The Well Behaved Dingo

Middle cottonwood canyon is a pretty cool hike. It was deserted the whole time we were there, possibly because it was really muddy and there was still a little bit of slushy snow in places. Although the hike is in a canyon it never really gets steep and is a pretty easy hike. Read the rest of this entry »

We usually feed scherzo in the library parking lot on a little island of grass, so I figured it was a good place to break out the mat and spot (target). I was unsure if Scherzo would be able to do it because we’ve only worked on it in two places, and they were both inside. But I put the mat down and she ran right over and laid on it. With the spot she ran and pounced on it with two paws, ha, very cute. And from 10 ft away to boot, so she passed level 3 target.

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Scherzo, Sarroar and I had a rather stressful departure from my mom’s house during the last stay and hit one of those points where things were just feeling bleak. Whenever that happens a good hike can really change the mood, so that’s what we were looking for when we headed up Sype’s Canyon. We had had a half hour in PetSmart (read on to hear about that) that whipped Scherzo into shape and she was walking really nice. It was sunny, but there was shade from the trees, and little streams running all along the trail. Read the rest of this entry »

Its finally getting warmer out here so I’ve been doing some research on heartworm to decide what steps I should take to prevent it if any. I figured I’d post some of the information I’ve found useful.

First off its important to asess the risk in your area. There’s a handy map I’ve found:

So, living in the west there is a low incidence of heartworm in general <1% of the population.

Also of great import,from a holistic standpoint, is the overall health of the dog as determined by age , species appropriate diet, and immunity. Scherzo is well off in these areas as she eats raw, is young, not recieving vaccines or on any heartworm or flea “preventatives”. She is at a slightly higher risk, however, because of the amount of time she spends outside.
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It was horribly hot today, and we went looking for a hike wed heard about called Story Mill Trail. Turns out we tried to hike the spur, not the main trail, which was barely a hike. It went up a hill and then down in a dried up creek bed for about 1/4 of a mile. And that was it. We kept getting overtaken by mountain bikers and the sun was opressive.

The only highlight was when I told Scherzo to come (actually “Go Home”) and she ran so fast down the hill and instead of sitting in front of me like shes supposed to, collapsed into a down and layed there smiling and panting. It was atleast a 100yd come, so that was pretty fun. Mac reminisced about climbing the silo and then we sped away in Big Ugly to generate some breeze.

Later we went down to the river and took a bath. Even with it being insanely hot, the water was freeezing. Scherzo and Mac fell in while I very gingerly stood on the bank and dipped my washcloth in.

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We were walking around downtown tonight, we were bored and it was really cold outside maybe 35 degrees. Main street was pretty deserted except for groups of drunk people. We started talking about a professor mackenzie had had at U of M, Professor Greymorning. In a class about the difficulties of cross cultural understanding Professor Greymorning, as an Arapaho, talked about the different way he saw his relationship with his dog. He explained that he had a dog who followed him everywhere. When Greymorning began dating his wife, his dog became jealous. One day the three of them were in front of his house when the dog looked at Greymorning and then walked out into the street and the oncoming traffic. Read the rest of this entry »

I woke up last night after dreaming I’d made a monstrous mess in the cabin, water was pouring out from my groin and covering everything in mud, I was thinking “Shit, how can I clean this up ?” when my mom walked in with a bemused look on her face that quickly sank to anger.
I layed in the van trying to go back to sleep. We’ve been parking at the rest-stop, so I listened to the sounds of other people slamming their doors, talking, to the snow and rain tapping on the roof. Finally after two hours I got up and went inside to pee. Sleep came easy then. But what do you do when it rains if you live in a van and have no money? Read the rest of this entry »

We went hiking today on Story Hill, it felt like we were in Scotland with all the rolling hills and was a nice, if a little bit unexciting, hike. The trail meanders through grassy hills and was maybe a mile, we inadvertently started at the top of the trail and then looped out and came around, ending at the bottom. Then we had to walk up the hill to get back to the van. On the way up the road we worked on loose leash walking and Scherzo did great, just as she did at Hyalite. Read the rest of this entry »

Intro
You just aren’t going to strong arm your dog into skateboarding, but luckily with positive reinforcement your dog can achieve great feats.

Jump on youtube.com to see dogs on treadmills, skateboards, two legged dogs walking up right, and even a Chinese Dalmation on a bike. Often the owners of these dogs present their animals as miracles. Whether this a conscious deceit a la the magician doesn’t reveal his tricks or simply those occasional animals that luck into finding their own rewards for complicated behaviors, the only way to set about teaching a dog to skateboard is with positive reinforcement. All this means is that the dog gets rewarded, step by step, for offering parts of a behavior that in the end combine to make a dog who “rides” the skateboard.

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