Loyalty of Dogs: The Ultimate Manifestation

Stories of dogs rescuing their owners from danger not minding that they are also putting themselves at risk never fail to break hearts and gain sympathy from people, especially animal lovers. 

Even a man with a heart as hard as an iron would melt at the stories of dogs braving the fire, flood, landslide and earthquake, among others, to save their owners. The extent of dog’s loyalty has never been quantified. At this point, man can only describe the loyalty of dogs as ‘unique’ to its owners and to its kind.

In 2006, an English Cocker Spaniel, then only five-month old, saved her owner from dying in a violent car accident by calling rescuers. The dog was Honey. She and her owner Michael Bosch in an SUV fell and rolled upside down into a ravine unnoticed. Bosch, pinning all his hopes to Honey, helped honey get out to find help, which she sure did. Later, rescuers declared that Bosch could have died if had not been for Honey. Honey was awarded the 2006 Dog of the Year.

In 2004, a golden retriever named Brutis fought a coral snake that was slithering close to child. He sustained deadly bites from the snake. His heroism did not go unrewarded. He was awarded the National Hero Dog award in the same year.

Isn’t it interesting to know where dogs learn the act and values of selflessness for the sake of man? For a dog lover, somehow there is pride at the thought that dogs never fail to live up to their repute as a man’s best friend. 

Yet loyalty of dogs do not only exist to the hand that feeds them. There are also countless of stories about dog’s loyalty to their kind. 

A video posted in the internet sometime in 2008 showed a dog who helped and rescue a friend dog. The hero dog braved the speeding vehicles to get to a friend dog that was just hit by a car. The hero dog then dragged his friend at the side road to avoid being hit further. 

There are also stories of dogs whose loyalty go even beyond death. Almost in different parts of the worlds, you will hear stories about dogs that chose to stay beside the grave of their loved ones instead of moving on. They undergo grief, too. Who knows how much grief they are going through after the loss? 

 There are dogs who continue to wait for their owners who died in an accident outside, not knowing that their beloved owners would never come back. Who knows until when they are going to wait?

The ‘unique’ loyalty of dogs is not what these creatures set them apart from other animals. Some said that they are loyal because they depend on their owners for everything. Pet owners disagree. The affection that dogs develop to their owners seems unbreakable for something founded on material things.  A dog’s love is unconditional. Its loyalty knows no boundaries. 

This love and connection leads dogs that were separated from their owners back home. Remember Cash, a German Shepherd from Colorado? In 2008, Cash found his dead owner who went missing for months. He stayed by his owner’s side for weeks without food and drinks in the plains of Colorado only to protect the cadaver from coyotes.

Cat Intelligence: Understanding How the Capacity of your Feline

Most pet owners love boasting about how clever and intelligent their pets are. Dog and cat lovers alike even seem to delight in never ending debates as to which pet is ‘smarter’. And while most dog owners argue that their pet dogs have distinct abilities of doing tricks, feline lovers often counter such claims saying their cats are most of the time too intelligent and smart to perform on command. However, both dogs and cats are smart in their own rights. Like smart dogs, cat intelligence is also something that felines can learn as they grow. 

So are cats really intelligent? Just like humans and other animals, cats have different levels of intelligence. Some cats are bright while others are just ordinary. Anybody who lives in a household full of felines can attest to that fact. Intelligent cats often display their smartness by showing keen interest in the things around them, attempting different strategies especially when an effort to reach a goal is crucial, learning from their various experiences, or communicating with their humans and other pets at home. 

Cat Curiosity.

The classic adage “curiosity killed the cat’’ often begs the question why a particular animal that lacks intelligence is still willing to risk his own life in order to learn something out of an unfamiliar situation or object that rings his curiosity. Why, purely out of instinct, do some animals like cats show a strong sense of interest on things that do not necessarily have any direct deportment on his survival? In essence, the behavior is actually very human. Most people in fact have risked their own lives just to satisfy their curiosity. Just like human children, cat intelligence begins with kittens. The baby felines, when exposed and provided with an interesting and stimulating environment from the time they are born, are more likely to development sharp abilities. When handled and played regularly, these kittens are expected to grow up smart than those raised in a surrounding with less sensory stimulation. 

Experience and Practice.

Have you noticed at some point in time that your cats may seem unable to learn? This is actually a common issue among pet cat owners. However, this happens when a particular subject matter does not catch their interest. Studies show that cats actually learn from experience especially when they a situation information relevant. Meaning, the most interesting a situation is, the more likely your pet felines develop cat intelligence. Additionally, cats have very strong sense of memory. They can easily remember useful information like the sound of their humans or the animals they have interacted with. 

Communication.

Another impressive trait is their ability to communicate. Although only a few cats are vocal, all cats generally communicate. Communication may include cheerfully greeting their owners once they arrive from work, or seeking for food by trying to express anxiety about the issue. 

Navigational Skills.

Cats have very remarkable sense of direction. In fact, cats can easily find their way back home even from long distances. Their superb navigation skills is believed to come from two things: their being sensitive to the magnetic fields of the Earth (although this is only a hypothesis after it was discovered that when a magnet is attached to a cat, their sense of navigation is disrupted), and by using the sun’s angle for navigation. 

Understanding cat intelligence will give a better and deeper relationship between pet owners and their felines. Cats are indeed truly rewarding and enjoyable pets at home. With their intelligence, having a pet feline at home is one thing pet owners should be proud of.

Understanding More About Dog Eyesight

Unlike that of humans, dog eyesight is built in ways that make canines easily focus on their prey, thus resulting to quicker motion. A lot of dog owners actually have the misconception that their pet dogs are totally color blind. But contrary to beliefs, dogs can actually see colors and they have in fact excellent night vision. Although a dog’s sense of smell and hearing is more useful, their eyesight plays a crucial role in the totality of a dog’s performance. To further understand the biological make up of your canine’s eyes, below are some helpful facts. 

From a Biological Perspective, dog’s eyes are generally similar to that of humans. The eyes have its retinal cover all around the eyeballs and are comprised of two kinds of light sensitive cells: the rods and cones. How they perceive colors and the details of their vision is controlled by the cones. During night time, their eyesight is usually controlled by the eyes’ rods, thus allowing dogs to detect motion. Because rods are highly concentrated in dogs than the cones, this allows the dogs to clearly detect motion. Its low cone concentration is perhaps the reason why myths about dogs being colorblind have become very popular over the years. 

Professional animal handlers, as well as veterinarians attest to the fact that dogs can actually see colors just similar with how a colorblind human would see. Color blind people generally are not color blind, rather they only have trichromatic or dichromatic vision. In the same way, dogs cannot distinguish specific colors like the greens and the reds. A dog’s eyes vary depending on their breed but generally, the eye angles are somewhere around twenty degrees. The position actually is ideal as it helps the dogs increase their peripheral vision, thus achieving better field of view. 

Despite the fact that the peripheral dog eyesight allows them to achieve wider fields of vision, it unfortunately disrupts the dog’s binocular vision. With that, it results to less visual acuity- disabling them from seeing things from far off. 

If you think your pet dogs have eyesight problems, it’s about the best time to have a trip to your veterinarian. Running eyesight tests for your pet dogs are very crucial in diagnosing the problems. So the moment you notice your beloved dogs rubbing their eyes on the ground too often, or they try to avoid from light, no doubt your dogs have eyesight problems. Symptoms include bulging eyes, cloudiness, dog eye discharge, eye redness, and excessive tearing. All these are tell tale signs that your dogs potentially have eye problems. 

Veterinarians will recommend specific eye tests depending on the symptoms. For example, if your dogs have dry eyes, the veterinarian may do a tear duct test. The doctor will check for the dog’s natural eye moisture by carefully inserting a strip of paper in the canine’s eyes. If you notice your dogs having eyesight problems, take your pet to your veterinarian immediately. Also, these problems can be avoided by regularly cleaning your dog’s eyes. You may also insert artificial tears in their eyes to removing dust, hair, and other obstructive particles. 

A dog eyesight is just as important as their sense of smell and hearing. To keep your dogs healthy and problem-free all the time, make sure you do regular eye check-ups.  

Dolphin Intelligence: How Smart are they Really?

Dolphins are amazing and very smart creatures. They are playful and are very sociable, which is why they need to be in constant interaction and physical contact just like humans. In fact, studies have proven that isolated dolphins are prone to become ill and are more likely to become despondent. Dolphin intelligence is not arguable at all. Most people know their impressive social interactions both with humans and with other dolphins. Dolphins are smart, that is not a question. But how intelligent these creatures are is another matter. 

So how intelligent are dolphins really? The most crucial part in determining dolphin intelligence is defining ‘intelligence’. There are studies that say that intelligence is simply one’s communication ability; while others believe it’s about self-awareness. The most notable trait of dolphins that makes them stand out from other creatures is their ability to understand numbers especially when they are cohesively working in groups. Although a lot of thorough research and studies have been conducted on dolphins kept on captive, researchers say studies are still difficult to obtain in the wild. The usual habitats of these creatures are so extensive that only few researches with conclusive reports have been produced.  

Features of Dolphins.

Dolphins come in different species, but the most common ones are the bottle-nosed dolphins. These types have a brain mass between 1,500 and 1,700 grams, a few hundred grams higher than the brain mass of humans that range only from 1,300 to 1,400 grams. Newborn human babies obtain 25% brain mass of that of adults. Comparatively, newborn dolphins have a brain mass 42% or even more of the adult dolphin’s brain. So you can just imagine how sharp a dolphin’s brain is. Moreover, dolphins can easily transmit information quicker than in humans. This is basically the result of the dolphin’s need to process sound fast for echolocation. 

Dolphin Intelligence Identification.

Perhaps the most debated notable aspect of dolphins is their ability to communicate seamlessly. Basically, dolphins emit two different types of sounds—clicks and whistles. During their early life, dolphins develop their own distinct whistle and use them to communicate among each other. A lot of observations in fact seem to stress that these creatures have their own unique language in communicating one another. One notable study that was designed for gray whales was in Scammon’s Lagoon in San Diego. In the study, researchers placed aluminum poles around the dolphins’ location and carefully observed how the dolphins dealt with the barriers. It was observed that the group seemed to huddle and ‘talk’ in whistles and clicks and one member of the group was elected to be the ‘scout’. The ‘scout’ went near the barrier, checked and investigated, before returning to the group. After several chirps and whistles, the group simply passed the barrier and successfully avoided the poles. 

Other Dolphin Potentials.

Apart from their strong communication skills, another impressive ability of dolphins is their skill on learning different variety of tricks. Dolphins can actually understand, communicate, and respond to various human commands. In fact, another dolphin intelligence study has proven how effectively dolphins can demonstrate creative responses.  Dolphins are also notable for their sense of humor. Because they are very playful, they can intelligently pull off creative pranks on other animals, something that is of very interesting observance. 

Truly, dolphins are smart and highly intelligent. This is the reason why people from all walks of life, young and old alike, love to watch and enjoy dolphin shows.

Care of Goldfish: How to Properly Take Good Care of These Pets

Raising goldfish at home is truly rewarding. They look very nice and simply relaxing to gaze at especially after a long day’s work. However, only very few people know the basics of proper care of goldfish. Thus it is very important that you totally understand what the essential requirements are needed to make your goldfish thrive and live longer. So how do you go about with your goldfish raising? Here are some goldfish care basics to get you started. 

Choosing the Right Water Tank.

As much as you can, avoid using fish bowls regardless of the number of goldfish you wish to grow. The larger the water tank is, the more likely your goldfish achieve a better quality of life. Although most goldfish owners prefer to just keep a fishbowl because it looks aesthetically pleasing, doing so will only compromise these cute little creatures. Additionally, your goldfish can easily outgrow a fishbowl and as they grow by the day, they need proper supply of oxygen- something you can’t expect to get from any ordinary fishbowl. Consequently, the larger the water tank is, the better for your goldfish. 

Consider the Size of the Goldfish.

Another essential care of goldfish tip is choosing the right size of the fish. Generally, goldfish start off very small. But they can grow even to a foot long especially if proper care is given. For first timers, it is economical to buy large tanks at the outset so you won’t end up buying ever-larger replacement fish tanks as your goldfish grows. As a rule, you need to have a 20-30 gallon tank for your goldfish. And for every additional fish, add another ten gallons to the volume of water. 

The Hood, the Light, and the Gravel Floor.

Your fish tank should have the proper hood. Keep in mind that goldfish are known to easily jump out of their uncovered fish tanks. Provide a hood to refrain this from happening. Also, the hood will also serve as a secure platform for your lighting. Moreover, fluorescent lighting is better than the typical incandescent ones as the former helps you save electricity and does not give off much heat. Essentially, lights should be lit at least ten hours a day. As for the gravel floor, make sure you go for the ones that do not stuck in the throat of your goldfish. You can either use the large ones that are too huge to swallow, or go for the very tiny ones, small enough to get caught in the throat. 

The Water.

Water with neutral pH levels has also something to do well in proper care of goldfish. Tap water is safe for use in a fish tank since it has a neutral pH (acidity level).  And since goldfish is relatively stronger as compared to other varieties, they are more likely to survive in water with pH levels less than optimal. In general, using tap water for your goldfish is safe. However, you can still double check the water pH with a test kit to ensure the water acidity neither falls nor rises substantially. 

To raise and care for goldfish is not at all that difficult. All you need is the proper knowledge and the right requirements in taking care of goldfish. Have a goldfish at home. These fishes can recognize you and even cherish your attention. Along with proper care and the right treatment, your goldfish can actually keep you company for years.