While browsing a holiday circular, I came across a Christmas tree ornament that had to be designed by someone with dogs not like mine (or yours … no offense). It’s your typical ball-shaped bauble, but it’s filled with dog treats (they make them for cats too). I’m NOT kidding. Off the top of my head, here are just a few scenarios that sprung to mind: …
Nervous habit compels me to look out windows as I move around the house to grab a snack or whatever during my workday. My goal, always, is to find the dogs and make sure they are OK. One day last week, I finally spied Lilly sitting stock still in the upper corner of our upper pasture. When I stepped out the front door, she shot like a rocket straight to me. I was so proud. So, I tried to recreate that long-distance recall in the video below. …
While chatting earlier this week with my friend JoAnn, whose lab (MACH2) Chaos has moved from #29 to #14 in the country, I realized a point of progress. Let’s call it the Three-Step Rule. …
While on location doing research for an upcoming article in Natural Home magazine, I met a couple with a solo, young-ish puppy who is offering up some housetraining challenges. After my initial holy-cow, what-do-you-mean-he’s-still-peeing-in-the-house reaction, I realized that as a solo pup, he has no benefit of generational learning. …
After Lilly and I walked up to the road to get our mail Saturday, we realized that our pals — Belle and Clyde — from down the valley had meandered their way into a neighbor’s back pasture and seemed a bit stuck. So, once again, I became happy, food lady to the rescue. …
In our ongoing efforts to resume Lilly’s behavior modification, which got sidetracked by her rattlesnake bite to the face Labor Day weekend (and weeks of prez campaign work), we conned Tom once again into playing the “stranger” in our training scenarios. Sometimes Tom’s creativity and independent spirit overtake our work.
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Our friend Hilary, who was Lilly’s first trainer at the shelter, emailed me a link to these videos from someone she knows through a group of “Truly Dog Friendly” trainers. The 2 videos (about 9 minutes each) show a Boston Terrier named Humbug learning to put his toys away. It begins with a regular game of fetch, then Suezanne M. Law from Sympawtico shapes the behavior into something new. Rather than a clicker and treats, she uses a marker word and the toy, but you get the idea. …
While it’s tempting to dress Lilly up and post photos for Halloween, I won’t put her through the drama. Instead, I’ll share just one interesting experiment I did this weekend with Lilly’s training.
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So, remember our big media debut from early May, where Lilly and I got invited to be interviewed on videotape for a website promoting the benefits of pet ownership? Well … we went to all the trouble, all that worry, all that whatever for nothing. It’s been ages, and our video still isn’t being used on the site. I guess we didn’t make the cut.
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I never really believed those experts who say it takes X amount of time for a new good habit to become routine, but considering my nearly absent momentum since Lilly’s snakebite nearly 2 months ago, I can affirm that taking a break of even a few weeks from a hard task I once took on with determination and discipline bled away my focus.
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