The Barking Lot is a regular weekly feature of This Just In…Written by my lovely wife, Jennifer and me.  It opens with the weekend dog walking forecast followed by the main blog from dog lover, Jennifer. Then it’s DOGS IN THE NEWS and our close. Enjoy!

THE WEEKEND DOG-WALKING FORECAST: We grade the weather outlook for taking your pet outdoors.

TODAY:  Windy with a very good chance of rain. High of 39. “F”

SUNDAY:  Cloudy with rain and snow. High of 39.  “F”

Now, here’s my lovely wife, Jennifer with this week’s main blog.

Regular readers have come to know that when it to comes to my blogging about dogs, I write about what truly interests me. Kevin says that’s what a good blogger should do.

What fascinates me is the science surrounding dogs. What makes them tick? What makes them think? What’s really going through their dog minds? Why do they behave the way they do? What about their feelings? How do they see the world around them?

Interesting that there are ongoing studies and research being conducted on these and other dog mysteries.

In my next life I want to be like Gregory Berns, professor of psychology at Emory University and the author of …

In this installment we revisit his work on the brains of pooches.

Berns defends the work of neuroscientists because, after all, he is one. He rightfully claims he and his peers know a lot more today than researchers of 40 years ago.

Here comes the part that piques my fascination. How did Berns discover some of the latest revelations about how the brains of dogs function? By getting them to voluntarily pop into MRI scanners.

“Now, after hundreds of scan sessions…Not only can we have a pretty good idea of what it’s like to be a dog, we can use this technology to know what a dog really wants.”

Berns wrote that in an article for Scientific American where he also tied in the angle of pets’ well being in custody disputes.

You can read Berns’ article here.

Keep the good work coming Professor Berns and I’ll keep blogging about it!
—-Jennifer Fischer

Thanks Jennifer!

Time now for DOGS IN THE NEWS, canines that made headlines the past week.

We normally end The Barking Lot with our video(s) but make an exception this week. Back on Monday, in the Rose Garden at the White House…

Conan was not the only dog hero. There’s “Pecky.”

Not again.

Veterans Join Airlines in Pushback Against Conduct Unbecoming a Support Dog.

Some injured veterans say the growing use of comfort animals on airplanes is making life harder on them.

Stray Dog in Canada Found Cuddling Orphaned Kittens Stuck in the Snow to Keep Them Warm.

Meet the man who fills his home with senior and special needs pets.

It has happened…again.

THAT’S IT FOR DOGS IN THE NEWS.

HERE’S OUR DOG PHOTO(s) OF THE WEEK.

We begin with, of course…

President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and first lady Melania Trump present Conan, the military working dog injured in the successful operation targeting IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in the Rose Garden at the White House, Nov. 25, 2019. Photo: AP

Photo: The White House

Hunter, a young Belgian Malinois, keeps an eye on Jazz, a nine-day-old giraffe, at the Rhino orphanage in the Limpopo province of South Africa. Jazz, who was brought in after being abandoned by her mother at birth, is being taken care of and fed at the orphanage some three hours North of Johannesburg, and has been befriended by Hunter and its sibling Duke. Photo: Jerome Delay, AP

Airport therapy pigs may become the next big thing. Just ask almost 5-year-old LiLou the pig and owner Tatyana Danilova. LiLou is a therapy pig certified by San Francisco’s Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SF SPCA). Danilova posts frequently about LiLou on her Instagram page, @lilou_sfpig. LiLou joined the “Wag Brigade” at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) more than three years ago, according to Danilova. The airport partners with the SF SPCA to bring animals to the airport to de-stress passengers and airport staff. Danilova touts LiLou as the world’s first airport therapy pig; LiLou visits San Francisco International Airport once or twice monthly on a volunteer basis. Scroll through the gallery to see LiLou in action. Photos: Courtesy of @lilou_sfpig

We close as we always do with our closing video. We’ve got a couple.

CAUGHT!

Meet Zoey.

That’s it for this week. Thanks for stopping by.

We’d really appreciate it if you forward this on to other dog lovers you know. Let them have some fun!

See ya, BARK, next Saturday!

Reuters photo