Wordless Wednesday: Black Dog Celebration

Moose on the Loose

My dogs and I spend time every day out on the trails. I've talked about all the training we do to prepare them to be good citizens around wildlife. We are usually out around sunrise and sunset, times of ample wildlife activity.

Shyla is usually my sole sunrise companion. I'm so glad that she is willing to focus on me when there are so many animals roaming our forest.

Our evening walks usually include both dogs together. Unfortunately, I've missed many evening walks lately due to my "cluster migraines", and so I've had little opportunity to be on the trails with R. Yesterday evening, I was able to hike with him and Shyla! R is an intense dog, as you can see in his face in this photo. I am always on my toes when he is off-leash to make sure that some of his focus is on me.

Shyla behaves differently around him. She's more willing to be wild when she has R by her side. So, when both leashes are off, I'm really on my toes!

We have a relatively new wildlife species in our forest that the dogs could potentially see - moose! A few breeding pairs were introduced on the other side of the Continental Divide 35 years ago - and it took a long time for them to become inhabitants of our side of the Divide. When I say "introduced", I mean that they were never an established species in this area before wildlife officials released some in the mountains. It surprises me that they "introduced" a non-native species because we've learned so much about how the proliferation of a new species can change an entire ecosystem. Apparently, the primary reason for it was to promote tourism because people like seeing moose.

I am one of those people who loves moose. The other day, a mother and her calf visited our neck of the woods, lying in willow thickets. Here was mom. She seemed completely unconcerned with me. The dogs were not with me (Mother Moose might have been concerned if they were).

Here was Junior. He stayed further away and more hidden in the willows than his mother.

I didn't have a good line of sight to see either of their faces. I had to stand patiently and wait for them to glance my way before clicking the shutter. Mom sneaked a peek first.

She mostly seemed to "listen" for me, with at least one ear rotated my way the whole time.

When Junior finally turned his head, I found out that he was a male. You can see the bud of an antler just above his eye.

I know that moose can be dangerous so I kept my distance. These photos were all taken with a long lens. When I departed, both moose were still bedded down in the snow, perfectly content to relax on the freezing surface and ignore me. This was my last view of Junior.

I hope to see them again but I must admit some trepidation about my dogs encountering a moose during a hike in the forest. I understand that moose can kill dogs, and it does happen in Alaska when sled dog teams are whooshing fast through the forest. From my trail cameras, I know that moose are rare in the vicinity of our house but they do occasionally trek nearby on their way to better habitat.

In any case, I was thrilled to see the moose the other day. What a treat!

The Power of Positive Training

I'm what some people call a "cross-over trainer". I trained my first dogs using traditional dominance and "correction" techniques. For example, years ago, I trained my first dog to immediately come when called by "popping" her prong collar with a leash just after I said "come". This taught her to leap toward me as soon as I said "come" to avoid the correction. She was a well-trained dog but she was always looking for ways to "beat the system". For example, if I called her from a long distance, she'd realize that I couldn't get to her fast enough to correct her if she ignored my recall.

When K came into my life, I searched for a good local dog trainer, and I met an amazing trainer who focused on "positive training". That meant that she rewarded good behavior and she ignored (but didn't actively punish) bad behavior. I was skeptical that positive training would work, to put it mildly, but I thought it was worth giving it a try. I think that I drove that trainer nuts with all my questions about why a dog would obey if there was no punishment involved.

I quickly saw how rapidly K learned things, without any punishment in her training. She could "sit", "come", "down", and "stay" by the time she was 10 weeks old - and she'd learned it all by reward-based training.

After K died, I met Shyla - by far the most sensitive and sometimes-fearful dog who I've ever had in my life. Punishment-based training would have hurt Shyla terribly. She needed to learn to trust humans - and having her own human physically correct her would have been disasterous to the trust-building process.

Despite Shyla's extreme fear of me and almost everything else when she arrived in our home, I immediately started playing training games with her. I could do that because my "training games" involved only rewards and fun. They built a bond between us and amplified Shyla's nascent trust.

Recalls were one of the first things Shyla learned. To this day (1.5 years later), she adores playing recall training games. This photo is from this morning. You can tell that she is running to me at top speed, using the power of every muscle fiber in her body. We have a "treat party" when she gets to me after a recall.

Part of positive training is figuring out what your dog loves to do and incorporating it. Shyla loves to leap. So, we often play recall games where she leaps small obstacles to get to me (she could go around them but she never chooses to).

For fun, I've taught Shyla some "tricks", like "rest your chin on the ground". I taught this by having her lie down with a clean yogurt lid taped to the ground in front of her. When she put her head down to touch the lid (I'd previously trained her to view a yogurt lid as a target to touch with her nose) - I clicked. We did that about 10 times before I removed the lid. Because Shyla is experienced at clicker training, she mimicked the same movement without the lid present, touching the ground in front of her with her chin to earn clicks/treats. Then, I gradually required her to rest her chin on the ground for longer and longer to earn her click/treat. She knew the trick well within a week.

Now, it's one of her favorite tricks!

She "offers" this trick (without my request) all the time!

It's a nice trick for photography because her head stays still, making it easier to compose a photo.

I've also trained her to "take a bow", which I did not intend to include resting her chin on the ground. However, Shyla has embellished "taking a bow" by adding a "chin rest" to it!

I think that the most fun and exciting part of positive training is that it becomes a collaboration between the dog and the trainer. I watch for Shyla's embellishments on our favorite tricks, and then I teach her to do them on cue. It lets her, the dog, play a role in shaping what we do together. This aspect has built Shyla's confidence and exuberance to an incredible extent.

I believe that positive training was the only way to train a dog like Shyla, and I thank my lucky stars that I met my amazing trainer before I'd even met Shyla!

Sleepy, Stormy, and Sunny Sunday

Sleepy...

Stormy...

Sunny...

Sunday!

Shyla's Growing Confidence

A picture of intensity...

When I first met Shyla, she wasn't passionate or intense about anything. She has changed profoundly in the past 1.5 years. She loves her mountain life and plays with incredible intensity. She's truly a "Rocky Mountain Dog", as she adores clambering up on boulders and standing tall to survey her world.

Shyla's confidence with others outside our family is growing. During our hike this morning, we saw our friend and his dog. His dog likes to posture, showing that she's the boss with other dogs. Confident dogs, like R, seem to barely notice this dog's posturing. However, Shyla has always been scared by it.

This morning, the two met. You can see the piloerection of Shyla's fur just above her tail. You can also see her ears pinned back and how she's almost leaning backward away from the other dog. Clearly, Shyla was not the boss in this meeting.

This was actually a good meeting for the two of them, compared to many of their encounters over the past year. There was no groveling by Shyla, and the other dog moved away without any growls or other overt bossy behaviors. Their recent meetings have been greatly improved, like this one. It makes me happy to see it.

In this encounter, the tough part was that the other dog moved so that she was between me and Shyla after they'd sniffed each other. Shyla was scared to come past the other dog to rejoin me.

After a stalemate for a short time, the other human, who has won Shyla's affection and trust over the past year, escorted her over to me. Actually, that is rather remarkable - Shyla trusted another human to help her go past the dog who she is afraid of! If you realize how terrified Shyla was of most people a year ago, that's an amazing event.

It's fascinating to watch Shyla continue to change. I wonder what she'll be like in another year.

I dream that she'll continue to learn how to cope with "scary" situations. I doubt that her fears will ever go away - but learning to cope with them is a huge accomplishment.

One Day at a Time

Many of you know that the past six weeks have been stunningly tough for me because of the "cluster migraines" that have plagued me since my shoulder surgery. I've felt "off" for weeks at a time, with my head buzzing, warning me that the slightest provocation will send me into a migraine.

I don't know where it's all heading, as the tests are still underway. For the first time in my life, I've been forced to take the concept of "rest" seriously. I hate resting - but I now have good motivation because it helps keep the migraine monster away. For now, I feel as if I'm heading in a good direction but I still have the sensation that I am teetering on the edge, not sure what will happen next.

I'm living by the mantra "one day at a time". If I wake up feeling okay, I hop out of bed so that Shyla and I can enjoy the sunrise light. I don't try to project into the future. Rather, I live with whatever today gives me.

I felt good this morning so Shyla and I were out for sunrise. We stopped to enjoy the ethereal glow as the world woke up.

Around sunrise, I love how spotlights of sunshine illuminate the forest, leaving most of the forest dusky. It's like the spots of joy that I can find in my life, even when it feels as if the darkness is trying to gain on me.

This morning, after the sun was truly up, we walked in my hard-earned tracks from yesterday to a higher point with a view.

We soaked up the warm sun peacefully.

Then Shyla jumped into action.

I love the electricity of Shyla's enthusiasm for life. I took this zany photo when I called Shyla. She'd had her head completely under the snow, and she popped straight up so fast when I called that the camera couldn't keep up with her. This photo sums up Shyla's crazy happiness in the snow!

Thanks to feeling good and having a fun hike with Shyla, it's been a good day so far. I'm grateful.

Now, I must follow the rule that I'm trying to learn and take a rest. Happy Friday to all of you.

Springtime Snow!

Over the past few days, I was taking photos of our first wildflowers...

... and of the Mountain Bluebirds who had ventured up to our elevation.

And then we woke up to a big snowstorm today.

By the time the snow abated, we had accumulated more than a foot of heavy snow that made it very hard for me to snowshoe this morning. Shyla didn't find it easy either but she's a young pup with tons of energy!

Actually, this is normal for a Rocky Mountain springtime. We get the biggest snowstorms of the season in March and April in our part of the mountains. These snowstorms are usually critical in providing water for the plants that are waking up. I expect more storms this month...

But, the snow is so heavy that it's very hard to hike in the forest for a mere human like me. I snowshoed with Shyla this morning, and I'm still paying the price - a very sore lower back (I have a multi-level surgical fusion of the vertebrae there so I'm used to paying this kind of price for having fun).

I think it was worth it to watch Miss Shyla have a blast!

She wanted to spend our entire outing storming through the cement-like snow. She stopped only when I asked her to. She struck a dainty pose on a boulder.

At the end of our hike, we passed our birdfeeders which were mobbed. This white-breasted nuthatch waited his turn on a nearby Ponderosa Pine. I'm amazed that delicate little birds can thrive in our environment.

Here's to Springtime in the Rockies! I'm rooting for a bluebird day tomorrow so we can enjoy the beauty of this snow!

Wordless Wednesday: The Eyes Have It

Peaceful Morning

All was peaceful on our morning hike today - the wind, Shyla's spirit, and my spirit. You can see from the lighting in these photos that a dark storm hung over the Continental Divide while the sun shined on us. The lighting in our neck of the woods was mysterious and dramatic.

Shyla was back to her normal self, full of energy and mischief. My post yesterday reminded me of something about K. Her thyroid produced progressively less hormone over her lifetime, as it withered from an autoimmune disease. I could always tell when her thyroid levels had dipped too low because she'd become very cautious about benign things, like the cracks between the boards of our deck. Increasing her thyroid supplement would completely eradicate her irrational worries. So, it's always worth considering that a pup might have a medical issue when they behave differently from usual.

Since Shyla was back to normal today, that is not a concern, thank goodness. I suspect that the whipping wind yesterday was a big factor in her fear yesterday, as several of you suggested.

Shyla wanted to run today. We practiced recalls when she was full of high octane energy.

After a little while, we headed toward a snow-covered north-facing slope that I've been checking for bear tracks over the past few weeks. It's tough hiking there, except in the early morning when I can walk on the snow crust. When I fall through the crust, the snow is up to mid-thigh!

The bears have stirred this early in the past - but the early risers never come into areas where humans hike until much later in the spring. We haven't seen any bear tracks yet - but I am looking forward to it. Bears are my favorite animals in our forest.

At the end of our hike, Shyla and I both gave thanks for a nice morning spent together. We both love exploring nature - making us a perfect pair!