Lilly is learning to be sweet to the mules next door. We’ve been training looking at them without barking or trying to get a rise out of them. If she looks or stays calms, then she gets
treats. I even let her race them along the fence line, as long as she’s quiet. They seem to seek her out, sometimes standing at the fence looking for her. Yesterday, I called for her outside and
found the cutest thing. I think she’s adopted them as her sheep. …
If you watch the Discovery Channel shows of underwater life, you’ve likely seen images of jellyfish puffing their way along in the water — expanding and contracting with a simple
grace. Well, I think Lilly must dream of such things because I watched her the other night as she slept on the loveseat next to me, and her foot (all things) amazed me. …
As part of our background work using ideas from the new book “Control Unleashed” by Leslie McDevitt, I went in search of a portable mat that I could use for Lilly’s mat training and
relaxation work. Here’s what I chose. …
One of the ideas in Leslie McDevitt’s book, “Control Unleashed,” is to allow dogs to look at things they might react to. It’s something I wanted to try shaping in a low-stimuli
setting, so as recommended I placed an X of duct tape on the wall. I closed the door, got out some treats, manned my clicker and waited to see what would happen. …
I realized recently that maybe I haven’t given you enough detail on what exactly I mean when I say that Lilly shuts down. So, here, in full glory — using the best literary devices I
know — is a description of a true and total shut down. …
When they are outside alone, I often watch Lilly and Ginko from various windows in the house. I particularly like to watch when they don’t think I’m looking. I like the unaffected way
they explore the yard or just hang out. I love watching them pal around, usually with Ginko in the lead and Lilly tagging along. In particularly, I enjoy seeing Lilly be relaxed and confident at
home. And, I hope someday she’ll be like that elsewhere too. …
Sometimes Ginko does it to Lilly. He’ll just walk up and start nibbling on her like an ear of corn, tiny bites in a row on her neck or shoulder or side. She seems to like it. Often, if
she’s just been bossy to him, then she’ll race up and lick him like crazy, but she rarely nibbles on him. She also doesn’t nibble on Tom, but I think it’s because when she tried early on, he yelled
“ouch.” And, then there’s me. Lilly likes to nibble on my head. And, I have no idea why. …
The divorce rate and existence of on-again/off-again relationships says a lot about our collective intolerance of flaws in those we try to love. People like to talk about unconditional
love with pets, but I sometimes wonder just how unconditionally we return the favor. …
In early 2007, we began having problems again with Lilly wandering the neighborhood. The snow drifts were taller than our fences, so it was easy for her to get out. This is also around
the same time as the snarking began at our rally obedience classes, which we were doing to try and build ring confidence for agility. Can you say backfire? So, I asked the communicator to find out
what was up. Here are the results. …
In July 2006, about 6 months into Lilly’s agility meltdown, I sought help from an animal communicator. Essentially, I asked her to find out what’s causing Lilly concern at agility
classes and what she needed me to do to help. I did not give the communicator any details on what the problems looked like. I simply gave her a list of pretty vague questions and a photo of Lilly.
She did not meet Lilly, nor did she know much about agility as a sport. Here are the results of their first communication session together.
…
