Category Archives: Personal Posts

12/15/11

Buddy the Foster Dog

I just shared a moment with my newest foster dog. He flew to my state yesterday so I could foster him and find a new home.

He was hanging out with me in the kitchen, and somehow I ended up on the floor with him on my lap, giving him a cuddle.

I know dogs generally object to cuddles, and so I was rather attentive to his body language for feedback on this interaction. If you took a picture of this dog, in my arms, from a distance, he probably looked somewhat tense. However, his face revealed how relaxed he was: His eyes were closed.

Here was this dog, on my lap, tucked up to my chest, my arms supporting him, and my head over him – and this dog, totally at my mercy and relaxed, after knowing me for about 30 hours.

Buddy having a cuddle in the sunshine.

And I got to thinking, aren’t dogs amazing? Continue reading →

12/7/11

Myrtle at 6 Weeks

We are very happy to introduce Myrtle, our newest resident.  Myrtle is 6 weeks old and is the daughter of my Clover, out of a dog in Victoria.  She was born a singleton puppy, and we were lucky enough to find two 9-day-old puppies that have been her siblings.  Myrtle is 3 days younger than her foster-siblings.

This mating has been a long time in the making, and so far, we are quite happy with the result.

So here is a video of Myrtle, at 6 weeks (and 1 day) old doing some training.  It is mostly fun – we are playing tug. I was going to edit out the minute where she goes and entertains herself but that, in itself, is quite amusing.  She pretty much knows ‘sit’ and ‘touch’, but and in this video we practice ‘give’ (the tug toy back) and ‘drop’.

I was happy with this training session. We both had fun, and that’s all I really want at this stage.

11/22/11

Clover Heelwork – 20th November

I frequently post critiques on other people’s videos around the blogosphere, so I thought I was well over due to upload a training video for others to critique. However, I am probably my own worst critique.

Below is a two and a half minute video of Clover doing some heeling training.

My own comments:

Overall, I am happy with her attitude and willingness to work, especially considering she still has a bit of ‘baby brain’ (her puppy was born 4 weeks ago!).

I am not sure, after watching this video, if I should conduct tug-rewards on this slippery surface. Clover doesn’t seem unhappy about her lack of traction, but I am not sure if it’s great for her body.

I didn’t realise how wonky I am on my feet! There are a few times I look like I’m going to fall over, and my feet go weird ways. Some of this is probably due to the hypermobility of my joints, but I am going to be more conscious of having clear body cues. I think at the moment, Clover has to make some guesses about where I was going next.

I am not quite happy with some of my reward points.I should’ve rewarded her eye contact more, and sometimes she was out of position. Next session will be a food session to help try to pinpoint the heel position.

Keep in mind, we haven’t done any training sessions for at least 2 months! So I am pretty happy with her comeback performance here.

03/5/11

My Dog Book Collection

So this is a post of a slightly more personal nature, I thought I’d share a couple of photos of my book collection. I have only just organised the books in a meaningful way, so I am a little proud of my day’s efforts.

Why the reorganisation? Firstly, I felt the need to get organised because I almost bought a book that I already had a copy of. Not casually seen and bought it in a book shop, but as in almost placed an order on BookDepository. After this near-costly mistake, I felt the need to organise a little better. Secondly, the catalyst to my organisation was that the house is being rearranged at the moment and, as I have to move the books anyway, I may as well put a conscious effort into organising them.

And this is the result!:

My Book Collection

Okay, so it’s not that impressive to look at, but perhaps the more interesting and time consuming effort of the day is that I have used a library database to categorise my books. Continue reading →