Amid the rampant belt-tightening, dogs fair better than human friends and even family in the holiday shopping rush. Human hangers-on and family gift obligations get the heave-ho, but dogs? Well, they
remain KEEPERS even in tough economic times. Or, so says, an article in yesterday’s New York Times (Fewer Gifts and Frills …) …
I’m not sure this counts as a real training update, but Lilly learned to wear a sweater this week. I’m not big on dressing dogs up, but the seriously frigid temps here this week dictated otherwise.
It turns out that it worked a bit like those fancy dog anxiety wraps. Lilly seemed pretty happy and pretty mellow in her sweater. She looks
cute too. …
An industry expert told me while I researched the history of dog toys that plush toys always
outsell other kinds of dog toys — by far. It has less to do with relative usefulness in a dog’s life and more to do with likely impulse buys by the girls who shop for dog toys. (And, let’s face
it, in the dog arena, the consumer is definitely a woman.) I got to thinking about this factoid while sewing back together a bunch of plush toys who’ve seen better …
Maery over at Cowgirl by Proxy wants to teach WHOA as part of her prep for skijoring with Java. So, as promised here is more info
and video on how I taught WHOA, the cue that means “stop where you are.” …
When Elayne over at Days of Speed asked about Lilly’s favorite ball, which is apparently all the rage in Chicago, I confidently told
her where to find them, how I usually buy several at a time. Yet, I find myself in a small panic. Our local grocery store no longer has these Flexi-Foam balls, which are the ONLY ones Lilly likes. Oh, the trauma. …
Over the years, we’ve worked on teaching WHOA (which means “stop where you are”). Some people use WAIT, but I prefer that for when I’m closer to Lilly. WHOA, for us, is more a distance behavior. We
practice this A LOT in our drop-in advanced pet dog training with Gigi. Lilly does great when we use a ledge or other visual marker to trigger a
stop, but on the flat, we’ve always struggled. Until recently. Check it out. …
For his birthday this year, Tom’s mom made a photo album of his childhood snapshots. Featured prominently on the title page is this gem of Tom (approximately age 8), a few sunflowers, a huge tomato
and a border collie (named Shep, who was actually Tom’s brother’s dog). …
Last week, Ginko cuddled up to Tom on the sofa and sacked out. While *that* isn’t unusual, the fact that he did it with a toy firmly wedged in his mouth was. …
I joke pretty often about having the best coworkers. Canine ones, that is. They don’t gossip. They don’t take part in office politics. They don’t criticize my work. Sure, they do interrupt me. They
are noisy when I’m trying to do phone interviews. They do occasionally smell bad. But, I wouldn’t trade them for anything. They do require, however, some foot- and rolling-chair-related caution. So, I constantly Mind the Snout. …
Wow! What a roller coaster of a week this has been. Suffice it to say that all emotional extremes have now be exhausted, which is indeed exhausting. So, I only
have a couple little training notes to share about our CLEAN UP trick work.
Somehow, I’d forgotten that Lilly needs more mental work in the winter than at other times. It has been quite cold, and I have been quite busy, so she needs time to think …
