So how would you get water in your mouth if you didn't have hands and a glass? Carefully watching how dogs and cat lap up liquid may seem trivial, but it's actually a great exercise in being a good observer. As you can see in the video below, cats get water in their mouths not by curling their tongue forward, but by doing the opposite. They curl their tongues backward, and bring water up in that way, rather than making a "cup" with the top of their tongue. When I was taping Petline for Animal Planet, the producer went crazy when I mentioned that fact. I had him slow-mo one of the videos sent in of a cat lapping up water, and showed how the tongue went the opposite direction of what we'd predict. He thought that was the most fascinating observation imaginable, and kept asking me for more Read More
Archives for November 2010
Leaving on a Trip — without the dogs
A reader asked if I'd go through what I do to prepare for a trip when I can't take my dogs along. I thought it was a good question for all of us, and a lead in to what could be a fruitful discussion. After all, leaving one's dog(s) is hard, and the only way I can do it myself without being a wreck is to have a system in which I feel like I've covered as many bases as I can. Here are some of my tips, I'd love to hear yours: 1. Put a big-lettered note by the phone that says YOU ARE HERE and give the address and phone number of your home. House sitters rarely can spit out your address in a crisis, and that's when they need it the most. 2. Also by the phone, leave EMERGENCY phone numbers for your usual vet (who you've called to approve any charges in advance) and if need be, an Emergency Read More
Stay Training – Phase I; Willie’s First Herding Dog Trial
Thanks for the discussion about the use of Body Blocks for teaching Stay, and to re-iterate a comment I made, they work equally well with dogs of all breeds and sizes (but you have to be a bit quicker with some breeds and with small dogs). If your dog is getting around you to the left or right, then you might be too close. It's herding dogs that taught me that you have more control at a bit of a distance than if you are right up close. I got away with being quite close in the video in the last post, because the dogs were relatively easy to block, but if you are having trouble, try backing up a bit. It's also a great way to learn to read dogs (what body part moves first when a dog starts to get up?) and to perfect your timing. I mentioned in last week's post that the video showed me Read More
Teach Stay with “Body Blocks”
Working Willie on sheep in preparation for tomorrow's trial reminded me of the first time I made a connection between the way Border Collies herd sheep and dog training in general. As you all know, BCs control sheep by what I call "space management." They don't bark, rarely bite, but "take the space" away from sheep in the direction they don't want sheep to go, leaving only one route open for the sheep to move. It's a bit like the way sculptors define their art: the work is as much about the space around the sculpture as it is the object itself. When you learn to work dogs on sheep, you learn a lot about managing the behavior of another animal without any physical connection. Dogs have no leashes on sheep, and dog handlers have no way of physically effecting their dog's behavior Read More
Canine Cogniton and Pointing Gestures – An Update
One of the best talks at APDT's Cognition Symposium was Monique Udell's presentation on her research on pointing gestures. I promised before I went that I'd write about new results on this issue, and Monique gave me lots to talk about. To recall the issue: some researchers, Hare and Tomasello originally, found that domestic dogs were able to follow the direction of a pointing arm to find food, while wolves and chimpanzees were not. They concluded that domestic dogs were inherently better at interpreting human gestures than other animals, presumably because the two species had co-evolved for over ten thousand years. If that were so, then it means that dogs contain some permanent change in their genetic complement that makes them able to communicate more effectively with people. Much has Read More