Rain. Rain. Rain. Mud. Rain. Mud. Rain. Mud. You get the idea. It is so wet here in southern Wisconsin that it feels like we are living in a petri dish, designed to grow every plant disease known to man. Granted, it's not like the monsoon rains I remember from coastal Alaska, but then, that area is classified as a rain forest. Its plant and animal life is adapted to it. Not true here. I'll illustrate by starting with a rather nice photo of our sunflowers in front of the barn. And here's a wider shot, complete with the squishy, black leaves from a mold/fungus/rot/alien monster plant eater that is found all over my garden now. (I also rather like showing the dark side of the garden, given the articles we all read about how social media presents an unrealistic view of the lives Read More
Archives for September 2019
The Eyes Have It
We're babysitting a friend's dog while she is out of the country, and as you can see, he has one blue eye and one brown. I've always found different color eyes on a dog a bit disorienting; I'm curious about how long it will take me to get used to it. Question One: Do you have a dog that has different color eyes? How did/do you react to it? Thinking about eye color got me thinking about the importance of eye contact in social relationships. We know quite a bit about it in human relationships, and are beginning to learn about it in interspecific ones (relationships between individuals of two species). For example, we know that prolonged eye contact between strangers, if in a safe and relaxing environment, increases oxytocin and thus feelings of attachment. As I write in a 2015 Read More
Take a Bow for Teaching a Play Bow
Our good friend Debby G came to visit recently, with a report on how her dog Monty was doing. Monty was found on a porch a year ago spring, starving and close to death. Here's a photo of the poor thing soon after he was found. Not surprisingly, although physically healthy now, Monty has a lot of fears, including even the sight of another dog. The good news is that Debby is a dedicated dog owner, and that she has a great team of trainers helping her. Her primary goal is to walk Monty down the street without him freaking out every time he sees another dog. They are making good progress, walking in parallel with one of those worth-his-weight-in-gold Goldendoodles who is stable, unreactive and probably hoarding dog food to deliver to rescue organizations if he could just get a hold of Read More
Spay-Neuter or De Sex?
Years ago, I was in the Scotland at a reception kicking off a conference on animal welfare. I was introduced to the group by my host as an "American Ethologist." There was a smattering of welcoming applause in greeting, and then a kindly-looking gentleman approached me, asked if he could get me a glass of wine. He returned, passed me my glass and said: "You Americans are butchers." I had meant to sip my wine, but now I began gulping it. I had no idea what he was referring to but my mind went to American foreign policy. I said nothing, while he went on to say he was appalled that Americans de-sex their dogs and cats as a matter of course, no matter how healthy they were. "That's disgusting," he told me. "Should young girls have their sex organs removed to prevent the possibility of Read More
Adventures at the Midwest Championship Sheepdog Trial
Holy Moly, Batman, the Wisconsin Working Stockdog Labor Day Trial really is held on the biggest, baddest course in the Midwest. What you see below is only part of it, I don't have a wide enough angle to show you the whole thing. The dog and handlers begin the course standing far to the right, way out of the photo, and in the Open class, the sheep are actually set out far on the left, up at the top of the hill you can see at the edge of the picture. Here's a recap of our adventures: First Run, The Good: Maggie did okay, in her second attempt at running on an Open course, on a ridiculously challenging course with what turned out to be extremely difficult sheep. She found the sheep, which in itself was a major victory. I couldn't see her for about 2/3 of her run because of the Read More