Things I Know I Know

..and some more pictures if you follow this link.

Blue is growing like a weed. Last week I tried on his new tracking harness (it is an awesome lime green, BTW) and it was way too big for him, even cinched up as small as it would go. This week it fits. He is pretty much house-broken (though not completely--as he proved today). He is the worst counter-surfer I have ever seen. He runs upstairs two or three times a day just to see if he can reach the stuff on the back of the bathroom sink yet. He can't reach the kitchen counter surfaces yet, but when that day comes--and it's coming soon--life will get exponentially more interesting. He has started tracking, is almost finished with puppy class, and is simultaneously very very smart and very very stupid.

I am making progress on the novel and despite its current suckiness, I've convinced myself that I can fix it all later. How this will happen is possibly in the realm of 'and then a miracle occurred.'

'How to Hide Your Heart' should be appearing at Strange Horizons sometime soon (I'll post when I know the exact date). It has shotguns and hand grenades. Also kissing.

Tonight for supper I had chicken taco soup. Also beer. This is the second time I've made the soup and I have to say it is pretty high on the list of easiest things to make ever. Mostly it involves opening a lot of cans (which I have to say I'm pretty darn good at).

I'm sure there are other things of interest I could add (like how awesome the caucuses were and how it finally got above freezing for more than a day this week and how I'm reading a very interesting--to me--book on story structure) but--hey--maybe later).

Posted by debco at 08:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Me: My god, this is the suckiest writing ever in the history of suck

Novel: ...

[Also, there are no puppies in this post. But soon! Because I have a whole bunch of new pictures to upload and we have started tracking and Blue has learned many new things and he his HUGE! and...hmmm, apparently this is a post about puppies after all.]

Posted by debco at 06:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

...but today is not that day.

It's really, really cold here today, though we didn't get the snow that they'd predicted. I have no great plans for the holidays so spent yesterday and today catching up on things, working on final revisions to a couple of short stories, and trying to get the novel into some kind of shape so I can just write away on it in the new year.

ETA: Oh yeah, more new pictures if you want to see them.

Posted by debco at 05:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Okay, a few more puppy pictures here.

They're a bit better than yesterday's.

Posted by debco at 08:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We got back around 5:30 PM. Blue rode pretty well on the way home. He settled quickly and only got fussy when he needed to stop so all in all it was a pretty good trip.

He was sort of a wild man in the house, which I put down to being tired and all new stuff and just general puppy wildness. But he's asleep in his crate right next to me right now so here's hoping he continues to alternate between wild and asleep, which I can handle (I think).

Anyway, I don't have any really good pictures, because he was way too fast for me, but I'll share what I've got:

Here is what pretty much all the rest of the pictures look like:

There are a few more pictures (a very few!) here

Posted by debco at 10:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Off in a bit with Billie to pick up the new puppy.

I will post pictures tonight or tomorrow

Posted by debco at 06:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

This past weekend, Billie and I went to Omaha to participate in a tracking test. The test was at the Chalco Hill Recreation Area which is an awesome 1200 acre park right up next to I80. Our hotel was right off the interstate and Chalco more or less backed up to it. There's a lake in the middle, lots of walking/biking trails but also lots and lots of natural areas--knee-high to waist-high cover, trees, and brush.

Billie and I were catalog #6 and drew track #1. It was bright and cool (30s) and sunny with very little wind. BIllie started really well. We (mostly me) had a lot of trouble on the first corner and second leg, but BIllie was awesome and kept working until I stopped being an idiot and went with her. And the last half of the track we really worked well as a team and Billie tracked down the last leg to the glove like she was on rails.

To anyone who doesn't track or hasn't seen tracking, I'm not sure I can describe how totally awesome this was. But it was. Totally Awesome.

In other dog news, I'm going to pick up the new puppy a week from today. His name is Blue (yes, I know it doesn't start with 'J'--but his registered name does). He is so so cute. I'm really looking forward to getting him. I will post pictures once he's finally here. The breeder says he is quiet, self-confident and independent, but when he's ready to go to sleep he comes over and lays down by her, which sounds excellent. I've agreed to show him in conformation (well, really, to persuade other people to show him in conformation) and we'll definitely be doing tracking, as well as obedience, rally and agility. And maybe someday therapy dog work as well, though Billie has the lying on the couch and letting people pet her franchise pretty well sown up.

In not-dog news, I got my January, 2008 issue of Asimov's a couple of days ago with my story, 'The Whale's Lover' in it. This one has rocket ships and distant planets and alien lifeforms. So I am sure it will make everyone everywhere totally happy about the future of SF and my place in it.

And in writing progress news, I am (sadly, slowly) working on 'Ghosts of Fear' and revising 'Cowboys in Space' and 'What Makes a River.'

Posted by debco at 08:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So this is the sad thing. I put John Henry to sleep yesterday.

You see, his cancer came back. I found out a little over a month ago when I went in to the vet school for his regular quarterly checkup.

So, twelve and a half years old which is, like, the oldest Rottweiler in America (okay, probably not really, but still really, really old). And 26 and a half months after being diagnosed with bone cancer, which is almost unheard of. And he was in really good shape for most of this, able to do everything he wanted to do--go for walks and rides in the car and hang out in the yard.

And it's not enough. It's not.

But while I think he's been happy enough to be here and he hasn't been terribly uncomfortable, I am certain that he's been ready to go since the week of the 4th. He's just been waiting for me to be ready. And last week was a good week. It was a really good week.

Because he would never leave me if he had a choice. He is the one dog I can say that about with absolute certainty. He was my steadfast boy. From, literally, the day I got him, he has never wanted to be anywhere else than with me.

His breeder asked me to take him. He was the last puppy in the litter and he (the breeder) had realized that his temperament was such that he didn't want him to go to just any home. I wasn't going to get a puppy then. I wasn't. But I told the breeder I'd think about it and I took Riley (my dog at the time) for a walk. And when I realized I'd named him in my head, I knew that it was pretty much a done deal. I told the breeder that I would take him but I was going out of town in three days. He said, take him now, let him get used to you and then I'll take him back while you're gone.

So, John Henry came and stayed with me for three days and when I took him back to his breeder to stay while I was out of town, he watched me all the way out the door and into my car. It was that quick. He was my dog from the very first minute.

He got nervous and spun in circles and didn't like men (at the vet school they had this note in his file--"Loves girls, hates men"). He barked at invisible dogs and tried to catch the shadows of light poles as the car passed through them. He was a good and easy traveling companion, always--always!--came when called and in his prime (which was until he was at least eight years old) could jump up and look over the top of a six foot fence.

My female dogs have always been my partners, but John Henry has always been my boy. He did things that scared him because I asked him to. He slept on the bed with me until he broke his leg and then he slept on the floor right next to my head. Even the last week or so, when it got hard to move, he'd still maneuver himself around until he was as close to me as possible. He wanted to know that things would be a certain way and he trusted me to make the world a place that he could handle. I don't know that I always succeeded. But I tried.

John Henry--February 17, 1995-July 21, 2007

Posted by debco at 08:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Because you know you want them....

Posted by debco at 09:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So, the B dog and I had to re-certify in order to enter tracking tests (because I didn't get into any fall tests last year and we didn't pass last spring). So I took the day off work and went down to Ankeny. It was really a pretty nice day and warmer than it's been in a month or so. She started terrifically and did really well for most of the track, although she got to the last corner and indicated it like a champion and then *WOULD NOT GO*!!

And, of course, in tracking it's considered bad to, you know, throw your dog down the track. So I stood there and I waited and I cursed and I tried not to get, well, angry because then she would just quit. But finally, finally--oh god finally--she dropped way down below the track and started going in the right direction and came back to the track as she got a little farther along and finished very strong.

So, yes, actual tracking pictures:

I would have pictures farther along the track but apparently I didn't explain the zoom feature very well before hand....

Posted by debco at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Today is John Henry's birthday. He's twelve years old. YAY!!!!!!!!

He was born on February 17, 1995. He came to live with me in May of that same year. He broke his leg on May 7. 2005, which turned out to be because he had bone cancer. The vet school removed his leg, he had chemotherapy and he's still here twenty-one months later. Yay, modern medicine and stubborn dogs.

He's a cranky old man who still picks up the shovel and tosses it if he's outside when I'm shoveling snow, who loves cookies and things to chew on and going for walks (though he hasn't gotten to do that lately because of ice and snow). He believes half to possibly three-quarters of the couch belongs to him. He didn't get up on the couch for a year after his surgery and I think it was one big happy thing when he realized--oh yeah, I can still jump up on the couch. He doesn't particularly like other people or going new places, but he's traveled to New York with me many times over the years and is, really, one of the easiest dogs to stay in a motel with (because he does not consider it his job to worry about anything outside the actual room we're in). He thinks men are possibly the devil, but if they--the men--LISTEN TO ME (which, unbelievably they hardly ever do) and ignore him, he will eventually decide that he's known them forever and they're probably okay.

He is my boy. And I love him.

Posted by debco at 06:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Billie and I took the Therapy Dogs International test (henceforth known as the TDI) last night and she passed with flying colors. This test consists of the AKC's Canine Good Citizen (CGC) test plus some additional skills like person in wheelchair, clipboard dropped in front of dog, crowd of people on crutches, walker, in wheelchair, random small child, and the hideously difficult--food on the floor test. The CGC includes walk on loose leash, sit, down, stand, stay, recall (stay and recall on a long line), handler out of sight, greet a stranger, greet a stranger with a dog, allow grooming, touching ears, feet, etc, and other stuff I'm probably forgetting.

Once all the paper work is filled out and signed and mailed in and mailed back and official IDs and tags arrivve, she will be all ready to participate in the new PET therapy program at the local hospital, which I think she'll enjoy very much. And I hope some of the patients will enjoy having us visit as well.

The hospital is only about four blocks from my house so it will be convenient too.

Totally gratuitous Billie picture:

Posted by debco at 08:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

If I slip on the kitchen floor, then if I go REALLY, REALLY fast it will lessen my chances of slipping because I will be off the floor that much faster.

And THEN if I slip when I'm going REALLY REALLY fast, I will go even FASTER until I spend 0 seconds on the kitchen floor and there is no chance whatsoever that I will slip.

Ever.

Totally.

Dude.

Posted by debco at 08:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The local hospital is starting a pet therapy program so I have spent the last couple of days filling out forms and authorizing background checks and having my picture taken and generally getting the process in motion so Billie and I can volunteer. Billie will have to pass a TDI (Therapy Dog International) test which she is certainly capable of doing, and she already passed about three-quarters of it getting her CGC (Canine Good Citizen) so it should be doable. The most difficult part of the test will be when she has to pass up food on the floor. She is a tad food-obsessed.

Today when I went over there to get an ID picture taken and fill out some more forms (and is every hospital ever impossible to find your way around in?), I talked to exactly four people and two of them (neither of whom knew what I was there to volunteer for) told me about their dogs that were dying/had just died from cancer. Weird.

Also, I can now post comments and they appear but the Movable Type back end claims there are no comments ever anywhere...I'm guessing I will have to work on this this weekend.

Posted by debco at 10:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Because you know you want to see it....

Posted by debco at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I swear this is a true story.

The other morning I took John Henry for a walk and for reasons not really pertinent to this story we ended up going north instead of south as we usually do. On the next block north three of my neighbors have a fairly elaborate Christmas light display--it's really kind of nice, not so much lights in trees but more things that light up (wire trees and penguins and polar bears).

So, anyway, it's 5:30 in the morning and none of the Christmas lights are on and at the first house John Henry stops and starts peeing on one of those little wire Christmas trees with lights. And as he pees the lights on this Christmas tree start to light up. And the more he pees the brighter they get. No other lights in this yard are on. Only the lights on the tree John Henry is peeing on. I'm afraid to pull him away because I'm thinking--holy crap if it's not electrocuting him now maybe it will if I yank him out of there. So I just keep staring and the lights keep lighting and he gradually stops peeing and the lights go out again.

And then we finished our walk and came home. But I so wish I had a picture.

Posted by debco at 08:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

If you remember, the last time we saw Flat Squirrel, it was two and a half blocks from my house.

Tonight, when Billie and I went for a walk it was back in the immediate neighborhood--just one house north of mine on the street corner.

Flat Squirrel totally gets around.

Posted by debco at 08:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been training dogs for a long time and teaching people how to train their dogs for almost as long. I've learned a lot about dogs over that time. And I've learned even more about people--about how we act and how we learn and how to read behaviors.

Sometimes in a group there's a dog, let's say a Golden Retriever (but it could be a big old Newfoundland or a lab or a mix of some kind)--it's a cute dog and it's fluffy and it always behaves for its family--not like those other dogs with their flashy teeth and their loud barking--ill-mannered dogs, always yelling. And this poor, sweet, oh-so-innocent dog, all cute and fluffy, is always getting jumped by the loud, rough dogs. There it is, just walking along and bam!--a loud, rough dog jumps it. It's a shock. Everyone is puzzled. The owner is so upset. My dog never did a thing, they say.

But here's what all that studying of dog behavior teaches you. Your poor 'innocent' dog gets jumped once--well, it probably met a mean, aggressive dog. Your dog gets jumped twice--yeah, probably still innocent. Your dog gets jumped every time it goes out on the street?

Dude, it's not the other dogs.

Just saying....

And in case this was too dog-oriented: If everyone is annoyed with you and, gosh, telling you the same thing--they are not the ones with a problem.

Posted by debco at 11:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Who, once upon a time, demanded pictures of Upside Down Billie:

I'm still working on pictures of Falling Out of the Chair Billie...

Posted by debco at 11:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

If you don't like sort of gross stories, don't read this one.

I mean it.

So, Billie's medication sort of makes her hungry all the time, which means when we go for walks she's always finding things that lead to remarks like this:

"Ewww, no, drop it right now!"

She's been utterly fascinated with something in my neighbor's yard two houses to the north ever since we moved here. A week or so ago, she finally dug out the fascinating thing--a really dead, really flat squirrel.

I made her drop it and we went on and we didn't walk in that direction for awhile. Until tonight in fact. And tonight when we went that way I kept her close to me and kept an eye out for the flat squirrel and we didn't see it so I figured either animal control or someone else's dog had picked it up. So, we continue our walk and go up one street and over two blocks and are walking south (so we're, like, two and a half blocks from my house) and Billie dives onto the curbing and comes flying up with--ha, ha! you guessed it--the Flat Squirrel.

So, now, we will have to watch out for Flat Squirrel everywhere we go because clearly it's a squirrel that gets around.

Posted by debco at 08:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Since I no longer have room in my kitchen for a kitchen table and I do have a huge gigantic front porch, I've been repurposing my kitchen table into a front porch table (it's actually going to be a side table for the sofa this winter because it will fit and I need one and I don't need one on the porch right now, but that was probably more information about this project than you really needed).

Since it desperately needed to be refinished, the second upside to this project is that it's now a much nicer looking table than it was before. I sanded it and painted it and distressed the edges and polyurethaned it. Fortunately, the sanding and painting I was able to do on the front porch because it was still warm enough though I had to move it inside to polyurethane it.

John Henry has been intimately involved in helping me with this project. And lest you think either of these pictures were taken between coats. Or after the paint/polyurethane was dry. Then all I have to say to you is HA!

Posted by debco at 06:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Billie qualified in Rally Sunday and Monday (though with lesser scores than her perfect score on Saturday) so she is now: Vogelhaus' I'm a Charmer, RN.

Posted by debco at 06:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

John Henry had his third checkup since he finished chemo yesterday. His x-rays are still showing no cancer, which is amazing and awesome. It's been almost fourteen months since he broke his leg and he is over eleven and a half. He looks good and he acts great. He now only has to go back every three or four months for checkups. What an excellent boy!

He has had a really great oncology resident who's been taking care of him for the last year--she started her residency just about the same time he started his chemo. For the first time, she wasn't there when he went in this time--she is getting ready to start a new job in another state. He not only has a new oncologist (who will also be very good and, lucky for John Henry, is a woman--cuz he likes the women) but the vet tech who came out to get him when I dropped him off is a MAN. So, all in all it was a very adventuresome adventure for John Henry.

Posted by debco at 06:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

because people (you know who you are) have been bugging me for more posts...

This is the best dog toy ever.

It also comes in little dog sizes, but little dogs seem to also like the big one. Although it knocks them over when it bounces into them.

Also--and this cannot be repeated too many times--when I go out for a walk with my dog I do not say to myself--man, I hope people will bring their also-leashed dog up to ostensibly 'meet' my dog, but really so that they can get inextricably tangled together to the point where either eventually one dog gets hurt or there is a big fight. Also, the proper response when I say, 'no, our dogs cannot meet,' is not--'why, is your dog mean?' (And if you have a little dog, why on earth would you want a big strange dog anywhere near them? People, you have brains for a reason.)

I took Billie in to the vet school last week to get blood levels done and (I hope) a liver test done--since phenobarbital can affect the liver over time. I say I hope about the liver test because although I told them twice that that's why I wanted to come in and I fasted Billie for 12 hours (which they knew I was going to do and knew I had done when I went in) they didn't charge me for the liver test. So, we may have to go back again in a little while. They are so busy out there that sometimes I'm pretty sure that I am just not saying the right secret code words.

Billie also went in and got her regular shots from her regular vet. He reminds me that although she is still occasionally having mild seizures, I am very lucky that they are mostly under control. He also said that the noise sensitivity that she started exhibiting about a year before the seizures started is probably seizure related (not loud noises per se, but repetitive loud bass noises).

John Henry goes in for his third followup cancer check this week. It's been almost fourteen months since he broke his leg. He is eleven and a half. He looks very good and his quality of life has been really good for the last 10 or 11 months at least. I am very pleased.

Pictures some time this week.

Posted by debco at 07:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Billie and I were here this morning not passing a tracking test.

Except for the not passing, it was a very nice trip. We drove up on Saturday and stayed at a motel where they asked if Billie enjoyed her stay when I checked out. They also put us in the end room right next to the outside door, which means I avoided the 'people bursting out of their rooms while I'm walking a big dog and carrying a suitcase in a narrow hallway' issue, which, trust me, is not as much fun as it sounds. The motel itself seemed about due for some updating, but those two things made it a very nice place to stay.

We had to be at the park for the 'draw' (the order in which the entered dogs would run the tracks) by 7:30. The motel was about 20 miles or so from the park and, of course, I'd never been to the park before being it was in Illinois and the first time there'd been a tracking test there and all. So, I check out and leave shortly after 6:30 AM and there's no traffic because it's Sunday morning and apparently normal people have other things to do (what those other things are we shall discover shortly) and I make very good time and am feeling pretty good and thinking, jeez I'm going to be arriving at this test embarrassingly early.

So, I get to the main entrance to the park and there's a line of people waiting to get into the park. "What's going on," I ask the two guys at the end of the line. "The park doesn't open until 8," one of them says. "That can't be right," I tell him. "I have to be in there at 7:30." He shrugs. He is going fishing and, plus, he's the guy at the end of the line. I figure that this 8 o'clock rule can't possibly apply to me (since I seriously have to be there at 7:30) so I drive past all the guys with boats waiting in line--and there are at least 25 or 30 of them--thinking well, there has to be someone at the beginning of the line who will let me in. But when I get to the beginning of the line there is a big gate across the road and no freaking way to get in. I turn around (very carefully as there is a big, and I mean big, ditch on one side of the road plus the thirty cars with boats on the other. I tell the guy at the head of the line (who is wearing camo pants, what is that, so the fish won't see him?) that I have to be in the park at 7:30. It is clear why he is the guy at the head of the line because he tells me that there is a back way in and gives me mostly good directions for how to get there. They are only mostly good because although I get to the right road easily enough, I can't actually find the entrance. Thanks to the beauty of cell phones, though, at that point I call the test secretary and she gets me the rest of the way there.

Now, I am no longer embarrassingly early, but rather pretty much right on time. Billie and I draw the first track, which many people don't like, but which I am pretty happy with. Billie starts okay but gets drawn off about half way down the first leg and gets blown off by the judges. For anyone keeping score at home this is where she failed in the last test too.

So, fooey.

However, in tracking it helps to have alternate measures of success, since there is only perfect or failed. This weekend my alternate measures were to learn something and for Billie to have fun. It was a nice day and a nice drive out the day before. It's the first overnight trip Billie and I had been on since she started having seizures. She had a pretty good time tracking--she doesn't care from judges blowing whistles, for her it was just a new tracking field. She met new people, slept the whole way home. I got good advice from a couple of women who have trained tracking champions, ate some good food, spent some quality time outside, and had an uneventful drive home. I kept thinking I should be more disappointed about not passing, but, really, it was a pretty good weekend.

Posted by debco at 09:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday, John Henry had his latest followup checkup at the vet school. His lungs are still clear, which means they're not seeing any metastases, which is very very good. It's been almost a year since he broke his leg. He looks good and he acts good and I'm delighted he's still around.

The doctor said she doesn't think he misses his leg. I don't think he even remembers he ever had four of them.

Posted by debco at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I walk my dogs all year round in all kinds of weather. In the winter, I'm often the only one out there no matter what time of day. When the weather gets nice, though, there are lots and lots of people out walking dogs and working on their yards and just generally engaged in activities at once nefarious and innocent (ok, I don't really know if anyone in my neighborhood engages in nefarious activities, but the odds are someone does).

So, I came home from work the other day and I let the dogs out and let them in and changed my clothes and picked up leashes and treats and bags and set out with Billie to take a walk.

At the corner of my block, I looked down the street and I saw, on my side of the street, a woman with a stroller and a five year old and a dog. The five year old was walking the dog. Also, on my side of the street was a very large Golden Retriever behind a very small fence. On the other side of the street was a woman with a small-ish terrier. As I stood on the corner deciding where we were going to walk that would, possibly, result in the least amount of barking, a little (little, but not young) newspaper girl walked up behind me.

"I hope there's not going to be a dog fight," she said.

"Well, I don't think there is," I told her.

She then pointed out all the dogs that might start a dog fight--the dog in the yard, the two dogs down the street. Plus, she told me, "There are two more dogs over in that yard. And that house right there has a little dog."

"That house has two little dogs," I told her, trying to be helpful.

She turned this new information over in her mind. "Well, I hope there isn't going to be a dog fight," she repeated, her voice resigned, as if she didn't see any way out. There would, inevitably, in her mind, be a dog fight.

At that moment, the five year old let go of the dog she was holding, which came running toward us. I'm sure, right then, the little newspaper girl was thinking, 'Yup, see, there's always a dog fight.' Disappointingly, or luckily, depending on your perspective, it was Sunny, a dog I know, and she did what I expected she'd do--ran up to Billie, laid down and wagged her tail until her owner retrieved her.

Sunny and her people went on their way, the terrier and her owner went somewhere, the Golden Retriever stayed in its yard, the other two dogs stayed in their yards, the two little dogs didn't even come out of their house.

No dog fights.

But I'm thinking this is my new slogan for certain situations; I hope there isn't going to be a dog fight.

Posted by debco at 09:31 PM | Permalink

I promised Chance I would make a post today so I decided to start with the thing that is most boring to everyone but me.

Billie and I were in a tracking test last weekend. First, you should understand that tracking tests are on Sundays and this tracking test was on the Sunday after the Saturday night time change so, you know, a start time of 7:45 AM really means--sure, it's 7:45 AM today, but yesterday the exact same time of day was 6:45 AM. And I don't even hate daylight savings time like some people. But, even so, I don't get all excited about leaving home at 6:30 AM CDT (translation: 5:30 AM just the day before) on a Sunday morning.

So, anyway, it's raining and it's supposed to rain all day, but luckily it doesn't. Even more luckily, five out of ten dogs passed. Unluckily for me, none of those dogs was Billie.

I have been trying to learn this thing where I go with her when she gives the slightest indication where the track goes. This is very hard for me to do. I want her to insist that it's the right way, though I am trying to train myself out of it. A woman at the test (who passed, btw) said, no, that's silly of course you don't insist. But she has a Border Collie and I have a Rottweiler and Rottweilers are Different (yes, it is and I can prove it, plus, I will have Chance get out the SCIENCE if you don't watch it.)

Anyway, I figured we failed because I didn't go with her, so I was disappointed in me, but glad that we were out there and pleased that it was a good track on a decent day and, you know, you take away from it what you can. Later, looking at the map and the terrain and the way the wind was blowing, I realized that it was a little because of me and a little because of her and a little because of the way the land lay and a little because...well, just because.

And that, my friends, is tracking.

We are in another test in a couple of weeks, so keep your fingers crossed for us (it won't actually do any good but think how great you'll feel if we pass--like you totally contributed).

Posted by debco at 08:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I took the day off two weeks ago Friday to try to certify Billie for tracking.

Because AKC tracking tests are tough to get into (the maximum number of dogs for a TD test, which takes all weekend to plot and run is 12) the rules say that first you and your dog have to certify. Certification involves running a TD length test laid by a judge. Basically, you have to pass a test to enter a test. If you certify, you get 4 certificates good for a year. Each test you enter, you have to send in a certificate. If you get in the test, they keep your certificate. If you don't make the draw, they send your certificate back and you can reuse it.

A fairly long while ago I tried to certify Billie and we made the first corner and really didn't get any farther. It was a very warm day and she has proven to be a very difficult dog to 'read'.

The deal with a track is that neither you nor your dog knows where it goes and the dog uses its nose (following the scent of the person who laid the track) to follow the track and find the article at the end--usually a glove--with the tracklayer's scent on it. You have to know when your dog is at a corner, when it's telling you--the track goes this way--when it finds something with the tracklayer's scent on it. Some dogs, particularly at the TD level, basically drag their handlers to the end. The handler hangs on to the line and follows. For most people, it's a team effort and we have to learn to understand what the dogs are telling us. Billie has been capable--in my opinion--of running a full-length track for a good long while. I have not been able to read her. And since she wasn't willing to make me go with her, by whatever means, I was never sure when she knew where she was going and when she didn't.

I'd finally gotten to where I was generally very certain when she was at the corner, and more or less certain (usually really certain after the fact) what direction the track went in from the corner. But she would often quit working at corners and I would often really struggle to tell which way was really the way and not just Billie checking things out.

So we went to certify with a friend and her dog. Billie and I took the first track. It was a good day, not too warm, very dry. The grass hadn't started to green up yet, which was a good thing as dogs sometimes struggle bridging the gap between dry dead grass and the live green stuff. But, alas, although I sort of knew that Billie was at the first corner, I wasn't certain enough to go with her and we went on, worked back, and eventually went in the wrong direction. We finished that track with some help from the judge. She did very well. Me, not so well. And I talked to the judge about what and why--because not only is he a judge, but it's a lot easier to see what a dog is doing when you're fifty yards back. She indicated every corner, he said. I'm just not certain enough, I said. I'll lay you a second track if you want, he said. If you do, I told him, I will go with her every time she goes.

So, my friend ran her dog and also came close, but didn't certify for different reasons than Billie and I. And I rested Billie and we went to another site to lay a new track. The judge went off to lay the track and then we talked about tracking and dogs and all the stuff trackers talk about while it aged. When I took Billie out to run it, I leaned down to her when I was putting her harness on and told her that I would go wherever she went without question.

And I did. It was sort of scary really because I usually make her prove to me that she knows (which actually doesn't work, something she has basically illustrated to me time after time), but this time every time she gave the slightest indication that she was at a corner, I followed her. And she nailed the track. It was the best track we've ever done together.

In the two weeks since, when I've tracked with her I've done the same thing. It's a very different way to track for me, but I can see her confidence building. She's tracking faster and stopping less often. I've entered her in a test at the beginning of April though there's a better than equal chance that we won't get in. But I feel like I can read her, like we have taken the next step in our partnership and it is such an awesome thing when that happens and one of the reasons I love tracking.

Posted by debco at 05:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Retractable leashes and veterinary offices do not mix.

Ever.

For reasons why, refer to Etiquette tip number 1. If you don't find that convincing, remember that most dogs are in the vet's office because they have something wrong with them. Possibly something contagious. Or just something that makes them excessively cranky.

Also, you never know when there will be ferrets.

Posted by debco at 06:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Everyone does not love your dog as much as you do.

Seriously.

When I have my dog with me, I am not secretly wishing that your dog will stick its nose in my face.

Corollary number 1: There is no rule that says all dogs everywhere must 'meet.' Some of us want our dogs to learn to ignore other dogs. Some of us know that dogs on leash will always be more aggressive than loose dogs. Every dog you see on the street is not an invitation.

Corollary number 2: As hard as this is to believe, I will never think your dog is cuter than mine. (Though I may think it's pretty damn cute. Although not if you violate this important etiquette tip. Seriously.)

Posted by debco at 06:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today is John Henry's eleventh birthday.

Yesterday he had a three-month checkup at the vet school and his lungs are still clear of any visible cancer. YAY!

Nine months ago he broke his leg and I really, honestly believed he was never coming home. But he looks good. He acts good. And today he is eleven.

Posted by debco at 03:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

When it's dark outside and you're in your car, don't sit at an intersection and wave people across in front of you because--big tip--They Can't See Inside Your Car. Know why? Because it's Dark!

This is especially true if they are, say,on the Other Side of the intersection.

Posted by debco at 09:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

John Henry: *stares*

Me: What?

John Henry: *stares*

Me: Do you need to go out?

John Henry: *stares really hard*

Me: Ok, let's go out.

Billie: [waking from dead sleep] *CRASH*, *BANG*, *SLAM into table*

Me: Ok, let's go.

Dogs: [run into kitchen, crashing into each other several times]

Me: If you kill yourselves falling down the stairs, I'm going to be really pissed.

Dogs: *CLATTER*, *BANG* Sheesh. As always, no killing ourselves.

Posted by debco at 06:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I got my new digital camera today. I'm not yet capable of doing much with it (like actually taking a decent picture) but I did get these two of Billie and John Henry:

Charming Billie:

John Henry:

The threat is now real...dog blogging any time I feel like it.

Posted by debco at 08:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I haven't posted much about dogs lately.

Billie's seizures have been difficult to control and though I'm not yet at the stage of being even cautiously optimistic, I am willing to admit that things appear to be going in a positive direction. Part of the frustration is that the medication has made her very ataxic, which one might not notice in a less active dog and if it was less icy outside, but is very noticeable with her. This is getting much better lately as is the excessive drinking and the urine leaking (from the excessive drinking and the being too dopey to notice). Also, of course, I have adjusted. I let her out more often and am working on changing the way she jumps into the car (she prefers to stand right by the rear of the car and jump straight up, but this doesn't actually work anymore and results in much crashing and banging and swearing).

There are some other behavior issues that I'm hoping will also get better (separation anxiety--though only in certain circumstances, small stressy behaviors, not as relaxed in the car). And I still have my fingers crossed for steadily more time between seizures.

On the other hand, she is tracking really well--very good nose and very focused (except for falling over occasionally). She is very happy to go for walks and play and greet people in pet stores. I was grieving one day because I finally admitted that I might never have my Billie back, but I'm gradually becoming more optimistic about that as well.

John Henry continues to do well. It's been almost eight months since he broke his leg, which is very good. He gets around well, even on the ice--and my back yard is for crap right now--the iciest it's been in years, so both of them fall down a lot, which drives me crazy, because I'm afraid they're going to hurt themselves. The last three weeks or so I haven't taken him for a walk in the mornings because it's dark and I know that it's icy and I am worried about injuries, but I've been taking him out later in the day when I'm not working so he's still getting some walks in.

I hope for both of them a better year in 2006, but I'm very happy that they are with me right now at the end of 2005 and able to do the things they love to do.

I bought myself a digital camera this year for Christmas and it's finally shipped (it was out of stock when I ordered it) so I may finally get some actual dog pictures posted.

Posted by debco at 04:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[John Henry when I give him a rawhide bone]: BARKBARKBARKBARKBARK....EVERYONE STAY AWAY FROM ME I AM BIG AND SCARYSCARYSCARY

Me: Go in the other room. No one will bother you.

John Henry [as he comes closer]: BARKBARKBARKBARK...I AM VERY LOUD AND SCARY.

Me: Go away or I will take it away from you.

John Henry: BARKBARKBARKBARK...I don't want to BARK at you but I can't help it because I am standing right next to you telling you to LEAVE ME ALONE.

Me: YOU ARE VERY ANNOYING. GO AWAY.

John Henry: BARKBARKBARKBARKBARK

Me [after about three rounds]: Oh, right, yelling doesn't actually work. [Takes him to the other room and asks him to stay]

John Henry: All right. Now everyone is leaving me alone. [quietly chews his bone]

Bille: You are all very silly.

Posted by debco at 07:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For those secrit dog missions:

Worn on a collar or mounted on a wall, the Dog Bio Security System translates barking into alarms for police or military. Bio-Sense Technologies spent two years capturing the sound waves of woofs and arfs, encoding them to be read by a digital signal processor. All dogs emit the same type of bark when they sense trouble. The device can distinguish this bark from a dog's "Hello." A consumer version costs $100. A high-end version costs tens of thousands of dollars but is still 25% the cost of video surveillance.

You know, among the problems I see with this is that all dogs may 'emit the same type of bark when they sense trouble.' But not all dogs consider the same things trouble. Some dogs consider everything trouble.

...via DefenseTech

Posted by debco at 12:52 PM | Permalink

John Henry had his last chemo today. Yay!!

He had a chest x-ray today and everything still looks clear. So he is very excellent :-)

Posted by debco at 05:34 PM | Permalink

John Henry was supposed to finish chemo today, but his blood count was too low so he'll go back next week for his final treatment. He still seems to be doing well and they seem pleased with him at the vet school. Way back when I said that I'd be happy if he made it six months (this isn't actually true--I would prefer that he live forever--but years from now I would say that it was).

On Monday it will be six months since he broke his leg and by any measure that's pretty good. If you accept the one dog year=seven people years equation (which also isn't actually true, but I'll stipulate to it for the purposes of discussion) then he has been living with bone cancer for three and a half years. So, you know, all around good.

Posted by debco at 10:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Billie had a CT scan today (yes, it is expensive, thanks for asking). She has a normal brain and a normal spine as far as anyone can tell--no significant abnormalities anyway.

This means that her seizures are idiopathic, which drives me crazy because I want a 'why.' It seems only rational to me that there be a 'why.' There are lots of things that I except there is no explanation for. But for this, I expect a reason.

This doesn't mean that I can't live with what I have. I'm glad there are no brain lesions or suspicious masses or other acute and bad things.

I take the day I find. But I hope for better days.

Posted by debco at 03:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here are the things I like about tracking:

• I get to be outdoors
• I get to be outdoors with my dog
• Every week I make advances in human-animal communication that researchers can only dream of
• Every week I fail at human-animal communication in ways that researchers can only dream of
• Tracking is a thinking girl's game. The dog never fails. Weather and language and your own mistakes all pile up against you. Some dogs, sometimes, might say 'to hell with it,' but that, at least, is pretty clear. Everything else is just a problem to be solved.

Iowa State is looking for people to participate in a study on outdoor exercise. What they want to know (what they say they want to know, which may not be at all the same as what they actually want to know) is when and where you walk or run. Do you prefer places with trees? It's the design school that's doing it so I suppose trees have to come up somewhere.

Here's what I like:

In parks--no bikes or at least a minimum number of bikes none of which are trying to pretend they are mad racing bikes and the only things on the trail; not too many people; not too much traffic noise (though some traffic noise can be allowed to substitute for fewer people and no fast bikes); water and quiet shady places to sit are also very nice. Good long trails that have lots of options--one mile, three mile, five mile walks should all be possible.

In town: a good walk for a fair distance with minimum crossing of major streets. Trees. Garbage cans, water fountains, places to sit and watch the world pass by. Friendly people are a plus, but apparently you can't just ship those in. In winter, I like people who do not shovel their sidewalks when there's a layer of ice underneath the snow.

Posted by debco at 07:50 PM | Permalink

I'm going to try to get back to more regular posting...meanwhile, it'd be cool if anyone who does actually read here were moved to mention that they read...it would inspire me to heights as yet untrod--or something.

John Henry flunked his blood test this week so instead of getting chemo he'll go back next week and most likely get it then. Billie has had another couple of seizures so I also took her to the vet school this week. She's going to go back next week and get a CT scan and, assuming all looks normal (which is what we suspect will be the case, but if we were sure, then we wouldn't be doing it), she will start medication to control the seizures.

I had a physical too this week (because you can never spend too much time in doctors' offices) and...so far so good.

I have been writing fairly regularly, but have had two stories go south on me in the last week or so. One of them looks to have a very complicated structure that I'm not sure I have the skill to pull off yet. The other...well, I have no idea what it's about. which makes it tricky to finish.

The weather is beautiful here, though it went from 85 to 40 overnight one night this week so I had the pleasure of going from air conditioning to heat in the course of 24 hours.

There's a first lines meme floating around and I'll try to post a few of the first lines of things I'm working on in a bit. Not everything I have in progress, you understand, because that would constitute, like, 36 stories (yes, I'm pathetic, but you knew that already, right?) Meanwhile, I'm looking for a story I can actually finish and mail out.

Oh yeah...house hunting. I had a dream house and someone else bought it. Then I had a compromise house and the owners didn't care to sell it to me. Then I found a really pretty nice house for a really pretty decent price, but the back yard was 60 percent concrete. Now, I'm a tad discouraged. If I could move my current house onto a big interior lot with no shared driveway, I'd be so tempted to do it. My current house is too small, but it's very nice. The woodwork is amazing (the thing I will most regret losing in this house is the fireplace with its built-in bookshelves). I can, (though I don't often do it) walk to the grocery store, the library, the coffee shop, lots of other stores, and work.

Posted by debco at 04:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

John Henry had another round of chemo on Thursday. So far, so good. All his numbers are back up in normal ranges and he gained another pound. He looks good and acts good and is a pain to take in the yard because he thinks he's all normal and should be allowed to run and wham into Billie and jump up and look over the fence.

Billie had another seizure yesterday morning. About the same as the others. It's been two months since the last one. So far, they are always on Fridays. I talked to the neurologist and she suggested keeping a journal of dates and times and symptoms. If they remain less frequent than once a month we will just go on...

Posted by debco at 07:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

John Henry went for chemo yesterday, but he flunked his blood test. Or, more specifically, his white blood cell count was too low. He appears to be healthy. He's eating well. He doesn't have a temperature so all that's to the good. He's going to be getting five days of antibiotics and then we'll go back next week and try again.

It costs about a hundred bucks to not get chemo. But what's money in the service of dogness.

BTW, he has figured out how to spin perfectly well on three legs (and is doing it now because it's thundering outside). It makes him all the happy.

Posted by debco at 05:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I see I haven't mentioned what's up with the dogs lately (generally, from me you can take that as a good sign).

John Henry is doing well. He didn't have any noteable side-effects from his second round of chemo and he's scheduled for the third round next Thursday. He and I go for a walk every morning which he enjoys very much. He and Billie are convinced that he's perfectly fine and just like he oughta be which is great except when they think they can run over each other in the yard.

I also talked to Billie's neurologist this week and we agreed that since she hasn't had any more seizures since the two original ones (and it's now been over six weeks since the second one) that we can adopt a 'wait and see' attitude. If she has another one then we will talk about CT scans and medication. This makes me happy since I don't want her on medication (though, if it were necessary I would definitely do it).

I have entered Billie in Rally in September which means we have to actually train between now and then.

Posted by debco at 08:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

John Henry had his second round of chemo today. So far he's doing great. I'm crossing my fingers that he doesn't have any greater reaction to this round than the last one.

He's on a rotating schedule of two different chemicals and, boy howdy, was today's expensive. I don't think anyone actually mentioned that before. Not that it would have made a difference, but it's nice to be prepared. They know me at the front desk now and ask about whichever dog I don't have with me. Imagine a world where you only have to visit the vet school, like, once or maybe twice. I'm glad they exist. I'm glad they're, like five minutes from my house. But I wish I didn't visit them so often.

Posted by debco at 08:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I gave my talk at work about ten things I've learned from training dogs someone said, you should have brought your dog (which I should have because it would have been fun--even though my boss thinks Billie hates him--but I couldn't really think of a reason that bringing her would be necessary). And, he added, then we could see what a perfect dog looks like.

But, and this should surprise no one, I don't have perfect dogs. There was probably a time when I wanted a perfect dog, probably when I first started training when I thought all well-trained dogs met some ideal perfect image. My first Rottweiler shattered that illusion.

My personal philosophy for working dogs (and I don't advocate this necessarily for all breeds or all dog owners) is chaos in a box. Certain things are absolute--they must come when called, they must not bite people, they must not destroy the house--those things are the box. But inside the box there are decisions they get to make themselves--jumping over the sofa, telling the other dogs off, telling me off (as long as they are also doing what I asked them to), doing two agility runs and no more, not meeting people, or not meeting dogs (btw, I find it vastly amusing when people say, 'can our dogs meet,' and then don't bother to listen to the answer.)

They have to make some decisions themselves because no dog with big teeth should ever be lacking in confidence. And they have to live in the box because no dog with big teeth should ever be asked to decide the rules for engagement. Chaos in a box can produce obedience champions and really great agility dogs and tracking titled dogs--in fact it's more apt to than not. It can also produce dogs that aren't the easiest to live with. These are the dogs (not mine, by the way, 'cuz I'm not training at this level at the moment) that are precision itself in the ring and then drag their owners out of the building afterward.

Posted by debco at 03:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I haven't mentioned this before, so now I am. A little over a month ago, Billie had a seizure while she was sleeping in her crate. It was a significant seizure (and devastating to me since I already have one dog with issues and my dogs are my family) but not a major one. Dogs have seizures. Some dogs have one seizure in their lifetime and never have another. Then, a week later, she had another one. My vet advised putting her on medication, not bad advice but I had a couple of objections, the most significant one being--what if they're not idiopathic, but there is, in fact, a reason that we ought to be dealing with Right Away? So, this week, Billie got to go to the vet school for a neurological workup.

So far, they have found nothing out of the ordinary. Next step if for me to decide: medication or CT scan. Apparently my generally preferred action--ignore it and hope it goes away--isn't going to work out for me. Come to think of it, it almost never does.

Coming up, I will be figuring out my questions and, depending on the answers, decide on my next course of action. Meanwhile, of course, she is acting good and fine and swell.

John Henry has his next round of chemo on Thursday.

Posted by debco at 02:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I gave a talk this week at work called '10 Things About Leadership I Learned from Training Dogs.' The 10 things are:

1. Everyone is different. Different is not wrong


2. Motivation is not the same for everyone


3. Unrewarded behavior fades


4. Make sure they understand. Then repeat the instructions


5. Confidence is more important than you think


6. If you don't know what they're doing, stop telling them they're doing it wrong


7. You don't have to be mean to be the boss


8. Leadership isn't always from the front


9. Never get in a fight with a Rottweiler


10. Don't forget the party

Posted by debco at 11:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

John Henry had his first round of chemo on Thursday. He's doing great. Details follow for anyone who's interested.

It all went very well. They did blood work and checked out his heart before doing chemo to make sure everything is as it should be so he went in at 8 and I picked him up shortly after 4. The chemo (doxorubicin, this time) is delivered via IV and they sedated him for it because they have to be still the whole time and he's a big dog and it's sort of hard to explain it to him in advance. So, he was kind of loopy when I picked him up and slept pretty much the rest of Thursday.

He was a bit lethargic on Friday which worried me a little but I think it was still after effects (for him) of the sedation and of having a busy day on Thursday. Other than that, his appetite is good, he doesn't show any other adverse signs, and he seems basically pretty happy.

There are some things to watch for--like infection in the week following when his white blood cell count may be low. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed on all that. He has his next appointment in three weeks.

Posted by debco at 04:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So, I took John Henry to the vet school yesterday and learned all about chemotherapy which we can't start until his infection clears up. It is starting to clear up, I think, though it is not yet completely gone. He's on two antibiotics now--Clavamox and Antirobe (which for some weird reason I keep wanting to call Agitprop). The oncologist did say that there's some evidence that getting an infection after surgery actually helps (heightens the immune system) so that's, like, good news in a twisted way.

In my various visits to the vet school I've decided that if there were ever one compelling reason to train your dog when it's young and even to board it at a kennel once in a while, it's because when it gets older it might get sick. Every time I've been in the waiting room there's been some big dog barking its head off and some little dog snarling at everyone that goes by. It's stressful for the dog and it's tough on the owner. A dog that's been out a bit, that's got a bond that says, basically, 'I trust my owner to do what's right for me,' will be a lot better off in an emergency than a dog who hasn't got that. You wouldn't think 'sit' and 'stay' and 'stand' and whatever would be the keys to handling new situations, but it is. Just like going to school helps us with things we've never faced before, dogs do better the more they know.

John Henry is autistic (I don't care that that's not an official diagnosis for dogs--he really is) and he's never been a dog that I could confidently put into any situation, though he is also a loving and loyal and intelligent dog. There are things that overwhelm him. But he's been The Man at the vet school. He's been good to the staff and accepting of what's going on and waits in the waiting room, though he doesn't really relax (he also growls his cranky head off occasionally, but, you know, no one's perfect). I'm proud of him and happy that it's less stressful for him than it might be.

So, train your dog. Not competition obedience training, but puppy class or a companion class where they learn to walk on a loose lead and sit and stay and come and be around people and dogs.

Because sooner or later they're going to get sick. And it will be worth it.

Posted by debco at 06:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was in San Antonio last week, very nice city though I suspect much of the time it would be too warm for me.

So...John Henry does have bone cancer--fibroblastic osteosarcoma. We have an appointment with the oncologist tomorrow where I should find out more, but she has told me that it is a slower progressing form of bone cancer so that is good, at least.

Right before I left for San Antonio he started bleeding (I thought) from his incision. I talked to the vet school and they thought it wasn't much to worry about (as did I, really)--he was active, eating, no fever. But then, it kept seeping...and seeping...and seeping. Finally, the woman who boards the dogs for me when I'm out of town, took him into the vet school and they put him on antibiotics and kept him there until I got back. It's still draining (a week and a half later) but some progress has been made and we've added another antibiotic to the mix so I'm hoping for it to clear up soon.

In good news, he's getting around great. He can jump in and out of the car himself (which he thinks is far preferable to having me help). He can go down and up the three steps into the house. Yesterday, through complicated circumstances tedious to relate, he ended up going down the basement stairs, which he did with great grace. Unfortunately for him the basement steps are open stairs--why I have been mostly making sure he can't go down there. So, he had a little more trouble going back up, but he did manage to make it. Though, he had to tell both Billie and I off when he got back upstairs. Made him very happy, though, going down stairs and coming back up.

Posted by debco at 11:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

When the aliens come, I hope they bring their dogs.
--Dan Moore

Posted by debco at 02:56 PM | Permalink

John Henry continues to improve.

He got the staples out on Monday, which perked him up considerable. He was very good about getting them out. In fact, he's been very good at the vet school and he's not a dog who is easy to take to crowded, loud places with lots of barking dogs. He's been getting around even better with the staples out. He can now go down stairs by himself (my short three steps to the back door) but still needs a little help going up. He can get on the couch when I'm not looking, so I'm confident that soon he'll be able to get on the couch when I am looking. The surgeon said he could start to get back to his regular activity level though I'm still trying to figure out whether he can be loose in the back yard (I live on a corner lot--lots of activity and many things to chase...). I expect I'll figure it out somehow.

I still don't have the final pathology report. I'm going to call tomorrow and see what's up. Continue to hope for good news.

Next week I'm in San Antonio for a conference so John Henry is going to the kennel and Billie is going to visit her brother.

Posted by debco at 06:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

John Henry goes outside and lifts his leg to pee...

(note to anyone who doesn't find this amusing--he doesn't actually fall over when he does this)

Posted by debco at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

John Henry continues to do well. He's really getting around very well.

I haven't been letting him go in his crate because I'm worried about him getting in there and not being able to get out. So, yesterday he went into Billie's crate, which is smaller. I wouldn't let him stay in that one either, but at least we all know he can if he really, really wants to.

He gets sore, I think, when he does too much (hangs out in the back yard or such) mostly when he's getting up or lying down. And he is often peeved because he can't lie down on the side with all the staples on it. But, mainly, he's doing pretty well.

He will get his stitches out on Monday and it looks, to non-professional me, at least, as if the incision is healing really well. Keep your fingers crossed that I will also get the final pathologist's report on Monday too and that it will be good news.

Posted by debco at 01:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I took John Henry to the vet school yesterday. They said that everything looks really good. I think he's been kind of depressed, plus falling on his incision, because it perked him right up to go for a ride and hang out in the waiting room and, well, do something.

The preliminary pathology report indicates that his cancer might be a fibrosarcoma, which is a soft tissue cancer rather than a bone cancer. If it turns out that this is so, it would be a really good thing because fibrosarcomas rarely metastisize (I hope that's spelled right...)

Riley had a fibrosarcoma (which she lived with for three years and which is not what killed her). The oncologist I talked to then said, 'well, you know, the 100% cure is to cut off the leg.'

Ha, ha, vet humor.

Posted by debco at 06:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

John Henry sort of fell on his inicision yesterday and was a bit sore--I think when he stretched the incision. I'm taking him back to the vet school tomorrow to make sure it's more or less okay. Then tonight he sort of fell on it again. The first time I felt sorry for him. The second time I still felt sorry for him, but, mostly I realized that even after living with them for more than fifteen years I still have to be reminded that under certain circumstances Rottweilers are really just giant idiots.

I have mentioned before that Rule Number One of the Code of the Rottweiler is: Pain is as nothing.

Because, really, if you'd recently had major surgery and you'd just hurt yourself the night before and your incision was still sore, would you think it was absolutely critical that you bounce like an idiot at the end of your leash because the neighbor was walking his dog? If you were a Rottweiler, you would so be doing just that.

Posted by debco at 10:14 PM | Permalink

Yes, I do need to find more creative titles...

I let John Henry get up on the couch last night. He was the happiest boy alive. He'd already managed to get up on the couch in the spare bedroom by himself (I don't know how--I didn't see it), but it wasn't comfortable because he couldn't lie down the right way.

Word of advice--When you bring that new puppy home and wonder if you should let them get up on the furniture or not, you really ought to ask yourself--when they get to be ten years old and they have bone cancer and they have to have their leg amputated, will that getting up on the furniture thing be a really big hassle then?

John Henry continues to get around better, which pleases me though it makes life more difficult. Now that it's finally stopped raining he is getting around the yard pretty well (he already shows interest in chasing things he shouldn't chase).

I haven't heard back from the pathology lab yet so don't know whether there are next steps to take or not, but may find out more next week.

(and thank you for the comments--although I generally assume there's someone out there, occasionally it helps to know for sure :-)

Posted by debco at 07:23 AM | Permalink

Not sure how interested anyone is in this...not sure anyone's paying attention since I haven't updated much lately.

But if anyone is interested...John Henry continues to get better each day. He's getting around fairly well, thinks he should be allowed up on the couch and is perfectly willing to kill himself trying (though I have not allowed him to actually try). He has some pain somewhere that I can't identify though I half suspect it's his incision itching because it seems to go away when he has anything else to do.

Posted by debco at 07:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

John Henry came home this morning.

He's actually fairly mobile, which I was worried about as he was having a lot of trouble getting around at the vet school (they have slippery floors). And he's interested in food and water and things he can't do yet.

There's not much else to report at the moment. He moves. I run around and try to make sure he doesn't get anywhere he can't get out of. I worry about pills and food and getting in and out of the house. We'll see how it all goes from here.

Posted by debco at 05:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

To the people who wouldn't let me buy their house...

Thank you.

It's a lousy yard for a dog with three legs.

Posted by debco at 09:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Saturday, John Henry broke his leg.

And, you know, a ten-year-old Rottweiler does not break his femur right up next to his hip bone while running in his backyard unless there's something else going on. John Henry has bone cancer. Has had it for awhile, apparently. He hasn't really shown any outward signs of it, although several little things now make sense.

Many tests were done. They can't see cancer elsewhere (though there are no guarantees of course). So, yesterday they removed his left rear leg. He's doing great so far. I will get to see the new John Henry this afternoon.

We'll see how it goes from here...

Posted by debco at 01:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The dog has an enviable mind; it remembers the nice things in life and quickly blots out the nasty.

--Barbara Woodhouse

Posted by debco at 05:25 PM | Permalink

I used to look at my dog Smokey and think, "if you were a little smarter you could tell me what you're thinking," and he'd look at me like he was saying, "if you were a little smarter I wouldn't have to."

--Fred Jungclas

Posted by debco at 01:39 PM | Permalink

So many get reformed through religion. I got reformed through dogs.

--Lina Basquette

Posted by debco at 09:58 PM | Permalink

In one of the agility classes I'm teaching we currently have two pitbulls. I think they're cute as heck--social, happy, bull-headed, and capable of hauling the small, female half of the couple who own them across the room, though not really on purpose.

At work this week I was trying to describe to my co-workers how really cute these dogs were when it occurred to me that my co-workers' cute dog aesthetic was really very different than mine. They look at me as if I'm crazy and I realize that I can't even explain to them what I find cute about a pitbull.

When most people look at pitbulls they see big and maybe mean and holy crap who would want a dog like that? Fifteen years ago I probably looked at pitbulls like that too. That there are mean pitbulls in the world is without dispute. That many of them have owners who don't understand them, breed, train and raise them badly, is also true (and a much bigger factor, in my opinion than pitbulls who are just flat 'born mean').

There will always be a scaryness factor to pitbulls. But one of the things I'm grateful for in my life is that I'm able to appreciate their cuteness too.

Posted by debco at 03:03 PM | Permalink

I haven't said much about tracking here lately (I haven't said a lot lately, but that's a different story). Charming Billie and I have been tracking all summer and we were making decent progress until about a month or so ago when Billie decided she had forgotten everything she ever learned and--hey! aren't those birds pretty?

This is very much Billie's learning style and it's so frustrating. She doesn't refuse to do something; she doesn't even resist, really, she just looks at me with a round-eyed blank expression as if to say--you have never asked me that before; I have no idea what you're talking about. It's not a training plateau, it's a wall of something that's not exactly resistance masquerading as incomprehension. In other training I've persisted with the training, through several weeks of that 'look.' (I have no idea what you're talking about. If I did know what you were talking about, I'm sure I'd do it, but I don't) and eventually, she doesn't just decide to 'get' it again, she gets it at a far higher level than she did before the training wall, as if she's been looking at me blankly while simultaneously absorbing everything I say.

So that's what I'm doing right now, but it's very tricky in tracking since in tracking even more than other training, you don't really know what they know or what they think you're trying to teach them, you never really know what they understand, you only know what the outcome is.

When Billie looks like she's wandering aimlessly and not paying attention, she might, in fact, be tracking up a storm (the odds are against it, but you never know). Should I be patient, should I be firm, should we lay off for awhile, should we go back to square one--and, hey, look at those birds!

Posted by debco at 03:56 PM | Permalink

In Seabiscuit, the book, it's clear that Tom Smith the trainer is wondrous with horses because he pays attention, observes, tries things and learns from them. He's not bound by conventional training methods or even notions of how things 'ought' to be (as in, that horse ought to submit to me, it has to know who's boss). Tom Smith's approach was to look at the horse and figure out what was needed, not what would make him look good or how he could win. In Seabiscuit, the movie, the training was all about mystical Tom Smith and his mystical way with horses.

My theory is that the real work Tom Smith did doesn't play on television and in the movies because a great many people don't believe that this kind of approach is possible. They don't believe it can be done. The only explanation they have is magic. And it's okay in some way to concede that it's magic, to say that this man has a special rapport with animals that the rest of us can never understand because figuring that--it's this man, he's special--doesn't at all change the dominance, punishment-driven, I'm-the-boss approach to human-animal and even human-human relations that is culturally ingrained in us in ways we can't even see.

Books can show us something more complex because books have more time and books are occasionally written by the people who know how it really works or by women, some of whom don't seem to have as difficult a time believing that this kind of non-punishment, non-dominance training is real.

Here's how the book, Seabiscuit, describes Tom Smith and his style:

The most difficult quirk was Seabiscuit's behavior in the starting gate. Within its metal confines he raised holy hell, throwing himself around, exhausting the assistant starters, and reminding everyone of Hard Tack. To stop the colt's gate rages, Smith used a daring method. He led him out to the gate each morning, walked him inside it, and asked him to halt. Risking life and limb, Smith positioned himself directly in front of the horse, facing him. When Seabiscuit began banging around to get out, Smith held his ground, raised his hand, and tapped the horse firmly on the chest and shoulders until he stood still. When the horse stopped, so did Smith. When the horse moved, Smith tapped him again. Morning after morning, he was out at the gate with the horse, repeating the lesson. "You got to go at a horse slowly teaching him most anything," Smith explained later. "Easy, firm repetition does it." The effect was mesmerizing. The horse began to relax in the gate. "He caught on quick enough," said Smith. "He's wise as an old owl." Eventually, Smith was able to leave Seabiscuit standing in there for as long as ten minutes without the horse turning a hair.

This is shaping behavior, pure and simple. It involves knowing what you want at the end and helping the horse gradually get a picture of what that end is, working it in pieces that finally come together. It's not about force or dominance or punishment, though it is about sticking to goals and working within a frame that accommodates what you're trying to achieve and about 'listening' to the horse and learning to communicate.

It's mystical in the sense of not-scientific, but it's not mysterious or unknowable and it particularly and importantly is not because Tom Smith is unique in some way that precludes anyone else from ever achieving what he did. Seabiscuit, the horse, was nearly driven into failed obscurity by force/punishment training. He was the luckiest horse alive, the day Tom Smith became his trainer.

Posted by debco at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A friend writes to me:

I tried to explain tracking to a friend of mine and I must have done it wrong because we both ended up agreeing that it was impossible.

Posted by debco at 09:53 PM | Permalink

Okay, listen up. This is the sure-fire dog training tip. And I'm giving it away for free. For free!

A dog can't jump while it's sitting.

That's it. It should be, like, a law or something.

People ask me all the time, "How can I keep my dog from jumping on people?"

And this is the one sure-fire answer:

A dog can't jump while it's sitting.

More people than you'd think don't like this answer. They want to knee their dog in the chest or tell it "No!" very loudly or grab its paws until it gets uncomfortable. Or anything that will be quick and fast and almost like magic. And for some dogs, some of the time, those things do work. But the sure-fire, works-everytime, one-thing is to teach your dog to sit when you tell it to.

Because a dog can't jump while it's sitting.

Posted by debco at 07:07 PM | Permalink

Check out this sign....

...via The Shifted Librarian

Posted by debco at 03:58 PM | Permalink

Charming Billie and I were at a tracking seminar all last weekend.

We started the morning in the classroom talking about what tracking was, about the experience the seminar instructor brought to the table, about what people wanted from the seminar. After that, we drove out to a big area of open rolling hills to work dogs.

The attendees included people who had never tracked before, people who were working on a TD (first title) with their first dog, people who were working at TDX and VST level training, people who had trained multiple dogs and tracking judges. There were all breeds of dogs: Rottweilers (of course), Boxers, Miniature Pinschers, Otterhounds, Italian Greyhounds, Golden Retrievers, Airedales, and others. We started by pairing off the people who were just introducing their dogs to tracking so they could lay short tracks for each other. Part of the seminar cost included a packet that included flags, bright orange clothespins and a glove--all of which we'd use over the weekend.

The second exercise involved two people walking side by side for about 100 yards. One of these people was the actual tracklayer with a glove to leave at the end of the track, the second was a decoy. At about 100 yards each person made a ninety degree turn, one to the left and one to the right. The person with the glove then left the glove at the end of his or her track and both people returned to the start. The exercise for the dog was to follow the 'real' tracklayer to the glove at the end. A glove at the beginning of the track gave the dog the 'right' scent to follow.

After lunch, we went back to the fields to work with dogs, like Charming Billie, who are working on a TD. We did an exercise that was designed to introduce them to angled starts (which they will see in TDX and VST tests) and also to show us a way to build confidence on turns. The instructor uses articles the way I've often used treats on tracks, to reward the dogs for being right and to build confidence. The tracks consisted of a start flag, an article about 10 paces past the start flag, a corner and a final article about 20 paces from the corner. Articles in tracking can be gloves (TD), personal cloth and leather items like scarves, socks, gloves, shoes (TDX) or small cloth, metal, plastic, and leather items like gloves, switch plates, plastic lids, and luggage tags (VST). Another exercise, this one again for the intermediate dogs consisted of straight line tracks (about 100 paces) with a crosstrack at fifty paces. The crosstrack was marked so that the handler could watch their dog's reaction to the crosstrack. TDX tracks always have two crosstracks and dogs have to learn to make the right choice on the track.

Continue reading "And now for something completely different..." »

Posted by debco at 10:07 AM | Permalink

Dog: A kind of additional or subsidiary Diety designed to catch the overflow and surplus of the world's worship. Ambrose Bierce

...from my new 2003 calendar (and you thought I got this stuff from reading great literature)

Posted by debco at 09:05 AM | Permalink

An interesting article in The New York Times on explosives- and drug- detecting.

All in all, it's a pretty good article and covers well the critically important issues that dogs doing scent work can have.

I do have to comment on this, though:

Creatures of habit, dogs also can become stuck in their ways. For example, a dog might become fixated on a particular object or smell, Dr. Myers said, citing a police dog in Alabama that began alerting its handlers to Ziploc bags because the police stored drug training samples in them.

This is not being a 'creature of habit' or 'fixating on a particular object.' This is insufficiently explaining what you wanted. The dog was correctly indicating Ziploc bags. It was the handler's mistake for not understanding what the dog was learning. It's like playing those games--which object am I thinking of--the dog keeps picking Ziploc bags and keeps getting rewarded. Gee, what's it supposed to think?

Dogs know how to scent (compared to them, we have No Idea). They're incredibly good at it. But they only know what we want them to scent and to detect by scenting by what we teach them. If we're not clear, if we don't understand what they're telling us, if things happen quickly and both handler and dog get confused, there will be false results.

I agree with the article that false reports of explosives are better than missing real explosives. Increased accuracy and skill are even better.

Posted by debco at 02:11 PM | Permalink

The final week of tracking class took us two weeks because it was a holiday weekend and some people couldn't make it. The final lesson involved students laying tracks for each other. The tracks consisted of 75 and 50 yard legs with one wide-angle turn. We tracked in town at the soccer/softball sports complex, which is huge.

At this point, the handlers are still learning how to handle the line and haven't really started paying attention to what their dogs are doing at all. All the dogs in this class have learned to start, to get their heads down, to make a turn on short grass, to find the glove at the end. They've got the very basics that they need to track and now need practice, length, age, different conditions (rain, snow, warm, cold, hills, tall grass, woods, short grass.....)

Things I wish I could cover in more detail include tracklaying, tracklayer's responsibility, reading your dog, line handling, map drawing, analyzing this week's track and planning for next week.

While I've been teaching this class, I've been tracking Charming Billie. She's doing great, is fast and focused, but is the toughest dog to read. When she loses the track, she moves very quickly to try and locate it and although I can tell when she's really on the track (she settles down deep in the harness and moves in a way that's hard to describe, but recognizable), she's still hard to read when she isn't on the track, but trying things. Because she moves so fast, it'd be easy to get way off track by going with her at the wrong moment and being unable to come back. It's probably time to start doing blind tracks with her (where I don't know where the track goes). She's up to at least three corners, an hour or so of age, and about 300 yards. A full TD (the lowest level of tracking test) is 440 to 500 yards, half-hour to two hours old, 3 to 5 turns.

Posted by debco at 09:54 AM | Permalink

This week we introduced corners. In order to reliably track corners a dog needs to learn to lose the scent and refind it. At this stage, three weeks into tracking, they don't really have a sense of how to do that or even that it will ever be necessary. What we've been teaching so far is put your nose down, follow the scent and win big prizes.

At this point, then, I don't care that they lose the track and refind it at a corner. I care that they find the corner. The way I teach corners is this: I walk a straight leg (a leg being each length of track between turns). At the 45 yard mark, I leave a treat. At the 50 yard mark, I turn. The turn I want at this point is greater than 90 degrees. Five yards after the turn, I leave another treat. The first treat slows down fast dogs. The second treat tells them they've done things right.

When you introduce corners, things get harder for the tracklayer. To track a straight leg, you have to line up two distant objects and walk so that they stay lined up. At a corner, you have to note where you are in the field (so you know where the corner is)--you can leave a marker, but eventually, you'll want to lay completely blind tracks--then, you have to turn, find two new objects to line up with, and proceed. If you lay many tracks in a row, or if you're putting in more than one turn, you'll probably want to draw a map.

Dogs did awesome. Next week we add length and time.

Posted by debco at 08:45 PM | Permalink

Week two of tracking class and it was coldish (25 degrees or so) and foggy. The ground was somewhat damp which is good and it was a little windy.

Last week to start the dogs, we laid three very short tracks in a row--all in the same row, all at the same time--10 yards/20 yards/20 yards. There's a flag at the start and a glove at the end of each track and a distance of about 10 yards between each of the three tracks. Treats are left about every footstep or every other footstep along the track with additional treats in the glove. The purpose is to get the dog's nose down and to begin to show them what the point is. Typically, it takes the first track for the dog to realize there are treats, the second track to realize he can use his nose to find the treats, and the third track to really begin to track.

This week we did longer tracks--two tracks of 50 yards each. With longer tracks, you start to get an idea of what the dog's style will be. Some dogs quarter (move back and forth across the track). Some dogs are very visual and stop and look around a lot or are easily distracted by events along the way. Some dogs airscent a lot or stop and investigate a lot of other scents. You can start to see who'll be fast, who'll be methodical, what they'll do with their tail and shoulders and nose. It's easier, by the way, to see this stuff about other people's dogs, especially for handlers who are just starting out. With your own dog, you're trying to hang onto the line and listen to the tracklayer and not get tangled up and trying to think of all the other things we've talked about.

Next week: corners

Posted by debco at 03:00 PM | Permalink

A friend of mine who came to tracking class last Sunday, sent me an email yesterday that said: "...I totally identified with Pete [her dog]--it is like me thinking all those thoughts and training myself to just follow the thought patterns on just one thought....have you ever thought of using the same techique to teach writers to write?"

This would probably be a lot more insightful comment if I knew what she was talking about.

What I think she's referring to is a comment I made when I was describing the process of tracking and I said, dogs already know how to track, they do it all the time and everyday. What you have to show them is that now there's one particular scent that you want them to pick out and follow.

I suppose this could apply to writing. We all know how to tell stories. We do it all the time. To write a publishable story, especially a short story, you have to learn to focus on one story and follow that one thread all the way through. All the other compelling threads are irrelevant. This time, it's not that story.

Posted by debco at 10:31 PM | Permalink

I'm teaching a tracking class starting tomorrow morning. You in the home audience can play along.

What is tracking?
Tracking is teaching your dog to follow the scent left by a person. It's a sport, not prep work for search and rescue. Several groups sponsor tracking 'tests.' Most notably the AKC and Schutzhund groups. Schutzhund tracking is much more about style and points than AKC tracking, which is judged pass/fail. The AKC sponsors three tracking tests: TD, TDX, and VST. I won't go into the details of each one here, but you can look it up.

Tracking training is almost always positive (not counting things like, 'stop eating that dead thing,' 'quit pouncing on mice,' 'don't eat the harness.'). The handler doesn't know what the dog smells so can't say absolutely that it's 'wrong.' And while you could, conceivably, force a dog to track I can't see the fun in that. People who do more disciplined tracking training often talk about their dogs 'lying' to them, for example, coming to a corner and just continuing on as if they'd found the corner when they hadnt. I can't say what these dogs are doing, since I haven't seen them, but it's very likely they don't know what they're supposed to be doing and so are just doing the best they can.

Tracking requires equipment:

• Dog (any breed)
• Non-restrictive harness
• Long line (30 to 40 feet; cotton or nylon)
• Articles (at least 4--gloves, hat, socks)
• Track markers (flags, surveyor's tape/clothespins)

As the tracks get longer you will also want water for your dog and a notebook to draw maps, note conditions, set goals and specific things to work on. If you're really committed to this whole tracking thing, you can get a notebook made of waterproof paper.

While your dog is learning tracking (which it basically already knows--lucky dog!) you will be learning:

• How to lay a track
• How to handle a 40 foot line with out breaking your dog's leg or killing yourself
• How to draw maps
• How to follow your map once you've drawn it
• How to read your dog

You could also profitably learn to identify trees and shrubs, but I can testify that it's not really necessary.

If you wondered about the waterproof paper comment, well, tracking takes place in all weather--rain and sleet and snow (not lightning, though. We don't track when there's lightning). You should learn (if you don't know how already) to dress in layers and you should learn about waterproof jackets and hats and boots. You can, actually, do all your tracking in city parks, but most people don't and part of tracking is climbing over things and crawling under things and figuring out how to get out of wherever you ended up without crossing the track.

Since this has already passed firmly into 'More Than You Wanted To Know' camp, I will save 'How I start dogs tracking' until tomorrow...

Posted by debco at 02:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I’ve owned Rottweilers for almost thirteen years. As I’ve said before, I think they’re the perfect dog. Charming Billie believes that she was put on this earth for people to pet and make a fuss over and tell her that she's beautiful.

I was in Petco one day with Billie when a man told me about his 200 pound Rottweiler who bit small children. Not what you want to hear about a breed you love. But it bothers me, too, when people come up to Billie and throw their arms around her (it’s never good practice, by the way, to do this to a big dog you’ve never met) and say, oh, they’re so misunderstood, I love Rottweilers, they’re so sweet and gentle and they’d never hurt a fly.

This is what Rottweilers are: protective, strong, and driven. They are not sweet creatures who wouldn’t hurt a fly. If Charming Billie ever caught a fly, believe me, she would hurt it. I think they are a joy. My dogs have never attacked anyone, turned on me, or gotten in a serious dog fight. It is my responsibility to ensure that within the bounds of possibility, they never do. And they are misunderstood.

But, to me, saying they are sweet gentle creatures who would never hurt a fly, is a way of saying that you don’t need to pay attention to them, that people can wander in and out of your yard at will, that loose dogs can stick their nose in your Rottweiler's face, that they would never eat a cat or knock over a child or hurt a baby if they were left in a room alone together. But you know what? It doesn’t work that way. Rottweilers aren’t toys. They’re dogs. Big dogs who don’t understand things the same way you and I do. Who can’t tell friend from foe unless we help them. Who don’t know that cats and kids can get hurt if we don’t teach them. Who could get in big trouble if we don’t watch them.

If you get a Rottweiler be prepared for responsibility and challenges (both physical and mental) and shredded socks and broken windows. Be prepared for a dog that watches everyone who approaches you, who sometimes barks really loudly, who protects your car in parking lots. Who may also be sweet and who may, in the normal way of things, never hurt a fly. But more because you and they together make it possible than because they don't have it in them.

And if you play your cards right, in unexpected ways, there will be joy.

Posted by debco at 04:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Dogs like classical music.

According to a recent study in Ireland, dogs are more relaxed when they're listening to classical music, noisier when listening to heavy metal, and pretty much see no difference at all between pop music and silence. Apparently dogs have no position on jazz and the blues.

I like this quote best:

At Battersea they play "middle of the road" pop as well as classical music, but she [Becky Blackmore] says that variety is crucial. "If you just play them Classic FM all day they quickly filter it out and ignore it."

Posted by debco at 09:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Had a great weekend. Watched many dogs, bought much stuff, talked to lots of people.

I've decided that SF cons are like dog shows (or dog shows are like SF cons, depending on your perspective). At dog shows, the panels are 6 to 9 Month Puppy Bitches and Bred by Exhibitor Dogs and Open and Novice and Utility. In the dealers' room (which is really the space outside the rings), they're selling clothing and art and other important, must-have stuff. The people wear odd clothing, talk about esoteric subjects, engage in philosophical debate (prong collars vs slip collars, jump heights, head shape), greet with enthusiasm people they haven't seen since the last dog show and start the conversation pretty much right where they left off. First time con goers/show participants and visitors from the outside ask many questions, wonder what the heck it all means and worry about the sanity of the participants.

Posted by debco at 09:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This is where I'll be the rest of the week.

Posted by debco at 10:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I had a brief discussion a few days ago with IronGall about preparing for and taking tests. It reminded me of an essay which I promised to dig up (turns out this was a really good thing as the essay in question had managed to disappear completely from my hard drive and all I had was a single hard copy left). Thanks to the modern magic of touch typing I have recreated it in electronic form for your entertainment.

Ordering up the Day is about testing and preparation and living and dogs and tracking:

According to Bruce Fogle in his book, The Dog’s Mind, a dog’s ability to smell and particularly to distinguish origin and direction of a particular scent is so far beyond our human ability as to render meaningless any comparison. It is not ‘better’ than ours, this ability. It is, if anything, completely different in a way that we can’t even imagine. Riley has successfully followed a track across a softball field. The track had been laid an hour earlier. A softball game finished seconds before she began the track. Imagine if someone walked across that softball field wearing sneakers with blue paint on the soles. Then, fifteen other people came along and ran and jumped and played softball on that field. They also had blue paint on the soles of their shoes, but it was a shade lighter than the original paint. Imagine trying to follow the original path. That’s what Riley can do with her nose.

The full essay is here.

Posted by debco at 09:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

...bumper sticker at the dog show today.

Posted by debco at 04:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

Note:I first saw mention of this--phones for dogs--last Friday, then when I went to blog it, I could find no trace of it anywhere. Not via Google, not via blogdex, nowhere. I was really worried that my unconscious had made it up out of whole cloth for some unfathomable reason. This isn't the original article I saw, but at least it exists...

In Finland they are now selling a combination mobile phone and GPS system to help hunters keep track of their dogs when they're out hunting.

The GPS is to locate the dogs and the mobile phone is to listen to their barks and, presumably, their breathing so the hunter can tell if they're going fast or slow or if they've found a bear (hey, I don't make this stuff up). They were originally designed so the hunters could talk to the dogs, but apparently this just annoyed the dogs so it isn't an option in the final version.

Posted by debco at 10:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Rule one, if you recall is: Pain is as nothing.

Today's rule (number two of the Rottweiler Code):

Bad things never happen.

This is why Rottweilers make good guard dogs ("Someone hit me on the head with a stick? When?"). It's also why they don't totally get 'no' and why they're not very trainable with negative methods.

I actually kind of like this philosophy and wish I were better at applying it myself, though you have to admit it must give them kind of skewed world-view....

Posted by debco at 07:38 PM | Permalink

Three years ago today, my best friend, who happened to be a dog, died.

She died at six o'clock in the afternoon on Friday the 13th. She died of cancer, the second type of cancer she'd had in her life.

What follows here is the endpiece, slightly paraphrased, of an essay that I finished recently. The essay itself is about taking Riley to Colorado in 1996 for radiation treatment.

As for what this particular portion of the essay is about...this is who we are:

When I got Riley, I'd lived alone for five years. I'd lived without dogs for twelve years. I did a lot of research. In my family we believe that anything can be learned from books. My father and my uncle once butchered a steer with the help of a book they got out of the library. Before getting Riley, I read books on breeds, books on things to look for, books on Rottweilers, books on puppies, books on obedience, and books on tricks you can teach your dog.

Continue reading "Third Annual..." »

Posted by debco at 09:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Charming Billie got spayed this week and so I am once again reminded of this important tenet of the Rottweiler code:

• Pain is as nothing

...especially when one must bark at the mailman or chase a squirrel.

Posted by debco at 07:37 PM | Permalink

...I'm pretty sure they would spend an inordinate amount of time talking about squirrels.

Stephen Budiansky has an interesting book called, If Lions Could Talk, on animal intelligence and some of the flaws of current research in the field, in particular how often we overlook the idea that animal intelligence and animal 'values' may be fundamentally different than our own.

I think he also misses some important things--the role of scenting ability in how animals interpret information and solve problems--but it's an interesting book with loads of good information.

Posted by debco at 07:27 PM | Permalink

A recent article at CNN.com comes to the conclusion that: Dogs are smarter than people think

This is such a profoundly stupid article that I'm stuck as to where to begin.

One group of researchers find that dogs use a range of barks to convey meaning. Well, duh....

The article goes on to describe this research:

The canines were shown treats and then a screen was lowered and the goodies were left as they were or some were added or taken away.

If a treat was added or taken away the dogs looked at the treats much longer than they did when the goodies were not disturbed, presumably because they had done their sums and the numbers did not meet their expectations.

I mean, really.

Once, John Henry and I stayed in a cabin for a week. One night a mouse crept out of the broom closet and munched away on John Henry's food while we were sleeping. I could hear it in the kitchen happily eating, while John Henry was lying on the bed next to me, oblivious. The next morning, he stood in the kitchen, looking at his food bowl, looking at me, looking at his food bowl. Little did I suspect that he had counted each piece before he went to bed and was counting them again to see how many were missing.

Maybe dogs can tell when we swipe food out of their bowls. But how can we tell that they're counting by how long they stare at it? What if it looks different? What if it smells different? What if they're just wondering about the state of the universe or the effects of global warming on the continued regularity with which they will be fed?

Posted by debco at 04:19 PM | Permalink

I track with my dogs.

In tracking, a tracklayer goes out into a field or woods or community college campus and lays a track (walks a known path) a certain length (400, 600, 1,000 yards). The track has turns, it goes through different kinds of cover (grass, woods, ditches, pavement). The tracklayer leaves articles along the track (glove, belt, shoe, wallet, plastic lid). Sometimes other people walk across the track--sometimes on purpose, sometimes not. The only markers on the track are one or two flags at the beginning. After a half hour or an hour or three hours (depending on the kind of track), you and your dog go to the starting point, follow the track and find all the articles. It's all about the scent on the ground and the nature of the obstacles and the wind and the temperature and the dog and the handler.

A friend of mine asked me why once. "What's the purpose?" he said. "What's the purpose of basketball?" I asked him. Tracking is about being outside, about watching your dog do something you couldn't do even with mechanical enhancement, about trust, love, partnership, and communicating with alien beings.

The American Kennel Club sponsors tracking tests all around the country.

Want more info? Try here.

Posted by debco at 09:20 PM | Permalink

More specifically, I have Rottweilers.

Contrary to most people’s ideas and according to the official standard, Rottweilers are not large dogs. They are medium-large, ranging in size from about 80 to 120 pounds. My current dogs, Charming Billie and John Henry, weigh 75 and 95 pounds respectively.

Rottweilers are, however, strong, powerful, protective and smart. They are not dogs who should be owned by just anyone. They are not, as some people insist on telling me, sweet, gentle creatures who wouldn’t hurt a fly (though some of them are incredibly sweet and many of them intend, at least, to be gentle). They are also not, or at least are not generally born that way, stone killers who would rip a person to shreds as soon as look at them.

So, why do I live with Rottweilers ?

Continue reading "I have dogs" »

Posted by debco at 07:45 PM | Permalink