On Training Articles

2011-07-21T06:56:00.001-07:00

In my last post, I wrote about how hard it was for me to see where I could break going for a walk into smaller steps, and how that kept us from making progress for well over a year. As I was sharing my new discoveries with my husband (also very involved with Kumi - probably more than me) we started discussing the uselessness of most 'how to clicker train' resources we'd found, and came up with the following parody:

How 'The Internet' Tells you to Train Your Dog:

Don't hit your dog.

Do not hit him with a cane. Do not hit him on a train. Do not hit him in the rain.

Do not hit him in a box. Do not hit him with a fox. Do not hit him wearing socks.

Do not hit him on a farm. Do not hit him on the arm. Do not hit him when it's warm.

Do not hit him when it's cold. Do not hit him if he's old. Do not hit him you've been told!

To teach your do how to make you breakfast, first, show him where the eggs are. Then click and treat as he prepares each course correctly. Remember not to hit your dog.

It always felt like there were...some steps missing. Or, at the very least, an assumption that your dog was a lot more interested (driven? Similar in personality to a border collie?) than ours was.

So, ironically, right after figuring things out for ourselves and laughing at the dearth of good information available, we found Sue Ailsby's training levels. And, they're useful. They go slow enough. Importantly for me, they have numbers. As in, 'do this 10 times for 5 seconds'. Instead of 'do this a lot for very short durations'. I like her method of teaching duration. It's very structured and appeals to the 'nerd' in the title up there. After a poor track record of getting Kumi to submit to grooming without being restrained, I've started using her approach to that. It's way too soon to know if it's doing any good, but at least it's a plan.

Cookie Pusher

2011-07-18T11:08:00.001-07:00

Last week, I went and got the mail with Kumi pretty much without her pulling on the leash. She did stop to sniff at the mole hills, but she was able to pull her attention back to me.

[crazy excited cheers] This feels so huge.

And I did it pretty much the way we were told to in the beginning. The way that 100% didn't work at all. A little tiny bit of that is that we've gotten a better rapport over a year and a half of living together, but mostly It just took me this long to understand the approach and figure out which parts were important, and how to break it down for my dog, instead of the instructor's terrier.

See, even in the beginning it wasn't to hard to get Kumi doing a heel in the house, or in the yard. We wowwed the instructor with lovely figure-eights and patterns around obstacles. But Kumi's always been very sensitive to 'home' vs. 'not home' and it was an entirely different scenario when we were trying to leave home, or leave the car, or go anywhere. She just hit the end of the leash and turned off to everything else. 'Going' was the ultimate reward to her, and our darn cookies weren't even a close second. I remember walking in circles around the backyard and having her break every time we turned towards the gate. I remember standing in the middle of the driveway, having painfully won her attention back just steps after leaving the yard, and having her take the cheese from my hand only to drop it on the ground and ignore it.

So, what worked this time is I figured out how to make the steps even small enough, while still being steps forward, and not just more practice on what we already knew.

The one bright spot I started from was that Kumi has a very good reflex to sit to open doors. She would quiver with excitement, but she would sit at the gate. So that's where I started. I made her sit. I put her leash on. I opened the gate, and I fed her a handful of cookies. They weren't even particularly good cookies. Then I closed the gate, took her leash off, and we were done. I went back in the house.

That was that first baby step I needed.

After a few sessions, she was calm enough to watch me and wait for the next cookie to come. So I stepped to the other side of the gate, stopped, and fed her the rest of the cookies. At once. 'yes'-cookie-'yes'-cookie-'yes'-cookie. Did my best to not give her time to even turn her head away.

That step took longer, but she started anticipating the next cookie and hanging around me waiting for it rather than anticipating going on a walk and hanging around the end of the leash waiting for that. I'd managed to re-program what comes after 'we go through the gate' to 'I get a bunch of cookies' instead of 'I go wander around in the wide world dragging someone behind me on a leash'.

I did a little work giving her time to look away and rewarding that, which was, duh, the 'look at that' game the trainer suggested, except starting that game when she was looking away by default never got anywhere. I had to get her looking at me by default first. I had such a hard time understanding what we were supposed to be accomplishing with that, and what I was supposed to be rewarding, but 'a reminder that even when you aren't staring at me, I still have the cookies and might give you one any time' makes sense.

So, I won't say it was easy after that mental shift, but it was possible. We worked our way down the driveway five feet at a time. When we got to the end of the driveway and stepped into the grass, she flipped back into 'must go' mode, so we had to start back at the beginning of the driveway in the grass, and work our way down the side of it again.

After our mail box achievement, (well, the next day), I loaded her in the car and took her to the park and tried the same thing, filling her full of cookies right there in the parking lot as soon as she left the car. And that was too big of a step. I tried backing up and treating her while she was still in the car, but even that was pretty rough going, as she was much more interested in looking past me to what was going on than taking treats.

I think my next plant is to load her into the car, and reward her for a while before I start the engine. The next step will be reward her at home, drive to the park, reward her in the car, then drive home without even getting out. Then I'll start working on getting out of the car.

Wish me luck. I think I might have a chance this time.

Kitten defense

2011-07-13T06:30:00.001-07:00

We had workers over yesterday to install counter tops. We've had a lot of people over this spring remodeling the kitchen. It's not Kumi's favorite thing, but she's gotten to be ok with it either in her crate, or if M's home out in the yard, or tethered with him in the other room so she can't get in the way.

Today, she was sleeping in the bedroom (with the AC) when they came over, and as we still have a babygate there from the dobermans, M just swung that closed. I think she kept sleeping for a while, and didn't really react since they were out of her line of sight even when she woke up.

Until one of them walked over to that side of the room to pet Fuu. She didn't react when she saw the strange man in the house, but when she saw him approach Fuu, she gave a warning growl, louder when he got closer, and was clearly unhappy about him touching her.

I know this is probably not something I should be happy about, but they are rough circumstances for Kumi with all the strangers in the house, so I give her a little slack to make warning noises towards people she hasn't been introduced to wandering around the living room, and it makes me smile that she considers Fuu worthy of protection.

First Foster - Andy: Days one and two

2010-10-11T11:50:00.000-07:00

So, the dog we were slated to get for our first foster was a sweetie-pie older dog, with a known history. But, he was adopted, so we ended up with the total experience (well, almost, he is house and crate trained). A young male, lots of energy, pulled from the pound with no known history prior to that whatsoever. I felt like I spent the entire first day saying 'no' or 'leave it' to a dog that would not settle down. He peed a lake over the kitchen floor (my fault, I thought there was no way he could need to go again that quickly, but apparently he'd really been drinking), and threw a screaming fit in his crate at three in the morning.

Then things started to get better. Thoughts as bullet points.

He is picture-perfect with the cats. He will politely sniff and investigate, but doesn't push things, growl, or corner them. Of course, our cats are pretty savvy, and while they've swatted his face a few times, they haven't run. For what it's worth, he's taken the face swatting in stride.
Thank goodness he respects baby gates (or even a chair placed in the middle of a doorway). He neither jumps, nor pushes things over.
He's really intent on knowing where we are, but hasn't been overly cuddly. He follows room to room, and if you go where he can't follow, he'll wait at that doorway until you come back. Sitting in the living room, he will lay down a few feet away, but in sight, and come over to check on me every ten-twenty minutes or so. Sticks his head in my lap and gets some scratches, then goes back to his spot.
Similar thing with being outside. If you go out with him, he will trot around happily enough, or chase you, but he stays in sight. If you go back in, he wants in too right away. He seems to prefer indoors to outdoors a little bit in general.
He played fetch with M once, and had a pretty good 'drop it'. Other times he's shown no interest at all in thrown objects.
He's definetly more interested in me than M. I don't know whether it's because I had him alone most of the first day, or if he just prefers women, but he becomes quite concerned if I'm out of sight, even if M is there with him.
He hasn't really played with Kumi yet. They mostly ignore each other at this point. She's offered him some bows and invitations, but he isn't interested so far.
M did a two mile run with him both mornings so far. I don't know whether that is helping take the edge off, or whether he's just settling in better. He is still going full speed at the end, unlike M & Kumi, who are pretty tired out by that distance. The first day he did come home straight from three hours of off leash play with other dogs, so I would have thought that would tire him out some too.
He seems to already know sit and down, maybe shake. I think I'm using a different cue than he had for down previously, because he doesn't do it very consistently, but he'll sometimes offer it spontaneously when I have a treat he wants, and it's a very enthusiastic, planned movement, like he knows I might be asking for it, not just that he wants to lie down now. I'm less certain on shake - he might just like using his paws for things. We probably aren't going to pursue that one anyway.
He pulls like a plow horse. At 93 lbs (him, not me), I physically cannot control him on a leash. He is good on the head harness, but we'd like to move away from that. M spent some time working on heel, and said he was picking it up just they way they say they should in all the books (just like Kumi didn't). I'm hoping we can have him heeling by the next adoption meetup.
While M's working on heel, I've been doing touch. We're both trying to get him to sit before he goes outside or gets petted so that becomes automatic. Unlike Kumi, I'm also asking him to sit before he comes inside, since that seems to be quite a reward for him, and he's rushing the door in that direction, whereas Kumi has to be bribed to come in.
He's very enthusiastic about training, and loves working for treats. I think he'd be great for someone that wants to do more advanced training, because he seems to be a quick study, and really enjoys it.
He takes treats very roughly, biting your whole hand to get at the little nibble. If he's calm, he will sometimes take the first two more politely, so I think it's an excitement issue. I'm going to try turning around and ignoring him when he starts doing that in the future to see it that's successful. I tried keeping my hand closed around the treat, and he did stop chewing on it pretty quickly, but when I tried to reward him for that he took a big chomp again.
He's pretty enthusiastic about counter surfing. The first day we had a very hard time keeping his nose off the dinner table when we were eating (probably should have crated him, but oh well). However, some firm 'no's the second day, and he kept away from my dinner while I ate on the couch (slob that I am), so I think that may be fixable, at least while someone is watching.
He will go in his crate if you put his food or a treat in there first, but he's leery of it. He very much dislikes being crated where he can't see anyone. Being in sight of Kumi relaxes his somewhat, but he still whines when you leave. He seems to stop pretty quickly though.
About that tantrum. He whined when we put him up at first (at the foot of our bed with us in it). It sounded like attention-seeking whining, so we went with the ignore it route. I fell asleep before he stopped, but according to M, he did. Then around 3 am, he started up again, and kept at it through some pretty solid ignoring. We thought it might be a bathroom issue, so we let him out to go outside. He immediately tried to get into bed with us and was soundly rebuffed for that attempt. When he got back in his crate from the bathroom trip he started crying again. Very loudly, almost screams. Counting both before and after the potty break, he probably whined (loudly) for 45 minutes. At this point, M was tried and wanted to sleep and yelled 'No' it took about three repetitions, but it worked. Then second night we told him no when he started whining a few times, and he was good and quiet all night long. I was really surprised that the reprimand was more effective than the ignoring, but mostly I'm happy that everybody gets to sleep now.
At this point he's an odd blend of intensity and softness. He cries in his crate and always wants to know where you are, but it takes a pretty firm reprimand for him to listen. He never seems offended by the reprimand, and seems to listen and learn from it very well once you've gotten through to him. With how hard my voice is, I almost expect him to be cringing and making appeasement signals, but he's very resilient without being unresponsive if that makes sense.
A bit of the case study of the above. I was trying to trim his (ridiculously, probably painfully, long) nails. I started trading a treat for letting me hold his paw, and then for letting me clip a nail, releasing the foot after each treat. He very quickly wised up that he wasn't going to let me near his feet treats or no, and was actually getting fairly skittish about me. However, when M held him still so I could just go through and do them all at once, he didn't struggle or whimper at all, and was happy and fine with us both when I had finished.
He seemed to enjoy gnawing on a nylabone. At once point, we noticed quite a bit of blood on the bone, and took it away, but didn't see any damage in his mouth - just some blood. The rescue claims chewing so much their gums bleed isn't uncommon for the breed, and he'd been vet-checked with no problems recently. However, the second day we noticed one of his molars in the way back is a dark grey color, and doesn't look right at all. The tooth is so far back that it's hard to see when you're trying to pull his lips open, but visible when he's relaxed and panting. I'm not sure I want to question the vet/rescue this early on, but it doesn't seem like a good thing.
He has some antibiotics he's finishing up for an ear infection. He is the easiest dog to give pills to ever. Smear some peanut butter on one end and he gulps it down without a second thought.

Off-leash paradigm shifts, reinforcers, attention, and all that jazz

2010-03-16T13:31:00.001-07:00

I've decided I want an off-leash recall by the 4th of July. I've no idea whether that is a reasonable goal or not, but it is helping me focus on actually working with Kumi and not letting it stagnate, so I guess it's a good thing.

Going into this, I thought about the problems we've had working with her outside (which is where off-leash matters, no?). The biggest problem is that she will *not* take treats outside. Things she will work fairly hard for indoors, she will completely ignore while outside. It's like opening her mouth and chewing is too distracting from looking around to be worth her while. I don't know, but treats don't work, and that makes things difficult.

Doing nothing also has no effect. She gets really into standing and watching, so she really doesn't care if we ignore her, or don't move, or what have you.

So, we've already crossed off the 'positive' and 'neutral' training types, and are down to the dreaded negative things. But...going back inside when she does something wrong has been somewhat effective. So is that 'removing the reward' of being outside, or 'introducing an aversive' or...I get so confused when I start to think about it, but it seems to work? I do stay happy when we do it, just 'nope' then 'okay, time to go in' or something like that.

One of the best successes we had was when she was ignoring my directions when trying to get her in the car (she LOVES car trips). We got out to the car, and she wouldn't sit while I opened the door and was generally being a jerk, so I took her back in and did some dishes for a few minutes and tried again. She was SO enthusiastic and SO good - her butt was hitting the ground like, well, I can't really think of a good simile, but normally even her being-good-and-paying-attention-because-I-want-dinner obedience is to yawn and think about it, and slowly lower herself down once the committee has gotten back with a resolution on this 'sit' thing. This time, however, it was more like some crazy border collie who actually *wanted* to do what you said.

So, I'm thinking that maybe I'm not letting her fail often enough? Apparently she does get it, and just knows she can get away with things. Previously I would repeat the commands a few times thinking she might be so focused on the outside she literally didn't hear me. I'd only go in when it was really clear she wasn't paying any attention. Part of this is due to the whole 'negative' thing. I admit I felt bad going in with a plan of setting my dog up to fail so I could bring her back inside as a reinforcer. But...this is changing my perspective.

Anyway, armed with that inspiration, I put her on a long line, and went into the unfenced front yard, expecting to ask her to touch once, have her ignore me and head for the neighbor's yard, and bring her back in.

But, she didn't. She wouldn't walk more than, oh, 8 feet away from me, even with all sorts of coaxing. This is farther than our normal leash allows, but still absolutely in the realm of 'your off-leash dog appears under control'. She was looking away from me, but...she does that, and she didn't seem 'zoned out'.

And she listened to my 'touch'.

She did eventually get distracted by the dog across the street barking, but I felt that was a little unfair. My paradigm shifted again.

Kumi's appallingly bad leash manners always seemed at odds with her impeccably polite house manners. Maybe she would have been good, and just wanted to do it at a farther distance? when relaxing around the house, she normally sits some distance away from people and looks 'out' - maybe that's her mode outside too. Were we being unreasonable asking for a more strict heel?

On the other hand, maybe it's just that the attention work on the shorter leash has paid off more than I realized. Or she's bonded with us more now, and she would have stayed closer now regardless of what training we did.

I don't know anything, but it has made me think.

progress and not

2010-02-01T11:16:00.001-08:00

To begin with the not:
We gave up on the 101 things. It seemed to make Kumi very nervous to have me watching her with a reward ready but not giving any commands. Even when I studiously ignored her, she could sense that I was waiting for something, and tended to go into a down stay, watch me intently, and act generally unhappy.

So. That idea went into the bin.

On the other side, we've had pretty decent success with some new tricks. M taught her to roll over (or at least show her belly), and stand in one evening each.

I tried a different technique with teaching her to get the ball. She sometimes plays with it when you toss it, and I spent a while rewarding her when she picks it up. She definetly works better when you give a cue, or lure something. Her default behavior is stillness, which makes it hard to capture things.

Anyway, the reinforcement had two effects - first, she will now almost always go after the ball, and pick it up in her mouth as soon as she catches it when you toss it (previously she would often just push it with her nose or bat it around with her paws like a cat). This is what I was trying to train. Secondly, she drops the ball immediately upon 'yes' - which is not quite what I was going for.

I think from here, I'd like to try to train a retrieve, and possibly a catch - I think the catching is more an issue of her practicing coordination than one of motivation. She will sometimes catch it, but often seems to try, but physically 'miss', so I don't want to discourage her efforts, but I also don't want to train 'pretend to try to catch it'.

In even better news, despite very limited practice due to inclement weather, she's getting much better on the leash. I don't mean she has a perfect heel, or even that she is paying attention to me all the time, but she's stopped pulling so much, and will come back to me and touch upon request about half the time. It still takes her a while most times, and she often smacks my hand with her nose very quickly, and with a disapproving grunt, but she is doing it, which to me is huge. She is at least acknowledging that there is someone on the other end of the leash, and that paying attention to me might help further her interests. This is a big, big change. Now that she knows I'm here, it feels like the rest will be easy (well, at least possible - which before I had doubted). I am looking forward to good weather!

101 things

2009-12-09T13:19:00.000-08:00

Well, the 'pay attention' training has been cut short a bit by the fact that it is darn cold here in the winter (oh YEAH). Of course, she already does fine with it in the house, so it really can't be moved indoors. I've been leaving extra time to load her up when we do go somewhere to give her chances to 'fail' and have to go back in if she's not on good behavior, and she does seem to be making pretty good progress given how little practice we're doing.

But I have a replacement.

I noticed a few days ago that Kumi is convinced that the only things we might ever ask her to do are sit, down, stay and touch. Mostly she just escalates to lying down when she wants something, then looks at us with a confused expression if it doesn't work. For the most part, that's been true so far, but I don't want her brain to get stuck that way, so we're trying something new.

Back in my pre-dog voracious internet reading days I heard of a clicker training exercise called 101 things to do with a box. There's a reasonable summary of it here: http://www.canineuniversity.com/articles/training/train_28.html and some more detailed points here http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/2001b/101.htm . Basically, you put down an object and mark and reward any interaction with it, possibly shaping a particular behavior, but mostly rewarding creativity and differing responses.

Well, we didn't have a box handy (amazing in this house), so I used one of her nylabones, with the idea that maybe I could work towards something like a retrieve.

Well, we're a long way from retrieve.

I started by wiping a little gravy on the bone to get her going in the right direction. She got rewarded for licking the gravy off, and spontaneously nosed the bone a few times, which also got rewards. She did the nosing thing consecutively a few times, which made me think she might be getting the idea, but didn't continue more than two or three times.

In general, she actually seemed fairly stressed during the exercise. She quickly went (unprompted) to the down, but didn't relax. She was watching me very closely, and panting a little - seemingly nervous about not knowing what to do.

Needless to say, we kept the activity short, but it does seem like a good idea for 'training her to be trained' per-se. I also think next time I'll try to be more active at rewarding just looking at the item in addition to touching it.

Cooincidentally, I discovered a good new reward. We had some leftover thanksgiving gravy in the fridge I wanted to get rid of since we'd eaten the associated turkey, so I let her lick little scoops of it off a spoon. She seemed to like it more than many rewards, it didn't require chewing, and unlike her other high value rewards it didn't get my fingers greasy (or slobbery) since it was all on a spoon. I may try similar things with other soft foods like peanut butter or cream cheese.

In other news, I'm working on her letting me handle her front paws without pulling them away (she let me clip the back ones). Touch, yes, release, food x 10 or so.

I also put the dremel by the back door and am turning it on before I let her out. I was hoping she would run past it while it was on, but that wasn't gonna happen, so we're going slower.

Finally, to help break the 'sit, down, stay, touch' ultimatum I've been brushing her before meals and giving her a scoop when she's stood still for a few strokes rather than asking for tricks. So far she still tries to run away unless I put an arm under her waist, but is getting better about biting the brush and struggling. She also, surprisingly, lets me brush her while she's eating, though I'm not sure if that's a good idea to keep doing or not.

New strategy on leash training

2009-10-30T07:43:00.001-07:00

We haven't made very good (ahem, any) progress with loose leash walking on the plain collar since this summer, so I've come up with a new strategy. We're working on just getting out the gate and down the driveway, not even thinking about leaving the property yet. She has the yard to exercise in, so 'short' is the name of this game.

She is very reliable about sitting to go through gates once she 'got it' so I'm hoping we'll have a similar break through here.

We start at the gate, I have her sit, and put the leash on. Open the gate, tell her to go ahead through and close it. By that time, she's generally at the end of the leash, pulling a little, and not paying attention to me. So I ask her to touch my hand. Right now I will wait a bit and if she glances back at me I will repeat it and give her a second chance. Sometimes I'll even walk up (but not give her any more leash) and put my hand next to her face so she just has to turn her head. I'm thinking I have to make doing the right thing really easy for her now or she's not going to catch on that it has good consequences.

So anyway, once she touches, we start walking until she hits the end of the leash again, then I ask for another touch. I offer her a treat when she touches too, but at least half the time she doesn't take it - she'd much rather get going.

I make the first touch really really easy to be sure she gets it, but I 'cheat' less and less as she does more. Generally, we get through about three before she spaces out and won't look back at me. Then we just walk back to the gate and are done.

Here is what makes me think this might work:

For one, she really does like going places - and down the driveway apparently counts as 'going someplace'. Obviously, trips have to end sometime anyway, and I'm hoping that 'if you ignore me and stare into the distance, then we go home' is a sufficient deterrent. Since just standing and watching things seems to already be such a huge positive for her, we haven't made much progress getting her to stop doing it by offering other positive things. But associating it with a negative (brushing) was successful in the case of sitting at the door. I'm hoping by using really short sessions here I can associate staring into space while on a leash with the negative of having to go home.

Also, really short sessions keep me from getting cranky about standing out in the cold with a dog that's ignoring me.

I'm also hoping that using 'touch' instead of teaching the loose leash directly will work more immediately on attention, which is the 'mother problem' you could say. 'Touch' really requires her to redirect all her attention back at me. Not just glance at me and think about it, but really mean it.

Previously, when we tried treating for being in the right place, or correcting for getting too far ahead you could tell that she absolutely didn't get it. She really has very little awareness of where she is in relation to you to begin with - she's much more outward focused. Working on 'you need to pay attention to what I want' and 'you need to know where you are in relation to me' at the same time as 'this place is good and that place is not' was just too much.

So, my immediate goal is to get in her head that she has to drop what she's doing and pay attention whenever I say or we go home. (did I mention she doesn't like going home?)

My secondary goal is that once I have her attention, she'll start noticing that I'm a crazy jerk lady who keeps making her touch my hand all the time, and she'll cut her losses and stay next to me so she can get the 'touch' thing over with quickly when I ask for it.

But I like the idea that I'm directly training the first, more important goal. Once that is working better, I'll have more tools to work with on the second one.

and then, this morning

2009-08-27T09:46:00.001-07:00

She was completely cool with the new commands again. Maybe it was just a morning grumpy thing.

One of the things they required in the class was a pouch or apron to put the treats in. It works pretty well, but I'm beginning to wonder if the dog would associate context that she only has to listen when you're wearing the pouch. Similar I guess to not having food in your hand. It's like a catch-22. How to reward without having a a reward on you.

Also, I cooked the chicken, so that will be ready for next week.

Finally, I'm pretty sure she ate some squash from the compost that I dumped there after it went bad. I guess I'm either hoping it was a raccoon, or going on the premise that it didn't actually look really bad yet - I just knew how long it had been in there. She seems to be suffering no ill effects.

Maybe I should try summer squash as treats...

first day of class

2009-08-26T09:14:00.001-07:00

Class was a mixed bag.

We started out all sorts of wrong, with Kumi running and pulling like never before all around the yard. The actual class was in a soft dirt arena, and she completely has better traction than me in there. For a moment, I was all but waterskiing behind her.

But, she did calm down, and was pretty impressive for most of the training. We worked on look at me, and touch my hand, and she was very quick to pick them both up. Model pupil level of quick.

Then it got long and boring, and she wanted to look at the other dogs, or, you know, somewhere other than me. We tried walking it off out in the yard again, but that just triggered the same crazies as when we arrived. Never really got focus back after than.

Also, she completely got sick of the treats. Sniff it on my finger and walk away sick of them. We were going to cook up an extra chicken breast and cut that up for treats, but dinner plans changed and so all we had was cheese and hot dogs. Honestly, it seemed like her stomach was a little off in general - she was much more hesitant with her dinner when we got home than usual. I've already saved some hamburger for next week, and we should have chicken too.

Then, this morning, it was like she'd never heard of this 'touch' thing before. 'why the heck is your hand in front of my face'. At the time, I figured it was just because it wasn't part of the morning routine and she was grouchy about having to come in from the yard. Thinking about it now, it might have helped to do a few rounds of the charging thing before asking her to work for it, since that's how we started the class. Make my hands smell like cheese and all. She did manage to do sits and downs, which is what we'd previously been asking for when she gets fed, so maybe it is the routine thing after all.

So, there's that. I'm hoping we do some work on leash manners sooner rather than later, because she's embarrassing in their yard, and I'm not sure how to stop it. She gets completely uninterested in treats. She'll sometimes check back in with me a little (flicking her ears, or sometimes glancing back) when I ask, but I don't know how to reinforce it. Even if I toss a treat up to her, she almost never looks down and eats it.

brushing as a training strategy

2009-08-18T08:19:00.001-07:00

I may have mentioned that Kumi is a somewhat fluffy dog. Thankfully, she tolerates brushing, because it would need to get done one way or another, but it is not her most favorite thing by any stretch. I recently came up with a way to make some lemonade out of the situation.

One of the things we are trying to teach her is to sit and wait until told to go through a door. This was proving a bit hard, as all our doors have windows, and she was quite content to stand there and look out the window for a *long* time. Going through the door was a good reward when you got to it, but looking out the window was fun enough that she didn't see any need to do what you said in the meantime. She could just wait.

So we put a brush by the door. She has the choice between standing there looking out the window and *being brushed*, or doing as told and getting to go outside. This is speeding the learning process significantly. She now offers a sit as soon as you walk up next to her, and is getting better on the stay.

I want to reiterate that this isn't retributive brushing, or anything intentionally uncomfortable. It's just getting the tangles out, which would have to be done at some point anyway. We just timed it strategically.

Other training issues are she seems to have learned 'sit' as 'come over next to you and sit' I'm not sure how to re-generalize it to 'sit wherever you are' but for now there are other fish to fry.

We've gotten lazy about the leash walks since we got the fence, preferring games of catch and chase. Her leash manners are regressing. Particularly on the regular collar. It sucks.

On the positive side, well, the door manners are good, but she's also got a pretty good grasp on down now. She knows it a lot better from M than from me, and mostly only knows it in the kitchen (and not, for instance, when she's standing in front of the tv), but still, good progress from 'I have no idea what that means'.

Also, we have our first (no dogs) session of training class this evening. I am inordinately nervous.

Don't Shoot the Dog

2009-07-29T11:59:00.001-07:00

But first: remember the list from yesterday? Add to that gnawing up one of my flip-flops (don't worry, I fixed it, it's not like they were presentable to wear outside the house before hand)

Also, ripping off the 'illegal to remove' tags from some of those pillows she moved. I'm not sure *how* she ripped the tags off; they're completely intact, but detached. Maybe she grabbed them and shook the pillow? That is one of her favorite ways to play with things, but I would not have thought she would be able to get a good enough grip on the tag. Again, no harm - I probably should have pulled the things off before anyway. We have classy decor here, van you tell? Though it does amuse me the tags said 'it is illegal .... except for by the final consumer' see, Kumi, you were supposed to *eat* the pillows if you take the tags off.

The fence is done, and she enjoys it. No, she is not fast enough to catch a rabbit. It was a little weird not going for a full walk, but between tossing toys for her and just general wandering, she seemed to tire herself out more than she did on the walks even. We'll have to be careful not to let the heeling slip though. It will be good to practice doing things off-leash though.

ANYWAY

The title is in reference to the newest dog book that came in. Again, this is an early review - I'm not done with the first chapter, but I likey. We may have to buy this. It's a great mix of conversational, funny, readable language with practical, immediately applicable ideas. It's not just a rote how-to training book though. It's theory, philosophy, principles that are generally applicable. Even in that first partial chapter, I have concrete things I want to change with how I'm doing things. I complained about 'Bones' having too much fluff between the useful bits, this may be the opposite. It isn't hard to read by any stretch, but I could do with a few more examples and explanations to crystallize the ideas. Though, I expect that may be found in later chapters.

I like how she doesn't focus on a clicker being the one true way. I really prefer a verbal signal - you don't have to carry it, it has adjustable volume, it's unique from everyone else... Anyway, points to work on - giving verbal correction before a physical one, so they have a chance to self-correct. All I can say to that is 'duh'. I also need to work on not using the verbal signal outside of enforcing behavior, on separating the 'continue' signal from the 'that's it' signal, and on varrying reward frequency. I love how the language in this is practical, rather than lovey-dovey too, I think my husband will actually be able to learn from it too.

Nearing the end of our free pass

2009-07-28T11:28:00.001-07:00

Remember that dog whose house manners I raved about? Yesterday she dragged the pillows to another room, ate the top off a tube of benadryl itch ointment (thankfully she didn't seem to chew the tube itself) and got the lid off a jar of salsa and took it into the office. I am glad we have wood floors. I'm also glad we decided to wait just a few more days before leaving her uncrated when we're gone. It could still be a heck of a lot worse, but I'm thinking the honeymoon may be over.

The cats behavior has been amusing too. Initially, Fuu was a jerk, and Mickey couldn't care less, then about a week and a half in, Fuu decided to get over herself, but Mickey apparently realized that she *wasn't leaving* and decided to register his opinions on that matter. i.e. yowling at her and hissing. He's still doing it.

On a better note, the walking continues to improve. She is almost to the point of a decent heel* without a constant stream of 'no' 'heel' 'no' 'heel' 'good' 'no' 'heel'... which is a darn good thing since I was starting to dread walks a bit.

I'm not sure if there's a way to go from this to even less formal loose leash walking since I don't really care if she's right next to me, or if she pauses to sniff something then catches up, but it seems so far this is the only way to keep her from going straight to the end of the leash and pulling. It's not a big deal to keep her at heel, but it seems something else might be more pleasant for all parties. Or maybe it wouldn't

She's starting to get the idea of stays and down. We need to come to firm up a decision on a release word. 'lets go' works for going out the door, or walking on leash, but doesn't make sense for regular old 'ok, you're done' I don't want to use 'ok' since that's soo common in conversation, I heard 'at ease' suggested and while it's amusing, it's awkward to actually use. Maybe I should try 'that'll do' like in Babe.

I need to call and check on the obedience classes the shelter mentioned. I thought I would have heard from them by now, and can't 100% remember the date among all the other things I was remembering then.

Fence should be done today, which will be good.

*not an obedience-style heel, but a 'walk next to me' style heel.

Bones, contd.

2009-07-24T13:02:00.001-07:00

You know how I said I hoped I would be able to make another post about the book saying it got better.

Yeah. This is that post.

It's not perfect. There's still a high fluff to meat ratio, but it's good meat.

It's a little depressing, actually, in a 'I will never be as good as I could be' sense, but hey, sometimes the truth hurts. It doesn't mean you can't still try to be better. What's that quote? 'Lord, let me be the person my dog thinks I am'?

Frustrating a bit too, some of her guidelines seem to contradict. It may be worth reading twice to try to resolve those conflicts from a better perspective.

So, I keep reading.

Incidentally, I've been doing a good bit of the reading in the dog crate. Kumi isn't bad about her crate, but she doesn't hang out there by choice, and seems to be catching on that we tend to leave after she goes in there, and won't run in unaccompanied even for a treat. So, I've been reading in there with the thought that if I think it's a cool place to hang out, maybe she will too. Or, you know, not. But I fit pretty well.

Bones Would Rain from the Sky

2009-07-20T11:43:00.001-07:00

I've started reading the book in the title there. It's one of the 'big name' modern training/dog philosophy books you see mentioned again and again. Also, unlike The Other End of the Leash and Don't Shoot the Dog, it was in at my local library branch. I'm not very far yet, just starting chapter 3, which is not very far at all to start making judgments, but I'm feeling a little dubious.

It is, to use a highly technical term 'mushy-gushy touchy-feely' it makes frequent reference to 'dogs praying' or 'souls dancing' it cries over tragic pasts and the miracle of infinite forgiveness. It is, in many ways so far, an autobiography of a very sensitive person.

You may have noticed 'nerd' in the title of this blog. I am not, by any stretch, a mushy-gushy touchy-feely person*. More concerning, my husband is even less so. I despair of getting him to read the thing without laughing and mocking it incessantly. I'm considering not even asking if it does not get notably better, which would be unfortunate, given how much so many people seem to have learned from it.

In many ways, egotist that I am, I think my analytic nature is helpful in dealing with animals. I research. I notice details, notice patterns, question assumptions and first guesses. I demand causality, repeatability, evidence. I look for explanations if something doesn't work, or if it does work and I don't know why. Honestly, husband and I do this in our relationship with each other. It's effective. But it seems to be a far cry from the rest of the world. Particularly the rest of the world that loves fuzzy-wuzzy animals.

I like the *idea* of the book. It talks of gaining a rapport with animals - communication, not just conditioned responses. That sounds like a great thing, even an achievable thing. The nerd in me has no problem whatsoever with this part. But is the only way to get there through a lot of misty-eyed meditation about souls? Tendencies, I can understand. Motivations, subtle communication, wants, needs, fears. I know that this is not the sort of thing there is a 'quick fix for... but if the only way is looking into the dogs eyes and 'just knowing'? Sorry, you'll have to be more specific.

Hopefully, I will post again in a few days and say 'ha! never mind all that - just skip the first few chapters or so, she gets into the real meat later'. I did like her metaphor that learning these things is like learning how your grandmother bakes. There may not be a 'recipe' just an understanding of the ingredients, and a lot of trial and error.

I already eschew (or heavily alter) recipes in my cooking, and in my knitting, so I am not afraid of the abstract, if anything, it excites me. I'm just hoping that she gets into an overview of the ingredients in a way I can understand, and that they aren't so mushy-gushy I stop reading.

*though I did cry during UP - I think it was the first time I've cried at a movie ever. It still blows my mind a bit. Hormones may have been involved.

Sorry, My contract specifies a maximum of three 'sit's a day

2009-07-14T10:42:00.001-07:00

We're starting to get a better handle on where Kumi is coming from training-wise. I think a good bit of it is she gets bored *very* quickly. One sit is good, a second she won't complain about, but more than that and you're *really* pushing it...the game is just not that interesting, treats or no. However, if you switch up to a different behavior (we're working on letting us handle her paws, and on heeling) she'll cooperate again. So she makes no progress, or even backward progress within the session, but will be better at it the next day.

The walking is already *much* better. On the first walk, she was at the end of the line and pulling, and wouldn't do otherwise for all the stopping, treats, or other bribery in the world. Three days later, I've got her at something close to a heel, though I still have the leash short. Strangely, she seems like she might do this better for me than for M, even though she sees him as the more important person in general. It's still a struggle to get her to take treats when walking, even when she's right there, doing well, you put one right next to her nose and she couldn't care less. It's strange.

Kumiko

2009-07-13T12:34:00.001-07:00

Friday's post was apparently premature.

Because that afternoon we found our match.

Kumiko is a two year old Akita-Chow mix. She's pretty much what you would expect from that blend, including very, very fluffy, but a little on the small side at 75 lbs. We met her Friday evening, slept on it, and went to pick her up in a pouring storm when the shelter opened at 1 on Saturday. Nope, she's not bothered by thunder.

She plays very enthusiastically, including fetch. If you aren't around to throw it, she tosses things into the air and catches them herself. This is very loud. Particularly when she does it with the extra-hard large-dog nylabone. She has nominal interest in chewing the thing, but loves tossing it in the air and hearing it go BANG against the wood floor.

She has very good house manners, and a good sense of what things are hers and what are not. When her ball landed in the wires behind the computers, she was extremely careful picking it out, and has been very responsive to 'no' for off-limits things (the counter, my knitting basket, the houseplant).

She seems to have a very good sense of personal space, and doesn't mob people. She also seems to intuitively understand that the cats are people too in that sense. While I wouldn't say she was afraid of Fuu like some of the dogs we've babysat, she won't approach her without an invitation, and is very cautious. (Fuu is just starting to give these invitations by Monday morning). She will be actively tossing her ball around, but stop when it rolls by Fuu and wait for me to get it for her. Fuu, on the other hand, is a jerk, and bats the ball around herself - even the one almost as big as she is. We're watching very closely for now and keeping her crated when we aren't home, but it looks like things will be ok on that front. There was a minor altercation this morning where Fuu and Mickey were wrestling and Kumiko went over to investigate. Oddly, Mickey was the one who didn't appreciate it, and yelled and swatted her and ran to the other side of the room, but Kumi held still and didn't chase or react at all. Perfect.

Training may well be a struggle. She seems pretty smart, and doesn't go out of her head, but is a bit difficult to motivate. (again, typical to both breeds). Sometimes she is interested in plain kibble, sometimes she is indifferent even to treats. We probably need to do some guess and check on alternative treats, like cheese, hot dogs...she seemed interested in pretzels at one point. So natural house manners will get us somewhere, but the rest will be a long haul. The only command she knows even a little is sit, and she's not strong on that one. She also seems to think touching her bottom is part of the command, since she goes right down without any pressure if you do that, but is not nearly so good with just the word. On the other hand, the only really bad habit is she pulls on walks, so we can get by while she learns. Classes start in August.

Rescue Vibes

2009-07-10T09:49:00.000-07:00

I feel a little uncertain writing this, since I don't have any facts, just, as the title says, vibes. So, I'm going to be very careful not to name names, and to distinguish what I know from what I suspect. I imagine you could add things together and determine what place I'm talking about, but I really don't think that's important to the point, these behaviors in any place would raise the same questions.

So, of the breeds we're considering, one of them has a rescue organization that seems truly awesome. They have lots of good info on their site, they've answered a couple questions we've had with very reasonable responses. They seem very sane, helpful and understanding. Good vibes.

Another one just doesn't rub me the right way. I'm going to enumerate observations here, and talk about them at the end.

1) They don't have any dogs in foster. They have a large facility out in the country, and all dogs are housed there.

2) You don't go to the facility, they bring the dogs they think will match to your house.

3) They attend rescue events, but don't bring adoptable dogs, just their personal pets as breed ambassadors.

4) The descriptions of dogs on their site are written in first person (this really bugs me, but it's common enough that I don't necessarily count it against a place) and are full of how terrible, sad, and abusive life was before the dog came, and how much he/she loves her new mommy now, but say little to nothing about the dog's personality, or what sort of families they would fit into.

5) Their application is very, very detailed.

6) The dogs listed as available have not significantly changed since we were looking last time - two years ago.

7) Talking with them at the event, they made the comment "Just don't lie on the application, because we do check it. If we find out, for example, that you don't actually own your house, we just won't call you back". I want to be clear here that the part that worried me about this was the 'we won't call you back'. They don't check and see if there's a misunderstanding? They checked the right house? The auditor's records are up to date? No, they just don't call back. Now, this was an offhand, unofficial comment, so I don't want to read too much into the literal phrasing, but it's one more thing in a list.

8) They have a reputation of 'nice enough people, but they don't like to give their dogs up' from someone we know who works at a county shelter.

So, best case I suppose, the lady's a bit of a control freak, but has he heart in the right place, and happens to have the means to run a large facility, so she does. She gets enough outside help to make sure all the dogs are adequately socialized while still being able to keep an eye on all of it.

Worst case, she's a textbook hoarder. Dogs go in, are warehoused for years without human interaction and almost never come out.

Ordinarily, I would roll my eyes, shake my head, and look elsewhere, but we're starting to think this may be the breed that really does fit the best. It's a big organization, covering pretty much the whole state, and some of the neighboring ones. The next-closest rescues look much more sane, but encourage people to work with rescues near where they live, and even link to this place. I know rescue is a very tight-knit community, and I don't want to step on toes.

M thinks we should go ahead and apply at the crazy place, and if we're rejected, or the dogs are unhealthy or unsocialized, to go to one of the farther away ones, tell them why we were rejected, and ask if they have the same standards. I think it would look better for us to go to one of the farther ones directly, and just be honest about not getting good vibes (the no-foster thing bothers me most), but I'm not sure how much it would matter. I think I'm also a little more afraid of getting crazy on me than he is.

M is on contract work now, so when that is up, we actually will temporarily be the perfect dog home - big fenced yard in the country, someone home all the time, no kids. Part of me thinks we should wait until then to apply, but I'm at a loss to explain why we would continue living like that instead of looking for work or having kids (which is what we plan to do).

What would you do? Just go with the second choice breed with the awesome supportive rescue?

Also, am I reading to much into these things, or does something really smell funny here?

No dog (yet)

2009-07-09T12:18:00.001-07:00

I'm glad I waited until today to write this, as yesterday I wouldn't have put the 'yet' on the end - I was pretty grumpy. Today's recap will be much more even-headed.

The story is they're worried about biting, and aren't comfortable releasing him for adoption. They're looking into placing him with a rescue or other program where he can get some training.

It's amazing how attached we became without even meeting him - just seeing him through a door. I completely didn't realize it, but driving home just felt empty, despite knowing it was really for the best in all sorts of ways (no dog in the middle of the week, no behavior problems we aren't experienced dealing with)

I think it didn't help that the decision was passed to us second hand - if we'd met him, and seen that he didn't have the personality we wanted it would have been a lot easier than having to take someone's word. Not that I don't completely understand why they did it, it's just...harder.

There is so much trust in this process, and trust is hard, particularly trusting strangers. We trust the shelter to tell us the truth, to faithfully represent things, to act in our best interest, to keep the dogs as healthy and sane as they can. The shelter trusts us to be who we say we are, to really care and give the dog a good home. We both trust the dog to show his true personality, to bond with us, to not do anything dangerous even in crazy strange situations. The dog trusts us with, well everything.

It's tough. None of us have any reason to trust. And it's big things, it's not like trusting someone to remember to buy milk and you can just sigh and pick it up later. It's big things. So you put up walls to try to keep from having to trust, you call references, you make up wild stories in your mind about what nutcases these people must be, and read way, way way to much into stupid details*. But it doesn't work, the walls just make everyone cranky, since now they have to stand up on these big ladders to talk to each other, and when they're done, the trust is still waiting for them on the other side of the wall. You have to do it, you have to trust this person.

Wow, I think I let that metaphor get away from me there a little bit.

Back to us. At least today, I can trust them that the dog wasn't stable, that they have good methods in place to test these things, and decided that it wasn't an isolated, freak thing, but a real pattern or tendency. I can agree that it is better that he gets experienced training rather than coming in with new dog owners. But yesterday? Yesterday I was all about whomever he bit must have been asking for it, just because a dog once touches its teeth to someone doesn't mean it's a killing machine, what lawsuit-scared wusses these people must be, do they think we're idiots?

I'm glad I didn't write that entry. Like I said, it's hard.

So, we have two appointments pending to meet with akita(mix)s. I was thinking they would probably be Friday and Saturday, but we haven't heard back yet, so maybe not. Sunday is another event. After than I think we start talking to breed rescue.

Also - craigslist score! Two baby gates for $10, right on the way home. Also, the kids at the house were super-cute. They were all about showing me their veggie garden. Tomatoes! Strawberries! Bell Peppers!

*I do not mean by this that any and all due-diligence, fact checking &c. is inappropriate, just that when all is said and done, no matter how hard you've looked, you still have to trust the person.

Strange cat behavior

2009-07-06T10:01:00.001-07:00

One more thing to add to yesterdays saga.

When we were coming in from the yard that evening, and Mickey shot out the door. That isn't something we usually worry about with him. He normally has no interest, and if he does go out, it's just to rub on your legs, and ask for dinner, and he's quite amicable to being gathered back inside.

Not today. He ran along the edge of the house keeping out of reach as though we were terribly frightening and strange. Then the weirdest part. He broke away, ran straight to a pile of dirt (our garden is in-progress) and immediately began peeing on it. Not marking, just regular litter-box behavior, except he seemed terribly concerned about us being near and watching him. We took a step too close and he was off again. Eventually we herded him back inside, where he was completely fine again.

We were still wearing clothes from the shelter visits, but he'd been happily cuddling with us in those clothes earlier in the day. The behavior could have made sense he was going after a bird or something, but apparently he just desperately had to use a new litterbox? (the regular litterbox was in fine shape). Cats are strange.

It begins

2009-07-06T09:35:00.001-07:00

This will be a long post, because yesterday was a long day, and it really all does go together.

The local 'big city' shelter has events every other week where they host a lot of the smaller rescues and dogs from fosters out on their lawn. It's a nice way to meet dogs since they're already out and relaxed and not 'omigod someone walked past my cage'. Plus, for the smaller rescues that don't have facilities, just fosters, it's the only way to get a casual face-to-face with a dog as opposed to setting up a big 'we choose you' meeting.

We went. There were a lot of dogs. It was pleasant, but nothing really said 'I'm your dog'. In truth, there weren't many dogs there at all which fit what we came in looking for. We always go into these things thinking 'danes, akitas, rotties, chows' and end up looking at GSDs, boxers and pitties because that's the closest thing there is. We do like those breeds, but...not really the same.

So, we were pretty discouraged leaving there. There were a lot of dogs, and no 'clicks' which is depressing. And it's depressing to leave behind the nice dogs that just aren't the one. Really depressing. We want to get into fostering eventually to give those a chance, but for now, for our first dog, I feel pretty strongly that we should be patient and wait for the one.

From there, we went to our local county shelter/pound, which is much smaller and rural-er. Our expectations were pretty low at that point since we'd already been to a big place with no results, and being a rural area, we expected beagles, hounds, and other unsuitably energetic hunting dogs to be prominent, and finally, from the vet care we'd found around here (another entry, later), we didn't expect people to really take dogs seriously.

We were completely surprised.

It was very, very clean. The girl at the desk was very friendly, talked to us about their procedures without being confrontational or brusque about it. The kennel itself was bright, with fresh air from an open door the end. The dogs had large-ish runs with access to an outdoor area, and a bed. It didn't smell dirty or like antiseptic, the barking didn't echo in that incredibly loud way. It was...pleasant, and I mean it. We're probably going to volunteer. They had training classes too, which we're probably going to sign up for.

They also, maybe, had dogs. Yes, plural. There was actually a dane(!) who was giving all the right signals. Standing up, watching us quietly with his tail wagging slowly, but all feet on the floor. He was still waiting on a vet-check, so we will be going back Tuesday to interact with him. They also had an akita/chow out on foster that we gave our number for the fosters to call and set up a meeting time with. Finally, there was the *ugliest* dog I've ever seen. Apparently, a husky type, but stress from a combination of heartworm treatment and being in a shelter she had lost all her hair. Surprisingly, white huskies have red/dark brown skin (at least she did) so, a little, bare, brown dog with white tufts stuck to her, it was rather incredible. On the other hand, she was actually giving the right signs as far as personality too, though it seems that might be stress, since husky was a breed that we wrote off straight out the door as 'nice, but no way we can handle all that energy' so it's probably not a good idea.

So, we're going back Tuesday. This is the point where I start panicking a bit again. I was up intermittently through the night with racing thoughts and a sore back*

I hate the idea of having to bring a dog home in the middle of the week. We'll be going from the shelter to the pet store for supplies (we figure we'll have to go after we get the dog for the collar anyway, so why no do all-in-one?). I have all sorts of worst-case scenarios running through my mind. We won't be able to find a crate big enough. We will put the dog in the crate and leave him (because we have to work the next day) and he will have separation anxiety and hate his crate for the rest of his life. We will leave the dog out of the crate because he hates it and he will eat everything, including the cats. The fence people being around the house will terrify him, and he will hate strangers and bark at them forever. Fuu will pester him while he is in the crate (because Fuu is a jerk) and he will hate her forever, and possibly eat her. I think that's it. I'm not even worried about the real issues (he's poorly bred and will have terrible health issues which we will not be able to resolve because we can't find a good vet) it's all immediate irreversible ruination due to mistakes in the first week. Daylight makes that all seem somewhat less plausible, as does writing it out, but still. I think it actually makes it worse that the shelter is a nice place - we don't have that 'well at least it's better than where he was before' to fall back on, plus the idea of failing and having to return the dog is suddenly much more tangible and therefore terrifying than it was before.

But I suppose what will come will come. I'm counting chickens and all I have is eggs until Tuesday. Maybe all the dogs will end up being jerks, and we'll drive down to another shelter on Wednesday, and another on the weekend. It's strange that in some ways the possibility of not liking the dogs is reassuring? Looking stinks, but it is familiar. Having a dog is something new, and more than a little scary.

*I've no idea what I did to make my back sore. However, the cats react very strangely to you getting out of bed at three am and stretching in the middle of the dining room floor. By strangely, I mean they wake up and try to sit on you. They also seem completely perplexed that someone managed to wake up before they started pestering us for breakfast.

On getting close

2009-06-29T11:47:00.001-07:00

I almost included this in the fence post (ha! I pun!), but that was getting too long, so I broke it out to its own entry.

I think a lot of this obsessing (five feet? five and a half?) comes from the face that the longer you think about something, the more idealized it becomes. Like little kids and christmas. We've been working slowly towards this dog since before we were married. Now that we're actually getting close, it feels like everything needs to be perfect, since we took so long getting there.

It doesn't help that in reading on the internet pretty much falls into two camps: 'I'm lazy and ignorant and have no idea why my outside-only untrained dog smells bad and barks' and 'I run a dog-related business from my home. Anyone worthy of a dog should be at least as perfect as me. Preferably a little more.' (ok, maybe that last part is only implied)

So I get these Ideas in my head that maybe we should have a seven foot fence. With wire buried three feet underneath, plus a designated digging area, and probably a pond*. Also, unless one of us can switch to working from home ** the dog needs to go to daycare every weekday so it isn't alone. Except, there aren't any places that are either on the way to work, or have long enough hours that we could reasonably drop off before - pick up after. So I suppose I have to quit my job, which I don't want to do, particularly before we have kids. But if we have a dog, we probably can't have kids anyway, since, if a place says 'won't adopt to homes with small children' it's probably verboten to add small children after the fact as well. So, I guess we really don't deserve a dog after all.

Yes, really, this is what it's like inside my head some days.

Maybe I'm too crazy to get a dog.

* actually, we have a small pond already, and a digging area would be completely reasonable if the dog likes to dig.

** this would be reasonable given our professions, but very bad given our work habits

Fence me in

2009-06-25T07:20:00.001-07:00

Time to get serious again.

To get a dog, we need a fence.

One, because I like the idea of sending the dog out the backdoor to do his business without having to put shoes on.

Two, because we are too close to the busy road for me to really be comfortable letting him free range.

Three, because I hope in my silly little head that while it won't prevent deer from getting in, it may 'encourage' them to just eat the things on the side they're already on instead. (ok, so that has nothing to do with dogs)

and Four, because if we end up talking to a rescue instead of just the pound, they all say we need a fence.

Which brings us to the question of 'how high'?

Obviously, the answer to this question is 'just a little higher than the dog cares to jump'.

Which is hard to answer when you don't have a dog yet.

So the better answer is 'as high as the rescue people say it needs to be'. Except that question leads you back to either the first, unhelpful, answer or 'over six feet'.*

Which is nuts. I have seen a seven foot fences two places. The first is itty-bitty inner city lots where you don't want to see into your neighbor's yard, or the busy street. That makes sense. You want to keep the outside out as much as possible, and the yards are better measured in square feet than acres.

The only place I have seen that tall of a fence surrounding something as big as what we are fencing is a bonafide prison. That is not happening. Because it would look like a prison and cost (I'm estimating here) one million dollars. **

So, right now we're nittering back and forth around five feet. We want the wire to go down to the bottom, so it's not overly tempting to squeeze/dig underneath. Would it look stupid for the wire to be higher than the top rail? Since the wire comes in even feet, and the rails are six inches, if the wire hits the bottom of the rail, the fence will be something and a half feet tall. Is four and a half too short? Is five and a half overkill? If we go with five and a half, we have to get the six foot posts... how much do those cost?

It's terribly frustrating to be having to make these decisions based on a random imagining of how high an imagined dog might like to jump. Particularly when the contractors seem fairly convinced that a four foot fence is the best size ever, and doing something else is just plain weird. ***

* Another place it might go is 'that's hard to answer before you know what rescue you're using, which is hard to know before you know which one has the dog you want, which is hard to find out before you get started on the fence that will take a long time to build, in which time the dog you want may not be there anymore' yeah, that one was helpful.

** But seriously, fences are fraggin expensive. We're looking at close to 10k for a not-seven-foot-tall one.

*** And that's after they've stopped laughing at you for not wanting to let your dog run loose to begin with.

In celebration of my internet finally working...

2008-12-18T17:01:00.000-08:00

Pictures of Mickey & Fuu!

Oh, did you want current pictures?

Mickey's kitten pictures were too cute, I couldn't help it.

more tasty treats: turkey liver

2008-12-11T12:47:00.001-08:00

One of the leftovers from my parents thanksgiving were the turkey livers (apparently these are excluded from the traditional giblet gravy). And yes, it's plural. There were two birds this year. Quite a feast.

We offered to take the home on the presumption that the cats would like them.

This was only sort of true. The first mistake was, again, feeding alongside the regular food. I figured the liver would be a hit. Instead, the familiar canned was the most desirable.

Fuu picked at it a little, mostly the attached fat, and Mickey, despite his taste for mice, was unimpressed and left. Then they both left - the first time I've seen them leave food in the bowls.

The next night, the entree was just the liver, not regular food, and they did finish it off. Mickey still wasn't overly enthusiastic, but Fuu dove on in. She has the unfortunate habit of pulling food out of the bowl to eat it if there are large chunks. She mostly doesn't take it anywhere, just out of the bowl. Maybe the solution is a bowl big enough for her to sit in?

alternative foods

2008-12-03T11:56:00.001-08:00

Warning: if you're squeamish about the activities of carnivores, this might not be the post for you...

We live in an old house. As old houses are wont to do, we have mice in the basement and attic where the cats are not permitted (we keep the cats out of there primarily because we don't want them tracking dirt all over the place. The attic is unfinished and dirty with construction rubble, and the basement has direct access to the crawlspace, which is, well, dirt)

So we set snap-traps, one was successful...and we gave it to the cats.

Honestly, we were a little conflicted about this. One one side, it is a little 'icky', to use the scientific term. Also the mice have probably been eating all sorts of unwholesome things up there. On the other hand, it's a one time thing, not a steady diet, and aren't mice what cats are supposed to eat? We know Mickey supplemented his kibble liberally during his earlier life as a barn cat. M remembers a scene when Mickey and his littermates were just weaned, adorable bundles of kitten fluff - with faces covered in blood from the chipmunk mom had caught for dinner. So in the spirit of waste-not want-not, and since the mouse was fresh, we went for it.

Mickey loved it.

Understand here, despite being the man of the house, significantly older, and at least four times bigger than Fuu, Mickey pretty much defers to her. She can stick her head in the food bowl at will, or do various other obnoxious things, and he lets her. Fuu is teh fierce kitteh, and Mickey is a lazy, easy going cuddle bum.

But not with the mouse. He grabbed it, growled at her and ran off to play with it (unfortunately we gave the it to them after breakfast). Fuu growling wouldn't be notable, but I have never heard Mickey do it. So we locked them in the laundry room, and soon, no more mouse. Guess that one was a winner.

Addendum: I re-read this and realized it wasn't 100% clear, but the mouse was already dead by the time the cats saw it. They played with it anyway. I agree that intentionally having them toy with a live or injured mouse would have been completely out of line.

not the brightest kitten in the box

2008-12-02T13:34:00.001-08:00

I spent about an hour this weekend trying to discourage Fuu from helping herself to plates on the table. I sat in the doorway and every time she jumped up, out came the squirt gun. When we were done (no, there was not victory - M came home and I gave up) the table was soaked, the floor was soaked. The cat was distinctly damp. But she was undeterred.

Really, for the entire session, she only came off the table long enough to run from the water, lick herself somewhat dry, and trot back.

I'm not going for angelic behavior. Really, it's unreasonable to expect dishes full of tantalizing food will be left untouched forever. But I'm looking for some hesitation. A long enough pause for me to go get a fork from the kitchen without having my dinner ransacked for instance.

But oh, Fuu learns slowly, and is hard to deter.

sick cat, healthy cat, sick cat...

2008-09-11T13:15:00.001-07:00

Mickey's last dose of antibiotics was Labor day weekend. Two weeks ago. He definitely was snotty over the holiday, but what are you going to do? Then, during the week, he seemed better to me. M, on the other hand, thought he was still sneezing. 'Particularly at night' which I couldn't argue with, since I'm sleeping then.

So last Monday, I schlepped him off to the vet. Where he appeared as the picture of health. The vet proclaimed 'cats sneeze sometimes' took my money and sent me home. (not that he should have done otherwise). That very evening, he reverted to the worst snuffling and wheezing that week, and we shot him angry looks.

Since then, it's been good and bad. He's definetly not getting worse, but he doesn't appear symptom free 100% of the time.

This wouldn't normally be a concern, except...

We've now officially <strike>been suckered in</strike> signed up to take one of the neighbor's orphan kittens. All of a whopping month and a half old. Doesn't seem like the best thing to be introducing to a possibly contagious snuffly cat.

By the way, name ideas for a grey female kitten? Current contenders are:
Eowyn
Onyxia
Z-buffer
Azula
(see 'nerd' in the title above. If it were a boy cat, the name would be 'Mr. Bubbles' with no debate whatsoever)

Tomato Cat.

2008-08-29T12:55:00.001-07:00

Pets eat human food opportunistically. Leave the turkey unattended, or forget to rinse out your cereal bowl, and someone's up on the counter getting the good bits.

Mickey's actually pretty good about it. Yes, if you leave a glass on the floor while watching t.v. he'll stick his head in it every time, and last night he did take a snatch at the roast beef I left on the couch. (hmmm, seems like all our problems stem from eating in front of the t.v. doesn't it?) but he stays clear of the dinner dishes, and doesn't even lick dirty plates we leave around (which is a mixed blessing, because it might help husband and I to clean up more promptly if he did).

Unless it has a tomato on it. Slice a tomato, and leave it on the kitchen table to get the salt, and he will have spirited a chunk away to nosh on before you can say 'what happened to obligate carnivore?'. If there'd have been a chunk of fish on that same plate, he'd have done nothing but sniff the air optimistically, but apparently tomatoes are his weakness.

How did I end up with a wannabe vegan cat?

Why 'no kill?'

2008-08-22T09:23:00.001-07:00

First, I know there are a lot of 'flavors' of 'no kill' out there. I honestly, don't know the difference, and whether the crazy PETA people or the hoarders are nokill or no-kill or No Kill or any strange amalgam of such.

I think that's part of the problem.

The premise that I do support is increased adoption. You know, more convenient hours for working families, better advertising, better behaviour analysis and training. All those things that help get animals out the door, so they don't have to go out the back. Really, 'pro-adoption' cuts to the point much better. You don't get anywhere by saying you're against something and leaving the alternatives in the details. You make progress, and earn mindshare by supporting something.

Because, really, if all you cared about was 'no more killing cute fluffy animals' it'd be fine if you warehoused them, or turned away all but the best prospects, or did any number of illogical things. And by saying that 'no kill' is the foundation of your beliefs, you're leaving the uninformed public to figure out how to do that. And they'll probably think of the first things, and write you off as stupid, crazy, or both. And they might not be wrong.

But, 'pro long term adoption', well, there's your solution right there! That's what you're trying to achieve, that's how you're going to do it. That's a positive, meaningful, unambiguous title.

Imagine driving by a shelter that had a big sign: 'This is a no kill shelter!' you probably cringe, thinking 'oh yes, they do have to kill poor fluffy puppies in shelters sometimes. But I'd rather not think about those things ... maybe I'll go to a nice friendly pet shop or neighbor instead where they won't bring up unpleasant topics like that ... unless some no-kill wacko catches me on my way in'

On the other hand, drive by that same shelter, with the same policies, but the sign instead says 'this shelter supports long term adoption!' well, yes, that's what you want, you want a place that is going to help you have a happy long term relationship with your pet. Maybe it's worth a look, since they seem so supportive and all.

Any term can get damaged by association (see pro-life/pro-choice) but this isn't even a cover. This is the unspoken core. Why go with a gloomy, ambiguous term like 'no kill' when what you're really about is 'pro adoption'?

On furminators

2008-08-12T11:17:00.001-07:00

So, I bought one. It was $24, not $65 like one I'd seen before.

It's probably worth $24. I cannot imagine a brush worth $65, unless it actually did the brushing for me. And stood around looking sultry with it's shirt off for my amusement the rest of the time.

It is decidedly more effective than other brushes we've used. The previous standard was those wire slicker type brushes. This was significantly faster than the slicker brushes. For one, you would get in one stroke what took five or ten with the slicker. Second, the flat 'comb' structure made it much easier to pull the hair out than with brush styles. Finally, with the slicker, you would brush for a couple loads, and you would start getting much less fur. The furminator kept getting fur for a much longer time, despite pulling it out faster.

I didn't have a problem with raw skin, or bald patches like I've heard in other reviews. The cats seemed to like it as much as any other brush, i.e. they wandered around and rolled on the floor and purred and tried to eat it and generally made things inconvenient until they got sick of it and just left. The biggest problem was the tail, since it's hard to brush all sides of a small round thing. That's really saying quite a bit, if you get to the point that the biggest shedding problem on the cat is the tail though.

Since it did work out, I'd like to get one of the bamboo off-brand styles for my mother's cats (who have pretty significant hairball issues). When I do, we'll do a furminator vs. off brand review shootout!
(Though, at $24, it wasn't a huge savings over the off brand anyway, but your market may vary)

How to wash a cat (really this time)

2008-08-07T10:49:00.001-07:00

Jan's comment made me think. Previously, all the unbathed cat owners I'd known had been your typical well intentioned but uninformed, pet store customer types. So I figured it was just one more instance of 'oh I didn't realize you could bathe cats...feed anything better than iams...not vaccinate as often as I am'

But, apparently real, informed, intelligent people have a problem here. I have two hunches. One, they truly do own evil devil cats, because those cats do exist. But, given a choice, most people don't pick evil devil cats on purpose, so I don't think that's the majority situation. The other thing I can think of it that they've just never seen it done, and given their cat's reactions to things like medicine, they're too scared to try.

So since knowledge is the enemy of fear, and fear leads to stinky cats, I suppose a how-to is in order.

What you need:
-A dirty cat with *clipped* claws. Bathing a cat with full sharp claws is something even I wouldn't do. For ultimate security, cut them a few days before to give the sharp edges caused by the clippers time to smooth out. (Also, you probably don't want any matted hair, wounds, or fresh stitches in the cat - use common sense)
-cat soap. Make sure it has 'cat' on the bottle. Since cats lick themselves, you need to be extra careful. Also, don't get a flea&tick variety unless it's a problem. Why introduce extra chemicals?
-A sink, shower, or tub With A Detachable Sprayer Head. That's where I messed up last time. Also, clearing the immediate area of stuff that could get knocked over is recomended.
-Lots of towels.
-Finally, I recommend doing it on a warm sunny day so the cat can lay in the sun to dry.

Wear old clothes that can get wet, hairy (and possibly ripped) but don't worry too much about it. Gloves will only make things more difficult.

So, run the water until it's a comfortable temperature, put the cat in the sink/tub, and spray the body until wet.

I know, so easily said...but really, they don't like it, but most cats tolerate it pretty darn well. They transition pretty quickly to a forlorn acceptance of their fate-worse-than-death. Really, I promise. eight out of eight cats I've bathed have settled down to meowing pitifully in just a few seconds. If your cat is tolerant of being picked up at all, I almost guarantee it will be tolerant of bathing.

I think a fair amount of this reaction and resulting advice stems from the fact that a cat doesn't have very good footing in a wet sink. They'll scrabble around a bit, but you're in a much better position to out-leverage them than you are with you both on dry land, and they figure this out pretty quick.

Some tips though:

-don't take your hand off them. They may be doing beautifully, but they will jump out in no time if they think the getting is good.

-don't move them. This is where the spray nozzle is so important. You can lift their front part up to get their bellies, but move their bottom as little as possible, and mostly just let them sit there. If you start picking them up and turning them around, they'll just start flailing at random, and probably get away from you.

-don't worry about the head. For one, getting water in the ears isn't really a good thing. Also, they really, really don't like it, and will fight you much harder than when they were just wet. Not worth the battle.

The rest is pretty self-explanatory. Put some soap on them. This is easiest to do one-handed if you just drizzle it directly on their back, and rub it around to get the underneath parts. Rinse well. Finish by rubbing dry with towels as much as they will stand.

Did I miss the mark? Does this not match your experience? Is there some other reason you've never bathed your cat? Let me know. I read all my comments, even the ones on really old entries show up right alongside the new ones, so speak up even if you come across this years later. Lets make the world a cleaner place one cat at a time!

Pride goeth before a ruined shirt

2008-08-06T09:27:00.001-07:00

With Mickey relatively healthy, a free, warm afternoon, and no dirty dishes in the sink, we decided it was time for a bath to remove that distinctive 'cat fart' smell from our feline friend.

You can probably guess where this is going.

Now, I have bathed cats before. I have bathed big old tom cats who were nearly as big as I was (as a kid) I have bathed frighted cats who'd never been wet before and didn't even sit on your lap by choice when they were dry. I've done it in showers, in sinks. It's not a big deal. The worst part is how pathetic they look when wet.

I do not understand the people who refuse to bathe their cats out of fear. It's almost as bad as the ones who take the cat to the vet to have it's nails clipped. Seriously? It's easier to get the cat in the carrier, and drive to the vet than it is to flip 'em over and snip their claws? Your call. Though on that note, there is *nothing funnier* than a cat who used to have sharp claws trying to jump on your lap and sliiiding back down where her claws used to grab so effectively into your bare skin.

So we caught the cat, warmed the water, cleared the area around the sink, found towels and soap, and got to work. Now, what I'd forgotten about all these trouble free previous cat bathing experiences was that all the sinks had those little sprayer attachments, meaning all you had to do was hold the cat still, and squirt away.

This one didn't. And while Mickey was a relatively good boy (for a wet cat at least) about holding still in the water, he was not too keen about being repositioned while we tried to get the faucet to spray all of him.

Which is how I ended up with a half-wet cat climbing over my shoulder.

Which is how I ripped my good work shirt (I always, always put on old clothes before, and all that had gotten on them was a lot of cat fur, but this time I was just so confident)

Which is how M ended up carrying the still half-wet and increasingly pissy cat to the bathroom to finish the job with the detachable shower head. (thank the lord for detachable showerheads)

At least he forgave us quickly, and was sleeping on my lap by bedtime (at which point I had to give him his antibiotics)

Oh, and an addendum, while cat baths normally leave clods of fur lying about, this time there was none to speak of. It could be white fur is less obvious, but I blame the furminator we recently bought. He really doesn't shed much at all now except his tail where he's not fond of being brushed. But more on that later.

kitty friends

2008-08-04T14:57:00.001-07:00

We have now officially diagnosed Mickey as lonely. He's quite friendly and cuddly when we're around, but seems mildly distressed when we're in a different room, or sleeping, particularly. We are no good to him when we are asleep.

So he wanders the rooms, perimeters in particular, meowing quietly and plaintively. M suggested the meows sounded like a feline 'ping' (see, we really are nerds here), and he was checking to see if anyone else is around. Of course, this is all armchair psychology, on a cat no less, but he grew up with other cats around, and his brother at my parents is quite friendly with one of the cats (the other is a crotchety old hag), so it seems a valid guess.

So now the question is where to get one.

We've decided an adult would probably be better, so we could tell up front whether it was batshit crazy or not, but that a kitten isn't nearly the responsibility of a puppy, so wouldn't be a problem. Also, a female would be more likely to be a good companion than another male, though Mickey is really pretty laid back.

Somewhere, however, I developed the notion that you should never need to pay for a cat (or, in particular, go though any particular trouble, search, or application process). I suppose it's because they're so much more successfully feral than dogs are, but wait a few months, and it seems someone, somewhere, has a friendly stray they found and want to get rid of. There are always more cats than people willing to take an extra.

But I'm starting to second guess that, particularly given our predilection towards an adult. It's kitten season, so there are several litters to choose from. Right this instant I can think of four. Is giving a home to a returned kitten who's mother is still not spayed -though not being intentionally bred- ethical even if she's free? Does taking one of the feral kittens the neighbor girl found in their spot at the fairgrounds doom a perfectly nice cat in a shelter? Or since there are finite homes, would one of them have gone either way?

I'm fairly decided on that matter with dogs. It's never made sense to me the rescues that go to extravagant expense to save unhealthy, or temperamentally unfit dogs while healthier ones are still being euthanized. It seems a zero-sum game. If you take a less fit dog out of pity, or nobility or what have you, all that means is that a better one will be killed. But somehow, cats seem more fluid, as though that the rule may not apply. I don't know.

In the meantime, Mickey is lonely.

Feeding the cat.

2008-07-22T11:45:00.001-07:00

Mickey is still a little skinny, and not eating as much as it seems he should (or perhaps the recommendations on the can are biased). He ate a bite or two of the dry when he arrived, but hasn't touched it since. He will eat the canned readily, but stops long before he finishes. He seems to like company while eating, and will eat more if you tap the bowl or move it in front of him after he wanders off, but again not as much as it says he should eat.

So, for now, we're shuffling the food back and forth between him and the fridge several times a day until he eats it. Thankfully, he doesn't seem to have a problem with the refrigerated food. The eventual goal is to get him to eat two meals a day, one dry, one wet, but we figure since he's a little thin and under the weather now, it's better to just get him to eat, and deal with schedules later. Personally, I wouldn't mind going with all canned, but M thinks that's a little much money wise.

In the interest of disclosure, the dry stuff is felidae, and the wet is innova chicken something flavor, in the large cans. We picked them out of lists recommended online, because a) that's what the store in town sold, and b) they were cheaper than some of the other options that looked pretty comparable. Not much to say on the dry stuff, but the wet does not smell nearly as terrible as I was expecting. Essentially like the canned chicken you buy for yourself. This makes the larger (and thus cheaper and less wasteful packaging-wise) cans much more reasonable, since it doesn't stink up the fridge unreasonably. I'm not fully sold on the fact that it contains apple and carrots and other non-catty things, so we may experiment with other brands later too.

Mickey arrives

2008-07-22T11:34:00.001-07:00

(Mickey is not a dog, contrary to the title of the blog)

(or a mouse - the name is a little unfortunate, but it is what it is)

Mickey is a barn cat from M's parents house. They tend a small community of cats ranging from true wide-eyed ferals to what are probably the neighbors pets simply allowed outside. They've started working on a TNR program to get their numbers down. Mickey was part of the last litter, four years ago. At the time, we promised to take him, but lived in dorms, then rentals, and other places that frowned on pets. But this Friday was the day.

It was all surprisingly uneventful. He's always been a relaxed little loverboy, but not only did he sleep on my lap for over an hour on the ride back, but let me clip his nails right there in the car without any fuss whatsoever. I was not expecting that from a cat used to being on his own devices for four years.

One of the side effects of being in the great outdoors is he has a bit of a head cold, or sinus infection, or otherwise nasty snotty nose that he likes to rub cat boogers on you with. Pretty much all the cats there had this to varying degrees. The kittens got antibiotics for it when they were small, which cleared it up, but the caught it right back again. Apparently, this sort of thing can be hard to squash in cats, but we're hoping for the best, that it really was a cold that kept getting passed back and forth ad infinitum, rather than a true chronic sinus problem.

Oh yes, and while tolerant of most things, he *does not like* the antibiotic (liquid in a dropper). Touching the face is not looked kindly upon. It does seem to be working so far though. The first day was terrible. He was groggy from the vaccinations, and the snot turned from a little pale yellow, to a lot of dark brown - almost a dark red or orange color. (sorry for the t.m.i.). I guess that must have been the root infection draining, because things got dramatically better by Sunday. It's not 100% gone, but he is no longer disgusting, wheezy and sad.

Holding pattern

2008-04-10T06:11:00.000-07:00

I realized I posted this on my other blogs, but not here. We bought a 100 year old farmhouse (with over two acres of prime fenceable land!) back in December, and are slowly diy converting it to a habitable residence. Slow, diy house renovation doesn't leave much time for daydreaming about future dogs, so this blog is in a bit of a holding pattern until we actually live in our house, as opposed to just work there. I do still get notifications of comments, so if you got here from a comment I made somewhere, I'll still see your response.
If you're insatiably curious about how we're coming (hint: we thought we'd be moved in by February) you could check at my house blog, which I'm doing my darndest to update when I can.

A House!

2007-12-03T10:35:00.001-08:00

After 6 months of searching (and testimonials from our real estate agent *and* our lawyer, that they'd never seen anyone with worse luck).

We have a house.

Mostly.

The good news is, it is great for us, it's incredubly cute, with good space, and even better, it's on almost three acres of rural 'you could raise emus here and nobody would look at you funny - a fence and a big dog is nothing' land.

The bad news? We gotta rip up and replace nearly 100 years of nasty flooring and wallpaper before we can move in, much less start getting pets.

So, for now, the plan is work our butts off over the holidays (coincidentally, most of our family is out of town for the holidays this year, so we may well be painting over christmas) and move in sometime late January. At that point, find a vet and bring up 'our cat' from the barn cats at M's parents. Then start dog-shopping again.

A bit of the problem in that the backyard is both a) a mud pit from the rather slap-dash job they did replacing the septic tank (did I mention our bad luck?) and b) frozen solid. Which kinda precludes putting in a fence until spring. But, if past experience is any guide, it'll probably take us that long to find a match anyway.

See you in two months!

what we want

2007-09-21T11:31:00.001-07:00

So, with a lot of time not being able to get a dog, we've come up with a pretty through group of what we're looking for in a dog.

- It needs to be low energy. We both work full time. For now, that's not negotiable. The dog will have to be ok with two long walks a day and evening yard play/training. Unfortunately, this rules out huskys, gorgeous as they are.

- It needs to get along with other animals. Dogs and cats. The plan is to have multiple pets.

- We want a big dog. This is getting in to preference. There's no real logic behind this one other than preference. The obvious question is 'how big?' well, no smaller than a border collie - and we've considered great danes.

- We plan to do a lot of training. Not formal obedience, just establishing a (very very by today's standards it seems) good rapport and solid boundaries. I'll probably go into a lot more detail about this later. This is more of an individual dog thing. Alert attention to people is important, but not necessarily slavish retriever-style desire to please above all else.

- We want a dignified, confident dog. This was a little surprising to us, but after meeting with a lot of dogs (the first time we thought we'd be able to get one soon) we both observed that we were turned off by 'asking for belly rubs' or other playful/submissive behavior. Again, not really logical, just preference.

- We want a friendly dog. I mean, heck, we should pick one that likes us back, right? While belly-rubs was a turn-off, behaviors like licking hands, or leaning against you were positives. Also would probably help with that 'training' thing above.

Where did this get us? Well, it tended to point to breeds that were traditionally 'stock guarding dogs' send 'em out in the pasture to keep the wolves away.
They mostly hang out and sit all day, plus they had to be calm enough not to freak out the sheep, so low energy. They tend to be big.
Unfortunately, the dogs that used to be 'stock guarding dogs' are now often considered 'vicious breeds'.
Our leader right now is an Akita. We're also considering Great Danes, Chows, German Shepherds, Rottweilers, Newfoundlands and any sort of mix that happens to work out right.

p.s. a bit of a consequence of the above, we want an adult dog, probably at least a year old. Mostly this is due to #1: we're not going to be home to entertain/housebreak a puppy as diligently as we think we need to. But also, with all our emphasis on personality, it'd be good to see what we're gonna get a little better.

Introduction

2007-07-10T11:00:00.000-07:00

For now, this is a compilation of my thoughts on, and the steps involved in acquiring a dog (not, strangely enough, given the title, a puppy). Hopefully, it will become an archive of 'what the heck I was thinking when I got into this mess' and a journal of life with said dog.

Who am I? I'm the female half of a pair of newlywed DINKs. We both work in the computer Industry (hence the 'nerd') and live in suburban central Ohio. We've wanted a dog since we met, and are only now reaching a point where we will (soon) have a house to keep one in.

My experience with dogs is negligible. We had a cocker spaniel when I was a young child (first word: 'ball') but nothing but cats since. M (the husband) has considerably more experience.

Much more to come later.

puppy nerd