Thanks to all of you who commented on the saga of Willie and Sushi. (And for those of you who haven't read the last post, my biggest training/behavior challenge at the moment is Willie's obsessive herding/stalking of my cat Sushi. I have started a new paradigm, which is to quietly and politely ask him to sit every time he looks at Sushi as if herding. Sounds simple, but so far it's the only "incompatible behavior" that seems to take him out of obsessive stalking mode.) Good news, although I hesitate to say that and doom myself with premature optimism. Does Willie ignore Sushi now? Oh no, oh my no. I truly don't believe that I will ever be able to completely turn around his interest and fascination bordering on obsessive/compulsive behavior around Sushi as a small, herdable animal. Read More
All “Incompatible Behaviors” are not Equal
Yeah well, this is something I know well, except, uh... how come it took me 2 years to figure it out with my own dog? Sigh. Here's the back story: As many of you know, my 3 year old BC, Willie, is both a joy and a challenge. He's joyful, incredibly responsive, the perfect dog for me to work on sheep, so reliable when working that I can let the sheep graze by the road, smart, fast and handsome. He also: * Came with projectile diarrhea (lasted 3 months, now completely solved). * Developed a bad shoulder early in life (now managed and partially healed, 'tho surgery still a potential). * Developed, also early on, a serious dog-dog aggression problem (partially treated and partially managed; plays with lots of other dogs, makes good, reliable decisions to keep himself out of trouble, but Read More