Quote:
> You see, we (at least most of us) became intelligent and dexterous
> enough that we figured out ways manage our nails without hurting
> ourselves. Animals coevolve with their environment and in the process
> new strategies become apparent. Once we evolved the ability to make
> tools, it was completely natural for us to figure out a tool (nail
> clipper) that would help us keep our nails short and allow us, with our
> neatly clipped and thus unimpeded opposable thumbs, to perfect other
> useful inventions, such as the CAGE and the Pez dispenser.
Yep. We had long, painful, broken nails until the clipper was invented,
well before knives, well before rough stones to sand them down, well before
we even evolved teeth to chew them off. Oh - that wasn't your point? Oh
yes - intelligence. Does your intelligence allow you to*** your balls?
No? Would your intelligence allow you to jump straight up in the air three
times your own height? No? No. Most humans are incapable of performing
these feats not due to lack of intelligence, but rather due to physical
limitations (and, for some people, not from lack of trying...). I'll type
this slowly because I know you don't read very fast: Most pet/working dogs
don't get enough exercise to naturally wear down their nails. For this to
occur, the owners would have to run them so much they couldn't keep jobs,
which would severly curtail their attempts at performing physical feats
impossible for the rest of the human race. Like***ing themselves. While
jumping three times their height.
Actually, since man settled into communities, and before, dogs have been
domesticated. In the early days of civilization, I would imagine that if a
dog went lame from too long nails, everyone would celebrate and have a
feast. In early Scotland, the Feast of the Lame Dog was a pagan ritual
practiced every four years on All Hallow's Eve and everyone partied until
the last lame dog was fully cooked and consumed. Well, maybe not, but what
good is a lame animal if you were a busy hunter/gatherer on the go, with
9.2 kids at home and big, scary animals threatening your life? No good.
They were probably killed, if they even lived that long.
That's another thing - what makes you think that, until modern (post 1900)
times, dogs lived long enough to have nail problems? If an animal survived
the rigors of life in those times for 8-10 years, I'm sure it was a rarity
(although this is all supposition). When Man can't survive, on a regular
basis, past 60, how can we suggest that an animal that depends so much on
us lives long enough to have to worry about long toenails? I'm not trying
to suggest that this is a modern problem. Since it's domestication, I
would think that dogs have been less active, not more, with less danger
(not many wild bear around anymore). They also tend to live longer since
the 1800's, at least, or whenever modern veterinary medicine began.
Probably not until several years after it began, but definitely not before.
Could this be the problem then? I don't think so. I think that, no
matter how hard you work your dog, his or her nails will grow faster than
they can wear them down. But that's my opinion - I could be wrong.
Quote:
> popular of late because of changes in our work habits, lifestyles, and
> thought processes, use them as containers for our canine pets. It is
> equally natural for Chimpanzees to have invented the "ant getting tool,"
> nothing more than a straight stick with the leaves and twigs removed.
Don't be a mouth-breather. You don't agree with cages for the same reason
you don't agree with clipping. You've never used one. I know. I used to
think the same thing, before I got a dog that REQUIRED THE STABILITY of his
cage/den. Try it first. I bet you don't like a lot of things you've never
tried. Don't be ignorant - get the experience and then make up your mind.
If you do it the other way around, you may be missing a big part of the
solution for your current situation - could be that MeKim could benefit
from having a place all his own.
Quote:
> Now, while it is perfectly natural for us to develop cages and the
> chimpanzees to develop ant retrieving tools, it is not quite as natural
> for the animals to be in cages (as is widely held by the Control Freak
> variety of Human), or for the ants to have sticks plunged into their
> nests so they can be retrieved and consumed.
Hello, Pot? This is the Kettle. You're black. Look who thinks he's in
control of everything. The boy who knows everything about anything worth
knowing about. And it is very natural for the ants to be retrieved and
consumed. Food chain. You're part of it - you will be assimilated also.
Quote:
> This brings us back to the Pez dispenser. Now, the Pez dispenser serves
> no empirical need other than the upwardly mobile translocation of small
> units of carbohydrate rich material which can be consumed by humans at
> their leisure. The evolutionary significance of the Pez dispenser has
> been widely debated in Scientific circles and the consensus seems to
> indicate that it may be an evolutionary dead end, since there are many
> more efficient and effective means of carbohydrate transportation and
> consumption available, such as the 64 oz BigGulp.
Hee hee. Funny. Doesn't quite make a point, but mildly humorous. Oh shit
- I'm encouraging him.
Quote:
> > As far as causing pain goes, if it is done right, there is no pain.
> And it it isn't done at all, there is also no pain...
Not true. If not done at all, there's the possibility, near certainty, of
a great deal of pain. Unless you plan on having a feast when Callie can no
longer walk due to her long, curving toenails that puncture the pads of her
delicate pads.
Quote:
> No, because I am both the trimmer and the trimmed and I have full
> control over the process, unlike the dog who has no control and is at
> the mercy of his human.
Also not true. My dog is in control. If he gets too anxious or
accidentally hurt due to MY error, we stop. Period. You can lead a horse
to water... All dogs have some degree of control - that's why their teeth
have not evolved into the bony baleen of the whale family. For protection.
And for eating meat.
Quote:
> So in order for there to be no pain, one has to start early? Is that
> what you are implying? That it is impossible to not cause pain and be
> gentle with an older animal?
No. Wait - yes. For there to be no (1) anxiety, which causes (2)
movement, which makes it (3) harder to just take a little off the tip,
which leads to (4) clipping the quick and hurting the dog. If your dogs
trust you so much that you can do anything to them, great. You'd better
practice your technique on someone else's dogs first because that will all
go out the window (in your estimation) the first time you nip too close to
their cute little fingers. I'm not saying that there's no anxiety in any
animal that starts young, but you probably cried like a whipped schoolgirl
the first time you got your hair cut (almost everyone does), not because it
hurt, but because you didn't know what's going on, there were loud noises
all around and the only one there you could trust made you come here and do
it. So what if you knew that your Dad wouldn't ever do anything to hurt
you. Do you still cry? Probably not. I bet you're used to it by now.
Same goes for the dog. Older dogs too, but they may be less resilient and
one bad experience could ruin it forever.
Quote:
> This is an example of an invalid point used to back up an equally
> invalid point. Philosophers call this "two invalid points uttered
> consecutively with roughly equal degrees of invalidity." I think I'm
> going to start experimental surgery on my dog's hips so they won't be
> afraid of it when they get to be ten or fif*** and their hips go bad.
Good. You should be pretty good at suturing considering all the ears Chazz
and Callie have ripped off. Speaking of ears, ZenDumbo...
Quote:
> You don't need them just yet, you haven't demonstrated the need to be
> torched, only mildly upstaged.
"mildly upstaged"? By you? Is that what you were doing?
Look, ZenBooger, statistics are cheap and can be made to fit anything you
want them to be. Words are almost as cheap. Let's see some of your
results. You still haven't provided the group with the list of animals
you've trained. Or even a count. I can say that 100% of all the dogs I've
trained have all been placed in decent, loving homes - can you? How many
have I trained? I'm working on my first... get my point?
Gman
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