Feeling a tad raw today. A combination of the untold suffering in the world, worries about the future (mine, yours, our country's, humanity), and recovering from facial surgery on an eyelid--just a small carcinoma, but eyelid surgery is not to be recommended. Nor is anesthesia during reconstructive surgery when you have CFS and POTS symptoms. I'm back to wobbling all over, running out of gas way too soon, and having the mental acuity of a cabbage. (Example: It took a few seconds to find the name for "the light green coleslaw vegetable" in my brain. At least I started out being descriptive.) Personally, it's all good news. The surgeon says in six to twelve months my face will be back to normal. I have forgiven him for not adding in a neck lift while he put my eyelids back together. I am Read More
Do Dogs Need a Job?
A reader told us he'd repeatedly read that "dogs need a job." Such advice is not hard to find, including on the AKC site, "How to Give Your Dog Jobs." Our reader then asked: Do they? Really? Ah, good question. Before we all try to send our border collies to coding school and turn our Labradors into delivery drivers, it would probably be smart to start by defining "job." Here's a common one: "A task or piece of work, especially one that is paid." Ah, then, we are left with "what's a piece of work," and are in danger of going so far into the weeds that even a trainer sniffer K9 couldn't find us. I'm going to jump to the head of the line and suggest that dogs don't necessarily need to accomplish a task. I think the standard advice is trying to say that dogs need mental Read More
Cavorting in Cape Breton
Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. What a fabulous place! Jim and I feel crazy lucky to have been able to have spent a week there with three other couples. We rented an AirBnB on Boularderie Island together, inspired by Celtic Colours, an island-wide celebration of music, and the sights and sounds of a truly multi-cultural place. Sooo many highlights, but, for all my animal loving friends, here's one of my favorites: We spent a half hour cruising beside a pod of pilot whales, a relatively small whale, related to Orcas and dolphins. They live in family groups, are toothed whales who feed on fish like herring, and are regrettably famous for tragic beaching incidents. In spite of that, their population is doing very well, and they are habituated and unbothered by small boats like ours, a Zodiak Read More
Do You Teach “Don’t Do That?”
Here's an interesting question: Should you teach a dog the concept of "no, don't do that?" If so, how would you teach it? This came up during a discussion generated by an earlier post, "Asking versus Telling." It was mentioned that very few classes teach the concept of "Don't do that," but lots of owners want to convey that information. I get why it's not taught much, for a variety of reasons. First off, teaching a negative is tricky. ("Don't think about red!") In addition, the word "no" has been so inappropriately and, often ineffectually, used. I grew up often hearing "NO!" spoken (or yelled) to my family dog, Fudge, a multi-mix of a sweetheart, who none-the-less, thought the garbage was her god-given right. The primary problem with "No" it is often used without any training of Read More
Dogs, Play, and the Audience Effect
Dogs play more together when being watched, a research result I've been fascinated by since it came out in 2021. Maggie, playing with Skip in the photo above, is the poster child for this phenomenon. She'll stop, look at me, pointedly. Why? We all know I'm just guessing, but I get the distinct impression that she loves my attention. But is that it? And, is it just Maggie? First, the study: Researchers Merkham and Wynne set up three conditions for familiar dogs to play together in: The dogs played together when owners were watching attentively, were present but not watching, and were not present at all. The dogs played significantly more often in the first condition, evidence of the "audience effect." Karen London wrote a great summary of this study in Bark magazine, reminding us that Read More
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