THE OTHER END OF THE LEASH

I’m not going to answer this question yet, because I want to know what you think. This is an issue because the veterinary practice acts in some states have been re-written to say that only veterinarians can treat “mental conditions” in animals. The argument of some veterinarians is that ‘mental conditions’ include any and all behavioral problems, that behavioral problems are thus medical problems and anyone treating them who is not a vet is breaking the law.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. After you join in, I’ll add my opinion to the mix.

Meanwhile, back at the farm: The humidity broke for a few days, and how glorious it was. Regrettably most of the time I was stuck in a skanky-smelling hotel, but Friday evening was glorious. Saturday morning I reveled in picking strawberries at U-Pick patch not far from the farm. It was heaven, I got lots of catch up time with a girl friend, we turned our fingers (and, as it turns out, the seat of my pants) a lovely hue of red, and now I have 9 quarts of strawberries in the freezer. I’ve already put up 5 batches of rhubarb, so as soon as the raspberries ripen, in a few weeks, I’ll start making rhubarb/strawberry/raspberry pie.  Yummmmmmm.

The birds continue to delight us. Here are some photos that Jim took of the birds at our new feeders (Goldfinches on the left on the Niger seed feeder, White-Breasted Nuthatch on the right):

The big black thing on the left is a baffle to prevent raccoons from raiding the feeders, which they try to do every night. One of the baffles has paw prints all the way up the top, so I’m not so sure it’s working, but it has seemed to slow them down.  Here’s a female Goldfinch on the Niger feeder and a male snarfing up black oil sunflower seeds.

Here’s an authentic question for you all, and I would love to hear your answers. The question in the title is based on a phenomenon that seems to be consistent across many years and in many contexts. The ‘word’ in the publishing industry is that, compared to dog lovers, cat lovers buy very few cat related books. I remember when Dogwise (Direct Books) started out they sold both cat and dog books, until they dropped the cat-related items because they didn’t sell well and weren’t worth the trouble. Elizabeth Marshall Thomas’s smash best seller The Hidden Life of Dogs was followed by a book, Tribe of the Tiger, that didn’t sell particularly well.  I get 100 (1,000?) requests to do dog behavior-related seminars for every one cat behavior seminar I’m asked to do (I LOVE doing cat behavior seminars by the way).

But why is that? Cat lovers adore their cats, no question about it. No doubt one explanation is that cat owners have fewer expectations of have a “well-trained” cat, whereas dog owners are always buying training and behavior modification books. That might be the primary explanation, and it fits the fact that the cat books that first pop up on Amazon are usually stories about cats (and look at the recent best selling book, Dewey, about a cat and a small library in Iowa). But on my former radio show, I was swamped with questions about cat behavior. Today on Larry Meiller’s on WPR show we got lots of questions of people who were desperate to get help for the cat’s behavioral problem.

People do need to train their cats, and to solve the behavioral problems they have with them… but they still don’t buy cat behavior books that often. I was thinking about this issue last week when Denise, Andrea and I discussed selling a book we really like,  Starting from Scratch. We did put it up for sale on the site, and we’ll see how it does. But I don’t bring this up as a marketing promotion, it’s a sincere question about why it is almost universal that dog lovers can’t get enough books about dog behavior, while cat lovers may read a lot (and with a cat in their lap!), but not about cats… You’d think cat lovers would buy cat books, because, well, why not? Any thoughts?

Meanwhile, back at the farm, it’s a swamp outside, hot and muggy. My least favorite weather in the world. I’m moving the sheep to a small pasture every day now, and luckily they need to be moved early in the morning and late in the evening. That gives us all a break because we can avoid the hot times of the day, but even then both Willie and I are relieved to get back inside in the air conditioning. The AC hasn’t been on all year until last Friday, but what a luxury it is to have it. I’ve so much gardening to do though… I’m so far behind after being gone and so busy for a few weeks. Oh well, a weed is just a plant in a place you don’t want it, so I get to say, hey?

The bird life continues at at break neck pace… all the songbirds trying to fit in as many nesting attempts as they can before the light changes and the leaves fall. This weekend I was sorry to watch a male Cardinal feeding a round, pushy Brown-Headed Cowbird baby begging successfully from him at the feeder. Cowbirds are nest parasites, who lay their eggs in the nests of song birds. Their young are large and precocious, and are able to trigger a feeding response from a parent of a different species by using “sign stimuli” that elicit feeding from birds like Cardinals and Vireos. A bit like us getting all warm and gooey over a cartoon character that looks infantile with big eyes, a big forehead and disproportionately large hands and feet. Cowbirds are native, so I guess I shouldn’t be too concerned, but I can’t help but feel sorry for the Cardinal, whose own young may well have starved to death given the aggressive nature of the cowbirds begging (and the fact that their large size can result in the ‘real’ nestlings being pushed out of the nest and dying on the ground.)

Life is tough out there, no doubt about it. But not so rough in the house, where Sushi sleeps on the couch as I write. Here are my favorite photos of Sushi, no doubt she’s pondering the heavy issues I’ve raised . . .

I’m working on a column for Bark right now about the ontogeny of fear in dogs. The editors, Claudia and Cameron (the editors of Bark), adopted two sisters from a rescue organization down south. The girls are litter mates who might be BC/terrier X beagle crosses. Both came under socialized and shy, but one (Kit) has rapidly come out of her shell, while the other (Holly) is still profoundly fearful of any kind of novel event. Leaving the house is a trauma for her, as is the appearance of any object that she’s not expecting. (Claudia’s purse fell off a chair and Holly refused to go anywhere near it, even though it blocked her access to her favorite area of the house. Meanwhile, Kit jumped over it and continued on her way.)

Claudia’s question to me, and the motivation for the column, is “What are the forces that have made these 2 siblings, who shared the same early environment, so profoundly different?” It’s a great question… and I’ve been doing some research I thought you’d be interested in. A longer story will appear in a later issue of Bark, but here’s a small piece of it:  Evidence is increasing that in utero experiences have profound effects on an individual’s personality. Just look at these findings from human development:

1. Babies born of starving mothers are born with livers and pancreases that are less able to process fat and sugar, and as adults they are predisposed to diabetes.

2. A moderate amount of stress during pregnancy leads to a child who is more adept at tasks requiring reasoning and coordination.

3. However, extreme stress or trauma does the opposite, and can create a child with fewer receptors in their brain for the stress hormone cortisol. Once born, even as an adult, the child’s brain is unable to sense large amounts of cortisol until it’s too late. Suddenly swamped with cortisol, the individual responds to even mild changes in the environment with fear and anxiety.

Although the studies I mentioned are all on primates, there is a great deal of evidence supporting the same effect in a large range of mammalian species. Here’s where the recipe for differences in personality in dogs comes in, even in litter mates. First off, all litter mates come with a different genetic blueprint. Just as you and your siblings aren’t clones of each other, neither are puppies, even when they are born at the same time. Each set of genes is going to react differently to the environment, including the one that surrounds a pup as it develops in utero.  By the time pups are born, they have had two very different sets of experiences. They started out with different genetics that effects how they respond to their early environment, and they each have had a different experience inside the womb. We may think it’s all the same in there, but developmental biologists will tell you that each fetus has very different experience than it’s womb mates. (I do apologize for the pun . . .  but I just can’t bring myself to delete it.) Some puppies get more nutrition than others, some get better immune system protection, etc.

By the time a pup, kitten or child is born, they have both nature and nurture to separate them.

I knew some of this years ago when I was breeding, and will never forget when Pippy Tay was about 2 1/2 months pregnant. She had ripped a hefty patch of skin from her side in a classic “tent injury” that clearly needed a lot of stitches. (I just about fainted when I saw may dog looking like she’d been skinned. I called the clinic and said: “This is Trisha, the dog owner. This is NOT Dr. Patricia McConnell and I am FREAKED OUT!”)

After settling down,  I talked to the vet for quite a while about her pregnancy, and what effect any drugs we’d use would have on her, and how stressful the procedure would be. I’d just finished reading about learning deficits in rhesus macaques whose mothers had heard loud noises randomly produced during their pregnancy, and was worried about the effect of treatment of her developing puppies. We elected to give her just a local anesthetic, I stroked and coo-ed to her during the entire procedure, and thank heavens, she seemed relatively calm during the entire procedure.  After wearing a T-shirt for weeks to protect the wound, she healed with no complications. I relaxed and the pups turned out beautifully.

I do think, though, that’s it is a good thing I’ll never be pregnant now that I have this knowledge. I can just hear it: “Careful! Be nice! Mustn’t stress mummy! You know what the research says!” (Oh, wait, but the studies do say that moderate stress is a good thing! Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.)

I’d love to hear if others have had experience with litters whose mothers went through serious traumas. Of course, we’ll probably never know what happened to Kit and Holly’s mom while she was pregnant, but it is tempting to speculate that it wasn’t all good.

Meanwhile, back at the farm: Somewhere I have a print photo of Pippy with the T-shirt, if I find it I’ll attach it to this post. But for now, here’s Sushi, looking ever so stressed on the couch on a cool morning …..  Not a lot of stress there!

xx

Work on the podcast is progressing. I’m waiting to hear the first version of the pilot that we recorded last week, and am on pins and needles about it. How will it sound? Are my answers (to some of your GREAT questions!) helpful? Interesting? How about the format? By the way, we decided to go with another voice, that of my new partner in crime, Buzz Kemper. He’s the co-owner of Audio for the Arts, and sole owner of a great voice, lots of recording and podcast experience and a terrific sense of humor. He’s not a behavior or training expert, but that’s part of why I think he’ll be a great presence on the show… keeping me honest and adding a fresh voice to the mix. (And yes, to loyal Calling All Pets listeners, I do miss Larry, and I will continue to miss him, but he’s full to the brim with Wisconsin Public Radio work and so we’ll have to be content with my occasional visits to his daily show.)

Predictably, during our first recordings, everything didn’t go smoothly. We did a great interview with Temple Grandin, but the stars were against us and it didn’t record. You can imagine how that felt–picture all of us shocked and miserable. Let me emphasize here that Buzz and Audio for the Arts are true professionals, and this just doesn’t happen to them. But then, it did, cuz that’s how life is. Sort of like getting Tony Bennett to sing for you and then not capturing it on tape. But hey, stuff happens, and we got her back and she graciously did it again for us (apologies to the audience in Guelph waiting for her to get back into the seminar!).

We’re going to finish taping the second pilot tomorrow, which includes an interview with Karen Pryor that we’ve already done (and was so interesting it ended up being 30 minutes… for the 30 minute podcast. Oh well, aren’t pilots often longer than the regular show? And hey, if it’s a podcast, can’t it be as long as we’d like? However…  I promise we won’t be quite so cavalier when we get down to business.)

Speaking of business, that’s where you might come in: Studio time costs money, and so does producing and putting out a podcast. We carefully considered your responses to our query about the form of the podcast, and decided to go with looking for a sponsor rather than having it be something that people have to pay to download. So, I’ll be spending some of my June and July looking for a sponsor. I have a few ideas (more are very welcome), but right now I have a request of you listeners who at some point were supportive of the idea of a podcast.

Official favor request (she said, feeling a bit sheepish): What if some of you wrote comments designed to help us convince a potential company or funding source to sponsor the podcast? I know next to nothing about rounding up a sponsor for a show (although I expect I’ll know a lot more soon, hopefully not “How NOT to do it”) but it does seem like hearing from potential listeners might be a good idea. Yes? If you are so inclined, write something as if you were writing directly to the potential sponsor in the comment section of this post. I’d keep it relatively short and sweet, but beyond that, your guess is as good as mine about what to say.

Meanwhile, back at the farm: The Robins are up and away, but the Chipping Sparrows are still flying into the nest with food in their mouths, so Sushi is still trapped inside and not happy about it. Last night she flew out the door when I wasn’t paying enough attention, darn. So I set out to get her back and I wish you could watch a video of the 20 minutes I spent doing so. 19 minutes and 59 seconds were spent pretending not to care where she was– otherwise I wouldn’t have had a chance. Luckily, she’s very affiliative, even more so when she’s outside, and I knew that she’d eventually come over and do a body rub if I stayed still for awhile and ignored her. So I walked AWAY from her, sat down and weeded a bit, then got up and walked parallel to her, never going toward her, never even looking at her, until she finally couldn’t resist and walked over to me. I sat on my hands until the last second and then apologized as I picked her up and carried her inside. I doubt she cared much about the apology, but some extra yummy food seemed to help.

The Lilac below (no longer blooming as of yesterday) is the bush where the Chipping Sparrows perch before flying to their nest one the side of the house. And hey, if you’d rather not write anything about the podcast, want to come help me water the grass seeding by the barn? (See how it’s all brown? It got re-graded to keep water from running into the barn when it rains.) It’s a huge area and is taking no small amount of time to keep moist. Go little grass seeds, go!

I took Will to a friend’s to work him on different sheep in a new environment. I’m getting to the point where he and I don’t have too much more we can do at home. My small flock is so tame that Will has to be within a few feet of them to move them, unless I split out a few and force them away from the main flock. Then they are flightier (and more challenging), and I’ll do that more and more, but don’t like to stress the ewes and lambs too much when the lambs are young. Either way, it’s still the same sheep in the same place, and Will needs to learn how to work lots of different types of sheep in different places. (So do I!) We are used to working in first gear, when most sheep work in done in 4th.

I wish I could show you a video of how he did. We were at a gorgeous farm where Will has never worked, and three things happened that made me so happy I could have carried him home myself, all thirty miles.

1) I sent him on a long outrun, two to three times as far as he’s ever gone (perhaps 250 yards? I’m guessing). He did a perfect outrun, and I don’t have the words for what it feels like to watch your dog get smaller and smaller as he runs away from you, curving out at just the right time to go around the flock and not disturb them until he gets to the back. As I think about it, I should  NOT qualify it as a “perfect” outrun, because no one was holding the sheep in place, and they were moving long before he got there and were close to the edge of the field. So, was his ‘lift’ perfect? (That’s when the dog gets around to ‘twelve o’clock’ and first makes contact with the sheep.) I can’t say, because the sheep were moving long before he got there (not because he was too close), he got them stopped once he got around them, he turned on balance and brought them straight to me. We’ve never worked on such a huge field and it makes my heart full to work in a place that open and free.

2) He’s got his flanking whistles down. Down pat. What’a boy, I’m so pleased. Here’s a synopsis of the process:

a) We work on his flank whistles for 2+ weeks, looks like he has them nailed.

b) Week three everything falls apart, I realize that once I thought he “had” them I tested him by asking him to change directions a lot. I begin to suspect he thought that both whistles meant “change direction.”

c) For 2 sessions, I go back to the first steps, having him run around and around, clockwise or counter clockwise as I repeat his whistle over and over, using the movement of the sheep and visual signals to keep Willie moving. I tested him a few times in a different context, and it seemed he wasn’t making any progress on which whistle meant what.

d) The next time we worked I send him on an outrun and he runs around to twelve o’clock and keeps going. And going and going. He runs an entire 360 degrees around the sheep, ignoring my signals to stop. It takes me a second outrun to realize he had interpreted Step C not as whistle training, but as training to run in mindless circles around the sheep.

e) After realizing this, I sat down and laugh out loud in the wet grass and asked Willie for a kiss. Willie obliged, then peed on a bush, then looked for sheep poop to eat.

f) I stop using his flank whistles for a few days (used verbal), then gradually added them in on occasion, no longer having ‘flank whistle training sessions,’ just using them when I know he wants to go that way anyway. Gradually I start asking for them when he’d prefer the other direction, and with very few corrections (a verbal no), Willie starts getting them right.

g) I take him to Peg’s (where Redford is) and he gets his flank whistles about 19/20 times.

h) Willie not only took his flank whistles every single time at our last outing, he listen beautifully, even at 200 yards. Bless him.

3) Willie came to me as a puppy pathologically afraid of other dogs but was great in the field with a guard Pyrenees (more on Willie and other dogs in other posts, and probably and eventually a book.) We’ve worked on it for three years, and he’s been improving leaps and bounds. My friend’s sheep were guarded by a working Great Pyrenees, described as a “big galoof” who loves all dogs, but still, I was thrilled that Will and he had two perfectly reasonable greeting encounters. At one point Will would have run away in terror, at another he would’ve attacked. This time Will briefly greeted him before going to work the sheep, and then left my side the instant I said “that’ll do” after working sheep and ran to sniff the other dog some more. I won’t say there wasn’t a bit of tension there, but nothing serious and easy to manage. Just being able to have Will around unfamiliar dogs is a joy, especially a big, guarding male.  More to come on that score, as I said, but back to herding for a moment:

Mind you, Wilie and I couldn’t score well in a trial now if our life depended on it. He behaves completely differently if anyone, anyone at all is watching (I know, I know, is it me, or is it Willie?) and he is easily intimidated by sheep. He’ll lose contact with them, take the pressure off when he shouldn’t, get rattled if there’s any stress and if he is confused, but lordy he’s trying incredibly hard and I love him to pieces. And me? Oh dear. I have no ability at the moment to work fast moving sheep… I simply can’t make decisions fast enough to get flighty sheep to stay on a perfect straight line on a drive, but then, I’m trying hard, too. Willie seems to forgive me for it, or at least, he can’t talk and tell me what he thinks…

Lassie terrifies Trisha: Yesterday morning I woke up mildly surprised. In five minutes I was in terror. It was 6:15, and Lassie always, always ALWAYS wakes me up between 5 am (sigh) and 5:45 because she has to go outside to pee. In general, I haven’t set an alarm since we stopped taping Calling All Pets over a year ago (when I had to get up at 4:30 on Wednesdays). But now, it’s 6:15 and Lassie is sound asleep. No worries, I pad over to her doggy bed and gently touch her shoulder. “Lassie,” I say quietly, because she often startles when awoken because her hearing is so bad. Nothing. Lassie is soft and warm, but immobile.  “Lassie” I say, and press with my hand a little harder, shaking her shoulder back and forth. Nothing, and no sign of her chest rising and falling either. This time I push forcefully into her, saying LASSIE now with real fear in my voice. I’m so loud and clearly scared that Jim peeks over the bed, worried himself. Nothing. Not a twitch.

It’s amazing the thoughts that run through your head when you’re in crisis. I remember, very clearly, thinking that “she must have died recently, because she’s still warm and there’s no rigor mortis” and “how sweet that she died in her sleep and presumably didn’t suffer.” These were cognitive thoughts, generated by my cortex, when my amygdala and hippocampus was screaming OH MY GOD LASSIE IS DEAD. I remember the thoughts and the emotions of terror and panic as being parallel, but completely separate from one another.

The panicked part of me shook Lassie one more time, this time shaking her hard and yelling her name with pure terror in my voice, and as I did she slowly raised her head and licked my face. I burst into tears and sobbed like a child, kissing her muzzle and saying her name over and over again. This morning she woke us up around 5:30, and at first I thought, “Oh Lassie, just a few more minutes!” and then…. was overwhelmed with gratitude that she’s there to wake us up at all.

Meanwhile, back at the farm, during the sweetest spring weekend you can imagine. Here is a picture of the yard that Jim took yesterday:

In this next picture, I love the different postures of Will and Sushi: Will is chewing on his Sunday bone, Sushi is practicing her “lion on the hunt” look.

And here’s why Sushi is now stuck inside for the next few days: This baby robin flew/fell out of the nest on top of the porch light this morning, along with two others. There are also Chipping Sparrows in the bush by the living room window, wrens nesting in the exhaust vent from the bathroom (which no longer works, although for years when you turned on the bathroom fan you’d  hear cheep cheep cheep cheep… now it doesen’t work at all and I’ve just given it away to the wrens), a PeeWee nesting on top of a down spout by the porch and barn swallows nesting in the garage. [added note 6/10: an alert reader suggested it was not a PeeWee and she was absolutely correct! I watched carefully the next day and saw the typical tail flick of the Phoebee and heard their typical song. A PeeWee is nesting close by because I hear it often, but not on the house.} That’s four nests attached to the house…. and all with babies about to fledge. Sorry, Sushi!

Earlier I wrote that you “can’t reinforce fear” and used a dog who is afraid of thunder as an example.  For so long we have been told that we’ll just make our dogs worse if we try to comfort them when they run to us in fear when the skies rumble and the rain falls. In this context, it really is doubtful that comforting your dog is going to make him worse. As I said previously, fear is designed to be aversive, and dogs who are terrified of thunder aren’t going to get worse because you stroked their belly.

Indeed, there is research that some interpret to mean that our petting has little effect at all: As I mentioned in a 2008 Bark column (and an alert reader posted), Dreschel & Granger (Applied Animal Beh Science, 2005) found that cortisol levels, a measure of stress, did not decrease when owners pet their dogs during storms. (The most important factor in decreasing cortisol was the presence of other dogs.) However, note that a study by Odendaa & Meintjes (2003, Veterinary Journal) found that cortisol in dogs doesn’t decrease when we are petting them at other times, (although it does in us when we pet them!). However, it is important to remember that cortisol is not the be-all and end-all of indicators of emotion. The authors found that other indicators of internal affect, such as feel-good hormones like oxytocin and prolactin, increased when the dogs were petted, which suggests that stroking did indeed have a positive effect. And hey, if a dog’s behavior changes such that he is no longer pacing and panting while I rub his belly, I’m going to rub his belly!

Here’s an example of fearful behavior from last night at the farm. It’s not about thunder, but it is still instructive: late last night my farmer neighbor was in the field across the street from me in a tractor the size of Connecticut. As soon as Willie heard something and looked out the window, he absolutely lost it. He ran frantically in circles, barking hysterically with his ears pinned, his eyes twice their normal size and a look of sheer terror on his face. When I first heard him bark I honestly thought something terrible had happened, he sounded so horrifically upset. As soon as I saw what it was I said “Will! It’s okay!” and went to him. I used my voice in a soothing way (soft, quiet, looooooooooong notes), sat beside him and asked him to stay still. I rubbed the area between his eyes and the side of his head with long strokes. His barking decreased, although one BOOOOF would still burst out of his mouth every 5-10 seconds at first. In about a minute he stopped barking altogether and stayed still without me helping him. Eventually he put his head down and buried it between my body and my arm. It looked like he was hiding it, and I remember feeling all gooey when I saw that and said “Awww, honey, it’s okay!” but I suspect he was looking as much for the soothing feeling of being cradled as simply hiding his head.

This example brings up an issue that I didn’t address in my first post about reinforcing fear. I should have, but thanks to several thoughtful commentators, I will here. (You can read their comments on the May 4th, 2009 post). They raised the point that surely it IS possible to increase the frequency of a problematic behavior in some contexts, even if fear is one of the motivators. I agree completely that the issue is a bit more complicated that I might have suggested in my first post–ironically I had started to go into it in more depth and then ended up deleting several paragraphs because the post was getting too long and the topic was getting to complicated. But I shouldn’t have, because the topic really does deserve more nuance than I suggested.

The bottom line is you could indeed cause problems by inadvertently reinforcing behavior in certain contexts. There are two things that are important to remember here: one is that fear is an emotion, and “reinforcement” refers to something that increases a behavior. You can’t, technically, reinforce an emotion, but you can increase the frequency of a particular behavior. In the case of thunder phobic dogs I don’t think there is ever a problem, because you are trying to decrease the emotion, which would indirectly decrease the problem behavior. Besides, if you sit beside your dog and stroke him while it thunders, and he stops pacing in circles but sits beside you, then if you are reinforcing anything it is him sitting beside you and not pacing.

Secondly, motivation is key here.  If a dog is barking at visitor from fear, then having the visitor toss treats or toys does NOT reinforce the barking! It decreases it, because the emotion of fear subsides and it is the emotion of fear that drives the behavior. Once the dog associates visitors with treats, her behavior changes to body wags and happy dances. (Visitor = chicken! I love chicken! I love visitors!) This is standard Classical Conditioning, and I can tell you from 22 years of experience that it works incredibly well with lots and lots of dogs. However, if the dog is barking at people not because she is afraid, but because of another reason, it IS possible that you could increase the frequency of the behavior. That’s why it is so important to be able to read dogs and do a good evaluation of a problem behavior. I met a dog once who loved to get right into your face, all body waggy and grinny and relaxed, and then explode in a bark lunge about four inches from your face. I truly believed she just adored it when you startled (I rose at least a foot from my chair), and that is behavior that was clearly being reinforced!

I also think that how you respond to a dog’s fear is critical. First of all, we know that emotions can be contagious, so it is important to not be fearful yourself. Jennifer, in the comments, mentioned the importance of role modeling cool and collected sometimes, and I couldn’t agree more. If I had run to Willie and tried to pet him with an anxious voice and upset affect, it well might have made him more fearful.

Oh, my, I could go on and on, but life continues and I need to get to other things…. But here’s a link to the study on Storm Defender Capes that has just been published (thanks to an alert reader, Chris, for the link!). It looks as though capes in general do indeed have a positive effect, and that there might be something to the Storm Defender cape itself. I haven’t seen the whole study yet, but check it out, even the abstract is interesting. It in Applied Animal Behavior Science.

Meanwhile, back at the farm, it’s been cool and gorgeous and busy. This time of year in the country is never-endingly full of chores. (Did I mention the 150 exams to grade?) The lambs (who, with one exception, are doing beautifully) are thriving but need worming, the grass is growing and so are the thistles which have to be killed one by one, the ram needs to be split out before he breeds Snickers and Truffles, the gardens are full of weeds, the LP tank is leaking, the water tank up the hill needs to be scrubbed out…. and I need to sit in the swing at least a few minutes every day. Can you see it calling to me?

Here’s Sushi this morning. You gotta love the flexibility of cats. I love that Sushi maintained her x-rated yoga pose even while she moved on to licking her legs.

I finished a book titled Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human by Elizabeth Hess. It’s an interesting book, although I admit to mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it is a fascinating account of a research project designed to determine if a language is a uniquely human trait, or is something that can be used and understood by a non-human primate. It was initiated by a Columbia University psychologist named Herbert Terrace. Terrace was interested in challenging Noam Chomsky’s  contention that language is exclusively human (thus the name of the chimp as Nim Chimpsky, I always did love the pun). Mind you, he was not talking about labeling objects or using sounds to communicate; specifically he argued that syntax, or the use of the order of words to create meaning, is uniquely  human.

The book describes the dramatic and often tragic life of a chimpanzee who was taken from what was basically a breeding farm for research primates and sent to well-intentioned people who clearly knew virtually nothing about chimpanzees. Neither did they seem to know much about American Sign Language, which was successfully being used by other researchers (Roger Fouts for example) to communicate with non-human primates.

To say that things often didn’t go well is an understatement. There were a long list of reasons for that, but Terrace himself is clearly part of the problem. (As are all the scientists described in the book, who come across as arrogant and difficult. Heaven knows I’ve met my share of the same, but I am a bit skeptical of some parts of the book, since all the scientists come off poorly and all of the caretakers much better.)

However, I can tell you that there is little disagreement in academia that Terrace’s project was poorly executed. After Nim was passed around from one exhausted caretaker to another, with literally dozens of different trainers who knew little about ASL themselves, Terrace wrote a hugely popular book, Nim. In it he concluded that, contrary to his expectations, chimps could NOT ever learn or use ‘real grammar’ or even understand the simplest concepts of human language.

Critical as it is, I wish that Hess’s book mentioned that Terrace’s conclusions slammed shut the funding for any more ape language studies for years, if not decades. I was at University when it came out, and was going to Animal Behavior Society meetings and listening to the few people trying to continue language studies commiserate that their funding had been pulled because of the book (including Irene Pepperberg with her parrot Alex) . Terrace seemed to take the relatively radical approach that not only was Nim incapable of understanding syntax, but that he didn’t even understand what the words symbolized. He argued that Nim was just mindlessly mimicking. (And yet, when poor Nim was returned to a clearly abusive environment, Terrace suggested that Nim himself be asked if he was happy there…!).

A reviewer on Amazon suggests that it is best to read both Hess’s and Terrace’s book to get the full picture. I agree, and I’d add a suggestion to read Roger Fouts’ book, Next of Kin as well. I wish the book Nim Chimpsky talked a bit more about the what the research was really about, and I wish there was more discussion of the impact of Terrace’s conclusion. But overall, it is a fascinating, compelling (and sad) read, a real page-turner, as well yet another story of how much pain and trouble can be caused by not taking the trouble to learn about a species, much less an individual, before you interact with them.

Meanwhile, back at the farm… Willie and I worked sheep on Saturday and glory be, no limp at all from his bad shoulder. I won’t bore you with the details, but the surgery scheduled for Thursday has been canceled, at least for now. Could it be that chinese herbs, homeopathic medicine and western medicine sans surgery could be enough to cure his shoulder? Cross your paws for us. I am going to continue to monitor him and if necessary, bite the bullet, do an MRI at the Vet School if necessary early in summer and go from there.

Other good news is that it was gloriously warm this weekend. Almost all the snow is gone, and look.. the bulbs are coming up at Redstart Farm!

And here’s Sushi on Jim on the couch in the sun… she thinks this warm, sunny weather is cat heaven.

Here’s some more information from IFAAB, based on a talk presented by Dr. Samuel Gosling at UT-Austin. He is studying personality in animals, and has looked at it in species as varied as hyenas and dumpling squid. (And yes, dumpling squid are just as cute as they sound).

He spoke briefly about the history of scientific attitudes toward personality in animals–at one point it was almost a dirty word, but in the last twenty years the term (and the concept) has become generally accepted.  (Although he mentioned one researcher who still uses the term “behavioral syndrome” to avoid sounding anthropomorphic.) I must admit, as a someone trained in science myself, I still find it remarkable that the concept of personality in animals was ever controversial. It is astounding how essential it is to many to keep the division between human and animal clear and strong.

Related to that, here are two quotes I use in the Introduction to my UW class on Human/Animal Relationships:

“…the delineation of human/animal relationships occurs in all cultures, and in all cultures, this boundary is of great significance.” (Arien Mack – Humans and Other Animals,  1995)

“Our culture and our dominant religions have tied human dignity and self-worth to our separation from nature and  distinctiveness from other animals.” Frans de Waal, Ape and the Sushi Master

So true.

However, the concept of personality even in people was controversial  to some behaviorists. Encouragingly, Gosling reported that journal articles using the word, both in studies on human and animal behavior have seen a large increase, especially in the last decade. It seems that the pendulum is finally swinging back to a reasonable place, where we can acknowledge that genetics and experience combine to create predictable behavior patterns in individuals, whether they are human, dog, horse or kangaroo.

Here’s an interesting study of Gosling’s that related to how owners view the personality of their dogs. He asked people at a dog park to fill out a questionnaire about their dogs, and then did some simple tests to learn a bit about the personalities of the owners. You guessed it, there was a strong correlation between how people themselves behaved and how they perceived their dogs. Agreeable dogs were more likely to have agreeable owners, neurotic owners more likely to have neurotic dogs, etc. … Hard to say what’s going on here: could be that we owners project our own tendencies onto our dogs, or perhaps we choose dogs with similar characteristics. Or do we and our dogs began to act like one another after being together long enough!?.

Most interestingly, he found that people were consistent in how they rated other people as well… in other words, if they saw a dog as being “agreeable” they tended to rate other people as agreeable as often as not. But he also found the independent observers tended to rate people’s dogs similarly as did the owners, so it is not as though the owners were totally off base….

Gosling also made the point that “Temperament” refers to the genetic predisposition of an individual to behave a certain way, while “Personality” refers to a predisposition influenced both by experience and by genetics. Thus, we really shouldn’t call them “Temperament Tests,” should we?

Meanwhile, back at the farm: Remember the photo of the ewe Spot getting shorn, with her pristine white belly appearing underneath her wool?  Well, that was then and this is now. I didn’t get a photo, but this morning I didn’t recognize a sheep in the pen at first, couldn’t figure out who was the little, brown ewe by the feeder?  Turns out it was Spot, covered in mud, literally from head to tail. The only explanation I can think of is that she was resting lying down and struggled in the mud to get up. Sheep can get in trouble if they lay down with their legs pointing uphill. Based on her complete coat of mud, II suspect tht she struggled a long time before she could get up. I couldn’t see any injuries, and she seemed hungry and not visibly the worse for wear, so I’ll keep an eye on her tonight and hope she’s fine. Poor little thing, she’s quite small and clearly the bottom of the hierarchy, I find I feel a bit protective of her.

Back to sunny Sunday, here’s Willie moving the sheep out of the barn after shearing. (don’t they look spiffy?)

In the next photo you can see the white version of Spot.  She is the one  at the very back.. with the, uh, Spot. Now she’s pretty much all dark brown…

Next is Will, trying to ignore Sushi while waiting to work the sheep….

I’m working with some wonderful folks to get a web/pod cast radio show going, and would love to hear from you about it. First… what the heck should we name it?  We can’t, obviously, use Calling All Pets.  We had talked about Calling All Critters or Calling All Animals, but we are going to have to start simple, on a shoe string, so are only going to be able to answer email questions rather than phone calls. Thus, “Calling All.. ” doesn’t make sense any more. The plan is to start with a half hour ’show,’ with a guest interview as before, and me answering a few questions about training and behavior. Any ideas about what to name the show?

Here’s another question for you: Although Larry Meiller wouldn’t be available as a co-host, there is someone else who could act as co-host, sort of an “everyman” foil to the trainer/expert voice that I would provide. What do you think.. should I be the only host, or do you like the interchange between two people? (I do myself, but am concerned about it on a half hour show….).

Last question, I promise: Even though we’ll start the show on a shoe string, there are still costs involved. Is this something you would consider paying for, something like down loading music? Should we take ads? Should we just count on winning the lottery and do a show a day for the fun of it? (The plan is to do a 1/2 hour podcast every week, starting in early June.)

I am sincerely interested in your thoughts, and greatly appreciate all the support so many of you have sent over the months since WPR canceled Calling All Pets.

Meanwhile, back at the farm: It’s cold again, was windy and under 10 degrees (but at least no snow) this morning. We did have an ice storm Sunday night, lost power for 5-6 hours, right in the middle of a great documentary… darn. But it’s sunny now, so good to finally see the sun again. It’s going to warm up soon, a good thing, because my wooly sheep are getting shorn on Sunday. I’ll post photos, it’s quite the annual ritual. I love the seasonal nature of it, I love the feel and smell of the wool, I love watching the previously hidden bodies of each of the ewes appear from under their blanket of wool. Then just a few weeks til the next batch of lambs. Lambs! Oh boy…. lordy I do love them.

Here’s Sushi this morning at the top of the stairs, reminding me that both she and I need to go on a diet. I tried to get rid of  her eye shine and ended up making her look like an animal from a horror movie. “When Cats Go Bad” or something… I was going to switch it but it made me laugh, thought it might you too. And here’s a photo of Lassie and Will at bottom of the stairs, wondering no doubt what the heck I was doing with Sushi at the top.

(more…)

I  just received a book from veterinarian Nancy Kay, titled Speaking for Spot: Be the Advocate Your Dog Needs to Live a Happy, Healthy, Longer Life.  I haven’t read it yet, but it looks very  interesting. Anyone read it? I find the whole issue of medical advocacy fascinating and compelling and terrifying when I’m in the midst of oh, deciding, for example, whether to have Luke’s foreleg amputated or have him undergo radiation therapy for his cancerous tumor. It’s such a good thing that so many of us are informing ourselves about medicine in so many ways, but it’s a double edged sword. Some days I yearn for the old days, in which life was simpler (tell me what should I do, Doctor?). I don’t think it was better (neither for health care professionals or for patients) but lordy it was simpler.

So I welcome Dr. Kay’s book… my own experiences with medicine (for many species, including our own) include working with physicians etc. who pretty much walk on water in my opinion, and others who, at best, motivate me to rip my  hair out by the roots, and at worst, cause horrific harm. Let me know if you’ve read Dr. Kay’s book: I will soon (but it’s too heavy to take on the plane!).

I’m leaving in an hour to speak at the  Midwest  Veterinary Conference in  Columbus, Ohio. I pretty much have to swoosh in and out, which is too bad because I’d love more time to attend other lectures and speak with some of the interesting people who will be there.  But I have one of those ‘to do’ lists that is amusingly full, undo-ably full (okay, that’s not a word, sorry), so this time of year it just can’t happen. (One of the things I’ll be working on soon is my column for Bark Magazine about sex differences in training and performance of males and females. Thanks so much for your comments; more are still appreciated! I have to send the column in by next Thursday, when I leave town again…

Meanwhile, back at the farm, it’s cold again, was 7 degrees when I got up. Supposed to snow quite a bit tonight and tomorrow, but I’ll be long gone, in balmy Columbus. Yesterday a bird got trapped in the garage, flying desperately against a window on the opposite side of the garage from the door. Sushi and I saw it at the same time, and I was just able to grab her before she got the bird. I put her in the house and surrounded the fluttering thing with my cupped hands.  I am not a good enough writer to describe how intense the feeling of that bird was…. the tiniest, lightest, softest thing imaginable, and yet, with an incredible intensity of life force. I felt like I was holding something for the gods in my hand. In that briefest of moments, with that tiny epheremal life in my hands, I felt transformed somehow, and it affected the entire day. The bird, buy the way, a plainly feathered little Junco, flew away without any visible sign of damage.

I hope you have some transforming moments in your day today too. It seems I find them in the what could be thought of as the smallest things…

I am behind on answering your comments, apologies. I’ll try to catch up on the road, but internet connections can be spotty in airports. On Monday I have oral surgery (not a big deal, at least not to the dentist, just a molar pulled) so don’t count on much early in the week. (Or, take what I write with a grain of salt!)

Here’s Will with a little stick…