With apologies to James Russell Lowell, it is the fall months that make my heart sing the most, although I'm not sure why. Perhaps because I know what's coming? I'm playing hookey today, soaking up knowledge from one of the UK's top sheepdog trainer/handlers, Gordon Watt, who also judged the Nippersink Trial last Friday-Sunday. Thanks to advice from Kathy Knox at her great clinic the weekend before, Willie and I had a great second run at the trial, and did our best ever in the ProNovice class. I can't resist a chance to work with Gordon, sort of like taking a tennis lesson from Raphael Nadal. There is only room for me to work one dog with Gordon (thank you Margaret for getting me in, not to mention organizing both the trial and the clinic!), so I'll probably work Maggie because she is Read More
Archives for September 2014
Click and… Always Treat? Or Not?
Let me start by asking: Which does your dog like better, the anticipation of something good, or the good thing itself? Counter-intuitively, the research of Jaak Panksepp suggests it’s the anticipation of a reinforcement that is most enjoyable, not the reinforcement itself. Panksepp calls the emotion of anticipation the “seeking or wanting system,” versus the “liking system” that kicks in once an individual gets what it wants. In other words, which gets your dog more excited, hearing the clicker, or getting the treat? Hearing “Let’s go on a walk!” or actually going on the walk? (See here for a speech on this system by Panksepp.) I thought of this a while ago when walking into the Overture Center in Madison, Wisconsin to see a show by the famous comedian, Jerry Seinfeld. I floated in on a Read More
Assistance Dogs International (Or does the “I” Stand for Inspiring?)
If you're feeling a tad disheartened by the news, or maybe the view in the mirror when you went to buy new pants (okay, that's probably just my problem), I have a suggestion: Go out of your way to go to the Assistance Dogs International Conference, wherever it might be held in the years to come. I'm at the 2014 conference in Denver, as I write, having spoken yesterday about People, Trauma and Dogs (focusing primarily on identifying trauma in dogs and using what we know about healing from it in humans to apply to helping traumatized dogs). It's hard to imagine a more inspiring place. The rooms are full of awesome people doing wonderful things, many accompanied by equally awesome service dogs doing equally wonderful things themselves. One of the things you take away from a conference like Read More
Ouch: The dangers of sticks as dog toys.
Last week I spent a few hours in a veterinary emergency clinic, providing emotional support for a friend whose dog had gashed his throat on a stick. He's fine now, but it could have been much worse. One friend's dog almost died after impaling his chest on a stick. It missed his heart by millimeters. I don't write this to make anyone paranoid about playing fetch with their dog, but as a word of caution. I should say that I've tossed thousands of sticks to dogs in the past, and I still occasionally pull a stick out of the wood pile for Willie to run around with. People have been throwing sticks for dogs to retrieve for eons. But then, people have been giving dogs cooked bones for decades too. (I remember a vacation in Jamaica during which the visiting Americans snatched cooked chicken bones Read More
Adopting Littermates… (Don’t)
The title of this post is a bit strong, but I do want to caution people from adopting two dogs from the same litter because "it's easier" to raise two at once (ask someone with twins if it's easier than having one child) or "we don't want our dog to be lonely." (Because you might be if the dogs are so enchanted with each other that they ignore you). I'm writing this now because we have gotten a number of questions about this issue lately: "Someone told me I shouldn't adopt dogs from the same litter, is that true?" Far be it from me to say what you should or shouldn't do, but there are a lot of red flags related to getting pups from the same batch. Before I say more, I should add that I've looked and asked around for any research on this issue and haven't found a thing that supports (or Read More