Ellie, the dog who flunked her temperament test...

Ellie's the kind of dog that if you say, "Go get him," she looks at you and runs for a toy.

But, if you say, "Go give him a toy," she's off to share the fun.

And this was a dog who flunked her shelter temperament test.

How do you know if your dog training is working?

From the 'let me at him' to 'teach me more'


You know something is working

• when your husband, as he pets the dog who used to chase his cat up a tree says, "She's so much calmer than she was."
• when the cat who used to hide now ignores
  
• when your son says, "She's kooky, but, she's such a good dog, doesn't really do anything wrong."
• when people at the park remark, "Wow, your dog is well-behaved."
• when the dog who flunked her humane society administered temperament test attends a huge social gathering, (the Muscular Dystrophy Association Christmas party) and socializes with children while refining her dog-assisted pain management technique.
  
• when everyone uses the word 'adorable' to describe your dog.
  

It's helpful to look back a bit, and see how far we've come.

I give Ellie the lion's share of the credit. I've really just tried to stay out of her way and help her learn the ropes of socializing with people and animals. The rest is pure Ellie. Thanks girl, for coming into our lives.

Pet Blogger Challenge

1. When did you begin your blog? October, 2009, after Ellie, our rescue German Shepherd Dog, came to live with us.

2. What was your original purpose for starting a blog? Dhyoga dog is a branched off blog from deserthorseyoga.blogspot.com, which is my more general blog about yoga and how yoga methods are helpful in working and playing with our animal companions. Ellie was teaching me so many different things that I decided to create a separate blog that would appeal to dog people. I wanted to share what I was learning from her as I was 'training' her.

3. Is your current purpose the same? Yes, although I'm rethinking how this blog can better be of service to both dogs and their humans.

4. Do you blog on a schedule or as the spirit moves you? The spirit works in mysterious ways. I have fallen out of the habit of blogging regularly, and am considering how to find that balance between spirit and schedule.

5. Are you generating income from your blog? Not that I know of. hmmm.

6. What do you like most about blogging in general and your blog in particular? I like how blogs express the personality of the blogger and the personality, where relevant, of their dog/pet companions. I like how blogging about pets and reading blogs about pets connects me into the larger community.

What do I like about my own blog? I like the pictures of Ellie, she's so danged cute.

7. What do you like least? The self-induced guilt when I'm not keeping up with the blog. My perfectionista tendency - wanting the words to be perfect, is a habit I am changing. I am. Really.

8. How do you see your blog changing or growing in 2011? My intention is for the blog to share more about how I learn from Ellie and other dogs that I have the privilege of working with, on a more frequent basis. I would like my blog to be a place that people come to and enjoy with a cup of tea with their pooch by their side.

Ellie's public debut for dog-assisted pain management

Ellie, our 'once-was-incorrigible' rescue girl made her public debut at the 2010 Muscular Dystrophy Association Christmas party in Tucson.

She was outstanding.

In this set of pictures, she is responding to my friend, Laura Coursey, of EQuality Dog Training, who is teaching her about how head pressure on hands relieves Laura's neuropathy pain.

You can see that Ellie is intensely focused on Laura, even in the midst of this huge gathering.

She also took some time out to greet children who came to see her, and taught the children how to ask to touch using a different variation of the head rest technique. What a gal.

Do dogs do math?

For a lot of people, at least for many of my statistics students, math proves to be a significant challenge. But then there's Ellie, who today seemed to do the math in order to get to her reward as quickly as possible, by traversing the shortest distance possible, even when the shortest distance isn't a straight line.

This morning, Ellie and I practiced recalls in the back yard. I'm keeping recalls pretty simple for now.

• "Come" means to come to me and sit in front of me.
• "By me" means to come and sit at my left side, facing in the same direction I'm facing.
  

She is nearly 100% reliable with both behaviors in the house so we are adding distance and distraction by practicing outside.

Given that we live in Arizona, our back yard is pretty much a old (yet functional) pool The pool is pretty useful for creating angles and distance for the recalls. Cats, birds, dragonflies and bees do a pretty good job of providing the distraction element.

Cueing Ellie into a "Sit or Down-Stay", I take up various positions around the pool and give her recall cues. Typically, if I'm facing her, I give the "Come" and if I'm facing any other direction, I'll give her the "By me" but I do mix it up to keep it interesting.

Ellie decided to keep it interesting by choosing her own direction, for approach - the shortest distance on the ground.

So, for example, I might give her a "Come", and instead of just running towards me (around the pool), she opted to turn around, come up from behind, and face me for her reward. She also opted to run towards me and change her position for the "By Me". The maneuvers are more complicated for her, but the time is shorter.

Next up is to see how often she does and to research to see what other information there might be out there on dogs determining distance and time. Doe she just mix it up to keep it interesting for her? Is it all random (I think not.) Is it an innate instinct? And maybe I need to brush up on my trigonometry.

What do you think?

No braggin', just sayin' - She's the cutest dog

She hikes, and carries her own water, she swims, she leaps over park water fountains, she meditates, and she just keeps smilin'.

Dog parks, longe lines, and dogs making choices

It's Sunday morning, and Ellie and I go for our Meditation Walk. She settles in quickly, curious about her world of walkers, runners, birds, and the sounds of barking at the dog park that lies to west, beyond the ball field and tennis courts.

She's happy, tongue lolling, eye soft. She stops to let people by, with a doggie smile and containing her exuberance to her wagging tail.

Today I've brought my longe line, which we use for horses. My plan is to give her plenty of line, so she can more freely pursue her interests, and I can reward her for attention to me, and we can practice her recall away from home, working on distance. Her recall, offline and in the house and yard, is nearly 100%. I've got a few kinks to work out here, as she took off after some birds, and got too hard of a jerk back to the ground, but in general I accomplished what I wanted to accomplish. Time for the dog park.

As we got closer to the park, I saw there were about 7 dogs. Some she knows, some I had not seen before. She was her usual excited self as we made our way to the gates. I let her in to the ante-area, took off the leash, and the dogs rushed up to greet her through the fence. Two of the dogs were quite assertive, and then the other dogs arrived. Rather than just take her in, I decided to wait this out, to see what Ellie's choice would be. We've noticed that she gets overwhelmed with more than a few dogs, and we've noticed that she is uncomfortable around very assertive dogs.

After sniffing fence, sniffing noses, and making eye contact, she went to the gate - the gate to the outside, and waited. Pretty clear. I snapped on her leash, and we walked quietly home.