I was more than a little disturbed by Schoen's "Get the Bone" training
video, but it did get me thinking. If I was to tape Kiba doing the same
thing, what would it look like? Would he be flinging himself about in
absolute confusion like Muttley, or would he use his (admittedly) little
mind, and try to do as I asked? So, I filmed him. I didn't do any boning
up on skills (heh, yeah, let's call them "skills") and I tried to act as
normally as possible. A bit of background, perhaps? We DO ask Kiba to get
us a ball if we want to play fetch. Most often though, he will drop one on
our feet, indicating his desire to play. I have often looked up from my
computer to see my desk surrounded by balls in anticipation of possible
games forthcoming! But if we say, "Go get a ball!" he will hustle to the
toy box and get a damn ball! The OH prefers Wilson brand tennis balls (they
bounce better or some such nonsense) and if Kiba brings him the wrong
"brand", OH will say, "Oh, go get me a Wilson!" and Kiba does. I don't know
how he knows. I assume that it smells more used than the others, or maybe
more like OH, I really can't hazard a guess. But Kiba can do it. Me? I
don't care. If you ask him to get you a toy, you will usually get
whatever's on top. But he does seem to be able to recognize that some toys
have different names, although he may not know all the names. Does that
make sense?

Anyway, after I took the balls out of the dryer, I put four in different
places in the house. I had Kiba tethered to the living room table, so he
saw me put the first one on the stool near there, but he didn't see the
others. I tried to leave both doors open, but one blew shut during the
experiment. I tried to act as normally as possible. In retrospect I can
say I talked to Kiba too much, but I did what felt natural, just to see what
I could get on video. The video isn't edited, except for the captions.

I must say, though, Kiba thought it was a pretty rockin' game, and we'll
keep playing "Find the *whatever*" often in the future!

"Phyrie" wrote in message ...

http://www.youtube.com/user/Phyrie?f.../0/ytCiVq7vDEQ

"Phyrie" wrote in message ...

*crap* I am still not very knowledgeable about links. I didn't mean to
start a new post to fix the damn thing! I guess I can't merge them, can I?
Here's the link anyway:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Phyrie?f.../0/ytCiVq7vDEQ

On Mon, 07 Feb 2011 23:58:35 -0800, Phyrie wrote:

"Phyrie" wrote in message
...

*crap* I am still not very knowledgeable about links. I didn't mean to
start a new post to fix the damn thing! I guess I can't merge them, can
I? Here's the link anyway:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Phyrie?f.../0/ytCiVq7vDEQ

you like to talk a lot so you may be interested in SATS

http://www.synalia.com/

"Phyrie" wrote in message
...

*crap* I am still not very knowledgeable about links. I didn't mean to
start a new post to fix the damn thing! I guess I can't merge them, can
I? Here's the link anyway:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Phyrie?f.../0/ytCiVq7vDEQ


That was good. If your dog's Fetch is conditioned enough and he clearly
knows what to do, it
doesn't matter if you talk more. You gave him enough time to do what he
was asked and you were right to give him a clue when he became a bit lost.
About 1.5 into the video ( just before you gave him the clue , he stopped
for a quick scratch . While he might have felt an itch , I think in that
context it was a displacement activity (Fiddling about).
Al

"Dogman" wrote in message
...

http://www.youtube.com/user/Phyrie?f.../0/ytCiVq7vDEQ

By golly, Phyrie, I think Kiba may be ready for field trials!

LOL! Hardly, but I appreciate the encouragement!

And the "joy of looking for stuff" is pretty much what fuels
field-trial champions!


--
Dogman

Kiba really does enjoy chasing and catching stuff. I am thinking about
trying to teach him to catch a frisbee-type toy, but I will need to talk to
the vet about that first. Kiba ruptured a disk in his back a while back,
and although he's recovered, it was a long and painful process, and I
wouldn't want to jeopardize his spine by jumping up to catch something. He
does a "half jump" when catching treats (two feet and his butt off the
floor), so we may not have far to go to teach the "full jump".

On Tue, 8 Feb 2011 14:40:04 -0800, "Phyrie"
wrote:



"Dogman" wrote in message
.. .

http://www.youtube.com/user/Phyrie?f.../0/ytCiVq7vDEQ

By golly, Phyrie, I think Kiba may be ready for field trials!

LOL! Hardly, but I appreciate the encouragement!

And the "joy of looking for stuff" is pretty much what fuels
field-trial champions!


--
Dogman

Kiba really does enjoy chasing and catching stuff. I am thinking about
trying to teach him to catch a frisbee-type toy, but I will need to talk to
the vet about that first. Kiba ruptured a disk in his back a while back,
and although he's recovered, it was a long and painful process, and I
wouldn't want to jeopardize his spine by jumping up to catch something.

I agree. One has to be careful with those breeds with long backs and
short legs. Keeping four on the floor is generally a good idea.

The CKCS would be a semi-chondrodystrophic breed, not as prone as some
breeds, like dachshunds, but still prone to back problems.

http://www.extension.org/pages/Four_..._Back_Problems

--
Dogman

"Phyrie" wrote in message ...

"Alison" wrote in message ...

That was good. If your dog's Fetch is conditioned enough he clearly
knows what to do, it doesn't matter if you talk more.
You gave him enough time to do what he was asked and you were
right to give him a clue when he became a bit lost.

About 1.5 into the video ( just before you gave him the clue ,
he stopped for a quick scratch . While he might have felt an itch ,
I think in that context it was a displacement activity (Fiddling about).

With Kiba, it could be either. He suffers from allergies, and is
on Atopica every day. So, if I suspect "fiddling", that's when I should
repeat the request? (I hesitate to say "command" for some reason,
as we were just playing).

Well, I would normally be inclined to praise you and your dog for a job well
done, but since you started this thread with a comment on how disturbed you
were by my video of Muttley's small accomplishment, I will instead point out
some things that I found disturbing in your video. Quid pro quo.

The scratching behavior is a very common sign of stress, and I think it is
because Kiba is afraid you will start beating him and abusing him in other
ways, again, if he fails to please you. That is probably because your
personality defects have a strong statistical correlation to behavior
problems in dogs:
http://jarvm.com/articles/Vol2Iss1/DODMAN.htm

And allergies in dogs are often caused by improper feeding as well as other
environmental factors, which should be the first thing you should fix before
using chemicals to mask his distress and health problems that you have
caused. Poor Kiba!

Hey, how does it feel to be criticized unfairly? Enjoying it yet?

Sheesh...and you say you love your dog. Riiight!

Paul and Muttley

"P E Schoen" wrote in message
...
Well, I would normally be inclined to praise you and your dog for a job
well
done,

I haven't been able to get Dibby to fetch his bone. Can't think why .LOL

Fetch? You cannot be serious!
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...andtheBone.jpg

On Thu, 10 Feb 2011 11:50:52 -0000, "Alison"
wrote:

I'm not keen on the word command either

Sigh.

Ooooh, words are scary things.

Sheesh.

--
Dogman