soliciting attention Archives

Contest! The Faces of Summer

Posted on January 16, 2013September 22, 2018 by

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.

First time she saw a TV
In costume
Looking for a varmint (squirrel, rat, possum, or turtle) (see comments for clarification)
Looking for a varmint (squirrel, rat, possum, or turtle) (see comments for clarification)
Looking for a varmint (squirrel, rat, possum, or turtle) (see comments for clarification)
Found a varmint (squirrel, rat, possum, or turtle) (see comments for clarification)
Found a varmint (squirrel, rat, possum, or turtle) (see comments for clarification)
After a varmint hunt
Sitting uncomfortably close to another dog
Has been fussed at
Late in day at agility trial
At the agility field
Watching petals float through the air
My mom has her arm around her
Playing with Zani
Playing with Zani
Guarding a Nylabone
Being held in my arms
During a thunderstorm
During a thunderstorm
Home from vet after serious illness
Asking to train
Doing agility sequence
Just a photoshoot in the back yard
On a road trip in hot weather
Waiting to check the back yard
Immediately after fence fight with new neighbor dog
On a fun outing
On a fun outing
At the fairgrounds on her mat at a dog show
Being petted

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

Please enter only once. (In the event that I have made some kind of error that affects your choice and it is discovered after you have entered, you may amend your entry pertaining to that issue.)
For the exact same descriptions that apply to multiple photos (mostly having to do with varmints), it doesn’t matter in what order you attach the photo numbers to the descriptions.
Please do not submit your entry in the comments section of the blog (I will unpublish it if anybody forgets).
It’s OK to have discussions of the photos with each other in the blog comments, or on my FaceBook page, or anywhere. Just don’t post your list.
Check back in the comments and/or my FaceBook page in case I need to make any interim announcements. I will make the announcements both places.
The three winners will be the people who get all 31 right the fastest. Or failing anyone getting all 31 right the winners will be determined by who got the most right, and in the case of a tie, who got that number right first.
If you want to guess just for the glory of it and don’t want a prize, please say “decline prize” in your entry email.
If you don’t want your name announced if you win, please say so in your entry email.
I will notify winners by email as well as by announcing on the blog. At that time I’ll ask privately for your mailing address.
Deadline is 12:00 midnight on Thursday, January 31st, 2013, at Central Standard Time (Central Standard Time is GMT minus 6 hours).
I will announce the winners during the first weekend of February and publish the answers. I’ll publish the uncropped photos, with some commentary, sometime after that.

I hope this was fun!

Coming up soon:

Understanding errorless learning
Est-ce que votre chien veut VRAIMENT être caressé ? (Does your dog REALLY want to be petted?–the French version!)

Dogs Who Like to be Petted or Touched

Posted on September 16, 2012August 3, 2013 by

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.

Zani with her head on me — Zani isn’t interested in being petted, but she likes to snuggle

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.)

Beamer – Rescue Doberman

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!

Does Your Dog REALLY Want to be Petted?

Posted on August 29, 2012September 6, 2022 by

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.