A Study in Science

I haven't seen my dog in a few days. Truth. While the missus (h/t to everyone's favorite, lovable abusive lush, Andy Capp) is away, I have dropped the dog at a friend's house so he can have someone pay any attention to him. I mean, I like him, but I go to work and he sits around all day plotting my demise. It is best to keep him busy with playdates.

I visited him yesterday -- it was a cold morning so I, as is my wont, wrapped my head in a scarf. He saw me and growled. "He doesn't recognize you" my friend commented. I removed the scarf and he stopped growling. So I thought, "I wonder how a dog recognizes a person -- whether covering one particular feature or another confuses a dog."

I decided to experiment so I moved the scarf to a different location, covering my mouth. He growled until I removed it. Over my eyes? He growled. In fact, it seemed that if I used the scarf to obscure any single defining feature, that was enough to make the dog unable to recognize me. Unwilling to give up on my theory that recognition is bound in the discernment of specific features, I have altered my original hypothesis and hope, some day, to publish the definitive study on why dogs hate scarves.