" that they were used to? After several days they seemed to get used to the situation & got around OK. [One of the dogs thought it was good fun to "poke" the other with the cone.]
My guess is that any blind dog might be upset at first when they have to wear a cone & if they already know how to navigate with sounds, they might feel kind of confused at first - - - Care & sympathy from their people maybe would help them feel like the world was still safe & OK while they get used to the cone & get it off? These are just our thoughts & offered with the hope that maybe sharing will help others with their beloved companions.
Recently, Sep 2011, we saw on the Internet mentions of “cloth cones” which would reduce or cure the echoes. And we saw mention of guard-visors or shields that let the dog’s ears stick up normally, which would be great as long as it was OK for the dog to scratch her ears with a hind foot if she wanted.
Sometimes our dogs don't need a Cone to keep them from bothering an itchy cut or surgery place, but other times the dogs really need a cone to prevent them?Thoughts: Our Vets and Doctors, for our kids & dogs, when they bothered an itchy surgery, cut or scab, prescribed bad tasting or bad tasting stuff. Also sometimes, the ointment or salve prescribed apparently had a surface "pain-killer" because it would numb our fingertips. Much earlier, as parents, we discovered that our local stores sold some inexpensive "Teething Lotion" for babies that numbed the gums of babies, and it was "food-safe" for humans. --We carefully tried a bit at first on our dogs where they could reach around the cone to get at a bandage or cut. Only once the dog kept on bothering the bandage, but the rest of the times it seemed to relieve their itching enough so they were OK. Always check with a Vet! -
Sometimes in the house my dog stares into "space" without moving while the children and the other dogs are romping and rioting upstairs. What might she be doing?
Blind, deaf, deaf-blind and hearing dogs can "map" (from the airborne sounds and mechanical vibrations (sounds) carried in the floors and walls, and transient odors) what's going on upstairs or in other parts of the house. We suppose that for a dog, that's very like listening to the radio, or reading a book, because the dog must be "seeing" pictures in her mind of what she hears going on. Long ago there were jokes about seeing baseball games on the radio, and the pictures were better there than on early television!
[i] Stanley Coren, 2004, Dogs Think”, Free Press
[ii] Adam Miklosi, 2007, “Dog Behaviour, Evolution, and Cognition”, Oxford Biology
[iii] Scott and Fuller, 1965, “Genetics and Social Behavior of the Dog”
How to build “steps” or a ramp for a blind dog?
Thoughts: Steps for ordinary dogs to climb up onto beds or furniture are available on-line from some pet-stores, because even for ordinary dogs it is hard to build sets that are safe. Converting commercial steps for use by a blind dog, seems to need “sides” be put on to protect against stumbling and falling off the sides, especially going down. It seems to me that on each side a triangle sheet of clear plastic glued – like Plexiglas - or thin plywood could be nailed on? These might be got from a home repairs business like Home Depot?
Why not build a simple ramp instead of steps or stairs? Puppies and us old dogs can have difficulties going up and down stairs, especially those of us with hip & joint pains. Poor eyesight of no eye-sight can make it much harder to do safely. Building steps for a dog is pretty complicated – maybe at least 10 pieces or more, because ideally the step heights are chosen for the specific dog’s size. – Ramps were easier to make- maybe only three pieces fit together?
An inexpensively ramp can be made from a piece of a straight board, maybe plywood, about 3/8 or ½ inch thickness. The ramp might have to be strong enough that it doesn’t break when children or adults step on it. Indoors you might glue or staple carpet on top. Or for outdoors, glue, staple or nail narrow rough cross-pieces across the width of the board to provide traction for their toe-nails and feet, to prevent slipping.
Indoors, the board needs to be long enough to reach from the furniture height such as on a bed or sofa, to the floor at a distance more than twice farther from the top than the height. On existing indoor or outdoor stairs, especially for small dogs, the usual thing might be just to place the ramp firmly on top of the existing stairs at one side of the stairs, so that there is still enough safe space for the people and other dogs to use the regular stairs (cats don’t seem to care?).
It’s needed to prevent the ramp from slipping off and falling flat, maybe surprising the dog. At the top, wide Velcro could be stapled of glued across the “nose” of the ramp so that some of the Velcro reaches underneath to anchor solidly on the fabric of a bed-cover or chair …. If the ramp was always going to be used with its bottom on a carpet, maybe use glue or staple Velcro strips across the tail of the board so that it couldn’t slip around.
If that can’t be done – maybe consider - some stores sold rubber strips to “tractionize” stairs indoors or outdoors against slipping, and those could be wrapped across the bottom “tail” to help keep it from slipping on carpets or even on a wood floor? An option, that also can work on top and-or bottom ends is to cut a section of large enough size rubber garden hose long enough to go across the end of the board, and with strong scissors cut open the full length of the hose on one side so it can be slipped over the end of the board?
How to ‘close’ the sides of the steps or ramp, so she doesn’t fear maybe falling off? Some blind dogs like to slightly lean on a wall as they go along. A ramp without a “side-wall” likely might make such as blind dog feel un-secure – like walking on a high bridge without a railing? Depending on the situation and the size of the dog, there might be several ways to make a “side-wall”. 1) Maybe the simplest for small dogs would be placing a “baby” pad along the sides, like they sell for baby cribs to protect the child from the hard sides of the crib?
2) Also easy maybe, is buying from a dog-equipment store one of the “agility” dog-tunnels in the proper size and tacking or gluing it along the middle of the ramp from bottom to top?
3) Depending on how elegant you want it to be, particle boards or thick plastic-foam panels of the about ½ half of her height could be stapled, glued or nailed on to the sides to the ramp to give the dog a good secure feeling of where the sides are?
4) Nobody seems to advertise rectangular tunnel-ramps for blind and blind-deaf dogs – But there are commercial metal rectangular ducts of various sizes sold for air-conditioning and heating systems of homes and business, which would do nicely especially for outdoors. Those sorts of ducts can be easy to assemble, and would last a very long time. // They could be painted on the outside and decorated to be fairly attractive I suspect!]
A useful book is available from Caroline D. Levin RN, "Living with Blind Dogs", 1998-2003 edt, Lantern Publications: This is an excellent resource book for blind, blind-deaf and low-vision dogs and their people.
MORE FAQS
Question: Blind Dogs Barking at Corners
Question: Are there dog breeds that chirp instead of bark?
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