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Therapist makes adorable videos explaining everything you should know about dog psychology

Here's a selection of some of the cutest and most informative videos that'll teach you a bit more about your four-legged friend.

dog psychology, dog tips, dog videos

Millie the Noodle Horse.

One of the most humane trends in the past 30 years of American life has been the decline in greyhound racing. After hitting its peak in 1985, state laws have led to the closure of racetracks across the country.

By the end of 2022, there will only be two active greyhound tracks in the United States, both in West Virginia.

The change in attitudes toward dog racing has meant an increase in greyhounds being rescued and living second lives as family pets. Greyhounds are great around children, have happy dispositions and, even though they're fast on the track, they don't require a lot of exercise.

This has led them to have the nickname the "45 mile-per-hour couch potato."


Occupational therapist Taylor Huerta adopted a greyhound named Millie in 2018 and the pair has become quite the hit on social media. Huerta has a bachelor's degree in psychology and a doctoral degree in occupational therapy.

So it wasn't long before Millie became one of her subjects of study.

"Psychology is a major aspect of my career and has always been a fascination of mine," she told Bored Panda.

After adopting Millie, Huerta realized that her dog was anxious so she put on her therapist's hat and began learning all she could about dog psychology.

"From separation anxiety to social anxiety, I got a first-hand glimpse into the psychology of a dog. It became my passion to educate myself on [the subject], and through many hours of research, I gained a better understanding of Millie," Huerta explained.

She began posting videos on social media to help bridge the gap between humans and their fur babies. Heurta calls Millie a "noodle horse" because of her equine-looking features and spindly limbs that contort themselves into impossible shapes.

The result is a series of super-cute videos featuring Millie that are so popular, the MillieTheNoodleHorse TikTok page has more than 1.2 million followers. Here's a selection of some of the cutest and most informative videos that'll teach you a bit more about your four-legged friend.

When dogs lean on you, it's a hug.

@milliethenoodlehorse

🥺 #dog #dogs #dogsofttiktok #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #cute #forupage

If your dog has quick bursts of energy, it's a good thing.

@milliethenoodlehorse

🥰✨ #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #dog #dogsoftiktok #Hyperfixated #NewYearNewMiO #WhatILearned

A crotch sniff is a health check-up.

@milliethenoodlehorse

🥺 #fy #fyp #foryoupage #dog #dogsofttiktok #adopted #mybaby

Why do dogs tilt their head while looking at people?

@milliethenoodlehorse

🥺 #dog #dogs #dogsofttiktok #fyp #foryoupage #foryourpage #viral #trend

Why do dogs get so excited when their owners come home?

@milliethenoodlehorse

🥺 #dog #dogs #dogsofttiktok #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #foryourpage

When a dog sleeps with your clothing, it's a beautiful thing.

@milliethenoodlehorse

🥺 #dog #dogsofttiktok #fyp #foryou

When a dog licks your cut, they're playing doctor.

@milliethenoodlehorse

Dr. Doggo. #fy #fyp #forupage #dog #dogsofttiktok #adopted #foryoupage


Huerta and Millie are doing an incredible job of making dog psychology fun and informative. Their TikTok page is a great way to help spread awareness about our incredibly adorable, yet complex, four-legged friends. The better we understand one another the more wonderful and fulfilling our relationships will be.


This article originally appeared on 11.12.21

Pets

The most inspiring pet stories of 2024

Leading pet brand Nulo knows every cat and dog has the power to be incredible.

Incredible pets deserve incredible food.

2024 was a year filled with heartwarming stories that reminded us of the incredible bond between humans and their furry companions. From acts of bravery to heartwarming gestures, these pets made a huge impact on the lives of their owners… and the lives of many, many more.

It’s stories like these that continue to inspire leading pet nutrition brand Nulo, which is committed to helping pets live their best lives with functional, delicious and nutritious food. Through their innovative and intentional formulas, Nulo fuels incredible cats and dogs just like the ones below each and every day.

Enjoy some stories below of 2024’s goodest boys and girls — courageous dogs, trauma-informed kitties and much, much more —that really show the unwavering love and loyalty animals bring into our lives. Their inspiring actions fuel incredible.

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When a 71-year-old man went unconscious and collapsed during a steep hike, his golden retriever and a black labrador instinctively broke up into a rescue team — the smart and resourceful labrador going off to look for help, and the loyal goldie staying by its owner's side. Sometimes it’s smart to have two of “man’s best friends.”

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Marley, a seven-year-old, black and white feline known for his "incredible gift of empathy” won Cat Protection's National Cat of the Year 2024 for the way he comforts women who have been enslaved, exploited and trafficked and staying at the Caritas Bakhita Safe House in London. He’s known to often leave a reassuring paw on guests’ legs to “let them know they’re not alone,” a gesture often called “the first kindness they’ve experienced in years.”

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In early 2024, Kobe, a four-year-old husky with an extraordinary sense of smell, began digging obsessively in the yard. At first the pooch’s owner, Chanell Bell, thought this was just typical behavior, but soon discovered that Kobe had indeed detected a dangerously large cloud of natural gas that would have not only been seriously life-threatening to her, but the entire neighborhood. It’s like they say, “the nose knows.”

Eight-year-old golden retriever Roger, may have failed his drug-sniffing training in Taiwan, but it turns out he has a knack for rescue operations during natural disasters. After a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck, Roger dug through the rubble of a collapsed building to locate the body of one of the 13 people killed in the quake, offering closure to a grieving family. This earned him the nickname of “the pride of Taiwan” on social media.

Dogs don’t only save humans — sometimes they rescue other animals as well.

When folks scrolling through the X account called “Animals Dying” saw a video of a creature swimming through murky water with a deer fawn in its jaws, they probably assumed it was an alligator enjoying its latest meal. But to everyone’s surprise and delight, it was actually a Labrador Retriever making sure the sweet little fawn didn’t drown.

Once a stray, 12-year-old Cilla found her home at Outwoods Primary School in Warwickshire, England, where she calms anxious students, inspires a community of cat lovers on X, and has even used her social media celebrity to help raise £5,000 to restock the school library — a place she loves to lounge in.

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In July, Bloodhound puppy and K-9 unit member Remi used his powerful nose to help an autistic and non-verbal boy who had gotten lost find his way back home. Deputy B. Belk, Remi’s partner, used a piece of sterile gauze to collect the scent from the boy’s forearms and the back of his neck and had Remi “reverse” track backwards for about half a mile to locate the child’s home in a nearby neighborhood.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

When a beautiful pooch named Gita saw her 84-year-old owner fall and hurt his leg, she ran down to the main road, and refused to move until someone stopped to help. Eventually she was seen by a man named Deputy Wright, who tried to get Gita into his patrol car, but the dog wouldn’t budge. When Gita did finally bolt off, Wright followed her down to where the man had been stranded, and was able to help him. Without her protection, who knows if the man would have been found in time? “The loyalty and heroism of our furry friends never cease to amaze us,” Wright would end up writing on Facebook.

If there’s an incredible furry friend in your own life, nothing says “thank you” quite like a nourishing meal. Check out Nulo for a variety of recipes sure to be loved by your beloved pet.

Pop Culture

'Wicked' author reveals how one line in 'The Wizard of Oz' inspired Elphaba and Glinda's story

Gregory Maguire says he "fell down to the ground" laughing when the idea hit him.

Public domain

Gregory Maguire was inspired by a line in the original 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz."

Have you ever watched a movie or read a book or listened to a piece of music and wondered, "How did they come up with that idea?" The creative process is so enigmatic even artists themselves don't always know where their ideas come from, so It's a treat when we get to hear the genesis of a brilliant idea straight from the horse's mouth. If you've watched "Wicked" and wondered where the idea for the friendship between Elphaba (the Wicked Witch) and Glinda (the Good Witch) came from, the author of the book has shared the precise moment it came to him.

The hit movie "Wicked" is based on the 20-year-old hit stage musical, which is based on the novel "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West" written by Gregory Maguire. While the musical is a simplified version of the 1995 book, the basic storyline—the origins of the two witches from "The Wizard of Oz"—lies at the heart of both. In an interview with BBC, Maguire explained how Elphaba and Glinda's friendship popped into his head.

Maguire was visiting Beatrix Potter's farm in Cumbria, England, and thinking about "The Wizard of Oz," which he had loved as a child and thought could be an interesting basis for a story about evil.

"I thought 'alright, what do we know about 'The Wizard of Oz' from our memories,'" he said. "We have the house falling on the witch. What do we know about that witch? All we know about that witch is that she has feet. So I began to think about Glinda and the Wicked Witch of the West…

"There is one scene in the 1939 film where Billie Burke comes down looking all pink and fluffy, and Margaret Hamilton is all crawed and crabbed and she says something like, 'I might have known you'd be behind this, Glinda!' This was my memory, and I thought, now why is she using Glinda's first name? They have known each other. Maybe they've known each other for a long time. Maybe they went to college together. And I fell down onto the ground in the Lake District laughing at the thought that they had gone to college together."

In "Wicked," Glinda and the Wicked Witch, Elphaba, meet as students at Shiz University, a school of wizardry. They get placed as roommates, loathe each other at first, but eventually become best friends. The story grows a lot more complicated from there (and the novel goes darker than the stage play), but it's the character development of the two witches and their relationship with one another that force us to examine our ideas about good and evil.


- YouTubeyoutu.be

Maguire also shared with the Denver Center for Performing Arts what had inspired him to use the "Wizard of Oz" characters in the first place.

"I was living in London in the early 1990’s during the start of the Gulf War. I was interested to see how my own blood temperature chilled at reading a headline in the usually cautious British newspaper, the Times of London: 'Sadaam Hussein: The New Hitler?' I caught myself ready to have a fully formed political opinion about the Gulf War and the necessity of action against Sadaam Hussein on the basis of how that headline made me feel. The use of the word Hitler – what a word! What it evokes! When a few months later several young schoolboys kidnapped and killed a toddler, the British press paid much attention to the nature of the crime. I became interested in the nature of evil, and whether one really could be born bad. I considered briefly writing a novel about Hitler but discarded the notion due to my general discomfort with the reality of those times. But when I realized that nobody had ever written about the second most evil character in our collective American subconscious, the Wicked Witch of the West, I thought I had experienced a small moment of inspiration. Everybody in America knows who the Wicked Witch of the West is, but nobody really knows anything about her. There is more to her than meets the eye."

Authors and artists—and their ideas—help hold a mirror up to humanity for us to see and reflect on who we are, and "Wicked" is one of those stories that makes us take a hard look at what we're seeing in that mirror. Thanks, Gregory Maguire, for launching us on a collective journey that not only entertains but has the potential to change how we see one another.

lighted string light during nighttime

John Reichart, 74, is on a mission to bring Christmas cheer and new memories to his wife of 53 years, Joan, following her Alzheimer's diagnosis. Joan was diagnosed four years ago with the disease. The couple got engaged on Christmas Eve, and Joan has been a lover of the Christmas season throughout their marriage.

So Reichert decided to decorate every house in their Indianola, Iowa, neighborhood this year with holiday decorations and lights that he purchased out of his own pocket. His goal: to bring Joan joy and help her make new memories for them to share while she still can.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Reichart asked each neighbor for permission before he began to decorate. “One neighbor thought I was kidding until I showed up at his lawn putting decorations up,” he told Iowa's Local 5 News.

Reichert has painstakingly decorated each of the 17 homes on his block, complete with illuminated Christmas trees, snowmen, wreaths, snow flakes and more.

A Marine veteran, Reichart has vowed to keep decorating until he physically is unable to do so. Unfortunately, he's not sure how much time that will be. Reichart shared that Joan's condition has continued to worsen, that she is forgetting how to brush her teeth and that she is "to a point of having more bad days than good.”

"I love her with all my heart and soul. As long as she enjoys it, I'll keep doing it as long as I have the strength to do it. I'll do it every Christmas,” he told the news outlet. “Time is limited, time is short and so I want her to remember. This is something that she will remember.”

And his wife is incredibly grateful for his love and care. “He means the world to me. Without him, I don’t know what I’d do,” she told the news outlet.

With the entire East Franklin Avenue neighborhood decorated, Reichart has invited his local community to take a stroll or drive down the street to enjoy the display for themselves, noting that the lights will be lit from 5 to 11 p.m. everyday until the second week of January.

To help recoup the cost of the lights and storage, the Reicharts' neighbor, Frank Ewurs, created a GoFundMe for John and Joan with a fundraising goal of $20,000.

"So many of you have already driven down our bright street and felt the love he has put on display not only for his wife, but also for everyone in the spirit of Christmas," Ewurs wrote on the fundraising page. He added, "Your generosity is helping make this incredible display of love and Christmas spirit possible. Every donation and kind word is a true gift."

The couple is also asking for Christmas cards to be sent to them to help brighten their days this holiday season. They noted that they plan to read them every night before they go to bed, and will send thank-you notes to those who send a card in the new year.

You can send them a card addressed to:

John and Joan Reichart
P.O. Box 133
Indianola, IA 50125

Her delight at finding a snack she liked has people in stitches.

In the age of Amazon and other online retailers, delivery drivers have become an integral part of our lives. But most of us rarely interact with the people who drop packages at our door via UPS or FedEx or USPS, and if we do, it's usually only for a few seconds. We might manage a friendly "Good afternoon!" or quick "Thanks a bunch!" as they hustle to and from their vehicle, always rushing to fulfil their quota as efficiently as possible.

Delivery folks work hard. They're on their feet much of the day, traipsing up hundreds of front walks a week, through all kinds of inclement weather. Yes, it's their job and they're paid to do it, but it's always nice to have your work seen and appreciated, which is one reason a video of UPS driver discovering a sweet treat on a customer's front porch is going viral.

Another reason is that it's just hilariously adorable.

A doorbell camera caught a UPS driver wearing a holiday bauble headband walking up to the door and dropping off a package as she talks to herself. After she takes a photo of the delivery, she sees that the customer had left a little tray of drinks and snacks, and her "Oooh, do I see honey bunny?" is a sign of the hilarity to come.

Watch her reaction and the way she joyfully make her way back to the truck.

Unsurprisingly, people are in love with the driver and her giddy goofiness.

"I literally laughed out loud at her crazy walk back to the truck. I need more people like her in my life."

"I have a friend like that, he just makes my day every time we see each other. 😂"

"That is way adorable! Simple act that makes the day of a random person <3."

"I don’t know anything else about her but she’s my new fave human."

"OMG she reminds me of our mail carrier so much. We leave her cookies at Christmas and she always does a little happy dance that day."

Delivery drivers and former delivery drivers shared that these kinds of gestures really do mean a lot.

"As a former delivery driver, i want you to know that if you leave snacks and drinks out for us, we love you to the moon and back. 💜"

"Driving for Amazon paid my rent for 10 months. Not exaggerating when I say that it was a dark time in my life. Snacks made me smile. every. single. time."

"I mean... I literally took something from every house that had stuff out. I worked 10-12hrs+ during the holidays... I needed every calorie I could get walking 20-30miles a day."

"Even when I didn't take them I appreciate them. it's like seeing a sign that says we love delivery drivers."

"I'll tell you what, the people who leave food got me through my holidays as a postal carrier. Nothing slaps harder than an ice cold redbull and bag of pretzels and ice cold bottle of water that was left in a cooler. I had a lady who asked me what I liked and then had sperate bags labeled "Mail carrier USPS" and "UPS GUY" and "FED EX GUY" with our preferred snacks. She asked me what my favorite ice cream was and she knew my mile long loop and knew when I parked, I'd be done in 15mins, so, she'd be waiting at the truck every day all summer with an ice cream and a napkin.

There are some people who just f---ing make the day feel worth it, if you are one of these people, you are what makes delivering mail worth it. We do notice the nice things you do for us, THANK YOU."

"I do this during the summer. I'm in Texas so it's routinely over 100°F. I'm always trying to make sure there are cold drinks for our postal workers and delivery people."

"I do it during Australian Christmas. 40c/100f plus on a December day. Coke water and Gatorade always gone by lunch."

It's a good reminder that it doesn't take a lot to show appreciation and make someone's day. These kinds of positive interactions, even when asynchronous and not directly face-to-face, are an important part of building the kind of world we all want to live in.

Every had someone tell you "turn that frown upside down!" Obnoxious advice? Maybe. But they might just be onto something. By now, most of us have heard of forced smiling — or the act of turning your mouth up at the ends into something like a smile — and how it can potentially turn your mood around by tricking your body into, essentially, think it's happy.

Research has shown that smiling more, even when you have to fake it, can boost your mood, lower stress, bring your heart rate down, and give your immune system a boost. But did you know some people say the same is actually true of laughing?

Reseachers wanted to test the positive effects of laughter, so they found some of the most stressed out people they could manage: Students.

Researchers from Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa chose nursing students who exhibited high levels of stress due to their coursework and put them through a rigorous laughing protocol. Nursing is notoriously one of the most stressful college majors.

First, students were surveyed on measures like their self-reported stress levels, the academic self-efficacy or confidence, and overall well-being.

For the test group, a group of the students took a 40-minute laughter yoga courses once per week, for five weeks.

Laughter yoga is a unique sort of yoga class that has four components, according to the study. First, a playful clapping warm-up. Next, deep breathing. Third, silly games, and fourth, laughter exercises. The idea is to force yourself to laugh — even literally saying the words ha-ha over and over — until eventually you start genuinely laughing and smiling.


two women laughing and smiling Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

Compared to the control group, the intervention group saw significant improvements in overall well-being and perceived stress levels after five weeks of laughing yoga.

The findings from the new study line up with previous research about laughing yoga and forced laughter. Previous studies have shown laughing yoga, specifically, to be beneficial for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy as well as the elderly. This aligns with common sense, too. You can only say hahaha so many times before you start genuinely cracking up, and you're bound to feel fantastic afterwards.

So far, the science says that regular forced laughter is a fun, cost-effective, and non-medicinal way of lowering stress and increasing well-being. Plus, if you try out laughing yoga, you get to tell people that you're going to yoga class when you're really just goofing around! Win-win.

Are there potential downsides to forced laughter or smiling?

smiling girl in pink and white stripe shirt Photo by Freddy Mishiki on Unsplash

Forced laughter, especially in social settings, is a heavily studied phenomenon. Did you know there are four types of forced laughter, depending on the reason and motivation behind each one? Studies show that forcing a laugh can be a mixed bag.

Intimacy maintenance laughter, or "a forced laugh used to brighten the atmosphere in a situation or to maintain or improve one’s level of intimacy with another," unsurprisingly has positive ramifications on our mental health. But expression control laughter, where we fake a laugh to hide a negative emotion, can have the opposite effect.

It definitely begs the question — could forcing ourself to laugh or smile when we're stressed actually be harmful? So far, there's not much data to suggest a downside to something as gentle and fun as laughing yoga, but there is research that shows when sad people try to smile more it makes them feel worse in certain circumstances.

And some people, whether it's supported by data or not, just can't get on board with trying to "trick" our minds and bodies into feeling a certain way. It's definitely not a concept that would sit well with truly dedicated yogis.

Finally, when it comes to the stories we've all heard about forced smiling, it turns out the positive effects are probably a lot smaller than we've been led to believe anyway. Even the recent study on laughing yoga for stressed out nursing students, while definitely demonstrating an improvement in well-being, fell short of the massive effect you might expect.

The takeaway? Forcing a laugh or a smile can be a good pick me up, and a solid everyday habit, like meditating. But it's best viewed as a short term solution and probably isn't going to cure your stress and anxiety all on its own.

The ideal would be if you can find a way to genuinely smile and laugh every day. Talk to a friend, watch a funny movie, joke around with the kids.

But if you have to start with a forced smile or laugh, it's better than nothing. Stress levels have been rising in America for years, so at this point, we'll take anything we can get!

450% increase in brain cancer risk for Depo shot birth control users

Long term birth control is something than many people look into when they know they're either done having children or have no plans to have children for several years. There are different forms of long term birth control that people can get. The choices range from one month long protection in the form of a patch or cervical ring to things that last anywhere from three to ten years with options like the arm implant or one of the many IUD choices.

In the middle of all of those options are the Depo-Provera birth control injection. This form of birth control is injected via syringe at your gynecologist's office, local health department or Planned Parenthood and protects you from pregnancy for three months. Every birth control user has their own reasoning for the type of birth control they use and the "depo shot" is fairly popular. It could be due to not having to remember a pill every day while also having a fairly short end date should someone choose to have a baby.

Recently the popular birth control has been under scrutiny after it was revealed that lawsuits had been filed due to a link between the birth control and a 450% increase in a specific type of brain cancer. This seemingly scary development has caused some of its users to panic with fear they could be exposing themselves to getting brain cancer. For some people, Depo-Provera is the only type of birth control they have found that works well with their personal chemical make up which has some people feeling like they're now out of options.

red and white plastic hand tool Photo by Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition on Unsplash

It was this panic that led people to Dr. Jennifer Lincoln's inbox. Lincoln is a board certified OBGYN who shares her medical knowledge on social media for people to reference and get accurate answers to medical questions related to those with female anatomy. Lincoln noticed an influx of people asking about the significant increased risk in developing brain tumors for those using the depo shot as their birth control option.

In a recent video posted to social media, the doctor shows a short clip of a video with text overlay reading, "when my birth control is going through a MASSIVE LAWSUIT for giving women brain tumors and I've been on it for 4 years and I'm still on it and I JUST FOUND OUT. I can't do the pill because it's too much, I can't do the IUD because it looks too painful."

medication pills blister pack Photo by Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition on Unsplash

Dr. Lincoln starts by sharing that she's an OBGYN and has gotten a lot of messages about the lawsuit before going into exactly what's happening and what people should and shouldn't be concerned about.

"So there's this study in the British Medical Journal that says using Depo-Provera leads to a 450% increase in a type of brain tumor called meningiomas, and when you Google 'depo and brain tumors' this is what you see. It's almost all completely sponsored posts by lawyers so it seems like it's really bad right," she asks.


It's at this point in the video where the OBGYN breaks down the numbers hoping to ease the minds of concerned people that come across her video. These types of studies can be difficult to read and when it comes to lawsuits, everything sounds scary. There's currently a generation that grew up hearing commercial about the mesothelioma class action lawsuit and can still recite it even though they were not the target audience. Big lawsuits grab the attention of just about everyone, so Lincoln's video just may calm the fears of those currently taking depo or those who have previously taken it.

"This is the one thing you need to know, people who are not on Depo-Provera have a 0.01% chance of being diagnosed with a meningioma. If you are on Depo-Provera, it is a 0.05% chance. That is a 450% increase but when you actually look at the actual numbers it's not that scary and this is why getting your information in context and actually understanding it is really important but lawyers are not going to explain it that way."

Health Care Abortion GIF by INTO ACTIONGiphy

In the end, your risk of getting this particular type of brain tumor goes from 1 in 10,000 to 5 in 10,000 women according to Dr. Lincoln. While that slight increase may give some people pause, for others it may calm their worries about the terrifying sounding increase. Of course any chance of a product causing cancer is too high but with proper education people are at least be able to make a more informed decision before choosing or not choosing this option for their birth control needs.