Replace screen-based entertainment (dog TV) with snuffle mats, frozen lick bowls, and scent trails. The updated dog craves problem-solving, not passive watching.
If we are to update doggishness for the present, perhaps we need a return to the original spirit: not performative rebellion, but genuine indifference to approval. To be doggish now would mean:
The truly doggish person today is not the influencer or the troll. It is the one who, like Diogenes’ dog, scratches its fleas in public and simply doesn’t care if you’re watching. current doggishness updated
Separation anxiety is not new, but its expression has mutated. Current doggishness includes digital separation protest. Owners report that their dogs whine not just when they leave the house, but when they close a laptop lid or put on shoes associated with leaving. The dog has learned the rituals of remote work ending. This is a 2023-specific update: the dog resents the commute, because the commute now means the owner disappears for 10+ hours, not 30 minutes.
Dogs have always had a superior olfactory sense. But current doggishness involves a compulsive fixation on devices. Not to use them, but to react to them. The ping of a text, the buzz of a smartwatch, the robotic voice of Alexa—these are now scent-adjacent triggers. An updated dog will stop eating to investigate a notification sound. This is not training; this is ambient conditioning. The truly doggish person today is not the
Zoomies (FRAPs - Frenetic Random Activity Periods) have always existed. But the timing of updated zoomies is telling. They most often occur immediately after the owner ends a long phone call or a video meeting. The dog has learned that "focused human stillness" precedes "sudden human release of energy." The dog matches that energy burst precisely. It is a mirror, not a madness.
There’s a particular kind of joy that comes from watching a dog be exactly who it is: unbothered, exuberant, baffled by socks, and blissfully present. Lately I’ve been keeping a small journal of those moments — a slow-motion catalog of the little behaviors, moods, and quirks that make life with a dog endlessly entertaining and oddly instructive. Here’s the latest update from the field. like Diogenes’ dog
Twenty years ago, a dog in a public café was a rarity. Today, dogs are regulars at breweries, open-plan offices, and farmers’ markets. As a result, updated doggishness includes a finely tuned "crowd filter." These dogs do not greet every human. Instead, they exhibit tolerant indifference—allowing petting without engagement, lying down without sleeping. It is a performance of calm, not the substance of it.
Knowing current doggishness updated is useless without action. Here is the 2023 owner’s playbook.