Dear LPG, 

I recently read an article about the invention of a dog phone.  We all must leave them at home from time to time and this invention is designed to allow your pet to contact you when it feels the need.  I can’t say that I have understood exactly how this is going to work and when I first learnt about it, I thought it quite a silly concept. 

But when I thought about it again, I suppose that we dog owners expect our pooches to understand us and, while we do our best for them, do we really know what they are making of our way of caring?  Lockdown has had many consequences and I think that our pet dogs will have appreciated being part of that experience.  I know that I would not have got through it without my canine housemate, and he got quite used to having me there all the time, which is making it more difficult for him to readjust to spending time at home alone again.  I am now a pensioner who can often take my dog out with me but, for the younger families who have a dog, lockdown is over, school is back, and home working is beginning to become a bit of a thing of the past too.   In short, for many established pet partnerships, owners are not at home all the time anymore.  Apparently many new pet dogs provided a lockdown diversion and now it is over the dogs are having to get used to a lonelier existence for the first time.  It is also true that part of their appeal is the idea that they provide a degree of security when you are out. 

It occurred that if the Dog Phone does become a thing, there might be something new to learn about what they are saying from the other side of a video connection.   I found some interesting information about what they are trying to tell us with the way they wag their tails which, apparently can be quite revealing, and having found some information on the subject I feel it necessary to share it in the hope that it will help owners, old and relatively new, to learn a little more about what their pooches are really feeling…  

OD, Blackheath. 

OD shares his findings… 

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