Jonathan Franklin, author of “The Wolf in the Parlor,” has re-written the narrative about the long-time relationship between Man and Dog.  Conventional wisdom has Man domesticating the Dog somewhere around 6,000 years ago.  But Jon Franklin, through extensive research, has shown that Man didn’t really “domesticate” the Dog.  Instead, approximately 12,000 years ago, Man and the Wolf evolved simultaneously into a partnership in which Dog (the evolved Wolf) took on the responsibility of guarding over Man, and Man accepted the responsibility for the care and feeding of Dog.  At the same time — archeological records show — Man’s brain mass decreased by about 10% (because he didn’t have to guard the fort at night) and Dog’s brain mass decreased by about 20% (because he didn’t have to scavenge for food).  It’s a fascinating story, well told.  It truly explains the warm psychological bond between Man and Dog.

Fred talks about ways you can improve your dog communication, dog relationships, and dog bonding skills — intermixed with tracks from the “Dog Tracks CD: Songs by Dogs” and the “Dog Appreciation Lessons” CD.

Dean Koontz tells how his Golden Retriever, Trixie, opened his eyes to some aspects of life that he had come to see as “mundane.”

Host Fred Haney talks about dog bonding, dog communication, and dog relationships.   Hear sound clips from the “Dog Tracks CD: Songs by Dogs” and the “Dog Appreciation Lessons” CD.

Val Heart takes dog bonding and dog communication to a higher level with her special animal communication  abilities.  Learn from Val by following this link.

Here is the podcast of Val’s interview on the “My Doggie Says…” radio talk show:

Val was kind enough to invite me as a guest on her podcast.  You can find the recording here.  It was a very fun conversation, with some good questions from the listening audience.  One listener’s question was about a dog that enjoys watching TV — but sometimes gets upset.  This is a very interesting subject, which deserves a future blog post.  There are some interesting questions as to 1) what a dog actually sees when watching TV and 2) whether a dog can make the distinction between a TV image (whatever it sees) and reality.  Stay tuned on this one.

Last Sunday morning, at Lake Arrowhead, Fred and I went out for our  morning “read the news and pee” walk.  It was a beautiful fall morning at the Lake.  At 5,000 feet elevation, Lake Arrowhead has a pretty short fall season — not much more than the month of November.   Most of the trees are pine trees, so there’s not a lot of color.  The next most common tree is the oak, which turns to yellow and then, when the rains come, brown and then bare.

The dry oak leaves scare me sometimes.  They race along the street when the wind blows hard, and they make a weird noise.  The first few times I saw this, I was really puzzled.  It took me a few minutes of staring to figure out what I was seeing.

Fred and I started to walk toward the cul-de-sac near our home, and then I decided to head the other direction.  Fred’s pretty neat about letting me lead the way on these walks.  This is a real important part of our dog-bonding.  As Ted Kerasote (Author of “Merle’s Door”) says, I’m “reading the news.”  I really  enjoy sniffing everything in sight.  It’s my way of checking out who’s in town, who’s been visiting, who peed where, and so on.  Anyway, I started to walk toward the cul-de-sac, but a really exotic smell pulled me the other direction.

After I did my sniffing, I turned around and there, right in the middle of the cul-de-sac, was a really neat looking animal.  It looked like a lot of my doggie friends, but it had a more pointed nose, very erect ears, a body slightly smaller than mine, and very healthy looking grey fur.  I started pulling on my leash to go say a big “doggie hello,” but Fred grabbed my leash and yelled, “No Callie, that’s a Coyote and he’d like to eat you for breakfast!”

Wow!  I don’t want to be anyone’s breakfast — I don’t care what kind of animal it is.  So I guess I learned an important lesson from Fred:  “Don’t mess with Coyotes.”

When Fred pulled me back, the Coyote saw him and decided this was a bad place to be.  So it ran, very gracefully I would say, down the hill, through our yard and back toward Willow Creek, which is probably where it hangs out.

I really like the way Fred lets me lead the way on our “sniffing” walks, but I’m also glad that he keeps me out of trouble sometimes.

Actually, we have a few coyotes around home, too, but we don’t see much of them.  They live in the “barranca” near our house, and they stay pretty close to the creek, which is about 100 feet down in a steep canyon.

Here’s a photo of a coyote that Fred took in Yellowstone Park.  It’s not the same coyote I saw on Sunday, but it looks the same to me.  I’m sure glad it’s jumping on a little vole and not on me.  Come to think of it, that guy did smell a little trashy.

Last night, while Fred and Barbara were in the den, I noticed that things looked real different outside.  It was dark and the street in front I our house was all shiny, and the house lights were bouncing off the trees and the street. It looked very different from what I’m used to.

And little rivers — like someone kicked over a big puppy-water bowl — were running down the street.  And stuff was falling out if the sky and splatting on the street and on the leaves across the road.

I was very scared, so I started barking to warn Fred and Barbara. I mean really barking and barking in my loudest full-grown dog voice.  After all, I’ll be three years old in January.

Finally Fred walked into the room and said, “it’s OK, Callie.  It’s rain.  I know it never rains in Southern California, but this is the first storm of winter.”

After Fred said that and knelt down beside me and gave me a real good puppy-scratch, I felt lots better. I quit barking and went back to the den to suck on “stinky.

You should listen to Fred’s interview with Debbie Jacobs, of Fearful Dogs.com.  The interview will be posted soon.   Fred talks with Debbie Jacobs about her experience with fearful dogs.

I guess for a while last night I was one.

Bye for now.

Callie

Tiki, a blue-fronted Amazon parrot, has been a member of our family since about 1990.   She started out as our son Brad’s bird, when he was attending UC Irvine.  But when Tiki ate the draperies in Brad’s rental apartment, she moved back home and became, mostly, Barbara’s bird.  Birds have the reputation for being pretty much one-person animals, and Tiki was not an exception.  She was 100% Barbara’s bird and maybe 40% mine.  She wasn’t aggressive toward me, but she wouldn’t let me stroke her beak or feathers like Barbara could.

This photo of Tiki is from “My Doggie Says:  Messages from Jamie.”  It shows the fun, symbiotic relationship that Tiki and Jamie had.  Every morning, Tiki would sit on her cage, eating a piece of toast.  Jamie, knowing that Tiki would eventually drop the last little piece, sat, patiently, until she got her bite.

Tiki is a bit of a mystery bird.  We’re not sure about her age or her sex.

At first, Tiki was a “he.”  But, after about 10 years, a bird expert announced, “Tiki is a she.”  So Tiki, the “he,” became Tiki, the “she.”  And now we’re confused again, because Dr. Rosskopf, Tiki’s vet, still calls her “he.”

We’re also not sure how old Tiki was when she left us.  For all the time we owned her, we assumed that Brad obtained her as a baby, which would have made her about 19 years old.  But last Tuesday, when Dr. Rosskopf showed us Tiki’s tumor, he said, “This is making me think Tiki is much older than we thought.  This is typical of a 40-50 year old bird, not a 19 year old.”

So we called Brad to double check Tiki’s age, and, it turns out, he wasn’t sure how old she was when he first got her.

So, Tiki, the mystery bird, started out as a 19 year old “he,” and ended life on Tuesday as a 50-something “she.”

Another of the mysteries of Tiki’s life involved an animal psychic who came to our house to “talk” with our three dogs, a cat, and Tiki.  I was being a little skeptical, and it seemed like most of the conversations were sort of predictable interactions with a dog or a cat.  But when the animal psychic got around to Tiki, she said, “Tiki told me that she rode down the hallway on Jamie’s back one time.”  Well, that was absolutely true.  One time, we balanced Tiki on Jamie Golden Retriever’s back and they walked the length of the hallway.  I’m sure there was no way for the animal psychic to know that, other than being told by Tiki.

Tiki and Callie did not have the same kind of relationship as Tiki and Jamie.  Maybe because in the last year, or so, Tiki has had a difficult time perching on the outside of “her” cage.  But yesterday, Callie clearly sensed that something was missing in our lives.  She was obviously morose.  Maybe she just picked up on my mood, but I think dogs are pretty smart about these things.  Anyway, Callie and I had a long talk about it and we both wished Tiki a happy journey.

Goodbye, Tiki.  You were a great bird!

Bethanne Elion, author of  “Memoirs of a Bathtup Psychic: The true story of a clairvoyant and her dogs,” relates her uncanny ability to “tune-in” to dogs, which included an ability to “see” the location of lost, or missing, dogs.

The “My Doggie Says…” show helps listeners gain a deeper appreciation for “Man’s Best Friend.” The show is broadcast live from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday nights, on KFNX 1100, Phoenix. It is streamed live on www.1100kfnx.com. Host Fred Haney interviews dog whisperers, dog trainers, authors of dog books, and experts on all aspects of dogs and dog behavior and dog nature. The show is also available as a podcast on iTunes. Go to the iTunes store, click on “Podcast,” and search for “My Doggie Says…”

Check out the dog-relationship books written by all of the authors who have appeared on the “My Doggie Says…” show: http://mydoggiesays.com/blog/?page_id=1479

Dean Koontz has published over a 100 books, and, in many of them, he has included a dog as a character.  He has also written several books about Trixie, his Golden Retriever, such as “Life is Good!  Lessons in Joyful Living,” by Trixie Koontz, Dog.  On the occasion of the release of his newest dog book, “a big little life: A Memoir of a Joyful Dog.”  Dean describes the close relationship between himself and Trixie, as well as several humorous things that Trixie did.  He also expresses amazement at Trixie’s intelligence.

The “My Doggie Says…” show helps listeners gain a deeper appreciation for “Man’s Best Friend.” The show is broadcast live from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday nights, on KFNX 1100, Phoenix. It is streamed live on www.1100kfnx.com. Host Fred Haney interviews dog whisperers, dog trainers, authors of dog books, and experts on all aspects of dogs and dog behavior and dog nature.   The show is also available as a podcast on iTunes. Go to the iTunes store, click on “Podcast,” and search for “My Doggie Says…”

Check out the dog-relationship books written by all of the authors who have appeared on the “My Doggie Says…” show: http://mydoggiesays.com/blog/?page_id=1479

Win a free copy of “My Doggie Says… Messages from Jamie:  How a Dog Named Jamie ‘Talks’ to Her People.”

What is your dog’s favorite thing to do with you?  How does your dog feel about it?  How does  it contribute to your relationship with your pet?  How can you tell?

Best comment(s) wins a free copy of “My Doggie Says…”  Callie’s decision is final.  Contest ends at midnight, California time, Sunday, August 23.