The Meaning of Sit

As a "trainer" I get very frustrated when people use the words good sit. Humans will never understand that dogs do not get the nuances of our verbal language.

Human: sit
dog: huh?
Human: siiit
dog: flowers!!!!!yahoo!!!I want to sniff those!!!!
human: SIT!
dog: oh yeah, I know that one! but on the ground! got it!
Human: good sit
dog: wait. . .my but is already on the ground. . .what do I do now. . .oh look...butterflies!!!!

When we humans use the word sit we are asking the dog to do a behavior -the word sit is a verb, meaning TO DO. Sit to us means butt on the ground. If you are a good trainer, then sit will also mean butt on the ground to your dog as well. And while your dog may be very smart, he will never really understand the true meaning of an adverb. Therefore, your dog will never understand good sit. Even though you added the adverb, your dog will only understand the action that the verb requires. So, saying good sit, is like repeating a command (which you should never do) after your dog already followed the command in the first place (super confusing)

All that to get to my issue of teaching Abby to sit from a down. Abby *vaguely* understands the verbal command sit. She understands it enough to know that you can't truly sit from a down position; because, for Abby, sit means put your butt on the ground. And, since her but is already on the ground in a down position, it is difficult to put it down again for a sit. But, I really need to teach Abby to sit from a down position. So I tried and tried. No real luck. (I know, and even I don't get it at times!) A friend suggested that I use a different command. And you know what? It worked. I chose up because I wanted her to move her chest up off the ground. It was easy for me to remember. And, it was a completely different command for a completely different behavior, so it was easy for her to understand. And while many trainers have great success at teaching their dogs the nuances of language and can conjugate the verb to sit every which way; I cant. I can hardly keep from tripping over my dogs when walking. There is no way that I can teach them language and behavior at the same time. I am not a good enough trainer - and neither are most of the dodo heads that I see saying good sit.

Remember This Guy?

Look how much he has grown! 8 months old now and the *perfect* puppy.



I know it's blurry, but this is the only picture I could get of his face. The boy wouldn't hold still!




So handsome. . .paying attention to mama deb!






Its hard to believe that he has been out of my home for 6 months! I still think about him almost every day. He is turning into an amazing dog. I know that I am a bit biased, but he really is a fun boy. Sure he has naughty moments, but he is still a puppy! And a boy! I am so glad that his new mom is so tolerant of my butting in and allows me to continue to follow him as he grows.

Crash - Test Nightmare

I have this recurring nightmare where I am in a terrible car accident and my dogs are severely injured. Because my dogs come with me almost everywhere, the likelihood of them being in the car with me if I ever crash is extremely high. I worry about their safety at all times, but this is starting to become a serious fear - not as bad as my needle phobia, but slightly higher than a normal worry.

My dogs do not ride safely in my car. Pocket is usually helping me steer and Abby and mole are usually asleep on a bed in the back. I know that riding in this manner is not safe, but its easy. When you have three dogs that get into and out of the car about four times a day, ease of use often becomes the norm.

I have tried different methods in the past, but they have all failed. For starters, crates don't fit well in my tiny back seat. When I finally found a crate that did fit, the dogs got out of it. Yes, my perfectly crate trained dogs can get out of crates when they feel that they are being crated unfairly. Harnesses are difficult for many reasons. For one, I have three dogs and two back seats. Second, I have one dog that can't be in a harness anymore (old broken ribs) and one dog that will chew her way out of something uncomfortable. That only leaves one safely restrained dog - and while I do love him most, that doesn't mean I want the others injured.

On top of restraint issues, I have a second fear. . .this one is slightly more crazy than the first. . .I am afraid that something will happen and I won't be able to get my dogs out of their restraints. First worry: I drive off a bridge and they drown. Second worry: I get in a fiery crash and they burn. Third worry: I get car jacked and my dogs are stuck with a man with a gun. I know I am crazy, but these are serious fears, even if they are slightly irrational.

I bring this up because I saw a post on a dog forum today about crash-test dogs using different restraint methods. The video is in German so I am not really sure how fast the car is going or what the reporter is saying, but the images speak for themselves. And after watching this video I imagine that I will have a whole new batch of nightmares. But I am going to have to rethink my non-restraint methods.

Any idea would be greatly appreciated. . .

Meet Jackson

Jackson is an amazing little guy with a story I wish I knew. I found Jackson on Wednesday at the Berkeley Animal Shelter while I was out temp testing dogs. While there were many available dogs at the shelter, there were none that fit into our program at the moment. And while I did not take Jackson home with me right away, I made a mental note to tell my ED about him. Once she heard about him, I knew that HAR would take him in! Little did I know that she would fall in love herself and foster him in her own home.

Jackson is somewhere between 9 months and 1 1/2 years old. He is probably a pure bred Yorkie, but it is obvious that he was poorly bred. He has a genetic (non-contagious) skin condition called Demodectic Mange. This is what has caused his massive hair loss. And while demodex doesn't itch, it still causes skin irritation which has contributed to his secondary skin infection. This mite/infection has made it's way to his eyes causing some corneal scaring. Jackson also has a malformed jaw which caused him to retain many of his baby teeth and which also causes his tongue to hang out constantly.

Jackson looks like a mess. . . and probably feels like a mess. His medical bills are adding up quickly and he still has a long way to go before he gets better. If you would like to read more about Jackson, or if you would like to donate to his medical fund, please click here.

Great Idea. . .Needs Work

Let me first say that I love Smartdogs. They are a training facility in Minnesota that focuses on communication with your dog rather then obedience. And like most trainers, they understand that when you can communicate effectively with your dog, you will have a more obedient dog. Smartdogs also has a weblog that I read frequently. They post a lot of news stories regarding animals or animal rights but they also post a fair amount of thier own personal thoughts/opionions.

Recently they created "DO-TAG" or Dog Owner Threat Assesment Guide. You see, dangerous dogs aren't the real problem. . .the owner is. And it is the management by the owner that either creates or allows the dog to cause a problem. According to their website:

The goal of this draft guide is to provide a free, easy-to-use tool for authorities to employ in assessing a given dog owner’s risk to his dog and the public. The guide could allow local authorities to identify potentially problematic dog owners with regard to their real or potential threat so that limited resources can be focused on those dog owners most likely to have unplanned litters, encourage aggressive behavior in their dogs, let them run at large or otherwise engage in potentially dangerous and/or antisocial behaviors.

That sounds like a fantasic idea, but sounds difficult to implement so they came up with an assesment sheet. A simplt 10 question test to determine the owner's risk factor. I was interested, so I went ahead and took the test. And, according to the test, I am either an annoying dog owner or a dangerous dog owner - depending on how truthful I am with one of the questions.

1) When you call your dog does he:
I would never let my dog off leash! -7pts

2)When you are gone your dog is:
Loose in my house where he doesn’t get in trouble. - 0 pts
Crated in my house because he’s destructive and can’t be trained. - 6 pts
(I gave myself 3 pts here since its a little of both answers)

3)When you walk your dog on leash:
He constantly drags me down the street no matter what I do. -8pts
(I gave myself 5 pts for this one since we are working in it . . .for a year!)

4)When you groom your dog:
He doesn’t like it but he puts up with it. - 2pts

5)When your dog misbehaves:
I usually discover what he’s done after the fact. - 8pts

6)Your dog is:
A dog with a dog’s needs and desires. - 0pts

7)When children are around:
I lock up my dog. He hates kids. - 7pts

8)I have two or more dogs because:
I know that I can take better care of them then anyone else - 20pts (and I may be a hoarder)
I have the time, energy, space, money and other resources I need to enjoy them all. - 0pts

9) Your dog was:
Spayed or neutered before I got it. - 0 pts

10) Your dog obeys commands like sit, down, and stay:
Only if there are no distractions around. - 8 pts

I consider myself to be a good dog owner. I think that most of my friends would consider me to be a good dog owner. But according to this, I am, at the very least, an annoying dog owner. Those of us that know Abby, know that in this case, it is the dog. . .not the owner. . .that is the problem in this relationship. But as an good owner, I know that I can manage my problem dog safely in society. But, also as a good owner, I know that if I could not manage her safely, then I would also have to make some tough decisions so that everyone in our life would remain safe.

I think that this DO-TAG is a really great concept and when I read it I wanted to scream FINALLY! It would be wonderful if we could come up with an easy way to red flag owners so that the owners could be managed better; and, in turn, both the dogs under their care, and the general public could stay safe. This is a much better idea then mine idea of taking the dumb owners out back and having a "come to Jesus meeting. " I don't think that it would go over very well once the media got involved. . .

My Obedient Dog

Sure, she looks like an angel when she is sleeping. . .

But those of us who know pocket know that she is anything but! Pocket is a little spit fire - and that is the nice way of putting it! She is naughty in every sense of the word. She only does what she wants when she wants. She will only listen to you if you have really great treats, and only if she feels like it. She has bitten more then one person just because they were making her do something she didn't want to do.

But pocket isn't a bad dog. She isn't the typical biting chihuahua. She isn't afraid of people - not even strange and creepy men. She doesn't turn away from bouncing children. She doesn't get snarfy with other dogs. She isn't even a barker. Pocket is actually a really good dog - as long as she is doing what she wants to do.

Which is why she totally surprised me last weekend at an AKC obedience match. Obedience has very strict guidelines. There is a designated course that you and your dog must follow including heel, sit, sit stay, down, down stay, stand for exam, and recall. This may sound easy but everything must be executed according to the rules and guidelines set forth by the AKC. Many people can do some of these things with their dogs, but not many people can do it in a distracted setting with other dogs and judges. People who do AKC obedience train for a long time before their dogs get even the basic CD.

Why in the world would I ever think that I could walk into a ring with my non-obedient dog (not exactly disobedient) and do half of these things? Because I was doing it with little miss pocket. And you know what? She was flawless. . .almost! She had a perfect heel. Beautiful automatic sits. Her right turns, about turns, and left turns were smoother then mine. She did a wonderful stand for exam for a strange woman with a scary cane. She did an excellent stay - too good of a stay. She never recalled off the stay. . .yep. . .that's my dog! I was starting to wonder what happened to her to make her behave so well. I was almost relieved when she made me look like a fool. But eventhough I looked silly at the end, we didn't look half as silly as some of the people out there. And we somehow managed to still have fun through it all.

So I guess this means that we are doing obedience and agility now. . .

Seriously??????????

Goodbye Dear Friends

A few months ago, I was talked into joining facebook for work. I did it because I'm a "team player" and because I really couldn't say no. I joined with the help of a colleague then immediately added the app to my phone. Once the app was on my phone I never used it on the computer - ever. I actually forgot what email account I used, and lets not even talk about possible passwords. But it really didn't matter because my phone did everything I need facebook for: mainly following friends. I was happy with my account for awhile because I was under a false name. I really didn't want people to "find me" - that was the whole reason I deleted my myspace account in the first place. A few people knew my pseudonym and we became friends. . .or is it faced? The lingo is still completely lost on me. . .But recently something horrible happened - more people found me! Or maybe I should say that the wrong people found me. And I am still not entire sure how that could happen because I couldn't even find me! Then a second horrible thing happened - my phone got funky because of the app. Aparently people with the facebook app have a hard time "backing up" their iphone. And since I was having the same problems with my phone that other people with the app reported having I decided it was a good time (excuse) to get rid of facebook completely.

So let me take a moment to tell my friends that I still love you. . .I just can't face you anymore. Maybe we can tweet. . .

Smells Like Teen Spirit

Ok, not really. . .

We all have those scents that when they waft into our life unexpectedly, they remind us of something. Like the smell of a certain perfume. . .or the smell of cotton candy. . .or a dog kennel. . .These are scents that when you smell them can immediately take you back to another place and time. I had one of those unexpected scents come up today and it got me thinking...

I was visiting my mom for reasons that I cannot say here, and was surprised to see a package from my grandma sitting there. The package wasn't for me, it was for Abby. It wasn't addressed to Abby, but what was inside it was for her. Grandma had sent some material to my mom so that she could make shirts for Abby. As soon as I opened the package, I pulled out the material and smelled it. I did this completely without thinking about it - it was pure reflex. And the material smelled exactly like my grandma. I couldn't stop myself from smelling each and every piece of material in the box. They all smelled like her. It was the perfect smell, the smell of home. I wanted so badly to take that box home and bury my head in for the night. But I didn't want my mom to think I was a lunatic, so I carefully placed everything back.

Grandma's smell isn't something I experience very often because she lives so far away. There was a time when I was younger when I saw her more, but life has gotten in the way of family visits. It is sad that I live so far away, especially now that they are getting older, and I am finally old enough to appreciate them properly. I had an interesting childhood (like most people these days). The family that I spent most of my time with wasn't my family - they were a combination of friends and the family of friends. And while I enjoyed their company, it was never the same as when I spent time with my bio-family. The place where you are always accepted regardless of what you have done or who you did it with. Where you can be scolded for something one minute and laughing the next. Where you yell and scream, slam doors and throw things, yet still be welcomed back time and time again. Your safe haven from the outside world.

Like I said, I had an interesting childhood. Some good, some bad. Somethings I never want to relive and somethings I would love to do again. And while my family was never perfect, they always loved me. And grandma was one of those people who "loved me best." Not that she loved me more then my cousins, but that she knew how to love me in ways that other people couldn't/wouldn't. She was always ready for a hug and always quick to dole out "I love you." She seemed to understand me in ways that other people never did. And the smell of her tonight brought back all those feelings of love and contentment and peace that I haven't really felt since I was a child.

I'm lucky that my grandma is still around and that she is healthy. Sometimes I joke about her being too healthy because she is already so ornery I couldn't imagine how ornery she would be at 90! But grandma is an amazing lady and I love her to pieces. My life would be immeasurably different if I had another grandma. And for good and bad, she had a huge part in who I am today.