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. I left inspired and crazed to train something, anything, and had to stop myself from trying to teach the flight attendant to scratch her head on cue. When I got home, close to midnight, I sat down with Hope and taught him to flip his hips sideways while lying down to "Settle" before I even walked upstairs. Took five minutes. Scary easy, and extra fun because of being inspired by Ken. However, in order to get home Sunday night, I had to miss the last hour of Ken's videos. I heard they were Read More
What’s In It for Me?
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 aren't like the Lassie on television and don't automatically do what we want just because we love them. Here are some of the things I'm doing right now to get Hope to come back into the house from the yard. Of course, "But I don't wannnaaaaaa" is going to occur in different contexts, but many of the principles here apply to all situations, they just need modifying to fit the problem. COMING IN MEANS GOING OUT Hope loves loves loves to be outside. He'd happily stay outside all day long if he could. So, Read More
Book Report – American Lambs & The Art of Racing . . .
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 in which sheep were allowed to graze the pastures and beaches until the rural land slowly, inexorably, evolved into a landscape of urban dwellers who, in the author's words "didn't realize that they were changing the exact things they loved about the land." But don't think this is a sad book. It is a rich and moving celebration of our connection to animals and the land. I loved it, absolutely loved it, and I don't think you need to have sheep or herding dogs to love it too. I read it in one night, and 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
Training Schedules
I'm reading a fascinating book, one that I recommend with five stars for anyone interested in the brain and behavior. It's titled The Brain That Changes Itself, and is written, beautifully, by Norman Doidge, M.D. The book's primary focus is on the plasticity of the brain, and how, in contrast to what was formerly believed, the brain is continually changing in response to the environment. He relates stories of stroke victims, for example, who are able to regain the use of limbs rendered nonfunctional because the motor area of the brain that controls them was destroyed. Previously it was believed that the brain can not regenerate and once an area is damaged there is very little that can be done to restore functionality. However, that turns out to be a complete misunderstanding of how the Read More
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