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 …
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 …
First, it was a ham sandwich, left unattended while I took Lilly for a walk. Then, a
couple days later, Ginko went after bigger kitchen game. Yep. While he isn’t as book or training smart as Lilly, Ginko certainly learns quickly when food is involved. Especially forbidden food.
…
This is another thing I came across on Twitter. It’s a site called I’m Tired Of … that sells a bunch of different bracelets (made from recycled tires) and t-shirts that help promote various causes. They donate some
of the proceeds to charities. In addition rallying against diseases (like breast cancer, diabetes, etc.) and cultural issues such as discrimination, they have some that say
During what proved to be another distraction-steeped week, I found this when I went into the kitchen to get some lunch. Big thanks to Lilly for providing perhaps
the day’s only laugh. You’ve heard of raccoons washing their food? Well, it’s a habit Lilly
learned from Ginko when it comes to dirty toys — balls in particular. I was going to call this How Clean Are Your Balls? But, I feared that would attract icky spam. …
Even as the weather turns colder, we have a hard time keeping Lilly inside. Any time a door opens, she slips out like a little canine ninja. The difference,
compared to summer, is that we have less trouble getting her to come inside. So, she’s in. She’s out. She’s in. She’s out. One of her favorite things to do is “help” me hang out laundry. She
makes it pay off by convincing me to toss sticks while I …
