FACEBOOK FOR DOGS

FACEBOOK FOR DOGS

I rarely walk in the woods without a dog anymore. I don’t know how I used to do it without them; it isn’t nearly as fun or interesting without a four legged friend around. Man’s best friend provides a lot of information and services for humans as we travel cross country. Dogs find stuff for us, put up game animals, protect us from other animals and people, provide us company and they invented “Facebooking”. Yep, I said it.

“Facebook” is a place on the computer where you can post pictures and send messages to groups of friends; Dogs have been doing it for eons and don’t even need the internet for it. Dogs don’t just do stuff for us while they are out, they are constantly communicating with other animals and dogs at the same time. Watch your own hound, or borrow a dog and take it for a walk and watch carefully; you’ll see “facebooking” going on and realize humans are way behind the times.

Canines have wonderfully in tune senses, particularly their noses. We know that many animals communicate through detecting and leaving certain scents. Whitetail deer use different messages through specific glandular scents when they rub their antlers on trees, leave scrapes and relieve themselves among other things. Birds do it and dogs leave messages through various scents as well.

Watching a dog’s body language will tell you all you need to know about their, now with the advent of our computer age, familiar responses to stimuli. He or she sniffs a spot then has a range of judgments that must be made, among them; Like it or not? Depending on the message, the pup decides whether to just observe the message or reply to it with a comment beyond a “like”. If he or she “likes” the message they leave a little squirt on it. If they comment, they leave a little more or extra. If they really want to share something, well…they roll in it.

What I haven’t determined is if the messages that they are responding to are general gripes being aired rather than a good face to face, sit down conversation to air a grievance. I can’t really tell if my dog Delta is “liking” a self-destructive habit thus further enabling a crazy friend down a hole he or she is digging. Should one ignore a friend’s good news and risk making the friend wonder if he or she is being a braggart? I can’t tell if she is going through these stressful day to day encounters. Hopefully, dogs have healthier relationships with each other than some people do. I wouldn’t doubt it if they do.

To start with, I can’t imagine a dog posting a scent message that communicates, “Going to eat a whole box of milk bones tonight…the heck with my diet.” Or…“Some dogs (at the pound) are really negative and I hope they play in the street”. I’m sure there is the usual, “Cats are so annoying” (100 likes and two dozen “rolling in” comments). I’m sure there may be some humorous ones like, “Why do men chase women they have no intention of marrying? For the same reason we dogs chase cars we have no intention of driving.” For the most part, I suspect dogs share information that is useful to each other, without using electricity and an advanced technology infra-structure.

Dogs beg to go for walks and the first thing they do is excitedly hit all their favorite spots, checking for any feedback they may have gotten since their last walk. If nothing is at one spot they seem a little depressed but then move on to the very next. When there is a response to their last, “message” they get all happy and looking intently smell the new message getting every nuance out of it, then hit it with a “like” squirt. You can even tell after a while if they are on their own page checking messages or if they are visiting a friend’s message and reading their wall, or “creeping”.

There’s more, but I’m having a hard time hacking my dog’s security settings. Speaking of, I gotta go, my mutt wants on the computer to check the stock market and some trespasser just pulled up the driveway and I gotta go chase him off….

See you along the stream