tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14930210384960568492024-03-05T05:18:41.646-05:00Puppy TaoAn eclectic blog about dog-friendly training and care, dog photos, Golden Retrievers, bird photos, nature photos, sea kayaking, and hiking.Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03193467955617231534noreply@blogger.comBlogger278125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1493021038496056849.post-51316913398677619662016-01-17T11:07:00.003-05:002016-02-13T07:14:38.218-05:00Puppy Tao Has Moved!<h3>
Puppy Tao was upgraded and moved. From now on, it will be part of <a href="http://www.tippykayak.com/">Tippykayak Dog Training and Photography</a>. All posts and articles are now over there, so update your bookmarks, as puppytao.com will eventually be phased out. New posts will only appear on <a href="http://tippykayak.com/">tippykayak.com</a>, not here.</h3>
Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03193467955617231534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1493021038496056849.post-42839787573395601542015-11-26T20:32:00.000-05:002016-01-19T11:19:57.510-05:00Sand Dancer's Infinite Sky<script>
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<h3>
Puppy Tao has been upgraded, so <a href="https://www.tippykayak.com/journalentries/2016/1/13/sand-dancers-infinite-sky">this post has moved.</a> It will eventually be unavailable at this location.</h3>
When I graduated college, one of the first things I did was start a search for my first dog. My old friend and dog expert, the oft-mentioned <a href="http://www.puppytao.com/search/label/Jill" target="_blank">Jill</a>, was my roommate at the time and was looking for a dog herself. We ended up getting littermates: my beloved dog <a href="http://www.puppytao.com/search/label/Gus" target="_blank">Gus</a>, who died in 2008, and her equally beloved Finn, who died a few hours ago.<br />
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<a href="http://www.puppytao.com/search/label/Finn" target="_blank">Finn has appeared many times</a> here over the years, and I have always loved him for the extraordinary dog he was, mixed with a kind of bittersweetness ever since Gus died.<br />
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I remember Finn at 8 weeks, when he first came home from Maine. I remember his sweet face before it turned sugar-white and how serious he looked when he would watch you talk to him, as if he was trying to learn English well enough to anticipate what you would say. I remember the way he would play with the new puppies, both Jill's and ours, years after we were no longer roommates. He played with Comet and with Jax both as babies, and he was one of the most steadfastly happy, kind-hearted dogs I have ever known.<br />
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Jill took this photo when I came to watch Lush compete at Westminster</div>
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a couple of years ago.</div>
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Finn used to sing me a song when I visited. Jill tells me he didn't really do it for anybody else. He'd spin around and sing and whine for the first few minutes after I showed up, and I'd pet him and laugh with him. I never knew who was happier to see whom, the dog who was singing, or the man who was laughing and trying to pet him as they spun around.<br />
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A year or two ago, when Finn's arthritis was acting up and Jill didn't know if she'd have a few months or a few years left with him, I wrote him a letter and sent a care package for his birthday. Truly a silly thing, to send a dog a letter, but if there was ever a dog worth corresponding with, it was Finn.<br />
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I had just stumbled across an Eric Whitacre setting of an e.e. cummings poem, and while I was learning and rehearsing it, I couldn't help but think of Finn over and over, so I wrote him a happy birthday note with some lines of the poem in it, care of Jill, and I sent along some smelly salmon treats and a nice dog toy because I'm not crazy and I know dogs don't actually read.<br />
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The poem is about being thankful for the day, and "for the leaping greenly spirits of trees / and a blue dream of sky;and for everything / which is natural which is infinite which is yes" (2-4).<br />
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If there was anybody who was a leaping greenly spirit, who was a blue dream of sky, who was natural, infinite, and forever yes, it was Sand Dancer's Infinite Sky, my friend Finn.<br />
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When I hike with our dogs and they've gone out of sight around the bend of the trail as it curves through the leaves, I whistle for them to call them back where I can see them.<br />
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I do this a thousand times a year, and a thousand times they come racing back, steaming their breath in clouds around their heads, pounding the dry dust of pine needles. More than a few of those thousand times, I let myself hope that Gus will somehow come back with them, like he did so many times, as if his complete faithfulness would let him cheat death and come racing back along the trail to me.<br />
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So now when we are among those green spirits of trees, and when the sky is an infinite blue dream, and I whistle toward the bend in the trail, I'll crane my neck a little farther, and I'll let myself hope that just a moment behind Comet and Jax will come Finn and Gus together, wise and fast, clouding the air with their breath, leaving puffs of pine dust behind them.Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03193467955617231534noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1493021038496056849.post-70197916921223465292015-05-24T17:00:00.000-04:002016-01-19T11:22:13.667-05:00The Marker<script>
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<h3>
Puppy Tao has been upgraded, so <a href="https://www.tippykayak.com/journalentries/2015/5/24/the-marker">this post has moved.</a> It will eventually be unavailable at this location.</h3>
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The single most important piece of advice I give in dog training is this: <b><a href="http://www.puppytao.com/2013/11/catch-your-dog-making-good-choices.html" target="_blank">reward what you want</a></b>. We have a tendency to pay attention to behaviors we don't like (No, Spot! Stop barking! No, Spot! Stop jumping!), and when the dog is behaving the way we want, we have a tendency to ignore it. It's a huge and common mistake. The dog gets feedback that undesired behavior gets attention and calm behavior is pointless and boring. That's exactly the wrong message!<br />
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After helping lots of handlers and dogs in group classes communicate better with their dogs, I have a second piece of advice to add to the first: <b>When you're rewarding what you want, make sure you mark it first. </b>Marking the desired behavior helps your dog connect his action to the reward more easily. It's a way of helping your dog figure things out.<br />
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A marker is a unique sound that you make at exactly the moment the dog has done something right, and you always follow it up with a reward (e.g., a treat, a toy, a game, etc.). That sound could be a clicker, which is the heart of clicker training, or it can be a unique sound you make verbally, like a happy "yes!"<br />
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Getting a dog to hand you the ball when he retrieves is often the hardest part</div>
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of training <i>fetch</i>. A marker at the moment he releases it into your hand can</div>
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help him understand how to get the reward of another throw.</div>
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Why do I need a marker? If I'm teaching my dog to sit, and he sits, and then I give him a treat, it's not easy for him to connect the treat to the key action (butt on the ground) that I want. There are a million other things going on in his world, so what made the treat happen? Was it making eye contact with me? Was it being in front of me? Was it the hum of the refrigerator? Was it the tile floor? Was it the fact that I reached into my treat bag? My facial expression? The way my hand is on my hip? The fact that he danced his paws a little in anticipation?<br />
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By marking the moment of success with a unique sound, you make it a lot easier for the dog to figure out that his butt hitting the ground is what made the reward happen, since you mark at the moment of success each time. So a dog who has been marked at the moment of success and the rewarded five times in a row is a lot more likely to "get it" than a dog who is just rewarded those five times with no marker first.<br />
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When you're learning to mark your dog's behavior before rewarding, the clicker has the advantage of being a unique, precise sound. We babble at dogs all the time, so the "yes!" isn't quite as clear as the clicker. However, the "yes!" has the advantage of freeing up your hands. I'll use one or the other, depending on the situation. I like the clicker for shaping truly precise/complex behaviors, like putting the back two paws on an agility obstacle and the front two paws on the floor. And I like the verbal marker for general training when we're out and about and I don't have a clicker handy or a hand free for one.<br />
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So as you're looking to develop truly effective communication with your dog, consider adding a marker to the mix. Decide the criteria of what you're trying to teach your dog, mark the exact moment he meets those criteria, and follow up with great rewards. This isn't an intuitive thing for us to do, so it really takes focus and attention on the handler's part to make it a consistent part of giving clear feedback to the dog. But it's absolutely the second biggest improvement most handlers can make to their communication.Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03193467955617231534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1493021038496056849.post-49256648217175777852015-05-11T17:00:00.000-04:002016-01-17T13:25:14.310-05:00Darkling Birdling<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<h3>
Puppy Tao has been upgraded, so <a href="http://www.tippykayak.com/journalentries/2015/5/11/darkling-birdling">this post has moved.</a> It will eventually be unavailable at this location.</h3>
Another nice evening meant another opportunity to hang out in the backyard and see who stopped by.<br />
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This <a href="http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/House_Finch/id" target="_blank">House Finch</a> and his spouse are nesting in a bush by the deck, but he takes many opportunities during the day to fly up to a higher branch and sing his crazy <a href="http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/House_Finch/sounds" target="_blank">gallimaufry of a song</a>.<br />
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Later on, we moved down by the river again to relax, and a female <a href="http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Ruby-throated_Hummingbird/id" target="_blank">Ruby-throated Hummingbird</a> visited on and off as the day darkened.<br />
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It was late, the sunset backlit her, and she is only a few inches long, but she spent enough time with us that I was able to get a couple of nice shots—my first ever of a hummingbird.<br />
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Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03193467955617231534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1493021038496056849.post-13053332724457889202015-05-09T18:00:00.000-04:002016-08-06T16:36:05.031-04:00Orioles and Apple Trees<script>
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<h3>
Puppy Tao has been upgraded, so <a href="http://www.tippykayak.com/journalentries/2016/1/13/orioles-and-apple-trees">this post has moved.</a> It will eventually be unavailable at this location.</h3>
In early March, Andy and I closed on a new house. It took us almost two months of renovating and cleanup, but we're finally able to relax and enjoy our little place on the river. Our section of the river reverses with the tide, so we have a mixed habitat that supports all kinds of songbirds, wading birds, waterfowl, and raptors.<br />
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Adding to my impatience with the renovations was the rapidly progressing spring and the missed opportunities to shoot great pictures of our wildlife. So you can imagine my disappointment when I finally unpacked my long lens a couple of weeks ago, only to discover that I had broken the focus mechanism in the move. Fortunately, the repair was straightforward—if expensive—and my newly repaired and cleaned lens was returned to me late this afternoon.<br />
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Andy was at work, so I decided to take a book, a drink, and the camera down to the apple trees by the water to enjoy the cool evening. I figured I could relax in a chair and read, and if anything interesting happened, I'd snap a few pictures. It seemed a little too late in the day for good lighting, so I didn't have my hopes up.<br />
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I caught a glimpse of a <a href="http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Baltimore_Oriole/id" target="_blank">Baltimore Oriole</a> right when I sat down, but I didn't get a good picture. I chalked it up to poor luck and caught a few shots of this <a href="http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Tufted_Titmouse/id" target="_blank">Tufted Titmouse</a>, who was a bit agitated by another Titmouse a couple of branches over. They got in a bit of a scuffle over whatever it is that Titmice fight about.<br />
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A few minutes later, the oriole returned and spent a good half an hour drinking nectar from the blossoms of the apple tree.<br />
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Usually, I have to work a lot harder for a good photo, but sometimes the bird just comes to you. I literally didn't have to leave my comfy chair for these pictures.<br />
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At one point, he stopped and favored me with a quick song, but mostly he was there to eat. When he really wants to sing, he goes to the high branches of the larger trees, but he rattled off a few bars here and there during dinner.<br />
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After a while, I put my camera down and just watched him hop and sing and chide and dip his beak into the apple blossoms. My book stayed on the table, and I spent some time in the fading twilight, sipping drinks with an oriole.<br />
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<br />Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03193467955617231534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1493021038496056849.post-70380692812125410122015-04-03T17:16:00.000-04:002016-01-17T13:17:56.285-05:00Mystic Grand Champion Ad<h3>
Puppy Tao has been upgraded, so <a href="http://www.tippykayak.com/journalentries/2016/1/13/mystic-grand-champion-ad">this post has moved.</a> It will eventually be unavailable at this location.</h3>
I recently did another ad for my favorite dog trainer/Golden Retriever breeder friend, Jill of <a href="http://poeticgold.com/" target="_blank">PoeticGold Farm</a>, so I figured I'd post it. Mystic won his championship at a particularly young age, and then he became a grand champion while we were putting the ad together—fortunately in time for publication.<br />
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This dog is as sweet as he is handsome, with true Golden temperament to go along with his good looks. Since his name is a reference to Carl Sagan's work, it seemed only fitting to use a NASA image of the Andromeda Galaxy as one of the elements in the ad.<br />
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A large, print-friendly PDF of this ad can be downloaded <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4Eg60pGaRvdVXJoY1BNYWxrc3c&authuser=0" target="_blank">here</a>.Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03193467955617231534noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1493021038496056849.post-72879395810109189232015-02-22T17:00:00.000-05:002015-02-28T13:44:07.202-05:00Ajax: Therapy Dog<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last week, <a href="http://www.puppytao.com/2015/02/comet-therapy-dog.html" target="_blank">I wrote about Comet</a> and how well he was taking to therapy dog work. This week, it's Jax's turn.<br />
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Jax is a bit more food-focused than Comet, and he goes absolutely bananas for the director of nursing. Her office is right beside the spot where I drop my coat and sign in, and she keeps a box of dog cookies on her shelf so she can spoil the therapy dogs.<br />
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So Jax cannot wait to visit her office when we arrive, and she sometimes gives him a bonus cookie or three when we leave.<br />
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Like Comet, Jax has done wonderfully in is role as a hospice dog. He's particularly good at picking visiting family members who need some love and sidling up to them for a long, involved scratch behind the ears. And for such an intense, nutty dog, he really understands how to behave in a calm, gentle fashion around sick people.Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03193467955617231534noreply@blogger.com0The Connecticut Hospice41.2562079 -72.83253948518068941.255834899999996 -72.833169985180689 41.2565809 -72.831908985180689tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1493021038496056849.post-61752180095168542602015-02-15T17:00:00.000-05:002015-02-15T17:00:00.812-05:00Comet: Therapy Dog<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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For a few months now, Comet and I have been making visits at <a href="http://hospice.com/" target="_blank">The Connecticut Hospice</a> as a therapy dog team. He and Jax take turns, so I'm only ever handling one dog at a time (a requirement of our registration with <a href="https://www.petpartners.org/" target="_blank">Pet Partners</a> as well as a good idea).<br />
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But for this entry, I just wanted to celebrate Comet on his own. He took right to his role as a therapy dog, charming the nurses, warming up to patients, and comforting families.<br />
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I don't think I will ever get over how good it feels to see the family member of a patient light up when they see him, and to see Comet in turn light up to see that somebody is looking at him and gesturing for him to come over. It is a privilege to work with a dog capable of so much good, such a gentle soul who brings a little light to people who may be in the darkest moments of their lives.<br />
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Just when you don't think you could love a dog any more than you already do...Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03193467955617231534noreply@blogger.com0The Connecticut Hospice41.2562079 -72.83256094285286541.2547159 -72.835082442852865 41.2576999 -72.830039442852865tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1493021038496056849.post-46651662321977273902015-02-08T17:00:00.001-05:002015-02-10T10:12:29.355-05:00Therapy Dogs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Over the summer, I decided to get moving on a long term goal of registering Comet and Jax as therapy dogs. In order to register with <a href="http://www.petpartners.org/" target="_blank">Pet Partners</a> as a therapy team, you need to take a humans-only course on handling a therapy animal and then pass an evaluation that has three components: your skills as a hander, your dog's aptitude, and your ability to work as a team.<br />
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At that evaluation, you can receive one of two ratings, simple or complex, based on what kind of environment you are ready for as a team. More info on the Pet Partners dog evaluation <a href="http://www.petpartners.org/document.doc?id=1563" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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I took the human part of the course over the summer at <a href="http://www.pawsneffect.com/" target="_blank">Paws 'N Effect</a>, then took the dogs to a few weeks of practice sessions. In August, we took the test and both dogs passed with a "complex" qualification, meaning we are rated to engage in therapy work in both "predictable" (i.e., quiet and controlled, with strong support from the facility staff) and "complex" (i.e., louder, less predictable situations and clients, with more independence for the team). Pet Partners breaks down the distinction in more detail <a href="http://www.petpartners.org/document.doc?id=1557" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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Even though we passed the test in August, it took until almost October to finish getting the dogs registered and to receive our badges. There is a rather large packet of information that has to be filled out in order to certify that the human has taken the course, that the dog and human have received a rating at the test, and that the dog has been certified as healthy by a veterinarian.<br />
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A Therapy Dog Is Not a Service Dog</h3>
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A lot of people understandably have some confusion on this issue. A service dog is one trained to perform a specific task or tasks for a person who has a disability. Service dogs are allowed nearly anywhere in public, and there are specific legal protections to enable them to go where they need to be.<br />
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There is also a classification called "Emotional Support Animal," which is not the same thing as a service dog. An ESA is an animal prescribed by a mental health professional for a person with a mental illness. ESAs are not automatically allowed in all public places, though they are allowed on planes and in certain kinds of housing. While the ESA designation is sometimes abused by people who simply want to bring their pets with them on planes and in public, it's intended for people with real mental illnesses that significantly reduce their ability to engage in major life activities.<br />
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A therapy dog, on the other hand, is a dog that is registered to help provide animal-assisted activities or animal-assisted therapy to people. Animal-assisted activities are the typical therapy dog work of greeting people and bringing comfort. An example of an animal-assisted activity would be bringing a dog to a bedside at a nursing home or participating in a reading program at a library. Animal-assisted therapy is when a therapy animal is used as part of a specific treatment plan directed by a health professional. An example of animal-assisted therapy would be helping a person who has had a stroke learn to hold objects again by teaching that person to brush a therapy dog. Animals can provide key motivation and emotional support in such situations. More on the difference between AAA and AAT <a href="http://www.petpartners.org/document.doc?id=1102" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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I think it's incredibly important to distinguish for people the difference between therapy dogs and service dogs, because even though we have only been certified since October, I have been asked more than once if I pursued therapy dog registration so I could bring my dog with me in public. It saddens me that people seek to manipulate a system designed for those with genuine disabilities just so they can exempt their dogs from the rules.<br />
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I would love it if dogs were allowed in more places, and I would love to see some kind of certification system that would allow a pet dog access to more places if he or she passed a test like the one for the <a href="https://www.akc.org/dogowner/training/akc_community_canine/links.cfm" target="_blank">AKC Community Canine</a> designation. But the problem with manipulating existing rules to allow a pet access to a place is that it can blow back on people who have legitimate needs that are filled by a working dog.<br />
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Comet and Jax Get a Job</h3>
Right down the street from our house is <a href="http://hospice.com/" target="_blank">The Connecticut Hospice</a>, the nation's first and arguably foremost hospice care facility. So it was only logical that we explore volunteering there. After an interview and a lot more paperwork and training, we began visiting the patients, families, and healthcare providers at the hospice. I go once a week, and the dogs take turns, as Pet Partners only allows one animal per handler (and two dogs at once wouldn't be as helpful anyway).<br />
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After a little more than four months of weekly visits, I am so impressed by the deep caring of the people who work and volunteer there. Privacy laws and good manners will prevent me from relaying many of the specific details of our work, but I look forward to writing in the coming months about working with active therapy dogs in a real medical environment.Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03193467955617231534noreply@blogger.com0The Connecticut Hospice41.2562079 -72.83256094285280841.2547159 -72.835082442852809 41.2576999 -72.830039442852808tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1493021038496056849.post-28387730004470986742014-12-26T07:13:00.000-05:002016-09-19T14:06:50.013-04:00Boxing Day Sunrise<script>
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Andy got up early for work, so I took the opportunity to head out to Hammonasset State Park for one of the latest sunrises the year offers.<br />
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The dogs, always good sports, were happy to hop up on a rock and pose for their <a href="http://www.puppytao.com/search/label/daily%20stay" target="_blank">daily stay</a>.<br />
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Ostensibly, I went for the great lighting you get for the first hour after sunrise, but I didn't take all that many pictures. Mostly, I just wandered the beach trails and enjoyed the the moments before and after sunrise.<br />
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But I did take <i>some </i>advantage of the light here and there because it really does give everything a warm, dreamy feeling.<br />
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And I got the moment the sun crept over the horizon, which never ceases to be magical.<br />
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<br />Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03193467955617231534noreply@blogger.com0Hammonasset State Park41.250282785336964 -72.54060714801028141.247298285336967 -72.545649648010283 41.25326728533696 -72.535564648010279tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1493021038496056849.post-56925510166808811442014-12-14T12:00:00.000-05:002014-12-27T15:49:03.121-05:00Christmas Portraits<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This weekend, <a href="http://www.pawsneffect.com/" target="_blank">Paws 'N Effect</a> was having an event they call "Dogs Just Want to Have Fun," which is about 90 minutes of games for dogs and their owners. It's a blast, and I've helped out and shot photos at DJWHF sessions a few times in the past.<br />
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This year, there were two sessions, and we set up a little portrait area so people could get holiday photos with their dogs.<br />
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I used Comet and Jax to practice, and this photo turned out so well that I used it for our Christmas card.<br />
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I bought a couple of strings of LED bulbs, one white (used in the picture above) and one multicolored, used here. I thought LEDs would be great because they don't warm up.<br />
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They are the worst. LEDs—or at least these Christmas LEDs—flicker incredibly quickly, so fast that they look steady to the naked eye. But when you shoot them, your camera catches them lit about 1/3 of the time, off about 1/3 of the time, and partly lit about 1/3 of the time. So you have to throw out 2/3 of your shots!<br />
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Dogs don't really pose, aside from the fact that many will stay in place on command, so losing 2/3 of your shots often means losing the one or two with the best expressions because the damn lights aren't on.<br />
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Fortunately, I was able to get enough each time that I got at least one good photo of every dog, lights or no.<br />
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About half the people opted not to use lights and used a prop or nothing at all. The props often resulted in hilarious expressions, because most dogs don't like to wear hats or headbands, but most will tolerate them for a few minutes if their owners ask nicely.<br />
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I got a lovely, noble shot of this dog without the headband, but the "please take this off me" expression in this one makes me smile.<br />
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This dog wasn't a huge fan of the Santa hat, but I took a bunch of exposures and got lucky. I have about 30 shots where the dog looks a lot less noble and a lot less happy about the hat.<br />
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For those interested in some of the technical things the experience taught me:<br />
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First, there is reflective tissue at the back of a dog's eye that causes those green demon eyes you get when you use a flash. Everybody who's ever tried to take a picture of their dog has had a problem with this.<br />
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That reflective tissue is called the <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapetum_lucidum" target="_blank">tapetum lucidum</a></i>, and the trick is that even though it's highly reflective and terrible for flash photography, it's also relatively flat. That means that it only flashes green light back to the camera when the flash is mounted directly to the camera (i.e., close to the lens, so the light bounces straight out and straight back). Get the flash a few degrees away from the lens, and the effect disappears.<br />
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For these photos, we used two Kino light panels aimed in at about 45 degrees from each side. That results in double <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_light" target="_blank">catchlights</a> in a bunch of the portraits, but the Kino setup let me shoot without a flash.<br />
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To work with dogs, even in portraits where they're not moving much, you really need higher shutter speeds (1/250 or faster) or you get blur in most shots. Indoors, that generally means a flash, and while I do have an off-camera Speedite with a diffuser, I still wouldn't have had the flexibility I had with the panels. So I was OK with having two catchlights in some of the photos because it meant I could shoot the photos at 1/250 or more in order to get good expressions and relatively sharp exposures.<br />
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And last, but not least, my favorite shot of the weekend. The composition is mostly luck and from a technical standpoint, it has a couple of issues: high ISO at 10K, slightly washed out highlights, etc. Nonetheless, I like it, and I just love the dog's expression and his cocked ear.<br />
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<br />Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03193467955617231534noreply@blogger.com0Paws 'N Effect41.405730822301528 -72.9153402957702541.404242322301528 -72.91786179577025 41.407219322301529 -72.912818795770249tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1493021038496056849.post-29016109906998712452014-11-08T15:00:00.000-05:002016-09-19T14:08:10.258-04:00Seasons<script>
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It's sort of a tired thing to reflect on the change of the seasons, I suppose. Still, it's what I find myself doing when I walk through the same spots from one season to the next. This season has seen a long, slow change of the leaves, and even this late on in the game, there are still trees holding their bright colors while others are bare.<br />
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<a href="http://www.puppytao.com/search/label/Summer">Summer</a> is visiting again, so she joined the <a href="http://www.puppytao.com/search/label/daily%20stay">daily stay</a>.<br />
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And since I'm thinking of seasons, I'll call back to this photo in the same woods in September.<br />
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I've taken to posing for a remote-shutter selfie in the same spot overlooking what the maps alternatively refer to as "Beattie Pond" and "Lost Lake." "Lost Lake" certainly wins for poetic drama. In mid-September, only the most eager trees have begun to change.<br />
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By early November, well, the picture does the talking all on its own, doesn't it?Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03193467955617231534noreply@blogger.com0Westwoods41.2734256267334 -72.70691882343749141.2674586267334 -72.7170038234375 41.2793926267334 -72.696833823437487tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1493021038496056849.post-3336160931093613422014-10-26T15:00:00.000-04:002016-03-20T19:51:41.551-04:00Bluebirds!<script>
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I split these photos out into their own post because there were so many of them. Usually, I'm extremely picky about my photos, often sorting one or two good ones out of dozens. What happened here, though, is that we ran into a mixed flock of mostly <a href="http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/eastern_bluebird/id" target="_blank">Eastern Bluebirds</a> at the end of our hike. I crept closer and closer over the course of about fifteen minutes, and they were remarkably tolerant of my presence. I took hundreds of photos and cut it down to these ten.<br />
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Eventually I had crept close enough that I was actually in the middle of the flock. There were at least a dozen bluebirds, along with one <a href="http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/White-breasted_Nuthatch/id" target="_blank">White-breasted Nuthatch</a>, a <a href="http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Downy_Woodpecker/id" target="_blank">Downy Woodpecker</a>, and a <a href="http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/yellow-rumped_warbler/id" target="_blank">Yellow-Rumped Warbler</a> (Myrtle subspecies). The warbler is actually in this shot, if you can find her.<br />
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The bluebirds were mostly clustered around the hole in this tree, and I'm not really sure why, unless there was some source of food in there.<br />
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There were several plumage variations in the flock, including both bright and dull males and females. I <i>think</i> this is a bright female, since males typically have a slight eyering toward the back of the eye or none at all, and adolescents have spotted backs.<br />
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This is the look I associate more with females—the truly drab gray head and white eye ring.<br />
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While the birds were pretty cooperative, conditions weren't perfect. It was late in the afternoon, and there was fairly heavy cover, so there wasn't quite as much available light as I would want for the high shutter speeds I needed to freeze their motion.<br />
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And while the birds were relatively cooperative in terms of staying in the area, I wasn't able to get as close as I liked. Bluebirds aren't that large, my lens maxes out at "just" 400mm.<br />
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Still, I did get some really terrific group shots, and the occasional curious bird got close enough to fill more of the frame.<br />
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I think this one is my favorite, since it showcases both sexes and really captures the personality of the bird. I think it has the strongest composition and color elements as well.<br />
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Regardless of the photos, it was a pretty magical experience to stand in the middle of a singing, fluttering flock of sapphire birds. I've never seen more than one bluebird at a time, let alone a dozen.Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03193467955617231534noreply@blogger.com0Guilford, CT, USA41.311845466686137 -72.67146308518061941.30886396668614 -72.676505585180621 41.314826966686134 -72.666420585180617tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1493021038496056849.post-37099167941221465782014-10-26T14:00:00.000-04:002014-11-16T12:00:22.841-05:00Goldens and Foliage<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Just over a year after <a href="http://www.puppytao.com/2013/10/summer-arrives-in-october.html" target="_blank">Summer first arrived</a>, I met my parents for a hike at the East River Preserve in Guilford.<br />
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Summer has grown into a fun-loving, wonderful companion and friend, and she has a blast on the trails with just my folks or with the full crowd of us and our dogs.<br />
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These pictures are a bit out of order, since we stopped by the river early on and all the dogs got really wet, especially Jax, who will throw himself whole-hog into any body of water we come across. Summer jumped in and out too, but an hour of hiking will dry a Golden right out.<br />
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Our <a href="http://www.puppytao.com/search/label/daily%20stay" target="_blank">daily stay</a> photo has become a tradition on these hikes, and the dogs are always good sports while we pose them and take a few pictures from different angles.<br />
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I saved the last photo (below) to blow up a little larger, because Comet, always handsome, chose a particularly pretty spot to look back over his shoulder.<br />
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<br />Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03193467955617231534noreply@blogger.com0East River Preserve41.312801925985141 -72.67217501049810841.309820425985144 -72.67721751049811 41.315783425985138 -72.6671325104981tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1493021038496056849.post-74788407543854728142014-10-12T10:30:00.000-04:002014-11-10T09:51:50.364-05:00Did the Tree Split the Rock?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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My parents and I stumbled across this rather unique tree and rock and posed the dogs in front of it for their <a href="http://www.puppytao.com/search/label/daily%20stay" target="_blank">daily stay</a>.<br />
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I wonder if this tree truly split the rock, or if the rock split for some other reason and the tree was simply the first seedling that took root successfully in the middle. I'm not sure there's any way to tell.<br />
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It's October, but the first leaves to turn are mostly yellow and so much is still green that the woods still seem bright and vibrant, even though they're well into their turning.<br />
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In warmer weather, I ask Jax to drop the big logs he likes to carry, because I'm afraid he'll overheat. But in the cooler weather, I let him march around with them because he seems so proud and happy with them.Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03193467955617231534noreply@blogger.com0Westwoods41.274535856077712 -72.70578644511715541.26260135607771 -72.725956445117149 41.286470356077714 -72.685616445117162tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1493021038496056849.post-74079145155966553492014-08-30T12:00:00.000-04:002016-01-19T11:27:11.505-05:00Puppy Palooza<script>
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I have great fun shooting dog photos at <a href="http://www.pawsneffect.com/">Paws 'N Effect</a> during special events there, and this morning, we had a "Puppy Palooza." There were different sessions for different ages and sizes, with agility equipment, kiddie pools, a sandbox with bones buried in it, and a big fenced-in area outdoors for zoomies.<br />
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The puppies had a blast, as you might imagine. I spent a lot of time lying on my stomach, both with my 24-105 and my 100-400 lens. Periodically, I got bum-rushed by puppies, which was ridiculously fun.<br />
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We set up all kinds of pictures while we were playing games. We released puppies on one side of this chute while I shot from the other.<br />
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All the equipment wasn't just for fun. It was for socialization too. Socialization is all about giving puppies safe, positive experiences with new situations. This kind of socialization teaches a pup that the world is a safe place and that his people are kind, generous, and a source of safety and comfort.<br />
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More on socialization <a href="http://www.puppytao.com/2014/04/puppy-foundations-socialization-basics.html">here</a>.<br />
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I've shot lots of <a href="http://www.puppytao.com/2014/05/shooting-dog-photos.html">portraits of dogs</a> at this point, and I feel like I'm really getting the hang of it. I have lots of failed attempts where I misjudge the settings and get a blurry or underexposed photo, but I'm also getting some really nice ones that capture a dog's personality.<br />
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Speaking of personality, the Golden, Hudson, and the Corgi, Barley, were the only two in their session of older pups, but they hit it off as the fastest of friends. They chased tennis balls, playfought, and generally had a blast.<br />
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They even seemed to be posing for the camera at one point...<br />
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This week is our annual vacation trip up to Silver Lake, and while the weather wasn't so spectacular today, I spent a few minutes shoulder-deep in the water while Andy threw a tennis ball for the dogs.<br />
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For the first time, we have two dogs who are grown up <i>and</i> confident at jumping off the high dock, so I got a few captures of synchronized jumps.<br />
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Since the dogs alternate between looking back at the thrower and out over the water, not every jump is really synchronized. That gave me plenty of opportunities to get just Jax, as Comet had a tendency to jump a little more preemptively. <br />
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...which gave me one more good one of Jax suspended in midair.<br />
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For the last jump, I moved out even deeper to try to get both dogs in action. I think I did pretty well.<br />
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<br />Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03193467955617231534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1493021038496056849.post-70408162597678267832014-07-30T11:00:00.000-04:002014-11-10T09:52:40.503-05:00High Summer in the Meadow<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXu0V6Nc6OiZlEbrJaIEz6Tdes7nc1JZeXwnVQWwVWcYH9wgJbPV118cwl5xeHsNgjvMZyobaQIXno-VW4_TDA0XBHApnB8r19mTLFUELOx6IPOdoBpVDN2WjNlKC7CUBJbxzV2ZG8HVJq/s1600/7-30+11am+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXu0V6Nc6OiZlEbrJaIEz6Tdes7nc1JZeXwnVQWwVWcYH9wgJbPV118cwl5xeHsNgjvMZyobaQIXno-VW4_TDA0XBHApnB8r19mTLFUELOx6IPOdoBpVDN2WjNlKC7CUBJbxzV2ZG8HVJq/s1600/7-30+11am+1.jpg" height="285" width="400" /></a></div>
This was a rather busy summer, work-wise. My consulting job kept me as busy as I was willing to be, so my days consisted of waking up, drinking coffee, working, and finding an escape around lunchtime before heading back to work for the rest of the afternoon.<br />
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One of my favorite summer spots is the meadow at the East River Preserve in Guilford; at this time of year, it's full of wildflowers, butterflies, and swallows.<br />
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It's also full of Comet, Jax, and me for an hour or two while we traipse through the meadow and the woods to clear our heads before turning back to work again.Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03193467955617231534noreply@blogger.com0East River Preserve41.311436643483667 -72.67072661586917141.305473143483667 -72.680811615869175 41.317400143483667 -72.660641615869167tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1493021038496056849.post-88231806632044362962014-07-28T12:30:00.001-04:002015-04-06T12:18:05.046-04:00Brief Kayak Sojourn<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxyTh0im9eDP-GSRLhR_q9eGNHGLMhjw9a61Khotk4iLzi8BWtCTOqjwCNpM6kA4fl1tKO5jx7I8qhNTf5D7qCQkOZa6BbC_9o9v7Je-u1oQz1fjQUlvVHovVJ3a8IT8ECygqYSj-__BUg/s1600/7-28+12-30pm+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxyTh0im9eDP-GSRLhR_q9eGNHGLMhjw9a61Khotk4iLzi8BWtCTOqjwCNpM6kA4fl1tKO5jx7I8qhNTf5D7qCQkOZa6BbC_9o9v7Je-u1oQz1fjQUlvVHovVJ3a8IT8ECygqYSj-__BUg/s1600/7-28+12-30pm+2.jpg" height="285" width="400" /></a></div>
The date and time of this post reflect when I took these pictures, but I'm actually writing and posting in November. I've had some laptop trouble and a ton of work, and that's resulted in a huge backlog of photos and entries.<br />
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However, I do have some good stuff, like these Osprey photos from one of my only kayak outings this summer.<br />
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During July, there are a lot of Ospreys jockeying for fish and territory, and in the heat of midday, many rest on the low ground. I caught this one just as he finished his rest and took back to the air.<br />
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My route up the river also takes me past several nest platforms, and at this time of year, you see large families of first-year fledged birds and their parents sharing food and space.<br />
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I wish I had had a chance to get out more in the kayak this summer, but knowing how way leads on to way...Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03193467955617231534noreply@blogger.com0East River41.274640143843591 -72.64962268447266141.262706143843594 -72.669792684472654 41.286574143843588 -72.629452684472668tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1493021038496056849.post-12228749996401865072014-07-06T17:00:00.000-04:002016-02-13T07:11:49.914-05:00Car Safety for Dogs<script>
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The topic of dog safety in the car has been a hot one among my trainer colleagues, and with good reason. Most of us grew up in the era in which our family dogs simply rode loose in the car, sometimes behind a barrier in the back, sometimes just back with the kids. People had enough common sense to make sure the dog didn’t interfere with the driver, but that was pretty much it.<br />
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However, I’ve recently been persuaded that having dogs loose in the car is a hazard not just to the dog, but to the driver. Training the dogs to stay in their area has worked for us for years, but that’s only because we’ve been lucky enough not to be in an accident with the dogs in the car. So I’m certainly not writing this article as a way of judging anybody, since I’m a little late to the car safety game myself.<br />
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It has become increasingly clear to me that it's not responsible to have the dogs</div>
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loose in the back of the car, even though they're trained to settle calmly.</div>
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But here’s what persuaded me: a loose dog is a major safety problem in at least four ways.<br />
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<li><b>A loose dog can distract the driver</b>. While this issue can be essentially solved with training, not everybody trains their dog consistently enough to really keep the dog from coming up into the front area of the car.</li>
<li><b>A loose dog can be hurt or killed by the forces of an accident or even by evasive driving.</b> In the event of an accident or an emergency stop, a loose dog can be thrown with incredible force into the back of the passenger seats. With a little bad luck, the dog could even make it into the front dashboard or through the windshield.</li>
<li><b>A loose dog can escape once an accident is over.</b> If a window is broken or if a good samaritan or rescuer opens the door of the car, a panicked dog can escape and run off. This scenario is more common than you would think.</li>
<li><b>A loose dog is a danger to the passengers in the car. </b>Even a small dog can cause injuries to other passengers as he is flung through the cabin by the forces of an accident. </li>
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Having been persuaded that I can no longer, in good conscience, drive with my dogs unrestrained, I’m thrown into the rather confusing world of potential solutions.<br />
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Let me preface my discussion of these things by saying that I don’t see an obvious winner, but there’s an amazing organization called the <a href="http://centerforpetsafety.org/">Center for Pet Safety</a> that is currently studying these issues. CPS is a non-profit that is not affiliated with any major manufacturer of crates, pet barriers, or harnesses, and I’ve read all their published research and found it to be pretty tight all around. But, even though CPS exists and is doing great work, they simply haven’t had the time or the resources to compare all the different solutions out there to each other in order to arrive at a definitive answer. So for now, I fully respect several different ways people try to solve this problem.<br />
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The only common solutions I would advise against in <i>all</i> situations are putting a dog in the bed of a pickup and tethering a dog by his collar. The downsides of a pickup bed should be pretty obvious, and it's illegal around here. And as far as a collar goes, in the event of a hard stop or a front collision, a dog tied by his collar and leash will simply be killed when he is brought up short. So if you tied your dog by his collar in order to keep him from coming into the front, you need a new solution pronto.<br />
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The Crate</h4>
The most common solution for restraining a dog in the car is probably the crate. The crate certainly works to keep the dog from distracting the driver, and it would definitely lower the possibility that the dog will become a projectile in an accident or escape during a rescue.<br />
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However, CPS did at least one test of a dog in a wire crate, and the <a href="http://centerforpetsafety.org/research/crate-testing">resulting video</a>, despite the fact that it uses a dummy, is still a bit disturbing if your imagination inserts your beloved pet in place of the dummy, as my imagination did. The crate in question isn’t tethered, which is part of the problem, but the basic problem with crates is that they don’t prevent the dog from building a speed differential relative to the side of the crate.<br />
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What do I mean by speed differential? I mean that when you come to a sudden stop, the tires stop the car, but anything loose in the car will continue at whatever speed you were going until it hits something. In a controlled deceleration, the friction of whatever you or the dog is sitting on is enough to keep you from sliding forwards. However, in a sudden deceleration, like an accident or simply full braking from a high speed, we need seat belts to keep us from flying forward.<br />
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So in a crate, a dog has chance to build a pretty significant speed differential before hitting the side of the crate, as you can see in the preceding video. While the crate almost certainly keeps the dog safer than being loose, this issue means that the crate may not be the safest option out there. An airline-style crate might be better than a wire one in terms of sustaining impacts more safely, but there simply isn’t clear data available on the crashworthiness of different styles and brands of crates. Either way, be sure to tether it to strong attachment points in the car with non-elastic straps.<br />
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The Barrier</h4>
You can also purchase barriers that keep your dog in the cargo area of your car. This option, like a crate, does keep the dog from distracting the driver, and it also keeps the dog contained if the door is opened by a rescuer. However, it leaves us with the same speed differential issue as the crate does.<br />
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The Harness</h4>
At first glance, harnesses might seem a good all-around solution, but in 2011, CPS <a href="http://centerforpetsafety.org/research">actually crash tested</a> a number of car harness brands. Every single one failed. Again, the videos can be a bit disturbing if your imagination vividly puts your dog in place of the dummy. And remember that these are harnesses designed and sold as car safety harnesses, so any typical dog walking harness would presumably not hold up to the stress of an accident and would be little better than tethering a dog by his collar.<br />
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In 2013, CPS again independently tested a number of harness brands, and this time they released the names and detailed results. The only brand that performed acceptably was the <a href="http://sleepypod.com/clickit">Sleepypod Clickit</a>. Some brands failed pretesting because they came apart when stress similar to a dog in an accident was applied, and those didn't even make it to the crash test!<br />
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Then, most of the brands that passed the pretest failed outright during the crash test by coming apart under the forces of the crash. Only the Sleepypod, the <a href="http://www.kleinmetall.de/Homepage/Safety_harness_for_dogs">Klein Metall</a>, and the <a href="http://www.ruffrider.com/">Ruff Rider</a> harnesses held together properly during the crash test, and only the Sleepypod harness actually kept the dog in the seat.<br />
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As far as I can tell, the biggest problem with the Klein Metall and Ruff Rider was that their tethers were too long, so the dog slid out of the seat and gained a lot of momentum before being brought up short by the harness. So the Klein Metall might be fine if you shortened the tether portion to 6”, since it offers an adjustable tether, but the Ruff Rider's tether does not adjust.<br />
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CPS also noted that the Sleepypod controlled the rotation of the test dog better than the Klein Metall, so that seems to be an advantage too. The last vote in Sleepypod's favor is that the company actually improved the design of the harness after examining CPS's crash test data. You can see a crash test video of the improved harness at the bottom of <a href="http://centerforpetsafety.org/research/2013-harness-study-results/">the 2013 harness study results page</a>.<br />
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Page ten of <a href="http://centerforpetsafety.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/2013_cps_harness_study_summary_final_rev101113.pdf">the 2013 CPS report (PDF)</a> has a great chart comparing the performance of all the harnesses that made it past the pretest.<br />
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The Takeaway</h4>
While it’s pretty clear that I’ve personally settled on harnesses as the safest option for our dogs' safety in the car, I want to stress that I think the jury is still out. There simply hasn’t been enough testing done, and with the huge ranges of sizes and personalities in dogs, different solutions may work better for different families. Even though the early data suggests to me that a harness in general and the Sleepypod harness in particular are the best choice, that data doesn’t account for all of the real-world issues that may arise.<br />
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For example, the Sleepypod performed best <i>on a dummy</i>. In reality, it might be cumbersome or uncomfortable. It might sit nicely on a dummy, but still allow a <i>real</i> dog to pull out a leg or otherwise squirm in such a way that it's ineffective in a real accident. It may be so inconvenient to put on or to attach to the seat that it's impractical. It's hard to say without testing it on your own dog.<br />
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So if you do decide to use a harness with your dog, consider getting it from someplace with easy returns, or even from a place that allows you to try it on your dog before purchase. And don't forget to acclimate your dog to it before using it. If you spend a few minutes teaching your dog it's fun to get in and out of the harness, he'll have a far better experience when you expect him to wear it for a journey.<br />
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Lastly, remember that tether length played a key role in the crash tests. The harness does you little good if the tether is long enough for the dog to gain a lot of momentum or even to hit the seat backs in front of him.<br />
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Large-sized Sleepypods are backordered right now, but look for some high fashion photos of Golden Retrievers in car harnesses in the coming weeks!<br />
<br />Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03193467955617231534noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1493021038496056849.post-26942224735646142202014-06-29T17:00:00.000-04:002016-02-13T07:12:30.111-05:00What Your Dog's Gums Can Tell You<script>
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Puppy Tao has been upgraded, so <a href="http://tippykayak.com/journalentries/2016/1/17/what-your-dogs-gums-can-tell-you">this post has moved.</a> It will eventually be unavailable at this location.</h3>
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Let me preface this article by making it clear that <b>I am not a veterinarian</b>. As with all my dog care articles, I'm sharing what I've learned over many years of caring for dogs and researching the best practices of having them live long, healthy lives as the boon companions they can be.<br />
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The fact is, though, that none of our vets over the years has talked to us about our dogs' gums, which frankly surprises me, since you can use a dog's gums to read some of the early warning signs of very serious health conditions. Dogs can't talk to us and tell us where it hurts. They can't tell us that they feel dehydrated or dizzy, that they feel weak or more tired than normal, or that they're experiencing any of a million little signs of illness that a human doctor can use to try to pinpoint a diagnosis.<br />
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It's pretty clear in this picture that there's nothing wrong with Jax, but when</div>
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something does go wrong with a dog's health, it can be <i>really</i> hard to figure out.</div>
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Often, we only see these symptoms in dogs when they become extreme. You can't tell that your dog is dehydrated until you see him desperately sucking up water once he finally has access to it. You can't tell he's lightheaded until he's so dizzy that he's staggering. You can't tell he's feeling weak until he's practically incapacitated.<br />
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Or can you?<br />
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There are lots of ways we can learn to read subtle changes in our dogs' health, and one of the simplest is to look at your dog's gums.<br />
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But before you grab your dog by the mouth, make sure you've built up plenty of trust so you can handle his mouth safely. Jamming your hands in the mouth of a dog who isn't comfortable and ready is a recipe for a bad bite. Spend some time acclimating your dog to the idea that you're going to gently handle his mouth on a regular basis. Use plenty of rewards and go slowly. Whether you need to train your dog to be comfortable with being handled, or whether you're already there with him, work regularly on making your dog comfortable with having you gently hold his muzzle and pull up his lip. The more consistently you check the gums, the more easily you'll see the subtle changes that can signal the onset of a health problem.<br />
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Plus, by handling your dog gently and rewarding him for letting you check his mouth, you're <a href="http://www.puppytao.com/2014/02/training-for-veterinarians-office.html">training your dog for when the vet needs to take a look</a>, which means that your dog is more likely to have a positive experience at the vet's office and your vet is more likely to get a good look with a minimum of fuss.<br />
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Gums should be pink and slick to the touch, and you can use them to do a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capillary_refill">capillary refill</a> test, which helps you know how well the circulatory system is working. Push down on the gum gently but firmly, and when you remove your finger, see how long it takes for the white spot to turn pink again as the little blood vessels refill. This test gives you a way to roughly measure your dog's blood pressure. In a normal, healthy dog, the refill takes 1-2 seconds. If it takes longer, it means your dog's blood pressure is low, which happens in conditions like heatstroke or shock. Do this test periodically when your dog is healthy to get a sense of the normal refill time. You can do a similar test on yourself, by the way, by pushing firmly down on your own fingernail.<br />
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Jax has a little bit of black pigment here and there on his gums, so checking them</div>
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while he's healthy lets me know that it's normal and shouldn't be confused with the</div>
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graying that might signal a health problem.</div>
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The color of the gums is also really helpful, which is another reason why you should check them regularly in order to establish what's normal for your dog. Pink is normal, but individual dogs do vary, so the more familiar you are with your own dog's norm, the more sensitive you'll be to changes. Checking the mouth regularly also helps you figure out if your dog is having problems with tartar, cavities, or abscessed teeth.<br />
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Paler than normal can mean dehydration, low blood pressure, or trouble breathing.<br />
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Brick red gums can mean heat stroke or the early stages of <a href="http://pets.webmd.com/dogs/gastric-volvulus-bloat-dogs-life-threatening-emergency">bloat</a>.<br />
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Grayish or bluish gums can mean the dog isn't getting enough oxygen.<br />
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White or flat grey gums are an emergency either with blood flow or oxygen, like in the later stages of bloat.<br />
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Dry, sticky gums can mean dehydration.<br />
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If your dog has black gums, these tips aren't quite as helpful. You can still test dehydration by feel, but the color changes will be much more subtle. I do know someone whose dog has black gums, and she told me that they do turn darker and lighter. If you have a black-gummed dog, you can also gently pull down the corner of the dog's lower eyelid to expose the pink third eyelid, which should show similar color changes for similar conditions.<br />
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I really believe that if more owners regularly checked their dogs' gums to get a baseline and took a peek when they suspected something might be wrong, those dogs would get appropriate or even life-saving care faster. If your dog seems a little off, you may not know if it's serious enough to go to the vet, but if he seems off and his gums have turned from pink to gray, you know far earlier that it's time to rush to the vet. So make it part of your weekly—or even daily—grooming and hands-on exam so you're even more in tune with your dog's health.Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03193467955617231534noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1493021038496056849.post-40493592463000972802014-06-02T16:00:00.000-04:002016-02-13T07:16:30.585-05:00Fledging Season<script>
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This year saw Common Grackles nesting in the hole that housed our Red-bellied Woodpecker <a href="http://www.puppytao.com/2013/04/stalking-badly-named-woodpecker.html">last year</a>. Early in June, their babies fledged and foraged for food in our yard. I found one dead, likely the victim of our neighbor's outdoor cats, but at least one seems to have made it. <br />
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I was able to get fairly close without really disturbing him or inviting the wrath of his parents who were observing from the nearby trees.<br />
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Nonetheless, I was careful not to stress the little guy, and after a few shots, I wandered to another part of the yard to take some shots of a robin who was posing on our trellis.<br />
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<br />Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03193467955617231534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1493021038496056849.post-2432765240317264482014-05-26T17:00:00.000-04:002016-09-19T14:07:10.808-04:00Shooting Dog Photos<script>
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In a bit of a departure from my regular dog training article, this entry is going to discuss the rewarding but difficult process of shooting photos of dogs, so if you just want to look at cute pictures of dogs and aren't as interested in the photography, you can click a photo and then just go through the photos as a slideshow. If you're interested in taking better pictures of your dog, though, then read on!<br />
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Over the last few months, I've turned my lens on other people's dogs at different dog events at <a href="http://www.pawsneffect.com/">Paws 'N Effect</a>. Having had so much practice on our own dogs and on wildlife for the past few years, I figured I could make some nice shots for people. After a few months of working out the kinks and giving the photos away for free, I created <a href="http://www.tippykayakphotography.com/">a photo store</a> and started offering different photo products.<br />
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But I didn't make this entry to plug the store, since I don't imagine anybody would buy these photos except the owners of the dogs themselves. Mostly, I wanted to share some photography that I'm really proud of and to talk about the challenges presented by this kind of work.<br />
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All the photos in this entry come from a two-hour period on Memorial Day at a "Dogs Just Want to Have Fun" event.<br />
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First of all, indoor lighting isn't typically action-friendly. You may have noticed how hard it is to get a crisp, sharp photo of an indoor subject without a flash, and if you use a flash on a dog, you tend to get really bad red eye—though in dogs, "red eye" tends to be "insane demonic green flashlight beast eye."<br />
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So I'm working with without any complex lighting equipment. That means light is my biggest difficulty. Without going into the technical details too deeply, I'm essentially constrained by two things: shutter speed and light.<br />
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Shutter speed is a measurement of how long my camera's sensor is exposed to the image. I want it to be fast, since dogs are constantly moving. A fast shutter speed will capture motion crisply. A slower one will work for a still subject, but will create a blur if the subject is moving.<br />
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But, while a fast shutter speed is desirable, it means that light doesn't have as much time to bounce off the subject and hit the camera's sensor. That means that if I just crank my shutter speed up really high, my image will come out dark and underexposed.<br />
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And, the more light that hits the sensor, the richer and more vibrant the image can be. Photos that don't have quite enough light tend to have a problem called "noise," even if they're not underexposed and dark.<br />
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There are many other factors involved, but that's the basic compromise I'm faced with: if my shutter is too slow, the dog will be blurry, but if it's too fast, the photo won't be as saturated and have the rich gradations of light and color I want, particularly when shooting dogs which always have fascinating coat color and texture.<br />
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And there isn't much that's more difficult in dog photography than shooting a black dog in mediocre lighting. That's why I went over by a window at the training center and stood with the light coming over my shoulder to get this shot. My camera and lens combo simply does not pull in enough light to take a nice photo of a black dog under the fluorescent lights of the training center.<br />
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If you've noticed that photos of your black dog leave him as a black hole in your photo, your problem is that not enough light has bounced off him and made it to your camera's sensor. In order to get the shine of his coat, you need a ton of light. Sometimes that means the background gets overexposed, but the dog will come out better, which is what's important.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj86mLGGtqsTXYZ8d-tylBWoS6AEFqG8-zFUljiNEAYLoPa3wYccNQFL8pzdaHOhzOhmya0hcE-dQ5qykzyfAS_7jZDfL8kL1JXRV1l0MljQAdVd5aCe18jn016dYj8m-c1h-rLSc9wJIiH/s1600/10371202_881133611902431_8647796627493637231_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj86mLGGtqsTXYZ8d-tylBWoS6AEFqG8-zFUljiNEAYLoPa3wYccNQFL8pzdaHOhzOhmya0hcE-dQ5qykzyfAS_7jZDfL8kL1JXRV1l0MljQAdVd5aCe18jn016dYj8m-c1h-rLSc9wJIiH/s1600/10371202_881133611902431_8647796627493637231_o.jpg" height="285" width="400" /></a></div>
Beyond lighting, another issue is trying to capture an expression that speaks to the personality of the dog. Without knowing the dog, that's not always so easy, but thanks to the digital format, I can snap a relatively high number of exposures in a row to try to get a bunch of different expressions. <br />
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I find that when dogs look at their handlers, I often get great stuff. There are looks of focus, happiness, and even adoration when a dog connects with her human, and they can make for some great stuff. <br />
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You also tend to get a somewhat better profile of a dog by getting down toward their level. Shooting down toward them from slightly above their head height can work nicely, as can shooting from even with their head, but shooting from way above is a challenge unless the dog has cocked his head all the way up himself.<br />
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Some of its luck, too. Millie here was in between scratching her neck and looking back at her mom, and I got lucky. Millie is also about six inches high, so I'm actually crouched almost down to the ground for this shot, even though it's angled from slightly above her.<br />
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Some other great shots happen when the dog is looking at the camera, so I'm not above borrowing a treat from the owner or making a whole series of ridiculous sounds to get an inquisitive, head-on look from a dog. <br />
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Again, this is a very small dog, so I'm crouched very, very low so I'm only shooting from a little higher than her head.<br />
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For this shot of this Corgi, I'm actually almost lying down in the grass from about 40 feet away with a zoom lens.<br />
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I figured I'd end the entry with one good action shot of puppies playing. Even though there wasn't direct sun on the grass, there was enough ambient light that I could get my shutter even faster to really freeze their action while still having relatively rich colors. Still, you can see the black regions aren't as rich as detailed as some of the other shots.Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03193467955617231534noreply@blogger.com0Paws 'N Effect41.4060688 -72.91493259999998641.4030913 -72.919975099999988 41.4090463 -72.909890099999984tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1493021038496056849.post-75309185254213562952014-05-18T17:00:00.001-04:002016-09-19T14:02:27.121-04:00Reader Question: What should a kid do if the parents hit the dog?<script>
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<h3>
Puppy Tao has been upgraded, so <a href="http://tippykayak.com/journalentries/2016/1/17/reader-question-what-should-a-kid-do-if-the-parents-hit-the-dog">this post has moved.</a> It will eventually be unavailable at this location.</h3>
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I tweet about dog training once or twice a day on <a href="https://twitter.com/tippykayak">Twitter</a>, and the following was recently tweeted at me:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUbAgaRAVpLYi0R5F3cERH1dJO46hMq_QRNaLEt6o8YYjftklL6AlMliM_wXSwwyIe_nDGRmZxjerwpDL_TcPqdxcIQpXjWeMG5adalAsyzbR-1vibXcNRbYXgqoTVymnU8YrGaPMyR0AN/s1600/donthitdogs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUbAgaRAVpLYi0R5F3cERH1dJO46hMq_QRNaLEt6o8YYjftklL6AlMliM_wXSwwyIe_nDGRmZxjerwpDL_TcPqdxcIQpXjWeMG5adalAsyzbR-1vibXcNRbYXgqoTVymnU8YrGaPMyR0AN/s1600/donthitdogs.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">A dog's trust in us deserves a special kind of care and gentleness in training.</td></tr>
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Rather than just tweeting back, I felt like the subject needed its own full-sized article, because it's an issue that I never considered before and a really important one.<br />
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I think the first thing I need to say—and this is <i>really</i> important—is that it's not your fault if your parents hit your dog. Your tweet doesn't say whether it's the more mainstream kind of hitting, like the poking or cuffing you see some old-fashioned trainers do, or a kind of full-force hitting we'd consider truly abusive. Both aren't good ways to train a dog, but the second situation is much more serious and dangerous.<br />
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Either way, though, the child in a family isn't responsible for controlling or changing the actions of the adults. I'm going to offer some advice here about some things you can try, because I can tell this is really important to you and I admire the fact that you want to take some action, but you have to remember that this isn't your fault and you can't necessarily change it.<br />
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The first thing you can do is show your parents that essentially all of the highly respected professional organizations of dog trainers, dog scientists, vets, and behaviorists agree that physical punishment is ineffective. They don't have to take your word for it.<br />
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<ul>
<li>They can read <a href="http://avsabonline.org/uploads/position_statements/Combined_Punishment_Statements.pdf">this position statement by the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior</a> that says in part, "AVSAB’s position is that punishment...should not be used as a first-line or early-use treatment for behavior problems. This is due to the potential adverse effects which include but are not limited to: inhibition of learning, increased fear-related and aggressive behaviors, and injury to animals and people interacting with animals."</li>
<li>The AVSAB also has <a href="http://behavior.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/local-assets/pdfs/AVSAB_Dominance_Statement.pdf">a position statement on dominance-based training</a> that includes this statement: "In fact, a recent study of dogs (Herron et al. 2008) found that confrontational techniques such as hitting or kicking the dog for undesirable behavior...frequently elicited an aggressive response from the dog."</li>
<li>They can read what the <a href="http://www.apdt.com/about/ps/dominance.aspx">Association of Professional Dog Trainers has to say about Dominance and Dog Training</a>, which includes this statement: "The APDT's position is that physical or psychological intimidation hinders effective training and damages the relationship between humans and dogs."</li>
<li>Though I hardly carry the authoritative clout of those organizations, they can also read <a href="http://www.puppytao.com/2014/03/the-relationship-between-punishment-and.html">my article</a> on the evidence that physical punishment can actually result in increased aggressive behavior, particularly towards family members, especially children.</li>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
If you can train an intense herding dog to literally jump through hoops without</div>
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hitting him, you can certainly train a dog through basic obedience without it.</div>
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Hopefully, they'll be swayed by the fact that these highly-respected professional organizations of experts have such strong statements about the side effects of using physical force to punish a dog. Maybe your folks grew up in an era and a place in which hitting dogs was more acceptable and normal, but we know more now. Lots of us trained differently ten or twenty years ago and have followed the research to newer, more effective techniques.<br />
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My guess is that your parents want to do right by your dog and they feel this is just how you train. But my hope is that you can show them these resources and they'll learn that there are much more effective ways to train a dog that don't carry the potential side effects of aggression.<br />
<br />
I also noticed that your tweet says that they think training positive "takes too long," but I would make the point that dog-friendly training is actually a lot faster and more reliable than hitting a dog. In fact, your tweet is kind of proof that the hitting isn't working, since your parents are still having to do it. If it worked, they'd do it once or twice and then move on, right?<br />
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So not only is it potentially dangerous, but it's also an ineffective way to change the behaviors you don't like. Physical force lacks the clarity of teaching and rewarding a dog, and punishment doesn't create as long lasting behavior as positive reinforcement does.<br />
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I'm not sure what problem behavior is leading your parents to hit your dog, but hopefully there's already an article on it <a href="http://www.puppytao.com/p/dog-care-and-training-articles.html">here in the dog training section of Puppy Tao</a> (problem behavior articles are down towards the bottom of the page). If there isn't, tweet at me again with some more details, and I'll write one. If you can't convince your parents to try a gentler way to train the dog, maybe you can work on the behavior yourself to try to improve it.<br />
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Regardless of the outcomes, remember most of all that <i>this isn't your fault and it's not your job to solve it</i>. As a kid, there are some strategies you can employ to try to change your parents' behavior a little and to train the dog yourself, but at the end of the day, the adults are responsible for what goes on in the house and the kid simply doesn't have the power to change everything, even if the kid is right and the parents are wrong. A couple of decades ago, it was a lot more normal to hit dogs as part of their training, and your parents may simply be in that mindset. We've learned a lot since then, though, so hopefully they can do some reading on faster, more reliable, more dog-friendly ways to teach a dog and make him a safe, happy companion.<br />
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Give your dog a treat and a ten-minute training session for me. And keep up the good work!Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03193467955617231534noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1493021038496056849.post-65782199707379806042014-05-11T17:00:00.001-04:002014-05-14T09:13:44.089-04:00Reader Question: What do you do when a dog willfully disobeys?<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Dear Puppy Tao,</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I take my 4-year-old boxer, Bella, on a walk every day. I keep her on a short leash, and she is usually good about walking at my side. However, sometimes if she is nervous or overly alert, she will begin to pull. Usually, I will react with a quick tug on the leash to remind her that she's not supposed to be pulling. If she continues to pull, I say "No. Sit." Then I wait for her sit before we continue.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">My method obviously doesn't work, because she's four years old and I still have not been able to break her of it... I also worry about making her sit too often, because she has joint problems. But she KNOWS where she is supposed to walk, she is just very strong-willed.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">So, when a dog KNOWS where she is supposed to be and is happy being there most of the time, but willfully chooses to disobey commands and disregard rewards, what should I do?</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Sincerely,</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">At Wit's (and Leash's) End</span> </blockquote>
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Kingston is a large, strong dog with a lot of drive, so his handler can't manhandle</div>
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him into position or physically compel him to stop very easily. Instead, she works</div>
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really hard to build a connection with him, and then she practices in lots of</div>
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different situations so his attention holds up in the face of major distractions.</div>
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Dear At Wit's (and Leash's) End,<br />
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First off, I'd change your focus from teaching her <i>not</i> to pull, which isn't working, to teaching her <i>where you want her</i> by building and maintaining a strong connection with her. That shift in mindset alone will help a great deal.<br />
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Second, when I see noncompliance like you describe, I try not to frame it in "she knows but she chooses not to" terms. That puts the onus on the dog rather than on the human, and I'm not sure it's all that accurate. I'd say "she knows it when she's not distracted, but she either lacks the motivation, the self control, or both to do the behavior when she's distracted." That's more accurate and puts the onus squarely on the human to solve the issue, rather than punishing the dog for it. In Bella's case, it sounds like her leash behavior isn't really strong enough to handle the <a href="http://www.puppytao.com/2014/02/when-youre-dog-context-is-everything.html">context</a> of a high level of distractions.<br />
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Sometimes we have handlers work entirely without a leash so they learn to</div>
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use their attention and voice instead of force to connect with their dogs.</div>
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What you're doing now is punishing the pulling with the intent of making it go away. A leash correction constitutes positive punishment in behavioral terminology, because you are adding (positive) something the dog doesn't like with the intent of reducing the undesired behavior (punishment). Second, stopping your motion is what's called a negative punishment, because you are taking away (negative) something the dog likes with the intent of reducing the undesired behavior (punishment).<br />
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While punishment <i>can</i> reduce undesired behavior, it's not going to do so as quickly and reliably as <a href="http://www.puppytao.com/2013/11/catch-your-dog-making-good-choices.html">rewarding an alternative behavior</a>, and punishment carries <a href="http://www.puppytao.com/2014/03/the-relationship-between-punishment-and.html">the potential for side effects</a>. Plus, in a scenario like this, the dog might respond to the punishment in many situations but not end up with a behavior that's reliable enough to hold up to serious distractions, which is what you're describing. Even the gentler negative punishment of simply stopping the forward motion, while it does work with some dogs, can sometimes end up teaching the dog simply to run out to the end of the leash and choke herself for a while.<br />
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Abby is very young and distractible, so her handler focuses on rewarding her for</div>
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connecting with him. Her handler is doing a great job of getting the food out of</div>
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her face, and he only uses it as a reward for what he likes, rather than bribing her.</div>
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So instead of punishing the pulling, I'd change the dynamic entirely and teach her to connect with you, even when she's overstimulated. If you're walking along and you lose your connection with her, try walking backwards excitedly in a different direction so you can make eye contact, clap your hands, shuffle your feet, and talk to her. That makes you much more worthwhile to stay connected with with. And while I would not lure her with food in order to get the attention, I certainly would use food to reward her once you do have her attention (i.e., don't put it in her face, but rather keep it in your pocket or a closed hand until you get some attention, and then reward her with the food).<br />
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When you get the hang of it, the dog isn't pulling at all, but you're taking an active role in maintaining that connection with her, and then you can pivot and walk forwards together again with her by your side, delivering rewards to her right at your side where you want her (again, with the food <i>not</i> in her face until it's time to actually feed it to her). There's a lot more on this loose leash walking method <a href="http://www.puppytao.com/2013/11/loose-leash-walking.html">here</a>.<br />
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With practice around gradually increasing distractions, you should be changing direction and backing up less and less. However, if you do end up in a bad situation, you always have the option to try to back up and reconnect with your dog by using eye contact, your voice, and your motion, just so you can get away from whatever is causing the problem.<br />
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Good luck!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Full disclosure: reader questions are edited for clarity, concision, and anonymity. They are always based heavily on the real text of a question somebody has asked me and the real text of my response, but I mess around quite a bit with the text in order to make a good post out of it. Also, pretty much nobody actually signs their questions with a goofy Dear Abby style name, so those are made up by me.</span>Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03193467955617231534noreply@blogger.com0