Dog Musings

Entirely Off Topic | How To | Musings

Coping Strategies

Again, you have my apologies for the missing posts and general absence lately. I’ve been thinking a lot about how best to handle stress and worry when it comes in relentless waves for months on end. (My childhood friend’s mom died very soon after a cancer diagnosis. My mom fell again this week. My sis meets with the surgeon Friday.) This being a grown-up thing is often for the birds. So, should you find yourself mired in non-stop drama of any variety, here is my best coping advice. …

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Musings

Quotes from Novel Gilead I Like

I finished reading the novel Gilead by Marilynne Robinson this weekend. It’s a book about a dying minister, who is leaving a diary for his young son. While the context of these situations in the book are different, I found these excerpts amusing and applicable to my life with Lilly (and even the current medical drama with Ginko). …

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Dog Training Update | Musings

Emotional Roller Coaster

We’re thinking about the fear-recovery cycle in a different way after our follow-up behavior consult. While Lilly’s fear responses are smaller than a year ago, we’ll be working in the coming weeks and months on resetting her fear cycle frequently so that her emotional roller coaster never leaves to station. …

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Tend and Befriend Overcomes Fight or Flight

A shout out to my friend Audrey for sending me this research on how women handle stress differently than men. Apparently women “tend and befriend” to overcome feelings of “fight or flight.” …

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Guilty Looks, Shock Collar Warning,

Thanks to my dog friends on Twitter, I learn about some interesting dog news. Here is a round up of things I thought you might enjoy, including when dogs look guilty, shock collar warnings, a good background piece on how dogs learn, and a dog who knows lots of tricks. …

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The Dog Training Classes We Take

On Friday, Mary over at Cowgirl by Proxy wondered about the dog training classes we take. I wrote a long, detailed response in the comments, which promptly got eaten by my blog software. I’ll do my best to recreate those thoughts here. For several years now, we have trained exclusively with Gigi Moss in Boulder, CO, who is the ONLY dog trainer who did not give up on us because of Lilly’s fears. We are very loyal clients and would be completely lost without her support, wisdom, and patience. …

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Dog Gripe | Musings

Canine Fear Confusion

Sometimes I feel l like the more I read the more confused I get about training a fearful dog and what can go wrong if you reward the wrong things. Essentially, I believe you cannot make a real fear worse by comforting a fearful dog. Despite what the tough-love people want us to believe, my understanding is that using classical conditioning makes fears better, not worse. Yet, I read some things in Dr. Nicholas Dodman’s book The Well-Adjusted Dog that have me doubting myself again. Help!?! …

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More Info: Rattlesnake Vaccine

When I reported the results from Lilly’s wellness exam, our training and blogging friend KB over at Romping and Rolling in the Rockies posted a comment that she knows someone involved with the rattlesnake vaccine. She offered to ask him some questions on our behalf. Here’s what we have to report from his answers. …

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Dog Video Gallery | Musings

A Video Study in Canine Body Language and Play

Lilly’s best, best friend (Katie, the borzoi) came to visit over the holiday weekend. I shot some good at-play video that I think is pretty instructive, when slowed down. It shows Katie and Ginko (our big boy) playing, with Lilly on the edge of the action. Considering that Ginko can be a bully and initially showed reactivity toward Katie when they met a few months ago, and considering that Katie was pretty fearful of him because of that, the two of them playing is a triumph of positive reinforcement that we did every day over many weeks. …

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Musings

Bowl vs. Activity Feeder

I’m toying with the idea of transitioning (at least in part) to feeding the dogs from activity feeders (what we call “food toys”) rather than from bowls. The dogs have always eaten from bowls (two meals a day), so the transition isn’t easy. …

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