Slave to my dog - who's training who?

You can't say dogs aren't smart. What seems like a straight forward training exercise can turn upside down and inside out in a flash.

I suspect that I am not alone in experiencing the frustration of the puppy that performs excellently at home, attentive, responsive to commands, etc. but won't pay attention on the street or at the park, or worse, is actually bossing you around out there.

Treats alone do not do the trick. When we get to the park, once my puppy has cottoned on to the command/treat routine, she'll either ingor my call, going about her business until she's darn well ready to see what I'm up to, or, if she looks up at all, wait to see if I really have the treat at the ready and not respond until the hand goes to the treat pocket. The message I'm getting is to respond when she gives me the signal that she is waiting until I do.

It's not always like this but it is more like this than not and it is damned frustrating. Is my voice not authoritative enough? (probably) Have I simply not done enough repetitions for a simple recall to become a reflex? (definitely)

What makes it all the more complex is what I feel to be the "failing bond" between me and my puppy. She is despondent at home, stubborn on the street and depressed at work. I am making an exceptional effort to ensure that she is not left alone, taking her practically everywhere but doing this is unrewarding and increasingly embarassing. What I am getting back from her is the message "Nada unless you take me to the park... and even then."

What I think right now is that my puppy needs a lot LESS attention from me. She needs to be part of my scene, not the centre of it, and until that happens, she is going to try to train ME to be part of HER scene, which basically involves "How do I get him to take me to the park." "How do I get him to accompany me wherever I want to go in the park." and "How do I get him to stay in the park all day."

Whew, you can't say dogs aren't ambitious!

Answers? Try this link to the article, which notes that dogs are natural geniuses at training people: "Why Dog Training is Important" by I can't figure out whom or even what book it's in... Google failure alas...

Finding lost dogs; returning to true owner

Taking in a lost dog is a great thing to do but what happens when the dog's owner shows up? Recently I heard of this happening to someone who had found the dog three years ago. The dog had been left with friends and had run off. The original owner did everything they could to find it. Three years later they spotted the dog in its new owner's car and left a note under the windshield wiper.

This can be heartbreaking if the original owner wants the dog back. In many cases, they won't, they will have replaced the dog and they'll be happy just to know that their dog is ok after all. But if they do, the right thing to do is to return the dog to the original owner. There is no law of finders keepers. In fact the ancient, common law of trover (from the Fr. trouver: to find) is that if you find something, you can keep it until the true owner claims it. There is no time limit on this rule.

That seems harsh perhaps, especially to new owners who have rescued a stray dog, but think about from the point of view of the original owner.

Agility to therapy, dogs want to work

The amazing story of Happy, rescued, who becomes a champion, we LOVE this story.
dogs want to work

Dogs at night lights

Why would anyone attach a bike flasher to their dog? What is this about? Do you really need so badly to see where your dog is at? Is he/she going to wonder that far, like into traffic? No, dogs don't wonder that far away generally, especially at night so this must be about something else, like lighting up our world.
At left is is the Nite Lite Collar, nice...

above: Bling Bling Blinker
doggy night lights
more nite lights
for hunting: wa da f...?!
a game that involves dogs and lights
glow leash
collar beacon

Dog Park - the movie

Shot in Toronto, the actual park is our own Trinity Bellwoods Park. They built the bandstand into a lovely gazebo sort of thing, but dismantled it after the shoot... What a shame! testimony to the lack of relational/systems in our culture, and the stupidity of the media and city zoning people (people are after all what drives things...)
but I digress... the movie is nicely shot, has great characters and pretty funny dialogue, in a reserved-Canadian-twenty-something sort of way, but the park scenes are incredible to anyone who spends as much time there as I do.
review
details about the movie
unrelated website, great URL, but where oh where is it going?
link to trailer

DogProducts - Drinking water

Has acid and polluted rain so ruined our puddles and streams that dogs shouldn't be allowed to drink where they can? On the other hand, our urban parks are pretty darn dry. Especially for hot days or long walks, there are solutions:
Handi-drink - bottle with cup
Pupcups - cupped water
Cool Pooch - bottle with bowl

But why not just use a thermos or carry a water bottle and a bowl?

Image is by William Eggleston, posted on Salon. Salon article on William Eggleston

DogFacts - How dogs see

Dogs have camera-type eyes, which use a single lens to focus images onto a retina. Some other animals have compound eyes which have multiple lenses — sometimes thousands of them but dogs' eyes are more like our own. [source]

Dogs see differently than we do, though. Currently the thinking is that they see 'better' in some respects, but with a more limited colour range. [source]

It was recently discovered that different dogs have different retinas, some with what is called a "visual streak," a high density line of vision cells which runs across the retina, where others have an "area centralis," a single dot-like area where those high density cells are concentrated. Veterinary Scientist Paul McGreevey and his collaborator Perth neuroscientist, Dr. Alison Harman believe the dogs most likely to hunt and chase are the ones with a visual streak because they have better peripheral vision. You can tell what kind of vision your dog has by the length of its nose. Short nosed dogs have an area centralis. Long nosed dogs have a visual streak. And the dogs with the longest nose of all are the Afghans, also known, not surprisingly, as sight hounds, bred for hunting by sight. [source]

The area centralis dogs are not at a disadvantage though. Area centralis cells are much more concentrated than the visual streak line of vision cells, leading McGreevey and Harmon to hypothesize that dogs with area centralis retinas see in higher definition which would explain why some breeds watch tv while others show no interest in it.

Now that we know about these high density retinal cells, we can imagine that it might have a memory, not unlike a computer, with retrievable traces of past images being stored there.

Speaking of 'retrieving' (in this case iamges, not balls) artist Jana Sterbak's contribution to the Venice Biennale (2003) were six large screens playing back video taken by cameras mounted on Sterback's faithful pooch Stanley. Up until now, I've not been a fan of Sterback's work, (the most notorious being her Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic, exhibited at the National Gallery of Canada in 1991), but this piece says something about both the mystery of dogs, which all owners feel at some point, and how dogs work for us.

Articles about Sterbak's work:
[Art Focus]
[Richard Gagnon]
[Canadian Art]
[John W. Locke]