September 27th 2008 11:39 pm
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So Mom went off for a week on a trip that she couldn't take me on (she said it was very hot, dusty, and noisy - so maybe it's just as well I didn't go). While she was gone the computer wasn't really left on, and I kinda got out of the habit of blogging (d'blogging?).
Anyways Dad is now off on a backpacking trip... the first one that I have not gone on. Mom says I'm a little too old to keep up on a backpacking trip now. I'm a little out of shape I think but I could have kept up... maybe... But I'm enjoying being here with Mom and The Girl.
Yesterday I took Mom to our dog training club, JavaDawgs. We did a RallyO course there and it was *really* hard... because someone left a big bowl HEAPED with CAT FOOD right next to one of the Rally signs! When I noticed that bowl of cat food, I forgot about everything else. I could dimly hear Mom calling me but my mind was just full of the smell of that amazing cat food! After a while I noticed that Mom was laughing - hard - between repetitions of my name. When I was finally able to tear myself away from the cat food, Mom made it up to me with several servings of my treats (which were pretty darn good that day anyways). We did a few more practices of "come" and then Mom had me wait a second while she went and took a handful of those cat food pieces, and then she gave them to me.
We did a few more rounds of the Rally course and of course that cat food was right there the whole time, but I was able to handle it better!
August 1st 2008 10:36 pm
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It's been a while since Mom let me use the computer... Tonight Dad took me for a walk in the evening. I could tell he was not in the best mood and maybe that made me more nervous, but I was really worried about all those grates and drains that are often along our roads. I try to go WAY around them but sometimes I can't, and then I just want to stop or at least go really slowly so I can keep my eye on them. Dad didn't like this one bit. He got so annoyed that Mom had to go out with me to see what was going on. She said some of the grates I was seeing were really just plastic-coated ramps they've put in at the intersections, and when she squatted down by them I was able to come closer and see they weren't really that bad. But I keep forgetting that. I think everything I look at is getting just a little cloudier or fuzzier, I don't know why. But maybe that's why scary things that I had gotten used to have become a little scary again.
Mom says she'll help me get over them (again). We'll see!
July 9th 2008 10:01 am
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Here in our part of the world, it is HOT this week! My mom is pretty much keeping me inside all the time (except to go potty of course, and to chase the water from the hose, what fun!). It's cooler in our house. I'm pretty much sleeping through the days. I hope we'll go for a walk this evening when it cools down again.
All you doggy friends out there, watch out for dehydration (fancy term for being so thirsty you get sick) and also for hot, hot pavement! Your human is probably wearing shoes when they take you out and they might not even notice how hot the ground is (especially streets with that black smelly surface). Try to stay on the white pavement, or grass. If your feet are hurting let your human know by picking them way up (it makes you walk funny but they catch on). Hopefully your human will think to just place their hands on the ground to feel it. Also make sure they bring water for you to drink, too. (Remember they can always make a water bowl out of an unused poopy bag.)
Stay cool my friends!
July 2nd 2008 11:12 am
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Ugh, they're going to do those dang fireworks again. Mom says there are some going to be right over our new back yard! (The Girl is very excited about this.) Last year Mom gave me Melatonin to help but it didn't, even though it helps lots of other dogs. So this year she's going to let me do a sleep-over somewhere else, away from the nasty booms.
If you're worried about the noises, check out my Mom's advice on it here: http://www.wagntrain.com/independence_day.htm
Here's hoping for quiet evenings and lots of dropped hamburgers for all my doggy friends!
July 2nd 2008 11:10 am
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"Behavior B.F. Skinner developed his theory of operant conditioning, animal trainers functioned in a very different fashion. There was a magical quality to it all. The secret to training a difficult trick was as closely guarded as a witch doctor's sacred incantation. Each trick had its own special formula to be followed in order to be trained, and there was little or no connection between the formula for one trick and that of another. And there was even less connection between the way two different trainers trained the same trick, unless of course one trainer taught the other how to do it. Confusing? Just imagine the confusion of the young apprentice when he was told the only way to learn how to train animals was to spend a year or so scooping last night's dinner from its enclosure in the morning.... Then B.F. Skinner developed his theory of operant conditioning, a simple, clear method of analyzing and modifying behavior. It revolutionized the training of [animals]. The theory was simple to understand and it allowed the trainers to apply the same approach to solving any training problem."
Mom just read me this quote, by Timothy J. Desmond. Really, people didn't know that all training was basically done the same way? I found this hard to believe until I found out that there are still trainers who advertise for business saying that they know "secrets" of dog training that other trainers don't want you to know. Sheesh!
June 27th 2008 11:53 am
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Mom just read me this quote (I'm part Border Collie so I just memorized it - it's a skill I don't show off that often):
"As trainer we can still show compassion and feeling for the animals under our care, we can even use anthropomorphic references if we desire, but we can not afford to make reinforcement decisions based on anthropomorphic thinking."
This is by some guy Mom knows named Ken Ramirez, and I think he is spot on. I mean, if Mom based her reward decisions based on how she and most humans think, she would never use freeze-dried liver as a reward! Or, for that matter, the chance to go sniff a pee-soaked bush. I don't know why humans don't care for these things, but it's clear they don't!
June 26th 2008 12:30 pm
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I want to make sure to do a bark-out to the nice vets who took care of my when I ripped off my claw. The vet's office is a little scary (I keep remembering that time that Mom rushed me in there and they started poking me and putting drops in my eyes and then I was throwing up and it was AWFUL, and Mom said I had eaten rat poison but I just remember finding some yummy treats in the garage....). But the people there are all so nice; they don't seem to mind when I jump up on the counter and knock their cards around, and they all give me a few big treats. They were very good taking care of my paw and claw and treated me really well. So if you need to see a vet for any reason, and you live near here, you can go to my friends at Lincoln Ave. Vet Clinic in San Jose.
Meanwhile, yesterday was Mom's birthday. She says she's 40! That must be in dog years... do humans really live that long?! Anyways, she and The Girl went out for breakfast so there was no hope of spilled oatmeal for me. Then Mom came back without The Girl and started playing with her computer. I kept reminding her of the promise she'd made me, and finally she remembered and we got in the car. We drove for a bit but ended up in one of my favorite places, Sunol Ohlone park. I can go off-leash on the trail there! We hiked up the trails and played in the water. Mom kept saying things like, "Remember you used to be afraid of the water?" and "Remember you used to forget to check in with me when you were off-leash?" and "Remember you used to try to eat the horse poop?". (I need to point out that yesterday there was no FRESH horse poop so it's easier to bypass it). It was a lot of fun, and didn't even mind when they went out to dinner without me. But I hope she has another birthday again soon!
June 23rd 2008 2:50 pm
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So on Thursday Mom took the bandage off, thank doG! That thing was wrapped around my ankle and made me limp and look pathetic. Anyways underneath was the quick for my dewclaw, just stickin' out raw. I really felt like it needed to be licked at a lot. Mom took me back to the vet (brining The Girl along again, too!) and this time a different vet looked at it and gave it another wrapping that left my ankle free.
Then that night Mom, Dad and The Girl all left for the weekend. That's OK, because I was hangin' with our neighbor who takes me on walks and lets me clean her kitchen floor. During the time I worked the bandage off. When Mom got back we were very happy to see each other, and she says my foot looks fine.
She has a bottle of pills for me but I don't think I've gotten any because I haven't had any cream cheese. Aren't you supposed to get cream cheese with pills? Instead Mom just feeds me a handful of kibble, one at a time, quickly, and of course I eat them quickly, too. Sometimes one of them tastes a little funny. Hmmm... I get that at dinner and then Mom gives me yogurt at breakfast, YUM! She says if you're taking antibiotics than you ought to take probiotics, too. Whatever, any excuse for yogurt!
June 17th 2008 6:23 pm
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Last night we were playing one of my favorite games - chase the whip-it toy! This is a fleece tug-toy - nice enough on it's own - tied to the end of a 16-foot lunge whip (for horses). Mom asks me to down or sit or watch her, and when I've done it she flicks her wrists and WHEW! That fleecie thing goes flying. It is such FUN to chase it down. After a few seconds she'll stop it and ask me to do another trick, and then it goes flying again! Sometimes I CATCH it and then we play tug for a bit before she asks me to drop it and it goes flying around again. What fun!
Well last night as I was chasing it I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my front right foot. I still kept chasing the fleecie, but Mom stopped it right away. She looked at my foot and told me I'd twisted my dew claw right around - and when I wen to lick at it, it was pointing UP! It didn't hurt too bad, I didn't think, though I licked it a lot through the night. Today Mom took me to the vet. Now they are nice people there and they give lots of treats, but they do some weird, downright rude things there (they stuck something in my butt!). So they wanted to shave the hair off my dew claw toe, and when they did, the whole claw fell right off! So they wrapped my paw up neatly, and brought me back to Mom. Mom says she's going to give me some antibiotics, and some yogurt. Well I don't know about the first thing, but I love yogurt!
But ow, my paw is kinda hurting and I feel pretty tired tired. I hope the yogurt helps!
By the way, if your person wants to learn how to play with the whip-it toy with you, see http://www.learningaboutdogs.com/acatalog/whippitdvd.html
June 12th 2008 11:10 pm
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Tonight I'm a little worried tonight about my cousin Kota, whose house is very near the Bonny Doon fire. She is with her people, and their cat, and they are all fine and the fire seems to be contained on the side closest to them and everything. But still.... I'm kinda praying to the big doG in the sky for their safety (even though Kota kinda scares me - she's still a puppy but she still reminds me so much of my previous cousin, Rania Who Was Empress Of Everything...).
It made Mom double check that they had some emergency supplies within easy reach, including - I'm happy to say - extra dog food. Make sure your people have some emergency supplies handy as well.... And stay safe everybody!
June 4th 2008 10:29 pm
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Mom is pleased to have found a website with some nice instructions on how to do clicker training lessons. It's here: http://www.clickerlessons.com/ (duh!).
It's all basic stuff, though - I already know this! But, hey, if you're willing to offer me treats for them....
June 3rd 2008 10:55 pm
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Ok, so it started when The Girl and her friend filled the bird-feeder all the way to the top with birdseed. Of course the squirrels found it. They broke the feeder open and all the seed fell out (I'm so jealous, I wish I could figure out how to break open the big bin of kibble! Or the freezer where the treats and raw food is kept... ah!). So Mom let me out into the back yard to chase the squirrels away. Unfortunately they have not yet landscaped the back yard (or even put in gates!) so there are tall weeds, and of course I got their prickly seed bits stuck all through my fur!
Mom has NOT been very good about brushing me lately. I love getting my front end brushed, but my back end... I'm just as glad that Mom hasn't been doing it. But the fur is thick from winter coat that hasn't been shedded out yet, and even - I'm a little embarrassed to admit it - a bit matted. So there's LOTS of places for those burrs to stick. Especially when I realized there was one in my paw and I lay down in the yard to pull it out with my teeth.
So The Girl fed me little bits of kibble while Mom brushed - and cut - my hair. She says she "butchered" my back-end hair (she calls it my "pants"). I don't know why she brings up "butchers" without providing bones, but in any case it does seem to be *really* short back there - at least on one side. Hopefully, though, I'll stay "cleaner" (you know what I mean!) and maybe those darn burrs won't find quite as many places to hide. Mom says she'll do better about brushing me so it's not a big ordeal. We'll see. And we'll see what happens with those squirrels, too!
May 30th 2008 2:16 pm
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Oh this is so cool - my fellow Society Dog colleague made a PSA about dogs in cars. Well, you all know you should never leave your dog in a car on a warm day, but maybe you have some friends who don't. Show them this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55LKyiJp3zw
Now, hot dogs in cool cars I can really get behind! Hmmmmm..... hot dogs.....
May 29th 2008 2:12 pm
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Mom offers a lot of free advice on dog training on her website (wagntrain.com), but she was tickled to see this short video with free advice for pet owners: http://www.vimeo.com/1054718
I personally don't like the music in the clip. Too thumpa-thumpa - makes me want to bark!
May 21st 2008 4:39 pm
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I think the worst thing that ever happened to me was that Mom had a baby. Well, OK, there was that time that those other people brought me to the shelter and left me there, and I was there for three weeks, and so stressed that I could hardly eat - ME! - but then Mom found me there and that turned out OK. Well come to think of it the baby turned out OK, too - she has grown into M. and I've gotten LOTS of treats from her, and I'm even starting to suspect that she knows the cue/behavior/treat game....
Anyways, I think if any of you out there have a Mom who might be having a human baby... you need to be prepared for this. Not only are the babies themselves a bunch of changes, but I bet your Mom (and Dad) will change, too. Just a bit. My Mom made it as easy for me as she could, but she couldn't know everything that would happen (she actually thought we'd go back to doing agility class within a few weeks... it's been, what, 5 YEARS now?!). So she's ready to help other dog-parents get ready for this, too. If you're in our part of the world - Mom calls it greater Silicon Valley, though I mostly only smell silicon inside her office - you can come to workshop she's giving at the DayOne center in Palo Alto. It's Sunday June 8 at 11 AM. You can get your folks to sign up for it at DayOneCenter.com. I'm sorry to say that you, my fellow dogs, can't come to it - but I will be there, showing off my best tricks like "leave it" and "go to your mat" (ooh, better practice that one, I'm rusty....). Mom says that sometimes dogs who don't know the right games get stuck outside a lot, or actually lose their families, after a baby comes, and I don't want that to happen to any of you. So get your people to sign up!
May 11th 2008 6:40 pm
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Mom found an enormous tick on the back of my ear today. Since it was Mother's Day, she asked Daddy to remove it as a favor to her. Daddy called me over for the operation with "FlipperCOME!". Now, when Mom says this, it pretty much *always* means she's got something great for me - a toy, a game, an activity like going for a walk, a treat, dinner... something good. When Dad says it... it can go either way. Sometimes he has a treat, and sometimes he praises me nicely, but sometimes he asks me to stay in the garage. This time it was to rip ticks off my ear. (Turns out there were two of them!)
Now, Mom might say that technically, getting rid of Nasty Suckers is a negative reinforcement - my coming to Dad is "reinforced" by the removal of icky ticks. But really, when removing them involves ripping their teeth-bits out of the flesh of my ears... that's an aversive that's added to my environment, and Mom says that's positive punishment. I don't know whether I'll listen next time Dad says "FlipperCOME!". He'd better have some of those rib bones from the freezer!
May 6th 2008 3:46 pm
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Mom is always trying to get her students to sign their puppies up for class and training as soon as possible. She is thinking of all the research that shows that more dogs are "put to sleep" for behavior issues than for health issues, behavior issues that could have been prevented by early socialization and training. Now I missed out on that, and I turned out OK, but Mom says it's because of my bad manners that I ended up in the Humane Society as an adolescent, and it's only because she took me in that I was able to overcome that!
So she's excited because the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB) came out with a Position Paper which states that "puppies can start [sociaization and training class] as early as 7-8 weeks of age. Puppies should receive a minimum of one set of vaccines at least 7 days prior to the first class and a first de-worming, and should be kept up-to-date on vaccines throughout the class" (see http://www.avsabonline.org/avsabonline/images/stories/Positi on_Statements/puppy%20socialization.pdf).
So - if any of you are young puppies and think you have to wait before you start having fun in puppy school, tell your folks that your wait is OVER!
May 1st 2008 12:27 am
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So Dad did a couple of things that really drove me nuts. First, he had this ball - harder than a tennis ball, and white - that he threw really far and hard - then this other guy caught it in a giant chewtoy-sort of glove. The other guy threw it back, and Dave caught it in another one of those gloves. They went back and forth for quite a while, completely ignoring me when I shouted "throw it to me, throw it to ME!".
Then Dad took The Girl down to the beach. What do you mean, I can't go? No dogs on the beach, what kind of crazy messed-up rule is that? Where do they expect us to do digging - certainly not in the campsite, or on the cliffs! For some reason that I can't really express, seeing Dad disappear down the cliff path just really makes me crazy. I was with Mom so I should have been all right (and she was doing her best to comfort me), but I really could not relax until I saw Dad come back from the beach. Oh and The Girl came back, too, of course (they fussed over all the sand on her hairless skin - I guess SHE is allowed to dig in the sand!).
Well after that things got much better. I even sang along with one of the songs they did around the campfire!
Now it's a few days later and I'm still a bit tired out. Of course it helps that Mom did a training class orientation today, and I helped out as always. It's nice to be able to show off all my tricks, especially when Mom is showing how beginning trainers should reward just about *everything*. Wow, I never get treats like that for the basics like "sit" and stuff now - except in orientation! I also helped keep the students' feet warm while Mom talked and let them pet me, since they'd all left their own dogs and puppies home that night. I'm a good helper!
April 28th 2008 4:25 pm
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We went camping this weekend, what fun! It was not a long car drive, which is cool since I now have to share the back seat with The Girl and her big bulky car seat (which is often a good source of goldfish crackers). It was a state park, so officially on-leash the whole time.... Such great smells to smell! And it was a big group of us, with lots of humans who grilled *meat* on the BBQ! And three other dogs, who didn't even seem to care that much (though few of us seem to care quite so much about food as me!).
I was very good, though, and didn't try to take anything that didn't naturally fall on the ground - I even let the kids wander around with their hot dogs and stuff right there at nose level. Then I remembered - hey, didn't Mom used to bring a bunch of treats to things like this?! Yeah, she used to have several in her pockets, and when I'd do one of my cool tricks like "come", "stay", or "leave it", she'd do the clicker thing or say "Yes!" and then feed me a goodie. This time, she'd just tell me what a good dog I am. Well I am. I guess I don't need to be "paid" so much for such basic tricks any more. It's like The Girl - now that she is learning to read a few words, they no longer make such a fuss when she can recognize each letter. She seems to learn *very* slowly (it took her almost two-and-a-half YEARS to get housetrained!) but she is starting to get some really neat tricks down. But I still think it's easier to just wait for her to drop something than to actually bother to listen to her....
In my next entry I'll talk about digging in the sand and this cruel game Dad played where he threw a ball to *another human* - but for now I think I'll take a nap!
April 25th 2008 12:16 pm
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Mom and I are members of a dog training group called "JavaDawgs". It's a training and social group for fear-based reactive dogs and their owners. Now, let me make it clear that I am NOT fearful OR reactive. But the group is run in a way that teaches high levels of observation and training skills. Boy, do humans ever need to improve their ability to read dog body language! (Mom has a start of an tutorial at http://www.wagntrain.com/BodyLanguage.htm but she really recommends further reading, video-watching, and of course watching real dogs.)
So, why do I love JD so much? Well every week we go out and spend an HOUR just doing training. Loose-leash heeling, sits, downs, stays, and tricks - I love them all! Lately Mom's been making me practice "leave it" - first it was getting me to not snap up pieces of hotdogs that she tossed at me (this is after a few years of leaving them placed slowly on the ground)! Now she is - get this! - putting a piece of hot dog on my muzzle! Wow, I thought I was going to go cross-eyed. I thought I'd never be able to hold still long enough to get that longed-for click! But guess what, Mom made it easy enough for me, and I did! A few times! (Mom says she's doing this as a preliminary trick to later work on me holding something in my mouth the way our friend Little Guy does - though I will NOT fall over! see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TCV_FMZ3eQ)
By the way, yes the other dogs in JD are reactive. But Mom and her friends are very careful about everyone's thresholds, the line at which you'd go from being aware of something that scares you to reacting to it. I swear we'd been going to JD for a couple of years before we even saw a hint that some of the other dogs there have "issues". (Of course I'm watching Mom most of the time, maybe that's why I didn't notice much, and why they're not reacting much to me.) To read more about JD, see this article: http://www.clickertraining.com/node/269
I'm tired after all that work - I'm gonna go take a nap!
April 24th 2008 10:20 pm
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My mom and I are members of Society Dog, a super-fun social group for dogs and their people (it was started in San Jose and is slowly growing more chapters - see societydog.com if you're interested!). One of our SD packmates made a really cool video promoting the idea of sponsoring a shelter dog, helping them while they wait to find their "forever homes". You can check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLVgr0egWlQ
April 18th 2008 8:40 pm
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Mom says I should start a blog, but you know, I live in the here-and-now, I'm not going spend time thinking about what we've done in the past. So, here's something that Mom was talking to me about lately. It's some quotes from
a colleague of hers, dog trainer Kay Laurence in England (http://www.learningaboutdogs.com).
"The mark of the professional is an appearance of effortless results. The apparent ease with which they get the very best results with the least amount of effort, a display of joy and seemingly minimal reward. What you don't see are the hundreds and hundreds of hours of practice that contributed to that result. It wouldn't matter whether you lust after another handler's ease of recall, instant and vivacious response to a down cue, or mouth-watering-easy heel.
"It is "enough" when is it no longer a struggle to achieve your goal. Whether that is measured by rosettes or a recall off the chickens, you will know you have done enough practice when you have no doubt how the dog will respond."
"If you are putting effort into remembering the way to say the dog's name, how to hold your hands or worrying about the dog's mental state, then I guarantee you, that you have NOT done enough practice. None of these thoughts should take any of your conscious energy, they should be so well practiced, and reliable, that no effort is needed. The same will be happening to the dog - they will be responding without a struggle, have no doubt in your opinion of them, and simply be enjoying this moment together.
" If it takes 300 hours to teach a complex behaviour the success cannot be measured in linear weeks or months. It is up to you how often these hours are invested, and the quality of the learning. It will take as long as it takes."
Boy is that true! I remember that I used to really like to chase after bikes and scooters. Mom worked so hard to teach me first to watch her, then to come to her, and finally to be able to watch bikes and scooters without chasing after them or even barking! It took a lot of practice - old habits are hard to break! But now I hardly even notice those wheelie things!
April 8th 2008 10:45 pm
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People often want to know how I got my name. Do I love to swim? Can I do a flip? No. The truth is, when Mom convinced Dad to have me come home with them, Mom rewarded Dad with the Right of Naming. Dad immediately thought of Shakespeare's "Two Gentlemen of Verona" and decided to name me "Crab". Mom said NO WAY! Then Uncle Chris remembered that Mom used to train dolphins, so he suggested "Flipper". Mom was apparently equally horrified, but Dad said she'd only been allowed one veto and she'd used it up on "Crab". So Flipper it became.
Mom says the worst part was when she went to visit her old dolphin research lab in Hawaii (that's lab as in laboratory, not Labrador). She was telling her advisor, a very famous dolphin researcher, about some stuff she was doing with me, and while she tried to avoid mentioning my name it slipped out - and he was greatly amused.
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