In the dog house

This is Bear, on the left, and Bruno. When this picture was taken Bear was 9 years old and Bruno 9 months old. Bear is a Sneagle (half Bench Beagle half Miniature Schnauzer), Bruno is a Pure Bred, AKC registered, Rottweiller.

 

It's A Fact: Dog Is Man's Best Friend  - Sandy Rovner, The Washington Post      Giving a speech?  Stressed out about it?  Take your dog with you but leave the spouse at home.  According to Karen Allen, a psychologist at the University of Buffalo, a pet has a calming effect "dramatically greater" than that of a spouse in stressful situations.      Allen used 240 couples in her research, half of whom owned dogs and half who had no pet.  She gave the couples three tasks used routinely by psychology researchers to simulate stressful situations: giving a speech; placing a hand in ice water, to stimulate a painful medical procedure; doing mental arithmetic, which involved subtracting by 17's from a six digit figure.      She measured stress reactions by heart rate and blood pressure, recorded as the participants performed the tasks.  Each participant took standardized tests designed to determine the level of hostility in the personalities, the closeness of their marital relationship and their attitude toward pets.      The measurements of stress were highest when only the spouse was present, lowest when only the dog was present and in between when both were there.  Allen's research was presented at a recent meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society.

Why Dogs Are Better:  One Guy's Viewpoint  - David Grimes, Sarasota Herald-Tribune You may have seen the story (elsewhere on this page) that says that married people are much less stressed-out when they are alone with their dog than when they're alone with their spouse. Although the article did not says so, the reason for this is obvious:  Dogs cant's talk. Dogs don't yell at you for leaving your underwear strewn all over the floor.  In fact, they seem to like it. Dogs don't nag you to take out the garbage.  If they could talk, dogs would tell you to leave the garbage right where it is, particularly the really smelly stuff. Dogs don't arm wrestle you for control of the TV remote.  Whatever you want to watch is fine with them. Dogs don't get pouty if you fail to notice they've done something different with their hair.  This is because dogs' hair always looks pretty much the same, unless they roll around in something dead out in the yard. A dog doesn't get its feeling hurt if you fail to ask it about its day.  Give it a pat on the head and a bone and it's yours forever. Dogs can also take criticism a lot better than spouses can.  Dogs are not sensitive about their intelligence --or lack of it--the way spouses are. "You're stupider than a box of rocks" can be an endearing thing to say to a dog, but a spouse will almost never take it that way.  The dog will lick you face;  your spouse will throw your clothes out on the front lawn and set them on fire. Spouses also, as a rule, do not respond to commands as well as dogs. Throw a stick and tell your spouse to "fetch" and nine time out of 10 she won't do it.  The other time she'll return it to a place that a stick most definitely does not belong. The commands "sit,'" " heel" and "stay" are also seldom obeyed by a spouse, and no amount of obedience training is likely to make a difference.

"The more I see of men, the better I like dogs" - Madame Roland