Wordless Wednesday

Adopt the internet day

Today is "adopt the internet day," a day devoted to getting the word out about all the wonderful adoptable pets just waiting for a new home.  And maybe that home is with you.

I want to make the plea for older and especially adult black dogs.  You see, those are often the ones who linger the longest in shelters.  Big black dogs are passed up time and time again for dogs that are smaller, lighter colored, and for puppies.  The reasons people cite are many.  The three favourites are:

1. They're hard to photograph.

Really?


 

2. Their expressions are hard to read.

Really?




3. They look "scarier" than dogs who are lighter.

Really?





Dahlia, whose pictures are featured above was one such shelter dog.  She was dumped out on the streets of southern Ohio and brought to a high kill shelter.  Where no one wanted her.  Despite the fact that she was sweet and well-behaved and beautiful.  She was ignored by everyone coming into the shelter and quickly put on the euthanasia list.  Luckily a rescue saw her and agreed to take her in.  I helped transport her out of that shelter and instantly fell in love with her.  She's the best dog, better than I could have even imagined any dog could be!

So please, when you're looking into adopting a dog, consider some wonderful adult black dogs.  They make wonderful pets.

Consider Midnight for a moment.  This pretty girl came from an abusive home, but is a sweetheart looking for a new home.  She could use some love!



Or maybe Prancy is more up your alley.  She's just two years old, calm and sweet, loves other dogs, and is great in the car.  Just look at her!  Wouldn't she make a great hiking companion?



And if those two aren't up your alley, there are literally thousands more on Petfinder.com.  Check them out!  I'm sure you can find a companion who would fit your lifestyle.

The chair stealer

When I'm gone during the day, Dahlia has a tendency to take over my recliner.  During the day, my partner says that it's really her chair.  So it should come as no surprise that when I'm home, she would like it too.  It's her bed after all, isn't it?  Of course I got a really comfortable recliner just for her!

Recently she has taken to stealing the chair as soon as I get out of it.  Today, for example, I got up to go to the bathroom and came back to find that my chair had been taken over by a pretty black dog who rolled over and offered me a paw when I came over to the chair.

And when I was out in the kitchen doing dishes, my partner arrived back from his walk with her and did she come greet me?  No.  She made a bee-line for my chair and waited for me to find her in it.

It's become a sort of "game" as to who can get to the chair first.  She'll get off if I ask her, but sometimes it's fun to trick her into getting off by acting like there's something more exciting elsewhere.  Sometimes I reinforce her getting off by playing a game of tug or giving her a treat after she's on the floor.

And other times?  I let her have her chair.  I let her "win" and happily retreat to the big comfy couch.  I'm sure Dahlia likes that best of all!

Wordless Wednesday (and bonus video!)

Bonus video!! You may have to look hard to see her at first. She's way at the back, pretty far away. She was out for a walk with my partner when I got home from work so I kept an eye out for them and took out my camera. So this is her running to greet me.

You may want to watch this with the sound down so you don't hear me squeal her name at the end. ;-)

Wordless Wednesday: Dahlia with her Daddy

A humorous anecdote goes sour

Back in January I wrote a post called Dahlia the Drama Queen.  This posted was intended to be a humorous story about an incident on a recent walk I had with my dog.  However, recently I've taken some heat from it (not surprisingly, from the Alpha Crowd).

I wrote in that post that Dahlia "kept wanting to cross the road and I kept telling her that it was a bad idea because the road had been pretty clearly heavily salted."

One person recently said the following to me in regard to that post:  

Well, don’t you keep repeating ad nauseam that your dog has a CGC title?
Why you don’t gave to her a command? Stay, Sit etc.


To answer those questions, yes Dahlia has her CGC title.  What is the CGC you might ask?  It's the Canine Good Citizen test.  The CGC involves a variety of tests to show that the dog is well-behaved and well-trained.  Some of the things involve mimicking a visit to the vet or the groomer, meeting other people and dogs while out on a walk, and basic obedience commands.

What this means is that, yes she knows sit and stay (among many other commands).

But here's what this person doesn't understand and I suppose they need to know my dog better to understand what I meant by "kept wanting to cross the road."  I'm guessing they believe that she kept trying to pull me across the road, but this is simply not true.  Dahlia rarely pulls on the leash (the sole exception is when she has a reactive moment, which due to diligent training have become few and far between).

So what does she do?  Well, I've always given Dahlia a lot of freedom to choose the direction we walk in and we've gotten into an understanding as to what her signals mean.  When she wants to go in a different direction than I do, she sits down and looks at me.  When she has my attention, she looks in the direction she wants to go, and then looks back up at me.

I interpret this as her asking to go in the direction she wants to go in.

At this point, one of two things can happen:

(1) I say "Nope, this way!" and point in the direction I want to go.  Dahlia will get up and join me.  
(2) I say "Ok!" and we head in the direction she wants to go.

I'm a firm believer in this sort of freedom of choice.  I think having some freedom is a very important thing for a dog.  It shows that not only does she trust me, but also that I trust her.  Trust does go both ways.

In this particular instance, she would follow me, only to sit down and ask again.  After the third time, I acquiesced and hoped that the salt wouldn't bother her paws too badly.  Obviously I was wrong, hence the remainder of the humorous post.

This person also pointed out that if Dahlia had been hurt, it would have been my fault.  No doubt that is true, but I can assure you that Dahlia was in no danger the entire time this was happening.  Yes, her paws got a little sore, but she was not in danger.  Unfortunately, "sad paws" are a common occurrence here in the winter.  There's little one can do to avoid them.

So to sum up, this does not prove Dahlia is my "alpha," as this person claimed.  Nor am I hers.  We're partners and companions.  I like it that way.

Look! Sun!!

It seems like it's been forever since we've seen much sun where I live.  The winter is usually bleak, but this one has been harsher than usual.  We've had less sun, more snow, and colder temperatures than I can remember having in a number of years.  It started snowing here on December 4 and except for two brief thaws that gave us approximately two days of some patches of grass, the ground has been covered in snow.  That's nearly three months of constant snow on the ground.  Even for this area of the country, that's unusual.

Well, we've finally seen a bit of sun!  It didn't last long (one day last weekend; one day this weekend), but it's something.  The sun is getting higher in the sky and felt wonderfully warm today.  Here's to hoping for some more sun soon!  *raises can of Diet Coke*  I need the snow to melt before St. Patrick's Day.  See, I bought silly things to put on Dahlia for a photo shoot and somehow it just won't look Irish if the pictures are taken in a foot of snow!

"Dominance training" is silly

I've recently come to the conclusion that the entire idea of "dominance training" is silly.  Now, mind you, I'm not talking about the type of folks who alpha roll their dogs or who use harsh physical punishments to "teach them their place."  Those folks are whole different kettle of fish.  I'm talking about people who feel the need to somehow demonstrate to their dog that they're the boss, the alpha, the top dog, the dog about town, or what have you, usually by doing something they would feel utterly embarrassed to be caught at.

Here's a pretty simple one straight out of Jan Fennell's The Dog Listener:

By ensuring they eat first at meal times, the Alpha pair signal in unequivocal terms that they are the leaders. By giving their leaders first refusal at every meal time, the rest of the pack are acknowledging that they instinctively understand this. Even if there is only enough food for two wolves, the pack will expect the Alpha pair to eat it all to ensure the survival of the pack.

Gesture eating is my way of demonstrating the owner's primacy at feeding time.

The basic gist is that you pretend you're eating something, even part of their own food if necessary, to show them that you can eat first, to show them that the "alpha pair" always eat first.  Try this with your dog sometime and see how silly you feel pretending to eat something to prove something so abstract to a dog who is probably sitting there thinking nothing more than "mmmm food."

Here's another fantastic suggestion from someone commenting on a "tip" about resource guarding.

For example. If my dog is not sharing the food dish i do not “alpha roll” him or put him into the submissive position. I get down on “all fours” and place my head over the top of his, so that my [sic] he is looking at my neck. And then i proceed to back him away from the dish, allowing the other dog to eat.


Now do me a favor and really think about this for a moment.  Let's forget for a second that if a dog has a real resource guarding problem this is sure to result in your getting bit, likely in that neck that the dog is looking at (a place on your body that could result in your getting severely injured, or even killed, and will most certainly end with the death of the dog).  But think about getting down on all fours and pretending you're a dog to somehow "dominate" your dog away from his food.  How silly would you feel if someone came into the room while you were doing that?  I know I'd feel ridiculous even if no one was around to watch.  And I'm pretty sure I'd get laughed at by anyone with any sort of training background.

Other suggestions I have seen range from the misunderstood (playing tug with your dog is not about competition and if the toy ends up with the dog and not you, it doesn't mean he has "won") to the ridiculous (a dog getting on the furniture does not mean he thinks he's the "alpha") to the downright creepy (one trainer suggested humping your dog to show that you're the dominant one).

I'm not really sure how people can believe such silliness.  So have you ever read anything that just made you scratch your head or giggle?  Let's hear it!

A post I didn't want to make

"Since our hair match so well. The dog
started humping my head like a wild
beast." -- Kevin Salem

Some of you may remember that once, long ago, I wrote a blog post about being careful about who you went to training for. This all originally came about because I was looking for places to train in agility and was having a hard time finding someplace that seemed to fit my ideal (positive training, dogs and people having fun). On a lark, I googled the name of someone who had recently been disparaging positive trainers by calling them "cookie trainers" and writing long diatribes about how awful they were.

I really didn't expect to find much. But imagine my surprise when I discovered a world of horror surrounding Kevin Salem! I used him, along with Fred Hassen of Sit Means Sit, as primary examples of what to watch out for. While I don't care for Hassen's business at all, I do have to respect the fact that he made one comment to me (a disparaging, ridiculous one) and left it at that.

Salem, on the other hand, obviously doesn't have the confidence in his own business or training to let it go. Instead of laughing it off, it made him enraged. So enraged that he has been harassing me since October 2009. Many of the first messages he wrote to me were misogynstic in nature, alternately calling me a whore and telling me I need to get laid, insulting my imagined heritage, even my hair color. Here I present to you a few select quotes from the e-mails sent to me, and I apologize ahead of time for the crude content.

Would you sell your pussy at that hell call center for FREE? F*ck no, you wouldn't. Even your red pubic hair got some bills to pay.

Fast forward to three years from now: you are still suckling ... Oops. I misspelled that. my English teacher. c*ck at some call center.

That's what happens when you work ten jobs. No time for getting laid.

How sad. I hope you're not a chick with dick. That would totally ruin it for me and I will go away then for sure. (Shhhhhh. Don't tell nobody. All these dikes are or is it dyke? You would know. They are all jealous of my mullet. Mine is long, soft, shiny and manageable.) What do you use? VO5?

Is that what you wanted to hear? That's what happens when the carpet matches the drapes.

These are just a small smattering of the comments that have come my way since October 2009, when he launched his attacks against me.

Since then, he has threatened lawsuits (come to find out his "lawyer" is really just a barista), gone after my partner, and generally made a nuisance of himself. His latest endeavor is to disparage my dog training business.

What? you ask. What dog training business?

That's right, gentle readers, the dog training business I do not have. As anyone who reads my blog or who knows me in real life knows, I do not have a dog training business. I train my dog and occasionally help out others with their training. I have studied a lot about dog training but only in order to further the training of my own dog. I hope to foster dogs someday and will be able to put all of that study and work to good use, but at the moment there is really only one dog that I regularly train: Dahlia. And since she can't read fake reviews online by someone who claims to have boarded their dog (in an apartment that I do not live in anymore because I couldn't have dogs there), I'm not terribly worried. Hell, if I did board and train dogs in that apartment I would have had a lot more to worry about than some fake reviews by a jerk like Kevin Salem. I would have been fined $1000 and evicted.

But ultimately, I'm not in the business of dog training. It's a hobby for me. It's a hobby that I'm incredibly passionate about, but it's not a business and nor has it ever been.

So Kevin? You're wasting your time. You haven't fazed me one bit. The original post still stands.  Maybe I'll take this one down though if you stop your harassment.

Wordless Wednesday: The "I'm gonna laugh at you" version

The Barry Park Snowman

Dahlia and I frequently take long walks in and around Barry Park.  On January 29, Dahlia and I were headed into the park when we saw this fabulous snowman, complete with snowy top hat, made up on the small hill at the entrance to the park.  I was so impressed I got a photo of it.





Then we had a few days of slightly above freezing weather.  The snowman melted a bit.  The top hat fell off and soon the head followed.  I thought that was the end of it.  But then on February 12, I drove by the park on my way to the store and discovered that the snowman had been remade.

It was now a Hula Snowgirl.




I was most impressed with this, as you can imagine!  Someone has some great creativity.  The lei around her waist was made up of trash bags of various colors.  The "skirt" were reeds plucked from around the nearby pond.  The hat was made up of parts of those same reeds and fake flowers.  It was a most impressive display!

And then last Friday we had a huge thaw.  Much of our snow melted (though not all of it!) and the hula snowgirl had melted into just a big lump.  The decorations were removed from it and it was just sad reminder of the neat snowmen that had appeared in the park.

But then on Sunday, I again went by the park and discovered that the snowman had taken on yet one more incarnation.

Snow face!





The snow face currently still stands.  I'm looking forward to seeing what might come of it next!

Wordless...Thursday?

On dogs and comfort

Last Monday I got some dreadful news.  It wasn't news that was entirely unexpected, but it was news that we were hoping with all our might would not come to fruition.  I received the news while at work and after hearing it, I went back to my desk.

And I stared at the computer screen for a moment.

And I thought "If anyone tries to talk to me, if anyone tries to get something out of me, if anyone is rude or nasty, they are going to get a nasty tongue-lashing."  This sort of attitude is, of course, not really conducive to being in the work place.   While sitting there allowing these thoughts to ruminate, everything sort of blanked out.  I was left with one thought:

Get home to Dahlia.

I left work immediately.  I knew in that moment, when my world had come crashing down around me, that the one creature on this earth that would offer the exact kind of comfort I needed was my dog.

What is it about dogs that make them so comforting in such a horrible moment?

Is it that they offer wordless support?  They cannot ask questions.  They cannot murmur meaningless platitudes.  They cannot try to get your mind off of it.

Is it that they have soft fur and allow you to cuddle with them and cry into that fur without getting annoyed?  They won't tell you to buck up.  They won't look impatient or uncomfortable upon hearing your news.

Is it that taking them out for a walk makes you breathe easier?  Or maybe that it makes you think about other things as you watch your dog walk merrily along, sniffing anything in her path and bounding into the snow with gleeful abandon?

Maybe it's all of those things.  Maybe it's more. Whatever it is that makes dogs so comforting, I'm glad for it.  After taking a long walk in the afternoon snow with Dahlia, I felt much better about everything.  No, the news is still not good.  But I was able to free myself of the burden for a little while and just enjoy watching my dog be a dog.

Wordless Wednesday (and bonus video!)

This is the video of what was going on when that picture was taken.

Dahlia the Drama Queen

Last night we took a very quick walk in the cold. Dahlia kept wanting to cross the road and I kept telling her that it was a bad idea because the road had been pretty clearly heavily salted. But she doesn't seem to listen to me too well (she's testing that "how much English do dogs understand" thing!) and kept insisting. So I let her cross. The way over was ok because she chose a spot that wasn't too heavily salted. But then, after sniffing around over there, she wanted to cross back over.

Here was where we ran into a problem. After taking just a few steps into the middle of the road, Dahlia started limping. I got her to move a few more steps so that we were almost to the side of the road, but then she suddenly stopped. Sat up in a sit pretty in order to hold her two front paws off the ground, and then simply flopped over and onto her back.

In the middle of the road.

 

Right near a corner.

So I'm trying to clean off her paws when I see a car coming and of course they need to turn up the road we're on. We're right at the corner and she sees us and stops. I get Dahlia up and on her feet and she's hobbling. The woman rolls down her window and asks if she's ok, do we need a ride home or anywhere else? She said she saw the dog laying down in the road and thought the worst: that she had been hit by a car.

Imagine my mortification when I had to tell the woman "Oh no, my dog is just a drama queen over some salt on her paws." I know it must burn, but geez louise my dog is a huge drama queen. I didn't even clean her paws off again when she got over to the side of the road because she was all happy and excited and wanted to go greet the nice woman. She went bounding up to her without a bit of a limp in her gait.

Oh Dahlia. *headdesk* I guess on the good side I don't have to worry about her never showing pain? I mean, she's a drama queen about a little bit of salt. Can you imagine how she'd be if she really hurt?