{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":""Do You Have a Dog Voice?"","description":"It's a rediculous question I ask when getting to know another couple. Their answer tells me a lot. . . -------------------------------- When my wife and I meet new couples, there\u2019s always a series of get to know you questions. \u201cHow did you two meet?\u201d is a standard one. \u201cTell me about your children\u201d is another. But a question I enjoy asking that tells me most of what I want to know about a couple is this: \u201cDo you change your voice when you talk to your dog?\u201d \u201cDo you have a dog voice?\u201d If the couple say that they don\u2019t have a dog, or that they only have cats, or that they don\u2019t have a dog voice, I\u2019m going to be on the fence about whether these people are worth getting to know. And I understand if you feel my position is an extreme rush to judgement over a silly \u201cget to know you\u201d question. And you\u2019re right. It is. But there\u2019s something about dog people and their admission to having a dog-voice that makes me think \u201cThese people are just the right kind of crazy.\u201d I can tell when any member of my family is talking to our dog, Lucy. Each one of us has a distinct \u201cLucy-voice\u201d and no two are the same. Lucy, of course, does not care what voice anyone uses so long as it leads to attention or a scratch or food or a walk. A well-known part of Presidential polling is that Presidents, or Presidential candidates, who have a dog get increased favorability ratings because of the dog. People tend to like Presidents who have dogs. Remember the number of times Joe Biden was pictured with his beautiful German Shephard, Champ, during his campaign? Those two were all over the media and that was no mistake. Champ got votes for Biden. According to an article on the Huffington Post, dogs make voters think, \u201cHe seems like a guy I could have a beer with.\u201d And there\u2019s probably some truth to that. According to that same article, the first president in over 150 years who did not have a dog was the same guy who orders his steaks cooked well-done and then covers them in ketchup. You can guess who I\u2019m talking about. Amazing what these preferences tell us about people, myself included. At dinner the other night, I asked my dog voice question to a couple we\u2019ve been friends for a while. They did not answer Yes to the dog voice question, they immediately began talking in their dog voices about their dog. They didn\u2019t think about it, they didn\u2019t hesitate, they instantly replied in their dog voices and begin telling us about their English bulldog, Louise, and how they talk to her and how they treat her and on and on. My wife joined in talking about our dog, Lucy, using her dog-voice and the three of them talked for a while about their dogs, using their dog voices the whole time. I observed. I said nothing. And I thought, \u201cNow these people \u2013 including my wife \u2013 might just be on the other side of crazy.\u201d I\u2019m Cam Marston and I\u2019m just trying to Keep It Real. ","author_name":"Keepin' It Real with Cam Marston","author_url":"https:\/\/cammarston.com\/keepin-it-real-with-cam-marston\/","html":"