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The other night I was watching a bear rip the flesh off another bear and it was pretty awful.  Turns out the male bear wanted to mate with a female bear but she was fending him off while another female bear cozied up to him. The female bear he wanted got mad at the other female, so she charged her, and when the male bear got wind of this, he killed the other female.  Then the first female decided to mate with him.  Guess she likes her bears manly. Oy. None of that seemed fair to me.  Yet a new study has found that h umans aren’t the only species to react strongly to actions they consider unfair. A similar drive for fairness in monkeys and some dogs has been observed, newswise.com reports. Notice, they don't say bears. Domestic dogs are more concerned with the quantity of treats doled out by a trainer than whether the trainer distributes them fairly, according to Alexandra Horowitz, PhD, of Barnard College. In her study,  dogs had to select a “fair” or “u...

Anyone who has a dog already knows this.  But now scientists are copping to the fact. Dogs get jealous . Sadly, I've never had a dog (hope to get one soon).  But from knowing friends' dogs, it's obvious that they get sad, and depressed and excited, just like we do (only, we don't wag our tails!). "Emotion researchers" have been arguing for years whether jealousy requires complex cognition, newswise.com reports. And some scientists have even said that jealousy is an entirely social construct – not seen in all human cultures and not fundamental or hard-wired in the same ways that fear and anger are. But the new findings support the view that there may be a more basic form of jealousy, which evolved to protect social bonds from interlopers, according to the Web site. They show that dogs exhibit more jealous behaviors, like snapping and pushing at their owner or the rival, when the owner showed affection to what appeared to be another dog (actual...

I came very close today to getting two dogs.  Me, who's never had a dog in her life!  But I met a rescue activist who found two adorable bichon frises roaming the streets of my town, collarless, chipless, and starving, so she picked them up and told me about them. I was a little nervous -- what do I know about dogs except that I've grown to love them?! -- and they'd really be good for my son, who has no siblings.  But I said yes, only to be called later in the day and told someone else who'd seen them first claimed them when she heard I wanted them, too (isn't that always the way?). There's still a chance this person may change her mind -- she took the dogs (who are brothers) for a test drive to see how they got along with her three other dogs this weekend and if they all don't get along. . . . But then I started reading about how pets really can disturb your slumber. According to newswise.com, while countless pet owners peacefully sleep with a warm...

You might have heard this before but I still think it's incredible.  Dogs can sniff out cancer . A new study in Pennsylvania has found that dogs can actually smell ovarian cancer.  Sounds scary (and kind of gross), but "Researchers trying to develop a diagnostic tool for ovarian cancer are hoping dogs' keen sense of smell will lead them down the right path," according to an AP story. Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania's Working Dog Center have developed a simple test using blood and tissue samples donated by patients, then training three canines to "sniff out the signature compound that indicates the presence of ovarian cancer." If the animals can isolate the chemical marker, scientists at the nearby Monell Chemical Senses Center will work to create an electronic sensor to identify the same odor, the Kathy Matheson at the AP reports. "Because if the dogs can do it, then the question is, Can our analytical instrumentation do it? We ...

Now why does your dog go to his bowl, pick up some food in his mouth, walk away, then drop it on the carpet or floor and eat away?  According to vetstreet.com, it's because of its pack mentality. "When dogs in the wild make a kill, the outranked animals drag pieces of food away so they don't have to fight the leader or a more dominant canine for it," vetstreet.com quotes  Dr.   Julie Albright , MA, DVM, DACVB, an assistant professor of veterinary behavior at the  University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine . "Fighting is obviously very risky, so most animals, especially subordinate ones, will go to great lengths to avoid an altercation," Dr. Albright tells vetstreet.com.   If you use a metal bowl, "The noise of the food moving around in the dish or even his   collar tags hitting the side   can be frightening or annoying," notes Dr. Albright, "so he may be taking the kibble away from the trigger of the sound." Although t...

It's a no-brainer.  Dogs make us feel better.  Full disclosure: I've never had a dog.  My mother and sister were both allergic so we never had one growing up, though we did take in a stray during a snowstorm and I regret to say I don't remember what happened to him (hopefully, returned to his owners). But The New York Times reported today that having a dog may lower your heart risk.  I have to admit, since becoming a mom, the nurturing side has come out in me and I now love dogs (am even thinking of getting one for my pre-adolescent son, even though I know who will wind up taking care of him or her). I feel calmer when I'm petting them and I love looking into their eyes, and seeing the soul in there. I watched a Judge Judy segment yesterday where an estranged couple were fighting over custody of their dog, a Husky with piercing blue eyes. The dog kept whimpering and running back and forth between the man and the woman, crying and leaping first on the wo...