Another Sunday and another day for a little FYI….

Many of my blogging friends have dogs and cats and since I am a super canine lover I look for stories that will inform and educate my readers whenever possible.

First the serious news….and something canine parents should be on the lookout for in their fur babies….

Veterinary laboratories in several states are investigating an unusual respiratory illness in dogs and encouraging people to take basic precautions to keep their pets healthy as veterinarians try to pin down what’s making the animals sick. Oregon, Colorado, and New Hampshire are among the states that have seen cases of the illness, which has caused lasting respiratory disease and pneumonia and doesn’t respond to antibiotics. Symptoms of respiratory illness in dogs include coughing, sneezing, nasal or eye discharge, and lethargy. Some cases of the pneumonia progress quickly, making dogs very sick within 24 to 36 hours, per the AP.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture, which has documented more than 200 cases of the disease since mid-August, has encouraged pet owners to contact their vet if their dog is sick and told state veterinarians to report cases as soon as possible. The agency is working with state researchers and the US Department of Agriculture’s National Veterinary Services Laboratory to find out what’s causing the illnesses. Dogs have died, said Kurt Williams, director of the Oregon Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at Oregon State University. But without a clear way to define the disease or test for it, he said it’s hard to put a number on how many died from a severe form of the infection. Williams had a simple message for dog owners, though: “Don’t panic.”

He also said dog owners should make sure their pets are up to date on vaccines, including those that protect against various respiratory illnesses. Labs across the country have been sharing their findings as they try to pinpoint the culprit. David Needle, senior veterinary pathologist at the University of New Hampshire’s New Hampshire Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, has been investigating the mysterious disease for almost a year. His lab and colleagues at the university’s Hubbard Center for Genome Studies have looked at samples from dogs in Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, and more will be coming from Oregon, Colorado, and possibly other states. He said his team hasn’t seen a large increase in dogs dying from the illness, but he still encouraged pet owners to “decrease contact with other dogs.”

Please watch your pet for any signs and act appropriately.

Ever wonder how your canine kid views the world?

When we point at an object, the toddler focuses on the object, while the dog usually takes the gesture as a directional cue.

In a recent study, researchers from the Department of Ethology at Eötvös Loránd University find explanations for this phenomenon. It appears that the discrepancy is not only due to how dogs see, but may, in fact, reflect how they think. For “smarter” dogs, the appearance of an object matters as much as its location, suggesting that their information processing is more similar to that of humans.

Spatial bias is the phenomenon of interpreting information in relation to space, location or distance when the same information could easily apply to an object.

“This is manifested, for example, in the way dogs and children react to gestures when we show them the position of an object. Very early on, children interpret the gesture as pointing to the object, while dogs take the pointing as a directional cue. In other words, regardless of the intention of the person giving the cue, the meaning for children and dogs is different,” said Ivaylo Iotchev, first author of the study published in the journal Ethology.

https://phys.org/news/2023-11-dogs-world-salient-smarter.html

Do you think Fido is smarter than the average pup?  There could be an answer…..

Modern dog breeds haven’t quite caught up to the wolf when it comes to the size of their brains, but that size discrepancy is shrinking. The modern dog’s brain is growing larger, and it could be thanks to their interactions with humans.

A new study, published in the journal Evolution, investigated brain size in both modern and ancient dog breeds. The research team found that dog brains are getting larger the further genetically that they have evolved away from a wolf.

That was a startling finding. “The results show that the breeding of modern dog breeds has been accompanied by an increase in brain size compared to ancient breeds,” Enikó Kubinyi, a senior research fellow at the Department of Ethology at ELTE Institute of Biology, says in a news release. “We couldn’t explain this based on the tasks or life history characteristics of the breeds, so we can only speculate about the reasons.”

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/animals/a43906527/why-are-dog-brains-getting-bigger/

Should our canine soldiers get a Congressional medal?

My thought is yes they deserve all the recognition we can give them.

Man’s best friend has been one of America’s fiercest defenders for centuries.

A push in Congress to honor heroic military working dogs has refocused a spotlight on the vital role of K-9 warriors throughout U.S. history. In 2019, a Belgian Malinois named Conan helped U.S. Special Forces take down ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Syria after surviving an explosion inside an Islamic State tunnel. President Trump later honored Conan at the White House.

Rep. Elissa Slotkin, Michigan Democrat and a former intelligence officer, said dogs are crucial to U.S. military history. She is helping lead the fight for the K-9 medal.

“They should be respected as such,” said Ms. Slotkin, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/nov/22/four-legged-heroes-congress-weighs-valor-medal-for/

Canines serve just as valiantly as their human counterparts and in as such deserve any medals they have earned.

Just a little FYI for you canine parents…..hopefully it will be useful.

That is my stuff for Sunday….give ‘Fido’ a hug and a ‘good boy/girl’….and enjoy your Sunday.

As always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”