Dog Musings

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The Scary Kitchen Window

When we last spoke about The Scary Kitchen Window over the sink, the one that has the nerve to slide side to side when the others go up and down, I had resigned myself to never opening this window again in Lilly’s lifetime — another 10 years, give or take. Even as our customized Relaxation Protocol work continued for weeks in 2008, I’d given up on using the window as trigger/stimuli examples because it broke my heart to see Lilly flip out. Essentially, I stopped paying attention to the window at all, and so …

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Our Friends K and KB Need Your Prayers

I just read on KB’s blog that K (her beautiful, brilliant chocolate Lab) is very sick and hospitalized with a potential mushroom poisoning. I just poked at our pal SMRP for an update, and she heard from KB that the latest thought is pancreatitis (like what happened to Ginko recently) but perhaps from mushrooms and maybe a few other tummy troubles. We may never know why she got so sick Monday morning. Let’s just hope she gets better. So, please send both of them good thoughts, prayers, mojo, magic sprinkles, …

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Lilly Meets LuLu, Part 3

You know I had to dissect the one instance from our time with LuLu where Lilly gave the youngster a correction. I’m glad I got it on video so that I could really look at the sequence. I’m calling it Anatomy of a Puppy Correction. While I’ve broken out clips and added transitions, which make the video around 2:30 minutes, the actual encounter was just over 1 minute in real time. I’m not sure if it’s a matter of too many running bumps in quick succession or if there may have been razor-like puppy teeth used. I tend to think …

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Lilly Meets LuLu, Part 2

As promised, here is a video showing how Lilly coped with meeting a very young puppy (just over 8 weeks). You can see in her body language that Lilly is a bit nervous. Watch her offer various calming signals. Notice (IMHO) how tolerant she is of puppy antics. FYI – I muted the audio because it is incessant praise of both dogs and gets TEDIOUS. :o) So, instead watch this silent movie that offers another study in canine body language.
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Lilly Meets LuLu, Part 1

It’s late, so this is just a quick note. Stay tuned this week for more info and even videos chronicling Lilly’s first extended encounter with a very young puppy. Our agility friend Betsy recently welcomed home LuLu, a performance-bred Australian Shepherd (aka agility dog). She is a total doll — as you will see. …

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Meet Cody: A Retrospective

Since I spent most of this week overcoming a late summer / early fall cold, I have no training news to report. So, I dug out and scanned some photos of Cody, who was my second dog as an adult. He was probably a yellow lab mix of some sort. Here is his story. …

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Real Life Recalls

Yesterday, I sat in my office poking at a few things on my desk, when I heard the distinct sounds of Lilly trying to sass the mules next door. While the mules actually handle her barking and bossing quite well, I’d rather she not get kicked. So, I went to the front door and said in a mostly normal tone of voice — “Lilly, COME.” And, she did. I’m not saying it was perfect, but here is what made it better than your average recall. …

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Farewell, Katie

Today is a rough day in Lilly Town. First of all, my sister meets with her oncologist to get the full diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment plan now that she’s 10 days out from her mastectomy. She has been up for hours already, steeped in anxiety, so if you can send her a prayer for inner peace, I know she would appreciate it. Secondly, today is Katie’s last day in Lilly’s life. We. Are. Crushed. …

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Snake Update

On our walk up to the road to get today’s mail, we spotted our bridge snake friend sunning himself on the rocks. Neither Lilly or Ginko noticed him because we were playing fetch on our way out. On the way back, I told Ginko it was dinnertime, and I asked Lilly to SIDE (which means cross in front of me and move to the other heel side). Once we got both pups in the house, happily eating dinner, Tom went back out to see if the bull snake seemed OK, after Lilly winged him into the pasture on …

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Sunday Snake Encounter

You will NOT believe what Lilly did Sunday. We headed out for our usual 3-mile walk, and as habit dictates, Lilly ran to the edge of our bridge to “look” at the snakes who live in the rocks. We’ve had big bull snakes living in there forever, and Lilly likes to look at them, sniff them, etc. Sure … sometimes, she gets excited and barks at them, but usually it’s an amicable-enough thing.
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