Researchers at the University of Glasgow are testing a âDogPhoneâ that allows your pet to video-call you. We gave its architect, Dr. Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas, a ring to hear more.
Conversely, dogs cannot comprehend what the phone is like at all. âDogs identify things and people by their unique scent, much more than visual and audio cues, so while they may hear a familiar voice on a phone call or video, without the scent to accompany it, it just kind of confuses them and they quickly lose interest.â Even though Finn has the best ears in the house â he can hear the UPS truckâs brakes from down the block, and he will tell you every time â confused and uninterested is pretty much the territory where this dog lives. Related article
Iâve had a summer of delicious travel â my first international trip in three years, two gorgeous weddings in beautiful locations. After that, I will be with all my friends in one place for one glorious weekend, and thankfully, I think thatâs it. The minute I feel an anticipatory thrill about my upcoming adventures, thereâs a twinned heartbreak because leaving home means I have to leave the dog.
What was the problem here? To put it simply: âDogs definitely do not understand FaceTime or phone calls,â says Dr. Nathan Lents, a biology professor at John Jay College. âThe issue here is that dogs, like most snouted mammals, navigate their world with their incredible noses. Their sense of smell is millions of times more sensitive and more precise than ours. We canât even really comprehend what that is like.â
The dog, a 75-five pound brindle boy who doesnât really like the car, is not coming along for any of this. We have wonderful friends who can watch him, and I feel lucky I know heâs in great hands. I will, however, miss that handsome, dopey face with the funny white snout, the yellow-brown eyes, and the irregular, tiny little teeth. Related article
A World of Distractions
Some dogs seem less interested in s than other stimuli, Dodman says. With 220 million olfactory receptors in the canine nose–compared with a mere 5 million in a human–a dog may be far more intent on the scintillating scent of scat than a friendly face on a phone. (See: “Why do Animals—Including your Dog—Eat Poop?)
And scent hounds, such as a basset or beagle, which have been bred to hunt by smell rather than sight, may be even more easily distracted.
Tone of voice may also matter. A 2014 study in Current Biology found that dogs showed more brain activity in response to positive voice tones than negative ones. (See: “How Voices Tickle the Dog Brain.”)
But if you use your brightest voice and your dog doesnt react, dont feel bad. Some dogs just react more passively, or they may be confused because they cant see an owners face.
“Its different strokes for different dogs,” Dodman says, noting how elusive dog attention can be. His own dog once couldnt see a squirrel hanging on a window screen, “and it wasnt a squirrel on FaceTime. It was a real squirrel.”
As for cats, they can recognize their owners voices, a 2013 study from the University of Tokyo determined. But, being cats, they just cant be bothered to show it.
Does my dog get sad when im on my phone?
Spending hours staring at your phone is making your dog sad, according to one expert. When we pay more attention to our phones than to our dogs, we damage our emotional bond, making our dogs feel lonely and isolated. That can lead to doggy depression and behavioural issues.
What do dogs think of smartphones
A new study found that dogs are more likely to suffer from depression if their owners spend too much time on their cell phones.
Your smartphone may be leading to some unwelcome behavioral problems and, worse, depression, in your four-legged best friends. A recent study out of the UK determined that dogs are suffering from depression due to being ignored by their humans. The main culprit – cell phone usage.
We’re all aware of the increase in neck and spinal disfunction due to increased time staring down into the tiny cell phone screen in our hands, the massive increase in traffic accidents due to drivers distracted by their smartphones, and studies showing that all that screen time could be impacting our mental health.
But, a recent study is showing another side effect of our cell phone addictions, one that might actually get us to put down the phones for good and once again enjoy the world right in front of us… our smartphones could be causing depression in our dogs.
When we pay more attention to our phones than to our dogs, we damage our emotional bond with them and make our dogs feel lonely and isolated.
“We’re a nation obsessed by our mobile phones,” veterinary surgeon and founder of VetUK, Iain Booth, told Metro.co.uk. “But this gadget dependence is jeopardizing the important relationships we have with our pets, particularly dogs and to a lesser extent house cats.”
“To understand what’s going on we have to look at the basic principles of how a dog interacts physically and emotionally with a human,” Booth says. “A dog is a social creature, a pack animal. And to the dog you are the bona fide leader of the pack. You administer every facet of its life – you collect, you feed, you show it where its allowed to go and you – hopefully – nurture its development. But if you’re perpetually attached to your phone, that vital bond breaks down and the dog is hit for six. The dog requires constant feedback and interaction. It wants to please you – that’s simply how its evolutionary hard-wired.”
“If it’s sitting there looking up at you, but you’re too busy gawping at someone’s irrelevant snap on Facebook, you’ve got a problem,” he continued. “You do that consistently for weeks, months and years on end and you’re going to get some real behavioral issues.”
Booth said that, depending on the dog, constantly being ignored could lead to, at best, your dog developing nuisance behaviors to get your attention and, at worst, develop aggression.
“Those sorts of dogs can end up becoming emotionally distant from their owners, which is terribly sad. If you’ve let a relationship get to that level, why on earth did you bother getting a dog in the first place? And make no mistake, canine depression is a very real thing. Warning signs to look out for are a lack of interest in food, the dog sleeping more, they’ll hide from you or avoid you, and they might start excessively licking or chewing their paws to soothe themselves.”
So, why not make a vow to be more present, to put down the cell phone, and to spend more time enjoying the world – and more importantly, the dog – that’s right in front of you.