Tuesday, June 24, 2008

It's a 21st Century Dog's Life

My learning is coming from everywhere on this trip. Before I started writing this post I had to stop and think about privacy issues relating to animals. What is the netiquette regarding information given you about a beloved dog? Not sure yet, so for now I will not be linking you to this dog's webpage.
Had a fun evening catching up with friends and meeting new people. Then the conversation turned to the Big Day tomorrow. One of the group's dog is going for DNA testing tomorrow. Koncerned Kiwis made sympathetic murmers thinking something dreadful is going on, but misread the situation. It's a Happy Day - they are going to find out the ancestry of their bitser dog
for a mere $175. We asked a few questions and discovered that it is hard to fill out your dog's profile on dogster.com if you have to make it up. At this point I was not sure if they were having fun pulling the kiwis' legs or what, but when they got out a laptop and we went online to look at the dog's webpage I realise that I have a long way to go before I am up with the play on social networking. This dog has an extensive online profile; photos, friends, star sign, hobbies - it's all there really. You can click on the gift icon and ship it a real present or you can send it virtual bones each day.
I am beginning to feel a twinge of guilt over the online anonymity our blue heeler, Scrappy, endures - especially the lack of virtual friends and a PLN. So I've decided to post his picture in the hopes that if he googles his name at least one item will register. It will require a bit more discussion with the family before he gets his own page on dogster though. Imagine the conversations to come; 'Who's fed the dog? Who's taken the dog for a walk? Who's updated his page?...." Hmmm, not sure we are ready for this yet.


5 comments:

  1. Scrappy is very cute...
    http://twitxr.com/fiona/updates/66840/

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  2. Cool dog - very interesting post. My dog, Manolo Guevara, is a bitsa of the brindle staffie-cross variety [hence mixed reactions from Josephine Public] and i constantly wonder about his genetic heritage.
    It's also very intriguing to think about how 'un-networked' we are in NZ by comparison to real whizzes... then again, does it really matter?
    I better go and cuddle the real Manny who is flat out by the fire :-)

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  3. @Fiona - love your puppy, but you are looking like a candidate for dogster. Send me an invite when you do it!
    @mrwoody I am sure you could get DNA testing for Manny. Prob'ly could send a sample to the US if they don't do it in NZ. There was more to this story. The dog was a stray, imported from Taiwan. What is that about? I am sure they were pulling my leg at this stage, but the story went that America is taking stray dogs from Taiwan to find nice American homes....

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  4. Well I love my dog - Jack (a labrador boxer cross) but I have enough trouble keeping my own blogs, nings, etc up to date without creating one for him as well.
    Now, if I could just teach him to type...

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