Wordless Wednesday October 8 2014

Black and White Sunday May 25 2014

Yet another instance of "how did my puppy grow into this humongous dog I have"? I always love this picture of her, from one of our early jaunts outside after she came home. I took it with the little flip phone I had at the time.

Wordless Wednesday January 29 2014

Wordless Wednesday: October 24 2012

Wordless Wednesday August 29 2012

If you like it, name it

I've heard a lot of good advice when it comes to shaping behaviors, and eradicating behaviors. Interestingly, there is some overlap in the Venn diagram of the two.

If you are shaping a behavior, you reward it when you see it, and put a name to the cue.

If you are eradicating a behavior, you can treat it as though you're shaping it. Name it when it happens, and put it on cue. Eventually, said behavior will be offered, or performed on cue, and not at other times.

It might sound kind of weird. I thought so. But it can work!

Want to learn how?

Wordless Wednesday July 4 2012

On Our Sunday Walk...

Today on our walk, we saw:

An Airdale Terrier on a Flexi lead.
A Rat Terrier on a Flexi lead.
A Put Bull Terrier (I think) on a Flexi lead.

I don't have pictures, because I don't want to be a weirdo who randomly takes pictures of people on the street, but do they have the corner on the market, or what?

Rain Rain, Go Away

So, I don't know about you guys, but our weather has been miserable. Rain just about every day, for a week.

I know we need rain for crops, yadda yadda (though the way the weather has been up and down, I hear tell that New York State has lost something ridiculous like 70% of this year's apple crop!), but it really puts a damper (hah) on many activities, such as long sunny walks in the park, and having headache free time.

I figured I'd just post a couple of old walk pictures, and hope that sunny days are coming soon.

Elka in the little creek at the park:

Monday Mischief: April 30 2012

The park that Elka and I visit the most often also boasts some tennis courts.

Elka finds this fascinating, of course, to see an object of her acute interest to be used in such a different manner from the one to which she is accustomed. It's especially amusing for me when summer is in full swing, as there are apparently group tennis lessons for children, so not only are there lots of tennis balls, but also lots of kids, some of whom are using comically large tennis balls, at least until they get the hang of it, I guess.

So, at the park, Elka stared like a creeper at a Japanese couple, who (to my relief) seemed amused by her, not intimidated or upset. In hindsight, it might have been cute if I had her "bow". Or maybe it would not have been and it's good I didn't. The world may never know. We also sometimes see a pair of Indian ladies who are literally swathed in white cloth and always walking. While they never want to pet Elka or actually interact with her, we've seen them enough that they smile and gesture hello, and this last time, one of them blew Elka a kiss and said hello to her too.

But, international relations aside, that wasn't the little bit of mischief. Or perhaps shenanigans? It was innocuous, certainly, just a bit of fun!

Wordless Wednesday: April 25 2012

Sunny again!

Monday Mischief April 16 2012

This one is an interesting bit of mischief.

Lately, Elka will not "go lay down". Or she will, but she'll come right back. Or she'll pace about like she's looking for the perfect spot, and then give up, imagining you've changed your mind about what you told her to do. You'll excuse me if I feel this is frustrating.

Liberty's Attachment

Many of you have commented on Elka's snazzy new collar, and thanks very  much. I'll try to do a post just about the collar, but you'd be surprised how hard it is to take pictures that show it off!  The collar is from Ellaslead.com, a site that people on Doberman Talk have collars from all the time, it seems. Gorgeous work, and very reasonably priced. It never fails to shock me how much one can be charged for a dog collar!

Another Ella's Lead purchase, though, was Liberty's Attachment. It's a simple enough thing, but I never thought of it until I saw it on the site.

 You see, there's always a possibility of a collar failing (though I fail to see how this one will!) or a harness failing, and you don't want to be left holding a leash but no dog. So, you attach the attachment (I know, right?) to the collar, and to the leash. You attach the leash to the harness. And then you're good to go, mind at ease. They also have Oscar's Attachment, which is utility rope instead of leather.

Of course, before EzyDog sent me one, I didn't have a harness for Elka either. But now I do, and we're very happy with it!

Don't worry, I adjusted the harness after I took the picture, so that it would be straight again. Elka doesn't seem to notice at all, whether the harness is straight or crooked. It doesn't seem to rub her at all either, which is nice.

The Park in November? You Betcha!

Today was a beautiful, sunny day. Far too nice to stay inside and work on my novel instead of taking Elka to the park. So out we went!

Currently, I have an EZ Dog Harness, sent to me by the company, to review. It has a seatbelt attachment that I haven't used yet, but that was a primary reason for me wanting a harness for Elka.

It's the Time of the Season

It's only October 10, but the leaves are all changing. The hills are slowly going red and yellow, instead of their summertime green.  It gets cold at night (and we've already had at least one frost), but it's still warm during the day, for the most part, and Elka and I have been getting our pre-winter park walking in still.

Walking on a sunny day

With fall fast approaching (here, anyway), the sunny days seem that much more precious and few.  

When Elka and I take our walks, we don't just walk. If we're on the sidewalk, we practice "automatic sits" (Elka sits when I stop, preferably at heel).  We practice "look at me".  And oh yes, we practice heel.  Sometimes that goes better than others; at the beginnings of our walks, Elka is very excited to go go go, and has to be reminded, sometimes frequently, that she really should be walking with me.  Frequently, "excuse me" is enough to reach her. Other times, I have to stop walking and wait, and then she comes back to me and sits.

The Walk After the Storm

Elka and I didn't get out yesterday, but this morning we revisited the park, and I thought it might be neat to have some "after" photos.  Reading about all of the damage and hardship that Irene caused, I really have to say, I feel thankful and lucky at the same time, that my particular town wasn't much hit at all. I never lost power (or Internet!), we live uphill, so no risk of flooding, and there was no damage at all to our property.

The Walk Before the Storm

On Friday, prior to the gloom and rain that Hurricane Irene drove before her, Elka and I took our usual walk.  It was a beautiful day, sunny and the right temperature.  It's becoming obvious that, want it or not, fall is coming.

Loose Leash Walking Breakthrough!

As I mentioned, I went on vacation for a week.

I think I can accurately assume that nobody worked with Elka with the clicker, because 1. I'm the one who does that and knows how it works and 2. I didn't tell anybody where the clickers were. So, our first walk after vacation was a little rough so far as leash work and attention went.  The second walk, though, was so good I thought it had to be a fluke.

See, we were walking, and Elka was in just the right spot, so I clicked.  She didn't look at me.  I counted five steps, clicked again, and she sort of languidly pointed her muzzle in my direction, and I gave her the treat.  She ate it, but didn't disrupt her walk pattern.  I watched her, still walking, and put the clicker and handful of treats away, only keeping a few out.  And she was perfect.

Post-Apocalypse park? This bears further investigation.

On our walk today, Elka and I went to a different park that town has to offer.  We'd been before, but around the playground stuff.  Today, we took a left turn into a human-free, eerily quiet area that made me think of 1. The post apocalypse or 2. The Chernobyl Exclusion zone.

On a day we have more time (i.e., beeline straight for this park), we will explore this motif further.