What my dogs teach me
“My dog is such a drama queen!”
“My dog is so manipulative, she overreacts to everything!”
“That dog is not really afraid, she’s just being a diva.”
Have you heard any of these?
A few months back, I posted the following picture on a Facebook group for comments. Continue reading “Is My Dog a Drama Queen?”
Pour mes visiteurs français.
Est-ce que votre chien veut VRAIMENT être caressé ? (lien)
Merci à Stéphanie Michenaud et Nathalie Perret du Cray de Balade Ton Chien pour leur aide.
Note to all my international readers and viewers: I will be happy to make more translations of this movie, if you want to help. Thanks to Stéphanie and Nathalie, if anyone wants to volunteer to translate, I can send a text document that has all the English from the movie, with spaces left for translation. It takes me only a couple of hours to change the text in the movie, and I can usually do it within a week or two of receiving the translation, depending on what else is in the queue. Hoping to get some takers!
And of course if you want to translate any other movie or post I would be flattered and will work with you on that.
Thanks for watching!
Merci d’avoir regardé !
Coming up:
Copyright Eileen Anderson 2013
Just the other day I told a friend that I would never have a contest on my FaceBook page or here on the blog. It’s always presented as one of the number one ways to get people to Like, read, or visit your site. It seemed so tacky and pandering to do that just to get readers. I always figured that if I wanted readers (and I do, I do!), it was my job to be interesting, informative, or at least entertaining.
I still think that, but then something happened. I’ve been collecting photos of Summer’s face in different situations for a while, since she is so very expressive. I made them all into a gallery, and made a list of all the descriptions of the situations. I thought I’d ask readers if they could match them up.
Oops, it’s a contest! So I decided to go with it. So put on your observer hat and get ready to apply what you know!
Rules are below. The three top scorers (see rules below) will get their choice of either a print copy (not e-book) of Alexandra Horowitz’ “Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know” or Grey Stafford’s “Zoomility,” mailed directly to them from DogWise.
Photos
Descriptions
Here are the descriptions for the photos, in random order.
Don’t be daunted that there are so many! Give it a try even if you can guess only a few. If it’s so hard, it could be that someone who only gets half of them right could win.
How to Enter
To enter the contest, copy the above list into an email and put the number of the photo next to each description. Title the email “Contest Entry.” Email it to the name of this blog @att.net. Got that? eileenanddogs at the domain name in the previous sentence. Please include your name in your email. If you have trouble with the email address, send me a message using the sidebar of the blog. I will acknowledge all entries, so if you don’t get an email back from me within 24 hours, try it again.
Rules
I hope this was fun!
Coming up soon:
Ever since she arrived at my home at the age of 10 weeks, Clara has been a challenge.
One of her more problematic behaviors was her mugging of my face whenever it got within range. It happened all the time. How many times a day do you lean over your puppy, or lean over in her presence to pick up something off the floor? Most often something that she either dropped or shouldn’t have. Answer: a lot. Except not me, anymore, because she shaped me not to. If a strong, speedy puppy came barreling at your head every time you bent over, you might modify your behavior, too. So I do this embarrassing dance whenever I need to pick something up: distracting her, sneaking past, or trying to move REALLY FAST (which of course makes her all the more excited when she does catch me). Continue reading “Get Out of My Face! Teaching an Incompatible Behavior”
Just a quick body language observation item today. I love watching slow-motion footage of my dogs since so much is happening that I normally don’t see.
I had suspected for a while that Summer had at least two distinct “lip licks.” Lip licks, lip flicks, or nose licks are believed to be stress signals for most dogs. I certainly think they are for Summer and Zani. The slightest hint of untoward events and it is Lip Lick City at my house. It is embarrassingly easy to get one on film. All I have to do is walk straight toward either of them with stiff body language and they’ll usually do it. Both of them are incredibly pressure-sensitive. (I try to mind my body language on their behalf, but I’m a klutzy human so of course I bother them a couple of times a day by accident.)
Anyway, here is a short movie comparing what I believe to be stress lip licks from both Summer and Zani, contrasted with what I believe is a happy relaxed lip lick from Summer. Both of these lip licks can be seen in the video in Does Your Dog REALLY Want to Be Petted? One lip lick means no, another yes.
So does anybody else’s dog have a “happy lip lick” like Summer?
Copyright 2012 Eileen Anderson
Today I am offering more examples of dogs who enjoy being petted, or enjoy other types of human touch. (This is a followup to “Does Your Dog REALLY Want to Be Petted?”) And I’m encouraging humans again to figure out what their dog likes and doesn’t like. If your dog doesn’t like petting, maybe you can figure out an alternative behavior for yourself that both you and your dog can enjoy.
I am blessed with Clara, who thrives on touching and being touched, and has since she was a baby. Here she is at 12 weeks and 14 months. I am doing the “consent test” in both clips; stopping the petting and waiting to see if she solicits more. She generally answers with an emphatic Yes. There’s also a “stupid human” trick though, when I am continuing to ooh and ahh and pet her while she is squirming and obviously done with the whole thing. Oops.
Some dogs like other kinds of touch from humans. Here is my friend’s chihuahua, who blisses out when I gently, gently wobble her body back and forth.
And here is elderly Cricket, who really enjoys wiping her face all over any part of my body or clothing that she can reach. I think it makes her feel safe that she can control the touch this way, too. If I were to handle her the way I handle Clara, she would be desperately trying to escape.
In a previous post we saw Zani saying “No” to petting, but she enjoys lap time and snuggling up close.
I scoured YouTube one evening as well, and dug up videos of a few more dogs who seemed to enjoy petting (and saw dozens who didn’t). In many of these videos, the dog doesn’t enjoy every single thing the human does. But they appear to enjoy the petting and touching in general and ask for more. If you can find some more good ones–or think that any of these aren’t good examples, let me know. You can tell from the titles that these folks have all done something like a consent test, whether they knew it was called that or not. (In some of the videos, the people appear to have reinforced demanding behavior from their dogs. That’s a subject for another day!)
If you are going to watch only one, watch the first one. It is especially moving. The Doberman in the movie is a rescued stray and is so obviously pleased with human touch and contact. (As of 9/16/12 he is available for adoption through Doberman Rescue of the Triad, covering Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, and West Virginia in the U.S.)
Cutest dog ever: don’t stop petting me (rat terrier mix?)
My Pug will not let you stop petting him
Don’t stop petting the dog (labrador)
Pierre – CDC foster dog/” Don’t stop petting me!!!” (poodle/chihuahua mix)
Get Pet 101: Obsessive chocolate lab wants to be pet more
Thanks to Nancy S. for helping me look over these.
Discussions coming soon:
Thanks for reading!
Newsflash. Not all dogs want to be petted. But you wouldn’t know it from watching videos on YouTube.
What you can learn on YouTube is that there are lots of dogs whose owners _think_ they are enjoying petting. But they aren’t. This is another one of those disconnects between dog and people language. People who adore their dogs–and whose dogs love them–post videos of said dogs saying in every polite way they know how that they would like the human to STOP.
Continue reading “Does Your Dog REALLY Want to be Petted?”