So much of dog training — and training people to train dogs — is about getting your dog to obey your commands. This is important. There are times when your dog’s safety depends on obeying a command.

Another theme in dog training is establishing yourself as the alpha pack animal. This helps make life unambiguous for the dog; it knows where it stands in the family order.

That said, I don’t think it’s necessary to train every spec of creativity, initiative, or assertiveness out of a dog. I like a dog that is pleasantly assertive. I don’t know how to train this into a dog, if it doesn’t already have it. But I do think it’s possible to train it out of a dog by being too alpha and too focused on obedience.

Callie’s showing some signs of assertiveness, and we’re glad to reinforce them, within limits. Actually, when she first came to our home, at age eight-weeks, she invited me to play soccer (by sitting behind a soccer ball), and I complied. My compliance surely encouraged her to keep inviting me to play soccer. Which I really like.

The other day, Callie was enjoying her freedom in my office, and I decided to let her walk, without her leash, out to pee. Se we headed for the side yard. But first Callie stopped, picked up her kong toy, and made eye contact, as if to say, “Is it OK if I bring this?” I like to honor her requests, but, knowing how easy it would be for the toy to get lost in the ivy, I decided it was a bad idea.

So off we went to the side yard without the kong toy. But as soon as I opened the door, Callie exploded into a barking, running and slamming-into-the-wall frenzy. Our neighbor’s cat had been basking in the sun atop the wall, and Callie decided to chase her away. Which is fine with me. 🙂

Then, as we walked back to my office, Callie stopped at the sliding glass door to the back yard. The door was open just enough for Callie to get her nose through the opening, but not enough for her to walk through. She stopped and looked right at me. The message was very clear. “Could we please play soccer for a few minutes?” I managed to catch her in action in this photo:

I couldn’t say “no,” so we played soccer for a while. After all, she made such a polite request.

Then, I decided to let Callie join me for a little practice in my golf net. Jamie used to do this all the time. Here’s a photo of Jamie from “My Doggie Says… Messages from Jamie: How a dog named Jamie ‘talks’ to her people.”

But Jamie was not a ball dog, and Callie definitely is a ball dog. So the minute Callie saw the golf balls, she collected two of them in her mouth. She really wanted to chew the golf balls, but I worry about the materials and the possibility that she could swallow one of the balls. Not good. In the end, I had to decide that golf practice wasn’t going to work for Callie, at least not until she matures a little more.

I’m really glad that Callie is asserting herself. She does it in a nice way, but she makes her wishes known. It’s fun to reinforce her assertiveness, when it’s safe and when it doesn’t get out of control.

It seems to be working to let Callie be assertive at times. We still let her know who’s boss, and we continue to insist on obedience. Somehow, I think she understands.

Hi! This is Callie writing. Fred’s been up in Silicon Valley for a few days, so he asked me to fill-in. Happy Halloween!

I thought I’d share with you how I feel about some of my toys. First, here I am with a few of my favorites — my stuffed trout, my favorite “stinky,” my black and yellow barbell, and my (now legless) dodo bird.

So here are my Top Ten favorite toys:

1. Black and yellow soft barbell is pretty fun. It feels good to chew on, and it’s heavy enough that I like to flip it back and forth.

2. Little stuffed bear. This little guy can be pretty relaxing to just munch on — very gently. I don’t want to hurt him, so I don’t ever bite hard. It’s almost as good as my “stinky” for calming down in the evening.

3. The new funny little thing with rope loop handles. This is a new toy that Fred and Barbara bought me last week. I don’t know what to call it. It has about three very hard, colored circles of rope that act like handles. So it’s a really good toy for playing “give and take” with Fred. I offer it to him and he grabs hold, but he doesn’t pull hard. He just holds on for a minute, and then he lets me take it. I really like it when we do this.

4. Green jacks. This one is about eight inches square, and it looks like one of those little metal “jacks” that kids play with — it has four little sticks with knobs on the end. I like this one because it’s easy to grab in my mouth. But it’s not a real good chew toy; there isn’t much to hold on to.

5. Orange fire hose toy. Some doggie toys are made out of old fire hose, so they’re supposed to be indestructible. Well, the fire hose is pretty tough, but the handles they put on these things are easy to chew through. So all my fire hose toys are just fire hose these days. These are really good for flipping back and forth. I like to play with my toys this way sometimes. I get them flipping back and forth real fast and then, if I time it right, I can launch the toy clear across the room!

6. Stuffed trout. This isn’t the kind of stuffed trout you’d eat for dinner. It’s the kind of doggie toy that is stuffed to make it soft for a doggie. It’s pretty amazing that I haven’t chewed through this one, because it’s one of my favorites. I spend a lot of time with it, but it’s tough. This is a good “flipper” toy, too. When I get it going real fast, it looks just like a trout jumping in Lake Arrowhead.

7. (Legless) Dodo Bird. My legless dodo bird isn’t supposed to be legless, but it is. The legs were made of rope, and I un-ravelled them a few weeks ago, so Barbara just cut them off. But I still like the dodo bird. It’s good for cuddling, and sometimes I use it like a pillow in my crate.

8. Soccer ball. This is one of my favorites, because it’s something I can do with Fred. When he lets me out in the back yard, I run right to it, and invite him to play soccer. Fred kicks the ball, and I run fast and trap it under my tummy. Then he kicks it loose, and I run and trap it again. Sometimes he throws it real high, and I jump way up in the air and bump it with my nose. It’s really good exercise!

9. Floppy disc (water frisbee). Boy, we’re really getting to my favorites now. This is the “floppy” (just like Jamie’s in “My Doggie Says…“) that I retrieve when I swim at Lake Arrowhead. After all, please remember I am a Golden Retriever. I’m not as good as Jamie yet, but I really love to swim and retrieve this floppy.

10. So here we are at my absolute favorite — my “stinky.” Fred calls it my “stinky” because that’s what his granddaughter, Lauren, calls her security blanket. My “stinky” is a little stuffed puppy that belonged to Jamie. I’ve enjoyed it ever since I moved in with Fred and Barbara in March. It’s pretty amazing that it’s survived all this time, but I’m very gentle with it. I don’t really chew on it. It’s more like “gumming.” Sometimes I like to hold it in my mouth and just nibble at it a little. It’s very relaxing. Most nights, when I’m about ready to go to bed, I settle down with it. It helps me calm down after bouncing off the walls.

11. (For good measure) This one is so much like food it’s unfair to call it a “toy.” It’s a kong toy. It’s a small, hard chewie thing with a hole in the center for dog food or puppy treats. I can chew on it, but the real challenge is to try to get the puppy treat out of the hole. Like I said, it’s too much like food to really qualify as a toy.

So there you have my favorite toys. See ya’ next time!

You already know that the Wishing Well at Lake Arrowhead Village was one of Jamie’s (My Doggie Says…) favorite places. She used to drag us into this charming little gift shop because of the doggie-friendly water bowl and the HUGE puppy treats. Not missing a beat, Callie has made the same discovery. Here, from My Doggie Says…, is Jamie straining to get another puppy treat.

Because proprietress Mary Kelly is used to a steady stream of furry dog-friends in her shop, she didn’t pay much attention when a different kind of furry friend wandered in — a one-hundred pound bear cub.

Fortunately, Mary, a true lover of animals, knew not just to give the cub lots of space, but also to get the help of Wildhaven Ranch, a Lake Arrowhead-based animal rescue and rehabilitation organization managed by Diane Dragotto Williams. Wildhaven Ranch tries to protect and rehabilitate local animals, but they are also a shelter for animals (like bears) that have become “imprinted” by humans. Once an animal becomes “imprinted” it can lose its ability to forge for itself in the wild. Or, worse, it can become a threat to people.

So the Wildhaven folks know how to deal with these situations in order to protect people, but also to protect the bears from becoming imprinted, which, according to Diane, can be a death sentence for the bear.

Here’s the whole story in the Mountain News.

It’s fun that two of my favorite “mountain ladies” are both a part of this story.

I’ve written before about Wildhaven Ranch (August 13 blog). These people are true animal lovers. To me, one of their noblest efforts is the attempt to educate people about the dangers of “imprinting” wild animals. Often this happens because someone feels sorry for the animals (a bear in this case) and decided to feed them. This might be well-intentioned, but it makes the bear dependent on the person doing the feeding and can lead to “imprinting.”

Sometimes, the best way to love an animal is to let its own breeding and genetics have their way. This is often the case with our dogs, as well.