I call this series "dog forced to sit next to trees"

Camping

I miss the forest. It was good to visit, even if just for a few days.

Mountain time

A "hike" (very short one) we took back in June near Tollgate, Oregon. Elevation about 5200 ft




There was an incredible amount of elk poop in that meadow.

Dogs and Babies

Everyone in this house is full of skepticism.

I allow limited interaction, but always when it's dog --> baby, never baby --> dog. Both dogs dislike when even adults touch them while they're sleeping, so that's something I'm going to watch like a hawk as baby becomes mobile.

Zelda isn't terribly interested. It's Sammy who follows me and baby from room to room, laying down within three feet whenever we pause. If baby is within reach, she creeps towards her and if not corrected would snuffle and lick and nuzzle her endlessly.

This is how my dogs pay rent

Have a jolly holiday, everyone.

It's too hot to play fetch

It's 103 outside today. Time for a couples rounds of Warblegarble!





Zelda prefers to hang back, while Sammy likes to be as close to the action as possible. We usually play this game until she vomits.




(Video two has BONUS! Confused Foster Puppy footage.)

Today's Adventure in Rock Climbing and Falling

This is how many of my Saturday afternoons go: I ask my husband to get into the Jeep and drive me around. I sit in the passenger seat with my camera in my lap as we drive dusty, rural roads. Every now and then I say, "this is a nice spot. Let's stop here for a bit." (or, occasionally, "OMG stop stop stop I think  Then I get out and wander around and take pictures while he stays in the car and plays games on his phone. If it's a particularly deserted place, I let the dogs out, too. Then I get back in the car and we continue on to the next likely spot.

This afternoon we were toodling around the hills on the Washington side of McNary dam on the Columbia river. I saw a likely spot to get a good view of the dam and river and we followed our normal routine. I climbed up on top of a small cliff, dogs trotting behind. As I was snapping pictures of the dam, I saw furry black shape out of the corner of my eye sniffing around near the edge of the cliff. I looked up just in time to see Zelda walk right over the edge of the cliff and disappear from view.

In the time it took me to process the fact my dog had just fallen a substantial height, and to take a few steps in the direction, she came running up the trail towards me and Sammy, panting happily, no limp in sight.


Tom saw the whole thing from his vantage point inside the Jeep. I didn't hear the thumping sound when she hit the ground, but he assures me it was quite loud. He said she bounced. She didn't even act shaken. Not even a cursory few minutes of nervous yipping. Nothing.

After I made sure she wasn't broken, I had Tom take this picture of me with Sammy (Zelda is out of frame somewhere) standing about where Zelda landed. For scale, I'm about 5'7". Although from this picture it looks like it tapers, the side we're standing on is a shear 90 degree cliff face. She may have slid the first few feet, but she fell through thin air at least 20 feet, and that ground is covered in fist-sized lava rocks. Nothing to show for it but a small scrape on her abdomen and one on her chin.

We cut our road trip short and went back home, but she continues to be completely normal.

Now I'm really sad that we had her spayed. Think of the money we could have made breeding our special Rubber Collie line.

Zelda's Vocabulary

Here are all the words/commands I could think of for Zelda. Many of these I taught her using positive reinforcement with food as the reward, but treats are no longer required for her to obey them (so much for the "it's only BRIBERY!" theory from anti-treat trainers). Though I'll still use treats every now and then to keep her interested in the "pointless" tricks like "sit pretty" and "spin". Others have the reward built-in, like "uh-oh": for the game of fetch to continue, she has to bring the ball close to me. When we were training for flyball I rarely used food because the game of fetch itself was reward for running and getting a ball from the box. Others were taught (and continually used) using negative reinforcement. IE, I put some kind of pressure on her, and then release that pressure when she does what's asked ("get down"; "drop it").

~ "Come"
~ "Sit"
~ "Lay down"
~ "Roll over" (both sides)
~ "Sit up"
~ "Stay"
~ "Wait" (when walking next to me "stay here for a moment" or when waiting in doorway/threshold)
~ "Up" (meaning: "jump up on the object I'm pointing at")
~ "Go" or "OK" (release word - I really tried not to make 'ok' a release word, but it just kinda happened)
~ "Go potty/Hurry up" (aside from recall, having a dog pee on command is the best thing ever)
~ "Bed time" ("get in your crate")
~ "Get in" (car, bath tub, etc)
~ "Drop it"
~ "Off" (when jumping on someone)
~ "Leave it" ("whatever you're so interested in, leave it alone")
~"Bring it here" (bring that object you're so interested in to me)
~ "Wait/easy" ("don't eat the cookie I just set on your paw until I say so")
~ "Go get it" ("go get the last toy you played with")
~ "Do you need out?" (If she runs to the door, that means "yes". If she sits and stares at you, that means "no, I want a hotdog, stupid monkey". )
~ "Jump" (when holding the hula-hoop, means jump through it)
~ "Uh-oh" (when playing fetch "oops, you seem to have dropped the ball out of my reach. Please bring it closer so I can throw it for you again")
~ "Who is it?" (meaning: "bark wildly and run to the door" - this one I kinda, uh, taught her by accident)
~ "Sit pretty"
~ "High five"
~ "Shake" or "Gimme your paw" (left and right paws)
~ "Behind" (both sides - for agility - sends her behind me in a circle ready to launch at an obstacle)
~ "Over" (in agility, when pointing at a jump, means go over that jump)
~ "Spin" (both directions; need hand signals)
~ "Get off/down" (usually get off the bed or couch)

Things we're working on:
~ "Go get _______ (kong/rope toy/ball/slippers/car keys, etc)" (distinguishing between different toys/objects by name and fetching them.)
~ "Tunnel"/"Walk it"/Through"/"Climb" etc (in agility, distinguishing between two or more obstacles that are placed close together)
~ Carry a basket trick
~ Play dead trick
~ "Take it to Tom" (take an object from me to someone else)

Things I should work on, but am mostly just managing when it crops up:
Jumping on people to greet them
Chasing the cats. Oddly, only happens indoors under very specific circumstances.
Toy possessiveness with other dogs

A Springtime Miracle

Zelda actually shares a toy with another dog.

It's Zelda's self-assigned mission to make sure no one but her plays with any toys, ever. Poor Sammy won't even look at a toy if Zelda is nearby. If you try to give one to her, she'll actually run away from it.

But it's exhausting being the Fun Police. And when the Fun Police put themselves to bed, the puppies can finally do this:



(PS, my living room isn't usually that messy. We were in the process of rearranging furniture)

From a hike we took last month

Juvenile bald eagle:











Pouncy dog:

Gotta run

I've been even quieter than usual around here lately. I just got back from a radiology class in Portland. I now have 100% more training than a TSA agent in how to use an x-ray machine. Whoo! Now I'm off to California for my gramma's 90th birthday party. Try not to miss me too much.

The Anecdotal Pit Bull #5, 6, and 7: My old neighborhood

The neighborhood I lived in for several years while I worked at OSU had a lot of dogs. First and foremost, was Tango, who I always think of when I picture the ideal family dog. He is around 5 years old, neutered, and about 70 lbs. He is one of those mellow, well-behaved dogs that sort of becomes a background fixture; part of the soul of a neighborhood. He is often found lounging off-leash in his family's front yard, yet he never runs loose or causes any trouble. He just likes to survey his kingdom. He's good with all people, children, and other animals. He adored Zelda. He was one of the many reasons I was sad to move away from that neighborhood.

He is unequivocally a "mixed breed", yet in may cities with BSL, he would be labeled a "pit bull type". Other dogs with similar looks have been targeted before.

Number 6 is Baby. She and Tango are a study in contrasts. When I knew her, she was about a year old, maybe 40 lbs, unspayed, and completely untrained. Her owners lived several houses down, and for some reason thought that she'd stay in the yard, even though she was a untrained puppy and there was no fence. She used to run all over town, and learned quickly to run from people because they'd catch her and spoil her fun. I was one of those people, but I used Zelda as bait and lured her into the house and caught her multiple times. Once caught, Baby was very friendly and loved attention from people. She wasn't great with other dogs, and she and Zelda had words more than once, but nothing serious. I don't know what happened to her.

Number 7 I have no photo, nor did I ever learn her name. She was a muscular "pit bull type" dog that a family got as a young puppy. Maybe once a week the kids would play with her, which she absolutely loved. But she spent most of her time chained to a tree in the backyard barking at everything. She once got out of the yard and ran at me and Zelda as we were walking by. She didn't seem to know what to do; she barked, growled, cowered, play bowed, rolled on her back, sniffed noses and butts with Zelda, and otherwise acted unsocialized and under stimulated. She mostly ignored me except for a sniff of the hand and a brief wag of the tail. Then the owners came out of the house and hauled her back to her tree. That was my only interaction with that particular dog.

Winter Fun Times

the lost files of summer

We got Zelda a life vest. Because, while she is an earnest swimmer, she has little body fat and a very short coat. A labrador she is not, and her hind end sinks alarmingly far under the surface when she swims. Also, a life vest means I didn't feel bad about coaxing her to jump off a dock for my amusement.

Agility trial results

We qualified for three out of seven runs and ended up with 1st in Novice Regular, 3rd in Novice Weavers, and 4th in Novice Jumpers. This without practicing at all in three months. Yay, ribbons!

We would have had a 1st in the other Jumpers course, but we went off-course and didn't Q. Even taking an extra jump, Zelda had the fastest time of the entire Novice group for that course.

And, even better than ribbons, Zelda had a perfect down stay the whole weekend.






And this is a blurry but humorous photo of my dog in action. She loves the jumps almost as much as the tunnels.

changes in latitude, changes in attitude

I've moved from coastal rain forest to semi-arid desert.

Less lush, uncontrolled plant growth and newts and delicate, dew-covered flowers

...and a lot more sagebrush, foxtail, ants, and darkling beetles.








I've gone from being the bread winner in the family to being unemployed. My dog went from almost constant access to a 5 acre yard to one of the mystical and dreaded Condo Collies(r).





This is my entire garden, now.

Yeah. Still adjusting.

On the bright side, the country around here is beautiful.