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The twenty first century has brought us many innovations already, such as phones more powerful than the computers that sent the Apollo missions to space and the ability to rewind or pause our television shows. Seriously, what did we do back in the dark ages before we could rewind moments of the Kitten Bowl?
It’s also ushered in an era where you can program a disc shaped robot to sweep and mop your floors in your absence. Who doesn’t love that?…Your dog. Your dog is who doesn’t love that. To be fair, not all dogs find that handy little helper known as a Roomba threatening or, in same cases, soul-crushingly terrifying, but for as many that stare at it with vague bemusement there’s an equal number who wish they could send it back to the bowels of hell from whence, in their minds, it came.
So what do you do if you find that fido isn’t getting along with the electronic help? According to many pet and Roomba owners, the answer may be as simple as telling your floor sweeping android off in the presence of your pooch. Research has shown that dogs constantly observe humans, focusing in on the things we do and how we interact with other people and things. By disciplining your Roomba in front of your dog, he’ll see that you’re in charge of it, thus making him feel more comfortable with the electronic interloper.
This could be due to the fact that dogs follow a social hierarchy and need to have you help define where the robot falls within it. Without being able to take a glimpse inside your pup’s thoughts (how awesome would that be?) we’ll really never know. But give it a try the next time Rover and Roomba square off, it just might help smooth the chaotic relationship the following dogs are clearly still having with your floor washing friend.
What do you want? Damn you, state your demands!
Spin in a circle one more time and I’ll lunge at you like kid on a candy bar!
I mean, are you just gonna let it get away with running around here all crazy, leaving a big wet trail everywhere it goes? Seriously? Cuz, if I did that there’d be yelling. That’s all I’m saying.
Mom! It’s coming right for us! Stop staring lovingly at that champagne bottle and intervene! Moooommm!
Now you stay there and think about what you’ve done!
I have done it! I have achieved victory over you, mechanical scum!
It appears as though Maralynn has taken matters into her own hands.
Tell my mother I love her and that her favorite scarf is buried out by the azaleas!
You wanna go? Huh? What? BRING IT!
Even Goji, OGP’s Chief Happiness Monster, has a complicated relationship with the Roomba as she turns it on, but then flees from it in terror.
Lead Image Credit: Oliver’s Bungalow
My dogs followed mine around nervously at first. Now they don’t even move unless it bumps into them!