Latest news with #Rhubarb
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
How Massachusetts weather is impacting the growing season for flowers
SOUTHWICK, Mass. (WWLP) – The plant growing season is under way and we're starting to see some more and more showing up at area farms. After a dry start this spring, the rain we've been getting lately has been beneficial for area farmers. It was very busy at Calabrese Farms in Southwick on Thursday with people picking up flowers and some of the vegetables that are now available. Experts urge protection against summer pest threats; Tips to stay safe Joe Calabrese says so far things have been pretty good this season, 'Overall the temperatures have been up pretty good so that's helping a lot even with the moisture. But going into next week, we're seeing highs in the 60s and 40s at night, so that kind of slows down the growing of the crops in the field right now. Right now, there are plenty of flowers available, and you'll also find asparagus as well as Rhubarb. In the next couple of weeks, you can look for things like head lettuce, and in about a month, strawberries should be out. WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Scotsman
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
I introduced my mum to the restaurant at Scotland's best hotel and she's loved it ever since
This is her dream venue Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... My mum found her spiritual home rather late in life. David Cheskin Although she's lived in Edinburgh for decades, her first visit to Prestonfield House was only about two years ago, when I took her for festive afternoon tea in their restaurant, Rhubarb. She was bewitched and smitten. Since then, she's treated friends to tea at this plushly theatrical five-star destination, which was awarded Best Hotel in Scotland 2025 by the Good Hotel Guide, and has announced that she wants her funeral wake there. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad I know, it's a bit depressing, but she's very pragmatic and you can't help thinking of these things when you're 89. When I invited her to try their new Spring Afternoon Tea, which is available until June 19 and is £60pp - or £75pp with a glass of Billecart-Salmon Brut Reserve - she switched off her beloved snooker and practically leapt out of her seat. She also refused to use the hotel's wheelchair that I'd procured for her. If she was going to her favourite place, she was going to walk in the door, albeit slowly and clutching onto every high-backed heavily upholstered chair that was en route. Thankfully, there are a lot of them. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad We made it to our favourite table, with the view out to the lawn and their resident peacock, Colin, who was pecking about the grass. The food comes thick and fast. There's lots, so don't schedule lunch or dinner that day. Maybe skip breakfast, too. After we'd received our rhubarb rooibos and Scottish breakfast teas (you can try as many as you like, or choose coffee or hot chocolate), we started on the plate of savouries. There seemed to be a verdant green theme, to suit the season. These pairs of bites included a bonnie asparagus quiche that was topped with wild garlic pesto, as well as the satisfyingly palate-coating mouthful of powdered clava brie and herb truffle, plus black sourdough crackers that were topped with tiny lapsang souchong cured sea trout cubes, and dots of limey avocado puree. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad David Cheskin Once we'd dispatched those swish amuse bouche, we could move onto the finger sannie section on the lower ground floor of our three tier cake stand. Apart from the Scandi open cucumber sandwich that was topped by minty pickled red onion, dill fronds and sour cream, they've gone classic loaf-with-the-crusts-cut-off here. Well, it wouldn't be an afternoon tea without sandwiches that adhere to the roof of one's mouth. My fave was the sturdy protein hit of spring chicken with lemon and spring onion. Its filling prompted a joke about mum's age, but she didn't laugh. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad There was also a sturdy egg version, but with the twist of Caesar mayo, and a well stuffed brown bread Ayrshire ham number that was pimped up with rhubarb and honey relish. After all that, we were starting to feel prematurely replete. If Colin was inside, he could've helped us with a few crumbs. I think that would've cheered him up, as we could see children trying to feed him handfuls of grass, and he looked well unimpressed. At this point, mum moved onto the plain and buttermilk fruit scones with clotted cream and raspberry jam, while I focused on the colourful penthouse-level cakes. There was a neat, purple-lidded blueberry, lemon and lavender gateau and a Jaffa Cake-ish Earl Grey and chocolate orange mousse. However, my heart was won by the marzipan-clad lemon verbena and lime battenburg, which was topped by a Mary Quant-esque white chocolate daisy and was probably my favourite afternoon tea cake of all time. So beautiful to look at, and to eat, with a fluffy sponge innard in pale buttery yellow and green pastels. I also loved the rhubarb and custard cardamon tart - another substantial and memorable treat, with the sunshine hitting its yolk-like pink dome of rhubarb gel. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Gaby Soutar We did our best at eating every item, but, without Colin's help, we were done. I couldn't finish the scones, she couldn't do the cakes. The remnants of everything had to be taken away, in a little branded box. At least it's going to feel pretty decadent, I'm sure, to eat such fantastical gems in front of the snooker. It'll also help to draw the experience out, because she still adores this place. Let's hope we'll have many more visits. No wheelchair required.
Epoch Times
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Epoch Times
Three Classic Baseball Movies With a Supernatural Twist
For years, baseball has been called America's national pastime. As a symbol of American culture, it's no wonder that the sport has been the topic of many movies. Sports-themed films aren't a new phenomenon. There are plenty of movies from the Golden Era of Hollywood that focus on boxing, horse racing, football, and of course baseball. Three interesting movies made in the late 1940s and early 1950s are about baseball: 'It Happens Every Spring' (1949), 'Rhubarb' (1951), and 'Angels in the Outfield' (1951). Ironically, two feature actor Ray Milland as the leading man, and two feature actor Paul Douglas in a prominent role. Technically, all three films feature Paul Douglas, since he makes a cameo appearance at the end of 'Rhubarb.' These three films have an even greater common denominator than the shared actors and the general theme. All three movies are about struggling baseball teams that receive a little supernatural help, one from science, one from a lucky cat, and one from angelic intervention. The Stories In 'It Happens Every Spring,' doctoral scientist Vernon K. Simpson (Milland) with a secret passion for baseball accidentally creates a formula that repels wood. Realizing the value of this compound, he offers his services as pitcher to a St. Louis baseball team. Although they laugh at his bold claim that he can win any game for them, they take him seriously after he strikes out their best players with the unbelievable hop he puts on the ball. He joins the team under a pseudonym to keep his fiancée's father from finding out what he's doing until he earns enough money to marry her. Meanwhile, the managers assign veteran catcher Monk Lanigan (Douglas) to be his roommate so he can chaperone the 'screwball' who can't seem to lose. Little do they know that his hop is caused by the chemical-soaked cloth he keeps in his glove. The promotional poster for "Angels in the Outfield." Public Domain In 'Rhubarb,' eccentric millionaire Thaddeus J. Banner (Gene Lockhart) sends his devoted employee Eric Yeager (Milland) to catch a ferocious stray cat to be his pet. Banner tames and names the cat Rhubarb, and the two are close companions until the old man's death. But panic ensues when it's discovered that Banner left his vast fortune to Rhubarb, appointing Eric as the cat's guardian. The late millionaire's greedy daughter, Myra (Elsie Holmes), vows to claim her inheritance by any means. Among Banner's holdings is a professional baseball team full of superstitious players who aren't happy about being owned by a cat. Eric tricks them into believing Rhubarb is lucky, and they get so attached to the idea that they refuse to play any games without their beloved mascot in the stands. Meanwhile, Eric faces a serious personal problem: His fiancée Polly (Jan Sterling) is seriously allergic to Rhubarb. Related Stories 4/20/2022 4/14/2025 Drama abounds in "It Happens Every Spring," when Prof. Simpson (Ray Milland, C) discovers a wood-repelling substance. 20th Century Fox In 'Angels in the Outfield,' the Pittsburgh Pirates can't seem to win any games, and local newspaperwoman Jennifer Paige (Janet Leigh) is determined to find out why. As soon as she meets the team's foulmouthed manager, Guffy McGovern (Douglas), Jennifer pegs him as the problem. However, Jennifer isn't the only one who disapproves of McGovern's profanity and bullying. One night when McGovern is alone in the otherwise deserted stadium, a mysterious voice addresses him, identifying itself as his guardian angel. There have been a lot of prayers on behalf of the Pirates. McGovern agrees to the angel's demands that he clean up his act so that heavenly ballplayers will help the team win. The agreement works well until a prayerful orphan, Bridget (Donna Corcoran), sees the angels during a game. Ray Milland and Jan Sterling appear in "Rhubarb," the name of a lucky cat. Paramount Pictures Loading the Bases Classic sports movies can be very entertaining for three reasons: interest in the game, interest in the actors, or a captivating story. With these three films, the filmmakers took no chances. They made these athletic tales more intriguing than a commonplace yarn about the game by adding a gimmick. In all three movies, the gimmick is an intangible concept whose effects are seen more than itself. Those concepts are chemistry, luck, and faith. Vernon's chemical formula is an unremarkable milky liquid. He discovers it by accident after an errant baseball crashes through his laboratory's window and destroys his chemical compound. As he cleans up, he notices that the baseball covered in the diluted formula pooling in the sink is repelled by wood. Vernon immediately knows where such a formula would be invaluable: on a pitcher's glove in a baseball game. With this formula in hand, Vernon can win games for a major league team, earn enough money to marry his fiancée, and fulfill his own dream of playing the sport. Meanwhile, Monk insists on using his roommate's 'hair tonic' (the formula), with hilarious results whenever he tries to style his hair with a wooden comb or brush. Movie poster for "It Happens Every Spring." 20th Century Fox In 'Rhubarb,' the baseball team's special advantage is the least extraordinary and most honest. Everybody knows about it, but the team can't be disqualified because their lucky charm is the power of positive thinking. Can a beloved mascot, in this case the team's feline, influence a game's results? The film doesn't imply it can. Eric manufactures the first lucky instances that convince the ball team that Rhubarb can sway fortune. After that, the cat merely gives the team confidence. The players are a temperamental bunch, so it's no wonder that they soon believe they can only win when Rhubarb is watching the game. Sometimes, believing you can't lose is the only lucky charm you need. In 'Angels in the Outfield,' the baseball team's winning formula begins as a secret, but it doesn't remain such. It might seem unethical for angels to influence a baseball game to one team's advantage, but heaven is more concerned with saving souls than the outcome of a game. McGovern's life transforms, thanks to the prayers of an 8-year-old orphan girl. Loew's Inc. Guffy McGovern is a hard man with a bad temper, a vile vocabulary, and no interest in anything he can't see. (His swearing is cleverly conveyed by overdubbed gibberish.) He needs strong motivation to reform; seeing his team start winning games is enough! Guffy's life is transformed as he meets the 8-year-old orphan who has been praying for him. When news spreads that Bridget can see angels assisting the Pirates, it becomes a huge story that brings people together and turns hearts heavenward. Baseball on the Big Screen If you like sports, it's fascinating to see how they were played in past generations. Movies about athletic events offer vivid depictions of the games before televised broadcasts were commonplace. All three of these films offer extended baseball sequences. Filmmakers used famous baseball stadiums, including Wrigley Field in Los Angeles and Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, to capture the impressive outdoor shots. They also featured professional athletes of the day alongside the actors and occasionally as their stand-ins. This baseball season, take yourself out to the ballgame of yesteryear with these three charming films! What arts and culture topics would you like us to cover? Please email ideas or feedback to
Edinburgh Reporter
29-04-2025
- Edinburgh Reporter
Tea Time Opulence: A Champagne Afternoon at Prestonfield House
Prestonfield House Hotel offers free parking for cars and helicopters, signalling immediately that budget travellers aren't their typical clientele. Yet on a fine spring day, my guest and I opted for the humble approach: a Lothian bus ride followed by what was meant to be a short walk. Our distinct lack of map-reading skills transformed this into somewhat of an adventure, including getting lost in a wood as we attempted to navigate toward this five-star hotel sitting in view of Arthur's Seat's yellow gorse. Thankfully, a passing dog walker rescued these damsels in distress, guiding us to a shortcut that led to the sweeping drive, at the top of which sits the magnificent Prestonfield House. Owned by James Thomson, one of Scotland's most celebrated independent restaurateurs and hoteliers, Prestonfield sits in Edinburgh's most secret location – nestled amid a housing estate filled with bungalows and architectural curios. Yet somehow, this unexpected setting only enhances its charm. The estate spans 20 acres of gardens and parkland, with beautiful Highland cows grazing in the field alongside the entrance. Prestonfield promises – and delivers – opulence, theatrical flair, and luxurious seclusion, sheltering guests from the city's bustle beyond its grounds. While Edinburgh offers numerous afternoon tea experiences, Prestonfield's ranks among the finest, matched perfectly by its sumptuous interiors and impeccable service. We were greeted at the entrance by Raven, the resident hotel cat—a charmingly dishevelled black short-hair—and Colin, the peacock strutting through the gardens displaying his spectacular plumage in full glory. Stepping inside Prestonfield House feels like entering a scene from Downton Abbey or a Jane Austen novel. Every corner reveals delightful objects and antiques, with rooms elegantly arranged for dining celebrations. Prestonfield shares a significant historical connection with rhubarb, having been the first estate in Scotland to propagate the plant in the 18th century. This heritage is celebrated in the aptly named 'Rhubarb' restaurant, where the plant continues to flourish in the estate's kitchen garden. We were shown to what must be one of Rhubarb's finest tables, overlooking gardens with beautifully coiffed fir trees encased in pyramid-shaped wooden structures and beds of growing rhubarb. At Prestonfield, excellence lies in the details—from tactile, armed velvet chairs to beautiful white crockery bearing the signature rhubarb design, silver teapots, and even the powder room's leopard-print chaise lounge. Alongside delicate finger sandwiches, savouries, scones, and house-baked cakes, we savoured chilled Billecart-Salmon Champagne while selecting from seventeen beautifully described speciality teas, coffees and hot chocolate. Despite my grandfather's history working on an Indian tea plantation, I chose the Rose Petal tea—freshly dried rose petals with aromatic Chinese congou black tea and essence of rose – offering subtle floral notes. My companion selected First Flush Darjeeling, often called 'The Champagne of teas,' where the most coveted leaves are plucked during the first harvest. Prestonfield's afternoon tea achieves perfect balance between savouries, sandwiches, both plain and fruit buttermilk scones with clotted cream and raspberry jam, and exquisite cakes. They've thoughtfully created special menus for vegans, vegetarians, and those requiring gluten or dairy-free options—attention to detail that truly sets them apart. The staff accommodated my fish allergy by replacing the Lapsang souchong-cured sea trout, avocado, and lime curd on sourdough cracker with a vegetarian sun-dried tomato and avocado oatcake with lime purée, garnished with delicate white edible flowers. While I rarely choose white bread at home, finger sandwiches somehow demand it. No mass-produced loaves here, but beautiful, doughy homemade white bread worthy of Smeaton Farm free-range egg with Caesar mayonnaise. Among the selections, the spring chicken with lemon and spring onion mayonnaise and the pulled Ayrshire ham with Prestonfield rhubarb and honey relish were standouts. The cakes elevate the experience to extraordinary heights with imaginative Lilliputian morsels of pure delight. Lemon verbena and lime Battenburg, Earl Grey and chocolate orange mousse, rhubarb and cardamom custard tart, and blueberry, lemon and lavender gateau delivered mouthfuls of ecstasy with every bite. The Last Sip Sometimes getting lost leads to the most delightful discoveries. From our woodland detour to the final crumbs of those miniature masterpieces, our afternoon at Prestonfield proved that luxury isn't always about helicopter landings – sometimes it's about the journey, the company, and those perfect moments of indulgence. As we reluctantly departed, past Highland cows, Raven the grumpy cat and peacock plumes, we agreed that while the £75 price tag for the Champagne service reflects the five-star setting, the memories created in this secluded pocket of Edinburgh elegance were absolutely priceless. Prestonfield's Spring Afternoon Tea is available Sunday–Thursday 12-6:45 pm, Friday and Saturday 12-4 pm. Spring Afternoon Tea £60 per person Spring Champagne Afternoon Tea £75 per person Like this: Like Related
The Guardian
26-04-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
Who's a clever boy: the average dog has a mental age of about two. But what are they really thinking?
The thing that made me think my dog may be a genius was the word monkey. We'd developed a game where I'd hide her monkey toy – a sad, lifeless being, long lobotomised by my golden retriever puppy – and, when I asked her to find it, I realised she could differentiate the word monkey from other objects. A woman in the park had a similar story. On holiday in an unfamiliar cottage, she had misplaced the car keys. After hunting for them for over an hour, her dog, a border collie, overheard her and her husband talking about it, recognised the word 'keys' and immediately went and found them. So maybe my dog, Rhubarb, isn't a genius after all. Dogs, says Vanessa Woods, director of the Puppy Kindergarten project at Duke University in North Carolina, US, and writer of several books including Puppy Kindergarten: The New Science of Raising a Great Dog, can know hundreds of words for objects. 'Over 1,000, probably,' she says. 'And actually it's more interesting than that, because they learn words the way children learn words, and that's not by repetition.' Psychology professor Juliane Kaminski showed back in 2004 that a dog called Rico (another border collie), could learn, as children do, by inference – he didn't need to know the name of a new toy, he could work it out by excluding the toys he did know the names of. We share our homes (sometimes our beds) with them, but how much do we really know about what dogs think and feel? Whether chihuahua or husky, domestic dogs descended from wolves, but their behaviour, says Clive Wynne, psychology professor at Arizona State University and director of its Canine Science Collaboratory research lab, is 'substantially different. You can tame wolves, and they can be really affectionate. But taming wolves is quite challenging, whereas taming dogs is so easy that you hardly ever talk about 'taming' dogs.' There are about 13 million dogs in the UK. In the US, there are about 90 million. 'Whereas there are only a few thousand wolves left [in the US],' says Wynne (in the UK, they're extinct). 'In a world that's totally dominated by human beings, living alongside human beings was a good choice. Dogs evolved capacities to find it easier to live with humans.' Some researchers think dogs have 'evolved special forms of cognition, what you could call special forms of intelligence, to make them better at understanding people,' but Wynne says he's sceptical about this idea. 'I take the view that [the higher capabilities] are almost entirely in the emotional domain.' Dogs seem to be born with the ability to read human emotions, says Woods: 'Like in human babies, reading our thoughts and intentions seems to be one of the first cognitive skills that comes online in puppies.' The ability to read our body language, she says, is something 'that really not even our closest living relative, the great apes, have'. Dogs are social animals, and are very tuned into the humans around them. 'They watch humans and they pick up cues from humans, because by being observant, they get an easy life,' says Daniel Mills, professor of veterinary behavioural medicine at the University of Lincoln. 'The more I study dog cognition, actually the less 'smart' I think dogs are. But they are incredibly observant, really fine-tuned, and so they tend to do very smart things because they're very good at making associations.' If dogs are brilliant at reading humans, we are terrible at reading dogs. A recent study by Wynne and Holly Molinaro, his colleague at Arizona State University, showed that people interpreted a dog's emotions based on external situations, rather than 'reading' the behaviour of the dog itself. Researchers recorded videos of a dog in 'positive' and 'negative' scenarios, for example being offered a treat or being gently told off, and asked particpants to assess the dog's emotions. They then edited the videos to remove the external scenarios, showing just the dog's reaction. People who saw the edited videos assessed the dog's emotions differently to those who saw the dog's reaction in context. They even found that our own emotions affect how we read dogs – people who considered themselves happier before the test were more likely to rate the dog's emotion positively. Charges of anthropomorphism have dogged canine researchers, including Stanley Coren, professor emeritus in the department of psychology at the University of British Columbia, and a dogfather of dog science. The prevailing idea that dogs have similar cognitive and emotional capabilities to a human toddler goes back to research Coren did in the 90s – but this bit of anthropomorphism is quite useful for our poor human brains to relate to. Coren adapted tests used for human infants to research dogs' language-learning abilities. 'We found that the average dog has a mental age of between two and two-and-a-half years [in human terms],' he says, one of his dogs barking in the background. 'The super-dogs, the upper 20% in terms of intelligence, have a mental age of between two-and-a-half and three.' We can extrapolate this, he says, to other mental and emotional capabilities. 'If an average two-and-a-half-year-old is expected to have these abilities, then the first guess would be that a dog would have those abilities.' Young children recognise when the number of objects they've been looking at changes; dogs do too. Coren says dogs can count up to five. Between the ages of one and three, a child will learn to respond to a pointing gesture. 'At about age two, the average child will know there's something interesting there, and will usually look in that direction.' Dogs will do the same. But, he says, 'wolves don't have that response, even if they've been reared with a human family'. One area where dogs beat toddlers is memory. Think of how much you remember from when you were around two (probably nothing). 'However, dogs have a good memory and there are lots of examples,' says Coren. He recalls a colleague's dog that had previously been owned by the colleague's Czech father, who had taught the dog commands in his native language. The colleague inherited the dog when it was about 18 months old, and it lived with him and his English-speaking family. Around seven years later, when a relative from the Czech Republic visited, the dog still responded to commands in Czech. In terms of emotions, Coren says that the average two-and-a-half-year-old human 'will have all of the basic emotions – fear, aggression, love, surprise and disgust, but complex social emotions like guilt don't show up until a child is about four'. Many dog owners will claim that they can instantly recognise their dog's 'guilty face' – and there are numerous pictures and videos online of dogs apparently looking remorseful – but this is anthropomorphism at work again, as a study by Alexandra Horowitz, an expert in canine cognition, has shown. 'Dogs don't feel guilt, and those expressions you see are really fear, because they know that when they see their owner and the evidence of their transgression, then bad things happen,' says Coren. 'What does it take to feel guilty?' asks Wynne. 'You have to know that there are rules in your society, and you need to know that you've broken the rules, and you need to know that you've been found out. That's layer upon layer upon layer, and dogs just don't have all of that. They can tell you're upset with them, but that's as far as it goes.' So, do our dogs really love us, or just view us as a provider of resources? 'I think they do,' says Mills. 'They have an incredible loyalty to humans. But is it the same as the sort of love that the human shows them? No, I don't think so. I think it's probably a purer form.' Wynne says he doesn't use the word 'love' in his scientific research papers, but adds: 'I think that's a perfectly reasonable way to capture the nature of the bond between people and dogs – a nurturing, caring type of love.' Woods, who says '100% they love you', points to a 2015 study by Takefumi Kikusui, a professor of animal behaviour, and others at Azabu University in Japan. It showed that both dogs and their owners experienced a surge of oxytocin – the love and bonding hormone – when they gazed into each other's eyes. Some dogs, like some children, 'are more demonstrative than others,' says Woods. 'If a dog is not particularly tactile, they tend to make a lot of eye contact – they're 'hugging' you with their eyes.' Why do they seem to like or dislike certain people, or other dogs? When Wynne introduced dogs at rehoming shelters to two women who looked similar and dressed alike, 'the dogs very rapidly developed strong preferences for one stranger over another, but we don't know why'. At my puppy training class, two dogs took an instant and mutual dislike to each other. 'Maybe it's learned associations,' says Mills. 'It's not uncommon that, as a puppy, they may have been bowled over by a labrador, so they don't now like big dogs.' It could be our fault – we misread their caution about a new experience as fear and jerked them back on the lead, thinking we were keeping them safe, 'so now they have a learned association between that type of dog or person and punishment'. There is also research, says Mills, around excluding group members who threaten the integrity of the pack. It may be that some dogs 'do not like certain other dogs because they don't want them to be part of their group'. Because they view them as undesirable in some way? 'Yes, or they think that they're a freeloader, or they think their group is very good at the moment and they're closely bonded, and they don't want somebody else potentially joining it.' If my dog does love me as much as I love her, why then does she ignore me so often? Her absolute favourite thing to do is lull me into letting her off the lead in the park, then race off into the distance as soon as she spots another dog/squirrel/muddy puddle, with me running after her, shouting manically while she completely ignores me. Even when I ask her to do something at home, without distractions, she often deliberately ignores me. 'When you say 'deliberately', you've immediately interpreted her behaviour, and we do this effortlessly – that's part of the problem,' says Mills. 'We think we know what's going on in their heads and, actually, she's probably just interested in something else. She's not deliberately ignoring you, because that implies she's thinking about it and choosing an action. She's doing her own thing.' Wondering what your dog is thinking about is probably futile. They can analyse situations, says Mills, but they aren't capable of abstract thought in the way we are. Rather than being able to plan ahead, 'they're capable of goal-directed behaviour, but again, it doesn't require complex thoughts – you just have to have, in your brain, some sort of model'. What makes dogs happy? 'Being with you,' says Woods. 'I think the happiest dog is when they're spending quality time with their owners.' Wynne says he's always on the verge of writing a paper 'called 'What is a good life for a dog?', and I don't suppose for a moment that it's the same for every single dog.' Every dog he's ever known loved going for walks, but his new dog prefers to go for a ride in the car. 'Discover through experience what makes a good life for your dog.' Aside from the obvious things – food, water, shelter, security and veterinary care – Wynne says 'almost all dogs need strong emotional connections to the people they live with'. It's the reason he dislikes the term 'separation anxiety' because 'it makes it sound like the dog is wrong [to miss you]. It is not reasonable to leave dogs alone for six, eight, 14 hours a day.' I write as Rhubarb, my 10-month-old golden retriever, is staring at me. Is she simply telling me she loves me, as Woods suggests, or is it because she thinks it's time to stop work and pay her some attention? I'll take it as the latter.
