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, as a matter of fact, it's problematically expensive ($117 on Amazon), but it's a great book to encourage your library or shelter or vet clinic to get. It has the best, clearest photographs I've ever seen of how to, and how not to do just about everything you need to do around a cat or dog: enter a kennel, pick up a cat, restrain a dog, etc. If you are feeling flush, it'd be a great donation to your local humane society. Would that all shelter volunteers had a chance to look at it. Pages 46 and 47 have Read More
Toy Story with a Twist
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 forever, Sherman the (Big) Sheep, has been a big hit. It's sold more than any of the other toys, and we are still smiling about it. (And so is Will, he adores it.) There are a few left, but we don't expect them to hang around for long. Just fyi, the loser of the new toy choices is the hapless Scorpion, undoubtedly an image most people don't want to see, and to make matters worse, it's covered in "nature's warning colors--red and black--just to make it more off putting. Poor little scorpions, I suspect Read More
Chase This, Not That!
A dog's love of a good chase is both a blessing and a curse. It makes playing with them extra fun; what a joy it is to play fetch and chase with some dogs! And it's got a dark side too--chasers love to chase cats, cars, joggers and bicyclists, and that doesn't tend to work out so well for all involved. In an earlier post I talked about teaching my new pup Hope not to chase Sushi the cat, and several readers asked how I am doing that. Here's a summary of both a generic plan and how it looks in detail in one home, with one dog, and one cat. Obviously, the details vary tremendously, but the basic plan is relatively universal. 1. MANAGE AND PREVENT: What could be more fun than chasing something if a dog is so inclined? Dogs are, after all, cursorial predators (meaning they run things Read More
Have an Example of a Creative Reinforcement?
I'm working on a column for Bark magazine about positive reinforcement. It's such a simple concept once you get it, but it's a bit like riding a bicycle . . . it takes awhile to be able to do it comfortably and effectively. In the column, I want to stress that it is the receiver who defines what is "positive reinforcement," not the giver. I find that to be one of the biggest mistakes that we humans make: doing things we think our dogs like, that they actually define as aversive (and therefore act as positive punishment, exactly the reverse of reinforcement!). The most common example of this mis-communication is when people praise and pet their dogs either in ways the dog does not enjoy (especially patting on top of the head) or at a time that the dog doesn't want to be petted (while Read More
The Power of “Woof”
I didn't know what it was at first. A large cat? A fox? The grey-brownish animal was trotting just outside the fence, looking inward toward the lambs, as Will and I stood looking at the flock in the high pasture one morning last week. As it came closer, I realized it was a coyote, a frequent visitor to the outskirts of the farm, but a rare sight in broad daylight, so close to my sheep. Granted the lambs were no longer newborns, and granted some of the older ewes were capable of smashing a small canid into the dirt like bugs, but still, a coyote/lamb omelete is not something a shepherd wants to see. My guard dog long gone, I reflexively barked myself. (Will hadn't noticed the coyote at that point, he was so focused on the sheep.) BARK BARK BARK, I said, trying to sound low and growly and Read More