Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Pet behaviourists have claimed that dogs and horses are becoming bored and depressed, because global warming induced weather is stopping their owners from taking them out for exercise.
Leading pet behaviourists say the number of depressed and unsettled dogs they have seen in recent months is unprecedented
…
And they suggested that the spate of wet winters could be at the root of the problem, as owners cut down on the daily walks that are crucial to keeping dogs’ spirits up.
“I’ve been working with dogs for more than 20 years and I can’t remember a time when they’ve been this bored. I tend to see boredom in bursts but I’m seeing it chronically this winter,” said Carolyn Menteith, a dog behaviourist who was named Britain’s Instructor of the Year in 2015.
“They are just really, really, bored. People are quite happy to get their dogs out in frosty, hard weather but not when it’s muddy and horrible.”
“But we have over 200 breeds of dog in this country and an awful lot of them – especially family dogs like Labradors, retrievers and spaniels – were bred to do a job. So they are hardwired to work and need a lot of exercise.”
The lack of physical exercise – and mental stimulation that comes with it – is having noticeable consequences on the nation’s nine million dogs, she added.
Even the IPCC doesn’t think climate change has any verifiable connection to extreme weather.
This winter, at least the early part of the winter was unusually wet – but lots of rain and mud is something you just get used to, or should get used to, if you live in Britain; particularly if you are a pet owner.
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I thought this had to be a wind up, then I saw the words, global warming and Independent newspaper
Well dogs are supposed to be outside in the weather and the climate anyhow. If you don’t have the space, don’t have the dog. Dogs don’t need some human to walk them, they can walk themselves.
Dogs are not jewellery.
g
Don’t have a pet pig either. ( Unless it can already fly.)
My concern is for people, particularly some well known AGW experts, whenever I see their photographs or cartoons by Josh, they look exceptionally lethargic or bored, their tweets and video appearances are incredibly boring.
Menteith is advertising.
Auto
They’re so quick to reach for CAGW as the cause, they overlook the most obvious cause of “observed” dog depression-the smashing success of Mark Steyn’s cat album, Feline Groovy!
Sounds like a good area of study.
“How pet behaviourists are not competent to tell the difference between climate and weather.”
Should only take me 15 years and 50,000,000 dollars.
Think I can get a grant ??
The trolling for grant dollars by studying a conjectured link to AGW…. part of the Climate Change gravey train that has corrupted science in many disciplines.
Felflames, could you be so kind and add me to your application for, say, 12 million USD for an investigation called “Brain softening of Pet Behaviorists caused by Global Warming. A comparative and empirical study of the period 1530 – 2010”. The empiricacl part of the project would involve extensive stays at Ibiza, The Bahamas, St. Anton am Arlberg and possibly a few other places showing more substantial temperature differences. The analysis of the results and writing up the findings is proposed to take place in Nizza and e.g. Redondo Beach, Ca, to guarantee the availability of suitable ambient conditions.
http://dogmedicine.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/so-bored.jpg
Though normally one of the main centres of interest in their lives, even dogs are getting sick of hearing these unprecedented piles of shyte !!
Really? They’re gonna go with “sad puppies”? That’s a bold move. They risk a Social Justice Warrior backlash.
Where do we dig out these people? Shaking head….
Yeah, Right. I have been raising dogs in Hawaii for decades. They do just fine. Maybe it is this silly author.
How about this for a grant proposal:
Global warming is causing wackadoodle ecocondriatic imbeciles to become delusional.
What is delusional is that we have pet behaviorialists in the first place.
Kami.
That study title alone is worth $100000.00
I’m rich!! I’m wealthy!! I’m socially secure!!
I like the phrase “wackadoodle ecocondriatic imbeciles”……..
Glad to be of service, Val. Feel free to use it as you wish.
Global warming “theory” is causing . . .
And here I thought Sad Puppies was all Science Fiction.
Ha! I had to look Sad Puppies up, and when I found out what it was, I had to laugh. What a riot! Those pathetic sci-fi writers whinin’ and cryin’ about not getting Hugo nominations. I guess they all believe that popularity equals quality. All sci-fi these days are “young adult” or graphic novels. Not a drop of originality, and not even worth reading the cover.
“All sci-fi these days…”
Some storylines these days seem to start out with a decent enough premise but then inevitably degenerate into the predictable soap-opera-set-in-supernatural-environment so as to appeal to the widest audience.
“All sci-fi these days…”. Not Cli-Sci-fi!
I am not sure you looked it up completely. The Sad Puppies are conservatives who named themselves that ironically.
ASFAIK, they formed after the SF situation had morphed. Hugo winners were no longer perennial classics (that sold well) and people bought not knowing anything about the authors, and were more and more PC, partly due to SJWs had gotten control of publishing houses, and voters vetted books by the politics of who had written them
Who are the whiners? It depends on where you sit on various issues, I suppose
I think they may be onto something here, lemming suicide is up too.
The Disney myth strikes again.
I think he was being sarcastic. 🙂
lemming suicide rates are impossible to measure since there are no survivors to interview
“The Friday Funnies” That is how these wacky claims should be featured. I wonder how much carbon tax it would take to make winter go away? What climate do they really want?
Oops…My mistake, they already do Friday funnies here. I don’t often read much of these posts so I didn’t know about it.
I really must commend the Cultists. I mean, their vision and ability to find “evidence” of global warming’s effect on even the most mundane topic is truly awe-inspiring. They don’t let the fact that “correlation need not equal causation” – which occurs on multiple levels in this example – stand in their way! Nay, they truly are dreamers. Just consider the train of “thought” that occurs here:
“Researcher”: “Well, AGW is proven beyond a reasonable doubt, and we also know it will only bring bad weather…true…” taking a breath to scribble down these epiphanies in crayon, “and so whatever rain and such we have here is brought on by it, and folks hate the rain more than any other weather – especially here in the UK, meaning they, of course, will stay in and…that’s it!!”
Really top-flight stuff. Why stop here, though? Since we’re in the conspiracy theory business here, anyway, I’d say this is clear-cut evidence that the rawhide industry is behind global warming. Bored dogs have to chew on something, right? And they almost got away with it!
Time for the Attorney General to investigate this disgusting Milkbone-Exxon kabal and bring those bastards to justice! Excelsior!
I’m eagerly awaiting my check from Big Rawhide, HGW xx/7. It should be here any day now.
Sounds like the Pet behaviourists are becoming depressed themselves, being so negative. Perhaps they don’t realise that a really wet winter is just setting up everything for a glorious spring. Can’t have one without the other.
Spring is only about 6 weeks away. Can’t wait.
Don’t be silly. Global warming has overtaken the world and it’s either too hot, or too cold. Just Summer and Winter now. No spring, no fall. 🙂
Just what I needed, my dog suing me because I let him sleep too much.
This is why we have a cat, it doesn’t need to be taken out for walks. It does like playing come in the back door and immediately want out the front door can keep that up for a good long time. It has it’s own exercise regime which involves lots of rest and naps with some serious sleeping between and many snacks to keep his energy levels up for the next little rest and no he is not overweight.
James Bull
Cats seem to have a wired-in requirement to check their territory at least twice a day by walking around it and, in particular, checking that narrow restrictive places like doors still work. They will also want to check places where food and drink are available, and will pay particular attention to places where their territory may abut onto another predator’s area. Finally, they will have favourite safe/surveillance points where they will remain for most of the time when they are not active on patrol…
I think we just jumped the shark.
..OMG..WTF…Do we need any more proof that liberalism is a form of mental disability ??
Marcus: Kathleen Wynne is Ontario’s 25th Premier and the first woman to serve in that role. Is that the problem.
That’s a women ?? Ewwww…..
Only for Ontario. GK
No doubt the poor pooches had the same problems in January 1916 then!
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2016/02/03/record-warmth-in-january-1916/
Meanwhile my poodle Freddie loves nothing more than lying down in the mud, and ambushing poor unaware Llapso whotsits!
Based on nothing more than my (and my wife’s) observations on our morning walks here in Ottawa, I can confirm fewer doggies this winter. The observations are controlled in that the general time of our morning walk is constrained (never before 7.45, very rarely after 8.30) and the same route both years. Of course, the doggies have altered, as have their owners, so it is not exactly a true experiment, but I am sure that I have at least as much evidence as the ‘dog behaviouist’ in this study who has merely surmised that the doggies are getting fewer walks based on her observation of bored dogs – has she actually measured them?
I hope you drew a precise chalk outline/installed stakes with crime scene tape using GPS coordinates indicating exactly where you saw doggies on one day so that you could come back at the same time the next day and observe if there are any doggies in your target observation district.
A few things wrong with this study
I have a beagle and the thing that usually prevents walks the most is cold weather, so a little global warming in the Winter would actually be a good thing to keep him trim. Not only that, but if he can’t get a walk he’ll have sessions where he runs around in circles and we play with him (of course he’s known to happily wag his tail if we do so much as walk towards him).
More likely the dogs are bored of people who believe in global warming.
I used to see many younger adults with their faces glued to their smart phones. Now its the older folks too.
I think someone should do a linear regression between atmospheric CO2 and smart phone use since 2008.
aahh, those dog days of summer.
My cat is on the phone with her lawyer right now accusing you of Feline discrimination !! LOL
Is that Mrs. Slocombe’s cat (No you can google what the character actually said)?
Boring.
Come on! Someone actually JUST NOW notices that dogs in Britain are bored and don’t get out much? Really? In a country that has refined sitting around doing nothing but drinking tea and eating cookies to an ART form?
“But we have over 200 breeds of dog in this country and an awful lot of them – especially family dogs like Labradors, retrievers and spaniels – were bred to do a job.”
WHAT JOB??? Cattle ranchers than NEED dogs like that are STILL going outside with them even in the muck and the mud! It’s not like cattle owners take the winter off! And people who own dogs like that who are NOT cattle ranchers, or who lead sedentary lives, are going to have “bored dogs”.
I own a Jack Russel terrier…one of the worlds most hyperactive, adrenaline rushed breeds on the planet. He loves a good run in the back yard and walks make him float with joy, but he LOATHES, and I mean POUTS like a huge baby a serious way when we MAKE him go outside to pee/poop whenever there is snow on the ground, or mud or water, or anything that isn’t dry and warm. He would rather be inside and sleeping or “bored” than outside in conditions that are not optimal to him, and he’s a dog bred for hunting and tracking!
From the article-“We’re turning them [horses] out of their stables and they’re saying ‘Get me back in straight away’.”“They can’t settle, they look bored, but actually it’s to do with physical stress and mental boredom, they can’t go off quietly and graze because they keep sliding around the field,” Ms Fisher added.”
Oh. My. Word. I grew up in the Mountain West and guess what….very few people even put their horses IN STABLES at all !!! They live OUTSIDE, in the snow and the heat. They very rarely, if ever, get to “go off quietly and graze” because corals don’t grow grass, and there is no “grazing” with snow on the ground. We FEED them.
Maybe Ms Fisher should come over and talk to our horses. I’ll bet they’d tell her that British horses are spoiled rotten little Nancy boys who need to suck it up…oh wait….they’re horses. They don’t TALK!!!
Cookies? Nah…we do biscuits, and we dunk too.
Or scones with cream and raspberry jam. Mmmmmm….
Get it right, clotted cream! Clotting your arteries lol…
Aphan,
So Mr Watts is now giving… a voice …to a Mister Ed Denier.
Allan Lane was busy?
Yes, since Mr Ed is a talking horse, of course.
the thing of it is that whatever your field of research, be it koala bears or pets, your access to funding increases dramatically if you can tie it in with climate change. some people simply add “and climate change” to the research topic to access these funds; as in “the bronze age collapse and climate change”, “barley yields in germany and climate change”, and so on.
This dovetails nicely with the recent announcement of pending layoffs at CSIRO.
“This dovetails nicely with the recent announcement of pending layoffs at CSIRO.”
Why? Are you suggesting that the animals in Britain are depressed about that too? (grin)
dog behaviourist…..!!!
Sounds to me like these morons are projecting a tad too much…I think it’s the people that are bored
You might have something there 🙂
As far as I can tell, Global Warming as an issue is dead. The fact that cute videos of dogs are now the best the media can come up with is proof enough. I would also add that, despite being obliged to listen left wing students on occasion, I haven’t heard the subject come up in over a year.
Justas the price of peace is eternal vigilance, so it is right that WattsUp keeps going, but basically: Job Done!
Frankly, I’m pleased to say, it seems to have been the total failure of reality to co-operate with any of the previous decade’s apocalyptic predictions that did it.
Obviously you don’t live in Canada, where we have the CBC to keep global warming on the burner (or the UK where they have the BBC, or Australia where they have the ABC for the same function).
Ian M
Actually, I am Canadian, but why on Earth would I be aware of what the CBC, BBC, etc are saying?
That’s left wing drive I CAN avoid 😉