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Prefer dogs to humans? You're not alone (or unbalanced)
The field of psychotherapy has traditionally viewed those whose closest relationships are with animals as somehow lacking, their affections pathologically misplaced, their devotion a symptom of their inability to forge healthy connections with the humans around them.
But in recent years, researchers have begun to take far more seriously the bonds between humans and animals and to evaluate those relationships in a more positive light.
"There are whole segments of the population that prefer being in the company of dogs than people, and I'm not sure that's such a negative thing," said Joel Gavriele-Gold, a psychoanalyst in private practice in Manhattan and the author of "When Pets Come Between Partners."
In a recent study, Lawrence Kurdek, a psychologist at Wright State University in Ohio, found that college students who had a high level of attachment to their dogs showed greater attachment to the pets than to their fathers. Their attachment to their mothers, siblings and best friends was just about the same as their attachment to their canine companions, Kurdek found.
The study, reported in the April issue of the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, found that the students who were most strongly attached to their dogs did not show high levels of anxiety or avoidance - characteristics that some therapists would expect to see in people with unusually fierce bonds to animals.
The finding, Kurdek wrote, supports the idea that "people strongly attached to their pet dogs do not turn to pet dogs as substitutes for failed interactions with humans."
A Web site in Britain , www.marryyourpet.com, features testimonials from pet owners who claim, seriously or not, that their relationships with their dogs or cats are primary. And Marc Bekoff, an animal researcher in Colorado, said he was startled recently at a meeting when a woman kept talking about her "significant other."
It turned out, he wrote in an e-mail message, that she was talking about a beagle. The field of psychotherapy has traditionally viewed those whose closest relationships are with animals as somehow lacking, their affec... more -
Wolves as Pets? Bad idea.
The Wild Wolf Sanctuary in Candy Kitchen, New Mexico is rescuing abused wolves from people who think they'll make good pets but realize that you can't tame a wild animal. The Wild Wolf Sanctuary in Candy Kitchen, New Mexico is rescuing abused wolves from people who think they'll make good pets but r... more
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You can has hotdog!
Do not want dem cheeseburger kittehs.
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Dogs can has blogs too
These days, it seems everyone from the UPS man to your mother-in-law is a blogger. The blog search engine technorati.com shows nearly 113 million blogs on the Internet, and it estimates that more than 120,000 blogs are created each day.
So why shouldn't pets have voices? At least that's the sentiment of lots of pet owners who have set up blogs for their dogs, cats, goldfish and hamsters to channel their household companions online.
On Max the Golden Retriever's blog, there are trips to the dog park, musings on his owners' socks, confessions about crushes on poodles and, of course, his passion for tennis balls.
Some pets are part of their owner's social network. Some 34,000 users daily visit Dogbook on Facebook, which allows owners to create "profiles" for their pets. Kitties may be a little neglected with 13,390 daily visits to Catbook.
There are countless reasons people blog on behalf of their pets. Pets are part of the family, yet we can't communicate with them about many things, so pet owners may blog about their pets as a way to better understand how their pets think and feel. These days, it seems everyone from the UPS man to your mother-in-law is a blogger. The blog search engine technorati.com shows nearly ... more -
Latest BigDog video makes us all sad for slipping robots
This video showing off the latest iteration of Boston Dynamics BigDog quadruped robot. The robot is being design to help solders carry heavy loads into battle. Skip ahead to about 0:35 to see it recover from a pretty might kick to the midsection and 1:40 to see it recover from a slip on icy asphalt.
It's pretty impressive feature of engineering to say the least but I couldn't help but wonder, wouldn't it be easier to just use a real pack animal? This video showing off the latest iteration of Boston Dynamics BigDog quadruped robot. The robot is being design to help solders carry... more -
Death metal dog
Now this dog can thrash! All hail Cerberus!
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the best flying dog ever
"never give up, and good luck will find you" -Falcor (the luck dragon)
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Global coastal event
There are many ways of looking at our world and this is one. Linguistics. I made this short video introducing some "highlights" in the coming year. These are excerpts from the notes of George Ure. Since early 2001 a former big software company fellow did a massive SQL databases and came up with the concept of short and long-term values to language use. As these language patterns drift around over time, there may be some useful information about the future.
Visit
www.urbansurvival.com
and
www.halfpasthuman.com There are many ways of looking at our world and this is one. Linguistics. I made this short video introducing some "highlights�... more -
Whiplash, the cowboy monkey and his dog
...may God have mercy on the person responsible for this
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Dog travels 70 miles through war zone to find his owner
US marine in Iraq loses best friend ... Nubs, a highly determined German Shepherd-Border Collie mix, defies the impossible.
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