Christine Hibbard, CTC, CPDT-KA
If you follow our blog, you know we’re a bunch of science geeks. Oh sure, we write in depth about dog training and animal behavior but what you might not know unless you spend a bit of time with us is that we never miss an opportunity to make dog training and animal behavior interesting and fun! This is never more true than with our mentor, Associate Research Professor, Dr. Jim Ha. He is a professor at the University of Washington and Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist. He’s always working on something fascinating and important. He even manages to make genetics and statistics fun. How many people can you say that about?!
I’ll admit that I know less than nothing about online gaming or video games but I was excited to read Jim’s interview with Steve Watts over at 1up.com about Nintendogs. Steve talks to Jim about how realistic Nintendo’s dog simulator is in giving gamers the experience of raising their own puppy. OK gamers, educate us about this whole thing. Do any of you play on one of these video game consoles? What do you think about Nintendogs?
Yes, this was one of the more interesting interviews I’ve given… how to compare owning a dog with… a simulation of owning a dog. But as I thought about it, there were some real similarities and some real, obvious differences, and that’s where I decided to focus. It came out pretty well: I think that these sort of simulations can teach SOMETHING but are, of course, quite limited.
But it was fun, and different… never know what’s going to appear in the next email!
Cheers,
Jim Ha
After owning a dog for about 8 years, I have come to understand them. I believe that Nintendogs does actually feel quite realistic in many ways. Of course not all dogs can be taught this quickly, but my dog is actually pretty intelligent, and will learn in a similar way and possibly even speed to the Nintendogs. The way that Nintendogs react to being touched and… ahem… touched near the wrong area, is quite accurate.