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 …
I actually shot this a while back, but I must have forgotten to upload it here. It shows Lilly
howling on cue. When I played it again before embedding it, she started howling again. Typically, Ginko only does the background yipping (like what coyotes do), but I actually caught him
letting loose with a howl too. Lilly is right next to me, so she is much louder, but you can see (and I hope …
We talk a lot about Lilly’s stunted or inadequate social skills, likely stemming from poor socialization as a pup (before we adopted her) and from her genetic
predisposition for fear. This video, however, shows Lilly deferring well to Ginko’s play advances. I love when he nibbles on her because he is so gentle and shows such deliberate bite
inhibition. Lilly nibbles on me this same way. It’s super sweet.
You’ll see both dogs …
It’s easy to see how well dogs sense time and pick up on routines — especially about food-related events. For example, we become very popular about an hour before
mealtime. It’s kind of funny and sweet, except when the time change messed everything up. The good news is that the time change fixed Ginko’s recent wake-up-early problems. The bad news is that
poor Lilly is just exhausted come nighttime. My sweetie practically begs to go to bed these …
On another remarkably warm Sunday afternoon, we again made time for class. While Lilly did not stay calm from start to finish, she bounced back better than she
would have in the past from seeing lots of new dogs and from firecrackers. Yes, firecrackers in @#$@ November. Still, I ended up with a fat lip, after Lilly decided to jump her jitters out when
I wasn’t looking. Rather than face photos that reveal Lilly’s mood by ear position …
