Dogs and the Laws of Physics

Physics, especially those laws of nature posited by our friend, Sir Isaac Newton are not particularly compatible with dogs, instead being more akin to water and oil. They hardly ever mix. Personally I never understood that complicated subject in school, instead choosing to be one of those liberal arts majors everyone loathes today. When determining whether to pursue a degree in the sciences, physics would have been a requirement and with its emphasis on math, well, it gave me more than a moment of pause. Physics is about scientific laws of motion and forces…but with math. Shudder! It’s a well documented fact that I’m horrible with math and it seems my dogs aren’t interested in math or the laws of physics.

Moving objects tend to keep moving. Sir Isaac Newton’s Principia formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation. “Newton’s First Law, which says “an object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.” (Source: Wikipedia) It’s called inertia, Sam which means when we’re walking, we keep walking. It’s not rip-the-shoulder-out-of-its-socket-instant freeze frame. Trust me on that one-even my orthopedic surgeon thinks so and he never agreed on much with me.

Then again maybe you guys subscribe to Raman’s scattering, described in Wikipedia as “the inelastic scattering of a photon by molecules which are excited to higher vibrational or rotational energy levels” and discovered by C. V. Raman and K. S. Krishnan, a student of Raman’s). Huh?? I looked up inelastic scattering because this made no sense to me and think it means something like ‘blah, blah Ginger, blah, blah blah.”

Courtesy, The Far Side
Let’s go parasailing!

In other words, I have no clue about that law, but am fully aware of the concept of ‘higher vibrational energy’ when the Ninja, standing perfectly still, all of a sudden launches herself into full-on Mach 5 speed with me at the end of her leash much like a human kite.

Must stay off the deep side of the pile

Newton’s second law (F = ma) is apparently is used to “make a mathematical prediction as to what path a given system will take following a set of known initial conditions.” Clearly Newton knew nothing about dogs for they generally do not travel in a straight path, instead giving in to noses that pull them along in helter-skelter fashion as they chase down a scent or prepare to answer the latest pee-mail. This law often manifests in winter and deals with leash lengths. Need I remind you sweet fur-kids, the leash is only so long and while your nose may inspire you to travel outside that length limitation, the upright firmly attached to the end is not inclined to step in ankle-deep snow just to satisfy that urge. That my dear knuckleheads is known as Murphy’s Law because that snow is almost always deeper than any boots.

Do your kiddos follow the laws of physics or are they more likely to be fans of Murphy’s Law?

Live, love, bark! ❤︎

32 thoughts on “Dogs and the Laws of Physics

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  2. love your new painting of the pups in spring time setting.
    at the park its all about the stop an sniff. snails pass us by as do turtles lol.
    leaving a few pee messages of her own.

    1. Thanks for the kind words. I realized I didn’t have any of her in front of the house and that was a big deal getting Elsa to ‘stay’ while I walked away to catch the shot on Monday. She’s my little Velcro dog and follows me EVERYWHERE unless of course a squirrel is within range, then all bets are off. 🙂

    1. Following isn’t a problem, just that human kite flying detail that poses problems. And then the issue of movement sudden coming to a crashing halt on the opposite end of the leash. My body is getting too old for those kinds of starts and stops. 🙂

  3. Cats don’t think the laws of physics apply to them. Bear’s attempted some really foolish jumps and seems to think he can fly. And then there’s the cat bed on the top perch of his cat tree. It (and HIM) can be hanging half off the back of the perch – and he’s convinced I’M evil for trying to pull the bed (and him) back on the perch so he doesn’t slip off the back. I must admit though – that nothing scares me like walking a dog in winter – with ice, it’s hard enough to stay upright … before you even add a dog or two with minds of their own 🙂

  4. Luckily my lot walk themselves…down to inspect the sheep…up to see if there might be a handy duck that has escaped….wary inspection of the chickens in case the cockerel sees them…all sitting in a row at the gate to bark at my neighbour’s cow across the road….mad gallop on our side of the fence when a cyclist passes….
    No wonder they sleep well at night. Unless there are coyotes up on the mountain in which case they join in the neighbourhood canine chorus and we get up to make a cup of tea until it subsides.

  5. As a cat parent, I think I’d make a terrible dog walker…have to hand it to all the dog folks who can handle their big furry bundles of energy. Don’t think I’d be very good at that!

  6. Mine are DEFINITELY fans of Murphy’s Law! They always seem to “need” to go out during the heaviest moment of a downpour. That’s probably the only time I make them “wait it out” for more than just a few minutes. 🤣

  7. Funny post. Tippy follows the laws of physics, most of the time. I think she subscribes to the idea that all rules are made to be broken at some point in time. But, for the most part, she’s good and doesn’t pull. When she does, I stop and have her come back and sit beside of me before we go on. She soon gets to idea that if she wants to explore, she can’t pull on her mom.

  8. oh no… you reminded me of all the yankings Cole gave. Oh he was “trained” but a squirrel or cat or plastic bag at night were all cause to forget such training and yank the mama. I asked my husband to be united this time with the new puppy, and I expect him to play good cop again letting said puppy do what he wants. Shoulders need to stay in socket!

  9. Great post! Laughed out loud! I am married to a physicist. I often joke that I married him because of his math skills (certainly not because when I met him the only picture he had hanging in his house was that of Einstein!). And yes–I am seriously math challenged. I followed the political science route because there was no math involved! The Poodle is quite the puller but I now think he’s an angel compared to my sis’s pooch (a beagle mix); she could make Arnold Schwarzenegger sweat!

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