Kathy Diamond Davis

DogRead

2006-07-24T21:50:00.000-05:00

I've just left the job of moderating the DogRead list after doing it for almost 2 1/2 years. It was exhausting, it was a learning experience, and I can't picture the scenario that would ever cause me to do it again (dementia?). I'm glad the list has continued and a new volunteer will be taking over the work. I hope the list participants will play nice!

With any time this frees up for me, I hope to sleep more, exercise more, read more, and do more crafts. I will absolutely be in no danger of idleness or boredom. I have a fascinating book on my desk at the moment, about half read, titled "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers" and authored by Robert M. Sapolsky. The time I've spent studying Temple Grandin's writing and other books it has led me to read has started what I'm sure will be a long-term interest. Useful, too.

My older computer seems recovered from its hard drive failure and replacement, but the aging of the software is catching up. Wonder if we'll have to change all the old dudes to Windows Vista in the future or else just shelve them. Hard to say. But by then I'll be ready to put at least one on the new system. I just hope not to have to change to that system when it's still too new.

I found out why my last computer from Dell was so horrible. I thought it would be worth it to get RDRAM. That didn't seem to stay on the market long. The techs who were here to install the new hard drive told me that RDRAM got Dell a big lawsuit. Bummer--all I got was my money back, and it took a month to do that! At least I recognized a lemon. Wasn't that hard. By the end of the first week, it wouldn't even take input from the keyboard or mouse. Right from the start it wouldn't shut down properly, always gave "the blue screen of death."

Gateway's price on this new hard drive was good, the price on the new monitor was good a few months ago, and the price on the new computer was good, too. Yeah, it did need 60 Windows XP updates right off the bat, but hey, nobody's perfect!

I don't see where anyone has solved the question of how to store photographs in the digital age. It's all so subject to loss when it's on a hard drive. And digital music for which a person has paid by the song, same thing.

Service/Assistance Dogs, Therapy Dogs, Emotional Therapy Dogs, Access Rights

2006-05-14T22:37:00.000-05:00

People are really muddying the waters on the emotional support dog issue. Landlords seem to be the toughest sell, and yet that is the right a psychiatric patient specifically SHOULD have: to keep a companion animal in the residence.

The Americans with Disabilities Act says the person can be reqiuired to remove the dog if the dog's behavior is disruptive to the function of the place. A widely used example is a dog barking in a theatre during a performance can be required to be removed. The disabled handler of the dog is liable for any damages. It seems that a landlord could require the person to move the dog out of there if problems with noise, mess, damage, or threatening behavior to other tenants occurs.The dog being kept for emotional support needs to be suited to the housing facilities. That's an unpopular notion in this apartment and condo age.

Public access rights are something else entirely. Just because you have a prescription that provides for the dog to live with you doesn't mean you need or should be allowed to have the dog go everywhere with you. Dogs provide emotional benefits either way. So do other companion animals, for that matter. One of the most widely cited studies was done with parakeets (budgies?).

One of the stories in the article is particularly troubling. When someone's emotional/mental problem is the inability to control anger, is that person suited to work a dog around the public? Service dogs MUST be under control. How can a person who cannot control his or own behavior control that of the dog?

You don't have to be able to "manhandle" a dog physically, but you do have to be able to give the dog direction so that as a team you are not a danger to others, and you don't interfere with the business of a place. Either party in a dispute in a public place can call the police. It does not require making a disruptive scene.

As a store manager in my checkered past, I had a cranky old customer swear that my assistant had short-changed him. That was highly unlikely, but I would have given him the money to get him and his loud mouth out of the store.

My giving the guy the money was unacceptable to my assistant, however, because he was a careful and honorable person and because you could have cut the testosterone in the air with a knife. So, I called the police and an officer came out and quietly and patiently explained to the one who would not leave that he didn't have the right to stay in a crowded store and loudly proclaim to all the other customers about his grievance. He was told if we came up long on cash at the end of the day, we would contact him and he'd get the five dollars he claimed he'd been shorted from a $20 bill.

So, how is that disabled people get away with making nasty scenes? Yes, they can quietly stay there and call police (viva la cell phone) and wait for the officer to come and take a report. A courteous, low-volume mention to the business proprietor of that intention will likely eliminate the need for it.

My own disability is physical, my dog is courteous, I don't behave defensively, and any questions I've had have been extremely polite--makes me get misty-eyed how well my princess-dog and I are treated by strangers. Truthfully, though, if businesses could get away with just denying access to service dogs, they would. Especially big corporations (who control so much of our daily world now) would just have a policy against ALL dogs, period. A few run-ins with the Department of Justice, and they establish a policy to treat disabled people and their dogs with the utmost courtesy. The pioneers who have gone before me have cleared the way, and I'm grateful to them. Because they have EDUCATED, not just sued, members of the public who are not going by "corporate policy" are very accepting of my dog, too.

The pioneers are furious at the fakers, and I'm frightened by the fakers. I fear they are going to cause me to lose the right I need to have my dog's help. I fear they are going to make people so suspicious that going anywhere will be a huge ordeal for me. Currently I don't take my dog when I go to restaurants, and my health prevents me from traveling. The restaurant thing needs to come soon. I'm getting by with hubby's help, but it's not always enough. I'm told that the biggest problem with fraud is happening in travel.

And that leads to another issue that is contributing to this fakery, which is how dogs fare on airplanes. They need to all be cared for safely and be where their owners can monitor them, not just service dogs. Safety includes safety from attack by other dogs, though, so having too many crowded together would be asking for trouble. There have to be safe arrangements for dogs who are not able to handle that, too.

Perhaps airlines could deal with problem dog owners the way utility companies do. Utility companies get attorneys, and the post office cuts off mail service even before a carrier is bitten. Besides suing you (or billing your credit card!) for damages, perhaps the airline could put you and/or your dog off in some town you had not planned to visit. Enforcement with teeth, so to speak.

The world is changing when it comes to dogs, with lots of growing pains. In many ways, the service dogs and the volunteer therapy dogs are carrying the banners. I'm part of both groups, and it saddens me whenever anyone tarnishes the trust we've built with the public.

Emotional Support Dogs and Rights

2006-05-14T02:15:00.000-05:00

People are really muddying the waters on the emotional support dog issue.
Landlords seem to be the toughest sell, and yet that is the right a psychiatric
patient specifically SHOULD have: to keep a companion animal in the
residence.

The Americans with Disabilities Act says the person can be reqiuired to
remove the dog if the dog's behavior is disruptive to the function of the place.
A widely used example is a dog barking in a theatre during a performance can
be required to be removed. The disabled handler of the dog is liable for any
damages. It seems that a landlord could require the person to move the dog
out of there if problems with noise, mess, damage, or threatening behavior to
other tenants occurs.The dog being kept for emotional support needs to be
suited to the housing facilities. That's an unpopular notion in this apartment
and condo age.

Public access rights are something else entirely. Just because you have a
prescription that provides for the dog to live with you doesn't mean you need
or should be allowed to have the dog go everywhere with you. Dogs provide
emotional benefits either way. So do other companion animals, for that matter.
One of the most widely cited studies was done with parakeets (budgies?).

One of the stories in the article is particularly troubling. When someone's
emotional/mental problem is the inability to control anger, is that person
suited to work a dog around the public? Service dogs MUST be under control. How
can a person who cannot control his or own behavior control that of the dog?

You don't have to be able to "manhandle" a dog physically, but you do have
to be able to give the dog direction so that as a team you are not a danger to
others, and you don't interfere with the business of a place. Either party
in a dispute in a public place can call the police. It does not require making
a disruptive scene.

As a store manager in my checkered past, I had a cranky old customer swear
that my assistant had short-changed him. That was highly unlikely, but I would
have given him the money to get him and his loud mouth out of the store.

My giving the guy the money was unacceptable to my assistant, however,
because he was a careful and honorable person and because you could have cut the
testosterone in the air with a knife. So, I called the police and an officer
came out and quietly and patiently explained to the one who would not leave
that he didn't have the right to stay in a crowded store and loudly proclaim to
all the other customers about his grievance. He was told if we came up long
on cash at the end of the day, we would contact him and he'd get the five
dollars he claimed he'd been shorted from a $20 bill.

So, how is that disabled people get away with making nasty scenes? Yes, they
can quietly stay there and call police (viva la cell phone) and wait for the
officer to come and take a report. A courteous, low-volume mention to the
business proprietor of that intention will likely eliminate the need for it.

My own disability is physical, my dog is courteous, I don't behave
defensively, and any questions I've had have been extremely polite--makes me get
misty-eyed how well my princess-dog and I are treated by strangers. Truthfully,
though, if businesses could get away with just denying access to service dogs,
they would. Especially big corporations (who control so much of our daily
world now) would just have a policy against ALL dogs, period. A few run-ins with
the Department of Justice, and they establish a policy to treat disabled
people and their dogs with the utmost courtesy. The pioneers who have gone
before me have cleared the way, and I'm grateful to them. Because they have
EDUCATED, not just sued, members of the public who are not going by "corporate
policy" are very accepting of my dog, too.

The pioneers are furious at the fakers, and I'm frightened by the fakers. I
fear they are going to cause me to lose the right I need to have my dog's
help. I fear they are going to make people so suspicious that going anywhere
will be a huge ordeal for me. Currently I don't take my dog when I go to
restaurants, and my health prevents me from traveling. The restaurant thing needs to
come soon. I'm getting by with hubby's help, but it's not always enough. I'm
told that the biggest problem with fraud is happening in travel.

And that leads to another issue that is contributing to this fakery, which
is how dogs fare on airplanes. They need to all be cared for safely and be
where their owners can monitor them, not just service dogs. Safety includes
safety from attack by other dogs, though, so having too many crowded together
would be asking for trouble. There have to be safe arrangements for dogs who are
not able to handle that, too.

Perhaps airlines could deal with problem dog owners the way utility
companies do. Utility companies get attorneys, and the post office cuts off mail
service even before a carrier is bitten. Besides suing you (or billing your
credit card!) for damages, perhaps the airline could put you and/or your dog off
in some town you had not planned to visit. Enforcement with teeth, so to
speak.

The world is changing when it comes to dogs, with lots of growing pains. In
many ways, the service dogs and the volunteer therapy dogs are carrying the
banners. I'm part of both groups, and it saddens me whenever anyone tarnishes
the trust we've built with the public.

Atkins Blessings

2006-05-09T02:02:00.000-05:00

Just checking in, since it's been awhile. Still very happily at goal, still pray for guidance if the scale readings over a few days concern me, and still getting answered with marching orders on what to do about it (if anything). Still doing the moderate exercise including simple therapy pedal exerciser at my desk chair while reading a book, and indoor walking since I'm allergic to all outdoors. Still in ketosis.

Dr. Atkins would approve of what I eat. It's not as liberal as a hard exerciser or a man or a younger woman in maintenance, but it's very comfortable. I'm definitely not deprived. I've been on Atkins since 1/30/2002, and am still on my One Golden Shot. Not anti-yeast or even gold standard, just plain Atkins with the individualization Dr. Atkins' book mentions we all have to do.

Hubby still takes me out to eat when I want to go and brings home take-out when I want that. Not necessarily on the exact night I first bring it up, but pretty soon. He does the weekly shopping from my list to keep the stuff on hand for me to eat in lieu of going out or to add to my take out food. Typically the meat might be take out and I cook frozen vegetables and fix my own sauce to go with it.

As of April 24th, I've been at goal, up a little and down a little--currently a couple of pounds below goal--for 2 1/2 years. I still weigh daily. I still feel free of food cravings. It took 21 months to lose the 181 pounds I needed to lose. Prior to starting Atkins I had been very ill and lost 30 pounds, so altogether I'm 211 pounds below top weight, and my weight would bounce above that if I went off Atkins. I would not be able to walk, due to rheumatoid arthritis. But that would not likely be a long-term problem, since I'd be a prime candidate for heart disease and all sorts of complications of diabetes. Yep, I'm committed to Atkins for life.

Not that it's a hardship. Talk about "my yoke is easy and my burden is light," that describes Atkins.

Menopause is clobbering me, but I'm weathering the autoimmune storms rather than take the hormones I know a doctor would just love to put me on. I need to give my body time to adjust. Putting it off would not help. I do need to find some splints to wear at night to remodel these thumbs, though.

I'm not getting the infections I was constantly getting before going on Atkins. The physical problems I'm having are due to inflammation from the drop in estrogen, and as I understand it, the body does adjust. The way it has adjusted on Atkins has given me a lot of faith in that. My fingernails have never been so nice, my hair is doing great, no loose skin on my face (I had three chins!), and all my skin is stronger than it was.

My assistance dog Believer is doing a fantastic job and we took a test earlier this year as a team that made my confidence soar. I'll be starting a new dog probably by the end of this year, and she's helping me get ready by all the things I learn with her. I'm sure she will help train him, too. She's smart and loves to help me do whatever I want to do. She is a blessing on 4 feet. I plan to call the male Redeemer.

I did not realize it until I lost the weight, but I needed to do that in order to be able to train and handle my assistance dog effectively. I could have worked with a program-trained Labrador or Golden as a very heavy person in a wheel chair, but I could not have trained a Belgian Tervuren myself for the work. The dog would have perceived me as needing protection in that chair and that can't happen when an assistance dog is working around the public. Also we would have had a terrible time fitting through tight spaces with a huge wheel chair and a dog at the side. Stores are so crowded these days of every selling inch being so valuable.

I still have a left knee with damaged ligaments, but losing the weight and exercising regularly with the pedal exerciser pulled the ligaments into a snug fit around the joint with strong supporting muscles. I'm careful with it, wear shoes that give me a good feel of the ground and don't slip, and use my dance training to avoid twisting that would reinjure it.

My vestibular balance is very poor from ear damage after 54 years of respiratory allergies, but the kinetic sense from trained muscles compensates, with the dog's help, so I stay on my feet. Very cool how it works. Because of losing that weight, I kept the ability to walk. That's better motivation for me than wearing a size 6 any day.

The length of time I've maintained the weight loss will never "prove" anything. It's not over 'til I'm dead. I didn't get bloodwork or other evidence at the start of Atkins. I'm not writing a book about it. It was a gift from God. It continues to be a miracle. I've read that the purpose of a miracle is to increase faith. For me it has surely done that. For my husband, who watched it happen, it has also increased faith. He has his dream job now. When he saw what happened to me and I told him I was praying for his job; well, now he's doing what he's always wanted to do. He had the faith to step up for it.

As everyone will tell you, maintenance is harder than weight loss. But then again, it's not about will power. It's about surrender. I don't worry like I used to. I don't have the anxiety I used to have. I got into menopause and felt more creative! If this is hard, well, it's hard in a good way.

---Minus 181 pounds on Atkins in 21 months, now at goal weight since 10/24/2003. I'm in the middle of a miracle. Thank you, God.

Thinking and Working Together and with Dogs

2006-04-23T12:50:00.000-05:00

Prey drive, and the word drive in general, can certainly be vague terms. But we're trying to describe observed behaviors that no one can fully understand. The more I read about dog training, past and present, the more I am struck by the amazing work people train dogs to do, without even knowing why, how and if a particular dog "can" do it.

When you read about early police dog training as we did in the Konrad Most book, you see that the instructors taught the handlers to train the dogs, knowing what worked, and always willing to learn from the dogs. They still do that. They build and build and build on what we have learned from experience about dogs to move forward.

The Pfaffenberger book discusses his experience with family dogs going through the defense dog program OFF TO WAR! In this country! And then back home after the war to their families again! Humans and dogs are at their best when allowed to try, not knowing for sure if it will work.

Our culture is moving the wrong way in those respects. People want to too tightly control things; legally, socially and financially. Many of the best dog books now are self-published works, because too much of book publishing is controlled by huge corporations who treat the business solely as an investment. They do things like put a corporate person in charge who doesn't know the subject but presumably knows "what sells."

Turns out that isn't even a smart strategy for making money. People keep discovering new ideas and wanting to learn more about them. Corporations don't have a model for that. Some of the marketing books explore things like "the tipping point" in an effort to explain why suddenly an idea comes out of nowhere and makes a fortune.

Corporations are neither good nor evil. They're not human, after all. They're a different organism altogether, with "drives" (there's that word again!) to survive and to grow. They also lack intuition and anything approaching brilliance. Only people have such qualities, and only to the extent that a person keeps control of the reigns of a company can that company have human qualities.

Economically, small businesses are better for a country's financial stability and provide more jobs. Just not as many all in one lump, which means the politician can't point to the accomplishment of having brought 2000 jobs to the state by attracting that company. We'd all be better off and happier in myriad ways with more small businesses and fewer of the corporations that are suffocating us.

Legally we have people who think problems get solved by passing laws that "other people" will have to obey but of course "will never apply to me." Politicians like laws because it gets their names in the news and improves their chances of re-election. And now we're dealing with scary anti-dog legistation as a result.

Socially we have people who want the world to operate according to "if you don't agree with me, shut up." Civil discussion is harder to come by when people don't respect each other's rights to view things differently. If we were all alike, we could not learn from each other. It's part of our basic design to perceve the world differently and as a society to be able to benefit from the different viewpoints people get out of their genetics, their physical traits, and their experiences in life.

This is very interesting to ponder as I watch my Belgian Tervuren morph into helping handle the old Terv as a tending task rather than a pack-structure task. The old dog is 13 and losing the male recently seemed to bring the two females to a crossroads in pack structure. For one thing, they didn't seem to be a pack anymore. Nature seemed to be telling both of them that the appropriate thing was for the younger to kill the older, but the younger looked to me for my wishes in the matter. I did not reinforce any competition and I strongly reinforced all moves on the part of either dog to "stand down" from it. She determined her shepherd's wishes, and set about carrying them out.

It's been 4 months now, and the younger, who seems to just absolutely adore the opportunities to solve problems together with me, treats the old dog as sort of a cranky livestock animal who has canine behaviors. She never did seem to take the other dog's attacks personally, and now she doesn't even respond to get the old one under control. She just follows my lead and ignores it. The older one never did bite, anyway. It's just been sound and fury. With no male dog in the group, it's as if us girls can work out different rules.

For the first couple of years, the old dog wouldn't even let the younger one retrieve if she was in position to stop her. That had the paradoxical effect of turning the youngster into a lightning-fast retriever, once I'd taught her to do it in sessions away from home over time. The older dog finally gave up, but we other girls still keep a close eye on her in any retrieving situation in order to prevent unnecessary conflicts.

I asked the younger to get me something yesterday, and the old girl positioned herself so the young one would have to pass her on the way back. I wanted to tell the younger to come around through the room with the slick floor, which doesn't bother her but does give the old dog pause. Before I could figure out how to cue it, here she came, sailing to me from that direction.

Of course big praise and petting with loving eye contact to my younger heroine, and once again she is proud of herself for sizing up the task and the tools and making the best solution of it. I expect she could have been a good sheep herding dog. I think she finds her life very satisfying, because it gives her many opportunities to use her genetic gifts. I love reinforcing a dog for trying, for thinking, for problem solving, and for offering up so much service to me. Yes, I trained her, but what she does goes far beyond that. Her mind and heart are so open to learning. She inspires me.

Do Scientific Terms Help Us Understand Dogs?

2006-04-18T08:20:00.000-05:00

I guess "exact" definitions of words (good luck with that) are on topic considering the books we're discussing this month, though they do give me a royal headache. Jargon in sciences such as psychology and sociology may have purpose for some scientists, but for many it is simply a way of saying "This is a real science, because we know the meaning of this word, and you DON'T! So, give us our share of university departments and government grants."

Jargon obscures communication rather than facilitating it. For anyone who wants their words to be understood outside their own tight circle, it is the enemy. Except when writing a professional treatise, writers try to avoid using jargon unless they define the term within the article. Too many such terms and a writer's message is lost.

This months discussion will be more interesting if we keep it very close to real dogs. I see a lot of generalizing about "all" dogs, and in fact many breeds don't come at all close to the predominantly German Shepherds and Labrador Retrievers used in the projects these books describe.

The book on the Scott and Fuller research work behind Pfaffenberger's guide dog pup testing does go into the huge differences between the various breeds they studied: Beagles, Cocker Spaniels, Basenjis, Shetland Sheepdogs, and Fox Terriers. That title is "Genetics and the Social Behavior of the Dog," by Scott and Fuller. I got it and read a lot of it, skimmed the rest, for this discussion. It helps put these books into perspective for those involved with other breeds.

I think the Saluki is just gorgeous. I can't get over how beautiful they are. But I relate to dogs as a handler. It's a partnership with me the leader, and I need a dog with a flexible mind and intense interest in interacting and working with me. The Saluki is not that kind of dog. Virtually all the retrievers and several of the herding breeds are. A few of the working breeds are, but mostly they are not, because they tend to be less "yielding" to whatever game the human wants to play now. Humans have genetically set strong --whatever you want to call its-- (see what happens when you argue about a term? NOW what do I call these--uh--"tendencies" that have been so powerfully genetically set into many breeds by genetic selection? Instincts? Drives? Perceptions? ROM?) into many of the working-group breeds. I don't require guarding of my property, myself, my bank deposit for a business, or my livestock as some of these breeds were selectively bred to do. I don't require a dog to pull a load for me--and have the big bone structure to do that comfortably.

Retrievers and herding dogs have been genetically selected to like to fetch things and to take direction off-leash and at a distance from a human when engaged in exciting, active work. Pretty cool. And that's the kind of dogs these authors were dealing with. When handlers know how to teach it, retrieving objects comes pretty naturally to herding dogs, because they are so interested in "retrieving" and manipulating moving critters. Retriever breeds take to "retrieving" humans, because it fits their perceptions. Thus you can get very complex trained behaviors with both types of dogs and their thinking is flexible. Many breeds from other groups inherit from the genetics of these dogs, such as the little American Eskimo I had, who was a sure-enough herding dog.

I didn't understand that about her until I had had a Belgian Tervuren for while. Then one day Pepper the cat was up on the TV, jumped off and started down
the hallway. Angel the Miniature American Eskimo dog ran at her from the side with some barking and "headed" her, turning the cat back toward the TV. But she did not have the physical power to hold the cat's position, and the cat knew it, so after that 180 turn she just did another, for a full 360, and ran on down the hall where she had been headed in the first place. Actually, I'm not sure she even ran. The dog's game had been to head her, not to chase her.

Next day, same scene, except this time the dog was gentle Star the Belgian Tervuren. Pepper jumps off the TV, Star runs at her from the same position as Angel the day before. Pepper does a 180 and is back on the TV. Star works silently. Then I knew what Angel had been trying to do--and a great deal of her behavior for the few years I'd had her at that time suddenly made sense.

Star made me do my homework, because she had so much herding behavior I had never seen before and didn't understand. One thing she did at first was stay in the back of the yard when I would call her in, lower her arched Tervuren neck and hold her head like a coyote, eying me. I didn't know what the heck that meant.

My homework gave me an idea, so one day when she did that, I put a smile on my face and walked out there, holding eye contact with her, and walked a circle around behind her. She tossed her head exactly like a laugh, and merrily went inside with me. She had been telling me a joke, and was thrilled that I "got" it.

People often interpret herding behavior as "dominance," but it is not. Herding dogs can be "dominant," but manipulating the environment, especially when turned toward the handler, can be the foundation for wonderful communication. It was a blessing to me that my first dog with so much herding instinct was clearly a submissive dog. It saved me a lot of potential confusion.

Terms, oy.

---Kathy Diamond Davis, author, "Therapy Dogs: Training Your Dog to Reach Others," and the Canine Behavior Series at www.veterinarypartner.com

Directing Doggy Traffic

2006-03-28T16:42:00.000-06:00

My elder Miss McNasty Terv has in the last few days decided to play "Mine" games with the dog dishes. She has to eat in a crate due to her laryngeal paralysis that makes her eat so slowly. She decided to jump Believer a few days ago and start a fight-ish (loud, no holes) when I opened the crate door to let her out. The next few times we reached in through a barely-cracked door, lifted the dish to the crate roof, and then opened the door to let her out without either dog touching the crate.

Then Spirit began to exit the crate after first picking up her dish and taking it with her. Today, ready for whatever, I opened the crate door without taking the bowl out. Spirit just sat there. Another kind of "Mine"--a landmine is going to go off if Beevy gets into the bowl! Or maybe not. Spirit is thinking about it to decide which would mess with all of us the most!

Beevy backs up a little. She has shifted into a tending mode with Spirit. I felt that happen about a month after Gabriel died. Believer realized that for some strange reason we were keeping this crazy old dog, and needed her help. She never cared about being leader anyway, but now it's more pronounced that she is simply helping us manage Spirit.

So in this situation, there I am standing just outside the crate, Beevy has backed up and moved toward the back door but is waiting to see what to do next. Spirit stands up and picks up her dish, with a body posture of sort of hoping for Beevy to reach for it. She doesn't exit the crate, but pauses there in her "So what's it gonna be?" attitude. With one arm I point out straight to Beevy to head on out that door. With the other I start beckoning Spirit to move on out of that crate and let's go. They both do it. I wish I had a video. That must have looked just like a police officer directing traffic! Note to self: be sure to teach Redeemer hand/arm signals when he comes to join the team!

AKC--How about It? It's time for Pass/Fail Companion Dog (now called obedience) Titles!

2006-03-25T12:48:00.000-06:00

The AKC does have teeth, and sometimes uses them for the benefit of dogs, though we're never all going to be satisfied. One thing I kept putting on the suggestion list for tracking when input was solicited was that handlers should be allowed to carry plain water on the track and administer it to their dogs anytime they felt it warranted without needing the judge's approval. Water is life to a dog, and timing can be critical. The handler should never hesitate to give it. Whenever I read the tracking regulations now, I say "Yes!" because it is now the rule.

I'm not exhibiting for titles any more, and never did breed. But I have been a member of a national breed club since the 80s that is an AKC member club. I joined that club because its breeders are The Best, Bar None. They take care of dogs of their breed in every way they can, which turns out to be quite a few ways. The last time I checked, the membership was about 900, and this is a breed that produces fewer than 600, often fewer than 500 registered puppies a year. But earns way more than its share of titles. I've had the breed since 1986, because of a great breeder who is one of many in the breed. The club has one of the finest rescues, and has done since before rescue was so popular. I wanted to support all that and be a part of it, so I joined. It's a group I'm proud to be numbered in. It doesn't make me a "member" of the AKC, though. Not even the club's president is that.

I came to dogs through animal welfare (note: not animal rights) volunteer work, adopting a previously trained German Shepherd who was a dream to walk with, and then getting a shelter Lab/GSD cross who was a 65-pound gyroscope on the end of a leash. I took him to class after having taught him basic cues on my own, and they got me where I needed to be with him on the ability to go for walks. Saint and I walked hundreds of miles together in his long life, and he was such a gentleman. When another dog approached, he would stand quietly at my side while I handled the other dog (or got some help to do so).

I learned a lot by training for obedience trial rules and exhibiting my non-registerable dogs in matches, and that's why I would like to see pass/fail obedience available with handlers allowed to actually handle (with words and body language, not physical guidance or treats) their dogs in such exercises toward structured goals. Maybe it could be Canine Good Citizen 1, 2, 3, and 4. 1. CGC test, 2. pass/fail Novice, 3. pass/fail Open, 4. pass/fail Utility. Or maybe it could be CGC, Companion Dog 1, Companion Dog 2, and Companion Dog 3. Hey, if AKC won't do it, maybe the American Pet Dog Trainers will. Didn't they have a Rally O program before AKC did?

AKC suffers from being too big. A ship that large is not quick to turn in the water. But when a smaller, lighter craft shows the way, sometimes the big ship can follow. The United Kennel Club, which is a privately-owned business, not a club of clubs, seems to be on the verge of starting to endorse Schutzhund-type events. Many years ago, the UKC had rules for pit dog fights. And no I'm not making that up.

I believe we owe our dogs a good life. I believe more dogs lengthen and save lives in the role of companion to a human or a family than in any other job. Assistance dogs for people with disabilities grew out of things individual humans and their dogs figured out on their own.

Competition escalates. It is the natural progression of competition. Agility started out fun and games and now look at it. Rally-O will go the same way. But tracking, which is neither scored nor competitive one dog against another, still has an atmosphere of everyone cheering everyone else. Why not? Their win doesn't keep you from winning, too.

Obedience--or call it Companion Training, perhaps--is the foundation of most other work with dogs. It develops a language between dogs and humans and keeps dogs from losing their lives due to their humans not having learned how to manage them. This needs to be available apart from a competitive sport, and it is within AKC's power to do that.

It needs to be available to all dogs, whatever their genetic heritage, as in fact it is available in training classes and matches. But when you get to AKC sanctioned events, the non-registered dogs get left out. I believe in the pure breeding of dogs when the breeding is intentional. But when it's a done deal and that dog has someone who wants to train with him or her, let's welcome them with open arms and get on with it!

Every dog/owner team who gets training strengthens the evidence that dogs in our communities are not only a good thing, they are a necessary thing. They are more likely to stay in training long enough to get solid control of that German Shepherd, Doberman, Rottweiler, AmStaff or other serious breed if there is a definite goal to work for.

Heck, Labradors and Goldens need it, too. They may be less likely to bite (or they may not), but they are winding up dead due to overpopulation of their breeds in alarming numbers. This is especially true of Labs, far and away the highest number of all breeds in the US and often black-coated. If you want a big selection of amazing dogs to train, start looking among homeless black Labradors. Black coats are the shiniest, too!

People are realizing they need to train their dogs. Problem is, they think enrolling in a 6-week class, showing up twice and never practicing is going to somehow magically create that! Clubs raise money by conducting classes--money they need since trials operate at a loss. Opening up title opportunities and making it more fun for so many more dogs would bring in more volunteers. Clubs seem to be more short of volunteers than of training students, because people are looking for classes, but the problem is that they don't stay. Get them hooked with available advanced training, and they will.

AKC could help dogs, owners, and their own organization in so many ways by taking up the flag of a full program for dogs to advance in pass/fail companion training through the Utility level with the same types of talking and gesturing allowed in the CGC Test, agility and Rally-O, and with jumping optional. The CGC test and record-keeping are already in place to make this work for non-AKC dogs, too.

This won't be a popular comment, but obedience competition is dying. It is being left in the dust by things that are more fun to do and to watch. But that leaves a huge problem of dogs in these other events who are not under basic control! Yikes! To keep the serious obedience trial competitors happy, maybe these events could be structured so that every pass/fail dog who passes automatically becomes "point fodder" for the OTCH contenders.

I was motivated to keep training with my dogs by the availability of matches, though it was hard to find enough of them and still is in many areas. I'm rather independent, though, and tend to set my own goals. Most people will need more of a social network and structured titles to keep them motivated. And why shouldn't we have that? What great public relations for dogs and for the AKC (or whatever organization does it--but AKC has so many clubs and events in place that it would be up and running quickly through them). Many of us believe that education is the best way to solve most dog problems. What better way than getting more owners into training with their dogs, and KEEPING them in school until they reach some meaningful levels of learning?

---Kathy Diamond Davis

Aha Moments I've Had in Dog Training

2006-03-23T14:39:00.000-06:00

The first dog I trained to obedience rules had a body sensitivity
of about 10. So a correction would hurt his feelings before he would feel it
physically. So much for that idea! The first ear pinch attempt on him taught
me an important principle. If someone says that a training method will make
a dog worse before it gets better, I'm outta there.

Another experience taught me another principle that has served me oh so very
well. This was the same dog, Saint, adopted from a high-kill shelter at 9
months of age. He knew I was his lifeline, and he and I were soulmates. He had
trouble with the out of sight stay at first. There was an assistant
instructor in the class who thought she knew how to handle my dog. When I got out of
sight, he lay down on the Sit, because he was trying so very hard to stay. She
went over to him and jerked up on his leash. Though he was a big, black dog,
he was a darling. I won't tell you what kind of big, black dog she had had,
because some on this list would recognize her by that, and she's probably
learned better by now. Anyway, my dog didn't think like her dog at all. When she
yanked on him...well, as I came back from the out-of-sight spot, I saw a
horrifying view. She was holding her arm and the instructor and another
assistant were next to her. My dog was down.

About that time the other two people started laughing, but not her. When she
yanked on my dollbaby, he got so scarred he urinated. You know what can
happen when a boy baby urinates at a diaper change. Well, evidently it can also
happen with a scared, submissive dog on his back, and that's a pretty good
distance for the urine to shoot!

The next week I had him on a soft nylon collar and she started arguing with
me to put a prong on him so she could jerk him harder. The Instructor--a
Border Collie owner and a fine, seasoned trainer--came over and intervened on my
dog's behalf. She stayed and also intervened when we started to leave and my
dog started to cry. I told the assistant I was going to stay IN SIGHT for him
this time. She tried to make me leave. The Instructor backed me up.

I took him out of class and he distinguished himself in tracking. I had
learned another principle: if someone tries to do something to my dog or get me
to do it and I don't think it's right, I need to say "NO." If someone messes
up my dog, I'll be the one left with the mess. It's MY dog. And I'm what
stands between the dog and any bad training method. I'm the gatekeeper. Like that
sign I really should get for my house that says something like "Never mind
the dog--Beware of Owner!" I didn't let anybody direct his tracking program,
just had tracklaying partners and studied the subject carefully. I remember one
so-called expert who came out one day to see my dog work. He laid a track
for us and, as is common in tracking practice, followed behind to spot whether
the dog stayed on track or not. That fool yelled at me the whole way around
the track--cussed, too--trying to get me to handle the dog differently.
Meanwhile the dog and I successfully worked the blind track, ignoring the cussing
fool. So much for experts. And so much for my being a "good student," which I
usually am, but have learned not to be when it comes to training my dogs.
They are counting on me to protect them, and to the best of my ability, I will.

He was a dog of a lifetime, and perfect for me at that stage of my own
journey. A few years later I was teaching my little Eskie Angel the out-of-sight
stay with him at her side to simulate the group situation. Saint kept
breaking, and I thought it was unfair to let him think that was the right way to do
it. So I tethered him and he quickly learned that way. The little dog learned,
too. People say dogs can't learn by watching, but she was one who could. She
saw him leave position and that not work out for him, and got a satisfied
expression on her face that said "Yep, I KNEW that was the rule!" A couple of
times he finished up before she did. I think she broke to go chase a squirrel
in the back yard. So I had her do another stay with a teddy bear in his spot.

After training him, with a 10 body sensitivity, I went straight to her, with
a 1! People don't know this about Eskies, because they react so quickly that
you can miss the reason being pain, or fear of pain in a situation where
they have experienced it before. I had to teach her things with the leash off
and then add it, because she worried about the leash. I walked her on a
non-restricting chest harness.

She was too sick to go to class for the first 4 or 5 months I had her, as I
discovered when I took her one night and she promptly came down with
bronchitis. So I trained her at home and in the neighborhood and then took her to
class to test our learning. At the wonderful club I belong to, they set up a
little test for her, and then let her take the graduation test with the next
class and graduate. She did brilliantly on the graduation test in a ring. On our
first "check up" test, we didn't have a ring, just a judge and a corner of
the building. The dog got a little confused on off-leash heeling and wound up
sitting next to the judge. It was kinda cute, actually. The next week we had
a little more practice and a ring to test in, and she got it all within
passing limits.

One thing that happened for me as a result of the assistant mistreating
Saint was that I started reading about dog training instead of accepting the
"oral tradition" that was so common in training at that time. People did what
they had been taught and taught their students some version of it, never really
understanding it in the first place. One of the first books I read was
Patricia Gail Burnham's "Playtraining Your Dog," a groundbreaking book at the time.
I also read Karen Pryor's first edition of "Don't Shoot the Dog!" which is
not about dog training.

If I were a campaigning-type person (I simply don't have the energy), I
would try to get AKC to establish a pass/fail category for CD, CDX and UD. In my
imaginary world, you could talk to your dog while working and use body
language, there would be no scores or placements in this category but the dogs
could be judged in the regular lineup with the others if there were not enough
for a separate class. Jumping would not be required to pass, provided the
handler informed the steward or judge in advance and had the bar set on the ground
so the dog could go between the posts without jumping. The broad jump could
be one board. The handler would also have the option to specify the height at
any height from the trial height downward.

The titles would be different from competitively earned titles. This class
would be ideal for therapy dogs, assistance dogs, search and rescue dogs,
practice to fix problems for trial dogs, senior dogs whose owners want to bring
them out, cruciate ligament and hip dysplasia dogs who shouldn't be jumping,
puppies too young to jump, etc. It would likely have an atmosphere like
tracking, with everybody cheering for everybody else.

Sadly, I don't think top obedience competitors want this kind of class. It
would remove a whole lot of points from OTCH possibilities, since the
pass/fail people would not be dogs defeated in that event. But I believe it is a
needed change, for the same reason that the AKC obedience regulations state: to
demonstrate the usefulness of dogs to humans.

They say purebred dogs in the purpose statement, but I'd love to see this
open to mixes. After all, I can't imagine there is a dog in the USA who isn't
descended from some purebred or other. And in this category, no purebred would
be "defeated" by a mixed-breed.

Obedience in my community has always reached out to all owners who sincerely
want to train their dogs. It would be such a shot in the arm to obedience
trials if these wonderful clubs could throw their arms open to ALL their
students to participate in obedience trials. And it would be a true service of AKC
to many working handlers and dogs. I think it should be the next step in the
mission.

Neither Saint nor Angel were allowed in AKC events due to registration
criteria at the time (Eskies were not AKC then, so no ILP for her, and Saint was a
cross between Lab and GSD), though one club member who wasn't really
thinking about what he was saying told me I could participate by volunteering. He
said they always needed someone to pick up dog poop. Me picking up the poop of
other dogs at an event where my own dogs aren't allowed to participate? I
don't THINK so! I can pick up the poop of the World's Greatest Dogs every day
without leaving my house, thank you very much!

I took my dogs into fun matches a bunch of times to verify our learning.
Then I got a purebred dog and did a CD with her. At 3 1/2 she nearly died of
what we think was Lyme Disease. Her name was Star. As I nursed her for about 5
months, I thought about all my dog work and what was worth spending part of the
time--too short--that I have with each dog. For me, it was the therapy dog
work I was by then doing with all three dogs. I took Angel out of further
matches in Utility without finishing, and put all the training into therapy dogs.
I started having experiences of joy just bubbling up in me while working
with my dogs. I was no longer one kind of handler for one thing and another for
something else. I was me all the time when interacting with my dogs. They
must have thought "Mommy isn't schizophrenic anymore!" That decision has brought
me so much joy. And another "Aha!" I'm not saying everyone should stop
working their dogs for titles, but I don't enjoy competitions, so it was no fun
for me. Dog handling in the real world thrills my heart.

But it hasn't changed my mind about dog training, and soon I'll be training
my second assistance dog. The CGC test is very useful, but for many of our
dogs who need to be extraordinarily mannerly and steady, a pass/fail obedience
system would be a real help. And it would help the cause of dogs in our
country, too. ---Kathy Diamond Davis

Dog Handling Manners around Other Dogs

2006-02-16T11:22:00.000-06:00

On the Dogwise message board there has been a discussion of dog behavior around other dogs. Someone recently posted that she doesn't allow her dog to upset other dogs. Here is my response:

Bravo! My dogs are not only my heart, but also my hands and sometimes other body parts since I need the help of an assistance dog. The idea of someone letting their dog put my dog's mind and body in jeopardy of losing the ability to work calmly around other dogs in the future not only horrifies me, it makes me angry. You are exactly the kind of handler I look for when I need to practice with my dog around other dogs, which I recently did in order to go back and take another CGC test for the record.

My next dog may come to me before being neutered, depending on when my old meanie female goes on to her heavenly reward and when his breeder decides she's done showing him. I want him neutered around 14 months, but my 6 year old female is spayed, so he doesn't have to be neutered to be here for a few months prior to that. I may be dealing with that large, unneutered adolescent male myself, and most people would consider a Belgian Tervuren assertive, though they are always submissive to me.

I believe in better living through training! And part of training the way I do it is to control/handle/govern the dog's behavior through each situation until the dog is doing it automatically the way I want it done. For example, I will get his attention onto me when we encounter another dog until he gets so in the habit that the sight of another dog automatically turns his handsome head to look at me and see what I'm going to ask him to do.

One thing my breeder, a fine trainer and coach, often says to someone she's working with as they handle their dog through a situation is "Do Something! Do Something! Do Something!" Exactly what you do to get your dog's attention on you/off trouble varies with the dog, the training you've put in, your skills, the position of the other dog or distraction, etc. But Do Something!

Working with Believer for the CGC test was a wonderful experience for me, and perfect timing with a new dog coming up. She and I took the test 5 years ago for therapy dog registration, but the TDI evaluator didn't have the CGC paperwork, so it did not count for that. I got a chance to take the test again with Believer this January in a way my health would permit, and it was just too perfect to pass up. First time in 5 years I've had the opportunity to do it when I was well enough, weather was good enough, I had a ride, the situation was well-controlled for my dog's safety, etc.

Practicing a little each day outside the house for 4 days prior to the test got me asking people for training help I normally wouldn't ask for, such as a friend coming over with her dog and people on an outing walking up and petting the dog while I had her do a stay. People enjoy helping, but I just don't often ask. It was so heartening to see how the help I needed was so readily there when I just let them know. With that help, I got to step through maneuvers that added to my range in handling my assistance dog. It's not that we learned new skills, but we reorganized skills in a couple of ways that turned out really well.

Most of all, I gained confidence for handling the upcoming new trainee. Instead of worrying that my physical disabilities will make it too hard, I'm looking forward to new challenges. Working through this reminded me it isn't my body that trains the dog. There are plenty of work-arounds for physical limitations. It's the mind and the heart that do the training. At least that's how I do it.

And getting back out around other trainers gave me a real boost of confidence that yes, you betcha, there are still plenty of people around who can be trusted in a working dog situation. The dog park mentality that seems to be taking over in some areas scares me sometimes, because dogs being allowed to jump on other dogs is not safe for working dogs. But thank God, a lot of people still know that.

There is the occasional person showing off, such as a woman in class with a male Standard Poodle when Believer was young and we did about 12 sessions at the armory. She was supposed to have her dog on leash, but showing off while waiting her turn for the recall, she left the leash off and turned attention to chatting instead of watching her dog. He came running off to the sideslines where I had my girl taking a break with my husband. As he stuck his nose at her, i cupped the palm of my hand around it and pushed him back from her. She's not aggressive and he probably wasn't either, but I was just desperate not to let some careless person ruin my dog! My assistance dog must not think that other dogs being around means they are going to come stick their noses in her face--or her rear, for that matter. She must believe that she can do her job without being molested, no matter who is around. What she believes is a result of what she experiences, and I have to do my best to shape those experiences. At a class where the rule is to keep the dogs on leash, I should be able to trust that situation. And in fact the next person to talk to that handler was the instructor telling her to put the dog back on leash.

I remember when I spent a night photographing training of a group of police K9 handlers on a regular training night with their dogs. During the building search practice, each officer sang out when entering the building with a dog. No one took chances by having two dogs loose in the building at the same time. The dogs are just too valuable to risk a dog fight that could have been avoided by responsible handling. That's how I feel about my working dogs, and that's the kind of handler I want there when my dog is around that person's dog. So, Bravo!

PBS "Nature" program on Dogs

2006-02-09T03:33:00.000-06:00

I just now watched the PBS television episode from the series "Nature" that started this Belgian list discussion. For those who didn't see the program, it shows two problem dogs who go into training with experts in the work their breeds were originally bred to do. Both dogs showed strong instinct for work and had failed definitively in non-work homes.

The Bearded Collie had had a lot of contact with sheep without proper training, and had a strong habit of gripping them. He could easily have been put down or legally shot by a farmer for his behavior. I think they said once he was 3 years old and another time that he was 2 1/2. I did not catch whether the original plan with him included the possibility of placement with another trialing or working home after training. The trainer shown working with him appeared highly skilled and very in tune with the dog.

People on BELG-L questioned her yelling at the dog, but I would want to see more of the whole process before forming judgement on that. We never saw him grip a sheep after he came to her, but perhaps off camera he did abuse sheep at times. We also have no way of knowing from the peephole into the training process we got on the program just what proportion of her work with the dog involved that degree of yelling.

You could see that the dog was eager to earn her praise: she wasn't using treats, toys or games. She used effective praise and lavish, affectionate touch. I very much agree with her emphasis on developing a dog's composure. I also found it interesting, in light of what I'm seeing in my assistance dog, that she felt the ball play was detrimental to his herding work, in part because it encouraged gripping. As I understand it, herding dogs "hunt," but stop short of closing in for a kill. Her thinking was that the ball play was taking him too far into the sequence and encouraging a "kill," or at least excessive roughness with livestock. The program showed him grabbing at a toy and shaking it hard while carrying it.

She took him to a test before she thought he could perform it successfully--evidenced by her description of how nervous she was. Perhaps this was the only opportunity she had to check his progress with strange livestock at a strange location, in which case I would be likely to do the same thing. Sometimes you just need to jump off a cliff to find out if your gliding practice is going to pay off.

But if other opportunities were available to her, it would have made more sense to take him along more slowly. He did show progress at that event by not gripping the stock (at least not on camera), but since it was in front of God and everybody--including people whose opinion of her ability she valued--and he didn't get the job done, it would be very hard for any handler to feel good about it.

I wondered as I watched her train the dog by creating a tight bond with him and handling him very minutely whether she would ever be able to turn him over to another handler and have that training be stable. I wondered if he would always be high risk for getting too rough with livestock and maybe even someday killing, unless he remained in her hands. Perhaps she decided that was the case, thinking as an expert trainer. Or perhaps she just got too attached to give him up. I think they said she has 22 dogs. I wonder if he will get the attention from her that he clearly craves. Or maybe that's why he craves it so much and is willing to work so hard for it--because it's not a constant in his daily life.

The Bloodhound story thrilled me. My tracking dog was noise-sensitive, too, and knowing that, I was able to bolster him when he shied from a sound and get him quickly back to work. He was as work-oriented as that Bloodhound. I also got to spend a training night with some police K9 handlers and see that their handling on scent work was indeed as depicted in the story. They love working a good dog, and they can cope with imperfections. Heck, any good dog handler can, because there are no perfect dogs (or humans).

He was training that dog for someone else, but he gave her his heart. He did not have her as long as it took to train the Beardie, so that must have helped a bit with having to give her up. The Beardie was a bit shy with strangers, but the Bloodhound was a love-everybody girl.

The herding trainer emphasized subordinance with the dog in training, but I noticed she didn't ask that of her trained Border Collie. I can relate to that. After the initial several months of training with my last two dogs I felt the dog was truly my partner and I even changed the call name to a nickname of the name I trained with.

The Bloodhound trainer did not emphasize making the dog subordinate to him. Some people think the scenting dog "takes charge," but I don't see it that way. I see it as a similar partnership to how I work therapy dogs and assistance dogs, but not everyone works the way I do. And a whole lot of dogs cannot accept responsibility in the ways a Belgian can. Those dogs need to take a more subordinate role, because rather than pleasing the handler, they'd take advantage of greater responsibility to please themselves in unsafe ways. I believe that some of the mindset that makes a dog capable of herding work also gives me the rapport I want with my Tervs and makes them capable of developing the sense of responsibility I so value in a dog.

No livestock are at risk in scent work on leash, so there's seldom any occasion that correction could achieve any benefit. Bloodhounds can stay on leash, which means the training doesn't have to take voice control to anything like the level of a dog herding livestock off-leash. I'm sure there are some who use electronic collars in herding, though it doesn't seem to be common. I'd a whole lot rather see someone yell threateningly at a dog than use "electronic stimulation" (people who use those collars object to the word "shock").

A long line can't be all that useful in herding because so much of the time the sheep will be between you and the dog, even when you're close enough for a line to reach. I saw her use it on the program once, very briefly, probably a set-up so she could get in a correction. That leads me to believe he probably did grab livestock at some point during training. I believe they showed the long line some for recall training, too.

The herding trainer did use the voice of someone who'd lost her temper with the dog at times, but my impression was that it worked because the dog craved her approval and praise, not because the dog was afraid she would follow up with physical punishment. To me this is a critical difference. But again, we only saw the peek into the process that the camera gave us, a few minutes out of months of work. So there's a lot we do not know.

Part of this discussion has been whether herding ability is preserved in breeding that never proves that ability by training the dogs and demonstrating they can learn and perform the work. Someone said we don't really need dogs for that job anymore. By that argument you could say we don't need hunting dogs, either, but I believe we do need both. And I believe the instincts will be lost if the work to prove the breeding stock is not put in. The deep divisions between working and show dogs in breeds such as the Labrador should be enough to demonstrate that.

That's not to say that it's wrong to breed Belgians for the other jobs many of them do so well. We just did a book on DogRead about genetic selection and what makes for the healthiest purebred dogs who can still meet other breed criteria. One key is periodically breeding back to bloodlines closer to the foundation of the breed, such as dogs from the country of origin. Another is breeding to dogs with phenotypes you want who are not close to your dog's bloodlines. Terv breeders do a lot of both. From what I can see, it's working.

From the point of view of preserving herding ability in the breed, it doesn't take everyone breeding for that. It takes some breeding for it. Do we want to see more Belgian therapy dogs and assistance dogs? It doesn't take all breeders breeding for that, only some. Tervs are demonstrating that a dog can be a good conformation show dog and a working dog, too. Another book that we're doing on DogRead in April deals with some research about that.

It helps that the Belgian breed standards fit a functional, agile dog with stamina. The ones capable of chilling out when not working have the most stamina for work. They also have the best chance of avoiding gastric torsion. This ability is trained, but impossible to train if the genetics for it are not there. Like herding!

For me the Bloodhound's story had a happy ending. The Bearded Collie's story, not so much. But who's to say the Bloodhound won't get shot by a suspect or a stray bullet during a search, while the Beardie lives a long and satisfying life before dying in his sleep at the handler's feet some quiet evening.

Thoughts on Training Believer's Successor

2006-02-09T01:09:00.000-06:00

Believer isn't ready to retire, but she's nearly 6 and I'm glad the time for starting another dog is coming before there will be a rush to have him up and working. I want to do the training well and to know I can count on him when he's needed. There are likely to be times for that before she actually retires. She may be ill or injured or a situation where I need to take a working assistance dog may be a better fit for him than for her. So it's looking like I'll be able to bring him along at the best pace for him and me, hopefully without temptation to put him on any job before he's fully ready.

I don't want to do all the new boy's training with my trained assistance dog working alongside to pick up the equipment, though I will do it some in order to expose him to Believer's lovely public attitude. It seems that a male dog will become more protective when living with a very protective female, as if he has to outdo her in order to be pack protector. I'm hoping it works the other way, too, that when a female is outgoing and friendly with the public, the male will pick that up, too.

In my state, assistance dogs in training do not have public access rights, and the federal legislation (the Americans with Disabilities Act) provides public access rights only for trained assistance dogs, not those in training. So any access beyond that allowed for all dogs will have to be by permission from proprietors only, as with therapy dogs. I'll be eager to get him walking smoothly with me for balance and retrieving to hand just as soon as I can. He'll be better able to understand the responsibility I need from him by working lots of sessions with me away from Believer.

I'm excited, though, at the prospect of having, for the first time, two dogs capable of the steadiness to learn to "honor" each other at home off-leash for me to work them both. There's always been one yay-hoo in my little group at home who just did not have the emotional stability for that.

Distractions (Re: The Volhard Motivational Method)

2006-02-04T05:44:00.000-06:00

I have had dogs with lots of self-motivation to retrieve and dogs I didn't think were that motivated. I need the dogs to do it for me, for assistance. Because the turned-on play retrievers already fetched, I didn't spend much time doing structure with them. And they were sometimes as Jack and Wendy described--"What, fetch it here? Now? That thing? Why?" They did a little better when it was something I needed, sometimes a lot better in a crisis.

But the best ones for me have been the dogs who had retrieving instinct that hadn't been turned into a huge game. In particular, two of my female Belgian Tervuren didn't seem interested in retrieving. These dogs were not non-retrievers. It was just more dormant in them, perhaps because of early experiences. When I got them, I built a play retrieve, taught "Hold It" and "Give," and both became dogs who used their retrieving for me. Thus I learned that a structured retrieve is a better retrieve for work.

The Volhards' Motivational Method for teaching the retrieve gives that structure, teaches each aspect of the retrieve systematically, and makes sure that you cover distractions to the point that the dog has the needed experiences to perform reliably.

I won a writing contest years ago that brought me the marvelous prize of the Volhard videos. The beginner tape showed me the elegance of their method. Each part of your body and each step of the training is clearly laid out so that if you do it exactly by the instructions you are all set to go on to good obedience trial scores.

A lot of beginner training you encounter in other classes lets people develop all sorts of bad handling habits that they later have to try to fix--and fix the errors the bad handling has taught their dogs. I think of the Volhard method as "elegant," because it does so many things well all at the same time. If you've ever seen an outstanding handler work a dog, putting every body part in exactly the right place at exactly the right time--wow!

I also got the retrieving training tape, and it is just as elegant. It helped me understand what distractions in training can do. When I trained in classes a bunch of years ago, distractions were a dirty word to me. It was the word that described people trying to trick my dog, even including fear and intimidation, to try to cause the dog to make a mistake and get in trouble. The group stay practice at class was horrible.

The good part, though, was that I learned to stand up for my dog and to be the one who decided what was and was not going to happen in my dog's training. We all need to learn that. If we don't protect our dogs, who will? Every dog handler, no matter what your activity, needs to learn how to be the dog's protector.

When I did tracking, I developed a vision of the track as the tool to teach the dog the task. The dog knows how to track. The training process develops your ability to read your dog, your dog's ability to communicate with you, and your dog's understanding of what scent you want the dog to follow for you. For you. Ahhh.

The track is the most important tool. You plan, between sessions, what you can do with the next track to help the dog progress in knowledge. For example, the dog needs to experience various wind/air flow patterns, surfaces, moisture, etc. It's your job to provide the dog with the proper experiences via the proper tracks to work, so the dog will have a full picture of the task. And you have to learn your part of the task, too--what can you do in laying out that track that will help you to know better how your dog looks or pulls on the line or other behavior that will help you learn to read that scent detection?

The Volhard retrieving tape helped me to see distractions in other training as being like the training tracks I created to teach my dog! Distractions provide experience for the dog to better learn the task. And distractions provide experience for me to practice handling my dog on the task. Distractions build understanding, communication, and the correct habits.

I hated heeling, too, in my earliest training experiences. It was pointless precision as far as I could see, since winning obedience trial placements did not turn me on. Then I read Michael Tucker's books (he was a guide dog trainer for a lot of years) where he used heeling to work dogs past things that bothered the dogs or might make them misbehave.

In other words, he used heeling to help dogs deal with distractions. I most certainly needed my therapy dogs and now my assistance dogs to be able to deal with distractions in order to cope with what happens in work situations. All of a sudden, heeling mattered to me. It wasn't just part of a sport; it was a tool for the real world.

In heeling you can use attention to work the dog past the distraction, but in other exercises such as the retrieve, the dog's attention has to focus on the task. I aim to train, teach, handle and manage dogs by communicating with them and by picking up on what they want to communicate to me. Distractions provide intriguing ways to do that. When I learned to view distractions as opportunities to communicate with my dog, it made them tools instead of traps, solutions instead of problems.

Retrieving: It's In There

2006-02-02T17:32:00.000-06:00

Saint, Lab/GSD adopted from the shelter at 9 mos of age, force-broke hubby and me to the retrieve. When I went back to the shelter 2 years later looking for a small female dog who was not a terrier (I knew what I needed--nothing against terriers, just not what I needed), the little test I did with Angel, a mini American Eskimo, told the tale.

A shelter employee helped. The dog was 18 mos old, and unbeknownst to me, starved to 2/3 of a minimum weight for her. The shelter employee held her, we got several feet apart and both squatted down. I beckoned and called the little dog, and she came straight to me. Then I tossed out a rag and she ran out and got it.

When I first saw her in the run, she sat, hanging her head and not meeting my eyes, but right at the chain link gate near me. When the employee took her out, she relaxed in her arms. She also relaxed in mine. She stayed that way through the whole evaluation, which included the employee taking her to another building to weigh her because it was hard to tell how "big" she was (normal adult weight for her turned out to be 15 1/2 pounds, and for anyone not familiar with the breed, it's a big white fluffy coat, hard for the eyes to figure size by looking). She was still relaxing under my arm as I held her to write a check to the shelter.

As we got to know each other, that simple recall plus that run-out-and-grab-the-rag easily became, you guessed it, a retrieve. Try and make me believe an Eskie won't fetch, just try! She was great. She was the one I could send under the bed to get things I dropped that rolled under there.

I didn't teach her with food or "force-fetch," or even all that much structure. Eskies are a lot like Tervs in training. They were circus trick dogs in the U.S. for many years, and learn with few repetitions. She also had Saint to help turn on the retrieve drive.

I had a friend who told me her Terv and two Aussies "wouldn't retrieve." Turned out the game was for her to throw the ball and they would then relay-race with it. As soon as she understood what a retrieve actually is, presto-chango, all her dogs began to retrieve.

With some dogs, maybe a lot of dogs, retrieve is a lot like tracking. It's in there; we just have to get out of the way and help it come out. Maybe it needs a little help with structure, or maybe it needs a lot of help. I did about a minute of "Hold It" with Believer every day for about four months, supporting her chin rather than using correction because emotionally she shut down the one time I tried a gentle one under the chin. In some ways she is the softest dog I've ever had and in others the absolute staunchest.

She is the best one I've ever had. That happened because of the ones who came before her. Doing the Personality Profile on her the other day, I realized why she was so complicated to train, especially at first, and it wasn't for the reason I had thought: high pain threshold (about 8). But for me, she followed the great dogs that included one who forced me to learn focused attention and one with just about zero defense fight.

Believer and I came to each other at just the right time. She reminds me in some ways of Saint, if he had had her great emotional control. He and I had great communication. With Believer the communication astonishes me. She knows things about what I want her to do that I haven't figured out how she knows. He had a lot more defense fight drive. Neither of them much defense flight at all. He had a bad start in life and was hyperactive. She was born with a silver spoon in her mouth and marvelous nerves.

On body sensitivity, he was a 10, but like her, deeply cared about pleasing me. He would have died for me. She probably wouldn't have to do more than get dirty to achieve equal results. As the song goes, "She's got what it takes and she knows how to use it." I'm so grateful for her, and for all the fine breeders who do what they do to bring dogs like this into our lives.

"Be Nice"

2006-02-02T15:38:00.000-06:00

Since I need assistance dog and therapy dog work from my dogs and have the world's lowest threshold for boredom, Belgian Tervuren are a good match for me. They can do most things, and they don't need very many repetitions. The key is to keep the stress low and be very, very accurate with your training. They tend to remember, so if you train it wrong, they'll remember it that way. They know how to communicate with me, and have over the last twenty years taught me a lot about how they like to learn and work. They aim to please.

I was talking to hubby the other day about whether Believer would protect me or not, and we agreed that she would do it like Patrick Swayze told his bouncer employees to do in the movie "Road House." I never get this quote exactly right, but he tells them to, in a variety of situations, "BE NICE." And then says something to the effect of "Until it's time to not be nice." She's my assistance and needs an extremely high level of niceness and steadiness.

The first big dog hubby and I had together changed my life by taking away my fear of being home alone. Sometimes I forget what a dramatic difference that made, and take for granted what I've now had for so many years. Happily, I wanted right from the start to be able to take the dog for neighborhood walks and "be nice" to the dog and to everyone else. So though the thinking back then was that you had to use a tough voice to train a dog, I figured what my college psychology courses had taught about the cue that was reinforced being the cue that would be followed--was probably right. Indeed, as most everyone with training knowledge now knows, it is. So I use an extremely happy voice to direct a dog that pleases even the most tender-hearted non-trainer who hears it in public, and my dogs respond to it just as well as that first Lab/GSD named Saint did.

I train in a strip shopping center, where I have to make sure merchants are happy I'm there. It's private property, so if they don't want me around, I lose the location for training. I've been happily training there for 24 years. Once Saint and I made lots of evening trips after a clerk in a liquor store had been raped on duty. It didn't happen again.

Another time Believer and I were out training during her early work, when she was an impressive-sized adolescent. I didn't do tug-of-war with her. I was training her for therapy dog work, and had had a bit of a struggle getting the silly mouthing stopped. In fact, she's still hard on fabric leashes. A Terv without mischief, well, it may not be a Terv. They are stinkers, and you need a sense of humor. They are my four-legged anti-depressants.

This day, there was a suspicious-looking fellow sitting in a car in front of the dollar store. In the news had been several daytime robberies of dollar stores with a similar profile. He set off the car alarm when Believer and I were in front of his car. She was unimpressed, bless her breeder's heart--and my breeder, who gave her 4 months of little-kid experience before I got her.

I had a dishtowel in my shoulder bag to dry things off in general while out with her--people's fingers from dog slobber when giving treats, drips of water from giving her water, or whatever. I pulled that out and started our first tug game together. I knew tugging would make her look tough to the guy, and she of course thought it was great fun. She put her whole big self into it. He honked the horn some--which she also ignored--and another guy came out of the store with a very small purchase. They drove away and then we walked on. I'll never know, but I'll always believe we stopped a robbery that day.

Meanwhile, back at home, Believer chewed about half a dozen dish towels before I removed all such from our household routine. She's tall and smart and can probably get anything she wants. That she does not do so i really just her "being nice." I switched to paper towels in the kitchen, and 5 years later we're still using them. One consolation is that we do seem to get fewer colds.

No wonder dogs extend our lives.

Memories of Dog Surgeries

2006-01-27T03:33:00.000-06:00

Someone on a message board was talking about getting their dog back from surgery today, and I got to reminiscing:

I sure know that relief! My vet used to keep the dogs overnight, but he started letting mine come home when I kept asking--and even one time took my dog to her breeder's husband, also a vet, because HE would send her home same day!

Veterinary anesthetics have changed and they can bring them up out of it faster. And yes, most vets have no night-time staff, so your dog is unattended down there overnight. I think at my vet's office they leave about 6:30 p.m., check the animals around 10 p.m. (maybe that's only when they have certain types of treatments being done--I don't know) and then someone is in around 7 a.m. If they have a dog who needs overnight hospital care, it stays at a different place, and may or may not be transported back to the vet's office in the morning.

I think it's only a matter of time until our vets will have to start clustering their offices around hospitals that have overnight care facilities as well as equipment too expensive for a vet practice to buy, such as MRI. Meanwhile human care is being done in little clinics and doctor's offices instead of hospitals! One difference, though, is that a family member can often stay with the person around the clock if they need to be watched. You usually can't do that in a vet hospital. A human staying overnight is in a bed. A dog is in a cage. It's a dilemma for us doting dog mommies.

One time my dog did have a complication from spay surgery. It was when the vet still kept them overnight. She came home the next day and while drinking water standing quietly at her dish, began to drip blood onto the kitchen floor from the abdominal incision. The vet had me bring her back and he put on a pressure bandage and kept her overnight. She came back home with it still on, looking like a dog who had been wounded in the war. And dirty. I called and asked him if she was ill. He was upset that his staff had not cleaned her better. He said the stress from having to come back and spend another night had given her diarrhea.

I had another dog I had been to class with and had had her for 10 months when she was spayed and I brought her home the same day. She had a rough flight coming to me at 7 months of age, and felt stressed by a crate because of that for the rest of her life. Vet had said to keep her in a crate. She kept throwing up in there, and crying very softly as if trying not to disturb anyone.

I took her out to potty, lifted her onto the bed and settled with her back against my side and her head on my arm while I propped up my upper body to read. She turned her head back over her shoulder to look into my eyes with a look that said she was my dog now. And she was. It was a profound moment of bonding we would have missed if she had stayed overnight at the vet's. And heck, she might have been so sick from stress the next day that she'd have had to stay another night!

She was my first Belgian Tervuren and looked so much like Believer that it's hard to tell them apart in photographs. I also got Believer at that same age of 7 months. Star was just as good at working around other dogs as Believer is, too. I've been blessed with some great dogs.

When our male Saint was neutered way back in 1983, the vet sent him home the same day (neuters are less invasive than spays). I was working, so hubby picked him up. When I got home he had Saint settled on the sofa like a person with a pillow under his head.

As far as keeping them quiet after surgery, that can be a big challenge. I joke that I had to sit on Star for 10 days, but it's practically true. I mostly kept her on a leash either with me or tethered to heavy furniture in the room I was in. But that's not as bad as when Saint had spleen surgery and had to be so very still so he wouldn't bleed to death while young Spirit also had her spay so she wouldn't go in heat overexcite him. I was running a doggy hospital. So he wouldn't go wild at the sound, I put a sign on the front door not to ring the bell, but to call me instead--and I put my phone number there!

That restricted activity is hard work for the dog mom! It pays off, though. They heal faster and they heal better. It's also good bonding time, because they seem to think you're keeping them near you because you need them. It's a very sweet time.

Introducing a Dog Sitter to Your Dog

2006-01-24T19:35:00.000-06:00

I got a question today about how to handle the situation of putting friends at ease--and making it safe--so they can come in and take care of your big, protective dog when you are out of town. Here's my answer:

Here's what I would try to start. It will probably work. If it doesn't, then you'd be wise to engage a behavior specialist--ask your veterinarian to recommend one. But try this first.

Walk into the house with your neighbor and the dog in the situation he'll be in. Have your neighbor carrying some of the dog's regular food if it's a dry food, or regular treats--we're just looking for something that won't risk upsetting the dog's intestines, since it will be used when you're not home. The regular food is least likely to do that.

So, you walk in together and the neighbor gives the dog a small amount of food. If this goes well, do it a bunch of times.

Then you start hanging back and let the neighbor go first. If that's still going well, hang back more and more until finally you aren't even going in with the neighbor. Always have the neighbor have food at this point, and never tease a dog with food--give it to the dog.

Eventually also have the neighbor go in without food now and then, so everyone will be confident that all is still well without the dog being able to smell food. Another transition point you can use is to have food in a container just outside where the dog is, so that the neighbor can reach for that after coming in. But--this is important--if the dog growls, do not then give food! Quickly you will have a clever dog who puts on a bigger and bigger aggressive display because he truly thinks that is how you want him to ask for food! Oops!

I think this will work, but if it doesn't, do get expert help before putting anyone at risk. By doing it in steps, not only does it improve the chances of simple success, but it also adds some layers of safety so you'll see if there is a problem before anyone would get hurt.

A dog who happily welcomes these folks into the house might still bark at them at the fence outside! Dogs are not "I hate you" vs. "I love you" in their feelings toward people. Their instincts and the situation are heavily involved in their reactions. You are conditioning the dog to accept the people coming into the house--these particular people. You might have to condition the dog at the fenceline as a separate task if you want that approach, too, and you might have to condition the dog to any other people you want coming in to take care of the dog.

Don't assume that success with this task this time is going to extend to other situations beyond these people and coming into the house this way. In other situations the training might carry over, but it very well might not. Doesn't mean it's a bad dog. Some dogs are very territorial. An aggressive "display" doesn't necessarily mean a dog will bite. But let's not take chances. Let's let the dog learn that you are authorizing these people to come in, and they are Good News!

When You See Someone Let His Dog Poop in Your Yard

2006-01-22T22:58:00.000-06:00

A day of interesting dog questions. This answer of mine was for someone who wanted to know his rights when he has seen a man allow his dog on walks to defecate in this owner's unfenced back yard, told him twice to stop letting the dog do it, and continues to find (and sometimes step in) evidence that the guy is not respecting his directions:

Call the non-emergency phone number of your police department or animal welfare enforcement and ask what the law is in your locale and how it is enforced. Laws against letting your dog defecate on someone else's property without that person's permission are common.

You would probably have to make an official complaint on the record, so you have to decide if you're willing to deal with the fallout of requiring the guy to either pay a fine or appear in court or both. You'd have to be willing to show up, or the charges could be dropped if he fights it in court and he shows up and you don't. It's not the kind of thing where you need a lawyer, nor would he probably need one. It's like a traffic violation.

If you want to get fancy, you could videotape the act. You wouldn't have to stand out there with a camera if you set up a camera connected to a VCR or computer or other device that could make a recording.

If you're well off, heck, you could even hire a detective to do the taping, get a positive I.D. on the guy, and have the court presentation all watertight. Other than money, why not? This is a violation of the law and people need to know it's no joke. The only people who think it's funny are those who never pick it up or step in it. And their turn is coming.

I'm on your side. I have my dogs do their business at home where I pick it up daily. They are trained not to do it on outings unless I give a command, which I only do if we have to be out for a long time, and only in a suitable place. Then I clean it up with a plastic bag and take it home or to a proper trash can.

Blind and disabled people (I am disabled) pick up after their assistance dogs. There is no excuse for your neighbor's behavior, and as a dog owner I resent it when people do this. It makes other people think the presence of dogs in an area inevitably means these messes. Well, not with my dogs it doesn't. I hate the fact that we get more and more restrictions on dog ownership because some owners are irresponsible.

Another thing you could do is fence your yard. I know how much that costs, believe me--mine is fenced, interior fenced, and a back-up chain link to a neighbor's rotting wood fence! I'm a fence person. "Good fences make good neighbors." In your case, it would keep that dog out of your fenced yard. Plus, the scent left by this dog will encourage other dogs to use your yard as a bathroom, too.

People sometimes try to use my front yard as a potty for their dogs. If I see them, I tap loudly on the window and stare at them! I wouldn't mind if they were going to pick it up, but of course they're not. My city recently passed a law that you have to carry something to pick up poop when you are out with a dog. They were going to require a pooper scooper, but I called my councilman. The mayor and council members did not know we already had a law that you have to pick up after your dog in this city. I asked that the required pick-up equipment allow for it to be a plastic bag, which is perfectly adequate and of course totally easy to carry. So that is the law they passed.

Oh, one other method worked once for me when a next-door neighbor kept letting their female dog in heat potty in my front yard. I would go out and put the plastic bag on my hand like a glove, pick up the poop, invert the bag over it so that the bag is inside out with poop enclosed and the outside clean. Tie the top of the bag. Clear bags work best for this particular application. I set the bags neatly on top of their garbage cans. They took the hint.

If you continue to have to pick up for awhile, the bag method is tidy and quick. It works with grocery-store plastic bags, produce bags, sometimes with the plastic bags your newspaper comes in, bread bags, and similar bags of that size.

If the grocery store produce department manager will sell you fresh produce bags, these are the easiest to carry in a pocket or bag. They can serve other purposes, too, such as catching bugs and other messes. I used one for an emergency ice bag at a picnic one time. Not a bad thing to have on hand. Until you get your neighbor's hash settled, you might stick a few of these into your jacket pocket so you don't have to walk back indoors to get one when you spot a mess.

Police Dog in the Family?

2006-01-22T22:39:00.000-06:00

I got a fascinating question today from a mom who wonders what she and her husband need to consider if he joins the police K9 unit and they would have a K9 dog to care for with a large/medium sized female dog in the family and children ages 6 and 9. Here's my answer:

ANSWER:

Interesting question. First, as far as your other dog, as long as she is spayed, police dogs tend to be males, making it likely the two would be pals.

The kids are school age, which is a plus. You don't mention the sexes of the children. If the younger one is female, that's a plus. Boys put extra pressure on dogs to a greater age than girls seem to--at least in terms of dog bites and fatalities to children. Read my two articles on children and dogs in the Canine Behavior Series where you found the police dogs article:

http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=SRC&S=1&SourceID=47

The kids are very young, as you realize, and for any large dog to be part of your family, supervision will be imperative. If the dog is going to be trained to apprehend suspects, you should never leave the dog alone with a child--at any age, really. I expect a good police department would have that policy anyway.

Having you as the mom present to supervise really would not be adequate. Knowing what I know about dogs and kids, I'd want the dog's handler present and paying attention whenever the kids are in contact with the dog. That means you'd need a safe, comfortable place at the house for the dog to rest. It should be secure from temporarily-misbehaving kids (or neighbor kids) being able to enter the dog's area or let the dog out on their own.

I am not for one second implying that a well-trained police dog is like having a loaded gun laying around, or in any way wanting to scare or discourage you from becoming a part of this important work. The thing is, NOBODY wants an accident, and that includes the department. Not only does the dog need to be housed safely for the sake of kids, but also the occasional incident of a police K-9 dog getting loose from the handler's home and being involved in any kind of injury to anyone or any other animal invariably makes the news. And it can ruin a good dog--or even if it doesn't ruin the dog, can interfere with a career. All of this can be prevented with the right housing and HABITS of using it properly at home.

I don't have kids, and my own dogs stay in the house, with a fenced "potty yard" right out the back door. Another gate leads to the rest of the fenced yard, and to enter my back yard through a gate you need a key. It opens the padlocks on two gates, about 10 feet apart, so that on the occasions I am out in the larger part of the fenced yard with my dogs to train or romp, anyone standing at the outer gate is unable to reach through to the dogs. Kids will be kids, you know. One thing the inner fenced potty yard does for me is make it darn difficult for anyone to throw anything into the smaller exercise yard and hit or poison my dogs. It also makes it impossible for a kid or other person to tease a dog over the fence, because it's several feet back from the property-line fence.

When the dogs are in the potty yard, my back door is OPEN, so I can monitor them the whole time. I don't leave them out there unattended. Something on the other side might prove too tempting, and they are able to go over both fences--though I don't think they know that, because I've never given them the chance to try it. These dogs are Belgian Tervuren, first cousins to the Belgian Malinois commonly used in police work now. I've had German Shepherds, too, and Lab/German Shepherd cross, and I love this system for all those types of dogs.

With kids, you have to have interior security as well, so that the kids are not with the dog unsupervised, and neither are their friends. At least this would go for the protection-trained K-9. Which leads me to another aspect for you to think about.

Police K-9 work has become much more sophisticated in the last 5-15 years, and if the group your husband works with is a top group, they will be working the dogs differently, training from different drives, than was the case in the past. The dogs, like the human police, work far more on brains than brawn--in the case of the dog, it's the nose. The department wants a minimum of damage done to anyone from bites, because every bite is a potential lawsuit.

The dogs are often trained in a prey mode, almost like a game, though with a strong work ethic. They are not working from a sense of fear. They are dogs of stable temperament who, if well-trained, can safely work around all kinds of groups. But the handler does need to be alert if the dog is trained to apprehend suspects, because that dog will have to be able to act if the handler is down. So there could be that slight risk of a bite in an unexpected situation with the handler not right there on the ball to give the right command at the right moment.

Most of the work done by contemporary police dogs is scent work rather than apprehension. It might be possible for your husband to work with a dog who is not trained for apprehension at all. This would be a dog very well-suited for home life with kids. The only concern might be if the kids played tug of war with the dog and got a stray tooth hit. My advice would be for the tug-of-war games to come ONLY from the handler anyway. That should be something special between them and part of the reward for the job, not a casual game with others.

These dogs work in the schools detecting drugs, do bomb searches, search for lost people, evidence searches, vehicle searches--the list goes on. I am pretty sure that every police K-9 is trained to scent drugs now, because I think the law still turns all the stuff confiscated by such finds over to the department, and it's vital for their funding. The dogs more than pay for themselves in this way.

So, while your husband is looking into this possibility, he might look at other opportunities in police work with K-9's that don't involve apprehensions. You would really then have no issues at home beyond the average responsible parents with a big dog (that you already have), and it could be a bright career future. For one thing, this is the kind of work you can do a lot longer than chasing down suspects. For another, it prepares a person for a bunch of other jobs, including arson detection, FEMA, Border Patrol and Customs--the list goes on, and it keeps growing. Not only can he become a handler for these programs, he can become an instructor and if he retires and wants to start his own business, he can become a trainer to supply trained dogs to these agencies.

Remember that the scent-only dog would require similar layers of security to those I've described for my dogs, even though there would be no special issues of the dog around school-age kids. Dogs who catch bad guys are targets. My dogs are actually trained never to put teeth on humans, because I served 19 1/2 years as a volunteer therapy dog handler and now I have an assistance dog for disability and will be training another before long. My security precautions are to keep my dogs safe, more than to keep them from hurting other people.

And you'd have to do the same, so some bad guy couldn't get a "reward" from another bad guy by taking out a drug dog. Anyway, I think the day of double-fenced yards being standard is coming. It is marvelous for keeping both kids and dogs safer. Meter readers love it. I remember the first time after installing the dog exercise yard interior fence that I accidentally let my rowdy Lab/German Shepherd out into the yard to potty when a meter reader was there. The dog was barking at the guy from a position safely tucked behind his potty yard fence about 20 feet from the meter. The guy gave me a friendly wave and kept on with his job. I was one happy dog-mom.

I would totally encourage your husband to go for it, provided the department is using good training and handling standards and practices. If it's a well-established K-9 unit, chances are that this is the case. Units tha do not operate properly wind up getting shut down due to the locality's very legitimate fear of lawsuits and national publicity of the wrong kind. Police dogs and K-9 handlers these days are very sophisticated.

It should be great for any law-enforcement career path. Even if it turned out he didn't want to continue working as a K-9 handler, the experience would prepare him better for other steps up the ladder where he would be supervising K-9 units. Some of the businesses that train working dogs for government agencies even have a course designed for these supervisors, but it wouldn't take the place of having been there and done that as a handler himself.

Adding a New Dog after Losing One--or Not

2006-01-10T15:42:00.000-06:00

I answered a question today from someone who unexpectedly and tragically lost a dog to an accident, leaving the family with one older male dog. My answer:

I lost a dog myself on December 27th, to what the veterinarian thinks was probably a brain tumor. He blessedly did have the chance to live a long life. I had expected to add another dog when I lost him, but observing the dynamic between my two remaining dogs, both female, I decided to wait a bit and see how that goes.

We can always add another dog. But once we do that, it's more than most of us can stand to give one up because we realize too late that, while we and our dogs can cope as a group, everyone would have been happier if we had not added that dog at that time. So it's always best to wait until we're sure.

One thing that can happen with a bit of a wait is that the dog who might have thought he'd like to be an "only" becomes a little lonely. Then he's a lot more interested in having a new housemate move in, and the whole process could start off happier. There's a lot of truth to the adage "first impressions are lasting impressions" when it comes to dogs. If your dog is welcoming and sweet to a newbie, their relationship is likely to forever be better than it would have been if he had not been in the mood for company.

And the other thing of course is that he may indeed want to be an only dog, or you may decide it's best for now. What I'm trying is to see if my girls can get along okay until the nearly 13-year-old bad-tempered one goes to her heavenly reward. Then instead of coming into a household with a dog who flies into a rage at will, the new boy dog can come join a sweet middle-aged girl dog who loves to play. She, too, will be free to enjoy him without being randomly attacked by the other female.

Your older dog might not enjoy a new youngster, or he might. Taking some time will give both you and him opportunities to readjust your relationship and think about what you would like. Of course you also want to think about your facilities and resources for dog care. In our case it is whether we want to be dealing with the ills that often arise in an old dog at the same time we train a new dog who needs to be trained to a very sophisticated level. Care of a geriatric dog can be exhausting and expensive toward the end, and we've just been through that. Makes you think.

Hang in there. Enjoy your dog, and get to know him all over again. Find new ways to be together. Dogs' lives are short. More and more in recent years, I think of the expression "Redeem the time." It so very much applies to the time we have with our dogs. God bless you.

How Do We Cope with Knowing We'll Have to Lose a Beloved Dog, Maybe Soon?

2006-01-07T15:42:00.000-06:00

I lost a dog December 27th, and I want to answer this question that we all have to ask ourselves as people who give our hearts to dogs. He was the sixth of my companion animals (four dogs and two cats) that I have held while the vet helped them go to heaven.

Realizing your dog is getting older and can't live forever is a way you do some of the grieving in advance of losing the dog. The dog is with you to comfort you during this grief. It can make you handle the loss better when it happens. Of course it will hurt. But some losses are harder than others. I don't think it just gets worse each time we lose a dog. I think a lot of other factors enter into how we experience each loss.

The most important thing for you to do is cherish this time with your dog. Make happy memories with him. Take excellent care of him that will make you feel very good later to remember that you did for him. Tell him you love him and show him you love him. If you have a temper with your dogs, get rid of that now. Life with dogs is too short to waste any of it acting that way with them. It's not good training, anyway.

Dogs live until they die. He is not sitting around worrying about his life being over and wasting the time he has left by fretting. Learn that from him. LIVE with your dog, instead of thinking of him as dying. This time can be the best of his life. He could live a short time, or he could live a lot longer. Sometimes--quite often--you can know when your dog is terminally ill with your veterinarian's help. That is a blessing, in giving you time to say good-bye.

The unexpected can certainly happen, but it's entirely possible you will never experience another loss in the way you lost Tressa. Since you know he's geriatric now, you'll know to have blood chemistries checked regularly and be quicker to have the veterinarian look at the dog for things you might have watched at home first for a longer time in a younger dog. The older dog's body sometimes needs more help getting over things than the younger dog's does.

I have a relative who spent the last five years of her dog's blessedly long life going on and on about how the dog was going to die and she could just never stand it. Sure enough, when the dog did die at age 15, she fell apart. She would have benefitted profoundly for some important reasons from getting another companion animal, whether cat or dog or bird or whatever. But she kept saying she would never, ever have another pet because she could never go through that again.

There is no reason she couldn't have an animal--big house, big yard, husband to help her take care of the animal, daughter living nearby to help if they wanted or needed to travel, plenty of money, everything you can think of. I expect more than one doctor has even told her to get one. But she would rather go without the love and the very real benefits she would derive, because that way what she never loved, she won't lose. I see tragedy in this.

When it's time to grieve, grieve. It's something we have to do in order to heal and be open to love again. We are blessed that it is possible to choose another dog--you can't do the same if you lose a spouse or a parent or a child. Another dog is a successor, not a replacement. Loving another dog honors the one you have lost. The heart stretches plenty big to add another one to love.

If you give your love to Lazar while he is with you, after he is gone you will always know you did that. You will make the most of the time you have with your dog and of the memories you'll have later. Getting another dog is often a great idea, if Lazar wants that, too, because he can teach things to the new one and you will have the new one to care for after he is gone. If it's the right thing for the dogs, it can be a very good thing for you.

The pain we go through over losing a dog is the price of the love. But it really is true that "it's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." Some people talk about only having one "heart dog," only one that is a real soulmate. That has not been my experience at all. I love Believer just as much as I loved Saint, and he was like one of my arms, while she is my 5th therapy dog. Your successive relationships with your dogs can even keep getting better, because you can keep getting better at loving.

I find that it helps me to be there with the dog at the end. Not everyone can do this, but I need to know that I gave my dog this last comfort. It is hard, but only for a short time, and for the rest of my life I will know I did it for the dog. I think it helps me heal.

If you find this grief is lasting too long or seems too severe, it's important to get some professional help, whether before or after you lose the dog. Grief brings back your losses of the past, and losses that you have not come to terms with can keep you from working through the grief in a healthy way and being able to open your heart to love again. That's another reason it's important to let yourself grieve for your dog at the appropriate time. Sadly, we will probably have future losses, including losses of human loved ones.

I actually think learning how to grieve for our dogs can help us deal with these other losses better--that it is yet another gift our dogs give us. I'd rather be spared the pain, but the truth is, that is not going to happen. We need to learn from our dogs, including how to redeem the time we have been given for each season of our lives.

Atkins

2006-01-06T02:08:00.000-06:00

I hereby proclaim myself Queen of losing weight on Atkins while eating out. My husband helped me by bringing home whatever food I asked for, whether groceries or restaurant take-out, and by taking me out to eat darn near every day. Hey, those eating-out places are not full of temptations from my point of view. They are full of whole foods that I can't necessarily stock at home in the variety my allergic body needs.

My husband is not low-carb--in fact, he eats high carb and low fat--and at buffets we have both been able to get what we needed to eat. Not one time did I see something at the restaurant that I knew was off-plan, grab it and eat it. MANY times I educated wait staff about what was and was not workable on Atkins. And quite a few restaurant managers, too.

I cook at home now more than I did, because these days in maintenance I might want a pound of sliced, unbreaded okra with my dinner meat and fat, or something else no restaurant will be able to serve me.

I know there are people who, if a food is there and other people are eating it, feel "deprived" if they don't eat it, too. That's a good time to ask yourself some private questions. Just what are you being deprived of? Making yourself sick now and in the future? Making your own intelligent choices for your own life? Being a grown up? Eating the food that would nourish your body?

As Adele pointed out, in my overweight days I would not have taken kindly to someone telling me what I should or should not eat. Heck, even now as a skinny person I will see people giving my meat-laden plate the evil eye. Poop on them. Who cares what they think, if they have nothing more important to think about than what is on the plate of someone else whose health or overall eating plan they could not possibly know? There are some people in this world who, if they approve of you, there is something wrong with YOU!

I was involved with Overeaters Anonymous for 10 months at the end of losing my weight, and I recommend that to anyone. You will find sanity there. One thing they teach is that managing an addiction is not about you getting strong or you being a big success or you stopping a behavior. It's about you admitting that you are powerless over the problem, and surrendering to a higher power who will handle it for you.

12-step programs such as OA and Alcoholics Anonymous that Overeaters Anonymous is patterned on do not believe in "will power," nor did Dr. Atkins. Read that 2002 version of Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution book again and note what he says about that. Read the AA Big Book, for what they say. Read the 12 steps and 12 traditions AA book to find out how a remarkable program and a remarkable organization works.

Like so many people, I lost weight twice with sheer "will power," the second time 100 pounds. Both times it came back, and more. What I learned in OA and from Dr. Atkins' book is that I actually am not an addicted eater emotionally. My body was trapped in an eating pattern. I needed the right information and to surrender, to have faith to just do it, in order to get free of that trap.

So that's why I'm not in OA anymore. To be a sponsor and work the program, I would need to be a compulsive overeater. It's one compulsive overeater (or alcoholic) helping another. That is how it works. I don't meet that qualification. But many people stay in it indefinitely, as people do in AA, and it provides exactly what they need. It was not at all what I thought it was. Forget about Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig or a spa or a personal trainer or other motivational programs if you are a compulsive overeater--Overeaters Anonymous has them all beat, and it's...brace yourself...free. It's a free gift from one compulsive overeater to another. It's not for sale.

On my weight loss journey, I fed my mind and heart with all the positive reading I could get my hands on, including a great deal of material about 12-step programs. You mentioned an alcoholic not being able to go into a bar. Guess what. A recovering alcoholic in AA will go into a bar, especially to help another alcoholic. The founders of AA learned that an essential part of their own on-going recovery is to help other alcoholics. They don't go out and badger people, but rather they go where hurting people are--such as dying alcoholics in hospitals--and offer their support. In helping others, they keep their own sobriety.

If you read Dr. Atkins' book carefully, you will find that 12-step word: abstinence. We each find out for ourselves in an attentive low-carb eating journey what foods for us need to be included in abstinence. As Dr. Atkins also wrote, each person will have to customize the plan to their own body. When I very carefully pay attention to what another low-carber is eating, I can tell how their body is doing the math. I eat some things they do not eat, and they eat some things I do not eat, almost always. But the sum total is very, very close to the same. I'm not talking about carb numbers, but something else...hard to put into words. But the body knows. And you get a feel for it, if you keep paying attention long enough. It has to do with the exercise, the calories, the quality of the carbs, the protein, the fat, the non-nutritive or downright damaging foods, and more. The body is keeping track, believe me. Give it the right stuff, and you suddenly realize you have hit the "sweet spot." Then your goal is to keep it there!

Many people on effective low-carb eating plans who have achieved goal weight do the same thing AA members do, whether in OA or not, whether formally or not. They find that by staying involved with other people trying to do low carb and helping where they can, they keep their own weight controlled. If that were not true, hanging around low carb boards would be just as dangerous as you are imagining a bar would be to an alcoholic. All these people with all these excuses, whew. All these blow-by-blow accounts of the "delicious" food the person ate on a binge. All these friggin' "low carb" recipes, and the latest thing at a restaurant (a pox on TGI Fridays and all those other places who call a manufactured product "low-carb" and lure all the people who have not done their homework into going off plan!). This stuff is not good to be listening to.

I'm not saying I read in gory detail every foolish thing posted to a board. At certain stages of my weight loss, I skipped posts about topics or by people I knew were off track and about things I didn't need to be thinking about at that point. For example, I would quickly turn the page in a magazine if there was a recipe, picture, or ad for a dessert that would formerly have tempted me. I put my attention on other things, until my habits were so strong that I just really didn't notice that junk.

This is not a victory on my part. It is a work in progress that is being done in me by my own higher power, God. Though I've been at goal weight for over two years after losing more than 1/2 of my starting body weight in 21 months, this work will always be in progress and will never be finished. If I went off Atkins I would gain it all back and more, and probably not live long. I would wish I were dead, too, because I would quickly be so very ill. The stakes are high for me. But I have seen person after person who was a lot sicker than me just go right back to the food. Why? I don't know. They don't know why they did it, either. I just know that the only way this works is if I do not give myself the credit for it. I did not do it. I proved to myself abundantly that I was not capable of getting that weight off. It took divine intervention. If I did this weight loss myself, I would be living in fear that I was going to blow it, because people do that. God doesn't do that, though. He didn't bring me this far to let me down.

AA and OA teach that you can think of your higher power as whatever you need to, including thinking of it as the group itself. I was already a Christian when I went there, so that was a non-issue for me. In fact, going on Atkins in the first place was an answer to prayer. Or whatever you call a prayer that includes intense and prolonged begging for about 25 years! The answer I was given was this plan. I said, simply, "yes."

I meant it, so I just put my foot on the path and kept going, one step at a time. When I got stalled, I asked God to show me what to do. When he showed me, I did it, whether it was giving up a particular food or adding exercise or whatever. Some of the things I gave up, later I was able to add back. This daily weighing and constant adjustment will have to continue for the rest of my life. That's okay. It's a much lighter burden than that extra 181 pounds was. Note, too, that Dr. Atkins' book specifically says we will have to make adjustments for the rest of our lives.

I think another reason I was ready to lose is that I had accepted myself as I looked and as I was. I did not hate myself for being fat. I did not consider myself worthless or unlovable. If God loved me, who was I or anyone else to say I was unlovable? I am determined not to think less of ANYONE for being overweight, ever. I'll warn you, though, I might think less of you if you behave hatefully toward fat people, and that includes yourself if you think of yourself as fat! It's wrong to do that. So don't do it around me! Self-hatred will seriously get in the way of losing the weight, too.

My motto on Atkins has been "Just do it." No excuses--and also no grand plan to do it better than anyone on the face of the earth has ever done it before. No trying to eat less than anyone else or exercise more than anyone else or otherwise be a "better dieter" or make an extreme out of doing Atkins. Just do it. OVERdoing it isn't doing it. Doing it short-term isn't doing it--Atkins must be for life. Doing it intermixed with cheat days or vacations or going off plan because your brother-in-law's cousin's piano teacher's hamster died on this date last year isn't doing it, either. Just...do...it. No excuses, no fancy footwork, nothing else between you and the simple low-carb everyday plain and simple eating life.

---Minus 181 pounds on Atkins in 21 months, now at goal weight since 10/24/2003. I'm in the middle of a miracle. Thank you, God.

Of Weight, Eating, and Dog Handling

2005-11-20T03:38:00.000-06:00

I have a tale to tell about planning and lack thereof, but with a Master Plan. My sleep is wacko again, and I wind up needing to eat but not having a way to plan in advance because I simply don't know in advance whether I'll be eating in the daytime or the middle of the night.

I woke up at 11 last night after 8 hours of sleep and fixed my medication, some psyllium husk in water, and 6 cups of cocoa-powder-laced herb tea. Sipped the "big gulp" while combing dogs and watching TV and pondering what I was going to fix for my meal when I finished with them. Decided on boiled eggs, canned tuna, mustard, and green beans. My tummy likes the beans better in a salad like that these days than chopped onions, and I rarely have celery or bell peppers on hand to use.

Finished the dogs and my drink and went into the kitchen, started brewing another hot tea and peeling the boiled eggs. I wanted to use them up, so I peeled one for each dog, too. That task goes like lightening when I peel them with a spoon. I had the beans cooking in the microwave with some chicken broth to add volume to the sauce.

With all the eggs peeled, I set mine in a bowl on the counter and went to give the dogs theirs, carefully so they wouldn't rob each other. As I finished giving them, I thought I'd better check on the oldest, and make sure she ate hers instead of guarding it to start a fight with another dog stealing it. She hadn't even started, so I stood there prompting her to eat...each...bite.

I started thinking, this is taking so long, I hope Believer leaves my eggs alone. I looked around and she was out of sight. I called her and she did not come. I got Spirit done eating hers and went into the kitchen. Sure enough, my eggs were disappearing, and Beevy was on hind legs eating fast!

She hadn't touched the last two, so I rinsed them as I told her the gig was up, and thought, okay, how will I adjust this food for myself? I could have boiled a couple more eggs, but why bother? I switched to my sauce that has a little olive oil in it, and added sliced black olives. The nice thing about "salad" is how adjustable it is. I was very happy with the calories, carbs and satiety of this meal.

I didn't scold the dog. It wouldn't have influenced her choice at the next opportunity, because she had already had a great reward by getting to eat the eggs. I wasn't mad. It's nice to feel that peaceful about food--and about dog training. If I'd known I was going to be out of the room like that, I could easily have secured the eggs. It's not a dog's fault for acting like a dog. I was glad I had peeled them, because she will eat the shells if the eggs are not peeled. That is said to be okay for dogs, but I'm skeptical.

Eggs are one people food that is good for dogs as long as the whites are cooked, and she had no upset tummy. That was good, since I needed her assistance later on a shopping trip. My computer printer bit the dust yesterday and I had to go pick up a new one. Got my first Canon, and it seems nice.

Anyone who is worried about cravings this week, try to get some 500 mg L-glutamine capsules at the health food store. I take them with my arthritis medicine twice a day, a total of 4 pills a day. That's one reason my thinking about what to fix for that meal was relaxed and not hunger-driven. It totally takes the edge off. It does a lot of other good things, too, including help to heal damage to the esophagus from non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication.

Doctor Atkins recommends taking 500 mg a half hour before eating, if I remember correctly. L-glutamine is an amino acid, a component of protein that is found in chicken and is harmless. I did not start using it until I reached maintenance, because during the weight loss phases I wanted to learn to manage cravings with how I ate, and I really did learn that.

I would like to take L-carnitine, too, but I can't seem to keep enough of it on hand. It's another amino acid that Dr. Atkins recommended. I took one bottle of it, but taking 4 a day with only 60 in the bottle, it goes so fast.

Leading with the diet works because it keeps physical cravings and emotional upsets from bad eating out of your day. A human body feels food cravings when the insulin level goes up in reaction to a release of glucose into your system due to the way you're eating. That kind of craving is normal, but for people with an addiction problem to food, emotions and rationalizations and other mind games then jump on your back, too. You're weakened by the physical effects, so it's harder to hold out and eat right until your body gets straightened out again.

NOBODY needs that extra physical stress on top of what life already hands us. You can keep your life more peaceful by making the right physical eating choices, and that "leading with the diet" keeps your emotions about eating much easier to control, too.

I hit goal at this time of year and that first holiday season at goal I knew I'd better be very careful with the eating. I had to adjust my eating to stop losing, or risk losing too much, so I really was in the position of going to maintainance at the holidays. And I was just months into menopause, too!

If you go through all the phases of Atkins and experience the normal stalls on the way down, by the time you hit maintenance you have learned a lot about how your body reacts, but not everything. Hopefully you will have learned that maintaining at the same weight does not allow for going off Atkins. It only allows for some minor adjustments.

Unless you are a 25-year-old hard exerciser--preferably male!--you will have to continue to be very careful with your eating, for life. If you are diabetic and have any sense, you will especially WANT to be careful with your eating, because controlled carb eating does such a splendid job of regulating your blood sugar. If you have food addictions, same thing, because that jet-propelled blood sugar makes your body do a number on your emotions that you really don't need!

As I reached goal, I kept reminding myself--those of you who were around at that time may remember--that I did not lose the weight by my own power in the first place. It was not my accomplishment and it was not on me to keep it going. I would always need the miracle, but God would always be there--if not, why would he have done it for me in the first place? It was given to me to strengthen my faith, and the faith of others around me.

This is also what 12 step programs such as AA and Overeaters Anonymous teach. Getting out of the food--or the alcohol or the narcotics or the gambling or the sex addiction--is not something we "gut out." Eventually that approach will fail most people. But if you surrender to God--in 12-step terms, surrender to your higher power--you tap into real strength.

I don't have to be strong enough to keep the weight off by keeping the eating in line and the exercise in line. I have to be willing to surrender, and I have to renew that willingness with every choice I make all through every day. The strength resides with God, and I am given strength by turning there for it. When my dogs obey me, I can give them more privileges and more freedom and still keep them safe. I help them obey. I love them like crazy and all I want is what's best for them, not to "boss them around" just to prove I can. God IS love, so he's better at it with me than I am with them. Faith that actually works is real faith.

---Minus 181 pounds on Atkins in 21 months, now at goal weight since 10/24/2003. I'm in the middle of a miracle. Thank you, God.

Answer to Dog Question

2005-11-17T16:28:00.000-06:00

I got a question on a GSD, 9 months old, whining like crazy in training class and struggling to get to his humans when separated from them. Here's my response:

ANSWER:

Anxiety and eagerness to get busy causes the whining, which is common in breeds such as the GSD and also the Labrador. Training can fix this, but it won't be training "not" to whine--it will be training to do a lot of stuff! He's just a baby in German Shepherd time.

This is a breed that needs a ton of training, and they do brilliantly at it. You need the right trainer, and I think it would be wise to get some private coaching along with classes. It has to be the right approach, because of course the wrong handling at this age can ruin a dog's temperament. He sounds like a soft dog for a GSD--right up my alley, since I am nuts for the Belgian Tervuren. They're like "GSD-lite"!

Your dog needs to be trained with plenty of practice, lots of reward, prevention from making mistakes without harsh corrections (definitely not an electronic collar), and a wide variety of commands. If he were mine, our daily sessions would be an hour outing--since his class is probably an hour, he needs practice maintaining control for an hour. As a herding breed, he needs to get out away from the house to a wide variety of safe settings in order to socialize him to the wide world.

I would be working on these things with him daily:

Stays, one sit, one down and one stand per day, every day, some days on-leash during the outing and some days off-leash in the house. On class days, I'd watch time carefully and return to my dog at his correct time, no matter what the class is doing. Arrange this with the instructor. Also keep him on leash even if other dogs are off leash. He's too young and too anxious to be off-leash for group stays in class yet. Practice success, not failure.
Walk on a loose leash. Never move forward with a dog on a taut leash. Always loose, loose, loose!
Focused attention everywhere, especially at class!
Retrieving--at this age I'd be doing "Hold It" for up to one minute very gently, and stimulating the "Take It" with exciting play
Come when called, on leash or long line on outings and off-leash at home
Fancy footing. I teach the dog to walk on my left, on my right, turn left and right, about turn to the right and to the left, zig-zag, doodles, negotiate through posts, take backward steps in heel position--everything I can find and think of, to help him learn to move with me.
There's more, but my brain is freezing up! This sounds like a long session, but it shouldn't be. Most of the time should be happy walking and talking to him, with stops along the way to do an exercise or two and move on. Keep it fun, fun, fun. He is a baby. His joints probably hurt, too.

Do NOT ask for fast sits or downs at this age. Gently ease his hiney into a "big boy" sit by tickling at his tummy if he does a puppy sit, but do not force a straight sit at this age. His hips are all over the place. He needs to be learning to LOVE working with you. There absolutely do need to be definite limits on his behavior, so he can take pride in himself and feel confident that he can do what you want. He needs praise and rewards that he EARNS. This breed is definitely capable of good self-esteem, and he needs that.

Ask your veterinarian about trainers in the area who have good results with soft dogs--such as Shelties. They're herding dogs, too, and someone who is really good with a breed like that can get on the right wavelength for a soft GSD. You don't want a heavy-handed trainer or someone who believes in training by tricking the dog.

You also do not want the trainer correcting your dog, AT ALL. This is the wrong breed for that. Any corrections need to come from his trusted humans, no one else. You keep the leash, other than the trainer holding it and just keeping your dog happy, such as for the supervised separation of the Canine Good Citizen Test.

The articles of mine listed below the following link will help you:

http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=SRC&S=1&SourceID=47

Stress Whining
Loose Leash Training
Socializing to People, Places, Things (3 articles)
Stay Training
Retrieving in Play
Eye Contact
"Attention, Please!"
Training: What Does Your Dog Need?
Training Classes
Herding Dog Heritage

Kathy Diamond Davis, author, "Therapy Dogs: Training Your Dog to Reach Others," 2nd edition published by www.dogwise.com; and the free Canine Behavior Series at www.veterinarypartner.com. Note: I am not a veterinarian.

Destructive Chewing and Crating

2005-10-31T14:50:00.000-06:00

I just answered a question on destructive chewing in a case where the person would prefer not to use a crate, and thought it would be interesting to add to my blog (It's a male dog, so I'm using the male pronoun):

Scolding won't work on the chewing, but redirecting his chewing into appropriate items will work, when combined with supervision and him having time to grow up. Right now his teeth are screaming at him. They come in loose and have to be set into the jaw bone by chewing, so the chewing is a genuine need. It can also bestow lifelong benefits in dental health, if you get him into the habit of chewing good toys now. This is your best chance to get that chewing directed into the right items, during this special stage of his life.

Don't let him have access to things he tends to chew that are inappropriate, when you are not with him to supervise. Find some "dog proof" (for him--every dog is different as to what they'll chew!) area for him to hang out in when he's unsupervised. Some people use a room, but there are dogs who will chew the room apart! It helps to have a doggy door--or two, stacked, for sufficient height that he won't jump over--rather than a solid closed door. When the dog can see out, destruction to the door seems to be less common.

The crate is what most people use for the alone time, but it's not the only way. The bottom line is that it be safe for the dog and nothing there for him to tear up. Remember that you must not come in and punish the dog for destructive behavior, because that will produce separation anxiety, a really devastating problem. It will also make a dog fearful and distrustful of people like the one doing the punishment--something you definitely don't want with a giant breed.

When you see the dog chewing something inappropriate, have a spray bottle of a bittering agent such as Bitter Apple or similar products within your easy reach--put them around the house if necessary! Get up, say "Leave It" in a calm voice and spray THE ITEM with Bitter Apple. Don't touch the dog, don't spray the dog, don't yell at the dog--don't even give the dog a dirty look! Just make the item taste bad. Bitter Apple is not like some sort of force field that will protect an item from chewing. To do that, you would have to spray the item about 4 times a day, because it evaporates quickly. But Bitter Apple is awesome for training.

INSTANTLY after you say "Leave It" (calmly!) and spray the item, get a toy your dog likes and tease the dog with the toy just enough that the dog wants it. Make sure your husband understands, this is not to be a big rousing game: the objective is to quickly get the dog chewing that toy. You are switching the chewing from an inappropriate item to an appropriate one. You're going to do this over and over and over, and as your dog matures and you set this habit, you will have a dog who seeks out his own toys to fulfill his chewing needs.

Look at the textures of things your dog chews, and provide toys of similar textures--those are the things he's feeling his teeth need. No toys are safe for all dogs, so monitor, monitor, monitor. I like to provide three textures, usually solid rubber toys, hard Nylabones of the largest size that dog will chew, and large rope toys. If you have just one dog, you can put treats into a Kong or other toy built to hold food. If you have multiple dogs, do not leave them together with treat-filled toys, because they might well start fighting over them. The same is true of rawhide and other edible chews.

The crate or other confinement area doesn't teach the dog anything--you do the teaching. The confinement area is only to keep him from getting hurt or developing/strengthening bad habits when you are not supervising. So if you can do this without a crate, that is fine. I've done it both ways with different dogs.

Male vs. Female Dogs as SoulMates

2005-10-15T22:50:00.000-05:00

Answering a question someone asked online today, I got to discuss an interesting subject I thought would be good to post here:

Males are likely to enjoy exploring. I have found my male therapy dogs love to go through the nursing home or other facility and see who or what will be around the next corner. Male dogs, if neutered, can be good, flashy performers for dog sports as well as work such as assisting a disabled person. Male dogs seem to have a special sense of loyalty, and that may be a little enhanced when the owner is female.

Female dogs are the mommies and nurses. You might find this dog, with just the right early experiences, taking a motherly attitude toward small animals and children. The female is more likely to lick your ear because it's a bit sore--the male may be licking it because it's tasty! Female dogs tend to be somewhat more obedient. If a female dog is shy, she may be especially nervous in unfamiliar settings, because she's not quite as interested in exploring as a male dog is.

I like both sexes for my personal dogs. I have for quite a few years had two females--which is the toughest same-sex balancing act for keeping the peace--and one male. I feel that the females do not really "oppress" one another in choosing which is the top girl, but they also don't resolve it once and for all as well as the males seem to. That's my intuition as the reason girl-dog fights sometimes go to the death, and seem to never really be solvable. If you can keep them in balance, it can work. I've had two duos that did great, but the one I have now is more difficult. It works because one is mentally weak and the other is mentally very sound, and they both know it. So the weak one reluctantly lets the sound one prevail, and the sound one is, thank God, strong enough (younger and about 10 pounds heavier and about 3 inches taller) to make it stick.

I keep only one male at a time, because I feel that he helps to keep the girls in balance. He is like the final, top authority in the dog pack of three. They both respect him, and in fact, they both seem to find him very attractive and to want his attention.

When two males are kept together, they seem to have a tendency--in SOME breeds, but NOT in all breeds--for the males to decide who is top and who is bottom dog. They seem to pick a more stable pack order. The bad thing about that is what it can do to their temperaments. The top male can be too full of himself and potentially even have his attitude toward humans become slightly more dangerous. The bottom male can be forced to such submission that his life is somewhat oppressive and he is not capable of the accomplishments in life that he would have been able to rise to without that pack relationship forcing him down.

So, I don't want to keep two males together myself. I like the boy feeling like he is very special and has two girl dogs--or one girl dog--to make goo-goo eyes at him and get behind him when he "protects" her at the fence outside, and generally to let him have a healthy ego. I don't think it hurts a female dog mentally to be slightly subordinate to one other female dog, and that male in the pack is the REAL boss, so both girls seem to stay pretty mentally balanced. I think that, as with humans, males and females have different needs for their egos. We women have a stronger sense of who we are, perhaps? And males need a little more validation of that from what they are able to accomplish in the world they inhabit?

I'm going somewhat on intuition here, but I think it can be helpful to you in deciding what you want to do about the sex of your dog. The more interested you are in dog training and the more likely you are during the life of this dog to have another dog in your home, the more difference the sex of the dog could potentially make. But as I said, I prefer owning both sexes myself. I have had wonderful workers and lovies of both sexies!

I Love it When a Plan Comes Together

2005-09-15T23:59:00.000-05:00

I also loved it when the George Peppard character on "A Team" would say that. Actually, he still says it, in reruns.

This morning I had a dog food delivery after staying up writing all night. I put Gabriel and Spirit in the bedroom to rest and be out of the way for when the delivery man arrived. The dog food goes into the freezer. This time I opened the garage door (I love the automatic opener; so kind to my arthritis) and had it ready for him to back the truck up to the doorway in the rain.

I had Believer with me, leash hooked to my chain belt. Love that belt. I like the look, plus it's good for my diet and my dog handling. Leaves me one hand to work with while the other handles the cane.

I was reading a book, and tucked it under my arm when he drove up. She started to stare, which I did not want to see transition into excited barking. I had Iams MiniChunks in my pocket in a plastic spice jar. I whipped them out, said her name and stepped backward, getting her eyes with the treat. I kept the treats and movements and eyes going while he got the dolly loaded and started into the kitchen where he fills the freezer.

I took her inside, reducing frequency of treats and eventually stopping them. He spoke to her after awhile, and before he left, invited her to greet and to sniff the dolly, at which point I told her "Go Say Hi," and she did, calmly.

This is exactly what I want her to do, and it's so empowering to know I can shape it. In her, and in future dogs. Thank you to Linda Newsome for teaching me this! Thank you to crazy Spirit for motivating me to learn it or else! Thank you, Gabriel for showing me how easy it is with a stable dog--you did it for just a tennis ball, you dollbaby boy!

And to Believer: wow, girl. Thanks to her obviously talented breeder Susan Quesnel in Canada and to my brilliant breeder who clearly knows how to pick 'em--Believer has what it takes. Thanks to what Linda and a lot of others taught me, including much inspiration straight from God--she knows how to use it! When a dog makes that leap beyond anything you have taught her, and somehow just makes the right things happen, that is awesome. Believer does it every day. I am striving to learn all I can from her--and from Gabriel, who still has much to teach me. And from Spirit, though I don't always enjoy the lessons from her!

Pets in Disaster Shelters

2005-09-13T22:16:00.000-05:00

I wrote a little more today about the idea of how to handle pets in shelters set up for people being cared for after disasters:

I've been giving this a lot of thought, and have some how-I-think-it-would-work ideas. People have assumed it would be a mess, but I think if the right trained volunteers/FEMA personnel could be on site, it could be a huge plus.

One area in the shelter could be designated NO PETS, for those who don't want to be around them or are phobic or allergic. If they want to be in that area, they should be treated with respect, no questions asked, etc. Don't impose the animals on anyone.

Most of the rest of the human part of the shelter would be designated pets only in certain situations, including training and full attention from a human every moment and proper confinement.

Then adjoining the shelter in whatever manner can be arranged, a pet facility that has some spots where people can sleep. Those who cannot bear to be separated from their pets can sleep with all the pets. Volunteers and/or paid staff will have to be on duty (awake) in the pet area 24 hours a day to protect the pets from wandering kids letting them out, theft, etc.

Actually, having people with them would keep them quieter as well as safer. And letting anyone from the shelter who behaves themselves come to visit the pets, night or day (but NOT remove a pet from its cage, unless it's THEIR pet) would provide a powerful emotional benefit to many of the non pet owners as well as the pet owners.

The pet experts willing to work HARD will have to be there as fast as the workers ministering to the humans for this to be feasible. But I'm sure it is, and I'm equally sure it will save human lives and even reduce post traumatic stress syndrome. I don't think that is an overstatement at all.

About Disaster Response

2005-09-11T01:33:00.000-05:00

A Canadian email pal wrote today and asked me what I thought about what happened in New Orleans. In particular, she wondered if I thought it was a "race issue." Here are some of the thoughts I shared with her:

No, the difficulty getting rescue going in New Orleans was not a racial issue. A lot of the mistakes were made by the mayor, and he is black! The city is 67% black. The mayor wasn't properly schooled in what to do in this kind of emergency, and neither was the state governor. The federal government in the US does not govern the states, and in this situation the state's poor leadership resulted in people not getting help with the speed they could have.

Another problem was that no one has ever seen an emergency like this one. They had to create new methods to handle it, and it is going to add many pages to all the training manuals. Because the criminals who remained in the city--many of them released from flooding jails--were shooting at rescue workers and helicopters, many things normally done in rescue had to be delayed until they could be captured. No volunteer rescue workers could be allowed in, and normally the Salvation Army and Red Cross volunteers are the ones who actually take care of people once they have been plucked out of danger.

The difficulties were not the fault of George Bush. The blame game is foolish, and only interferes with getting help to the people and the city--several cities, and more than one state--that will need help for a long time.

It's so seldom that a disaster affects everyone in a city. Many of the people who did not leave New Orleans before the flooding--and there was a LOT of warning, several opportunities to leave--were the poorest, and had other problems, too. Certainly a lot of them had no transportation or money. Some were too ill or disabled to leave. Some were too poor to take pets with them if they left, and stayed for that reason. Many were so out of contact with the world that they had no idea what was happening. Some were mentally ill. You are probably aware that many homeless people are mentally ill, too. That is often why a person winds up homeless.

Nationally, more of the poor are white than black. But nationally a higher percentage of the population is white than black. In New Orleans, 2/3 of the population on all economic levels is black, so it stands to reason that they would have a lot of black people who are poor. The rescue workers on all levels, especially the Salvation Army and the many churches who are helping the survivors, are very experienced in helping poor people year-round. They did not hesitate to jump in and help, just as soon as they could get in.

New Orleans has to be made secure and rebuilt, because it is an essential port. That is a matter of national security, and there will be time for niceties of the federal government and the state and city figuring out how to work together. It's a shame that New Orleans doesn't have a City Manager as my city does. We elect a mayor, but our City Manager is carefully chosen by an application process, so that this person does know the technical aspects of running a city. Obviously the mayor of New Orleans does not.

Governors are elected as a "popularity contest," too, and the governor of Louisiana did not know what to do in the crisis. She failed to request help as she was supposed to do, and turned away help when it was offered. The Governor and Mayor were both apparently more concerned with their own images than with the safety of citizens. They gave contradictory orders for the running of the rescue operations. It was a real mess.

If we saw a disaster in Haiti or Jamaica and people needed rescue, we wouldn't be surprised that those people were black, because those countries have more black people than white people. New Orleans does, too. So what? People are people, and everyone rushed to help them.

Put a city underwater, cut the power and the communications off (including cell phones, since the towers were all offline), turn all the criminals loose and let them break into stores and steal guns, fill the water with human waste, dead bodies, snakes, alligators and other hazards--and see how fast anyone can get to everyone stranded in that mess.

The criminals included gangs, looters, and even people who came INTO the city when the levee broke, specifically for the purpose of stealing. They shot police, volunteers, and people who had lost their homes. They raped women and young girls.

Remember that police did not have communications, either, and everyone was trying to rescue people who had no food or water. That was so difficult that they were unable to take children in the same helicopter with their mother, so they got separated into different shelters. There were at least 150 children in that situation. The helicopter can't hold many people at a time, and they wanted to get the kids out, not leave them until there was room for a parent with them.

People have been desperate from the beginning to get in there and rescue the stranded animals, but rescuing humans had to come first, and the damn criminals delayed all rescues. I don't know what the government could have done about that any faster than they did, other than to immediately send in SWAT teams and Navy SEALS, and I think eventually that's exactly what had to be done.

No one anticipated the level of crime that happened. It hasn't happened in other American disasters. It was disgraceful. I doubt that particular problem will ever catch authorities unprepared again.

Another kind of criminal has been developing as we've had these disasters that bring lots of donations. After 9/11 there was a lot of misappropriation of the huge amounts of money donated to help the families. This time that problem is far worse than ever before, and getting worse by the day. You need to be very careful who you donate to, in order to know that your money is going to help people rather than into the pockets of criminals.

It's also sad that people in other destroyed areas may not get the help they need, because the media has been so focused on New Orleans. And as people rush to give donations to this disaster, they cut down their donations to other groups who depend on donations to carry on their work.

One thing that is going to be a huge problem as they get the water out of the city is that looters will be hitting homes as well as the businesses they have already been hitting. There is no way the police or anyone else can guard all the property. For one thing, they have to allow some access by people who live in the area. So property that survived the disaster so far may still be stolen or destroyed by looters. They've been having a lot of fires. It's, well, a disaster.

A couple of things I think will change as a result of this disaster. I think the staging procedures for disasters handled by our federal agencies will change. I think that many more individuals will be trained in running operations for various scenarios of disasters. I think that FEMA will be removed from Homeland Security and become an independent agency again.

I think this disaster made it abundantly clear that human lives will be lost if people are forced to separate from their pets to be rescued. They are going to have to rescue the pets, too, if the person asks them to.

Some pet owners don't care, and maybe those pets will need to be left for later. But they have to stop telling people they can't keep their pets with them if they evacuate. All the rescue groups, including the volunteer agencies, are going to have to figure out how to cope with rescue pets. Some people will die rather than leave them, and that must stop. We can do better, and we will.

At the disaster here in Oklahoma City in 1995, local Red Cross authorities altered the dog policy and brought volunteer handlers with their therapy dogs on the scene to work with the waiting families and the resting rescue workers. That was the first time, I believe, that the Red Cross let dogs in. Then therapy dogs served extensively after 9/11 in New York City and also with the people in emotional need associated with the Pentagon crash the same day.

In contrast, when we've had destruction of homes from tornadoes, hurricanes and floods, people need to know that their own dogs are safe. Therapy dogs could be upsetting to them, by reminding them of what happened to their own dogs. In order to take care of someone whose pet is part of their family, we need to take care of the pet, too. I think that is the kind of care we will be seeing in future disasters.

A lot of people are saying there is no way to handle the pets in shelters with the humans, that dogs will bite people, bother people, fight with each other, scare the cats, etc. I used to think that, too. But now I firmly believe it can all be worked out. One possibility would be to put the pet area next door to the people area, and make room in it for people who can't bear separation from our pets.

People comfortable in the people area with the ability to go next door and visit their pets anytime could do that. People who need to be closer could sleep in the pet area. Having some people in there would keep the pets quieter. The pets would likely be an enormous emotional benefit to people who didn't even have pets, too. A "people only" area could be maintained for the allergic and phobic folks. I KNOW this would work.

---Kathy Diamond Davis

Poison Ivy

2005-09-08T05:29:00.000-05:00

I read an article in the paper today about poison ivy and wrote in to the writer. She probably won't enjoy my email much, but what the heck, I'll post it here. Some "fond" memories there!

I've had poison ivy in my back yard, so I read your article with interest. It appears that the photo of the cluster of three green leaves on the first page of the Home and Garden section is not poison ivy. I'm sure you had no choice about the photos chosen--being a writer, I know how that goes.

I had a rash on my hand years ago that I thought was allergy to tomato plants. I showed it to a wise neighbor, and she said "Let me see your back yard!" She pointed out the poison ivy plants to me.

There's lots of stuff back there, including other types of ivy and Rose of Sharon bushes in every size. I had a lot of trouble identifying poison ivy leaves, especially compared to the Rose of Sharon leaves, until my neighbor Dr. Brimberry's little boy told me his daddy had taught him the poison ivy leaves have a "thumb." Sure enough, they do.

They are gorgeous in autumn, as your article mentioned. I've pulled them all out by now, after 26 years in this house, and only occasionally see a little bit. I think they move through the storm drains from Dolese Park. LOTS of it in the park the last time I looked. Poison ivy likes shade, so you want to be alert for it there.

I took a photograph years ago of my beautiful little Miniature American Eskimo Dog named Angel, wearing a red bandana and with a background of autumn leaves. I eventually realized those were poison ivy.

I was not allergic to poison ivy as a young person, but I discovered that repeated exposure can eliminate that immunity. I used to stand barefoot in my backyard right among those bushes in the photo behind Angel, picking mulberries from the trees above.

And then there was the time I got a new dog who romped like crazy with my other dog in the backyard on his first day with us, and needed 45 minutes of combing that evening. Talk about big hair, he had it. There was a poison ivy area out there I had missed, and the dogs ran through it on every pass around the yard.

That was Saturday, and on Tuesday I broke out with poison ivy on the inside of the forearm that had wielded the comb. The dog was fine. It is true that poison ivy doesn't bother them. Like many other dog owners, I'd rather suffer through it myself than have it happen to my dog.

Don't Mess with Texas/ Forgiveness

2005-09-08T04:39:00.000-05:00

I've saved this web page for ages because I get such a kick out of it:
http://www.send4fun.com/airforceone.htm#a

Now, whichever political preference is yours, please, please, please don't get off on that here! I just love that picture, and I think (I was born in Houston), that I really, really, really need a t-shirt that says "Don't Mess With Texas"!

We moved when I was 5, but visited Texas many times while I was growing up. I love the people there as much as the people in Oklahoma City. I'd love to live in Texas, except it's just too dang hot, LOL! It's as hot as I can stand it right here in Oklahoma City.

Wearing a "Don't Mess with Texas!" t-shirt might occasionally get me in trouble in Oklahoma, and I did graduate from OU, but Texans and Oklahomans are pretty good buds. There's a movie I love called Baja, Oklahoma with a theme song that refers to the relationship. And then there's the song that says "I've never been to heaven, but I've been to Oklahoma."

We don't get hurricanes here, but we hold some records for tornadoes. One thing about tornadoes, you don't have to agonize over whether to leave your house or not, because one way or the other, it's over quick. Once in a great while, your house leaves you! And if you need help, your neighbors will help you.

As I watch the coverage of the rescue efforts, I've been hearing the phrase about the authorities that "There's plenty of blame to go around." I'd like to add to that. There's plenty of forgiveness to go around, too. People are doing all they can now to heal the hurts. They can't bring back people and pets who have been lost, and those who intentionally hurt others will have to pay sooner or later. But the worst of it was not intended by anyone. I think it is a matter of national pride--and also national security--to rebuild New Orleans better than ever.

When People Suffer

2005-09-02T02:14:00.000-05:00

In the aftermath of the hurricane on the Gulf coast, many people are suffering tonight. As I read my daily chapters in the Bible, I came across these words in the book of Romans, Chapter 8, verses 28 through 39, in the newest version of the New Living Translation:

"And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.

"What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up fo us all, won't he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one--for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one--for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God's right hand, pleading for us.

"Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, 'For your sake we are killed every day, we are being slaughtered like sheep.') No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

"And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow--not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below--indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord."

For whatever reasons this terrible disaster has hit the people in the area and all the others whose lives will be affected as they go in to help and are otherwise involved, God has not abandoned his people. Many of them speaking to the media have testified to miraculous rescues. God has many people there in harm's way, and nothing can separate them from his love.

Praise Report

2005-08-21T02:47:00.000-05:00

I wrote this about my Atkins journey, to share with people who want to read a Christian account of God's intervention in life:

I have to give a "praise report." That's lingo for giving God the credit, the praise, for something he is doing for me.

Fighting the weight battle--or rather, standing watch so I can let God fight it for me--I had a bounce recently and knew I was going to have to adjust my eating. For a year or two with menopause I didn't sleep, and now my body seems ready to resume that worthy activity. I had to go to one meal a day and eat all I could eat at that meal in order to maintain at goal weight during that non-sleeping time. Now I need to go back to more, smaller meals, and of course there's always the fear of it getting out of control--especially when I've just bounced up about 5 pounds. Maybe 10. It's very difficult to pin it down within 5 pounds because of daily fluctuations.

This morning--well, morning to me, the time I got up from sleep and weighed--I could see it's starting to work, praise the Lord! And listening to my radio as I fed dogs and other chores, the song "I've Got a Peaceful, Easy Feeling" came on. Some of the words that caught my attention were "I found out a long time ago what a woman can do to your soul...and then something about her not being able to take you where you don't already want to go...and then "you won't let me down. I've got a peaceful, easy feeling, 'cause I'm already standing on the ground."

Remember (if you're my age and were a Christian back then, you will) when there wasn't much Christian music we could listen to between church services, and popular music was often meaningful to us in that way? I really felt this was a tap on the shoulder from God, reminding me that he took this weight off, he brought this problem to my attention and showed me the solution, and he has paid the price for this weight problem along with everything else that will ever be thrown at me. It's my job to stand. And my feet are on that ground.

This is not the first time in my weight loss journey that I've been tempted to panic and have turned to God and been carried through. It happened all the way down from 345 pounds to my healthy goal weight of 164, and since then repeatly as I've stayed around goal weight since 10/24/2003. This October will be two years! Every time, my faith has become stronger, like a muscle. But the real strength is not in me, it's in God. Faith is only believing. If you really believe something, you act on it. What God has asked me to do in action has not been hard. Like eating this nice meal right now instead of waiting six hours to eat. Not hard. But left to my own ideas, I'd stick to one meal a day, try to cut it down, and be too hungry to do that.

The statistics are that losing that much weight without surgery is very long odds, and keeping it off is overwhelming odds. You would not be wrong to call it impossible. But as I read the Bible every day to read it through each year, I'm in the four Gospels right now. I'm being reminded of all the healing Jesus did, and what he said about moving mountains, and about the impossible. Jesus said it was impossible for rich people to go to heaven, but that because all things are possible with God, rich people can in fact go to heaven. So I can by the grace and power of God stay slim. Fact. Believe in that fact. Not following my feelings. Telling those feelings they are going to have to get in line, because we are following the truth! And thanks to God, we know the way. I know God doesn't want me to keep it a secret.

God bless you,
Kathy

[This was written to a Christian who emailed me after reading my praise report. She has been healed of a very grave case of cancer, but struggling with weight. My praise report encouraged her. I responded to her email with this]:

Well, perhaps this will help. You found out that the doctors couldn't heal you and you couldn't heal yourself. You could seek God's direction about where to go for treatment, follow the treatment plan and most importantly follow instructions from God, and your doctor could prescribe treatment--hopefully with prayer for guidance. BUT, as you said, only God was able to give you the miracle of healing. We can't heal so much as a paper-cut finger, and neither can the best doctor in the world. Only God can heal, or give life in any way.

The same is true of weight loss, and keep in mind that science really understands very little about weight loss! You can seek God's guidance and surrender your will to do what he gives you to do. It will be pretty easy, since it's only a matter of food choices, and we are surrounded by those! Talk about "my yolk is easy and my burden is light"! Compared to getting a life-threatening diagnosis and taking radiation and chemo, surrendering our eating choices to God has to be a walk in the park!

But what do we do? We get all impatient. Imagine if you were a farmer. You prepare the land, put the seeds in the ground and start tending the plants. But you don't think the crop is growing fast enough. You keep going out there and looking at the plants, and when you don't like what you see, you get impatient and rip a bunch of them out of the ground and throw them away!

Only God can cause the plants to grow. And there is a Christian song I love, which is from a story in the Bible (II Chronicles 20--read it!) about King Jehoshaphat. The enemy army was closing in and King Jehoshaphat saw no way to defend from it. He prayed to God when he was under attack by a vast army. God told him:

"...the battle is not yours, but God's. Tomorrow, march out against them. You will find them coming up through the ascent of Ziz at the end of the valley that opens into the wilderness of Jeruel. But you will not even need to fight. Take your positions; then stand still and watch the Lord's victory. He is with you, O people of Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid or discouraged. Go out against them tomorrow, for the Lord is with you!"

On the day, the king appointed singers to march ahead of the army, singing praises to God! At the very moment they began to sing, God caused the armies ranged against Jehoshaphat to start killing each other, til none were left alive. It took Jehoshaphat's people 3 days to collect all the plunder. That place became known as the Valley of Blessing. And God gave them peace on every side, because no other country dared to attack them!

When I started Atkins, I only hoped to lose "some" weight. I was so ill that I wasn't going to last long going into menopause if I didn't get rid of some of that huge burden. I had carried it so long. My high weight was 375, and I'd been very ill for a few years before starting Atkins at 345 and lost 30 pounds from the illness, but then couldn't lose more. I couldn't have imagined starting Atkins and losing 181 pounds from there. I have serious autoimmune problems, and was never able to "diet" after age 26 when my rheumatoid arthritis hit. I would immediately get so sick I'd have to stop. So the weight just kept climbing, though I was not a compulsive overeater.

God gave me more than I would have even dreamed to hope for by taking off all the excess weight. I did NOT do it myself. He didn't give me the strength to do it--he just gave me a path to follow, an easy path, and he produced the results.

I am determined to never be a person who blames people for being fat. I of all people know that it is no one's fault they are fat. Whether it's due to compulsive overeating or a medical problem or whatever, nobody chooses to be fat. Unlike smoking or drinking or drug using, you can't stop and look normal the next day. It's probably the habit that does the least harm to others, and in many people likely serves the same function as psychiatric medications--more safely! I'm not saying being overweight is something to wish for, but it's not that bad, either.

We need to stop seeing excess weight as shameful, as a sin, or a reason to think less of a person--including ourselves! We Christians of all people should never buy into the world's values about how someone looks having anything whatsoever to do with their worth. We need to take the guilt, the shame, the angst and the desperation out of weight!

The secret is that when you can stop letting it be about how you look, it is much easier for you to stand calmly in the eating behavior God directs you to use for losing the weight, and watch God fix it! I was very okay with my appearance before I started losing. I love my work and if someone thought less of me because of how I looked, what did I care about their opinion of anything?! The people who paid no attention to the weight and were my friends then are the ones I really know I can count on now.

I wasn't "the pretty one" in my family, I was the smart one. Looks fade, and now in menopause with aging parents I'm seeing how smarts fade, too! But we can count on God. Forever. Weight is a minor thing to him. A big deal to us. I think he waited to take it off me until I reached a point in life where it wouldn't go to my head.

Last week my husband got just as big a miracle--his dream job. He wasn't ready for it until now, either. I just hope that by the time we need more money, we'll be ready to handle that! God can't give us these things until we're ready to handle them without killing ourselves or anyone else! We Christians can be such unruly "King's Kids" sometimes!

God Bless You,
Kathy

Click to Calm

2005-07-31T15:52:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow we start discussion of the book "Click to Calm" on DogRead, about how author Emma Parsons used clicker training to improve her Golden Retriever's aggressive behavior toward other dogs on outings. Should be interesting.

I'm struggling to survive summer. I keep saying each summer is my worst ever with allergies and other autoimmune problems, and then the next one keeps being worst. This one is a new record.

We got the car fixed and hubby is driving it. It looks and runs great, so we're happy with the choice to keep it rather than let it go when the insurance company totalled it. Now they have to find the title they've lost. It may wind up a salvage title, which is a shame. It was not that severely damaged, and hubby was able to drive it for about 10 days until it went in for repairs. The damage estimate was not the total valuation of the car, and the actual final repair bill was less than that. We got $4000 and it cost $4631-something to fix.

This leaves me scratching my head as to why, when it was the fault of the other driver, we wound up paying $631 to get the car fixed and having a regular title changed to a salvage title, removing the car's value for trade in. At least they should pay for the full cost of the repair. I got a complaint form from the state insurance commission. Once we get the title back, I may fill that out and send it in.

This has been exhausting and upsetting for both hubby and me, and took over 3 weeks to get this far--still no title, but we do have the car fixed. I'm glad we don't have our life savings in that car. This is such a reminder that having too much invested in something so vulnerable is not wise.

Work is hard, everything is hard. I'm trying to get more sleep, just to survive all this. Today it's 96 degrees. It may get hotter before summer is over, or it may not. Summer lasts through September here, sometimes longer. I had a big green salad for my food today, with salmon and a tomato on it. Pretty good. Seems like just about anything can be a salad.

Mysteries

2005-07-14T23:06:00.000-05:00

I'm reading Robert E. Armstrong's "Index of Suspicion," and hope to finish it tonight. It's an absorbing book, like his "Canis." After that I want to read "Bad Move," by Linwood Barclay, which I'm hoping will be a fun one. It's for a buddy read on the Murder and Mayhem list.

I just read the first 4 chapters of the book of Daniel for my daily Bible reading. The story of Nebuchadnezzar's 7 years of mental illness after glorifying himself for his position instead of giving credit to God is not new to me. But as I read it now in light of having God give me the miracle of losing 181 pounds, I'm reminded how essential it is to acknowledge that our successes come from God.

Daniel 4: 32 says "...the Most High rules over the kingdoms of the world and gives them to anyone he chooses." We forget that. We certainly do.

It also amazes me that after 7 years of insanity, Nebuchadnezzar was able to get his kingdom back. You don't see that everyday. Surely that was God at work, too. Of course it was, since he decides who will rule over humans.

So many books I want to read. I'd better get back to it!

Ebay and PayPal

2005-07-08T00:30:00.000-05:00

Among other things in this past week I've been dealing with an Ebay auction gone badly and trying to get my PayPal account set up right. I "won" a couple of Ebay auctions with the same seller whose listings said she would combine shipping. She sent me an invoice doing so, I paid it, and then after a few days she sent me another message that she had changed her mind. She wanted more money for shipping. I told her I would prefer to cancel the purchase. I don't think she would lose by it, since I was the only bidder. I don't know how she is going to handle it.

I hate auctions. Half.com and Amazon Marketplace work well for me, because they set rules and standardize payment and there's an agreed price. Sellers who do not behave honorably lose the privilege of selling there. The auctions on Ebay are too loosey-goosey. This particular seller is the worst I've encountered, but I have done very little bidding. I don't like that way of buying things. And now I like it far less.

PayPal requires you to give them a bank account number in order to keep using their system to make purchases past a limit of $2000. Clearly they prefer the lower costs of pulling money out of people's bank accounts rather than paying credit card companies their fees. Credit cards add an extra level of protection for the purchaser, though, especially gold and platinum accounts.

I chose to do it on the up and up, which is always the way I prefer to do things. But I learned that many buyers are not doing it that way. Instead they are using different email addresses tied with different credit cards in order to get a new $2000 limit. PayPal has a rule that they will cancel an account that does this, but it appears they haven't gotten around to catching all the violators.

People who want to sell online in a small way can get set up to accept PayPal payments less expensively than they can get set up to accept regular credit card payments, so PayPal has grown. I read somewhere that they have recently been sold. Perhaps their financial relationship with Ebay is now different.

I came across one site that is offering a merchant credit card account to sellers with no set-up fee. Apparently a typical fee to open such an account and be able to accept credit cards is about $500. Credit card companies take a percentage of the merchant's sale, and I think it's something like 5%, varying according to the specific merchant account. Usually smaller merchants pay higher rates than larger ones. PayPal charges the seller a percentage, too, somewhere in the neighborhood of 2% or so.

It looks like competition is increasing for those dollars from small vendors online. PayPal is trying to make more money, and other companies have their eye on the business. Credit card companies are doing all sorts of shady things to get more money out of every end of their business, including shooting up people's interest rates when they make one late payment.

They also lure people who don't know any better into overextending themselves with credit card debt, at a very young age. You have to wonder how many young people have had to drop out of college as a result of the debt load.

I read that Ebay is planning to set up more online stores with their sellers, so there will be more items for sale without the auction process. That could be a good thing if they will standardize the payment and shipping practices on the sellers so that buyers can know what they are getting into.

Many people are doing a great job of serving customers online. I hope that Ebay will find ways to better support the good sellers and help weed out the ones who don't treat customers right. And I hope one or more payment systems will be developed to provide both buyers and sellers with reliable and safe funds transfers at reasonable rates. At the same time, I hope to see the system stay affordable for small merchants. Small business is very good for the economy and for our overall freedom. I want it to have what it needs to thrive.

Conformation Article

2005-07-01T06:58:00.000-05:00

My article about Conformation Showing is in the Canine Behavior Series now, and I'm pleased with it. Here's the URL:
http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=2049

I'm also starting a new guest author on DogRead today, Robert E. Armstrong, who writes mystery novels now and is also a veterinarian with a fabulous educational and career history. I'm looking forward to this month.

Poor Spirit, my 12-year-old crazy-dog is going to have a rough 3-day weekend. There's an air show with "the biggest fireworks display in the state." There will be lots of fireworks, starting today on Friday and certainly going through Monday July 4th. And we're having thunderstorms. For crying out loud, what more could happen to frighten a noise-phobia dog: maybe a building will explode in the neighborhood? We've been feeding her heartily the last couple of weeks, trying to get ahead for the meals she'll probably refuse this weekend. She'll eat some, but unlikely full rations.

I'm reading Elmore Leonard's "The Hot Kid," which I didn't expect to like, but surprise, surprise! it's great. I'll have to look up more of his books.

I signed off several of my email lists. It's been freeing. I have so many things to do, and limits of both time and health. I have to be selective. If something is taking more than its share of time and especially if it is harming my ability to do more important things, I have to chuck it overboard.

I've missed a ton of sleep lately, but finally slept 10 hours and got up a couple of hours ago. I feel better. My shoulder is in terrible shape with arthritis in that tendon, and has given me some nasty pain surprises over the last several weeks. Yesterday I used that arm to close my car door, and the pain was like being hit by a bolt of electricity. It seems like the tendon is inflamed or otherwise damaged on down the full length of the upper arm. Geeze.

It really feels like July, and more 4th of July than any year I can remember, due to the increased enthusiasm for holidays in our society plus the timing this year. With the 1st falling on a Friday and the 4th falling on a Monday, people are in an extreme holiday mode. I predict they'll take 4 days off, need Tuesday through Friday next week to catch up on work, then another weekend and a frantic Monday, and only the Tuesday after that will people start getting back to business. Should be an interesting time!

Email Lists

2005-06-24T02:26:00.000-05:00

I can't be the only one who has a love-hate relationship with email lists. It can switch from hate to love and back for the same list several times some days! I join them, I leave them, and I join new ones. I never learn. Lists seem like such a good idea, but experience demonstrates otherwise most of the time.

So, I don't know. There are too few hours in a day. I shall continue to work at making the best choices I can as to how to spend them. Tonight I decided that cutting my number of lists might help. I've been working toward the decision. Leaving an online community is not something I do lightly.

Not that I left all of them, or even half, or even the ones I work the hardest at. It definitely made sense to cut back. Had to be done sooner or later. A sane person would have done it sooner.

I wrote an article for the Canine Behavior Series the other night that I hope will do some good things. It will be posted next week. I hope every week that the article will do something, but this is one of the extra-special ones, I hope.

I talked to the folks at Pen City the other day about a problem I'd been having and they offered a solution I greatly appreciated. It's not here yet, but something to look forward to.

I was interviewed for an interesting publication this week, a big one. It's too soon to tell whether it will all work out, but fun to think about.

Too much to do these days. But it's interesting stuff.

Richard Russo's "Straight Man"

2005-06-17T02:32:00.000-05:00

I finished reading "Straight Man," by Richard Russo this morning. Made me want to read "Mohawk," "Risk Pool," "Nobody's Fool" and "Empire Falls" by the same author. Such a rich work, especially in terms of character study, and good-natured, too. Living in a sometimes-hateful world, I appreciate that.

The "Pit Bull" Controversy

2005-06-14T02:07:00.000-05:00

If I were Empress of the United States, what--if anything--would I do about the question of whether certain breeds should be eliminated as too dangerous? I do not know. I would want to see as much as possible about what the effects of various actions would, long-term, be for communities and dogs before making such a decision.

You can't escape the discussions of this topic if you spend much time in dog communities online. Some feel that no one needs such a dangerous breed. Some feel that if the breed (which by the way is NOT a "breed," but rather an amorphous group of dogs that is vaguely defined by people who don't know much about any of the dogs they include) were eliminated by breeding bans, those who misuse these dogs would pick another breed or breeds to misuse. Doubtless that is true.

Would it be Presa Canarios or the like? I'm thinking not. One appeal of the "pit bull" type dog is that they can be easy to handle. The people who want a dog to go after other people or who ignorantly choose one that will do so are not looking for a dog they would have to train or struggle to control on a day-to-day basis. "Pit bulls" are not that big and not inherently aggressive to humans. The injuries to humans seem to be more about prey drive gone awry than about aggression toward people.

Another statement constantly made is that it will be other breeds next. Maybe, maybe not. What would happen next is speculation.

The real problem is that communities don't want to spend the money to enforce the dog laws already on the books. A prime example is something that happened today in my area. A three year old boy was in his back yard, apparently alone, and stuck his arm through the chain link fence alongside his yard, through the hole where a slat was missing from the stockade fence on the neighbor's side, and three or four (I'm not sure which number) of the neighbor's ten "pit bulls" tore up the child's arm so badly it had to be amputated.

The owner was not sure whether the dogs' rabies vaccinations were up to date or not, and he cooperated in having them put to sleep. It is legal to keep no more than four dogs where he lives, so now he has to get rid of some more, too.

The fence situation between my house and the house next door is exactly the same, except there are currently no dogs on the other side of that yard's tattered wood fence, and my dogs are let out to potty inside a third fence that is several feet back from all the property line fences. They're only out in the whole yard when one of us is with them. I've had scary dreams about what dogs might move next door in the future. I'm not afraid of dogs hurting me and I don't have children, but I don't want my dogs to get hurt, and dogs, not humans, are the main target of "pit bulls."

I feel that everyone should be entitled to have a companion animal of some kind, but not everyone can handle some of the more potentially dangerous dogs. The facilities you have for your dogs are definitely a factor. Complying with the law is a factor, and this fellow had far more than the legal limit of dogs, probably more than he could afford to keep vaccinated. At any rate, he didn't do so, which is also illegal.

The child wasn't being watched, either, but was in his own fenced backyard with two fences between him and the dogs. Most people would probably consider that adequate, if they don't realize how easily a motivated dog can go OVER a fence. In this case a curious, active child stuck his arm where it didn't belong, and the dogs weren't biting a "person," but what to them was more of a disembodied arm.

We have to hold dog owners accountable because no one else can go in and control a dog if the owner doesn't do it. In terms of accountability, why didn't any of the neighbors report that the man had ten dogs? People who want ten dogs need to move to locations that legally allow that number. Dog owners don't want to hear that. But it's true just the same.

Does outlawing "pit bulls" prevent something like this from happening again? No. One thing that will likely happen to that dog owner now is the loss of homeowners insurance to cover liability for the actions of his dogs. I don't think owning too many dogs or not having them vaccinated is sufficient for him to have to worry about jail, but he'll be on the hook for 100% of the child's expenses at the very least. That could be a huge figure, because it's a permanent disability. But if he had had only the legal number of dogs, four, and all had been vaccinated, would it have prevented the injury? In this case, probably not. Sticking his arm in through the fence at even one dog could have cost the child an arm.

For the sake of the dogs and the humans, I'd like to see a set-up such as mine become a lot more common. My dogs exit the back door into a fenced area that is well back from the property line fences. No one can reach them and they can't reach anyone who is outside the yard. It literally provides a wide margin of safety.

By contrast, many housing divisions these days don't allow homeowners to have any fence at all. That is madness. I hope some huge lawsuits put a stop to such covenants. Perhaps it won't be lawsuits, but rather changes in local laws when the need for fences around dog yards is more recognized.

The wrong dog is the problem much of the time. A strong dog with strong drives is the wrong dog for a casual owner not interested in putting forth a great deal of effort to train and manage a serious dog. There are plenty of mild dogs that fit these situations well, if people would stop choosing dogs based on frivolous things such as looks or what the guy up the street has or some romantic notion of engaging in an activity they never actually follow through on. It's too easy to get a dog. People do it impulsively, and their neighbors bear the consequences.

Getting a dog from a shelter or rescue versus a breeder is no help at all in winding up with a dog you will be able to handle. It may be a detriment if the dog has undetected problems, or it may be pretty much the same either way, if you don't go to a responsible and knowledgeable breeder. Responsible dog ownership starts with choosing a dog you will be able to handle.

If we want to keep our freedoms with dogs, we need to do a better job of keeping up our end of the responsibilities. We need to insist that communities enforce the laws on the books before they pass more restrictive laws they aren't going to uniformly enforce either. We need to find ways of holding people accountable at an earlier point of irresponsible dog ownership, before someone gets hurt. One thing that needs to happen is citizens stepping up to report violations such as numbers of dogs that exceed the legal limits, dogs running loose in violation of local laws, and children being left in dangerous situations. It is just as dangerous to leave a preschool-aged child alone with a dog as to leave the child alone in a car. Parents need to know that.

This was a tragedy spawned by ignorance. Neither party thought such a thing could happen to them. And yet again, responsible dog owners and their dogs are at risk of paying this price for this ignorance. I bought a house in the first place so I could have the animals I wanted. I don't want ten, or even five. There might be a time I would want four, if one or two are very old and/or sick. I hope the laws don't become more restrictive because of people not obeying the laws already in place and failure of the community to enforce those laws. It's too easy to pass laws. And it only hurts those who sincerely try to obey them. The people breaking the current laws can just as easily violate the new ones, too.

Bible

2005-06-08T02:12:00.000-05:00

In my annual journey through the Bible, I'm up to Isaiah. This jumped out at me:

"Lord, you will grant us peace; all we have accomplished is really from you." --Isaiah 26:12

and this

"Has the Lord struck Israel as he struck her enemies? Has he punished her as he punished them? No, but he exiled Israel to call her to account. She was exiled from her land as though blown away in a storm from the east. The Lord did this to purge Israel's wickedness, to take away all her sin." ---Isaiah 27: 6-9a

and

"Yet the time will come when the Lord will gather them together like handpicked grain. One by one he will gather them--from the Euphrates River in the east to the Brook of Egypt in the west. In that day the great trumpet will sound. Many who were dying in exile in Assyria and Egypt will return to Jerusalem to worship the Lord on his holy mountain." ---Isaiah 27:12

That feels something like my story.

I'm starting to read "The Name of the Rose," by Umberto Eco, and "The Key to the Name of the Rose." It seems intriguing, and so does the study of semiotics.

I've just reread "The Koehler Method of Dog Training." Very controversial book. I'm glad to have dogs who respond so well to much more moderate training methods. I'm like most people training a dog these days, not using any one method exclusively. Gabriel is retired, but I find great joy in spending time with him. Believer is still very actively working, and I find deep satisfaction and and pleasure in partnering with her.

The Coin Task

2005-06-07T01:36:00.000-05:00

I talked to my Paws with a Cause Oklahoma state Director-trainer friend Barbara Lewis the other day and asked about the coin task. She said she's not seen dogs harming themselves by swallowing coins, and the nickle Believer swallowed must have been a fluke.

I don't know what it is about her, I've known her for probably 20 years, not best friends, but we've been around each other handling dogs and she's very supportive of me being out in the community here with an assistance dog. The few times I've talked with her on the phone since starting to work Beevy in this job have helped beyond belief. We speak the same language.

So I've put a quarter on my desk, and when I get a moment I call Beevy in, drop it and let her work it one time. Still have the same quarter. The trainer told me practice will help the dog figure out how to hold it, and I see that happening. It's a nice clamp, no messing around.

I'm not using a leash or food, just the dog's desire to work, petting and praise. She and I speak the same language, too. At the moment she's dozing with her head on my foot. Good place for it.

Book Idea, Maybe

2005-06-03T02:23:00.000-05:00

I had an idea for a book I'd like to do. I haven't proposed it yet. I've not been well, and the work of jumping through a bunch of hoops to dot "i's" and cross "t's" for a publisher to "think about it" just wears me out. In other words, I don't want to write a book proposal. That's like a query, bluck. Just a big fat waste of time. If I do a book, it will be a work of the heart, my whole heart, and they want it or they don't. I want to spend the energy doing the book, not dancing around with other paperwork. There's so much research, writing and rewriting. No energy to waste.

We'll see. Maybe I need to bite the bullet and get an agent. But I have an awful feeling an agent would merely find more energy-wasting hoops for me to jump through.

I've been thinking about getting a small dog after Spirit goes to heaven. I'd like a Miniature American Eskimo or an undersized Shetland Sheepdog, a dog around 15 pounds who could romp with (and help exercise) the Tervs and be a cuddle buddy to all of us. But looking at things from the assistance dog point of view, I want to avoid any situation that could take away from either Believer's or my next male's (maybe his name will be Savior) ability to work as my assistance dog.

On the other hand, it will be hard for an assistance dog, or one in training or one who is retired, to stay home while I go out with the other. A little female dog would be a companion to the assistance dog sitting out that trip.

It would be another dog to train, a dog who could not assist me and therefore would need to go out training and socializing when--what--I take an assistance dog along to help me? But then I'm leaving an assistance dog home alone, ARGH!

There is also the noise factor, as most little dogs and certainly both these breeds are barkers. We do not have that problem now and would be quite unlikely to have it with two Tervuren. Two Tervuren could probably accompany us on an emergency trip for a family emergency. Three dogs might not be able to. I've never taken three to my parents' house.

If I need a program-trained dog in the future, they will not place an assistance dog in a home with other dogs in most cases. One case where they will is a retired assistance dog. If I reach the point where I have a retiring dog and need them to train my next, not getting this small dog could make things work when otherwise it might not. They could decide to make an exception, but there are reasons for the rules.

And then there is the work and the cost of taking care of three versus two. A small dog is not less expensive. Dental problems in particular are a concern.

I think I need to cool my jets about this idea, and perhaps one way to do that is to make up my mind not to even consider it until I've had my next male at least two years. Training him is going to be a huge undertaking for me. I also want to get Linda's and my book brought to birth satisfactorily, and do the other book I have in mind. Two more huge undertakings.

Well, on to my exercise and reading and eventually to bed. And tomorrow I hope I get some fried chicken and cream gravy! I had planned to go to KFC today and decided not to, so I'd be able to go out for that tomorrow if hubby wants to go to a place that serves it. Don't want to eat that two days in a row, because there are some lesser-quality carbs involved. I had great food today, though, something new I put together. Kind of a "salmon melt," lots of sauteed onions in butter, canned salmon, lots of French's yellow mustard, and grated sharp cheddar cheese. I think this will become a staple for me.

My Weight-Loss Story

2005-05-29T16:19:00.000-05:00

I wrote this for another purpose today, and wanted to share it here, too:

If I was ever an addicted eater (other than wanting more sugar whenever I had any!--which is basically physiological when you're diabetic), God had dealt with that over the years. My problem was metabolic and autoimmune, and I was really trapped in the weight. Whenever I tried to lose by cutting calories, the rheumatoid arthritis would go berserk, accompanied by the severe respiratory allergies getting dramatically worse--and I would get an infection. The stuff I was catching had become quite serious, including a gum infection and two tooth infections that got very complicated. As a result of those I'd lost about 30 pounds and there were foods I couldn't eat. That 30 pounds is on TOP of the 181 pounds I lost on Atkins, so I'm more than 200 pounds below my high weight, and holding steady for a year and a half now.

But when God answered my prayer to lose weight (in his time--I guess when I was really ready) by showing me the Atkins plan, I realized these were foods my mouth could handle. No sugar was something I had tried at one point before, but at that time I had not known about the other carbs that do the same thing sugar does (white flour, potatoes, corn, honey, high-sugar fruits, etc.). Basically, when God gave me the plan, I simply said "Yes," and surrendered. And kept surrendering, all the way. And STILL. Because I have to stay alert to the "My" foods that try to sneak in and cause trouble, and be willing to give up ANY food that God shows me is not for me. I weigh every day, and just stay straight about it.

I learned so much and am still learning. I had been an avid crafter while heavy. Now, not as much. That just shifted in my brain. When I was young I had been an avid fiction reader, but during the years of gaining weight I wasn't. Right after I started losing, I started reading fiction again, craving it! I found a quote in Zig Ziglar's "Success for Dummies" (super book) from an expert on drug addiction that reading an exciting book stimulates the same brain areas as drugs and such. You know the quote "Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker"? Well, I do think that sugar, alcohol and some other things are all going into the same place. Fiction is a much better way to go there!

I have always sought out positive reading, and of course did that to help through the weight loss, too. One book that inspired me--and I think next to the Bible this may just be the best book ever written--was the AA Big Book. I was also blown away by the traditions of AA. It is like no other organization I ever heard of. I remembered hearing about an organization like AA, for overeating. So I sought out Overeaters Anonymous. By this time I had lost 119 pounds, and looked normal. The emotional stuff that goes with this change in your body image after 20 years is unbelievable. Unlike an addiction to alcohol or drugs or cigarettes, addicted eaters have to WEAR it, for all to see. I thought I was a compulsive overeater. So I went to OA. God is there, wow. AA and the other 12 step programs are his workshops! Such love, such acceptance, such support. OA really supported me through the huge emotional steps of accepting myself as "normal" and dealing with the changes in how other people perceived me. I just sailed through all that, thanks to the people God brought into my life through OA.

After 10 months in OA, it had become clear to me that I'm not actually an addicted eater, not mentally addicted, anyway. If that makes any sense. My food cravings are sheerly physical and are easily managed by diet. I do find the amino acid L-glutamine helps, but it's not a drug, just an amino acid found in chicken. I didn't even buy any until I'd lost all the weight. The L-glutamine makes a safety net for me against cravings, plus it's a very healthy nutrient in other ways. I probably always needed it.

The real danger time (believe it or not!) is in maintenance, because you have to stop the weight loss but not gain. That is soooooo hard! You have to experiment with foods to learn what you can handle and what you cannot. It is just too dangerous to do what the majority of people--including me in the past--try to do in maintenance, which is "blow the diet," alternating with dieting off the weight gains. Atkins will NOT work that way. No plan works well that way, but you could make yourself really sick doing it on Atkins.

I had to leave OA when I realized I'm not a compulsive overeater, because at that point I had gone as far as I could there. I can't sponsor someone, because I'm not a compulsive overeater myself! And it began to feel like eavesdropping, hearing about problems that just don't apply to me. I worked through the 12 steps, including the moral inventory and sharing it with a sponsor, and there were no surprises. Realizing I need to give control of my life to a higher power? Not a problem. Helping others--the 12 Steps are basically the Christian life. The angels must sing every time there is a 12-step meeting!

I learned so much about addicted eaters in OA that I really needed to know as a "role model" who has lost so much weight. Lots of people are trapped by weight these days, due to the American diet, bad information, health issues, lifestyles, and certainly in many cases food addictions. There is no one reason. One thing I am determined not to be is one of those people who has been delivered from a problem and becomes hypercritical of those who have the problem. Not a good idea for someone to ridicule a fat person around me. I have a menopausal mouth!

God gave us menopause for a reason! Menopause has been physically rough on me because estrogen is a powerful anti-inflammatory. My autoimmune ailments are inflammatory. Remove the estrogen, and oh my. It has been one not-so-pleasant surprise after another, and I would have been in serious trouble carrying more than twice this weight. I CAN'T carry that weight. If I were to go back to the way I used to eat, it would come back fast, and probably kill me. I am committed to keeping the weight off--and it has NOTHING to do with appearance whatsoever for me. It's about moving and breathing and continuing to work as a writer and to help people with their dog problems! (I love my work.)

The mental effects of menopause are NEAT, though. There's creativity, and all sorts of newness. I feel like a young old person--getting things all ready for a new stage of life. A natural menopause is a good thing. Physically I figure it's better for my body to go on and make the adjustment to the lower estrogen level--it's my understanding that it takes about 3 years, and I'm 1-2 years into it--than to take hormones and put it off until I'm older and might have even more health issues.

God helps those who humble themselves and accept his help. It's like someone clinging to a handhold that's the only thing keeping them from falling to their death off a cliff, and God's hand is out offering rescue. He won't snatch them up against their will. If they so much as let go to reach toward his hand, he will deliver them. I think sometimes people know that, and they think they'll wait and try it on their own first. Meanwhile, their situation continues to deteriorate while they mess around--life getting out of control from addictions as one example. Time wasted. Opportunities missed.

But then again, who knows what trouble I might have been getting into if I'd stayed slim when I was young? I gained 100 pounds on birth control pills in 3 years in my 20s, got off them and dieted that weight off. The male attention was not a healthy thing for me. This time that did not happen. I have a great marriage and no interest in other men. My body language says that. Plus I think they are more interested in my assistance dog than in my body!

God is so good!
God bless you,
Kathy

Good Dreams

2005-05-28T01:24:00.000-05:00

I've been sick with a virus, ugh, and still in pain with the shoulder and hands. I've continued to work with Believer maybe 5 minutes a day on the dishes nest-and-pick up, and she's got it. Now I'd like to add more dishes and eventually get her flipping them over from upside down, but we'll just keep taking it slowly. I'm so proud of her.

I had a vivid dream last night that my Miniature American Eskimo Dog, Angel, was alive again. She died in 1993. She was a brilliant dog, a wonderful friend, and a super therapy dog, 15 1/2 pounds of love. I know what the dream means. Just have to decide if it's only about what I want, or what I need.

I have been unwilling to get another little Eskie during Spirit's lifetime, because she would treat her very badly and I won't let that happen. But Spirit turned 12 in March. I got Spirit 3 days after Angel died. I'm glad Angel came to see me in my sleep. She is always welcome. The rescue site for the breed is called Heart Bandits. Very aptly. She certainly stole mine. That's okay. Heaven is a good place for my heart to be.

Eskies bark, so it would be noisier around here. Believer and Gabriel and any future male Terv I get would surely be good to an Eskie and would enjoy her. I just need a good temperament and good health. Conformation is not important. But, I don't know, we'll see if it's meant to be or not. I DO have the ramp now...

I haven't work further on picking up coins with Beevy, but she picked up a macademia nut off the floor to eat the other day and gave it to me on command. Whew, those are toxic to dogs. Probably not just one, but I'd rather not take chances.

Good dreams to all.

Believer Going Strong

2005-05-20T19:14:00.000-05:00

Today when I took Beevy into the garage and slid out three dishes, I had her "Hold It," "Put It In" and she didn't puzzle over which to put into the other, and go back and forth like she's been doing. She held to the one(s) in her mouth and concentrated on figuring out how to get them into the one on the floor and then pick up the lot. It went fast, and she was much more confident. I'm interested to see what tomorrow will be like.

First thing this morning I was in the garage where I hang clothes to dry, putting on a clean shirt over an extremely sore and stiff shoulder. I took my glasses off to reduce that problem as it went over my head. But managed to drop them on the floor in handling the fresh shirt. I can't see worth squat, and didn't want to risk stepping on them by moving around. Beevy in the living room heard the soft sound of them hitting the floor (the lenses are plastic, frames are metal, and I paid a lot extra to get them thin and light for such a strong prescription) and shot through the door to help. I reminded her to be easy with them, and she was very careful.

Amazing that the sore shoulder finally let me sleep--a solid 12 hours. I don't think I've had more than one night of even 8 hours in a month. Good thing hubby was here to let the dogs out. The shoulder (tendon is inflamed) was so bad this morning I improvised a sling to go out to breakfast, and had to use the cane with the other hand. But it loosened up some through the day. It's not injured, but is inflamed from rheumatoid arthritis and can be better very quickly when it makes up its mind! It's being made more difficult by being the right arm--I'm right-handed--and the big joint connecting my thumb to the right hand is also badly inflamed. Inflamed like this, the joints are vulnerable to injury, so I have to be careful. The pain reminds me.

Adventures in Dish-Stacking (Believer)

2005-05-19T01:48:00.000-05:00

The last few days I've been going with a sidetrack from the coin retrieval (still don't have my nickel back, about 10 days now), because Believer and I got interested in the task of stacking and carrying stainless steel dog dishes.

Believer finds stacking them a little confusing, which I can understand since I have the same problem with putting my hair into a bun. It's not a habit yet, and I haven't figured out a way to verbalize for myself, so I sort of fiddle with it until I get it. I see her going through the same process.

The last 2-3 sessions, I've gone into the garage with her, away from Spirit. I set out three dishes a few feet apart, and direct her in a quiet voice to get them. I want her to keep trying, but be able to think and not feel too much pressure. If she starts to give up, I gently touch her side with a couple of fingers and urge her on.

She'll pick up one, walk to another, and then have trouble figuring out how to get one into the other. She may set down the one she's holding and pick up the other to set into it. She may do that twice. She's working through it.

I help her by pointing into the dish on the floor when she's holding one or two others (yes, once we get two in her mouth, she'll walk to the third and keep working it) and saying "Put It In." This is not a cue I've taught her before, and I'm excited about adding it to our language. It could contribute to the coin task, too, if I decide to have her "spit" the coin into the shopping bag or a purse instead of my butterfingers hand. With the cane in one hand, I've only got one hand to catch that cotton-pickin' coin. Considering my sore hands, those are not good odds. Typically the dog has to pick up the coin twice to get it to me once, because I drop it the first time.

There's nothing like mastering a new task together to make your heart swell with love for your dog. She continues to step up more and faster, to grab a shoe I kick off and hand it to me and the other one, to pull off my socks, and to respond quickly to my cues to get it or leave it (I don't want her picking up broken glass, dropped pills, etc.). The communication gets more and more subtle.

I didn't expect to be having such a pain crisis at this point. Rheumatoid arthritis is sneaky. I had it under good control, cut back my medication too much, and man oh man. At the moment I can't sleep enough. The pain wakes me up and just won't let me go back to sleep. It also drags at me through the day, making a lot of things harder to get through.

The good part, though, is that it's increasing my focus on training my assistance dog. And if I'm hurting and I'm more abrupt about directing her than usual, well, turns out that's not a bad thing. She reads my moods very well and doesn't feel less important to me just because I'm cranky. In fact, I think it tells her the truth that I need her more.

I'm blessed to have work I love. I think Believer would say the same thing about herself.

Adventures with Believer, and More

2005-05-18T00:27:00.000-05:00

Believer and I are getting closer and closer, and I'm thrilled with her work. She's learning to nest the stainless steel dog dishes and carry them. In the process it gives me a chance to develop language with her for putting something down into something else. It seems like everything I do with her now opens up other doors.

I'm reading "The Drowning Tree," by Carol Goodman. It's as enjoyable as the first book of hers I read, and I have her "The Seduction of Water" here, too. I read reviews and voted on upcoming books for the Murder and Mayhem list today.

And on DogRead next month we're doing "Sighthounds Afield," a chance to delve into the delights of the sighthound breeds and their lure coursing events. I'm planning to do one of my Canine Behavior Series articles on the sport of lure coursing, so I'm pleased to have a chance to understand it more thoroughly.

There's a free book conference in the area on Saturday with a lot of writers and other professionals coming, and I'm going to try to go. Hubby is taking a few days off, so he could drive Beevy and me over, and when I'm ready to leave I could call him on my cell phone.

Tonight I tested my cell phone by calling the house from the car (I was a passenger, not the driver). When I got home, the machine showed some other person's name. I called Virgin Mobile and they said they could fix it by changing my number. I've only had the number about 23 days and have not had it published anywhere, so that was fine. The new one is very easy to remember, a bonus.

I only used one minute of time (25 cents) to make that test call, and another minute later to call again and see how it showed up on the Caller ID. Pretty cool how easily they changed the number for me on that one phone call. I hope they morph into a good unlimited plan later, because I'd love to stay with them.

I bought some new shirts, including the first pink shirt I've had in a lot of years! And two white shirts that look great with black or navy slacks. Today I went back and got some white shirts to wear under some of my lighter ones.

I'm also going to be reading "Women in Therapy," by Harriet Lerner, so I can discuss it with a friend who's getting a lot out of it. I'm so interested in how the brain works--dog and human. And the spirit.

I have a movie playing on the VCR, "Breaking All the Rules," with Jamie Fox and some other good actors. He's very good in this, and it's a smart script, too.

I just wish there were more hours in the day!

Obsessed

2005-05-06T22:20:00.000-05:00

Last night I skimmed through Ted Dekker's novel "Obsessed." The suspense was too much for me, so I read it rapidly for plot. I've been having trouble sleeping because of arthritis pain, and unfortunately last night was no better. I got up to go to the bathroom still needing two or three more hours of sleep, and heard someone talking immediately outside the window. By the time I could look at, he was gone. That, plus letting the dogs out to potty plus the pain made it impossible for me to get back to sleep. Tonight I'm drinking chamomile tea and hoping it will help. I'm going to read more in Michael Crichton's State of Fear while pedaling, before washing my hair.

I watched a movie and skimmed two more while combing dogs and doing their nails. Spirit was pretty cooperative, though I didn't push my luck by trying to get her nails too neat.

Little Caesar's pizza won't make my pizza to order anymore. I'm disappointed. Big companies: phooie.

The Cattle on a Thousand Hills

2005-04-27T05:05:00.000-05:00

Tonight my regular Bible reading brings me to Psalm 50. In the New Living Translation, verses 7-15:

"'O my people, listen as I speak. Here are my charges against you, O Israel: I am God, your God!
I have no complaint about your sacrifices or the burnt offerings you constantly offer.
But I do not need the bulls from your barns or the goats from your pens.
For all the animals of the forest are mine, and I own the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know every bird on the mountains, and all the animals of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for all the world is mine and everything in it.
Do I eat the meat of bulls? Do I drink the blood of goats?
Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God, and keep the vows you made to the most High.
Then call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory."

The last verse of the chapter, verse 23:

"'But giving thanks is a sacrifice that truly honors me. If you keep to my path, I will reveal to you the salvation of God.'"

The commentary in this Bible doesn't say much about these verses, except that the people had forgotten what the blood sacrifices stood for. There is much packed into the words, mysteries.

Clearly we can't make an "easy bargain" by simply taking no vows to God that must be kept. Surely part of what we vow is to be as Jesus said, Love God with all our hearts and love our neighbors as ourselves. Living up fully to that would be impossible for anyone.

We're instructed to call on him when we are in trouble, he says he will rescue us, and we will give him glory. In the last verse he tells us the sacrifice of giving thanks to him pleases him, and that he will reveal his salvation to us if we keep to his path.

There's the difference between law and grace, that no one can perfectly keep to the path of God, but Christ has made the impossible to be so.

Life contains so much fear and anxiety. Reading Temple Grandin's books "Animals in Translation" and "Emergence" reminded me of the fears and how relentless they can be. There is no human solution to that fear. In "Animals in Translation," she says something to the effect that humans seem to be hard-wired for religion. She writes a lot about evolution, but I believe in creation, by whatever means God chooses to create and in whatever time frame.

Mysteries. I don't understand. But I don't have to. God keeps the brain and gives me whatever access I need when I need it and have faith to ask. Thank God. Thank God for everything in my life, from the weight loss to the old car still running to my beloved Gabriel feeling well to Believer's level-headed sweetness. I don't deserve it all. I am so grateful.

Beagles

2005-04-27T04:16:00.000-05:00

I've been working on notes for a basic article about Field Trials for Beagles, Basset Hounds and Dachshunds tonight. The rules I read didn't refer to guns or horses at the test, so I visited the AKC website to see if I could find more information. The site has some interesting video clips and photographs. Lots of Beagle baying on the clips. I saw horses but no guns. Looks like some of the officials are mounted but not the handlers. Looks like they do any gunshyness testing separately.

The non-AKC Hunt Tests have titles that are not AKC, and appear to be held by the Basset Hound folk but open to the other two breeds. I expect they will progress to AKC titles. Beagle clubs that put on AKC events seem to have their own grounds and clubhouses and to maintain a population of rabbits on the property because rabbits don't work well when brought in just for an event.

I recently did a couple of pieces on Pointing Breed Field Trials and Hunt Tests, which are more complicated than these--or at least the rules seem to be. Perhaps that comes of humans feeling they can evaluate the pointing performance more precisely than the trailing work done by the rabbit dogs. The bird is more visible than the rabbit, I expect.

Interesting to contemplate how the two sports affect game, too. In both cases the game is cultivated and conserved in order to make hunting events even possible. Shooting the birds is part of the pointing tests, but pursuing the rabbits seems to mostly end with letting them go in the trailing events. More dogs are in the field and closer to the game that would be shot, so perhaps safety is the reason.

I made a cell phone call today and received one, testing the speaker phone as well as the microphone and earpiece, so I'm all set. Last night I found references in the manual to keeping the phone 2 cm from the body when carrying it, to reduce risks from exposure to the radio waves. Ugh.

Well, back to work here on an article for Friday. And maybe a little more surfing on rabbit hunting.

Text Messaging

2005-04-26T01:19:00.000-05:00

My cell phone arrived from Virgin Mobile today and they responded quickly when I activated it through their website. That was after I first charged up the battery. Then I practiced sending text messages to the phone via email and reading them, and sent one from the phone to my email. I still have a lot of things to figure out on it, very complicated options and manual, but so far I like it.

I don't much care for the belt clip case, because you have to unsnap the phone from it to answer it or open for any other reason and access controls. Next time I'll know to choose my cell phone case in person rather than order one online. Hubby might like it, though, if he winds up getting this model of phone.

I'm carrying it in my zip-up hoodie pocket, and it would work in other pockets, too. Since it flips shut, the main thing to protect it from is banging against anything metal or being dropped. Buttons can't get accidentally pressed with it closed, other than the display light. The display goes blank when the phone is turned off, so you can tell if it's off or on.

So far I've spent a dime, for one text message. Receiving them is free, so I didn't get charged for the ones I sent from my computer. I sent my mother the email address so that she can email text messages to my phone. For now I think I'll leave the Voice Mail not set up. I'd rather people leave me messages via email or my home phone answering machine, where it doesn't cost me by the minute to access them. That may change later, but I notice people who have voice mail on cell phones and at home tend not to return calls quickly. I think checking all that is just too much hassle.

I read Temple Grandin's book "Emergence" in the last couple of days, and in that one she explains more about how autism has affected her, starting in childhood. I read Robert Parker's "Cold Service." I think I'd have liked it better as a short story and much better as a movie.

I'm reading Carol Goodman's "The Lake of Dead Languages." Not very far along in it, but so far it's enthralling. The language is a real pleasure, and the setting feels real to me. It's like places I've been in younger years.

I like that my cell phone number will be portable. When we changed our home phone to digital service a couple of years ago that number was portable. I've made a special effort to keep my same email address for all the years I've been online, too. I like the idea of a permanent cell phone number. That makes me feel good about the company I'm doing business with.

And now, back to my book.

Training and Teaching and Learning and Thinking

2005-04-24T18:03:00.000-05:00

I posted this to a dog list yesterday and wanted to remember parts of it, so I'm posting it here, with some changes:

I've been thinking more about thinking in pictures and thinking in words--and believe it or not, my head has not yet exploded, LOL. I do think in pictures sometimes--we all do. I often hate it when I think in pictures, because they can be terrible images. Dreams are often this way.

And there is this "process" I work for with my dogs that I've never had words for, that may be actually taking them up into a level of having some ability to think in words. I've described it at times as trying to develop the dog's higher brain, to take their thinking above the level of instinct so often and so reliably that they develop the ability to override their own instincts. I think this is a level of training. Some training probably happens on an unconscious level, both for dogs and for humans. But the training that excites me, I call teaching/learning, and it involves thinking. Maybe at that point our dogs are able to think in words to some extent. I look for it to happen in my dogs, and I work for it to happen. You can't force it, you have to nurture it. It starts as, a little pilot light, and then if you have the right dog and the right rapport and the right head on your shoulders, it becomes a furnace burner you can turn on and up as needed.

I think we can all benefit from noticing when we are thinking in pictures and when adding words or subtracting words would help. One observation many trainers have made is that some humans who have insufficient dog experience when young and have a lot of education seem almost unable to make the leap from human language to dog language. One of the joys of my life is spending my days immersed in dog language because they are with me as I work and rest and play.

Some of it is verbal. I think that is something that Temple Grandin did not know about dogs when the book was written. I have been shopping for cell phones and service recently. I've been reading the manuals online to decide which to buy. I found myself in the night "learning" how to operate the phone I've ordered. This has happened to me with other items, too, such as the timers I wear to keep myself from burning the house down by forgetting I'm cooking, and the digitally-tuned portable music players that help me function. And I mustn't forget about the new digital cable controllers we've just adjusted to in our house. My brain practices this stuff in my sleep.

For those who have learned a foreign language or studied math or anything else that calls on you to interact with a new "system," a new "program," in order to get it to do something you want it to do--you dream about it. I remember going to an evening of French-speaking as a teenager with my French teacher and some people from France, and I dreamed in French that night. For that matter, many is the time I've dreamed about dog handling and awakened with a solution or an improved skill.

I think the dogs surely experience the same thing. And the more you do it, the more capable your brain becomes of doing it. I'm determined to learn to use my new cell phone for text messaging. I want to get my husband on the Internet in the next year, and on a cell phone, too. We have aging parents who feared learning new technology, and we're seeing how limited and fearful that can make a person as they age.

Trainer Margot Woods (author of "Mud Heaven," clearly wA well able to develop Wrap's potential, whether it was the way someone with different physical abilities at a different point in life would have done it, or not. Where there's a will, there's a way. I'm going to be doing it again in the not-so-distant future, too. I'm hoping for a few more years with Gabriel, but past losses have driven it home to me that I don't get to decide that. It is looking like Tervs who can dodge the cancer bullet might get the years I want for him. He's short and agile and smart and easy to handle, all of which favors a successful old age, too.

My fervent wish is to have some more years to enjoy his sweet presence while honing my assistance-dog skills with Believer, before training my next. But I have to think about the balance in the pack and the companionship of another dog for her, too. "Somebody else" could surely do a better job with Believer than I do, and "somebody else" could surely do a better job than I will with my next dog. I can't let that keep me from having the dog I need and training the dog in the ways that work for me and make me happy. Life is too short for that, time too precious to waste trying to "prove myself" to everyone else.

I became vividly conscious in school of the difference between taking full advantage of the learning opportunity vs. putting full efforts toward getting the highest grade. It is not possible to do both 100%. In school I compromised, trying to take it beyond going for the grade but also keeping my eye on that ball. Now, I make the learning choice whenever possible.

Going Mobile

2005-04-22T04:49:00.000-05:00

I decided to get a cell phone for emergencies. I don't see myself using it other than to take care of necessities when I don't have easy access to my home phone, so I got a prepaid plan.

I wanted to use the Sprint network. They seem to have good coverage in my area. I emailed them and asked how to do prepaid on their network. They emailed back in about an hour, quite a surprise. They said they do not offer prepaid service, but they recommend Virgin Mobile, a company that uses the Sprint network.

I checked the Virgin Mobile website carefully, and didn't think I wanted to go that way. But after sleeping on it, it sounded better. I discussed it with hubby and he thought it was a good idea. You have to buy a phone, and pay a minimum of $20 for airtime every 90 days to keep it active. You do not lose any of your minutes unless you let the account expire. The first 10 minutes of talk on any one day are 25 cents a minute, and further minutes that day are 10 cents a minute. That covers long distance within the USA as well. Text messaging is 10 cents to send, free to receive, and it can go to or come from an email address rather than a cell phone.

As I thought about the awkwardness of carrying on a conversation while out for a walk or shopping or driving, I don't think I even want to use a cell phone that way. I'm not out much, after all. Maybe someday I'll need that, but maybe not. It's nice that this number will be portable if I wish it.

I ordered a flip phone, after spending hours researching specs, instructions and reviews. It looks to be the easiest to carry and maybe the most reliable of the choices. I should get it Monday. Then I charge it and then I call or go online to get my new phone number so I can activate the phone. Instructions are on the site.

Lots of the people on this system are kids, but not all. It's a fast-growing service. If cell phone service does go unlimited, I bet they will go to that, too. There will be intense market pressure on pricing in my area in the near future, so I can probably upgrade fairly inexpensively if I decide to.

I think hubby will want a cell phone, too. We'll see!

Toenail Saga Continued

2005-04-20T20:58:00.000-05:00

It was two weeks ago that Spirit snarled and left, me too tired to work her through accepting nail trimming. I do them weekly. Last week I used the Halti hooked by a leash around my foot and to my belt, and another line to her collar on her other side, and kept putting her back into position until I got at least a cut job done, though not the side-trims I prefer to add. Good reason for adding the trims, because in one of her leaps out of my lap she got my forearm with a long scratch that still has a scab, ouch. I do not like to leave sharp edges. I am not able to Dremel due to the respiratory effects, or file because it takes such finger grip to hold each toe for filing.

We've been piling the honey on her food, which has her eating better and perhaps a little mellowed. Today I got her tied right to start with, and it went better. Got all the edges cut, and got her to eat while I worked. That mellows her, too. And distracts her from trying to battle me.

Beevy has been getting a little fussy on nails lately, which is not like her, and the trimmer has been harder to use. It's a Miller's Forge, and I haven't found anyone who sharpens them. So the last time I replaced one, I bought two. Pulled the unused one out today, and it did work a lot better. So maybe that was the problem. A duller trimmer would squeeze the nail harder. Not that I'm cutting down that much, doing it weekly.

I ordered another backup tonight, and also a Resco guillotine-type. I don't like those, but at least you can change the blades, so I'm going to try that kind again. This one comes with padded handles, and I need that. My hands are so sore from the arthritis these days. My vet much prefers the guillotine-type, and he and his staff surely trim a lot of nails.

I ordered the one for big dogs, probably not the one I tried before. Heck, I may still have that old one, too. I tend to clean and oil stuff like that and store it carefully in its original box and keep it forever. It was the pet shop owner where I got that trimmer who told me about edge-cutting the nails to remove sharp edges. I got real serious about doing that after receiving a corneal abrasion from an accidental collision with a recently-trimmed dog toenail. And now this long scab on my arm.

Those of us who have dogs on the bed and in our laps need those nails done well. And the dogs need them short enough that they don't slip on smooth floors, if they have to walk on such floors. I always took nails very seriously when my dogs were working as therapy dogs, but with Believer an assistance dog, she has more contact with the public now than ever. And all the dogs are handled by hubby and me and health-care providers at the very least. No one needs to get cut by a toenail.

I finished "Animals in Translation" last night, and I think the main thing I got from it is how much fear affects animals, how much fear they tend to feel. Probably more fear than pain. My ability to calm them and relieve their fears is probably one reason they get so attached to me. My vet is extremely good at that. The author, Temple Grandin, says that the visual, nonverbal thinking process leaves the autistic person so vulnerable to fear that she would not be able to function without antianxiety medication.

Today Believer had a little trouble being sure she was finished pooping outside, so I called her over and had her walk between my knees, lifted her tail, parted the hair with a plastic bag on my hand and checked her. She was all clear, so I told her and released her. I watched her face as she walked away. She grinned. She felt watched over and cared for. This is how I see my dogs respond over and over to being physically tended.

The book also talks about the way touch--both restraining and soft touch--affects the brain. I realized it's yet another reason my daily combing of my dogs in my lap has such profound benefits. I am helping their BRAINS. Wow.

Animals in Translation

2005-04-20T01:06:00.000-05:00

Like many dog people, I checked this book out of the library because the hype is that the author has special knowledge of dogs. Well, surprise, surprise, that is not the case. This information is just not correct. No, purebred dogs are not more destructive than mixed-breed dogs. No, mixed-breed dogs are not healthier than purebred dogs. No, Collies are not stupid because their skulls are narrow (neither are Tervuren). No, purebreds are not responsible for more dog bites than mutts. (What happens is that a breed label is slapped onto a mixed-breed dog, because the forms the authorities fill out require it.) No, not all Labrador Retrievers are destructive chewers. And no, domestic dogs of quite a few breeds and mixes are not unable to do a long stare. On the contrary, it's a common ability in dogs. Dogs are also capable of a lot more sophisticated problem-solving than she says they are.

She seems to know a lot more about livestock animals, though since I don't know those animals I can't judge as well. The information she gives on brain research is interesting, but is interspersed with speculation. You have to read mindfully to discern what you want to accept and what you don't.

Science about what goes on inside the mind of an animal is a mess. Observations are of more value, but it depends on who does the observing and how accurately they describe it. This is a thought-provoking book, but I hope people don't buy into her ideas about dogs.

Gabriel's Great Recovery

2005-04-16T20:34:00.000-05:00

Tuesday night right after eating his 9 o'clock meal, Gabriel went down. He couldn't even stand up with support at both ends. He was flailing side to side and tilted. His panic relaxed when I spoke to him, and he was able to respond to my voice enough to stop trying to walk/crawl when I calmly said "Stay."

We rushed him to the veterinary emergency hospital. He couldn't be walked a step, so my husband had to carry him. He's a Belgian Tervuren, weighs 54 pounds and is 11 1/2 years old.

I bothered my vet at home by phone, because I was pretty sure he would want me to. One of the first things he asked was whether there was side-to-side eye movement. The emergency vet was thinking along the same lines, and Gabriel's diagnosis was vestibular syndrome.

Dogs who go down with this typically take from a few days to a few weeks to recover, and may have recurrences. They gave him valium and wanted to keep him overnight. I took a good look at his stress level and the chain link cage with concrete floor and a towel under him where he was confined.

I asked why he needed to stay, and they said to keep him from hurting himself flailing around. I pointed out that he's a skittish dog (very sweet--never, ever offered to bite anyone throughout this--but sensitive to movements, fear, etc.) and wasn't going to be able to relax there. They said they would keep him sedated. He's 11 1/2, and so are his liver and kidneys. Not a great idea to give him unnecessary drugs.

I know they thought I was just a clingy owner, when I kept saying he was my partner and I could keep him calm at home. But at the very beginning of the episode at home it had been clear that I could in fact instantly calm him. So we took him home. The emergency vet said to give him one drowsy-type Dramamine when we got home and 1-2 every 8 hours after that. And of course he needed to go to his vet in the morning.

At home he didn't want water and didn't urinate when we supported him outside on both ends, but he was able to stand with that support. I braced both hind legs with a hand in front of each one where it meets the body, and hubby held his front up with the padded nylon harness.

Hubby stayed with Gaby on the sofa keeping him calm until I got ready for bed, and then carried him in, settled him on the bed, and I attached his harness to my belt with a 4-foot leash so he couldn't jump off the bed. We've done this before for his bulging cervical disk, so he is comfortable with it, and slept like the sweet darling he is. He wasn't "out," but sleeping.

We got up at 5 and hubby picked him up and carried him outside. Gabriel could stand, and he urinated out there twice. Then I took the leash while hubby fixed dog breakfasts. Gabriel was pulling hard to get to his eating spot, walking fine. There may have still been a little head tilt at that point, but no staggering at all. This dog has both a bulging cervical disk and osteoarthritis in the hips, so clearly he was feeling okay. Hubby had been planning to come home from work to carry him into the vet's office, but obviously that was not likely to be necessary, so we left it that I would call and let him know.

I stayed up and kept Gabriel tethered near me until around 8. By then it was clear he could walk fine, so I left the harness on but took the leash off. He pooped outside, and I saw him lift a hind leg to urinate. His vet appointment was at 10, and he merrily bounced up the steps into the building. I had to be very careful to keep him from making the jump up to the exam table.

He has had a yeast infection in his ears recently, but the vet was able to view both eardrums and said both are intact and the ears look okay. I do have Desenex powder in there, which has cleared up the infection but kept the emergency vet from being able to see the eardrums. Possibly the ear infection triggered this. We'll probably never be sure.

The vet had me give him 1 Dramamine every 8 hours for 1-2 days, and then discontinue if symptoms did not return. They didn't. He stayed just fine. The emergency vet had prepared me for the typical situation with this condition, including a possible very long-term head tilt. Recurrence is certainly possible. My vet said it's unusual for a dog to recover this fast, but he has seen it happen before.

I can't lift Gabriel, and if I could at all, I probably couldn't with him all twisted up and his head waving from side to side like it was. Besides the side-to-side eye movement, he had side-to-side head movement, and we think perhaps that's because of his tendency to move his head rather than just moving his tongue (to drink or to lick a person) or his eyes when he looks at things. He moves his whole head, which may have contributed to his neck problem. He was curled in the direction of the bulging cervical disk and flailing the neck so much that I greatly feared a flare up of that problem, but it hasn't shown at all. One reason he is so used to the harness is that we attach his leash to that, never to a collar. He's so highly trained that he works just fine that way.

Hubby asked me that night how I would be able to handle it if Gabriel couldn't walk for a long period of time. I said, let's just take it one step at a time for now. And then he woke up fine. I feel like I needed a miracle and I got one. I'm grateful to God for his loving care of Gabriel and of us.

The other dogs were fine with it, especially Beevy (Believer). As I was calming Gaby, she was licking my ears. I didn't worry about that, just let her do it. I think it calmed her, and probably me, too! Maybe even Gabriel. She does adore him, and she used to regurgitate food and share it with him. I haven't seen her to that recently, but she is sweet with him and motherly with the whole family.

We've been through a lot with the two old dogs recently, and we knew it would probably be this way. I'm just so grateful Gabriel is still with us, and happy.

Miss Testy Redux

2005-04-12T19:31:00.000-05:00

Today was toenail trimming day again, and I got to Spirit's turn with a plan. She goes to the vet's office in a Halti and does well in it. I had thought to try using some sort of table set up with her, but then had the idea of continuing with her on my outstretched legs with her head down by my feet as usual, only adding the Halti.

The Halti only closes the dog's mouth properly when pulled from above. Pulled from below, the action is unpredictable. If she really did plan to bite me, I wanted to remove that temptation. So I put the Halti on her, attached a 4-foot leash to it, hooked it under my water shoe with the nice rubber sole, and then securely to my belt.

She still managed to get up and start to take off like last week, but the leash stopped her. This put the leash at the wrong angle on the Halti, and I worried it would slip off. So I took another lead, a long one, that I had also brought in to try, and hooked her collar on the other side, looped it around behind my waist and wound up with it around my wrist. Now I had something else to restrain her that pulled in the correct direction and from her other side.

She STILL managed to get up, but she could clearly tell she wasn't going anywhere. Each time she got up, she willingly crawled back into my lap and then I had to turn her around. Must have done that six times. Exhausting!

I trimmed every nail, but didn't take the time to edge-trim, so they have sharp edges, and my arm got a 3-inch scratch from one of her pop-ups before I added the leash. Not a deep scratch, just feels annoying like a sunburn. I gave hubby the 6" bastard file with the handle, and I'm hoping he can manage to file the edges. I think he'll be motivated by a scratch or two when she's cuddling with him. It hurts my arthritic hands too much to do that filing.

I suspect adding more honey back into her diet is going to improve this problem. I also think she'll cooperate better next time when I put the restraints on, because she now knows she can't beat them. In case it sounds cruel to restrain her like that, she's a dog who stresses easily, and that did not happen. She took treats while I worked on her, stayed in my lap for more treats afterward with the restraints removed, and immediately after I finished, ate her dinner with gusto.

A big dog who can't be handled doesn't have much of a life expectancy. This "cat scratch" on my arm makes me think my crazy Spirit has nine lives.

I got a new assignment for RubberStampMadness on a couple of great cards. I love writing for them.

"Young Blades" is on the TV in here. It's on PAX, and this is a good episode. A happy ending, ahhhhh.

Yesterday I had so much to do that I gave up on pedaling and tonight I'm determined to do an extra hour. That's actually a treat, more time to read. This library book, "Mr. Lucky," by James Swain, is interesting so far. I'm taking a break from "Relic," by Preston and Child, to read it so I can return it.

Too much email today, and not pleasant. I keep putting lists on "no mail" lately. The days aren't long enough.

The Saga of Miss Testy Continues

2005-04-09T14:59:00.000-05:00

Spirit, aka Miss Testy, hates having her toenails trimmed. She's afraid of walking on slick floors, and at age 12 it may be uncomfortable anyway, though her fear dates from early life. I like to keep nails short by weekly trims, and her behavior at toenail time gives me a reading on her nerves.

Nerves not doing so well right now, which is no surprise considering her outbursts. This time when I started to do nails, I was sleep-deprived, and not up to struggling with her. Normally she's fairly tolerant of the hind feet, which I do first, and then starts pitching a fit when I reach for the first front foot. When I get her past that one, she's okay for the rest of the nails.

This time when I reached for just the first hind foot, she flipped out of my lap, turned and snarled at me with a snap toward my arm and a look into my eyes that appeared serious. Of course I don't know what she was thinking or why. Normally I would not let her get away, but I was far too worn out to take her on, so I decided to take it up another day. It's bad enough to let the dog leave when she knew I wanted her to stay. Far worse to struggle with her and have her overpower my restraint.

We're increasing her daily raw honey, which seems to help get her to eat her food and in the past has improved her cooperation and nerves for toenail trimming. I'm going to try having the Halti on her first. If that works, we'll stick with that awhile.

If the Halti doesn't work, I could try a muzzle, but I think a better idea would be to set her up on a table with a regular or improvised grooming noose attached to the Halti. I don't want a closed muzzle, because she gets so worked up that she could overheat. So if the Halti isn't enough when restrained, the appropriate muzzle is probably a basket type.

I could just let her nails grow out and be done with it, but I'll try to work her through the problem. I'm going to skip this round and just catch her on the next one when I do the other dogs. I'm concerned about the fact that she "got away with it," simply because it's better for a dog not to see that as an option. It seems the best way to fade that from her memory is just to take up at the next time as if it never happened. That also gives the honey a week to take effect. Probably not long enough (I think it takes several weeks), but better than nothing.

I've been investigating cell phones for us, prices and coverage and phones and plans. I expect we will soon see subscription services available that do not charge by the minute, though they may require contracts. One thing that's happening in my area is intense competition, and it appears that more is on the way shortly. It doesn't look like a good time to get locked into a 2-year contract.

So, if we get one at all in the near future, it may be a prepaid one. And that looks so iffy on charges that I'd rather just not bother. There are too many catches, such as roaming charges. I don't need any more aggravations!

I also learned that the digital phone through the cable company will sometimes function when the power is out or there's otherwise a problem, by using a corded model. So next time that happens, which I hope will be never!, I need to try one of our corded phones and see if I can get through that way.

We had an excellent chat for our DogRead authors Yvette Van Veen and David J. Perks for their book and workbook "Meeting Milo" at the www.doghobbyist.com site. Christie Keith of that site (www.pethobbyist.com is the main site, lots of animals included) offered to run chats for those of our Dog Read authors who want to do one. This was the first, and a wonderful turnout.

I'm reading in the book of Job now on my annual reading of the Bible, and it's one of my favorite books. Today's reading includes chapter 19, verses 25 through 27, in the New Living Translation:
" 'But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the earth at last. And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God! I will see him for myself. Yes, I will see him with my own eyes. I am overwhelmed at the thought.'"

Job spoke these stirring words of faith after losing his great wealth, his many adored children, his health, and hearing his three close friends tell him this must all be because he did something terribly sinful (he didn't).

The book of Job is the perfect example of why it's important to read the Bible in context. There is a lot of falsehood spoken in the book by Job's friends that sometimes gets quoted as Biblical truth. Most of us can relate to what happened to Job. When things are going well, many people who know us think we're lucky or blessed. When things are going badly for us, many who know us think we must have done something to deserve it or cause it. That's how people cope with their own fears that bad things happening to others might happen to them, too. We look for "why" it happened to the other person, and decide on an explanation that demonstrates why "it couldn't happen to me."

Since that last cable installer was here, my computer had a different window pop up when I hit Control/Alt/Delete to make AOL shut down. It was complicated and scary-looking, and I was happy last night to figure out that it was just a different view in that program. I switched it back to the simple, familiar window that lets me click to end the program, and I feel much better. They should NOT change the settings on a person's computer. No, no, no, they should NOT!

Miss Testy and the Deputy of Testy Control

2005-04-04T05:07:00.000-05:00

Recently I've done the dog combing in the wee hours of the morning/night three times. In between, I did them one late afternoon. In the daytime or early evening, Spirit is pretty orderly about taking her turn for grooming without trying to pick a fight with Believer. The wee hours are another story. I think it has to do with her medication. The blood level may dip around then.

The first of these three nights I did Spirit last as usual. As she started to jump up on the bed she was slow to jump up, eyeing Believer and acting edgy. Believer saw that and met her halfway, big fuss right on top of my outstretched legs with the sheet over me to catch the dog hair. It took me maybe a minute to get Believer lying on my right side, facing away and chewing her bone, and Spirit on my lap in position for grooming. I spent another minute or so giving Spirit touch and voice to settle her, and then groomed her with no further problems.

Second night I decided to try doing Spirit first as I have sometimes done for toenails. I forgot to start by ordering the other two off the bed and signaling them to stay off by laying the special walking stick across the side of the bed. Oops. Beevy jumped up onto the bed, Spirit went ballistic and we were off to the races. I held onto Spirit, got the magic stick onto the bed and proceeded with grooming. As usual, there were no injuries either night. The back of Spirit's neck was a little damp where Believer held her to keep her restrained.

Tonight I took the dogs in the more familiar order of Gabriel, Believer and then Spirit. I made quadruple sure that Beevy was settled with her toy before I called Spirit up. She had three toys, actually, and apparently needed at least two of them.

When I called Spirit up, she was ready to rumble, but I was just a little bit more ready. I watched each of them for any sign of attention to the other, and directed that attention right back to their own business. In Believer's case that was "Toy," and in Spirit's case it was eyes away from Beevy and body reclined in each correct position for grooming.

Spirit kept trying, including when I released her. I had to stay on her to get her aaaaaaaaaaaaaall the way off the bed the opposite direction from Believer, so she didn't grab that one last chance to start something.

They clearly love to wrestle with each other sometimes, but I have to wonder if Spirit enjoys picking these fights. Or does she feel compelled for some reason to try it? Believer always meets her with just enough force to restrain her without hurting her. Beevy's motives I understand. She is keeping pack order.

Obviously Spirit lacks self-control, but is there also some satisfaction that comes from these confrontations that eludes me? Does she "need" to keep testing the protection of Believer's leadership to make sure she is still safe, that Beevy is still strong enough to hold the line? Or is it mostly just nerves because of the time of night? We do see a difference in her aggressiveness when her medication has the TSH level well down in the normal range vs. when it gets too high. Is it that sensitive to how many hours since the last dose?

It was gratifying to be able to prevent an outburst tonight. Trial and error can be a wonderful thing. Spirit is hard to feed these days, too. We have to crate her for meals to give her time to eat without the other dogs having too much chance to swipe her food when we get busy and distracted.

At age 12, surely some of her parts are not what they used to be, though it's hard to find anything wrong with her. We suspect some laryngeal change, but nothing the vet can elicit on exam or that shows on x-ray. She did just fine with anesthesia and intubation for surgery a month or so ago.

We would have done bloodwork anyway, but also wanted it and the x-rays because her weight was down some. We've been feeding her up--a lot--since then, and she's gaining, so that's likely contributing to her slow eating. We feed her four small meals a day so that her system doesn't have to handle too much at once.

Hubby just said he thought he smelled dog poop in the house, so he got a flashlight and looked around on the floor. Then he shined the flashlight for me as I lifted each dog's foot and tail and we inspected all three of the furries for the dreaded poopfoot, or anything hanging behind. Nothing. Then I went into the kitchen to wash a dish left from last night and noticed I'd left the stove on Low for about 8 hours. My sense of smell is destroyed, so I asked him to go check if that was what he was smelling. It was. I guess that says a lot about my cooking.

Daylight Savings Time

2005-04-03T08:40:00.000-05:00

Prowling around the house looking for clocks that need resetting always reminds me how inconvenient Daylight Savings Time is. The hardest part is locating instruction manuals to figure out how each device needs to be adjusted. The time change messes up people's sleep and throws off exercise schedules along with so many other routines. What a bad idea. I hope it gets discontinued. One thing it does show, though, is how well people can adjust to things as a community.

I've started reading "The Relic," by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Just 20 pages in, I'm intrigued. So far I've liked everything of theirs I've read. This is for the Murder and Mayhem list.

The cable seems to be working on all the TVs and boxes now. My VCR recordings have all gone smoothly, and I've been taping on both TVs every day. Hubby loves the DVR/cable box. The only down side is leaving the boxes off from midnight until 6 a.m. so they don't miss their update signals. During those hours I can only watch tapes.

A couple of the cable techs said the boxes will receive their signals some other time as long as they are turned off at some point during the day. But three of them told me the about the signal being sent one time during the hours between 12 and 6. Three to two, seems safest to leave them turned off.

Last night I had a lot of trouble getting my post to the blog to save, but finally it did. While waiting, I checked to see what my other options are for places to put my blog. Lots of choices. So there's no reason to risk messing up my computer if a site doesn't work smoothly. I hope I don't have any more problems and can just keep it here.

Time to read and pedal, and watch the rest of this Starz movie. Creepy one.

Dog Training Rant

2005-04-02T02:14:00.000-06:00

I feel like ranting tonight about the sad state of dog training. People are so confused about how to teach a dog safe behavior that they wind up setting no boundaries for their dogs at all. We used to train with a plan, flexing it to fit each individual dog. Some of us still do. But for too many people, there is no plan, in spite of reading books and going to training classes and hiring private trainers. Unable to figure out the needs and wants of humans, the dogs are having nervous breakdowns. Where will it end? Rant over--for now.

The movie "Hudson Hawke" was on cable the other day and I'm running the tape I made of it. Lots of famous faces.

My Bible reading today takes me into chapter 13 of Nehemiah. I remember pastor Charlie Graves preaching from verse 25, something I might never have otherwise noticed. In confronting some of the men of Judah who had broken marriage laws, Nehemiah "beat some of them and pulled out their hair." Quite an image.

After Brother Graves had retired, I encountered him in my neighborhood one day when walking with Believer. I knew he would enjoy knowing, so I told him, "Brother Graves, this dog's name is Believer." He looked at her with a big smile and said in his big, warm voice, "Well hello, Believer. I'm a believer, too!" That was a special moment for me. Maybe as meaningful as any (other) sermon of the many I heard him preach.

No April Foolin' Please!

2005-04-01T08:44:00.000-06:00

I'm still recovering from the cable installation, so it is my sincere wish to have no surprises that require any actual effort today. I don't want to do anything more strenuous than pedal my pedal exerciser here at my desk while reading Mary Higgins Clark's "No Place Like Home" from the library.

Believer and I got out yesterday for the first time since I got so faint during the cable work, because I felt it irresponsible to drive a car any sooner. We went to the library to pick up the reserve book and to the dollar store for some new knit shirts and a cap to shade my eyes from the sun.

I'd have loved to shop longer, but didn't want to take unnecessary risks of triggering a reaction. My balance was terrible when walking, but I didn't feel dizzy in the car. Believer worked nicely. She gets more businesslike in her assistance work all the time. And I do my best. I really want us to be an excellent team in every way.

Next time I'm there I want to take a closer look at some feather boas in the toy department. It would be fun to pose Beevy in one and take her picture. That is, when I feel well enough to explore my digital camera. It makes me nauseous with the current ear problems just to think about peering through the viewfinder and maneuvering my head around to line up a shot.

We're starting an interesting topic on DogRead today, the children's book "Meeting Milo" for very young children to teach them how to approach dogs safely. There's an activity and workbook, too. Not a lot to read, but much to discuss. Talking about it this time of year will, I hope, spare some children dog bites as people start to get outdoors more and so many dogs are in estrus and having pups. The whole warm season--which in my community is a long season--is higher risk for dog bites, but Spring and Fall seem to be the worst.

Time to pedal, and then sleep. My dogs think it's time to eat, but then they think anytime is a good time to eat. Daylight Savings Time will throw them off, but not as badly as in some households. We shift the timing of their four small daily meals around, anyway.

Easter Cookie Hunt for the Dogs

2005-03-27T08:50:00.000-06:00

The tradition continues. It's not a typical Easter day here, so far gray and with a North wind and too early in the year for things to be really pretty outside. Still, the dogs had a terrific time just now on their Easter Cookie Hunt.

Hubby broke up the small Iams biscuits and put them in a basket for me, to spare my sore hands the pain of breaking them. They need to be small enough for lots of drops, but big enough that I can spot them to locate those the dogs miss. I confined Spirit and Believer to the bedroom and let Gabriel watch me lay the track through the patio door. That gave him the privilege of rar-rarring the girls when they came out of the room, made him happy.

They took their usual 15-20 minutes to pretty much clean up the track, and I walked it to find the last few pieces. As I came to one I stopped and called a dog to eat it. This will be their midday meal. I checked out the yard Thursday (which contributed to my allergy crisis), so knew it was pretty clean of garbage and cat poop. Didn't see them eating anything other than the treats today. I don't know why the cats stopped pooping in our back yard, but I'm very glad they did. (We don't have any cats. When we did, we kept them indoors.)

I read "The Rising" last night, skimming it. It's the first of a new series that takes place before the "Left Behind" series, which I've also read. And now I'm looking at "Peter and the Starcatchers," by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. I haven't decided whether to read the whole book or not. Hubby went to the library for me to pick up my reserves, because I wasn't up to it.

I had a fabulous dinner last night including a filet, and probably will have pizza tonight. Such a treat, in both cases. But next I need some sleep. My happy canines will enjoy that, too. I think dog toenails can wait until tomorrow.

We Are Not Amused

2005-03-26T02:38:00.000-06:00

I mean the royal "we" in the not amused category, of course. Just me, really. Had the third appointment to get cable working right yesterday. Guy was an hour or more late arriving, and then rushed through the installation, was rude, and messed up my computer in the process. I think stuff is set the best we can for now, thanks to the other two guys figuring out what won't work, and readings from my call-ins to the office that gave them the additional needed information to know what to do. As to his competence level, I can't judge. Don't know if the deficiency involved ability, or just attitude.

He probably knows what he's doing. He was probably mostly just rushed because the appointment in front of mine ran so far over. Not my fault. He was only here about an hour, not much time at all for running a new line, moving an amp, etc.

As the song from "Oklahoma" says, "We've gone about as fur as we kin go." My allergies went nuclear by the time he left yesterday. I literally could not see at all, I was so close to passing out. And he suggested--twice--that I let him type in my AOL password. I don't THINK so.

I had to call my husband before the guy could leave, to avoid the necessity of getting an ambulance. It was just my swollen and reactive Eustachian tubes, complicated by being on my feet too long (he was so dense, I had to keep asking him to get out of my chair so I could sit down and not fall down!). I guess he figured I was mad and didn't realize I was passing out on him. I finally pointed that out. When somebody is that close to passing out, doesn't their face turn a funny color or something? I mean, aren't there SIGNS?

I must admit, though, that since I've seen black before in this condition rather than white (must have been from staring at the screen trying to make it out--it was just pure white, so WEIRD!), I wasn't a thousand percent sure it was the ears. I used my cane and Believer to stagger to the front door and lock it behind the guy, then got to the bed and lay flat. In five minutes my head was clear. Then I got on the phone and talked to friends and my mother, as a precaution, since hubby wasn't coming home for four hours. I unhooked Beevy from my waist but kept her harness on in case medical attention was needed. Gabriel hopped up on the bed and nuzzled me so enthusiastically he pushed my glasses off. Plastic lenses, metal frames, and bendy-back hinges come in handy with big dogs sometimes. Beevy got a little put out with him, thought he should be more gentle. But he is The Man in the dog pack, so all she did was grumble.

I was really glad I didn't go to the hospital. I can imagine the battery of tests, plus the physical reactions of my allergies to all the junk in the air there. Last time I visited a hospital patient I had the same darn reaction. Heck, a blood draw affects me this same way. I looked it up online last night, and apparently there is a name for the reaction to needles. The blood flows to the legs and lowers the blood pressure too much. Since my blood pressure is low to begin with, that'd do it, alright. But that gives me some important information. When I feel this way, I should try to get the feet up quickly, not just the head down. And if I can't get them up, I should pump them.

I've got MusicMatch playing songs from 1974 and I've had lots of cocoa powder today to bring that swollen ear down as much as possible. Feeling good!

The tech yesterday told me that the dealie-bobbers the last guy had put on two of the TVs to let me watch another channel while taping are bad on the signal as well as tending to come loose. They didn't seem to work consistently for me, anyway, and if I plan on a tape, I by golly want a tape to occur. The VCR Controllers, a separate item, only turn the VCR on, which I also don't trust to work. So we pulled off both devices from both TVs. He argued with me about whether the digital box can turn itself on with the timer and change channels for each program set to record, but when he understood what I was saying, he realized, yeah, it does do that. If the VCR comes on to record at the right time, the digital box will send that program to it, and you'll get it on tape. The VCR Controller is supposed to turn the VCR on and off at the programmed time so that you don't have to program it separately for the time.

I've been programming the VCRs separately for the times, to force them to turn off and on at the times I choose, anyway. The Sony is said not to work well with those controller devices, and the Panasonic is a fancy-schmancy commercial skip model that has a mind of its own. I have to be firm with these VCRs! So now I can reliably record, am getting good pictures, but can only watch what I am recording, if a recording is being made at the time. Too bad, so sad, I'll deal with it. I'm taping a lot of stuff in the early part of the day when I'm asleep, so I have stuff to watch between midnite and 6 when the boxes need to receive their update signals.

After what he did to my computer (I'm not going to say, because I'm not totally sure and also because I don't want to give anyone ideas.), I'm not going to trust them to set up a network for us later. I don't think I want a full network anyway. I think I want to see if there's a good way for two computers to share one cable modem without sharing files or printers. I think there is. I'll probably hire someone independent to come set it up. Someone who doesn't work for a company that can look inside my computer.

I pray that nothing breaks down or urgently needs doing for awhile, so my allergies can calm down. Believer really came through for me yesterday. The guy was evidently afraid of her, and she ignored that body language and was unflaggingly calm and genial toward him. She was also right there for me when I needed help, including the couple of dozen times I dropped my cane.

Picking stuff up off the floor and then standing back up is not a great idea for me in that condition. Her height and head carriage brings things right up to my hand, and she's quick and persistent with any difficult items to pick up. She loves to please, and it's easy for me to sincerely thank her, because I feel so grateful to God for the help she gives.

At one point I was in the kitchen with her hooked to me and she pulled. I gently restrained her because I was doing something, and then realized she had been pulling to get a drink of water. I stopped what I was doing and got her to the dish. I want to always remember to be considerate of my dogs' needs. It's too easy to forget.

Today in bed with two dogs on the bed and one on the floor, I heard a noise outside. I figured it was a neighbor, but sounded like it could have been an unhappy dog. It occurred to me that I had just let my gang out to potty a few minutes before and fed them, and heaven forbid maybe had left a straggler outside. I didn't think so, but still... So I raised up my head, lifted my eye shield, and visually checked that each dog was there.

They heard the noise outside, too, and saw me check and "count noses." Of course we do that all the time in letting them out to potty, getting them back in, etc. It struck me for the first time that checking on them is the action of a leader. They saw me do that, as of course they've seen many times. That has to be a factor in dogs feeling secure in their places in the pack, and their believing the pack has a worthy leader.

I'm convinced that we only know a small fraction of the things our dogs use to form their view of the world and determine their reactions to people, places and things. No wonder I never get bored with the subject.

Allergy Time

2005-03-22T03:31:00.000-06:00

The whole year is allergy time for me, but something snuck up on me today. I went out in the car to the drive-through bank and the library front desk. It was a quick trip and not one I anticipated would cause a problem, but I noticed on the way out in the car that my ears were reacting. The only thing I can think of is something in the outside air. Normally I don't notice a big problem this time of year, but it made me dizzy and nauseated for a few hours. I think around that time the weather report said the wind was from the south about 30 miles per hour. It rained last night and in the morning, which would normally make the air safer for me than any other time to be outdoors. Guess I'd better plan on staying in tomorrow.

The Continuing Saga of Digital Cable Installation

2005-03-21T03:41:00.000-06:00

Tonight I tuned the TV in the study to a Premium on Demand movie on Starz and it was tiling like crazy, as well as pausing and other irregularities. This was what the last cable guy had told me to report, if it happened after they'd had time to turn the amplifier up. It was six days, longer than the two he had indicated it would probably take for that adjustment.

I changed to an HBO Premium on Demand movie to see if it was just a problem with one movie, and it tiled and paused, too. So I called a tech at the office to see if it was a system problem. Nope. He sent a signal to the box and tested signal levels on both the computer and the digital box. He said he agreed with both the installers who were out here--the TV was not getting enough signal and the computer was. Net result is we need that extra outlet. So they're coming out to do that.

This reminds me of getting my first computer and on the Internet just as AOL went to unlimited subscriptions in December 1996. We'd sit and dial and dial to get online. We had all kinds of inconveniences, but we did it anyway. Talked all night in chatrooms, learned from each other online, and felt like part of history.

It was around 6 when I got the tiling. At 10 I turned to the same movie and it ran fine. I suspect this problem could only be detected when lots of people are watching TV or online or both. Good thing they can read it through the system. Way cool, in fact.

Just Don't Ask Me How I Did It

2005-03-18T06:28:00.000-06:00

I can make both of the VCRs record from the digital cable now, if I don't change any settings while they're running. I don't know what happens when I change settings. I don't think the cable people do, either. The VCR Commander units are thoroughly confusing, sort of jerry-rigged as far as I can tell. I'll experiment with it when I can play around with recording something I don't care about, and am not exhausted from staying up all night writing.

I'm reading the book "Judgement Calls," by Alafair Burke for the Murder and Mayhem list. Not sure yet whether I like it. So far it's a little too much about how cases are filed by prosecutors. Hard to tell if there will be characters I can care about.

I looked through "Senior Dogs for Dummies" by Susan McCullough last night from the library, and ordered a copy. I need that book for working with Gabriel and Spirit right now at their ages. Age, really, since they're only 4 1/2 months apart.

Spirit has been skipping some meals, but we seem to be getting her back to eating. When we discovered she was overweight we increased her food from 2 cups a day plus extra virgin olive oil and a few treats to 3 cups a day and more. She gained a few pounds quickly. When she started balking at eating, we cut it to 2 1/2 cups a day, and after a few meals at that level she's eating promptly again. Hopefully it will continue a gain, though not as rapid a gain.

I can make both of the TV/digital cable box/VCR setups play the VCR with the digital box turned off, but I have to keep pressing buttons until I get it working--I don't understand the signal pathways. I can't get them to tune the TV on analog channels with the digital box turned off and recording to the VCR on digital. When I turn the box on to try to tune the TV, it stops the recording even though the readout on the cable box still says REC. Maybe at that change it sends that signal to the TV instead of the VCR. I think if I left the box on for recording I might be able to switch the TV to watch analog cable on another channel while the VCR is recording from digital cable. The problem is that the box has to be turned off some of the time in order to receive programming updates.

The idea of machines taking over the world is beginning to seem less farfetched to me. And yet, apparently I am not the only one who prefers to hold a book in my hand to read, rather than reading off a screen. Maybe it's something about the light from the screen. We'll always want and need books.

DVR, Please, Pretty Please?

2005-03-15T04:32:00.000-06:00

Today a different cable company representative came out and instituted a whole different plan on how to get my two VCRs to record off digital cable while I watch analog cable. Now they're both set up with VCR controllers, and you should have seen the numbers and commands flying on the TV screens to get it done. He also checked out my computer to make sure it was getting enough signal and I've never seen anyone so fast on a keyboard. But Superglue was involved, so it didn't all go without a hitch. The plan is to boost the signal at the neighborhood amplifier rather than run another line. If it's not working well in a few days when they've had time to do that, I'm to call back and they'll try something else.

So far stuff seems to be working except that I don't know why I didn't get that second television program on tape tonight. I'm thinking it might have something to do with that fussy VCR having commercial skip and marking the start of programs. It may work better if I program the VCR to come on and record for the time span. That's what I'm going to try next. That will have the added benefit of giving me a mark where the program starts, which the VCR commander did not do. Programming the VCR is not a problem for me. The way it's set up now causes less signal loss and doesn't have that big noisy A/B switch. Instead, you press a button on the remote to switch.

I watched Crossing Jordan from my Sunday night tape while grooming dogs, and then part of Hellboy via Premium on Demand. It has to receive programming updates from the company during the night, so I decided to turn it all off and listen to FM radio. Peaceful. Hubby is up now and watching his DVR. They told me on the phone today that they hope to have enough DVRs in about two months to let us have another.

Believer was even smoother in her work with me today than last time. She's so good at just melting through tight spaces at my side, and if she can't figure out which way I'm planning to go, she takes my direction beautifully. I couldn't be more pleased with her assistance. Gabriel was fussy in the spare room and Spirit required a leash escort to the car for her private spot to rest during the service call. I'll work out different confinement for the other dog when I start having someone here every week to clean, but this works for no more often than I have workers here now. At least it does when the garage is neither too hot nor too cold for a dog to snuggle down in the car and sleep.

I scheduled another DogRead author today, Susan McCullough with Senior Dogs for Dummies, in November. I think that time of year is great to think of our old dogs, the ones still with us and the ones not. Wednesday we start a new book on the list, Moira Anderson Allen's Coping with Sorrow on the Loss of Your Pet. We've already been talking about losing them on the list because the current book on canine cancer got us into whether or not to treat and when to stop. Difficult things to think about, but better to do that thinking before we're in the middle of unbearable grief and have never considered the decisions we suddenly need to make.

Tails from the Bark Side

2005-03-13T02:44:00.000-06:00

I picked up a book at the library the other day by Brian Kilcommons and Sarah Wilson, titled "Tails from the Bark Side: True Stories from the Family Dog Files." The library checkout desk was crowded and Believer and I had not practiced in awhile. It was the day before the cable installation. Rather than waiting in line, I decided to go browse for other books to take home along with the reserve title I was there to pick up. That got Believer and me away from the crowded desk until some of the patrons were served and the line was gone, and also provided more practice.

This book caught my eye. It's charming, and makes me wish I could get to know this couple better. Hey, I have an idea. I should browse the Amazon and Dogwise sites for other titles by them and see if they can be persuaded to talk with us on DogRead. I've always liked their book "Good Owners, Great Dogs," written some years back. Their love for dogs comes through in their writing.

Struggles with Digital Cable

2005-03-12T04:54:00.000-06:00

I've been trying since Wednesday to find a way to make my VCRs work well with digital cable TV. I like television. I don't have a lot of time to watch, and when I do have time (mostly when combing dogs), I want to watch something special. My husband uses a different TV and also likes to watch on tape. We got a DVR from the cable company for that room, and that's letting him watch the way he likes.

But using the digital TV controller boxes with VCRs is a MESS. I'm trying another method right now, just in case it might work. The company's website technical information is sketchy and you get very few written directions with the equipment. There is a feature on the remote and the onscreen program guide that I don't understand, and in about 2 minutes I will see if it is capable of changing the channel between programs. I can set my VCR to be on and recording at the proper time, but it can't tune the digital cable channels. Only the digital controller box can.

The problem is that so far all I can find out indiates that you have to have the channel on the digital controller set on the station you want to record. If this is the case, when I want to record two or more programs in a row on different channels, I will have to go back to the unit between shows and change the channel--wait, it's starting--OH MY GOODNESS! It works! The techs on the phone did not know how to do this, so of course I'm feeling very clever. It's not in the instruction book for the remote or on the website, either. I guess it's a secret. Well, not anymore.

They're coming back on Monday to finish the installation. Good thing it's a dog training opportunity, or it might make me cranky that it's taking two visits. I just wish I could get another DVR. I will have to keep checking to be sure of getting one as soon as possible. The DVR is the best way to operate this system the way we want to use it.

But for now, I found a way to string the wires connecting the A/B switch to reach it from the bed, so I can watch at least the basic cable stations while the VCR is recording something from digital cable. I will also have to program the VCR timer to start and stop at the right times for these programs, which means programming both units for each thing I want to tape. Oh geeze.

Next test, do I have to leave the digital controller box on for it to be ready to send a program to the VCR for recording, or will it turn itself on at the set time? You have to turn it off at least once a day for it to receive updated programming information. I just checked to see if I can stop it in the middle of a program if I decide I don't want that program, and yes, that works.

I want a DVR!

Good Dog Training Day!

2005-03-10T04:12:00.000-06:00

I got Spirit settled in my car, Gabriel in the spare room with two rugs, and Believer on my waist leash (about 30"), before the workers arrived. It was a long afternoon. I was ready at noon and the Bil Jac delivery was around 1. He called first--he's great about that. He also had some Gooberlicious treats I'd forgotten to order, super service.

The first cable guy got here after 2:30, and he had a trainee come later to help him. They finished right before 5, but will have to come back Monday because the signal isn't strong enough, even after they redid the old wiring the way it should have been done when the digital telephone service was installed. It wasn't that guy's fault he didn't get it then, because he was way overbooked. He got it working, the main thing.

So the computer will be getting a dedicated line. And it turns out the VCR hookups don't work the way I need them to, so they'll change those Monday, too. Not their fault, because figuring out which way to hook up the VCRs to digital cable controllers is a matter of the lesser of the inconveniences involved in the different setups. There is no really good way to do it.

The good setup is a DVR in the digital controller so there's no VCR needed. I hope it won't be long before all the sets have that. I think the technology is there now and I expect they'll decide it's cheaper than all the labor to try to help customers get the VCRs and separate DVRs they own to work with the digital cable boxes. They want to encode the programming, and splitters cause signal loss--it's so complicated without the combination control/record device.

Changing the VCR setups will be easy for the techs with the right controllers, and I called in to make sure they'll have those on the work order Monday. But running a wire more than halfway around the outside of the house and drilling through the wall into the study: not so easy. Been there, seen that done.

Believer was great with all the comings and goings. I didn't realize what a super opportunity it would be for us to work as a team on movements and keeping together for hours at a time. Five hours, on our feet almost the entire time. She has so much stamina. Imagine following someone's lead in dancing for that long.

After the workers left, I combed the dogs and Spirit was a real toot. She won't fall for that car gag so easily on Monday. Gabriel fussed all afternoon and never noticed the treat-stuffed Kong I had in the room with him. My oldies-but-goodies aren't spoiled, no, not them! They enjoyed their combing and hubby got home right after that so they got attention from him.

I'm really pleased with Believer's work today. She was steady and responsive. She accepted the workers and the noise and also had nice poise with Spirit's grouchiness later. I think besides nice nerves and skills, she has healthy self-esteem. She knows she is important to me, and she loves that as much as I do.

Dogs and Workers

2005-03-09T02:53:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow I have people coming to the house to work. I figure they will need access to three rooms plus the front door and the back door. I have three dogs to control during this, with three different needs.

Spirit needs to be where she will not see or be seen or be around a stranger. It's very temperate here right now and she has a massive, well-groomed coat, so I'm planning to put her in my car with the windows rolled down a couple of inches. It's set up for her. There's a rug in the back that the dogs like to rest on.

Believer is my assistance dog and needs to be with me. I'll leash her to my belt as usual, and have treats to give her at the very first moment so she doesn't stare too hard and make the people nervous.

Gabriel is too arthritic for the one room they don't need to access that has a door, because it has a smooth floor. With a bulging neck disk and arthritis in his hips, I'm not putting him on a smooth floor. I could pick up a couple of rugs, some of the big rubber-backed mats from the kitchen, and put them in there. Two would give him plenty of footing in that small floor area.

Otherwise I was thinking I'd put his padded nonrestrictive chest harness on, fasten his leash to it, and tether him to the leg of the sofa away from the pathway and the working area. I don't want him making them nervous when Believer is already out, though... I think the room with rugs is a better idea. He won't like it, but it's the safest place for him. He wouldn't like the tether any better.

It would be too much to expect a phone call in time to situate all the dogs, so I'll aim to get them fed, pottied and settled before the start of the "window of time." And keep the phone in my pocket. I'll be glad when this is over!

Flags of Our Fathers, by James Bradley

2005-03-08T02:44:00.000-06:00

I'm reading a book by James Bradley with Ron Powers about the six Marines who raised the American flag on Iwo Jima in February 1945. I got the book because I heard the author speak on Book TV. I don't know if that's on anymore. I got bored with it because of the topics they featured for several months. Whenever I think to check, like now, it's not on, because it's only the weekends.

Bradley's father was one of the men, and his family found a lot of papers in the attic after he died that told them there was much more to how it affected him than he had ever said. So far the book is fascinating, but I'm only about 1/5 of the way through. I'll read more in it when I start pedaling after writing this.

The digital cable isn't installed yet, and I'm curious as well as dreading the shuffling of dogs for the multi-room installation. I expect it will go quickly. I hope we can manage to vacuum behind the TVs before the installer comes. I'm scared of doing that because it's devastating to my allergies and I have an ear that's been stopped up for about 2 months now.

I think I want pizza tomorrow night, or more precisely, pizza topping. Little Caesar's seems to have good ingredients for a low-carber who can leave the crust alone. I've eaten their pizza sans crust through my whole weight loss and maintenance, and done great. They're very accommodating, too.

I need to go out to the library tomorrow and pick up a reserve book by Csanyi Vilmos, "If Dogs Could Talk." It sounds like he thinks that should be a goal. I'm interested to see what the book is like.

Reading in 2 Kings tonight, I noticed that King Joash of Judah, the one who was crowned as a young boy under the protection of Jehoida the priest, died by assassination at the hands of two of his trusted advisors. It looks like he was about 6 years old when crowned, reigned 40 years, and according to the footnote, was assassinated because he had become an evil man and his kingdom was out of control. How sad.

Digital Cable

2005-03-06T02:51:00.000-06:00

My husband and I love television, and we watch movies at home since my arthritis makes long sitting in a theatre painful. Our current bundled cable plan is being discontinued and it looks like we're going to make the jump to digital cable. I hope I'll be able to get through to the company on the phone tomorrow and find out the cost and particulars. Instead of going out to rent movies, we're hoping this will make it convenient to watch them at home through the system. Theoretically that means always something good on TV, but in reality of course there will still be lots of "nothing on" times. Hopefully, though, more chances to record things we want to see when we sit down ready to watch a program. And more technology to learn. At this point I'm glad we haven't bought a DVD player yet. Looks like we'll be trying out a DVR from the cable company free. I really don't like those delicate little plastic disks, especially since I dropped my MS Office DVD from a height of about one foot and put an ugly scratch on it.

Time for exercise and reading that good book!

Back to My Reading

2005-03-05T03:20:00.000-06:00

I'm looking forward to pedal exercise tonight, so I can get back to that fascinating novel. Not going to take time to do proofs of the rubber stamp. That will be a pleasure for tomorrow or the next day. I carved two Saint Patrick stamps for this season. Easter is so early this year that I'm thinking of doing a sort of "Resurrection Eggs" project with this new 12-square grid stamp.

It's a shame having a short Easter season, because the art of the season is interesting. And then next, April, April, April...Spring? I have some nonseasonal images chosen, some partially and some fully drawn for carving. Maybe time to go play with those. But I guess first, fill out the income tax forms and mail them, groan.

Rubber Stamp Carving

2005-03-04T02:56:00.000-06:00

Last night between other chores I managed to carve a new rubber stamp. This is the first time I've used the faux woodgrain carving material. The stamp I made is a large grid of 12 squares for showcasing other images or items such as punched shapes. I've previously carved one with the squares empty. This time to show off the wood grain I carved alternate squares empty and the others with interior line to frame the woodgrain. I'm eager to see what it looks like, but no time to make a proof yet. Something to look forward to!

Atkins Meal

2005-03-04T02:48:00.000-06:00

Tonight's dinner was delicious and easy and so good for my Atkins eating plan. I had taken a filet out of the freezer two days ago to eat last night. My husband got home yesterday earlier than expected, and we had something else last night. Meanwhile my steak was already marinated. So when I broiled it tonight it had marinated for maybe 36 hours. I'll be doing that again! Along with it I had frozen green beans cooked covered in the microwave with about a tablespoon of butter for about 14 minutes. I topped that with about 4 ounces of grated mozarella cheese and then put my steak and the also-broiled marinade on top. Marvelous.

I started Atkins 1/30/2002, lost down to goal weight 10/24/2003, and have maintained that loss. Total weight loss is 185 pounds. This is how I will eat the rest of my life--how could I do otherwise?!

Kenny Rogers and Working Dogs

2005-03-03T03:12:00.000-06:00

I like to listen to my Walkman while I write. Tonight I've been listening to Kenny Rogers. Right now the song is "Islands in the Stream," with Dolly Parton. Some of my favorite poetry is song lyrics. I was writing an article that will be posted to the articles section of the Canine Behavior Series in the next few days, about behavior considers of Working Group breeds. Interesting to research those breeds, even just enough for that short article. Human history can be hard to trace, and dog breed history even harder. Still, those things we can discover offer special insights into both dogs and humans. Stanley Coren has a book about that.

Nursing Home Good-bye

2005-03-02T03:41:00.000-06:00

Today I had a warm phone conversation with the wonderful activities director at the nursing home where I'm retiring from volunteer therapy dog visits after 19 1/2 years. I told her about the great new volunteer handler and Bichon team they're getting, and she told me my visits have meant a lot to the people there. She wants me to write a good-bye letter for their newsletter. That will be hard, but it's a very good idea. I spoke on the phone with a friend later, and she used a word that expresses what I felt from talking with the activities director: Validation. I feel blessed to be making this transition with so much love.

MurderandMayhem_BookClub

2005-03-01T05:30:00.000-06:00

Time for my daily hour of pedal exercise turned into a treat time by reading fiction. Tonight I'm reading Tami Hoag's "Kill the Messenger," a club read for the murderandmayhem_bookclub Yahoo list. Too soon to know if it's to my taste, but so far so good.

DogRead Email List

2005-02-28T00:27:00.000-06:00

I'm moderator of the DogRead list on Yahoo. If anyone wants to check it out, an easy way to get to the group home page is go to www.dogread.com and click on "subscribe." Starting March 1st we'll be discussing the book "Help Your Dog Fight Cancer," by Laurie Kaplan for the first half of March and "Coping with Sorrow on the Loss of Your Pet," by Moira Anderson Allen for the last half of March. It may be a bit sad, but healing I hope. About half of dogs who live past age 10 years die of some form of cancer. And most of us will outlive our dogs.

First Blog Post

2005-02-28T00:04:00.000-06:00

Blogging seems like an interesting idea, so here goes. I'm a professional writer interested in dogs, assistance dog training, therapy dog training, arts associated with rubber stamping, cozy mysteries, the Atkins way of eating, and Christianity. That should be plenty of material for a blog! I'll be getting used to this format for quite some time, I expect. Onward and upward.