I've been busy

We've had a spell of GLORIOUS weather here, and I have been unable to do anything productive indoors, including writing. Oh well, winter is on it's way (unless global warming is really here to stay), and I figure I might as well get a few projects done, including fixing the back door, painting the porch, organizing the shed, planting bulbs and winter pansies... I'm sure I'll find more to do as I go on.

I have, however, been walking the dog everyday, although she insists it hasn't been enough - but then when is it? I've read most of "Animal Reiki" by Kathleen Prasad. I've been meditating. I've joined several Yahoo groups on dog training and behavior.

And I think I'm learning more from those groups than I did in the formal training program I was struggling with.

I confess, I'm a bit of a "lurker" - I tend to just read rather than contribute because I've found that most groups have at least one or two people who get a bit snarky if you say the wrong thing. However, so far I've been pleasantly surprised - a group on positive training is actually practicing what they espouse on the humans too!

It's also nice to find that I'm not alone in my search for the "right" or "best" way to train and work with dogs. I'm not alone in having dogs with issues, in making mistakes in training or mistakes in how I handle problems.

But the sun is rising and the projects are calling...

...and there's only three more days of glorious weather, and there's still plenty of work to be done!

How Dogs See The World

One of the problems with working with dogs, or indeed any other species (cats come to mine), is that we really have no idea how they see the world - we theorize, but we can experience what a dog experiences. Or at least most of us don't, but that's a different post.

We do know they rely on their sense of smell more than we do. While they do communicate verbally, they rely more on body language, and that nebulous concept "energy". While they do remember things from the past, they don't appear to worry too much about the future in the way we often do, they live in the now.

Then there's the question of "intelligence". Most people, and I fall afoul of this thinking frequently myself, measure a dog's intelligence by human standards. However, the comparison is unfair to dogs, and means we miss the areas where dogs are perhaps more intelligent and are perhaps wiser than we.

Of course there are exceptions, and while I laugh till I cry at the adventures of The Simple Dog in Allie Brosh's blog at Hyperbole and a Half, I do hope she's making it all up, or at least exaggerating...

Why is this all important? Because in order to motivate our dogs to do what we would like them to do, we need a basic understanding of how they operate. We need to accept that while they aren't like us, thinking wise, they do have their own innate intelligence. In my opinion, dogs even have a need and a right to enjoy life on their own terms, to a certain extent, if we want them to be happy and fullfilled.

Question of the day: What have you done today, just for your dog's pleasure and happiness?