My dear dog

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The subject is a 80 lbs. pure breed Dalmatian. Has a PhD in dog obedience training, three one year cycles since he was a 6mo. puppy.

He is sometimes roaming around the house during the night; I left a few weeks ago my office door open and, since there was a faint light coming from the laptop, he climbed the desk, stomped the laptop screen with his front paws, then dragged it on the floor and silently (to respect our sleep) chewed a corner. The house was successfully defended from one mortal enemy.

I have a Roomba vacuum cleaner that I leave running on the floor to clean his shedding (Dalmatians shed once a year, for 365 days). For unknown reasons, he’s scared to death by this machine, as soon as the Roomba starts humming around he goes to a corner and starts whining out loud. A few weeks ago, I left the Roomba running and went to my office upstairs; dog was whining for a while, then suddenly stopped. Good, whining dogs are not exactly my idea of a soothing sound. Roomba did it’s pass for about 90 minutes, then silently parked in the docking station. Few days later I noticed the Roomba was signalling a charging error and it wouldn’t start; I thought it’s the rechargeable battery, so I ordered a spare, guess what, same error after replacing.

Ok, complex machines error out sometimes, must be a contact somewhere, so I decided to pull a toolkit and open up the device. 15 minutes and an YouTube instructional video later I’m all in and guess what… the machine electronics board and the whole upper side internals are completely corroded. Associated with some marks and the smell, the conclusion was quickly obvious. Dear dog peed on his enemy, which was annihilated in the process. Good lesson, if it would be only that easy for humans.

A new Roomba is now on its way from Amazon.
 
Does that Roomba have ultrasonic proximity sensors, or have other sources of ultrasonic such as PWM driven motors?

Is technology driving your pet insane? - CNET

Don't think so, my daughter has a Roomba as well, and a cat; each time the Roomba starts, the cat jumps right on top of the machine and stays there until the ride stops in the docking station, never jumps at bumps, unless the machine goes under the couch. Cats and dogs are different, but not that different, I would think :D.
 
Is technology driving your pet insane? - CNET


I have had dogs all my life. Recently our Golden Retreiver died and we swore with my wife not to have more pets at home.
Every year the suffering was mutual, of our beloved animal and of us. Caused by the roar of fireworks. (There seems to be an insane tendency in many people to have feelings that emulate a war)
The article should also mention low frequencies of high intensity, not just ultrasound. Animals may be naturally prepared for some low frequency rumbling, such as thunder in a storm, but perceived at a distant intensity, not a short distance. They get stressed, bark uncontrollably and can even die of a cardiac collapse. Here in some provinces they are prohibited, hopefully it will spread throughout the country.
 
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