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Dogs Can Be Pessimistic

Not that it will change anything, but researchers at Bristol University say that your dog might be a gloom-monger. In addition to the downer dogs, the study also found a few that seemed happy no matter how uncaring the world around them was. "We know that people's emotional states affect their judgments and that happy people are more likely to judge an ambiguous situation positively. What our study has shown is that this applies similarly to dogs," said professor Mike Mendl, an author of the study and head of animal welfare and behavior at Bristol University.

11 of 99 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Being a dog owner ... by shoehornjob · · Score: 4, Funny

    Mine likes to shit everywhere.

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    "We are just a war away from Amerikastan. When god vs god the undoing of man." Dave Mustaine
  2. Obligatory Onion by UnknowingFool · · Score: 4, Funny
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  3. Breeds Used in Study? by BJ_Covert_Action · · Score: 4, Funny

    I have ten bucks that says the breed most likely to be pessimistic was the Basset hound. Meanwhile, the happiest dogs were probably Collies or, perhaps, Poodles. Next I'd like to see a study that shows that cats really are condescending bastards. =)

    1. Re:Breeds Used in Study? by ByOhTek · · Score: 4, Funny

      My cats say that such a study would be idiotic and not worth the time of any cat participating, but they also find it predictable that a human would still find it the pinnacle of research.

      --
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  4. Re:Being a dog owner ... by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 4, Funny

    Being a dog owner, I think most dogs just want to hump, eat, and sleep. Some like to bark.

    You're thinking of men.

  5. Re:Being a dog owner ... by CarpetShark · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Being a dog owner, I think most dogs just want to hump, eat, and sleep. Some like to bark.

    If you honestly don't realise that your dog has a sense of humor, needs to socialise, to challenge itself on a long run, to play in a river, then I worry you might not be qualified to own a dog.

  6. Re:From TFA by somersault · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'd say depressed people are not seeing reality clearly at all. I used to assign very pessimistic reasons to everything. Now that I try to focus on more positive possible explanations for things, I end up being right a lot of the time, and save myself needless worrying and self-deprecation. A silly but representative example would be if someone doesn't turn up to meet me at a certain time I might assume they just aren't going to show up at all rather than the obvious answer that they're just running a bit late.

    I have managed to be a bit more "normal" recently. This is partially through improving my diet and getting regular exercise, which help a lot when it comes to having your body and brain chemistry function "normally", but also I have tried to improve my thought patterns to be more positive, and it does all seem to be coming together at last. Even when I get into foul moods I can still try to be logical and not let myself do anything stupid. Depressed people might think they're being realistic about their situations, but I'd say often they're really not, especially when trying to assign motivation to other people's actions.

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    which is totally what she said
  7. Re:Being a dog owner ... by Rhacman · · Score: 5, Funny

    If you have a dog with a sense of humor you might consider consulting with him before posting.

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  8. Re:Being a dog owner ... by DigiShaman · · Score: 5, Funny

    He's just marking his territory. Don't shampoo your carpet, they hate it when you do that. It just means more "work" to get up, find a spot, and proceed to take another shit and scoot around. Do him a favor and save his asshole from extended rug-burn.

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    Life is not for the lazy.
  9. Re:Being a dog owner ... by blackest_k · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'd like to follow up on the parent post and give some positive help.

    People tend not to understand dogs very well and often don't get what their role is in a dogs life.

    http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/

    Although the html isn't great on this site the advise and insights are excellent.

    Dogs need attention and a role in life, which means they look to you for leadership. Without that leadership they try to be the leader that causes lots of problems. It is pretty easy to see when this is occurring, to be honest you can get similar problems with children too.

    anyway the above link should help any dog owner get the best from their dog. If you can't provide what the dog needs, it may be best to rehome the dog.

  10. Re:From TFA by dgatwood · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Fascinating. By contrast, even though I frequently take a cynical view of situations, I find that I'm right about eighty to ninety percent of the time. Maybe it's not that you were too cynical before, but rather that others have just gotten better at fooling you. :-D

    But seriously, normal people take an optimistic view when it comes to their friends and a cynical view about the motives of their enemies, and a semi-cynical view of the motives of strangers. The first two are generally right, the third is out of an abundance of caution, and depending on whether the cynical view was right or not, those people get lumped into one of the first two after a period of time. It's just the way our brains work. To me, it sounds less like you are no longer taking a cynical view and more like you've finally relaxed and gotten comfortable with lumping certain people into your "friends" pile.

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    Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.