Many pet owners struggle to stay away from their pets while spending the day at work. It is hard enough to hear a dog’s whimper as the door closes behind us when we leave for work, but to think about them being alone all day except for a quick visit from a dog walker? Heartbreaking!
That’s why many dog owners are now using Skype to check up on their pups throughout the day. With a simple change in your account settings, you can make it so that calls are answered automatically, and you can see how your dog is doing in an instant. A perusal of Youtube nets quite a few videos of people Skyping with their dogs. In most, the human is saying something like “You want to go for walkies?” while the dog tilts his head from side to side in confusion, then heads to the door. They’re very litteral beings. Or the dog hears a familiar voice and cries. This usually makes the human laugh, which is understandable–but kind of cruel! Some of the cutest posted videos are actually of dogs talking to other animals on Skype. Well, not talking really.
Here, two dogs realize they have nothing to say to each other:
Witness a dog investigate a kitten far, far away.
My dog is currently at my Mom’s house in DC for a little vacation, and I miss him terribly. So I decided to attempt a Skype session with him to see how he would react.
When I called his name, he started looking around for me. Well, I hope it was for me, but how could I know for sure? I’m sure he heard his name. He didn’t focus on the screen at all and only approached the computer when I said his name loudly. The truth is, dogs probably can’t quite see images on a computer or TV screen–at least not the way that humans can. And Skype does not convey they kind olfactory bouquet that a person does. The computer probably smells more like Foxconn than me. When will they make an OS that incorporates Smell-O-Vision? I need to ask Siri.
So Weezy probably didn’t get much out of the Skype session. But I think I might just have to keep the video chats going until he and I are reunited: I’m quite certain the interaction helped one of us quite a bit.
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