Dogs have different ways of showing affection.  They may have their own way of expressing their feelings, or you may have — knowingly or unkowningly — trained your dog to express affection in certain ways.  How does your dog express its love and respect for you?  How does its dog personality affect your dog-human relationship?

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Callie Golden Retriever

Tune in Wednesday night to the “My Doggie Says…” show will be Katharine Rogers, author of “First Friend: A History of Dogs and Humans.”  Listen to Katharine talk about the precious relationship between dogs and humans — how it got started over 12,000 years ago and how it has changed down through the years.  Click here for more information about Katharine, “First Friend,” and her other books.

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. Listen to past interviews at www.mydoggiesays.com/blog/. The show is also available as a podcast on iTunes. Go to the iTunes store, click on “Podcast,” and search for “My Doggie Says…”

Win a free copy of “My Doggie Says…: Messages from Jamie.  Just respond to this blog post with a comment about how close you feel to your dog and the one best thing you have done to nurture your relationship with your pet.

Best comment gets a free copy of “My Doggie Says…”  Contest ends 12:00 midnight, Pacific Daylight Time, Sunday, June 7.  Callie’s decision is final.

Because of Jamie’s (the heroine of “My Doggie Says…), gentle dog nature, my granddaughter Lauren had a wonderful relationship with her.  Check this out:

In the above photo, Lauren is about one year old.

Now, Lauren is almost five years old, and her sister, Amelia, is almost three.  And they are trying to learn how to get along with Callie, a two-year old puppy who has a wonderful doggie nature but is so rambunctious she scares Lauren and Amelia at times.

It’s been a bit of a struggle to have the girls around with Callie off the leash, so we enlisted the dog training help of Brian Lee, an expert and experienced dog trainer (who appeared on the “My Doggie Says…” radio show on March 18, 2009).  In one session, Brian helped Barbara and me “adjust” our relationship with Callie in order to command a little more “doggie respect.”

Then, Brian brought his dog whispering skills to Lauren and Amelia.  He helped them have more confidence around Callie — and to know how to react to Callie’s enthusiasm.  And he taught Callie to be calmer around the girls and that their “stinkies” (security blankets) and snack food are “off limits.”

After the session with Brian, Callie’s Golden Retriever dog nature came to the fore, and she performed like a champ.  This one-minute video shows Callie playing soccer with Amelia (who had been afraid of Callie) and then both Lauren and Amelia in our Jacuzzi with Callie bouncing around the edges.

Thanks, Brian!  You worked a miracle for us!!!  It was a great example of dog behavior modification.

Here’s an encapsulated version of the “My Doggie Says…” approach to understanding your dog and building a stronger relationship with it.  From the “My Doggie Says…” radio show.  Learn how dogs communicate and how you can improve your dog-listening skills in order to nurture your dog’s personality, build its confidence, and have a closer bond.

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 experts on all aspects of dogs and dog ownership. Listen to past interviews at www.mydoggiesays.com/blog/. The show is also available as a podcast on iTunes. Go to the iTunes store, click on “Podcast,” and search for “My Doggie Says…”

I just lost my best animal friend — Okie-Dokie, the black cat.  She was just fine a few days ago, but then she had some serious kidney problems, and within a few days she was gone.  Poor Okie-Dokie.  She was a good pal to me — after teaching me some dog-cat manners.  I’ll miss her a lot.  I guess, though, that her 17 years were pretty good cat years.

Okie-Dokie adopted Fred and Barbara about 10 years ago.  She just showed up one day, in the front yard, hunting for gophers, a few of which had migrated across the street from the golf course.  She hunted gophers for a few days, and then she started to check out the front doorstep.  Eventually, Fred and Barbara put out some cat food, which the strange black cat gobbled down.  Next, she started to explore the inside of her house.  All in all, it took Okie-Dokie about two weeks to decide to adopt Fred and Barbara.

A few years earlier, Fred and Barbara had dinner at a restaurant in Cabo San Luca, Mexico, where their waiter was just always saying “Okie-Dokie.”  “Okie-Dokie, I’ll bring you another Pacifico.”  “Okie-Dokie, your enchiladas are coming right up!”  So they decided that they would name their next cat “Okie-Dokie.”

A few years later, Fred and Barbara learned the true story about Okie-Dokie.  Okie-Dokie, who was originally named Maxine, was a ferel cat that had been adopted by a  young couple that lived a few blocks away from Fred and Barbara.  When the couple had their second baby, Okie-Dokie decided she wasn’t getting enough attention, so she started scouting for a new place to live.  It turns out that some of the couple’s neighbors saw this happening, but Fred and Barbara didn’t learn about it for several years.

When Okie-Dokie adopted Fred and Barbara, Jamie (my predecessor Golden Retriever) was about two years old (which is what I am now!).  Here’s a photograph from “My Doggie Says… Messages from Jamie,” that shows Okie-Dokie and Jamie having their daily afternoon nap in the hallway.

When I arrived at Fred and Barbara’s house almost two years ago, Okie-Dokie was about 15 years old.  At first, Okie and I didn’t get along very well.  I was a fluffy little puppy, and I kept thinking Okie-Dokie would want to play with me.  But everytime I jumped at her, she swatted my nose.  I finally learned that Okie-Dokie was in charge and that we could play on her terms, not mine.  We didn’t actually “play” a lot, but we got to be very good friends.  We enjoyed sniffing noses.  Sometimes, Okie-Dokie would lick my face, or my coat.  Sometimes I would lick Okie-Dokie’s fur.  We never shared a nap in the hallway, like Jamie and Okie-Dokie, but recently we napped a lot on the futon in Fred’s office.  Sometimes, I used Okie-Dokie like a pillow.  She seemed to like that.

So that makes three really good pals I’ve lost in my two, young years.  Charlie, my Golden Retriever friend that I used to see on my morning jog.  And then Ishka, Karen’s (Fred and Barbara’s daughter) Golden Retriever.  And now Okie-Dokie.  Okie-Dokie is the toughest to deal with, because I spent time with her every day.  I’ve been making up for the loss of Okie-Dokie by spending lots more time with “Stinky,” my one-half stuffed puppy security object.  I don’t know what I’d do without “Stinky.”

Fred says losing a pet is really hard for people, too.  They love their pets very much, and it’s hard for them to understand that dogs and cats just don’t live as long as people usually do.  Here’s a collection of poems that have given Fred and Barbara lots of comfort when they’ve lost pets.

Goodbye, Okie-Dokie.  You were a great cat and a great pal, and I’ll always love you.

Callie

Until now, I’ve never had a dog that understood how wonderful pillows can be.  Jamie, the heroine of “My Doggie Says… Messages from Jamie,” didn’t need pillows.  She made her own by folding a front ankle backwards and using it like a pillow.  We called it “tired puppy paws,” because she usually did it when she was tuckered out after a long jog.  Here’s Jamie’s “tired puppy paws.”

But Callie has discovered the magic of pillows.  She’s really learned how to use them to make herself more comfortable.  Here she is pillowing out on the futon in my office:

And here she is using the arm rest of a sofa at Lake Arrowhead like a pillow.

She’s even learned about the pillows on our bed.  Jamie always slept on a corner of our mattress near the foot of the bed.  Callie usually starts out there, but once in a while, I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and discover that I’m sharing my pillow with a furry friend.

It’s fun to give a dog enough freedom that it make its own discoveries.

Does your dog understand how pillows work?

A dog’s behavior can be rich with messages. The challenge, sometimes, is to figure them out.

Does your dog do wierd or unexpected things some times? If so, there’s a pretty good chance it’s trying to tell you something. If you want to improve your dog-listening skills, look for these “why-did-my-dog-do-that?” moments. And, then, scratch your head and get busy trying to decode the message.

One of the first clues can be your dog’s breeding. What was it bred to do? Retrieve? Hunt? Run fast? Herd sheep or other animals?

A lot of Jamie’s “why-did-my-dog-do-that?” moments became pretty obvious when I reminded myself that she was a Golden Retriever and bred to retrieve. One of my favorites is featured in “My Doggie Says… Messages from Jamie.”

One morning, my wife and I were jogging home, with Jamie, and I was carrying several rolled up newspapers. Jamie kept looking back at me. At first, we couldn’t figure out what she was trying to say. My wife said, “She wants you to pay attention to her.” So I stopped and gave her a friendly ear scratch. But she kept looking back at me.

Finally, my wife said, “Maybe she wants to carry the newpapers.” I gave Jamie the papers, and that was it. She held her head up high and carried the rolled up bundle` the rest of the way home. But of course, she’s a retriever.

Another of Jamie’s “why-did-my-dog-do-that?” moments was to stop — as in “freeze!” — in the middle of our morning jog. Again, her breeding was usually (but not always) the clue. She was asking permission to retrieve a stick or a pine cone. Once we said “OK,” she would grab the object in her soft mouth and nestle it there until we got home — or until she got tired of it.

So next time your dog does something unexpected, ask yourself, “Why did he, or she, do that?” What is my dog trying to tell me? What was my dog bred to do? Maybe that’s a clue.

We’ll talk about other clues in future posts.

BTW, in case you haven’t noticed, we’ve been doing a lot of work on the site. Some of the interviews from the “My Doggie Says…” Radio Talk Show (KFNX 1100, in Phoenix, 8:00 p.m to 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday nights) are posted as MP3 files. Soon, we hope to have them set up as a podcast, so you can subscribe and hear the “My Doggie Says…” Show on your own schedule.

Hi! Callie here (short for “Woodlands Callaway Hole-In-One”). I have some really sad news to report and a heartfelt doggie goodbye to say.

I met Ishka when I was about ten weeks old. I’m eighteen months old now, so that was about a year and a half ago, and Ishka, also a Golden Retriever, would have been about thirteen years old — getting up there for a Golden Retriever. Ishka was an old dog, and I was a young one. I learned pretty fast that Ishka didn’t want to romp and wrestle with me. When I tried to get her to play, she just looked the other way. Sometimes she walked away.

But Ishka and I got to be good friends, once I quit trying to make her tussle with me. I think I cheered her up in her old age, and I know she helped me grow more mature as a puppy. Sometimes, I presented my special “Stinky” (stuffed puppy security object) to Ishka. She never took it, but she acknowledged the gift, and I know she appreciated it.

Ishka (short for “uisce beatha,” Gaelic for “whiskey” or “water of life.”) was one of the heroines of “My Doggie Says… Messages from Jamie,” the book that Fred wrote about Jamie. Ishka and Jamie met when they were eight-week-old puppies in 1994. Ishka belonged to Fred & Barbara’s daughter, Karen. Ishka and Jamie loved to play together, rolling around on the lawn or into the bushes. And wrestling for hours and hours. They were best friends until Jamie left us in December, 2006. (I was born in January, 2007, so I never met Jamie.  I just learned about her communication skills by reading “My Doggie Says…”)

Here, from “My Doggie Says…” is a picture of Jamie and Ishka wrestling together. Jamie is the lighter dog on the left; Ishka is the darker dog on the right.

And here are Jamie and Ishka sitting at the top of the stairs at Lake Arrowhead, their positions reversed.

Ishka has had some arthritis problems, so it’s been very difficult, almost impossible, for her to walk lately.

A few weeks ago, she stayed at my house, while Karen and her fiance, Chris, did some traveling. I think she really enjoyed having me around; some of the old sparkle returned to her eyes. A few times, she even got up and moved (which was very hard for her to do) so she could be close to me. When I was in my training crate, Ishka often sat down right outside it. I really liked helping her feel better.

But her health problems caught up with her, and last week she went to doggie heaven, where I know she and Jamie are romping around and enjoying being together again.

Goodbye, Ishka. I know Jamie really loved you, and I did, too. Thanks for sharing a small part of your life with me.

Love,

Callie

P.S. Whether you’re a person or a doggie, here’s a wonderful web site that will help you deal with the loss of a pet: www.petloss.com. Fred especially likes the collection of 100 poems, including several by Rudyard Kipling, that express the feelings of authors who lost their beloved pets. It’s at http://www.petloss.com/poems/poems.htm

Callie is now over 16 months old, and she’ calming down noticeably – in nice ways.

She’s always used her “Stinky” (small stuffed doggie), which is down, now (because of Callie’s chewing), to two front legs, and a head – no ears, no tail and no hind legs. But the remainder of “Stinky” seems to be pretty solid, after some serious repair work by the local dry cleaning people. Since the last repair job, Callie has been extremely gentle with “Stinky.” She seems to understand that “Stinky” can’t take any more hard chewing.

“Stinky” is still Callie’s preferred security object. Almost every evening, she tracks “Stinky” down and uses it to unwind from her busy doggie day. Here’s a recent photo of Callie with “Stinky.” Notice how totally relaxed Callie is.

But, in general, Callie is spending more time relaxing and less time bouncing off walls, chewing on rugs, or getting into trash. Check this out. Does this look like an up-tight dog?

I’ve noticed, down through the years, that dogs are about as good as people at using soft fluffy things, including pillows, like pillows. Callie seems to be especially good at it. Sometimes she uses her puppy pad as a pillow for her head, instead of as a bed. Other times, she uses a toy like a pillow. And sometimes at night I wake up to discover that I’m sharing my fluffy, down-stuffed pillow with Callie.

Here’s another photo.

I think Callie is more pillow-conscious than Jamie was. After all, Jamie invented “tired puppy paws,” which was her way of using her own paw like a pillow – much like you would if you lay down on the floor and used your arm like a pillow. Except Jamie turned her paw backwards to make a comfy little joint for her nose to rest. Here, from “My Doggie Says… Messages from Jamie” is Jamie doing “tired puppy paws.”