Dear Dogs

Dear Dogs,

Imagine my surprise when I discovered this empty food bowl on the bed.  Any idea how it got there?

Sincerely,
B.

Adventures with Arlo: Week 2

Arlo continues to make himself right at home, and we continue to be impressed with his social skills and easy-going, laid back personality.  Last week he spent a couple afternoons with me in my office, where--after snagging some treats from our secretary--he curled up on his blanket and enjoyed a long nap.

Over the weekend, we did a lot of entertaining,  and I was interested to see how Arlo would behave with new people in the house.  When guests arrived on Friday, I had both dogs outside in the back yard.  My thought was to avoid the potential for chaos at the front door.  Katie isn't a problem when guests arrive, but I wasn't sure how she'd be with another dog around, and there hadn't been an opportunity yet for Arlo to greet people at the door, so I didn't know how he'd behaive either.  Rather than give them the opportunity to practice bad behavior, then, my plan was to avoid the possibility all together.  In addition, with people coming to the house, I had a perfect training opportunity.  So I left a note on the front door inviting people to come to the back yard and also asking them not to pet Arlo unless he offered a sit.  The humans did a fabulous job, and Arlo responded appropriately.  As I think I've mentioned, he's not normally a jumper, but I thought he might be overly excited with so many new people around.  I think he tried jumping on the first guest, but when that didn't work, he gave up.  Good boy!

Although Arlo seems very mature to me for his age, he really is just a puppy.  And one of his puppy habits is that he follows us from room to room--just in case, you know, we might be doing something REALLY INTERESTING.  Even though I know he'll probably grow out of this, it's kinda flattering for now.  Here he is "helping" me change the sheets in the guest room by squeaking his squirrel.

Arlo and Katie are continuing to work things out, and I'm proud of both their efforts.  Arlo is of course dying to be friends with Katie who is still mostly ignoring him.  Once in awhile she'll interact, but she seems to avoid getting him all worked up.  Probably a smart idea since he's an enthusiastic player and Katie is beyond that kind of thing these days.  When Arlo is calm, though, she doesn't mind him laying nearby.

As we get to know Arlo better, we have a better sense for when he's most active and, consequently, when he'd do better playing with us than pestering Katie.  As I'm learning from Managing a Multi-Dog Household (a terrifically helpful e-book from Whole Dog Journal), the key to a happy 2-dog household is good management (backed up, of course, with solid training).  

Training over the past week included more sit-to-say-please, down, stand and touch.  On leash, squirrels are his biggest challenge.  He's so interested in them that he can't pay attention to anything else.  I've been using penalty yards to get his attention (backing away from the squirrel until he looks at me, then reinforcing attention to me with hot dogs).  This is working okay except that I don't like putting pressure on his neck when I back up, even when I move slowly.  So I'm going to order him a Sense-ation Harness.  Probably, squirrels are going to be the biggest obstacle to eventually letting him off leash.  The good news?  The very healthy squirrel population around here means we have lots and lots of opportunities to practice.

ETA:  In the first photo above, Arlo is wearing his new, spiffy collar purchased recently from Nola and Spencer, my new favorite place for dog collars.

Arlo's First Week

Arlo's first week with us has has gone pretty well.  As he becomes more comfortable, we're seeing more of his personality.  He's a little more rambunctious than when he first arrived which isn't surprising.  But I have to agree with his foster fam, who told us that after some healthy activity, Arlo is perfectly happy to settle down for a nap.  In fact, that's what he's doing right now, and that's why I have time to do some writing.

Although we've missed the critical period for socialization (the period roughly between 3 and 13 weeks when dogs are most open to new experiences), because of his beginnings, I suspect he may have had exposure to  more people, dogs and experiences than many dogs.  Still, to build on what he's already learned about the world, I'm taking every opportunity I can to continue introducing him to new stuff.  So this week in addition to daily walks, Arlo and I went for several car rides, and we visited the vet, campus, our local strawberry festival, the farmer's market, and my friend Melanie's farm.

On all of these outings, he was a model dog.  I know I keep saying this, but for a 6-month old puppy he shows very good impulse control.  He rarely jumps on people, for example.  And he's pretty good about keeping a loose leash.

Until today, I've been walking the dogs separately to get a sense of Arlo's behavior on the leash.  Yesterday for the first time Andy and I took both dogs for a walk.  I was worried that Arlo might pester Katie, but except for sometimes grabbing her leash, he was pretty good.  This morning, Katie, Arlo and I went for a walk with our friend Bob and his dog Quinn.  Kate and Quinn are old pals and walk together often.  Arlo introduced himself to Q. with typical puppy enthusiasm which Q. discouraged right away.  So Arlo tried again much more respectfully.  Good puppy.

It wasn't as difficult as I thought it might be for me to walk Katie and Arlo together.  They both did a nice job of keeping loose leashes.  What I discovered, though, was that I kind of missed having that one-on-one time I get when I only have one dog with me.  Morning walks with Katie--and now Arlo--are part sniff walks, but also part training.  And I can't do that when I have two dogs to pay attention to.  So for the near future, morning walks are going to be single-dog walks--first one dog, then the other.  I'll just get up a little earlier.  And the extra exercise will be a good thing.

But I still want the dogs learn to walk together,  so I'm going to try short walks with both of them every day or two, and be very generous with rewards for checking in.  We'll see how that goes.

Introducing Arlo

Meet Arlo, a 6 month old collie mix, and the newest addition to our family.  He's been here since Monday and is settling in nicely. 

Arlo hails from a shelter in Kentucky where he was brought in as a stray, and he came to us through the Collie and Ibizan Rescue of Central New Jersey.  In spite of a rough start, he is remarkably sweet natured and well socialized.  I'm guessing most of that is probably due to the good foster care he had before we got him. 

At 6 months, he's mostly legs and tail.  And big adorable ears.  Since he arrived, he's been getting to know the neighborhood.  He's relatively new to walking on a leash but surprisingly good at it.  And he was a perfect boy in the car yesterday and at the vet's office.

Like other pups his age, Arlo is a quick study.  Already this week he's learned that good things (his food bowl, greeting new people and dogs, access to the back yard, etc.)  come to dogs who sit. 

Starting tomorrow, we'll be going to training classes, and I look forward to writing more about that on this blog.  Until I do, here's one final image from Arlo's first day.  Notice the ears.  He was intently focused on some squirrels in the bushes. 

Dog Product Reviews

As promised, I have a couple of dog product reviews.

First, this leash, which I bought at Pet Expertise.  It's "hands-free" and a whole bunch of other cool and useful things including a traffic leash, and over-the-shoulder leash, a tether, and a nice 6.5 foot leash.  So, for example, I'm walking to school with Katie, carrying stuff, and in a hurry.  I tie the leash around my waist, my hands are free to carry things and/or treat Katie for keeping up with me.  But later on the way home, there's no rush, so I convert the leash to its full 6.5 foot length and Katie has lots of slack to sniff stuff as we walk.  Two kinds of walking situations, one leash.  Another plus?  This leash is affordable ($14.75-$19.75).  Not as upscale as the more expensive leather Euroleads I've been coveting (and which I still want), but it does the same job.  I haven't tried this leash out in a training class yet, but I imagine it will be really useful there too.

Next, for the first time this week I used a dog training food tube (also purchased at Pet Expertise @ $5.75, or $4.50 for 2 or more).  This one (made by folks at The Well-Mannered Dog came recommended (on Facebook) by Casey Lomonaco at Rewarding Behaviors Dog Training.  She mentioned it as a good option in cold weather--instead of juggling gloves and treats and then having cold slobbery fingers, just give your pup a lick from the tube.  I'd read about using food tubes before, but Casey's point about the cold-weather convenience convinced me to give this a try.  I don't mind the slobber, but I hate cold fingers.  And after yesterday morning's walk, my fingers were much happier.  Katie was too--this was a nice change from her usual treats, and because I'm not fumbling around in my pocket, my delivery time is much faster. :)

A couple days ago I also used the food tube in a training session with a client, and I really liked the results.  For example, instead of cutting up treats which takes awhile, in no time at all I mixed up some cream cheese and canned chicken in the food processor.  (Katie was kind enough to give this recipe a test-lick before I headed out.  She gave it four paws up.) And of course because I wasn't doling out treats, my hands weren't all slimy (again, while this doesn't bother me, it might be a plus for some people). The tube is also handy for luring behaviors, should you need to.  And--probably the biggest thing--the dog I was working with totally loved the cream-cheese-chicken combo.  I could imagine testing all kinds of combos to keep a dog interested.  Finally, this particular tube comes with good instructions and recipe ideas.  I just bought two more so I can have one filled and a couple clean ones ready.

I hope everyone's new year is off to a good start and filled with many happy training adventures.

When your dog is "bad," roll up a newspaper and give yourself a whack

Ordinarily, Kate is the best of dogs.  I can take her anywhere and count on good behavior.  But like the rest of us, she has her bad moments too, and one of those happened last week at the local (and very dog friendly) farmers' market.  I'd stopped at a favorite stand to buy some honey and, as I usually do, asked Katie to sit next to me.  As I was talking to the stand's owner, suddenly behind me I heard very loud and unfriendly barking.  I turned around to see my dog nose-to-nose with a service dog.  I quickly removed her from the situation and apologized to the dog's owners.  It didn't help matters that at the same moment a motorcycle roared by.  Kate hates motorcycles, so she kept barking for a bit until I managed to get her attention and return her to a sit.

I was mortified not only because she was so rude to a dog who, so far as I could tell, wasn't bothering with her at all, but also because this is the same farmers' market where yours truly recently offered free "market manners" dog training classes.

Oy.

Putting aside my feelings, though, it's worth thinking about what can be learned here.  First, what happened was hands-down my fault.  I wasn't paying attention to my dog (who clearly needs some proofing work on sits in public places).  Second, to say that my dog was "bad," is anthropomorphizing.  After things had calmed down, the stand owner observed, "something must have set her off."  And he's exactly right.  That kind of behavior isn't normal for Katie, who is generally dog-friendly, so something happened that made her anxious.  Maybe it was too crowded, maybe a person stepped on her foot or startled her somehow, maybe the other dog gave some kind of signal.  Who knows.  None of these are excuses for what happened; they're just possible reasons why she may have reacted as she did.  As the stand owner also pointed out, "Sometimes you don't know what gets to them.  We're all animals, you know, but we humans forget that."  As Jean Donaldson might say, we idealize dogs to the point of making them "honorary humans," but of course they don't think in the kinds of moral categories that we do.  Thus, in trying to understand what happened, it doesn't make sense to label her behavior "bad." 

As I understand it, there is some debate over whether anthropomorphism is helping or hurting non-human animals.  That debate might be a good topic for another post, because I'm not sure where I stand (I see good on both sides).  In this particular situation, I can, for example, emphathize with what may have been Katie's feelings of anxiety in the middle of a crowd.  Maybe she did check in with me before she reacted (she usually does), but I didn't see it and she was on her own.  At the same time, that empathy is really a starting place for thinking about a training solution (one based on a scientific understanding of dog behavior) so that this situation might be avoided in the future.

So this week, we're proofing our sits around town, and we'll take another (more closely-supervised) shot at some market shopping again on Saturday.

In closing, I'll add that the stand owner's reaction reflects just how wonderful the market sellers are about their customers bringing dogs along.  He might have given me a disapproving look, or made a comment about Katie's behavior.  Instead, his response mitigated some of my embarrassment.



Works Cited:
Jean Donaldson, The Culture Clash.  Berkely CA:  James and Kenneth, 1996.

Adventures of Tiny the Dog

This is the third summer that Kate and I are participating in Reading to Dogs at the Easton Library. Above, Kate chillaxes while she listens to a story about Tiny, a giant dog who gets into all kinds of trouble. It's one of her favs. Many of the books in the reading room are about dogs, and I think the dogs appreciate it. I also think they appreciate the air-conditioning and the cool tile floor. The library provides mats for the kids to sit on, but sometimes the dogs claim them instead.

Kate is a surprisingly patient listener. When we first started coming to the library, I was worried that after 10 minutes she'd be giving me her "let's go" bark. But as it turns out, she's pretty happy to lay around listening to the kids read and hearing from the adults about how "she's such a good dog." (I like that too.)

These days, when Kate's not listening to stories, she's camped out in front of one of the AC vents at home. We still take a long morning walk, but it's already pretty hot by the time we get back around 7. And dinner walks are considerably shorter.

In spite of the heatwave (and thanks, probably, to diligent watering on our part), our garden is doing great. Helena and I have been documenting as we go so that we have a record to guide us for next year. This week, the big event was harvesting our garlic, but we also have snow peas, radishes, beans, zucchini and more lettuce.

No Sew Bandanna

Tomorrow I'm teaching the first of 3 free "doggy manners" classes at our farmer's market. We thought it would be fun if the Market Manners dogs in training wore bandannas, so I came up with these (with some good advice from cauchy along the way). Nothing complicated, just squares of fabric cut with pinking shears so they don't frey, and then cut across the diagonal. I made a few different sizes. And I added a "Market Manners" label along one side.

Dogs and Frogs

Happy birthday to Katie, who turned eight this past week! We had a fabulous bday party in The Dog Course, complete with balloons, presents and, of course, cupcakes.

I was kind of short on time, so these are just from a box mix. They tasted ok. They're all human grade, but the ones with the biscuits were for the dogs. After Katie ate her cupcake, she snagged the paper off the table and ate that too. (More bday photos on my Flickr page.) Personally, my favorite thing about the cupcakes was transporting them in the nifty carrier I bought especially for the occasion. I may go on a cupcake-making binge just so that I have more excuses to use it.

I am far LESS enthusiastic about the gloves I've been knitting for A. The pattern is unnecessarily complicated at times. And the sizing is weird between the thumb gusset, which seems to be sized for a smallish hand, and then the hand and fingers, which are ginormous. I spent the morning fiddling with the fingers which, as written, were at least an inch too long. I guess part of the problem could be that I'm not using the yarn called for in the pattern, but I am using another worsted weight yarn (Cascade 220 Heathers, which I really like), so I shouldn't be that off, right?

Mine!

Some people say you shouldn't play tug games with dogs because it teaches them to be aggressive. Other people say that, taught correctly, tug can teach your dog self control. And anyone who does agility knows that tug is a perfect reward. I'm (obviously) in the pro-tug camp. Some of the pro-tug people recommend designating a special toy that the dog doesn't have access to until the human decides to play. And they say that the human should always win. But what's the fun in that? We love to watch Katie dig through her toy box, choose a toy, and bring it over to us. Sometimes when she wins, she "kills" the toy. Sometimes she drops it in front of us for more.

We do have a couple of rules, which we established when she was a puppy:

1. If doggy teeth touch human skin, even accidentally, the game ends.
2. She has to drop the toy when asked, or the game ends.

I don't know if this works because we started when she was a puppy. I'm sure her general good temperament also has something to do with it. She loves interactive games--but is that because we taught her to play that way, or because her herding genes condition her to cooperate with humans, or because we just kind of lucked out and got a good dog? Probably it's a combination of all these things.

Accomplishments

I'm proud to say that Katie has earned her TDIA, awarded by Therapy Dogs, Int'l (TDI) after 50 visits. When I showed her the certificate, she gave it one snoof, and went back to her afternoon nap. Oh well.

Last week in the garden, we noticed that the string beans and radishes were ready to eat.


I don't like radishes, but I heard from A. and H. that they were good. I do like string beans, though, and I'm disappointed that the plants don't seem to be thriving. Or maybe 8 plants isn't enough to produce many beans. Or maybe we planted them too late. Or they don't like the soil they're planted in. Clearly, I need to read more about growing beans.

On a more positive note, my stirrup hoe arrived. Look out weeds!

Weekend Gardening

Yesterday we gave our hedge a haircut. The hedge came with the house, and it's a pain to maintain, but when it's all trimmed, it does make a nice backdrop for flowers. And of course it provides some privacy. Because I can't ever seem to keep a straight line, A. did the trimming, and I picked up the clippings, about a third of which I shreddred in our new chipper and composted. But there was such a huge pile (you can sort of see it in the photo above, in the upper right corner), we'll be taking a bunch to the city compost center too.

For ordinary backyard jobs, though, this little machine does the job. Yesterday it turned a wheelbarrow full of sticks and leaves into this (which I added to the compost bin to balance out the grass and hedge clippings):

May 15 was the predicted date for a final frost, so this week, in between grading and other end-of-term chores I'll start putting things in the ground. (Additional garden photos, as always, are posted in my garden notebook on my Flickr page.)

In the meantime, I'm posting some knitting for GK. My first Selbu pattern. TaDA!


It's a dog! On a mitten! Although I'm not completely new to colorwork, I did have to rip and reknit because the fabric was looking (as Chawne puts it) all puckery and weird. As you can see from these photos, the knitting still isn't perfect, but hopefully I'll improve with practice. Here's the palm side:

At the Dog Park

A topic of discussion at the dog park this week has been whether we can say that dogs smile--which question we all answered in the affirmative. Readers of Bark magazine know this unequivocally thanks to Bark's tireless efforts to photograph smilers. The more scientifically inclined dog person might be interested in recent studies of dog laughter. But for those of us content to hang out at the dog park on a nice spring morning--really, we don't need no stinkin' studies. Consider EXHIBIT A

and EXHIBIT B.

Some dogs, smiling and otherwise, are admittedly harder to photograph at the dog park than others. It took me a few tries, for example, to get a shot in which all of Beau appears in the frame. (That's part of Beau there on the right, and behind him Snowy is investigating some interesting something or other under a pile of leaves.)

Eventually, in response to the magic finger, Beau performed a brief, but beautifully executed down, for which he received a treat.


Not surprisingly, mugging for treats is a very popular pastime.

The dogs throw us a look like I'm sooooo hungry...I haven't eaten in days...may I please have one of those treats in your pocket? and we oblige.

Another favorite game is to roll the balls through a hole in the fence so that Bob has to retrieve them. (This is something like the opposite of "Fetch" where the human throws the ball and the dog retrieves it.)

Can you hear the doggie laughter?

Birds Ate My Breakfast

Gino and Rocky are nothing if not persistent. And they love cereal. Here they are perched on my bowl looking for a handout.

Katie, meanwhile, has been giving our new mudroom rug a test drive.




This is a super tough, indoor/outdoor rug--guaranteed to stand up to muddy feet and paws. A couple passes with the vacuum and it looks like new again.


This is my first post in a while. The past couple months of this term have been unbelieveably busy. Not much time for blogging or knitting. Classes end this week and, hopefully, things will settle down a bit.

Winter Walk

Yesterday morning we woke up to more snow and, thankfully, somewhat warmer temperatures. After zero degrees, 32 feels downright balmy. Kate loves the snow, and she couldn't wait to go for a walk. Thinking I might get some nice photos, I grabbed my camera and we set out.

Kate and I have a pretty regular morning route around our neighborhood and over to school. Once we turned the corner, Kate noticed a couple of corgis walking their person.

One of our walking games (that I learned from Control Unleashed) is that when Kate "finds" a dog, she gets a treat. It's a strategy that allows her to look at other dogs, but instead of barking at them, she looks at me for a treat.

Kate is a dog of routines and a dog who keeps track of things, and she'll sometimes bark at dogs she doesn't know. It's not so unusual--especially for herding dogs who can be vocal and who are predisposed to pay careful attention to who's where in their flock (Kate's part collie). But it's not a habit I want to encourage around other dogs, so instead her "job" is to find dogs and check in with me for her reward. I used to ask her to focus on me first, but getting a look at the other dog actually works better. And she can look more than once. The point is that she "checks in" between looks.

Another walking game is that we only move forward when the leash is loose. I hate it when I see people dragging their dogs around by yanking on the leash. I don't want Kate to pull--obviously--but I also try to avoid pulling too. If Kate does pull, I stop, or walk in another direction. It's a zen thing. To get what she wants, she has to keep a loose leash. Here she wanted to sniff this particular spot (probably some pee-mail), but to get to the spot, she had to walk there calmly.

This wall is one of Kate's favorite sniffing spots. I thought it looked really pretty covered in snow. That's New Jersey off in the distance.

By this point, we're just a few blocks from campus and Kate's favorite part of our route because she gets to run around off leash. It was too snowy to throw a ball, so she just enjoyed messing around in the snow. Here she is demonstrating her excellent recall skills. Who's a good dog?!