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Doggie on the Inside Looking Out

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008

I have a golf practice net in my side yard. It’s convenient, sometimes, to take a quick break from work and hit a few balls into the net. Jamie used to go with me to the side yard to keep me company. But she always watched from the other side of the net. I guess she was afraid she might get bonked by an errant ball if she came to my side of the net.

Callie’s still into eating shrubs and bushes, so we don’t give her the free run of the yard. So when I to my net, I usually slip out the back bathroom door and around the back of the house to the net. The way our house is laid out, Callie can’t see me going out. But not that it really matters.

But a few weeks ago, we had a family of scrub jays in a white camellia bush just outside my office window. I could see them easily from my office. The mom & pop scrub jays built their nest, protected their eggs, and had four or five baby scrub jays. For a few days, they used my back yard as a hunting ground for bugs for their babies.

During this time, I used the front door to get to my golf practice net, because I could avoid walking too close to the scrub jays’ nest.

But when I went that way, Callie could catch a glance of me, sometimes, through the den window. When she saw me, she climbed up on the sofa and looked wistfully through the window. She made it very clear that she wanted to be out there with me.

One of the feel-good rewarding things about being in a close relationship with your dog is those moments when it says, “Hey, I really want to be sharing this time with you.”

Back, for a moment, to the scrub jays. I got some sweet video footage of mama scrub jay feeding her babies.

And then they were gone.

On a Friday morning, the babies (which were still quite small – way too small to fly), mama and papa just evaporated. The nest is still there intact. When we left on our morning jog that Friday morning, with Callie, we wondered if we saw a mocking bird flying close to the scrub jays’ nest, but we weren’t sure.

There are lots of crows in the neighborhood, but the scrub jays seemed to have chosen a place that was pretty protected from them by a lemon tree and the camellia bush. Okie Dokie, our cat, was locked inside so she couldn’t harm the birds, but there are a few other cats in the neighborhood. It’s hard to imagine a cat getting the birds without also destroying the nest.

So what happened to our scrub jays remains one of Mother Nature’s mysteries.

Pondering Puppy Perceptions

Thursday, July 12th, 2007

Puppies see a lot of things for the first time, and they have to figure out what they’re looking at. Is it friend or foe? Something to cuddle with, or something to run from? I find it fascinating to watch Callie sort these things out. Here are some examples:

A few weeks ago, we attended the Lake Arrowhead wine festival. Callie was with us on her leash, collecting more than the usual number of may-I-please-pet-your-puppies. As we walked past the chamber music pavilion, Callie stopped cold and sat down looking right at the musicians. I don’t think she’s really a chamber music fan yet; I think she was just seeing something for the first time and taking a few minutes to “puppy process” some new information. Of course, people thought it was adorable, and Callie collected a bunch more may-I-please-pet-your-puppies.

She does the same thing sometimes when the TV is on. I don’t really think she cares about the evening news, or Angels baseball, but she sits down for a few minutes just to figure out what she is seeing.

Callie is still on vacation at Lake Arrowhead, and the area is full of wildlife. We’ve seen a barn owl, nocturnal flying squirrels, coyotes, chipmunks, red-shouldered hawks, white headed woodpeckers, blue jays, and raccoons. Most of the time, Callie just goes about her business, but she did have a confrontation — through the bedroom screen door — with a visiting raccoon. At six-months-old, Callie hasn’t had a lot of reasons to bark. But the raccoon was definitely a reason to bark. Callie figured out right away that it was something to be afraid of.

Callie has also been fascinated by the bass that I’ve caught. She goes along for the boat ride, and when I hook a bass and get it close enough to the boat to splash around, Callie is right there to see what’s happening. I hold the fish up so she can see it before I release it.

You know from earlier posts that Callie loves to play soccer. Well, a few weeks ago, we were babysitting Granddaughters Lauren and Amelia at a park near her house, and two guys were playing soccer. Poor Callie’s leash was tied to a tree, so she couldn’t participate, but she sat and watched for about twenty minutes while the boys kicked the ball back and forth. She obviously wanted to get in on the game.

The other day, Barbara walked Callie past the UCLA Conference Center and down to the lake. At the Conference Center, a dozen kids were playing volleyball. The volleyball probably looked a lot, to Callie, like a soccer ball. Anyway, she stopped, sat down, and she watched the game for about five minutes.

Last night, I took Callie for her before-bedtime walk. The wind was blowing at ten miles per hour, which is a lot of wind for late in the evening. The house lights were shining through some pine trees and onto the street, which made some weird pine-tree-blowing-in-the-wind shadows on the street. This really confused Callie. I don’t think she was scared, but she clearly didn’t know what she was seeing. We walked over to the shadows, so that she could see that there was really nothing there. But she was very cautious. Once we got to the shadows, she walked right on top of them, and she was fine.

Lake Arrowhead is a wildlife haven, there are some wildlife statues around. The other day, Barbara was walking Callie along one of the shoreline roads, and they came upon two six-foot-tall lion statues guarding a driveway. Callie was pretty afraid of the lions, as she should be, I guess. Once again, she sat still for a minute while she tried to figure out what she was looking at. It sure looked like a big, threatening beast. But after a minute she decided that she didn’t have to run away from the lion.

One of our (and Callie’s) favorite places to visit at Lake Arrowhead is the Wishing Well, a gift shop in Lake Arrowhead Village. Here, from “My Doggie Says…: Messages from Jamie. How a dog named Jamie “talks” to her people,” is a picture of Jamie dragging us into the Wishing Well, because they have really big puppy treats.

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As you look at the photograph, notice that just inside the door, on the right, there is a welcoming doggie statue. That statue has now been replaced by a statue of a wolf, or maybe a dog-wolf mixed breed. The other day, Callie saw the wolf-like animal and stopped in her tracks. She sat for a few seconds to decide what she was looking at, and she walked right over and gave the statue a big lick on the nose.

The Puppy Perception Pattern here is that Callie is seeing lots of things for the first time. I’m sure it’s part of her survival instinct to “assess the situation,” and then decide how to act. Fight or flight? That’s probably the first question.

But sometimes the answer is “go give it a big lick on the nose!”

How to Build a Stronger Relationship with your Dog (Part 1)

Sunday, July 8th, 2007

The idea of My Doggie Says… is that you can do a better job of nurturing your dog if you tune-in to the messages it sends. Here are some ways you can get past “sit” and “stay” and work on having a more meaningful relationship with your dog.

Favorite Toys. Do you know which are your dog’s favorite toys? Surely, there are a few toys that it likes more than others. Jamie’s favorite toy, until it got lost, was her little multi-colored basketball. Callie’s obvious favorite is a small stuffed doggie. How do I know it’s her favorite? It’s the one she spends the most time with. She plays with other toys, but she keeps coming back to the stuffed doggie, especially around bedtime. Once you know your dog’s favorite toys, make it a point to go pick one up once in a while and give it to your dog. Your doggie will know that you are paying attention, and it will appreciate your effort.

Favorite things to do. By observing your dog and and spending time with it you should be able to figure out some things it really likes to do. Jamie’s most favorite thing in the world was to swim and retrieve her “floppy” at Lake Arrowhead. Callie is just learning about swimming, but her favorite thing is playing soccer. She would play soccer for hours, and the thing I like most about it is that Callie invented her soccer game. We put the ball in her yard, but the ideal of playing “keep away” was entirely Callie’s invention. We’ve just supported it. When you discover some things that your dog likes to do, make time to share the experience with your furry friend. It will be deeply appreciative.

What is your dog asking you to do? Try to read your dog’s body language in order to understand what it might be asking for. One of my first realizations that Jamie was sending “messages” was her request “Please lift me up on your bed.” She did this by standing beside me (at 2:00 in the morning), while I was sleeping and gently “wuufing.” It took me a while to figure out what she was saying, but once I understood, Jamie was ecstatic. And, one day, Jamie asked to carry some newspapers home. It’s not always easy to figure out these messages, but when you do, your dog will be very grateful that you “heard.”

What is your dog asking you for? Jamie often stood by her puppy treat jar to ask for a puppy treat.

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This was not real hard to figure out. The important thing was that I honored her request whenever possible. This reinforced her communication skills. Another of Jamie’s favorite things was to chew up a champagne cork. Whenever she saw me opening a bottle of the bubbly stuff, she stood beside me and waited for the cork to pop out. I was glad to let her have this little pleasure, and I know it made her feel “heard.”

Does Your Dog Invite You to Play? This is Callie’s invitation to play soccer. How could I not accept an invitation like this?

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Sometimes your dog invites you to play by presenting you with a toy. Don’t ignore this polite request. Figure out how to respond. You could give the toy a toss and hope for a game of “fetch.” Or you might take the toy and give it back, in hopes of starting a game of “give and take.” Whatever you do, you will be communicating with your dog at a deeper level because you “heard” its invitation.

Teaching your Dog to Swim

Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007

Great timing. The Dog Reader has posted two articles on How to Teach your Dog to Swim. Here’s Part I from yesterday. And here’s Part II from today. Thanks to Catherine Forsythe for these two thoughtful articles.

I would have changed the subject for today, but these two articles were too good to pass up.

It was great to hear someone else say that dog’s don’t automatically learn to swim.

The Dog Reader’s process is certainly more scientific than we’ve been doing with Callie, but I’m delighted with Callie’s progress. She had a brief introduction to the lake three weeks ago. This trip, she’s been in the water on three different days. The first day, she took just a few puppy paddles. The second day, yesterday, she was swimming short distances — about fifteen feet. Today, she was totally comfortable in the water. We have her on a thirty-foot leash, but she would have gone beyond that if we let her. The next step will be to get her swimming off our boat dock, instead of from the beach. This will be a little tricky, as we don’t want her to swim out into the lake and the boat traffic. So we’ll be working with a leash and working hard on getting Callie to “come” when called.

Our process with Callie moved a lot faster than the Dog Reader’s process. This may be because Callie is a Golden Retriever, and Goldens are bred to swim and they love to swim. It did seem to work pretty well to use Callie’s “retrieving” instincts to trick her into moving into deeper water. All she needed to do was to learn that her body is buoyant. Once she got this feeling, she was off and swimming.

What a great way to bond with your doggie during the summer! Swimming in Lake Arrowhead was Jamie’s (My Doggie Says…: Messages from Jamie. How a dog named Jamie “talks” to her people) favorite thing in all the world, and I can now see that Callie won’t be far behind.