Oh, man, they just don't make comics like that any more.

No, I didn't remember that off the top of my head; I had to google it, because I knew it would drive me crazy not to remember.

"Ah, the Silver Age. When every comics writer spent all his free time sniffing glue."

S, lk, my wf s th dg prsn n th hs nd m th ct prsn. W'v hd bth cts nd dgs vr th yrs, nd ftr 5 yr dg bsnc (fllwng th dth f r wht Grmn Shphrd) w pckd p tw mr grwn dgs frm th shltr tdy.

Th frst s btfl nd sm-trnd Mlmt-Cll mx, th thr s gfy, ntrnd Lb-Bsstt mx.

W blvd (ths tm) n gttng tw dgs bcs r lgc ws tht th tw dgs cld gt thr nrgy t plyng wth n nthr n r flly-fncd bck yrd, nstd f cnstntly flng lnly nd pstrng s fr ttntn 24/7.

S fr, s gd.

Bt th Lb-Bsstt s prvng t b smthng f brkr.

nyn gt ny ds hw t trn dg t f brkng fr ttntn, r jst brkng n gnrl? gn, m nt th dg prsn s dn't kp p n ths thngs. Bt cn lrdy tll hs brkng s gng t b prblm nlss w gt t ndr cntrl. t's nt nly nsnc t s, bt thnk t's rd t nghbrs t hv brkr wh jst brks p strm nd th wnrs dn't d nythng bt t.

Mnwhl, r tw rsdnt, ldr cts r n shck, nd xprncng PTSD flshbcks frm th lst tm cnn nvdd thr spc.

'v hd t mv th lttr bx nd ct fd t scr lctn; bth fr thr cmfrt nd s th dgs dn't hlp thmslvs.

Two classic strategies to address barking I remember from that book are

1. train an incompatible behavior - for a made-up example, train him to pick up a toy and shake it when he's excited - and,
2. train him to bark on cue, and then don't give the cue.

http://www.clickertraining.com/

Maia does a lot of wortk with horses and has attended at least two "ClickerExpo"s, where she's worked with Karen, and some other really good Positive Reinforcement trainers.

emme parsons "click to calm" is good, and that website has links to other places Maia reccomends.

It's just a matter of time before we see remote controlled suicide bomber critters, you mark my words.

Big Dog! Big Dog! Bow Wow Wow! We'll Fight Crime Now how How!

Here's a pro-and-con by 2 vets.

IIRC, the same was true when they spliced the luciferin gene into cats, a year or two ago. I know that luciferin is toxic -- I don't know for sure about jellyfish GFP, but I'd be unsurprised.

Oh, come on. Everyone's heard of Roger Rabbit ...

Don't seagulls count?

Coming soon, Jonathan Livingston vs Tippi Hedren...

There are commercially available dog silencers which echo the dog's bark in the ultrasound range. It's an irritating sound to the dog, so this trains it quickly that barking for the fun of it just isn't very fun. It won't stop the dog barking when it's in distress or needs to communicate, so that's positive. I'd highly recommend trying one of those, but since I've never needed to, I can't say how effective they are. (There are DIY instructions, too, so if you're into electronics it could be both fun and useful...)

Fortunately, our dog isn't much of a barker. Although lately, she's had another growth spurt and her energy level is through the roof, so she's been barking at odd noises. And here in the middle of Ponce, PR there are always plenty of noises a dog can consider "odd", in the sense of, "OMG, unknown intruders are encroaching on our territory!" But if you tell her to stop, or show her there's nobody outside the door, she'll stop, then look a little embarrassed while still putting up a good front -- after all, there might have been intruders, and she wants us to realize it's better to be safe than sorry.

That was something that bothered me about the X-men universe: why was it only humans who got the special physics-defying mutant powers? Why weren't there pigs with levitation abilities, hamsters with laser-beam eyes, fields of teleporting dandelions? (Actually, I suspect that the last might exist in real life, considering how many times I've completely weeded a lawn and then found it dotted with dandelions the very next day.)

Well, in Earth X, Alex Ross proposed that Celestials used the insides of planets as hatcheries for their progeny, and that they seeded the local tool-making species with mutations so that, while protecting their homeworlds from the depredations of Galactus, they'd also protect the next generation of Celestials.

Then again there is Lockjaw.

I could ask her specifically about your situation, but based on what I've picked up from osmosis, bassets are natural barkers. Any kind of "hound dog" is going to be a natural barker.

The first thing she usually recommends people try to deal with barkers is to train them to "speak" on command. You can't train them not to bark, but you can train them to bark on command, and some dogs make the connection that they shouldn't be barking all the time.

After that, she usually recommends a bark collar. Part of the this is because owners are generally lousy trainers. She's trained dogs to sit, come, stay, speak, shake, lie down, and roll over. But when she send them back to the owner, a month later the owner can't get them to sit. My wife will show up and the dog will follow her every command, but the owner can't get the dog to do anything. Mostly, the owners don't want to do the work to do the training, so the dog learns how to avoid listening to the owner.

At that point, training isn't going to help, because the owner isn't willing to do the work to keep the training active, so my wife usually recommends a bark collar.

The initial reaction to bark collars is often that it is some gruesome torture device. But being the designated battery changer guy, I've been zapped with them a bunch of times and its like getting shocked with static electricity. Rub your feet on the carpet in the wintertime and then touch someone and zap.

Good bark collars are auto-adjusting. You turn them on, they start on a low setting, and if the dog keeps barking, they increase the strength of the zap after each bark. If it stops, the strength resets back to minimum.

Even collars can be a training/owner problem because you can't just leave the collar on the dog all the time. You don't want the little zap probes to wear a spot on their skin, so you have to take the collar off for periods fo time so the skin doesn't get problems from constant rubbing. And dogs have to be allowed to bark sometime. You can't make them mute. Usually, you put the collar on when the dog is in the house but take it off when it is outside. And then you have to be sure to give it time outside to run around and play and bark.

But some owners aren't always consistent, and then their dog doesn't associate "indoor->no barking", but instead associates "no collar->barking". or something.

Make him unhappy (easiest done by taking one dog away... that means he is being left behind) and he bays. Barking would be better), but that's rare.

Put him in the chase, and I suspect it's a different matter. Most of the English Foxhounds I've known have been much the same.

Then again, the German Shorthair taught Oliver to bark (Token, the hound, nope, not interested) so anyhing is possible.

But is he really a dog?

[ /comics religious war]

Actually, that wasn't new to Earth X! It's been Marvel Universe canon for many years that the Celestials implanted one of their young in the planet (known as the Dreaming Celestial) and tampered with humanity, creating three races. One was the nearly indestructible Eternals, IIRC the Inhumans were the second, and "majority humans" were the third, these last gaining a set of "sleeper genes" called the Celestial Seed. Earth X revealed that there were also a few original-type humans left, represented inter alia by Wolverine and Sabertooth.

Note that the Inhumans use their "terrigen mist" to mutate their children; I have no problem believing that Lockjaw was originally human, but got mutated into a doglike form. (Given the milieu, he could also be of alien origin. In the MU, there's a fair number of aliens wandering around Earth, both humanoid and otherwise.)

As for Lockjaw, who knows? He might be a Skrull whose shapeshifting got jammed into that shape. Heck, a few of them got stuck into cow bodies, in the early days of the Fantastic Four.

Nope, that's been discussed a few times in The Fantastic Four.

I've wondered on occasion if they were partly an inspiration for MacCaffrey's dragons, who went Between, when they lost their riders.

Love, C.

But not necessarily Roger Rodney Rabbit.

It's not used to make any animals glow in the dark, and even the original jellyfish don't glow from GFP. It's used to make things show up under UV light, and in genetic research it is used to identify your protein of interest. You splice GFP to your PoI, insert the piece into the genome, and look at your progeny. Now you know where the gene localizes, and where it's activated. That's the helpful part.

I've yet to find a satisfying answer to why the raccoon is riding that boar. I really want to know as I suspect it means something. What, time will only tell.

I do remember hearing that the Russians in World War II trained dogs to want to spend their time underneath tanks, and then strapped bombs to them so they would blow up German tanks.

Remote control?
I think I remember hearing a story about electronic jockeys replacing boys as riders in camel races, because there was a child labor issue there.

I don't remember where I can look up either story.

Was the cat-washing chimp by any chance Vicki, the one chronicled in the book The Ape In Our House?

Streaky lived next door, but was not Supergirl's cat, though in at least one episode he had superpowers. Squeaky was, however, Krypto's sidekick (almost more than the human boy).

Ace the Bathound also appeared in several episodes, as did Catwoman's Siamese cats and the Joker's hyenas.

It was very silly, especially when Krypto would spin around until he was a blur and when he stopped, he would be wearing his cape (or not, when he was reverting to his secret identity).

If it weren't such blatant cruelty to animals, I'd love the bat bomb without reservation. As it is, I think it's a seriously clever idea.

...bowels?

She's always interested in coyote crap, but never marked it before.

It would be interesting to know what emotions were involved in decisions like that.

You are Piers Anthony, and I claim a mini-swarm of five telepathic Bs.

--Dave

Sometimes after lifting her leg Kira kicks the turf around. While she does this she has a wonderful defiant / happy expression. Kind of like "so there!" or "take that!"

"You are Piers Anthony" -- eww.

YMMV.

I didn't know... I wonder if he was in the audience for that comics program at the VA Book Festival? I wouldn't have recognized him in any case, but he was a featured guest at the festival. (Which might well have kept him too busy to attend that program, anyhow.)

Dolphins and other aquatic mammals were trained by Russian experts to attack warships and enemy frogmen, but when funding for the project ceased, many were moved to a private dolphinarium to perform for tourists.

Their chief trainer, both in military and civilian life, was Boris Zhurid, who began his career as a submariner before graduating from a medical academy.

Earlier this month he sold the entire collection to Iran, because he could no longer afford to feed [& keep] it.

Bruce @ #61, didn't that program inspire a science fiction novel? I don't remember the title but the dolphins were named "Fa" and "Bee" (short for "Alpha" and "Beta").

You too, Ginger?

Now I know why the chicken crossed the road. It was too drunk to know which side was which.

The larsonesque possibilities are immense.

I've heard that elephants can be mean drunks. They sometimes get mad and trample villages (and anyone in their paths) into the ground. ObLarsen: Elephant looking at the flattened person stuck to his foot in disgust.

"No Fred, that's the last tree of Fermented Apricots for you", with a flattened village in the background.

Brings to mind the Jungle Books story about letting the jungle in.

ethan @ 68: I'm quite certain I don't know what you're referring to. And I can neither confirm nor deny any rumors about garbage cans. Next question, please?

Serge @ 72: Ah, but would I want to be seen in public with such puny humans? Wait, that didn't sound right.

Re: Fermented Fruits: we had a large (70+ foot tall) cherry tree in our back "yard", and I distinctly remember watching drunken --ok, inebriated birds around the fallen fruits. They were definitely FWI and FUI. Schnockered chickadees are particularly belligerent ("DEE DEE DEE!!!") albeit prone to listing to one side.

I wish we still had a cherry tree. I love cherries...and by "love" I mean I would happily eat a pound of them by myself.

Not all at once, of course. Over a few hours.

* Can whitetailed deer be referred to as stags, or is that limited to European species?

Puny humans?
What's next?
Of course.

"Ginger smash!"

"Ginger Snaps"

My partner swears that will be the headline.

Grrrrrr.
I'd rather de-bark the owner first.
I can't say I've ever heard of it being done here in the UK, although I'm not involved in doggy circles, we merely had several labradors when I was growing up and knew the breeder quite well, not to mention the neighbours and relatives who also had dogs.
But obviously the first thing to do is try and change their behaviour so they don't bark so much.

Captain Carrot -- feh. Bunch of weak puns with no binding material. The only good smile I got out of it was the Gardner Fox character.

Speaking of translating barks: Barkis! (By Crockett Johnson.)

Thanks for the memory jog(s) on the SCPA. Heh. SCPA. The mention of Ace, the Bat-Hound brings to mind (as it always does) a fan letter in WIZARD where someone is asking why Ace wears a mask. Who is he hiding his identity from? Other dogs? Dogs identify by sniffing butts, so shouldn't he have the mask under his tail? (Unfortunately, I know the real answer to this question, but I won't demean myself by saying it.)

Now I'm picturing the scene of Ace running into another dog in his "civilian" life and the dog grabbing its face in disbelief. "Ace Wilker is . . . Bat-Hound?"

Drawn by Shelly Moldoff, of course. But I want to call the dog "Silver St. Bernard".

Burma Shave