Service dogs, hunting dogs, drug-sniffing dogs, sheep herding dogs, companion dogs… In recent years, the focus of much writing about dogs has been on the tasks they were genetically designed to perform. We often hear how upset dogs get when they’re deprived of their ultimate purpose in life: To serve man.* For example, the message…
Friday Focus: Single-dog Households
Not long ago, my friend Joan told me that her dachshund, Lucy, was depressed, so she got her a puppy to keep her company. Only if you consider annoyance better than depression — and spending more money on vet bills for the new dog than, say, a year of doggie day care might have cost…
The Search and Rescue Dogs of 911
Get out an entire box of tissues for this one. Ground Zero has become very political this year. Dogs often have lessons to teach us, and that’s certainly true here. These dogs searched through the rubble for everyone, no matter what race or religion, and didn’t judge the victims by the actions of a few.
Training Tuesday: A BAT Landmark
Frankie and I haven’t done much Behavior Adjustment Training (BAT) with Crystal Saling and her wonder dog decoy, Winnie, lately because it’s either been raining — which means scary thunder and lightning — or too hot to spend much time outside. But we managed a get together this past Sunday and saw quite a bit…
Training Tuesday: BAT Calming Signals, Some Visuals
As part of the continuing series on Behavior Adjustment Training (BAT), a system created by Grisha Stewart that trainer Irith Bloom has been kind enough to explain to me — and you –on the last several Training Tuesdays, here’s a video that Irith put together. It demonstrates calming signals, discussed in our last post on…
Training Tuesday: Batboy Forever
This is the conclusion of the formal interview that I’ve been conducting with trainer Irith Bloom about Behavior Adjustment Training (BAT), which was created by Grisha Stewart. The first week we covered the basic theory and techniques. In the second, we got into some more esoteric issues like “negative punishment,” which turns out not to…
Training Tuesday: Batboy Continues
Forgive me. I needed to get this video out of my system and since I don’t have any serious footage to accompany this week’s post on Behavior Adjustment Training (BAT) it seemed like the perfect fit. *** BAT was created by Grisha Stewart, and is being discussed here by her fellow trainer and BAT expert…
Training Tuesday: Batboy begins
As I mentioned last week, my trainer Crystal suggested that Frankie and I try Behavior Adjustment Training (BAT) — not only because it’s a good technique but because it’s a good fit with Frankie’s diabetes. That is, although the technique can include food rewards, it doesn’t rely on them. I wanted to learn more about…
Training Tuesday: Bat Boy!
What’s with the fledgling superheroes, mammals that turn bugs into guano, or baseball go-fers, you may be wondering. I’m talking about B.A.T — Behavior Adjustment Training, the new, non-cave related frontier where Frankie’s continuing education is taking us. As I’ve no doubt mentioned: Our trainer, Crystal, is a science geek and is always interested in…
Training Tuesdays: Suddenly social?
Frankie is perverse. No sooner did I post last week about how it was okay that Frankie didn’t show any interest in other dogs, then what does he do but show interest in another dog. It’s like he knew I had written off his doggie social skills and wanted to prove me wrong. This was…