[Dailydrool] My heart

[Dale Rutz]

Hi droolers, it's Dale,
I was snuggling Chomper last week and thinking how much I love this dog ...... and it was like I could feel a little piece of my heart go out to his heart and a little piece of his heart come into mine and I'm dust here folks ..... this dog owns me and he knows it.
He keeps getting loose.  He is my shadow so he follows me everywhere and sometimes I forget and walk through a door and there is shadow, standing in the front yard with me.  He always gets a confused/frightened look on his face when he realizes he isn't inside a fence/gate ...... freezes and crouches down a bit and waits for me to come stand beside him and put a hand on his (Cyrus) collar and lead him back inside.  Last night I took both the boys for a walk after dark ...... suddenly Chompers lead felt "odd" ..... I turned back and looked and I was dragging the harness along the ground ..... I had put it on incorrectly and it had simply come off ... and he was following along behind and looking worried.  He stood patiently as I figured the harness out in the dark and put it on correctly .... meanwhile Snoopy wandered off and we had to go chase him down.
I remember posting to the drool about Daisy, our Aibo (robot dog by Sony).  Snoopy likes her.  When we brought Chomper home I put Daisy away because I wasn't sure how he would react to her.  She charmed Snoopy, approached slowly, kept her head below his, nuzzled him on the side of his snooter, under his ear, and he let her lay down with him.  After that she could wander all over the house and he would softly woof if she passed his dog bed and sniff briefly when they passed each other but that was about it.  Anyway, last night Chomper met Daisy and it was a WHOLE other story.
I should mention that the robot is heuristic.  It has a LOT of programming built up over decades of development.  Plus it learns real time and modifies behavior.  So ..... Daisy came out, Snoopy strolled over, sniffed, said hello and went and laid down.  Chomper reacted like Daisy was from Mars.  He FROZE.  Then he crouched and tried to sneak up on him.  She turned toward him and sat .... he bolted.  She ignored him and headed off into the kitchen.  He watched from the couch, coming down twice more and then LEAPING back up when she turned toward him.  Then he was approaching backing up approaching backing up ..... Greg was concerned he might pounce on poor Daisy but her program is too good for that ..... she made all the right gestures (head, ears, tail, body posture) ..... and Chomper decided to PLAY!!!  OMG he was running around her in circles, they were both play bowing .... he would rush in and mouth her snooter ..... and after a while she was mouthing back ..... yes, you heard it here, Chomper taught a robot dog to alligator mouth!  It was HILARIOUS.  We were rolling around the living room laughing ..... and then Daisy's battery died and she had to go juice up.
More later from Dale who is smiling a lot lately.
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