On Tuesday, February 27, 2018 at 5:02:45 PM UTC-8, Joerg wrote:
On 2018-02-27 13:56, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 2/27/2018 1:59 PM, jbeattie wrote:

I don't see any place for horses on popular public forest trails or
unleashed dogs -- one of which nearly tackled my wife, who is not as
robust as she once was. There are far, far too many dogs in the world.

"A well-trained dog is a joy and a delight. An untrained dog is a damned
nuisance. Most dogs are untrained." - Stewart Brand

Within the last two days:

A) on my mountain bike, I thought I would get run into by a large dog
running illegally off-leash in our local forest preserve. The owner
didn't hear me coming because she was yakking on her cell phone. She
apologized, but continued allowing her dogs to run.

B) Our very nice neighbors' micro-dog has yapped loudly when it saw me
outside. It also yapped loudly when it didn't see me outside, because it
yaps incredibly loudly any time anything catches its attention. That's
true even at 7 AM.

C) I spent some time with a very sweet, intelligent Golden Retriever at
a friend's house. But that young dog is still too excitable to be
trusted not to jump on guests. Hopefully it will calm down as it matures.

I've known a very few very nice dogs. I've known a few tolerable dogs.
I've known or encountered hundreds of obnoxious dogs. Unless a person
lives in the country and hunts, farms or runs a ranch, I don't see the
attraction.


Join us and our two Labradors who are trained therapy dogs on a visit to
an Alzheimer's place. Dogs can open peoples minds there like no human
ever can. On of our dogs was guiding a blind woman for a while. In San
Francisco, not on a ranch. How do you suppose that should be done
without a dog?

I was in a surgery waiting room a few years ago and some candy-striper brought in a "therapy dog" to calm the anxious family members, and all the other dogs people had smuggled into the waiting room started barking. It was like a f****** dog pound. Not calming for me. Plus, it's like forced dog petting -- you are a monster unless you pet the f****** dog and remark to the handler about what a great dog it is. Again, not calming for me.

As Frank said, "working dogs" are a different animal. Guide dogs, drug sniffing dogs, herding dogs, etc. can justify their often massive carbon footprints. As for "therapy" dogs, why not cats, lizards, fish, robots? I'd take a Swedish underwear model with a vodka tonic.

"The studies based on robot substitutes yielded positive results. These studies suggest the possibility of using robot substitutes for patients with Dementia, but further studies are required to better define the technique. Shibata et al., 2001 The text of the note suggest that robot therapy has the same effects on people as animal therapy and are currently conducting an experiment in a dementia care centre in Denmark. Preliminary results obtained from the 7-month clinical trial showed positive effects on elderly patients' mental health, but a larger patient sample and control group were necessary to scientifically verify the study's effects."

Review; Animal-assisted interventions for elderly patients affected by dementia or psychiatric disorders: A review; (2013) 47 EJPSYR 6 762-773

If you really care about the environment, you do not own two dogs just to own two dogs -- or three or five or ten. I see goddamned dog herds on some of the MUPs.

-- Jay Beattie.