ohmidog!

The two dogs that were set on fire in Dallas, and burned so badly that they had to be euthanized, apparently were part of a dogfighting operation.

Dallas police say they’ve arrested two 17-year-olds in connection with the April 4 incident.

Some of the seven other dogs seized from the property of one of them, Lefferido Sudds, had injuries that a veterinarian said were consistent with dog fighting. Those dogs’ injuries were so severe that they, too, were euthanized.

Sudds and Jucorey Davis are facing animal cruelty charges, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

To better understand the human mind, scientists ar Harvard University are looking to dogs.

Through a newly established Canine Cognition Lab, researchers hope to learn whether domestication has led to dogs that think and act more like their masters, or whether that’s all in our heads.

“Here’s this species we live with. Everyone has their views about how smart they are. No doubt we are overinterpreting – and in some cases underinterpreting,” said Marc Hauser, a Harvard professor who has long studied cognition in cottontop tamarin monkeys and who heads the new lab. “To what extent is an animal that’s really been bred to be with humans capable of some of the same psychological mechanisms?”

Hauser is recruiting both purebreds and mutts and running them through simple tests aimed at determining, for example, whether they understand such abstract concepts as “same,” according to a recent Boston Globe article.

The new Harvard lab represents a turnaround in the scientific community, which has long looked primarily toward chimps for clues to human behavior.

“Psychologists have been ignoring animals that were sleeping quietly at their feet while they were doing work on rats and pigeons,” said Clive Wynne, a psychology professor at the University of Florida who also studies pets. “Darwin wrote about his dog … We couldn’t bring ourselves to take them seriously.”

In one of the tests at Harvard, researchers tried to determine whether dogs can use pictures as signs to figure out which bucket contains food. They presented Celia, a German shepherd, with a choice between a bucket marked with a picture of steak and one marked with a pair of pliers. Celia picked the steak.

Katie Levesque, Celia’s owner, said she tries to give her dog challenging tasks at home but was surprised that her dog picked pictures of food three times, also choosing a hot dog over a hammer, and three biscuits over one.

“I was kind of laughing,” said Levesque, who sat in a corner of the room with Celia at her feet during the experiment. Owners can also watch their dogs from behind a one-way mirror. Only about 20 dogs have been tested, so it’s too early to draw conclusions about dogs’ comprehension of pictures.

The Canine Cognition Lab is recruiting dogs. Check its website for more information.

Before he showed up at the White House, Bo Obama was kept under wraps at the rural Virginia home of Dawn Sylvia-Stasiewicz, a veteran dog trainer who says she has been deluged with attention and clients since word got out she was Bo’s trainer.

After being glowingly profiled in USA Today yesterday, chances are there’s only more of that ahead.

Sylvia-Stasiewicz declined to say anything about her work with Bo or her contacts with the Obamas — apparently she’s a firm believer in dog trainer-client confidentiality — but she did note that she has been besieged by dog lovers, the media and bloggers.

“It’s a little crazy, a little surreal,” she said. Even though she has been training pets for rich, famous or otherwise high-profile clients for years, Sylvia-Stasiewicz says she’s never had a reaction like Bo brought. Sylvia-Stasiewicz, who left DC five years ago for 5 acres in rural Fauquier County, has also worked with Ted Kennedy’s dogs, and one belonging to the mother of actress Sandra Bullock.

A housewife and mother of three who once took part in showing dogs as a hobby, including a Portuguese water dog, Syliva-Stasiewicz, half Portuguese herself, turned to training dogs as a career after a divorce. She’s the owner and founder of Merit Puppy Training, and a proponent of positive-reinforcement, which rejects chokers and harsh corrections and relies on rewards.

She says her newfound fame won’t effect the way she does business, other than possibly leading her to add more clients and classes. Thanks to Obama, it seems, Sylvia-Stasiewicz got her stimulus package.

(Photo: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

If this is your dog in the ohmidog! “O,” submit a comment on this entry and you’ll win a free FURminator.

The pooch above was one of several whose owners visited the ohmidog! booth at the Maryland SPCA’s March for the Animals earlier this month.

New York’s Housing Authority has managed to discriminate against dogs and poor people — all in one vast, over-reaching swoop.

Effective today, pit bulls, Rottweilers and Doberman pinschers are banned from all city housing projects. 

“Finally someone is realizing that these potentially dangerous animals have no place in a confined urban space,” said City Councilman Peter Vallone (D-Queens), who has unsuccessfully lobbied state legislators to ban the dogs.

The new Housing Authority regulations also bar residents from owning any dog over 25 pounds; previously the limit was 40 pounds. (Housing Authority residents who already have the breeds will be able to keep them as long as they register by today.)

City housing officials said residents urged them to ban the dogs because they are vicious and threatening, the New York Daily News reports. But dog lovers who have pit bulls and the other targeted pooches are upset.

“He’s my baby,” Jose Hernandez, 32, who lives in the Lillian Wald Houses on the lower East Side, said of his 6-year-old pit bull, Chopper. “These are not bad dogs.”

The ASPCA and other groups opposed to the ban have been working with the city housing agency to ease some of the restrictions. “We are opposed to breed-specific bans,” said Michelle Villagomez, ASPCA senior manager of advocacy and campaigns. “And we find the weight restriction is too oppressive.”