“I taught my dog and cat both how to fistbump!”

[Mausium]

@LDoBe

I wouldn’t recommend dog training on humans.

It actually works very well and is in regular use among humans.

http://www.clickertraining.com/node/392

@LDoBe

I’ve heard it mentioned before a few times. I think Louis C.K. talks about white dog poop as part of a bit in one of his specials. Sarah Silverman wrote a whole song titled “Whatever Happened to White Dog Poop From the 70s”. But I’ve never seen dog poop just turn white from drying out.

I’d suppose indigestibly large concentrations of calcium in the diet could play into it, but I’m by no means a GNT or anything. Just a mutant with a personal ontology that’s an ocean wide but an inch deep in most places. It’s what I get for reading Wikipedia as recreation.

I recall seeing it all the time in FL in the early 90s.

[WearySky]

@LDoBe

I know it sounds harsh, but it doesn’t cause any harm, as long as you just keep moving and push/shove with your thighs, rather than more extreme measures. No kicking, or outright hitting. Just, ignore the dog’s there and keep moving, and it’ll get the idea that it’s gotta pay attention to you.

Only works with bigger dogs, of course. Hard to move a yorkie aside with your thigh

[telecinese]

@LDoBe @dobby kudos for the delightfully absurd topic.

From owner experience I can tell with certainty that whiter, drier poop is observably related to the dog eating bones. It’s excess bone fiber or something. Raw-fed dog owners can attest to that.

Seems commercial dog food used to contain bone meal but switched to grain meal, which is the reason for the change and arguably not as healthy for the dog’s digestion since it evolved a carnivore, etc.

Aaaaand that’s enough on that.

[Garymon]

You just described my other cat. He will hop on your lap purring and forcibly put his head under my hand to get me to pet him and then after an indeterminate time, will try to bite me and then run away. Some cats will give you an indication they are getting overstimulated and you should stop petting. But this guy just purrs right up to the point he bites. Ive gotten used to this and am ready for him. He’s an odd creature in general even for a cat.

[JJA]

We had a cat whom we had trained to sit, lie down, beg, and shake hands on command. Towards the end of his life, we also got him to do high-fives.

It helps if your cat loves food as much as a dog does.

[generic_name]

@LDoBe

Dogs are arguably smarter, because they know where the nutrients are and will eat what they know is “good for them”.

Oh yeah . . . dogs don’t ever eat anything but honest-to-goodness food.

http://barkpost.com/dogs-eat-strange-things/

[crenquis]

[crenquis]

I have a cat that plays dead when you shoot him and then will roll on his back if you say “play 'possum” – his reward is belly scratches. Haven’t been able to get any other tricks out of him.

[LDoBe]

Yup. Same cat as before also used to be weird with toys. She never ever played with them unprompted, but chased a peice of string compulsively if you dragged it around until she got this lokk on her face like “wtf is happening!?” and run off and hide. Like she’s allergic to fun or something.

[crenquis]

We had one like her – one of my favorite cats, but she literally kept ya at an arms length away. She was very vocal for a stray and really loved be petted/scratched, but only if she was on the ground and you were just bending down (crouching down brought too much huuuman near her).

[crenquis]

@dobby

Since we are sliding down this topic…Does anyone remember dog poop being white in the 70s?WTF was up with that, doesn’t seem to be the case anymore, I can only guess it had to do with something in dog food at the time.Or was that a memory from before I jumped into this timeline.

I recall often seeing white stuff as a kid, but that was Humid WI – I don’t recall every seeing any white stuff out in Sunny CA (I would assume that @LDoBe’s mold theory is the reason).

Always reminds me of a wonderful song: colours – loudon wainwright – lyrics

and out of some doggie’s behind comes a rare an an unusual find its that chalky white albino kinda it blows and it boggles my mind

https://youtu.be/txYmPe5L5KI

[Bobo]

I log in today to find a name notification, and it happens to be about dog poop…

Thanks I guess?

I think you’re right about the fiber filler material. High Ca2+ ingredients would be far too expensive to just heap in a dog food to the point where the poop washed white after a few days. Fiber on the other hand has always been cheap filler. And most dog foods are analyzed on an ash basis, so, before the consuming public (the owners not the dogs) became savvy, it was popular to boost the “fiber” content with cheap non-digestible fiber sources like expended beet fiber etc… This is considerably less common nowadays as foods have become much higher quality products than they were just a couple of decades ago.

So, it’s a good theory that high non-digestible fiber poop + morning dew/sprinklers and sunlight = white poop.

Modern diets are much higher in digestible fiber, so it would make sense that there’s less residue to “whiten” it…

@LDoBe Rainbow dildos (had to return the favor)

[LDoBe]

I knew you could pull through for us! I only asked, since, y’know, you’re the kind of medical guy who’d at least have some book learn’in about them dog bods.

[samthepea]