An interesting book- Harrison Forbes" Dog Talk: Lessons Learned from a Life with Dogs"

I really enjoyed Harrison Forbes book "Dog Talk: Lessons Learned from a Life with Dogs"
http://http://www.harrisonforbes.com/st-martin.html I appreciate the way the book tied together his early experiences with dogs, carrying the theme of love and loss and the temporary nature of some of his relationships with dogs throughout the book. I was touched by his candor in describing the many challenges he encountered training dogs for personal protection.This is an exciting read, the chapters revealing the tremendous risk and reward involved, working with this subset of dogs. It was inspiring to see the combination of personal strength, intuition, sensitivity, and skill Harrison displayed in the various scenarios with the dogs he worked with.

I Loved the editing job of Beth Adelman http://www.linkedin.com/pub/beth-adelman/7/90a/602 in this book. She would be my dream editor for my manuscript, if I could only figure out how to make that happen. I want to publish my book somehow, but with my lousy grammar skills, and subjective viewpoint of my work, I really need the team effort of a great editor. I feel Beth Adelman, being a person who cares about animals herself, understands the subtle, interconnected nature of dog and human interactions.She has the ability to weave the human and dog stories into an interesting, compelling, whole, and would be a great fit for what I've tried to do with my manuscript. So nice to see such a beautiful team effort. Great job on Harrison Forbes "Dog Talk Lessons Learned from a Life with Dogs"

Just in case Beth reads this post, here are some links to stories in my manuscript/ book that I posted, and some blog post high points

http://tailsfromtheshelter.blogspot.com/2010/05/what-my-book-tails-from-shelter-is.html

http://tailsfromtheshelter.blogspot.com/2011/02/dogs-have-sixth-sense-maybe-people-too.html
http://tailsfromtheshelter.blogspot.com/2010/05/colby-dog-and-starving-armenian-story.html
http://tailsfromtheshelter.blogspot.com/2009/12/why-ones-i-love-always-go.html

http://tailsfromtheshelter.blogspot.com/2010/12/peace-accord-on-sofa.html

http://tailsfromtheshelter.blogspot.com/2010/05/healing-people-training-dogs.html

http://tailsfromtheshelter.blogspot.com/2010/06/close-encounters-of-border-collie-kind.html

http://tailsfromtheshelter.blogspot.com/2010/06/solving-puzzles.html

http://tailsfromtheshelter.blogspot.com/2010/09/cashs-ontological-crisis.html

My Aussie Shepherd has a meltdown as I'm heartbroken over the devastation in Japan

Once again, perhaps it is coincidence or something else at work. I was very saddened and distressed at the devastation and destruction caused by the earth quake in Japan. The Japanese culture and people have been near and dear to my heart. I love the pottery, poetry, and aesthetics of Japan . I have been drawn to the beauty of homes built from natural materials, materials that were unfortunately, vulnerable to destruction. I was anxious about the state of the nuclear power plants, and I'm sure my very sensitive Australian Shepherd, Cash, was also picking up on at least my sadness and fear if not something deeper in perhaps a planetary way. I had decided to leave the dog home and take my older Blue Heeler with me in the car when I left to go to dinner at my friend's house on Saturday March 12th. Cash, my Australian Shepherd, had been out for a long walk with shelter dogs that day and my husband was staying home, so I thought it would be good to give my old Blue Heeler some special attention. As I was leaving the house, Cash tried to dash out the door and come with us so my husband grabbed his collar and pulled him back. I then left for my friend's house, without seeing what was going on behind me. Upon returning home, I saw about ten small puddles with paper towels sticking out of them, spread out all over the great room floor (he's not perfect, but at least he put the paper towels down!). I asked my husband what had happened and he told me that from the moment he grabbed the dog, the dog rolled on his back and peed and then seemed to be in a tizzy and kept repeating the behavior as my husband tried to assure him he wasn't going to be hurt. It's as if the dog just had a huge emotional meltdown. He had some fear peeing issues when we first got him out of rescue, but that had long since subsided, and usually involved only one incident at a time. So I'm wondering if anyone else has observed any odd behavior in their pets or farm animals, during the time of the Japanese earthquake and it's aftermath. I live in North Idaho, U.S.A., not too far from seismic activity and the Pacific Rim/Pacific Ring of Fire, so I was a bit worried that the dog may be picking up on some impending seismic activity. I wasn't sure if Cash was just reacting to my anxious state, or a situation specific incident to my leaving him and my husband grabbing the collar. It was so much more grander of a meltdown than what I had seen before, that I couldn't help wondering if what had transpired was one of those incidents of animal sensitivity to natural catastrophic force and grand scale suffering. I leave the dog unattended at night in the living room or when I go into my pottery studio without incident. I've left my two dogs alone together in the house, so I can't figure out what triggered this odd behavior. When I returned home the Aussie was also distant, and seemed shell shocked, he didn't come up and greet me as he usually does. By Sunday afternoon things were back to normal .Oh well, just another unsolved dog and human mystery that I'm still trying to sort out. My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan. I'm so saddened by this terrible tragedy

Funny encounters while travelling with pets

I just got back from spending the weekend in Coeur d' Alene Idaho with my husband and 2 dogs. We stayed at the La Quinta hotel because they are always clean, nice, have very comfortable beds, a bonus point system, and they take pets and don't charge extra for them. I had a funny interchange with the receptionist at the hotel. I had been in the car for a while and she must have been at work for a while as miscommunication always seems to occur while people's reserves are low. I asked her" do you have plastic pooper scoopers?" and she looks at me and says "you mean like for dogs?" and I sarcastically said " no, for people" and she looked at me with a sort of horrified, expression on her face, and then we both started laughing. It's just that I couldn't figure out any other scenario where another creature would need a pooper scooper.This was after all, a hotel that is used to dealing with customers that have dogs, so she should have been more familiar with the question, and she did find some to offer me. I really get punchy when I've been in the car for along time, luckily she understood that I was just being a smart alec

The other odd encounter I had with a hotel receptionist happened in Spokane Washington a few years ago, again, after I had been in the car for a bit, feeling a little spacey, and I'm assuming the person behind the hotel counter had also had a long day. I walked into the lobby and asked the hotel receptionist "do you take pets? " and He looked at me with a puzzled expression on his face, and I said "do you take PETS, actually spelling it out P, E,T,S, thinking that maybe he hadn't heard me clearly, and he answered back to me "you mean like A.A.R.P.?" ( which is an acronym that stands for American Association of Retired Persons who are offered a discounted rate) and I said" no like dogs, woof woof" and after what had seemed like a twenty minute experience, waiting my turn in line to ask the clerk and then having this ridiculous interchange, all after a long car ride, he says" sorry, no we don't" Travelling can be so frustrating at times!

Dog walking in winter- some new dogs

We finally had a lull in the heavy snows and I was able to get back to walking the shelter dogs, which is always such a joy for me. This little adorable black and tan guy is about a six month old puppy. Someone has placed a hold on him and he will probably be adopted out soon but I thought it would be nice for him to get out and get some love , attention and exercise. He did well on the leash and I was pleased that my dog Cash the blue merle Aussie was very in tune with me trying to keep the puppy calm and walking nicely as he wanted to play and romp with Cash but I wasn't up for a tangled leash, animated play scene, enveloping me on the icy sidewalk so Cash was very good at understanding my intentions, and keeping the puppy in line. The other shelter dog is Lady, the black lab who was well behaved, came to me when I called her and was just a tad wound up as a result of the shelter dogs being cooped up in inside kennels during the snowy weather, but under more normal circumstances seems like she would make a lovely well behaved pet. Much like people, the dogs get cabin fever too, and need to get outside and have fun. Lady the black lab is available for adoptionhttp://www.humanesocietyofthepalouse.org/Available%20Animals.html as well as another big black lab Harley and an assortment of other adorable dogs. I see so many dogs named Harley, funny I never see many named Davidson! My new favorite is Augustus. I was unable to take him out because he has not been neutered yet but he is a sweet medium to large sized maybe Australian cattle dog,white German Shepherd looking mix that loves attention and is mellow and practically human in his responses. I hope to get a photo of him soon and be able to walk him if he is still at the shelter

Cash's Ontological Crisis

So Cash,( my new dog) or Cashi as he is affectionately called from time to time is having a hard time coming to terms with the definitions and structural set up of the human world. I admit, I don't always have an easy time of it myself, so here goes our scenario

Me to the dog" Wooden knitting needle on the coffee table, may look like a stick to you but no, it is actually a human implement. Yes I do realize it is made out of wood like a stick, and the shape of the knitting needle roughly resembles that of a stick, but sorry you are not allowed to chew on this type of wood if it is in the house"

Conversation number 2-" That post that you keep lifting your leg on once I let you outside, may look like a tree, and yes we did open the door and technically, go outside, but in the human realm, that semi- outside area is called a porch and that tree you thought you were peeing on is actually not a tree, but a porch post, granted it is made out of wood, and covered in hops vines leading one to reasonably believe that it is treelike,and has outdoor, natural world characteristics, but the humans aren't very happy when you pee on it. Just to confuse your little dog brain even further- Outside actually begins when you are out the door, down the steps, and off the porch, a mere technicality but important point nonetheless. Sorry, I know we humans are complicated creatures, but we do provide sofas and feed you dogs well

http://www.abebooks.com/Logic-Sense-Gilles-Deleuze-Columbia-University/4164307825/bd

Healing people training dogs

(The dog in the photo is a dog available for adoption and not the dog referred to in the following story)

There is a woman I walk with from time to time. We take our dogs and go on long nature walks discussing life and business and the state of the world and our families. I noticed that she was having trouble getting her dog to come when she called her. I offered up advice. I said you should use three separate tones of voice with the dog. 1) a friendly, happy talk tone, praising good behavior, 2) a matter of fact,direct, command tone, such as "come"3) a growly tone when you have to say "No" and stop the dog in it's tracks if it's about to run off and get into trouble. It's the growly tone that sort of mimics a mother dog to her pup. Well I told her this advice on three separate occasions and my friend is a very bright woman with advanced degrees and yet she wouldn't try out the advice. Hm, I thought, this is interesting. I'm not one to push advice once I've offered it. My feeling is I offered what I thought might help her and explained the reasoning and need to be consistent with the commands to her. I thought to myself, this is interesting, she heard the advice but for some reason isn't interested in seeing if it would work.I just let the issue go and continued to view the problem silently to myself. Her dog would come to me but I was consistent with it and used the three different tones, so she could see that the advice actually had some effect. One day we were talking about our childhood memories and she explained that there was a lot of anger and yelling in her house, and it was very scary and uncomfortable for her growing up. Bingo, I made the connection. This was the reason why she could not use the growly tone with the dog because it brought up so many bad memories for her and made her feel uncomfortable.We discussed the insight and it registered with her. I asked if it would be okay for me to discuss this in a blog post and she said fine, as I thought it might give insight into the training issues of others. So it's not just dogs we are training but at times we are helping people to remain in the present state and perhaps help heal some past issues. I can't say that the problem is completely resolved but at least there is light shed on the issue, and some understanding . Healing takes time and dog training, depending on the dog and owner can take time as well

Lucky Lilly, Lenny, Wimbleton, and Chewy

These guys were recently adopted. It's rather quiet around here lately, a few puppies, Mongo and a couple of red heeler mixes plus a starved pit bull who seems so sad and sweet. The Chesapeake Bay sisters are getting spayed at the moment. Mongo was incredibly good today and rather puppyish/ mellow in his expressions. Maybe he's finally calming down.Chewy was starting to be a favorite. Many people overlook black dogs but they are often very special. Chewy was mixed with Border collie and Black Labrador Retreiver, There is always something in the border collie nature that speaks to me. He had this uncanny way of snapping out of dog world and morphing into human, or at least dog that understands English or human speak, spirit. I was in his pen with another dog and they were both jumping all over me and trying to grab the leash out of my hands. One was jumping on my back and it was just overall chaos. I looked at Chewy and said very matter of factly "settle" and wouldn't you know he did just that. The light bulb went off in my head- here's one that will key in and listen. I started walking him and realized that he was very keen on learning and cooperating. He would even sit still for photos, or would stand and wait patiently if I would stop briefly for a phone call on the walk. I'm sure whoever adopted him will adore him and get to know how very special he is. Thanks to the community for all the adoptions, and remember, those black dogs can be so incredibly special.(I've had 2 black rescue dogs myself over the years)

the plight of Mongo

Lenny got adopted, Bella got adopted and Mongo is still there. Improving in his leashwork,physically filling out after neutering, slowing down a touch. He's like some men I have known that had a rough and difficult start in life. They seem unable to feel, to trust, to get tangled up in a relationship they don't understand. The emotions seem frozen somehow. The thaw is happening, slowly but surely. He looks back at me and comes into a lean on my legs of his own accord now, a few times on our walks. He also allows me to smother him with hugs and praise. He's always been happy to see me initially and takes the leash in his mouth as if to cart me off on his walk. In that he is rather humorous. But somehow when we get outside in the street and neighborhoods there is much to much going on that is new to him for him to pay too much attention to me yet. I stop and sit on the steps in the park and watch him. He sort of comes to me now with some coaxing, although at times I'm still not convinced that he doesn't suffer from temporary self induced deafness. It's as if no one ever called the dog to come and then played with him, as if all that was ever done for him was to have given him food and water. It's as if he was just left in the back yard and given no more attention than a rock in one's back yard, which I don't really understand. He still seems more comfortable with men and will sort of warm up to them more easily than to women. Both myself,and another volunteer are working with him and with all these people pulling for him he can't help but improve and come around if not slowly, and on his own terms.