I would like to welcome all my new subscribers and old ones and thank you all for being here. In return I have written a completely random, eclectic, eccentric, possibbly nonsensical and everything else post to start 2025. I am not sure what my normal is, other than just being me.
As I spend a lot of my hours with my canine housemates, I often wonder if they have thought processes and concluded that they do. For example, the snow yesterday was very brief here in Eastern England. Humphrey charged off into the garden, looking full of the joys of the white stuff aka snow, only to be bitterly disappointed. His ball was not hidden in the depths of snow, nor was there enough for snow balls. He clearly had a 💡 moment, he started trying to build his own with the ball and his nose. No idea why he did it, only that something tickled the fun part of his brain. Mildred just came back to indoors and sulked, wondering if she will be able to get her skis out this year.
I realised that my grey cell thinking is probably not academically robust, and is rather fanciful , so down the rabbit 🐇 warren I went. The rabbit’s time off obviously did them good because they found a nine year old article from the Guardian. I hope it would provide some answers: What is this dog thinking? Scientists now have some fascinating answers. Unfortunately, on closer inspection the article concentrated more on the emotional intelligence of animals and disappointingly didn't reach many conclusions only that the ‘experts’ appear to disagree. The article concluded:
Having lived alongside us for thousands of years, they have evolved not only an inbuilt affection for mankind but also a set of skills for becoming our “best friends” – even though they have little understanding of how we feel about them.
As the rabbits let me down a bit I moved on to the fox’s den, being from the canine family, he came up with a slightly more promising article about whether the think and/or have a thought process. The article’s premise is clear in the title: A Glimpse Into the Dog’s Mind: A New Study Reveals How Dogs Think of Their Toys. I discovered all our dogs could be classified as gifted dogs, they know their toys by name. They all know ball 🎾 Humphrey will search hi and low until he has found the right one. Bonnie is the same if you say teddy. If the teddy is in Humphrey’s mouth she will run around after him until he gets bored and drops it. They all know tug toy and what it means. Unsurprisingly Mildred’s favourite toy word is broccoli, a plastic one (see photo above), she also loves eating raw broccoli. Below is a YouTube from the researchers.
I would add there are other trigger words they all know, sit, down, find, out, bed, dinner etc. I know they are learnt through training but they know the difference between the words, even high five v paw, geniuses, not. Vets is another Mildred can't wait to get in the car, Bonnie is mildly excited and Humphrey looks at me as though I am going punish him.
Other evidence that they have a thought process is when Mildred ransacks the toy bucket to find what she wants, it could be her wooded root chew, the brocolli or tug toy, whatever it is she leaves all the other toys alone.
Barb Baur wrote an online article What Do Dogs Think About All Day?. Unsurprisingly she concludes dogs think of food, comfort, their owners - not sure about that one and related things. There is a bit about barking for attention in the middle of the article. This is Mildred’s forte you can have a long conversation with her, the only problem is that I have no idea what she's saying and she does interrupt to often. She clearly has a thought process that kicks in when I am on the phone something like “She’s wasting her time on the phone talking to someone else far less interesting than me. I will bark until she finishes.” Other times she’ll ignore me.
I think I should probably leave this post here for today. I am actually planning a few posts over the coming weeks a mixture of serious and hopefully helpful ones around negotiating the grief journey in its many guises, serious posts to promote discussion I think I’ll leave Elon Musk alone though, humorous posts. Just for fun and my usual mixture of eclectic nonsensical rambling posts just because I can.
Totally changing the subject, my father - above in the late 1970s - would have been 98 today. He was a real gentleman and kind and caring. He was a successful country solicitor, who hated the law but had to follow in his father’s footsteps to take the firm over when Grandpa died just before I was born. In many ways Father was a lost soul. I always called him Father rather than Daddy, because he hated the word Dad and to me Daddy didn’t suit him. He loved motor racing, hated air travel and would only go on holiday in the car, train or if pushed sea.
He may have died over 30 years ago. He was not a major part of my life growing up as my parents divorced when I was six years old. Nonetheless, he was always there when needed and I hope he would be proud of me. I still occasionally ask myself what he would have done in certain situations. Above all else I miss him and would like to be able to ask his advice in person, while he drinks his large whiskey, smokes his pipe and smells of Old Spice after shave.
Prompts for the week
Are there people no longer in your life who you would like to sit by a warm fire or on a warm beach or other safe warm place and ask them for one piece of advice?
Describe:
The place
The person
Think about
The one question you would ask
Why this person?
Thank you again for reading this rambling ponder. If you have enjoyed my post, and haven’t already, please subscribe and/or share with others. My posts are free to all and you would make an eccentric dog owning curmudgeon smile.
I still miss my Nan, she died over 30 years ago, but we were quite close and I often what she would think about things. I also wish she got to meet my children she would have loved that x
Thought provoking. Yes I believe they do think in their own way. Hiding toys for them to find can certainly reveal their clogs whirling !