And They Pay Someone To Do This?

I was reading an article in The New York Times awhile back that gave me paws.  (Aha!  Two “gotcha’s” in the same sentence!  You didn’t know I could read, and you thought Beagle Man was the only one around here who could make stupid puns.)  It was about

this dude Brian Hare, who studies dogs for a living, and runs a company called Dognition.  Seriously?  This is a career?  And wait till you hear some of the doozies he’s come up with.  Here’s one:  Talking about the intelligence of dogs, he says, “If you compare them to wolves, they look like idiots.”  Oh, really?  Is that why we see so many wolves riding around town on soft blankets in the shotgun seat of a Jeep Wrangler?  And then, in what just might be the biggest “duh” moment in history, he says, “A surprising link turned up between empathy in dogs and deception.  The dogs that are most bonded to their owners turn out to be most likely to observe their owner in order to steal food.”  OMG, Dr. Hare, you think dogs really do that?  That’s just amazing!  I never would have thought of that!  Ah, people.  Go figure.

The Roof Rack Report (#roofrackreport on Twitter, for those who follow me already on @BeagleManHank) appears on Mondays, usually.  It’s about politics, travel, food . . . important stuff like that.