Hi

Hope all is well with you and your dog.

I was really surprised to find an article in the Sunday paper about a cow that acts like a dog. It was in the USA Weekend.

Check this out. Hope you can read it OK.

Here’s the text of this interesting story in more readable format.

Question: I have the largest dog in the world —- she weighs 1,200 pounds. Her name is Flossie, and she’s actually a cow. We got her when she was 2 or 3 weeks old. I let this little calf live in the backyard with the dogs, and soon she started to act like one. She has learned to run and play chase. She even carries firewood and dog toys in her mouth. What do we do with Flossie? Does she have an identity crisis?

Answer: I bet Flossie is one happy cow, so I wouldn’t call it an identity crisis. But there’s certainly identity confusion going on. There’s a scientific phe­nomenon called imprinting that was first discovered by ethologist Konrad Lorenz. Baby geese imprinted to him during their critical period of socialization, just as Flossie imprinted to the dogs when she was young. That’s the same phenomenon that was going on when baby ducks were kept as pets, and they fol­lowed people around.

De-imprinting is sometimes possible, but it’s dif­ficult. I once volunteered in Borneo, attempting to teach orphaned orangutans imprinted to people to be orangutans so they could be introduced to the forest to live. No such need for Flossie. She’s fine, and there’s no harm in her thinking she’s a dog.

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