Comments on: Can Your Dog Cut a Rug? The DISCOVER Dancing Pet Challenge

By: Orange County Veterinarian

Orange County Veterinarian — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 05:08:00 +0000

Hmm isn’t there another animal dancing in the background? By the way Snowball seems to have inspired the movie Rio! He’s headbanging!

By: Ethan

Ethan — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 22:07:42 +0000

@Monica: at that point in the video, the bird is looking towards the other side of the room anyway, so it doesn’t really matter what the human is doing.

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 16:40:48 +0000

Hmm… not dancing but this makes me think of that death metal band Hatebeak that has an African Grey as their lead singer. ^.^ (Since death metal is a genre where the ability to make noises like a damned soul is a mark of talent.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatebeak

By: Jumblepudding

Jumblepudding — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 18:45:09 +0000

I wish dancing animals had better taste in music.

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 07:15:33 +0000

Have none of your responders ever seen bird mating dances?
Watch a fascination of flamingoes.

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 17:50:39 +0000

Dogs AND cats: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xOh1TRGNjw

/contest

By: Rockey

Rockey — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 11:47:13 +0000

Snowball was actually independently studied. Can’t find the full article but:

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/04/30/dancing-birds-rhythm.html

“While Snowball danced away to different beats manipulated by the scientists, they coded his movements from video and discovered the cockatoo synchronized his head-banging, body swaying and foot tapping to musical rhythms far more often than mere chance would predict.”

By: Monica

Monica — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 03:14:40 +0000

You can actually very clearly see the shadow of a human dancing energetically (starting at 1:08) in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. My best guess is to agree with Alexa as there is clear influence of the handler in this video.

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 00:37:01 +0000

LOVE it. Also love the head-banging at the end.

In related news, about 20 years ago, there was another Cockatoo dancing to the beat (I think it was on the Tonight Show). In that case though, it was to one of the Fat Boys (who happened to be on the show at the same time).

@ Idlewilde: I think ALL parrots sound like that. Well, at least Amazons do. And especially the one who lived in my parents’ house for many years. Snowball aside, if you ever need an extra reminder of why exotic birds don’t make good pets, that’d be a great one.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 23:47:04 +0000

Actually I’ve seen quite many a video with birds bobbing in beat to the music. If this is rare, it may not entirely rare within the avian community (at least the parrot community anyway.) Especially since they are flock birds and rely on sound to locate each other within dense canopy.

By: Idlewilde

Idlewilde — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 23:02:10 +0000

That bird screaming in the background sounds like a damned soul….wonder where it learned to scream like it was dying….

By: Alexa Fox

Alexa Fox — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 22:11:50 +0000

You might get a video of a dog dancing to a beat, but it is meaningless if you can’t rule out the Clever Hans effect. If the dog is getting timing cues from a handler, there’s no proof that dog understands the concept of a beat. Most of the videos received will likely fall victim to this problem.

By: Cat

Cat — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 21:42:04 +0000

Have you seen the salsa dancing dog?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRaPVTetseI