First off, I think that the most important factors related to who is qualified to treat a behavioral problem is their KNOWLEDGE and ABILITY, not their degrees or credentials. I am not dismissing the value of credentials, believe me, I busted my tail for my Ph.D. and I am very proud of it. I have tremendous respect for others with advanced credentials, and describe some of the vets that I work with as walking on water. I also add CAAB after my name with pride, just as I have tremendous respect for DVMs who are Board Certified in Behavior. But that said, who do you want helping you rehab a rescue dog who growls at visitors? Any dog trainer? Any vet? Any CAAB?  No.. you want someone who understands canine ethology, as well as operant and classical conditioning, who can read communicative signals from dogs extremely well. You want someone with experience working with dogs with behavioral problems, who can refer to a vet when necessary, and someone you can relate to (and who can relate to you), who does a good job being your coach, teacher and cheerleader all at the same time. What qualifies someone to do that? Knowledge and ability, yes? But knowledge of what, and ability to do what? Here’s some thoughts–not inclusive probably, but good enough to continue our conversation. I’ve restricted it to dogs here primarily for the sake of simplicity, but also because they are more commonly presented for behavioral problems:

MINIMAL KNOWLEDGE TO WORK WITH CANINE BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS:

1. Canine ethology, including the influence of genetics on behavior, developmental influences (in utero, neonatal, early social development), normal social structures of dogs in different contexts, communicative signals (these need to be known in depth, such that a 10 millisecond and 2 millimeter change of a dog’s lips is clearly noticeable and meaningful to the observer), play behavior, predatory behavior, agonistic behavior. I’m sure I’ll add more to this list as I continue to think about this.  You?

2. In-depth knowledge of operant conditioning (including + and - reinforcement and punishment, when they are best used or avoided); in depth knowledge of classical conditioning, counter classical conditioning and desensitizing (and the difference between and when to use each one over the other).

3. Experience applying #’s 1 and 2 to behavior problems in dogs, ideally by first learning basic training and handling, and over time assisting with a knowledgeable, skilled and experienced mentor on simple behavioral problems, working up to more serious ones.

4. An in-depth understanding of what behavioral problems are often caused by or correlated with medical problems, including a good working knowledge of structure and function, basic physiology and what behavioral problems always require an appointment with a veterinarian.

5. An in-depth understanding of the most common diagnosis of behavioral problems, what behaviors are ’symptomatic’ of these problems, and best practices to solve them. This includes knowing what these labels  mean, how useful the labels actually are (not always) and how to help the client understand what we can and can’t know about what is motivating their dog.

MINIMAL ABILITY TO WORK WITH BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS

1. Anyone who wants to work with dogs with behavioral problems, in my opinion, should be a good trainer, with the ability to read a dog and know what he or she is ready for (or not), knows how to use their actions, including movement and voice, to influence a dog’s behavior, can read visual signals extremely well and is able to interpret them correctly (ie, dog tongue flicks when asked to lie down). No one should ever give a client instructions about what to teach their dog, without being able to demonstrate how to do it successfully to the same dog, in the same context as the clients.

2. Consultants absolutely must have fantastic social skills with people, and be able to create a welcome and supportive environment for the client. Specialists who are great with dogs but not with people are not suited to do behavior consulting, period. There is no equivalent of surgery in behavioral treatment and rehab, in which the specialist never has to interact with the ‘patient.’ You’re either really, really good with people, or you’re in the wrong field. (Could I make it more clear how strongly I feel about this?!) The most common complaint, after 22 years, that I hear from clients is that the trainer/behaviorist/veterinarian was rude/busy/disconnected/shaming etc etc etc. I do not know this for a fact, but I believe that part of the bit of good I’ve been able to do in the world is because I like people as much as I like dogs, and I want to help them both.

3. The ability to take all the knowledge listed above and customize it for each case. Cook book solutions don’t work very often, and I’ve seen client after client who came to me after being given some handouts and some generic advice about this or that, which didn’t end up being very helpful. Being a behavioral consultant means knowing how to successfully influence the behavior of two species, and that means knowing how to present information in away that clients can use and adopt.

4. The ability to say, without hesitation, “I don’t know” and “I was wrong.” I have no respect for any professional who doesn’t know what he or she doesn’t know, and always love it when a doctor or vet says “I don’t know.” Music to my ears, and critical to being a true professional.

5. The ability to stay connected with a network of knowledgeable people, including trainers, behaviorist and veterinarians. It takes a village, that’s all I can say. I am incredibly lucky to be a community with some kick ass western vets, highly qualified Chinese Medicine vets, some great trainers, canine massage therapists, etc etc etc. I am grateful every day for being in contact with other CAABs, for connections with some fantastic Veterinary Behaviorists and for the opportunity to keep learning more every day of every week.

As I said earlier, I’m sure I’ll think of several more things to add later, but I need to get back to working on my new Play Play Play Seminar that I’m doing in California next week (write a comment if you’re coming!). I want to end by supporting what many said in their comments about the value of a team of people helping dogs and the people who love them. I agree whole-heartedly that all three fields, vet medicine, behaviorists and trainers need to do more work together to advance the field. I do not think every animal with a behavior problem needs to see a veterinarian, any more than every one who needs marriage counseling needs to get a full physical from their general practitioner. Neither do I believe–and I suspect there will be many who disagree-that GP vets should expand their knowledge base to become skilled in treating behavioral problems. Good grief, it is hard enough for them to stay up with advances in medicine. What I do think is that they should learn enough to understand the complexity of behavior, to know what they know and don’t know, and how, when and who to refer to. Board Certified Veterinary Behaviorists and CAABs are a fantastic resource for GP vets, and they would do well to work with them more often. Veterinary Behaviorists especially have so much to teach standard practice vets about psychopharmacology and behavioral medicine. Trainers and behaviorists need to reciprocate by understanding that some behavioral problems are directly or indirectly caused by medical problems, and work as closely as possible with those in veterinary medicine.

My last point is that, ever the optimist, I think it’s great that our field is progressing to the point where we are having conversations like this! I would LOVE to hear your comments about what I’ve written.. additions, deletions, objections, agreements, etc…. Don’t hesitate to join in, I think this is an important conversation.

Meanwhile, back at the farm, here’s from a walk Will, Lassie and I took Monday evening, at a friend’s beautiful farm just down the road from mine:

And here’s another one from the same walk, which might just be one of my favorite photos of Willie of all time (so far!):

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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.

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I’m happy to say that the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists and several CAABs (Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists) have written Merial to complain. The paragraph below is an excerpt from a letter by CAAB Suzanne Hetts Ph.D.

“Scientific research about how animals learn, about canid social behavior, and social relationships between dogs and humans does not support Mr. Millan’s training methods or his view of those relationships… This marketing campaign makes it clear that Merial did not do their homework when it comes to the science of animal behavior. Instead of relying on the academically trained, scientific community of veterinary and applied animal behaviorists or even to certified dog trainers, you instead turned to a media personality. Because you clearly don’t care about science when it comes to animal behavior and training, I now wonder what other scientific information you might choose to ignore in marketing and product development.”

Here Here, Suzanne!  The American College of Vet Behaviorists also has written an excellent statement, click on their name to read it. If you are so inclined, you can let your views known to Merial by writing Scott.Line@Merial.com. I say all this knowing full well how many people love Cesar and how much they think he has helped dogs. I personally believe that  Cesar loves dogs without question and wants to help them. I love that he advocates for more exercise for dogs and illustrates that many behavioral problems can be solved. However, I am deeply at odds with his perspective that behavioral problems are primarily caused by “dominance” issues, and that owners need to be physically forceful to achieve “leadership.” (I do appreciate that he has switched a bit from “dominance” to “leadership”… although I have no doubt that he and I define it differently and I worry that his use of it will undermine its value.)

I’ve never met Cesar (would love to) but I suspect that he is one of those remarkable individuals who has incredible presence. You know, one of those people who walk into a room and everyone stops talking to look at them. Gradually the person is surrounded by people who just want to stand next to this person who has… something? But what? What is presence?  Good question–Malcolm Gladwell first brought it up to me when we were talking about an article he wrote on Cesar, and he said he was thinking about writing a book about it.  I suspect that would be tough. How do you measure presence? Who has it and who doesn’t?

No matter what it is, people with it can do all kinds of things that the rest of us can’t. My suspicion (and it’s only that) is that dogs also respond to Cesar’s presence (confidence? being comfortable in your own skin?). That also means that those methods won’t work so well with people who don’t have that quality. Thus, his methods are problematic from two perspectives: they are often based on a misunderstanding of dominance and what it has to do with canine behavior, and they also assume a quality that Cesar doesn’t even know he has, and can’t be replicated.

Personally, I’d love to have an open and sincere conversation with Cesar about this. If I can get the podcast up and running, I’ll do my best to try to have him on. This issue will come up often I suspect for me in the next few days, because soon I’m leaving for meetings in Chicago between me, other CAABs and Board Certified Veterinary Behaviorists to find common ground and resolve some conflicts. (Ex: statements by some vets that all behavioral problems are medical problems and can only be diagnosed and treated by veterinarians, whether the vets have had any training in behavior or not. Guess which side of that argument I’ll be on? I’ll keep you posted…).

Meanwhile, back at the farm: It’s still brutally hot and humid, I worry most about old Martha, who lungs clearly are still not up to par. More people die of the heat than the cold, especially the elderly with respiratory troubles, and that describes Martha 2.0 to a tee. Willie and I only move the sheep in slow motion (if possible) and only early in the day or late in the evening.  The bird life hasn’t slowed down though, here are the serviceberries by the kitchen window that the Catbirds and Cedar Waxwings are gorging on.

And here’s Will, hoping I’ll send him in to get the sheep. Note his ear position, targeted towared me, anticipating a signal I suspect.

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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 . . .

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Meanwhile, back at the farm: Last night we had two house-shaking thunderstorms, no sleep for me and the dogs and hard work for the surge protector which was crying pitiously when I went downstairs at 3 am. Man it can be interesting to live in the midwest!  We got about 3 inches at the farm, no damage that I can see, except the poor flowers took a beating.

Last night I took the dogs for a walk about a mile from the farm. I’d say a good time was had by all, but Willie is horrifically affected by heat and humidity (like many BC’s) and although it was only 80 it was very humid. By the time I got back to the car I was seriously worried about him, he overheats so easily and it was our first hot and humid day of the year here. Poor Willie, if it’s not one thing, it’s another. He seems fine now, but our work on sheep is restricted now to early early mornings or especially cool and dry days. You can even see in the photo below that he looks hotter than Lassie, and we had just started out. Classic early summer midwest scenery, hey?

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Most of the booklet will remain the same–especially the emphasis on teaching an incompatible behavior when a dog barks, lunges or behaves problematically toward another dog while on a walk. But we are modifying some of the advice, and I’m interested in your experiences related to our recommendations.

First off, we are putting less emphasis on the importance of teaching “Watch” to mean “turn and look at me UNTIL I RELEASE YOU.” For those of you not familiar with the booklet, the first step in a Feisty Fido program is teaching a dog to turn his head toward you and look at your face when you say “Watch.” Once this is mastered in an area with few distractions, the owner tells the dog to Watch every time he sees another dog, working up to a dog who “AutoWatches” every time he sees another dog on a walk in the neighborhood. This not only teaches an incompatible response to the sight of another of the same species, it classically conditions a dog to feel relaxed and happy at the sight of another dog (changing “Oh NO!” into “Oh boy!”).

Over the years we’ve found that most owners have more trouble with the release than the cue Watch itself, and most importantly, that most dogs don’t need to stay fixated onto their owner’s faces until they hear “okay.” After all, if they turn and look away from the approaching dog and get reinforced, what’s the problem with looking back at the other dog and providing another reinforcement opportunity when Watch is said again? Granted, there are some dogs who need to keep their eyes on their owner’s faces–the ones whose response to the sight of another dog is totally out of control for example, but most dogs do just fine if you teach them that the sight of an unfamiliar dog is the cue to look toward your owners and get a tasty treat or a session of play.

The other modification of the booklet is an emphasis on dropping out prompts or lures early on, in order to avoid a smooch or a hand movement from becoming the cue (instead of the word Watch). We wrote Feisty Fido in 2003, six years ago, and since then we’ve become much more cautious about owners inadvertently teaching a dog that the cue to turn your head is a smooch or a movement, rather than the word watch or an approaching dog itself. It’s so easy to say “Watch” and encourage what you want with a smooch or a movement and end up undermining the power of the cue you want to use. In the new version of Feisty Fido, we advise people to see first if their dog will turn his head just to the sound of the word itself. If that isn’t effective, we suggest prompting (with a smooch to get the dog’s attention for example) or luring (by moving food a few inches from the dog’s nose and luring it toward your face) three times in a row, and then saying “Watch” all by itself and waiting at least 3 seconds for the dog to turn toward you (and then JACKPOT if he does!) This is effective for all but the most distractable of dogs (note one is doing this at the first stage of training in an area with no or few distractions, and never around another dog!).

Those of you operant trainers know that in a ‘purely’ operant modality one would not use a prompt or lure at all, and merely wait for the dog to turn his head toward the owner. In my experience, this requires far too much time and patience for most people (okay, you’re right, ‘most people’ includes me), and that doing something to help the dog get reinforced early on is productive. However, as I learn and grow, it is increasingly clear how careful we must be to not let prompts or lures become the cue themselves. When I read what we wrote in 2003, I can’t help but want to revise it.

Of course, I want to revise just about everything I write as soon as it comes from the printer. I am lucky in that early on in my career, I heard Terry Ryan say that every author has to be prepared to disagree with something she wrote as soon as the ink dries. Oh my was she right. I’ve gone back and looked at things I wrote twenty years ago and… well, never mind.

Speaking of a long time ago, we’ve had a sale on the Advanced Canine Behavior Seminar DVD and it flew off the shelves. It was recorded in 2001, and I have to admit I’m curious about what’s on it! I swear I don’t remember… If anyone has watched it and wondered: “Does she do that anymore….” or something similar, don’t hesitate to ask in a comment. Someday I’ll get the nerve up to watch it myself.

Meanwhile, back at the farm, it’s summer now, humid but still rainy, green and lush and fertile. The peony flowers are falling apart, looking like blousy ‘ladies of the evening,’ with too much make up on. The daisies are rioting white and yellow and the wild black raspberry bushes are full of tiny fruit buds. Willie and Lassie were so glad to see me when I got home Tuesday night from Maine that I’m still all oxytocin-y about it. Martha the older ewe still isn’t right, even with a different anti-biotic and wormer, but her lamb is thriving, as are all the lambs, who doubled in size for the five days that I was gone. Okay, maybe not quite that much. Jim finished the carport beside the garage, and it looks stupendous. What a guy. I may be able to turn around a problem dog, but anyone who can build an entire wooden structure that doesn’t fall apart in a few days is a miracle worker in my opinion.

After all that I should send you photos of the farm, but I haven’t taken any since I got back. Here are two photos from New Hampshire, one of Squam Lake (of “Golden Pond” fame) and one a typical forest stream that feeds the lake. They make me smile just to look at them, remembering how peaceful they are in person. What is it about water that is so relaxing?

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The seminar was on dog-dog reactivity, both between unfamiliar dogs and dogs within the same household. The demo dogs were great and the audience was truly lovely to work with. I am, however, a bit droopy, and I’m committed to keeping my laptop shut for TWO ENTIRE DAYS (oh my!) and visit a dear friend in New Hampshire.  I’ll be back in the ‘world’ on Wednesday. My sincere thanks to all my hosts and helpers… you were great.

Meanwhile, back at the farm: I MISS MY DOGS! (and Jim, and Sushi, and sheep……)

Here are some photos for you:

Okay, this is a trite shot of boats in a harbor, but it sure looks different than the farm!

Here’s some of the good staff at Planet Dog in their retail store. The place makes me want to retire and do nothing but play with my dogs!

This license plate is thanks to the work of BOTH Planet Dog AND Happy Tails (and others), who worked to get a state license plate whose income goes to shelters and animal care. How cool is that?  Shouldn’t we do this in other states?

“See” you next week….

Trisha

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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

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By the way, “green, leafy vegetables” included spinach, greens, and leaf lettuce but not the cruciferous veggies like broccoli and cauliflower. The latter did NOT show a significant correlation between high rates of consumption and low rates of cancer, but the authors pointed out that they were fed rarely and the sample size was extremely low. In humans, crucifers are believed to be chock full of bioactive compounds that promote health, so I’m not going to take them out of my dog’s diet (right now their veggies mix is broccoli, spinach and carrots, but that’s this week… who knows what I’ll cook up next week!)

Meanwhile, back on the farm, the Chipping Sparrows fledged this morning (finally! say Susi and I both), the Wrens appear to be feeding their babies in the shrubs under the vent and the poor Barn Swallows keep flying into the garage in the evening and being shut out during the day. In the evenings I’m painting the car port that Jim built on the side of the garage to protect the farm truck while listening to the throaty buzz of bumblebees, the semi’s of the bee world,  and the plaintive call of the Pewee PEEEE AH WEEE as I paint away.

Here’s Willie from last night, moving Martha, Lady Godiva and lambs off the feeder so I can pour in their grain. (Martha is doing beautifully by the way, but now her daughter in the other flock sounds sick.  Just call them my own economic stimulus package to the veterinary profession.) Notice the intent look on Will’s face as the lambs turn and stare.

The ewes above look like they were paying no attention to Will, but they have actually just turned their heads away from Will (and the food behind him) and in a moment did this:

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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!

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