dogs and babies
Who's The Smart One, Here?Raise your hand if you just knew that being a dog mommy was exactly like your friend being a real live baby mommy. I mean, really. She thinks just because you have the option of leaving your dog locked inside your house without fear of prison time and/or the death and destruction of your dog/child that it's not the same thing. But you always knew it was, didn't you?

The Hungarian Academy of Sciences wants you to know that your instincts were right. Your dog reacts to you the same way a baby does to his mommy. Now don't you feel superior to those human breeders?

In a study I like to call "The Pot & The Hound," researchers videotaped humans looking at two pots. If the person looked at the dog and said, "Hi dog," then the dog would follow the humans eyes when he or she looked at the pot. If the human looked down, avoiding eye contact with the mystery dog, the dog was less likely to follow the humans eyes. So dogs like eye contact.

Although I totally thought you weren't supposed to make eye contact with an angry dog. Or is that a bear? Regardless, the study compares the reaction to eye contact from an adult to the same reaction at 6-month to 2-year-old would have.

So all of us parents who are annoyed with the dog/kid comparison lose. We can all shut up about our superior babies and how people with dogs just don't get it. That is, until our baby turns into a toddler and far surpasses whatever dumb dog tricks you've got up your sleeve. In your face!

Is your dog as smart as your baby?