Ever feel sorry for Guide or Work Dogs?

[sneakers]

It's great that they help handicapped people and stuff but they should be running and playing like normal dogs.

[Andrew Forbes]

No. Dogs tend to enjoy being out and active in a work environment.

[Boba Fett]

For the most part, no, since 99% of the people that depend on them, love them dearly and treat them better than a lot of dogs get treated.

[molly1216]

i feel sorry for MY dog
who spends most days waiting for me to pay her some attention.

[TemporalWisdom]

Ever taken a dog on a car ride with the window cracked? They'll put their noses to the opening and sniff nonstop. All the cool smells drive them wild. They love getting to go all over the place. Regular home dogs look through the window at the big wide world and wish they could explore it. Guide dogs get to meet people all the time, and they'd have to be people-oriented to be considered for the duty. They get to be with their owners 24/7. And what's pretty cool is, they get to go in stores and stuff.

You know, you can foster a guide dog or work dog. They need to be fostered for a period of several months before they go into a program to be trained in their duties. One thing you do is take them with you wherever you go. Maybe not work, but on car rides and into stores and restaurants. That's what the program is for, to get them used to being in public places and around a lot of people and behave themselves. I've thought of doing it, but if I fostered a dog I'd grow to love it too much (but not if it was some rat-looking Chihuahua or other ugly/annoying dog). It'd damn near break my heart to let some sweet dog into my life and then have to let it go. But if you're not like me that way and you want to contribute and enjoy canine company, ask a local vet's office where you can sign up for this. They really need volunteers to help with this part of the training!

[BrettCullum]

I foster dogs at my home. While it's true you grow attached, nothing feels better than handing them over to someone you know will give them a better home. I mainly socialize puppy mill dogs used for breeding or abuse cases. I only do one at a time, and they are small breed dogs. My experience with the dogs (even the small ones) is they love to do task oriented things that make the owner happy. So I imagine a seeing eye dog might be pretty content if it's a work breed which most are. Now you'd never see a toy dog doing this, but some are more than suited. I'm sure the seeing eye dogs get a lot of affection, and probably a lot of treats too. Might not be such a bad deal after all.

[molly1216]

I foster dogs at my home. While it's true you grow attached, nothing feels better than handing them over to someone you know will give them a better home. I mainly socialize puppy mill dogs used for breeding or abuse cases. I only do one at a time, and they are small breed dogs.

Lucky you...i socialize rescued cats and kittens for adoption, mostly ferals - i have 3 in the bathroom tonight. But lately we are getting more surrenders from folks who move and can't take them. I also feel great when i find them homes. usually fosters end up with the unadoptables - so i have a few extra than i would like.

[Bryan Pope]

I foster dogs at my home. While it's true you grow attached, nothing feels better than handing them over to someone you know will give them a better home. I mainly socialize puppy mill dogs used for breeding or abuse cases. I only do one at a time, and they are small breed dogs.

Lucky you...i socialize rescued cats and kittens for adoption, mostly ferals - i have 3 in the bathroom tonight. But lately we are getting more surrenders from folks who move and can't take them. I also feel great when i find them homes. usually fosters end up with the unadoptables - so i have a few extra than i would like.

A coworker and very close friend of mine does that, and I applaud you both. There is obviously a LOT of time and commitment that goes into fostering ferals, and you guys are doing your communities and those cats a real service. Kudos.

[tucco]

Only if they break union lines....then they're in trouble.

(my dog Diesel is a union delegate)

[BrettCullum]

Lucky you...i socialize rescued cats and kittens for adoption, mostly ferals - i have 3 in the bathroom tonight.

My cat was a feral I adopted from a foster group. She's all attitude, but I wouldn't trade her for anything. She's such a great companion. Totally opposite the dogs, I feel you have to earn a cat's trust. You'd never see a seeing eye cat, and beyond "mousers" they seldom work. Cats are too smart to fall for the treat thing for training...

[TemporalWisdom]

Cats are too smart to fall for the treat thing for training...

Or they're so stupid they forget the command once the treat is consumed.

[BrettCullum]

Cats are too smart to fall for the treat thing for training...

Or they're so stupid they forget the command once the treat is consumed.

Most cats can't be conned into doing things even FOR a treat. It's not forgetting....

[TemporalWisdom]

Cats are too smart to fall for the treat thing for training...

Or they're so stupid they forget the command once the treat is consumed.

Most cats can't be conned into doing things even FOR a treat. It's not forgetting....

Oh, so it's a failure to learn the trick in the first place.

Seriously, though, you just contradicted yourself. Now they can't be persuaded to do the trick with the treat clearly in their owner's hand. Either they don't get the point - do the trick and get fed - or they don't consider it worth a treat. That doesn't make them smarter than dogs.

[BrettCullum]

I didn't contradict myself. I am saying the cats are too smart to do the trick for your approval or for food. They are not pack animals, and don't have the same simple work desire or a need to please a dog has. They are independent thinkers. It's a known fact that cat brains are more similar to humans than what a dog is packing in his skull. Unfortunatley psychiatric drugs and therapies are often researched on cats. My cat is wicked intelligent compared to three dogs. She can open doors, plan ambushes that always scare the dogs to holy hell, knows better how to manipulate people, can hide much more effectively, and can read moods better than the dogs. She just seems more thoughtful in all she does.

Now I love my dogs to death, but I have to say in an IQ test they'd be bulldozed by the kitty. Now as for loyalty or sweetness...

[TemporalWisdom]

I didn't contradict myself. I am saying the cats are too smart to do the trick for your approval or for food.

How is that related to intelligence? You assume that the animal understands exactly what you want it to do, and what it stands to gain, i.e. approval and/or food. Fine, let's assume that. So? It is then faced with a decision. Does it want what you're offering, and is it willing to do what you ask to get it? If it doesn't do the trick, then either it doesn't understand, or the answer is no.

They are not pack animals,

They do form prides. One could argue that an ability to stretch one's definition of "us" and "them" to think of members of another species as "us" evidences a certain kind of intelligence. Not necessarily, but you're the one trying to oversimplify the comparison between canine and feline intelligence.[/quote]

and don't have the same simple work desire or a need to please a dog has. They are independent thinkers.

A desire to please or work, or lack thereof, isn't a question of intelligence. It's a question of motivation.[/quote]

My cat is wicked intelligent compared to three dogs. She can open doors, plan ambushes that always scare the dogs to holy hell, knows better how to manipulate people, can hide much more effectively, and can read moods better than the dogs. She just seems more thoughtful in all she does.

Okay, but now you're talking about your own, limited experiences. You've never known a dog that's as smart as your cat, nor a cat that's as dumb as your dogs? Fine. Let me share my personal experiences. My mom's cat is pretty damn smart. She even responds to images on a TV screen. But one of my sister's cats is dumb as a box of rocks. Totally oblivious to the world around him. And her other cat isn't a great deal smarter (not surprising, as they're brothers).

My childhood dog was amazingly bright. Seemed to understand most of what we said (we could be talking about her, and she'd know it without us using her name). We taught her commands by accident. If she was in the way, we sometimes said "excuse me" out of reflex, and she learned to get out of the way when we said it. We didn't realize until she demonstrated this tendency on her own. She opened the backyard gate so she run free - consistently! When we tied it shut, she tried a few times and gave up.

It's a known fact that intelligence varies from breed to breed, in both dogs and cats. Three dogs and one cat can't be used as a complete sample, and neither can my own experience of two dogs and two cats.

[TemporalWisdom]

Brett, you might like this piece.

http://encarta.msn.com/column_willpower ... l?GT1=7538

What's particularly interesting is the idea of Learned Helplessness

The %&$# thing won't let me put in another URL. Just go to Wikipedia and search for Learned Helplessness

I'm no expert on animal intelligence, but I know it's just too simplistic to say that cats are smarter than dogs, or vice versa. There are books on the subject that you'd find illuminating. You should check them out if you do want to make a case for cats being smarter.

[BrettCullum]

In general I observe cats to be smarter. It's my own opinion, and I think one I am entitled to. I've owned many dogs and only a few cats. Now certainly you can find the idiot cat in the village, or the Einstein doggie now and then. And certainly breeding has much to do with it, as well as what owners see in their animals. Certain dog and cat breeds are much smarter, and others have been so diluted by in-breeding for show quality offspring that the breed has lost some of its luster.

I think it all boils down to what you prefer. Cats to me are more willful, sly, and cunning. They do not seem to trust instinctively. To me that seems more intelligent in my perceptions. But I do thank you for the link it is fascinating. Whether or not one species is truly more intelligent is open to debate, and I don't think there's any article out there that would sway my opinion.

Cats rule and dogs drool. So there!