Miscues (or Missed Cues?)

The other night, Elka asked to go out, so I sent her to the back door. We have a routine, she sits and waits, and I either snap the leash on and have her wait some more, or I let her blast out the back door. I thought maybe I'd seen a deer or something out back, so I wanted her to wait after the leash was on. Typically, we hold up a finger, like "wait a minute", for signal purposes. I held out my palm instead.

(just a picture of Elka sitting, not from "The event")

Conversations with Dogs

Every time we have a "new" person, they must acclimate to Elka. I don't mean in the "we let her do what she wants and so they have to deal with it" way. I mean in the "this dog is as intelligent as a toddler and that can be kind of mind blowing at times" way.

Elka tries very clearly to communicate with us. I sort of get the impression that a lot of Dobermans, and other intelligent breeds, do as well. They want to get their point across. And because we've always talked so much to Elka, her comprehensive vocabulary is pretty good. I've never tried to count how many words I think she knows. I don't mean cues or commands specifically, I mean words in general.

Elka, wondering why my sandwich isn't hers.....

There's a certain, intent, "Are you gonna share that" look that Elka has. She's very polite, so long as she knows you aren't intimidated by her (she can be very pushy on people not willing to tell her  things like "off", "down", etc.)

Pictured here is a combination of "Are you gonna share that?" and also "Why are you taking my picture again?"  Perhaps "Why are you taking my picture instead of sharing that?"

Book Review: A Dog Named Leaf, by Allen and Linda Anderson

Okay, I confess. A very awesome thing about dog blogging (dlogging, as my fiancé likes to call it) is that people want me to read their books. Me! And I freaking love reading books. Especially dog books. Said fiancé has remarked that he didn't even know this many dog books exist, and yet I keep bringing them home. Or getting them in the mail.

Obviously, when Allen Anderson (of the Angel Animals Network, I later learned) emailed me to see if I wanted to read and review A Dog Named Leaf, I said yes.

To sniff or not to sniff?

When you're out on walks, do you allow your dog to sniff willy-nilly?

Do you use sniffing as a reward?

Do you say no sniffing, no how?

I do all three, depending on the situation. Sounds confusing? Elka mostly has it straight. I've come to my criteria as we grew together.

Signs and Symbols

I've been thinking a lot about how we communicate with Elka, and how she communicates with us. Some of it is from working on the dog training book, some of it is just from those thoughts that surface when you interact with a dog as much as I do.

Dogs work off of body language, and scents, and sounds. Humans work off of body language, sounds, and words, both spoken and written. In fact, we humans take it a step further (if not more) and have symbols that aren't words, but still expected to mean things. Obviously, these things don't mean much, if anything, to dogs. But sometimes they catch their attention.

Last June, I wrote a post called The Things You Notice, where I talked about a red riding hood statue that was in a yard Elka and I frequently passed (now no longer there, sadly). Due to construction, we have a slightly different walk route lately, and today Elka noticed a Buddha statue in somebody's yard.

Take Two Aspirin and Call Me In the Morning

Yesterday morning, Elka woke me up. This isn't unusual, right? It was 9:30, about our regular walk time. She wasn't whining or asking to go out, though. She didn't hop off the bed because she detected Action in the Kitchen. She didn't step on me while repositioning. She nosed at my hand and flipped it with her snout until I woke up.

She's never done that before, and I asked her if she wanted to go out, and she hopped off the bed then, and waved her left paw at the door as I reached for the doorknob (this is something she's started doing lately, which I find adorable). When we got downstairs, though, she didn't want to go out. And I realized I had a headache. Not a migraine, thankfully, but enough that I took some Aleve, drank some water, and went back to bed for a little while longer, Elka shadowing each of my steps and settling down next to me again.

Command Clinic: Recall Revelation

I've discussed recall twice now, in Command Clinic: Recall and Command Clinic: Recall Revisited. It doesn't mean that Elka's not still learning. And, it especially doesn't mean that I am not still learning.

Elka's recall at the park is very, very good. She's on a 20 foot leash, and 9 times out of 10, she'll recall on cue without further coaxing or further prompting. She runs at me, and typically hooks to my left (a definite improvement over the days when she ran at me and I caught her full on), where I catch her, then reward her, and then let her go. Taking pictures at the park the other day, though, I noticed something about that hook to my left.

What's the point?

Topic of note: dogs reading, not dog body language, but human body language.  How good do you think they are at it?

Pretty good, one would think. If nothing else, dogs know when we're happy, or sad, or angry (at them!).  But what about gestures?  If you point, does a dog know what you mean?