ITinfo: Bow Wow, You Say?

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Woof, Woof, Woof!

Why can't you understand how I feel?

ITinfo Sponsor

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Bow Wow, You Say?

by Dave Murphy
ISSN 1535-3613

Woof, arf, growl, pant. Dogs make all sorts of sounds that many owners wish they could understand. Takara, Japan's third-largest toy maker, comes to the rescue with it's new "Bow-lingual," a handheld electronic device that gauges a dog's moods by listening to its bark.

Bow-lingual includes a collar microphone and a pager with a liquid-crystal display. The system can print 200 words and 100 pre-programmed sentences that describe how the dog feels, based on it's barking pattern.

It includes a dog's daily diary that records the barking activity throughout the day so you can peek inside the diary when you get home. Planned upgrades include a wireless communication link to the owners mobile phone. Now you'll be able to know what you're dog's feeling even while you're bored to tears in a staff meeting! Look for the item this winter for about a hundred dollars.

Dave's Opinion

I've been keeping an eye on voice translation applications: text to voice, voice to text, and computer-aided oral comprehension. My interest is in aiding human communication but I ran across this product today, and it made me laugh. Then I got to thinking about the time and effort we're putting into learning to work with our family dog.

Four months ago, we rescued a cocker spaniel. That day we visited the library and borrowed six books on dog communication and a few more on training techniques. We learned canine body language and barking patterns. Now, a few months later, we're attending a dog/owner training class. In just four weeks we've learned to command sit, stand, lay, stay, and come using both voice and hand signals. I'm most happy that Lucy no longer pulls at her leash when we walk. I never realized that working with a dog could be so easy: once we learned to view the world through a dog's eyes.

This article is apropos today: it's Lucy's birthday anniversary. She rolls over two, and tonight our girls will host a birthday party: inviting the extended family and putting on the dog.

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updated August 8, 2001