THE OTHER END OF THE LEASH

We’re still all about toys at the office, given the boxes and boxes of them that arrived last week. And there’s nothing like having a new puppy in the house to get you back to thinking about toys!

A great happy surprise has been that the toy we were afraid would live on our shelves forever, Sherman the (Big) Sheep, has been a big hit. It’s sold more than any of the other toys, and we are still smiling about it. (And so is Will, he adores it.)  There are a few left, but we don’t expect them to hang around for long. Just fyi, the loser of the new toy choices is the hapless Scorpion, undoubtedly an image most people don’t want to see, and to make matters worse, it’s covered in “nature’s warning colors–red and black–just to make it more off putting. Poor little scorpions, I suspect they’ll be hanging around for awhile. All our dogs are fine with that, the Scorps are one of their all time favorite toys and we’ll be forced to take them home if they never sell. Picture Border Collies, Goldens, Beagles and Heeler mixes crossing their paws.

But I thought I’d mostly write today about two toys that we discovered during our research that are, well, weird. I don’t know any other way to describe them. Weird toy number one is the Doggie Lover Doll, manufactured in Brazil for dogs to have something to hump.  Seriously. Here’s what the manufacturers said in their release: “Human beings have their hands to masturbate themselves, now the domestic animals…. can alleviate themselves with a toy designed specifically for them.” Yup, you read it right, the doggy equivalent of a plastic doll. Oh my. (And no, we won’t be adding it to our collection of toys available on our website! I tried to find the website for it, but I got a “website down” message. Should I not be surprised? Was this all a big joke?)

Weird toy number two is . . ., wait for it:  Mr. Poops! Yes, indeedy, even you can buy a toy that looks exactly like dog feces. Imagine the fun you’ll have picking it up and tossing it around your living room floor. It’s made by the same people that make some of our favorite toys, My Dog Toy, but geeez, guys, who thought that up?

I remember one speech I gave at a fund raising dinner at which the hotel staff had decided it would be soooo funny to provide the chocolate desert in the form of dog poop. Apparently they all laughed like loons, but imagine a room of very quiet people when the desert plates came out. No one ate the desert, they had to throw it all away and the laugh turned out to be on them. You just gotta love our species sometimes. (Does anyone remember this and where it happened? Surely it could  have only happened in one place!)

Anyone else know of more toys to go into the “what were they thinking” category?

MEANWHILE, back on the farm: Will had oral surgery on Tuesday and Hope went to a friends for a few days so that Will could come home and recuperate.  (And yup, that was the tooth that I had a root canal done on, after which I was told that the tooth would forever be brittle and he could never chew on anything harder than a rotten tomato. Okay, I exaggerate, but if I had been told an hour before what was told an hour afterward, I would have elected to have the tooth extracted then. Before the root canal the dental specialist told me that it would give Will a “fully functional” tooth. That means a tooth that can chew on something harder than a sock  to me . . . But I won’t elaborate here lest I sound churlish; see an earlier post for a discussion and great comments about teeth, chewing, bones and dental procedures.) After thinking long and hard about the issues, I had decided to allow Will to chew on some objects, while avoiding hard ones like the long bones of cows, extra hard chew bones, etc. I just don’t think a dog can be a dog if he is not allowed to chew on anything. So I figured the broken tooth was inevitable, but the timing was unfortunate, to say the least. But I still will allow Will to chew on soft bones and some toys harder than dish rags. Everything in moderation.

For now my challenge will be preventing Hope and Will from playing tug games until next Tuesday (so that Will’s gum can heal). It is their absolute favorite game, so life will be interesting to say the least. Thank heavens for crates! Hope just came back and charmed me with his sweet, enthusiastic greeting and adorable ears. I’m sooooo curious to see how Willie responds to his return. Thrilled to see him? Or not?  I’ll let you know next week.

At the farm the birds and flowers continue to be a delight. It’s green and lush and about as pretty as it can get here. The barn is full of swooping barn swallow youngsters, the wrens are busy on their second nests of the season, and the Cedar Waxwings are gobbling up the berries from the Service Berry tree. They are such elegant birds! Here’s a photo of one that a friend just sent me from his summer home in upper Michigan.

A generous friend just sent me one of Nina Ottoson’s interactive dog toys, and Will and I have been having a great time playing with them. Well, he plays, I watch. And, I think he is having a great time. And that’s the question for the day. Is he really? Do dogs enjoy these toys as much as we like watching them?

I thought of this the second or third time that Willie worked with the toy (Dog Fighter–an unfortunate name in this country, but probably not relevant in Sweden.). He had learned that there was food under the wooden knobs, but hadn’t yet figured it out how to get to it quickly. After pawing unsuccessfully, which only pushed the knob in the opposite direction of what would release the food, he tried to chew on the knob. As suggested in the instructions, I quietly moved my hand between his mouth and the toy to stop the chewing, and let him try again. He nudged with his nose (wrong way), pawed with his paw (wrong way) and then sat back and looked at me in the classic domestic dog’s ultimate problem solving method: “Yo, human, can you fix this for me?” (Something any respectable wolf would never do.)

It was his face that got me thinking. He didn’t look curious, or excited, or plaintive, he looked downright frustrated. I’ve seen the same look on his face when I’ve been clicker training, and I’ve seen an even more intense look, one I’d call desperate, on the faces of other dogs who are being trained through shaping. “WHAT?!!!” I imagine them thinking. “Give me a clue for heaven’s sake!”

I did give Willie a clue, I nudged the knob a bit in another direction, and although I doubt that he was imitating my action (something that is actually a complex cognitive process… that’s a blog topic unto itself) he went back to nudging and pawing and finally got the food treat.

After 5 sessions he is a whiz at it. He’s got the nudge and paw down pat, and although I don’t think he can use the shape of the slot that the knob moves within to figure out which way to move the knob, he seems to know right away that he should change the direction of his nudge if the knob stops moving. And now, his face looks relaxed and excited. Once he’s cleared the board, his face rises, as if coming up for air, with an open mouth, shiny eyes and relaxed facial muscles.

So here’s the question: How much of “working for food” is fun for dogs, how much is just frustrating? Here’s some speculation on my part. Trying to solve a problem can be frustrating, but a limited amount of frustration isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I think Will’s brief moments of frustration while he was trying to figure out the puzzle were actually good mental exercise and a good learning process. However, if the problem was too hard to solve, then I suspect that frustration can become aversive enough to be problematic. In the case of this particular toy, I think the mental exercise was truly good for him in the long run.

And what does he think of it now? Is it “Oh boy, here comes fun?” or… “Why the #&(*^%$ doesn’t she just give me the #@%&*% food? Your thoughts? I’d love to hear them.

One last comment for today: There are SO many meaty topics I want to talk about in future posts: “Social Status and the D.. Word,” “How much time should we be training our dogs..” and on and on.  And I thought I’d run out of ideas. Silly me. (Don’t hesitate to suggest topics. I probably won’t get to them all, but I’ll try….)

Meanwhile, back on the farm: There has been a huge change in the world around us all: the weather is profoundly different. Besides being still light at 5:45 (5:45! Amazing!), there’s still lots of snow on the ground, but the temperature is over freezing every day, high 30’s and low 40’s and it feels balmy and so very very much like early spring. The Chickadees and Blue Jays are singing, the woodpeckers are drumming, the Red Tail Hawks have already laid eggs and are settled over them, belly feathers spread over the oval eggs, somewhere high in the oaks across the road. We’re all starting to talk about “mud season,” the 5th season anywhere with snowy winters. Once it continues to warm, the snow melts, the upper layer of the ground melts, but the soil below stays frozen for awhile, leading to deep, soggy lakes of brown muck that sticks like glue to your boots and covers your kitchen floor, no matter how many times you towel off your dog’s paws.

Shearing the sheep was postponed, my shearer got a job after being laid off for a year, so who could do anyting but cheer him on? He’ll be here next Saturday. I’m anxious to see the sheep without their coat of wool; it’s hard to judge their condition until they are shorn. But, sigh, they’ll still be fat, and not just because they are pregnant. We’re all a tad overweight here, but it’s a lot easier to regulate their diet than my own. They are eating the bark off my apple trees now (don’t worry, they are getting super rich hay and supplements–they really aren’t starving), but, alas, I couldn’t resist the chocolate chip cookie that Jim brought home last night. Maybe I could develop a taste for tree bark?

Here’s Will playing with the Ottoson toy:

4 pm: Well, the plan was to do some research on muzzle punches (and pokes, and jabs), tooth clacking and air snaps, and then write another post about them . . . but then, the sun came out after days and days of cold, windy rain. Right now it’s gorgeous and breezy and 4 o’clock and if I don’t go out now and work sheep and walk the dogs it’ll be dark before I know it. I just can’t stop myself, it’ll be cold and dark most of the day soon enough.

4:50 pm: I just got back from outside, Will and I had a ball. My ewe flock was a riot to work; one of them was on a tear (Truffles). For reasons unknown to me, she ran around bashing into other ewes as if out of a National Geographic Special on fighting mountain goats in rutting season. That sent the entire flock tearing around the pasture like deer, and Willie and I had a ball trying to keep up with them. (Is this about the ewes going into heat? The ram comes back home on November 3rd, and this time of year the ewes are definitely cycling. I can hardly wait for Redford to return, because I love watching the ewes interact with a new ram (they practically simper). Could Truffles be feeling a bit, uh, tropical and thus combative re who’s who in the ovine hierarchy?

I suspect this question will never be answered, but here’s a question you can a help me with. We’ve been tweaking the website, adding tabs to each product description to clarify things (see Family Friendly Dog Training for example) but we’re also going to change the home page. I’d be truly grateful if any of you could take a minute to look at the home page as it is now and tell us what you like, what you think would be more helpful. Right now, there are things I like about the page, and things I don’t, but I’m not saying til you do!

Just for fun, here are a few photos that I took this morning, trying to get a photo of Will and the Wubba Toy. Not easy to toss a toy in one hand and photograph it and Willie in the other! (Did I mention how fun it is to have the testing of dog toys as part of one’s job?!)

True confession: I haven’t finished the book The Wolf in the Parlor. I might not, at least not in the near future. Here’s why:

As I said in my last post, the author’s thesis is that “people and dogs, around 12,000 years ago, linked their evolutionary paths together and evolved socially and physically to take on supportive roles. He argues, according to the reviews, that humans lost some of our brain power because dogs took over those functions, and dogs lost some of theirs because we became their protectors and nurturers.” It seems downright churlish of me to stop reading before I read for myself the full extent of his argument, but what I’ve read in the first 60 pages has put me off a bit.

I mentioned earlier that the thesis itself sounded a bit simplistic, but I love speculation and the more the merrier if it’s based on good, solid information. But Franklin’s supporting information seems thin, at best. Here’s an example: Interested in the early evolution of the domestic dog, the author goes to his local library. But he finds little of value, he tells us. He says “Some of the more promising works included a few generalized remarks about the development of the dog; they all sounded the same, and had a ‘just so’ tone to them.” He goes on later to say that the books he ended up checking out were also a disappointment. “Most were superficial, showed some misunderstanding of biology, or were otherwise unsuitable…”. Never in this section does he mention other ways of researching the topic.. he writes as though he accepts that his library has all material relevant to his question. As a lover of libraries, I can tell you that even really, really good ones can only house a small portion of relevant books, and many of those are profoudly out of date. As a science writer, I would assume he is adept at internet searches…?

Eventually, in the books he checks out (we never know which books those are), he finds references to a paleontologist named Stanley Olsen, who spent decades finding and measuring fossils of domestic dogs (dogs can be distinguished from wolves by their shorter muzzles and smaller teeth). He published some of this work in 1974, and Franklin moved heaven and earth to find a copy (The Origins of the Domestic Dog: The Fossil Record) and traveled to the University of Arizona to interview Olsen. Let me be clear: I’d give a lot to interview Olsen myself, he sounds absolutely fascinating and extremely knowledgeable. But 1974 is 35 years ago, and what we’ve learned about the fossil record since then is astounding.  Still, I love that Franklin went to meet him–but what about other sources of information about the evolution of the domestic dog? Surely Franklin found many interesting books on that topic? And what books did he read? He is a science writer after all, so I expected him to clearly list his sources.

I turned to the back to see if he had read, for example, Ray and Lorna Coppinger’s book Dogs, its subtitle being “A Startling New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior and Evolution.” But there is no bibliography or reference section, a surprise unto itself. I turned to the index, and Coppinger is indeed mentioned, but only briefly, and only in regard to a discussion about dogs losing the terminal portion of the hunting sequence inhibited (find, chase but don’t kill and eat). Franklin loves Coppinger’s suggestion that dogs are wolves with the ‘kill’ portion of their behavior inhibited, but adds that other scientists “. . . criticized Coppinger’s idea for various technical reasons, …” but doesn’t tell us what those were. Neither had he read Coppinger’s book; he learned about him in a manuscript being edited by James Serpell (now that’s a book I can’t wait to read, I’ll alert you as soon as I find it, don’t know if it’s out yet.)

There are some wonderful sections of The Wolf in the Parlor. Franklin clearly adores dogs and the connection between them and people. He is not only smitten with his current Standard Poodle, he credits him for saving his life (I skipped to the end). If I had no other books to read I’d finish the entire book, and someday I imagine I will. But right now Horowitz’s Inside of a Dog is luring me in, and I just got a book written about a search and rescue dog that looks like a page turner. The wolves in the parlor are just going to have to lie down and stay for awhile.

Meanwhile, back at the farm: It rained! Oh boy oh boy, it finally rained, after almost 3 weeks of no rain. I’m the first to admit 3 weeks isn’t long in many areas of the drought-stricken country, and I know it’s flooding right now in some areas, but we really, really needed the rain and just looking at the moisture soaking into the ground feels so nurturing and good. Willie and I got to go to a new place to work sheep; a good friend and neighbor’s not far away just got a small flock to work her rescue BC on. We had a ball; Will was wonderful, I was a bit slow–not being used to faster reacting sheep, but a good time was had by all. Well, maybe not the sheep, but Will was excellent around them and worked them very quietly. The trick with Will is balancing his speed with his lack of confidence (too slow and he loses power and confidence, too fast and he starts the sheep running.) We’ll be back soon I’m sure!

Here’s a video I took this morning, in the rain by the way, of Willie & Lassie playing with their Chewber. At first you’ll just see Willie, while I make silly noises to hype him up and get him exercising without having to stress his shoulder by fetching or leaping. It takes him longer to get moving than usual (because I have the camera?), but you can see how he runs and shakes the Chewber as if he was trying to kill it. (What was that about the final stage of the hunt being inhibited? Just kidding, I think Coppinger is right to some extent on that; I don’t think I’d use a wolf as a herding partner!).

As I do every morning, I asked Will to lie down and let Lassie get the toy. Watch how she turns and looks at him when she returns. Anthropomorphically, I always imagine her saying “I’ve got the toy-oy. Nee Nee Nee Boo Boo!”

I’ve loved reading your comments about favorite dog toys. You all inspired me to take a photo of Willie and his current favorites. . .

From Left to Right, back row, the toys are:

Brain Twister (long, green thing, Canine Genius), Chewber (red disc), Invincible Rings (blue & black rings, JW Pet), Skinneez Stuffingless Dog Toy (long, grey thing draped onto orange) and Plush Leo with Stuffies (big, round, orange hollow globe, by Canine Genius.

The three toys in the front are Planet Dog’s Orbee Ball, Planet Dog’s Strawberry and the eternally essential Large size Kong. Please keep telling us about your favorite toys and we’ll try to get them on the website. (And our dogs will be so grateful!)

Here’s what happened when I said “Take it!” to Willie:

Right now there is no question that the Twister is his favorite toy, but then,  Will LOVES to shake things. (I helped this along by reinforcing it as a way to help Will literally and metaphorically shake off tension, and as a way to learn to calm down when aroused.) It is also new, and I have no doubt that has an impact too.

Every morning Will and Lassie start the day by eating frozen food out of their Kong… I let them outside to pee and they run in, run to the frig and wait for me to hand them their frozen Kong. It takes them a good 25-30 minutes (lucky me!) to get through the food I have carefully smashed into the Kong the night before.. so I can read, write and be lazy on the couch.

After that I’d say he loves all the other toys equally. There are at least 30 of them (I should count) in their 2 toy baskets but these are the ones that he keeps going back for. I don’t take my own advice about keeping only a few toys out to avoid the dog getting bored with them. . . probably because I never see any sign of Will getting bored!

Meanwhile, back at the farm: Here’s a shot of the lambs grazing up in the high pasture. They are doing incredibly well and are a joy to watch. Also with them are Martha 2.0 (in front on right, black legs and face) and Barbie, both of who are thin and are getting a bit of corn and oats along with the lambs. By the way, you can see Will in the background. The flock had been loosely dispersed, grazing away until I asked Will to walk up. You can see he just got to the edge of the ‘flight distance’. . .  the sheep on his side have turned their heads and started to flock up.

I hope you enjoy the weekend, and that you get some time off. I have just been reminded of how precious life is, having attended a service for a friend and colleague who died suddenly and tragically in a bicycle accident. What a reminder that this is it… this day, this hour, this moment. I’m going to turn off the computer (except to play with photos from Africa), go outside and harvest thyme and oregano and mint, make another 2 loaves of carrot bread, make another batch of Zucchini Yum and garden garden garden. I’ll intersperse that with walking with the dogs, working Will on sheep, rubbing Lassie’s belly and watching the WWSDA Herding Dog Trial outside of Portage, WI. I hope you can do something that feeds you in all ways too.

Life. What a gift.

At the risk of sounding self-serving, I wanted to write about Willie’s new favorite toy. We do sell it on the website, but we sell it because our dogs think it is the best thing that happened since liver and chicken.

It’s called a Canine Genuis Brain Twister, presumably because it was designed for dogs who love to shake things. Truth be told, I’m not sure where the ‘genuis’ part comes in, nor does the thought of my dog’s brain twisting make me happy, but as luck would have it, Willie can’t read and pays no attention to such humanly concerns.

Here’s a photo of it: (I have one of Willie playing with it but forgot to bring the cord to connect the camera to  my computer. sigh. I’ll add the pic sometime soon when I can get my brain organized.)

What you can’t tell from this photo is that it’s about 14″ long twisted and twice that uncoiled. It’s soft and plush and a great size for a medium or large dog. Willie has played with his relentlessly for a week and it, to my amazement, shows no signs of wear. Yet. Do not hold your breath. But I am interested in his response: he usually is a tearer and ripper… give him something he can disembowel and he’ll make quick work of it. I buy toys like that on occasion when I figure we both need a little luxury in life. He rips the $12.99 toy into shreds in 5 minutes, and I say “Well, it’s just as good as a dinner out!”  But one can’t feed one’s dog $13 toys on a daily basis, at least not if you still need some money to buy dog food, much less food for you and your family. This toy, because it is so fun to shake, doesn’t seem to bring out Will the Ripper. Yet.

I’ll keep you posted. We are big on toys this week at the office, and I’d love to know what new toys you’ve found that you like. Will and Denise’s Cooper are also crazed over another toy called Plush Leo With Stuffies (who comes up with these names anyway, she asked, respectfully?). It’s one of those great toys with toys inside of it. Will can pull the inner toys out in seconds, but he absolutely adores the toys inside. (He likes the carrot best. Such a healthy choice.) They are his favorite toy to bring to me to play fetch with him. They are also great for hiding (but also small enough that I’d be careful with them around large dogs….)

His other favorites are still the Chewber, Skinneeze, Planet Dog’s balls and a half chewed up rubber tube used by dairy farmers. I’d love to hear about your dog’s favorites…