01/7/12

5 Favourite Dog Blogs of 2011

While Rescued Insanity compiled a lovely list of blog posts she enjoyed for the year, I’m sitting here cursing that I never composed such a list! While I do post my favourite links, mostly blog posts, on my Twitter account, I can hardly fathom getting the number of my favourite blog posts down to an appropriate number to incorporate into one post. So please let me just promise that I’ll try harder next year.

Instead, I thought I’d write a post on my favourite dog blogs of the year. This is almost as an extraordinary feat, if you consider my blogroll length. However, I’ll try.

Here we go:

Saving Pets. Written by PetRescue founder, Shel, this blog constantly, and edgily, challenges the shelter system in Australia. The blog is phenomenally well researched, well presented, and relevant. (On a side note, this blog is also responsible for almost everything I know about cats…) I get excited when I see Saving Pets come up in my Google Reader, and I hope you enjoy reading as well.

Reactive Champion. Crystal’s blog is more of a journey and dog training blog, no where near as specific as the title ‘Reactive Champion’ makes out. The diversity of topics is what I appreciate, and the time and effort evident in every one of Crystal’s post. Crystal’s well thought-out and clear explanations explore a host of dog related issues, from dog training to dog medication to reactive behaviours. What I really appreciate is the extensive notes that Crystal provides when she attend expos. Reactive Champion is very much ‘worth the read’.

Intellidogs. So this is not so much a blog as it is podcasts, but I simply cannot get enough. Karen Wilde and John Buskle present the podcast, and explore a variety of topics. I love that Karen and John come from different continents and have different doggy interests, and it really adds flavour to the show. This podcast often accompanies me as I do housework. I would absolutely miss the Intellidogs podcasts if they ceased to occur.

KC Dog Blog. Brent Toellner is an inspiration. His blog shows campaigns lodged against BSL and for no-kill. He also often includes extensive reviews of new dog studies, of media cases regarding dogs, particularly dog bites, and links to the most phenonemal other blog posts. How this man does it all, I have no idea! Though sometimes the content is very US specific, there is plenty of ‘other stuff’ to keep me entertained.

My Puppy, My Self. I am not always engaged or driven by the content on this blog, but I really admire and enjoy the commitment and discussions around dog science. Also, there are normally some lovely links to dog science and dog discussions in his posts. For this reason, Lee Charles Kelley’s blog got into my favourite blog list.

What were your top 5 blogs for 2011?

See how this compares to our favourites of 2012. Continue reading →

01/6/12

Do dogs want to communicate?

Say there is a dog without a tail (a natural bobtail or a docked breed). People often say, “He can’t tell other dogs how he’s feeling without a tail.”

Let’s think about that comment. With that exclamation, there are two inherent suggestions. Firstly, the notion that dogs are consciously manipulating their body and, secondly, they are doing so with the intention to communicate.

Is it a colloquial slip of the tongue, or is that genuinely what we believe?

Photos © Ruthless Photos

Let’s think about dogs manipulating their body. Clearly, we can train dogs to consciously manipulate their body. We can train tail wags, lip licking, head turning, paw lifting, and many other complex behaviours that dogs would do naturally. There is no doubt when dogs perform behaviours on cue, they are doing so consciously and so consciously manipulating their body.

However, when they are interacting with other dogs, are they consciously changing their body to reflect their emotions? To me, I think this is a big fat no. Do you consciously decide to put your grumpy face on when you’re feeling unhappy? Or do you consciously smile when you see a puppy?

Now let’s consider a dog having the intention to communicate. From Googling definitions, it seems communication is defined as ‘passing on information’. While this may seem simple, in reality, it’s quite a complex proposal. It suggests dogs have theory of the mind. That is, it suggests that dogs are aware that other dogs are aware – that they understand that other dogs are psychologically capable of understanding their emotions.

Though it’s nice and succinct to describe dogs as ‘wanting to show how they’re feeling’, in reality, they are probably not thinking much about it. In all likelihood, their level of arousal and psychological state is changing their body physiologically, without their conscious thought, and other animals have learnt to interpret these. At the most, dogs may have learnt to display some behaviours in order to elicit a desired response from another dog. (For example, a dog may learn that snarling makes other dogs go away, or a dog performing a play bow make decrease the distance between themselves and another dog.)

Are you guilty of framing dog behaviour is communication terms? E.g. “He is telling us how he’s feeling.”

I admit that I do use it a lot, but mostly in classroom contexts. I do work talking to young children, from 4 years to 12 years, about dog behaviour and avoiding dog bites. The succinctness of talking about a dog’s feelings is beneficial in this context. However, with adults (particularly dog-savvy adults), I’d pick my words more carefully.

01/4/12

Vets, Sex, Disease, and Aging (with McGreevy)

This post is part of the McGreevy seminar series. Click here for the index.

McGreevy believes that more vets should be savvy regarding dog behaviour, and how diseases can affect behaviour. Vets need to be more educated regarding dog behaviour. Unknowledgeable vets risk giving harmful advice, which potentially could lead to dog bites. McGreevy believes that dog behaviour is important, especially considering many dogs surrendered to shelters are done so due to their behaviour.

Desexing

Photos © Ruthless Photos

Male and female dogs act differently even before puberty. (In my last litter, the boy puppy never squatted, but peed from a standing position as soon as he was capable of standing.) Desexing does not nullify these behavioural differences, as some of them become habit before desexing.

Do dogs know when another dog is desexed? According to Paul McGreevy, no. Dogs cannot smell or sense that another animal is desexed. They may be able to smell that the other animal has less hormones, but they would not know the reason. A desexed male would smell like a juvenile male. A desexed female would smell like any other female that is not in season.

It is unknown if behaviours change due to desexing. No evidence exists that proves that ‘too much testosterone’ is the cause of problematic behaviours to begin with.

Obesity

Desexing leads to increase risk of obesity. Almost ½ of domesticated dogs are obese or chubby. This leads to disease and shorter lives.

(On the other hand, McGreevy noted that having a dog reduces childhood obesity, and said, “We could get good funding for that!”)

Aging

The likelihood of dementia in dogs occurs on a similar age curve as in humans. There are over 30 different behavioural changes that occur when a dog ages.

He mentioned some of the research being undertaken by Golden Oldies. One of the more valuable bits of their website is a senior dog scoring system, which may help dog owners identify signs of dementia earlier.

We are nearing the end of our McGreevy series, with only a couple more posts to go. Stay tuned!

This post is part of the McGreevy seminar series. Click here for the index.

01/1/12

Reviewing 2011; Goals for 2012

I celebrated New Years Eve at a twilight dog show, with my three adult dogs: Clover, Chip, and Winnie. It was lovely, and really encapsulates that doggy year that I have had.

This post is quite personal in comparison to my regular content, but I hope it may still be of interest to my readers. I’ve broken this post up into different doggy-interests, and described 2011 happenings and 2012 goals in each.

Winona at the Border Terrier Club of NSW’s Championship Show in 2011. At this show, Winona was given Best Puppy in Show and also awarded Best Head. Go Winnie!

Conformation

I have been focusing my showing efforts on Winona, and she has accumulated approximately 70 points over the last year. I have hopes that she will collect her remaining 30 points next year and so gain her champion title. She has also had the most success, gaining several baby puppy in groups, puppy in groups, and a runner up in group along the way. Her mum and dad, Clover and Chip, have been shown sparingly, but Chip has still been awarded points over the year gone. Clover… Clover had fun.

Earthdog

In South Australia, unfortunately, we have had some problems with our Earthdog judges, which meant that I was one of only two judges in the state. This is problematic as passes at each level must be awarded by at least two judges and, as I can’t judge my own dogs, it made it difficult to gain titles on my dogs.

Chip, however, had passes from 2010, and so got his “Senior Earthdog” title early in the earthdog season. He then went on to receive three “Master Earthdog” passes, but he needs one more under a different judge to get his ME title. Unfortunately, he is likely to be leaving us before the next earthdog season, and so it seems unlikely that he will gain his ME title.

Clover is in a similar boat, also having three “Master Earthdog” passes. However, next year, she’ll still be here to compete and so should gain her ME title easily. We then intend to pursue her “Master Earthdog Excellence” title, which involves a further five passes in senior and an additional five passes at master. It will be tight for us to achieve this in our short earthdog season, but I hope we may be able to!

And darling Winona… At 6 months, I took an innocent puppy to earthdog practice, and found myself coming home with a dogged rabbit hunter! At 6 months and one day, Winona gained her first pass for her “Novice Earthdog” title. However, she was not entered in anymore tests for the season. Hopefully we will be able to achieve her NE and her SE titles in 2012. (But “Senior Earthdog” does involve a recall and this is not a forte of my independent Winona.) Continue reading →

Blogging on all things dogs, particularly dog science and dog politics.

Monthly Archives: January 2012

5 Favourite Dog Blogs of 2011

Do dogs want to communicate?

Vets, Sex, Disease, and Aging (with McGreevy)

Reviewing 2011; Goals for 2012