Seen this? The announcer tells us that the dog is “faking death.” I’m just not even going to pursue how and why someone came up with that as an explanation for this dog’s behavior, BUT… What IS going on?  I have two hypotheses, but I’m staying mum until I get your ideas.  I’ll add mine…

  Here’s Hailey, who was one of the demo dogs in Pittsburgh a few  weeks ago. Crystal is fostering Hailey, and had only had her for about a month before the seminar, and we were both concerned that her general arousal levels might make the seminar too much of a challenge for her. As it…

I did a seminar last week in Pittsburgh for the Westmoreland County Obedience Training Club, and worked with 3 dogs who had “dog-dog reactivity” problems. In choosing those dogs I had a problem myself: I had to choose from over 12 people who offered their dogs for demo’s. Right now I’m working on choosing dogs…

Perhaps “Super Normal Sign Stimuli” is not a phrase that you often use? Ah, but it should be! It summarizes a common behavior that is relevant in both human and canine behavior. SNSS refers, first, to stimuli that elicit an inherent response in individuals of a species. Red flowers, for example, attract hummingbirds, no matter…

Here’s the challenge: Besides 3 sessions a day of physical therapy, Willie is now supposed to walk for 10 minutes three times a day. On the flat, on leash. No trotting, no spinning, just slow, controlled walking. Sounds simple, but then, life being what it is, it isn’t. There’s very little flat on my little…

Friday June 24th has been designated “Take Your Dog to Work Day” by Pet Sitters International. Begun in 1999 with a goal of encouraging adoptions, Pet Sitters Int’l suggests that we all take our dogs to work to emphasize the human/animal bond, and indirectly encourage people to adopt homeless dogs. This could be a great…

If you’ve written a book, you know what it’s like to hold the final version in your hand for the first time. Love Has No Age Limit, the book I co-authored with Karen London about adopting an adolescent or adult dog, was delivered yesterday morning at 8 AM. I pulled up just after Denise had…

As many of you know, when I went to pick up Willie after his surgery, he walked past me, greeted 4 other people, and would not make eye contact with me. This continued for 2 days after his surgery. It did not appear to be a consequence of the anesthetic or pain, in that although…

So many great points being raised in the comments to my last post! One thing I want to be sure I am clear about: I am NOT suggesting that we should advise people to cut out neighborhood walks or giving their dog enough exercise to ‘wake’ them up. I hope it didn’t sound like that…

This blog is inspired by Willie, and all dogs who are recovering from injury or surgery, who are on total exercise restriction programs. Willie spends about 20 to 22 hours a day in a crate, 1 to 1.5 hours doing passive physical therapy and the rest lying down beside me getting his belly rubbed. He…

Well, we must be making progress. After reading every single one of your comments, recording them by sex, familiarity and social status (maybe, sort of, more on that later) and comparing it to Dr. Anneke Lisberg’s research on urine marking, I now am completely flummoxed about what it all might mean. But you know how…

I was going to write a follow up blog about over marking, but I want to gather a bit more information before I do. I have to say that I’ve found the comments about over marking absolutely fascinating. I’m going to summarize them next week and will give you a report of what I find.…

Last week I talked about John Bradshaw’s new book, Dog Sense, which I am enjoying immensely.  In it, he discusses why wolf behavior doesn’t necessarily predict dog behavior as well as any book I’ve seen. If you’re interested in this issue you definitely want to read this book. In response to last week’s post, some…

Well, now, this is interesting. Corsin Muller at the Clever Dog Lab in Vienna believes he has found a sex difference in the attentiveness of dogs to the expected size of a ball. Dogs were brought into a room and were allowed to play with 2 balls, one big and one small. They then were…

As many of you know, Karen London and I are writing a booklet for people who have adopted an adolescent or adult dog. We’re hoping it will be useful not just for individuals, but also for shelters and rescue groups, and ultimately for the dogs themselves. Right now our first draft is out to readers,…

I’ve given several speeches lately about why we love our dogs so much, an issue that I think deserves more attention than it gets. Given that Valentine’s Day is coming up, it seems appropriate to combine my speculations about our bond with our dogs with a valentine to one of my favorite guys. Here’s to…

In your heart, in your home, and in the lives around you. From Willie and me, we wish you the best of holidays.

I can’t resist writing a post about the birds of New Zealand. No surprise to readers, I was fascinated by the animals of NZ, many of which have been brought in for a variety of reasons. As many of you know, NZ has no native mammals except two species of bats, and has suffered greatly…

I wish everyone could have heard Alexandra Horowitz’s talk that introduced the conference this morning. She gave an articulate and thought provoking speech about the “umwelt” of the dog.  “Umwelt” is a term coined by Uexkull to mean the world of an organism, as it is sensed, perceived and interpreted. The point, which was well…

I promised the people who keep an aging hippie social worker like me in business that I’d mention that the summer 1/2 price DVD sale is on. Okay, I did that. Good Trisha. Sweet day today. Jim’s and my 10th anniversary. Making, as I write, a cherry/blueberry/strawberry/rhubarb pie for Jim. I will eat some myself…

We’ve been talking about markers and secondary reinforcers, and there have been some great comments about using clickers in some contexts and not in others. Like many readers, I use clickers for some training, and not for others. Your comments got me thinking about why I use them sometimes, why I don’t use them others,…

I wish the world could have seen Ken’s seminar on Sunday in Worcester MA, it was fantastic. For those of you who don’t know his name, he is the Training Director and Senior Trainer at the Shedd Acquarim, has trained exotic animals for over 30 years, and could train just about anyone to do anything.…

Have you seen the latest issue of The APDT Chronicle? It has a fantastic article by Suzanne Hetts and Daniel Estep (both CAAB & Ph.D) titled Safety and Ethics in Working with Dog-to-Dog Aggression. Anyone who treats dog-dog aggression, or who has a dog who might have that problem would do well to read it.…

Lots of dogs go through a “what’s in it for me?” stage (and this stage lasts longer in some dogs than others, right?). Mr. Hope is dancing around it right now, especially when I ask him to come into the house. Several of you asked about ways to handle it; not surprising, since most dogs…

I’m on vacation now, wrote this earlier in the week, but here are some of the pictures I promised while I was gone: Bee Balm in full bloom in front of the barn. Very 4th of July-ish. Heavy hydrangea blossoms weighted down by the rain (yes, it’s back, just in time for my vacation, of…

Those of you who know me or who read the blog a lot know how much I love good food. Ummmmmm. Love it. Since I’m on vacation this week, I thought it appropriate to go off topic a little and share one of my favorite recipes that includes fresh, local food (and enough sugar and…

While we’re on the subject of books (and ooooh, I love the suggestions from so many of you about books you have loved. Oh boy, can’t wait to check them out. . .), have you seen Sophia Yin’s Low Stress Handling, Restraint & Beh Modification of Dogs and Cats? This is not a cheap book,…

A dear person sent me a book titled American Lambs, by T Yamamoto. It’s subtitled “Poems and Stories about Working Border Collies, Sheep, Family and Life on the Land.” The author explains that it is a mix of real life and fiction, but is all based on a real island off the North West coast…

The ability to imitate came up on an earlier post, and jump-started an interesting conversation about whether dogs are able to imitate others. I mentioned that it’s controversial in science whether non-human animals can imitate others, and promised to get back to the issue. It’s worth a half-day seminar unto itself, (and I’ll mention at…

We’re still all about toys at the office, given the boxes and boxes of them that arrived last week. And there’s nothing like having a new puppy in the house to get you back to thinking about toys! A great happy surprise has been that the toy we were afraid would live on our shelves…

A reader asked for an update about Will and Sushi, so I thought it was time to fill you in on how it is going. I’m happy to report that things are going extremely well. (Whew!) The entire story would be a chapter in a book (and probably will be!), but here’s the summary: Problem:…

I’m about to take a week’s vacation and wallow in puppy breath, flowers, and friends. Jim’s surgery next week isn’t quite what we planned, but at least we didn’t have anything else scheduled besides enjoying spring and being together. I’m going to take a blog/email break and concentrate on my Jim, Will and Pup for…

I haven’t written much about Lassie lately, because I didn’t want the blog to turn into a soap opera, but things have changed so much that it feels only right give you an update. She hasn’t been doing well. After her ALT values were slightly elevated about a month ago, we did an ultrasound and…

We’ve been in a conversation about helping others (and ourselves) if and when we get frustrated by our dogs. It’s been a great one, thanks for all your comments. I thought of something important that I haven’t mentioned yet, and I thought it deserved it’s own forum. It seems to me that an important part…

Our discussion about how people handle being frustrated by their dogs brought out so many interesting points, and it got me to thinking: First off, the more we know about dogs, the less frustrated we get. Frustration comes from an inability to affect the world around us, and once we understand who dogs are and…

Willie woke me up at 3 am this morning, as he did yesterday morning. I have no idea why-speculation is that he needed to potty, or he is waking up earlier and earlier to get the food in his morning Kong. I told him to “settle” and managed a restless doze until 5 am, when…

Not much time to write, sitting at Barnes and Noble to latch onto their wireless internet connection, but thought some of you might enjoy some of the photos we’ve taken of the wildlife here (around Naples, not at B & N!). It’s pretty much bird heaven here, even though it is colder here than since…

I’ve loved our discussion about the “Right Stuff,” and how every dog has its own talents. I think that is never more true than when asking a dog to do Animal Assisted Therapy. AAT is on my mind now, because I’ve just finished working on a speech I’ll be doing in Naples, Florida to raise…

Pippy Tay didn’t look much like a purebred Border Collie; I’d bet money that most shelters would have described her as a BC/Labrador cross. She was big, almost 60 pounds, as long as a table, and had a large, square head that had Labrador written all over it. But she was a Border Collie, the…

May all of us savor what we have, and not let what we don’t have interfere with our gratitude. May all of our dogs, cats, horses, birds, ferrets, rabbits, sheep, cows (etc) live the best life they can, secure in knowledge of how much we love them. May the people who abuse animals, whether through…

Trainers and behaviorists can all tell stories about the calls they get around the holidays. Those of you who are trainers can no doubt tell some of your own. (I’d love to hear them!) Not uncommonly, we hear “Aunt Polly is coming tomorrow and she hates dogs and I have seven of them and they’ve…

I’ve finished Made for Each Other, and do indeed recommend it for people who are interested in animal behavior in general, and specifically the biology behind the relationship we have with domestic animals. It’s primary focus, as the title of this blog suggests, is the power of oxytocin and its role in initiating and maintaining…

Thanks to all the kind readers who sent their best wishes to Lassie. Good news: she seems fine. I’m hoping it was just one of those “dietary indiscretions” that come and go into all of our lives. Fed her tiny meals, low fat, gave her Pepsid as instruction by Dr. John for acid stomach (common…

I‘m a little late to the party here, (not Lassie’s party! More on that below.) but I am loving Meg Daley Olmert’s book, Made for Each Other: The Biology of the Human-Animal Bond. I’m not all that far along yet, but early on I was asking myself why in heaven’s name this book has been…

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…

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…