Wow, that place sounds like a ridiculous indulgence for people with too much money. You are right, these things are not for the dogs, but for the owners. Not because dogs are stupid, disgusting creatures, but because they live in a world that does not revolve around silly human contrivances such as birthday hats. Dogs are also not snobby, as some people are, and they don't care if the bed is custom made or the biscuits are brand-name. More people should be so down-to-earth.
I have to say, however, that most dogs (at least dogs that receive enough attention from people so that they can pick up our language) have larger vocabularies than "a dozen or so words." I've heard reports of dogs that can demonstrate recognition of over 200 words. My family's dog knows the names of the different rooms in the house, and we used to have a blind dog that understood commands like "go to the left" (and I don't mean when we were calling her from her left so she could follow our voices). Not that we'll see dogs writing sonnets or anything, but sometimes they seem to understand more of our language than we do of their's. At the very least, I can say that they are not dumb as their owners who pay for designer dog beds and think their dogs need to hear Frank Sinatra to go to sleep.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2005-03-29 07:56 pm (UTC)I have to say, however, that most dogs (at least dogs that receive enough attention from people so that they can pick up our language) have larger vocabularies than "a dozen or so words." I've heard reports of dogs that can demonstrate recognition of over 200 words. My family's dog knows the names of the different rooms in the house, and we used to have a blind dog that understood commands like "go to the left" (and I don't mean when we were calling her from her left so she could follow our voices). Not that we'll see dogs writing sonnets or anything, but sometimes they seem to understand more of our language than we do of their's. At the very least, I can say that they are not dumb as their owners who pay for designer dog beds and think their dogs need to hear Frank Sinatra to go to sleep.