The Interview

You know those sequences in movies when the film goes into time lapse to indicate the passage of time and when it resumes regular speed, seem to be moving more slowly? That’s how this day felt.

Maudie and I went in for our interview/assessment this afternoon, slid downtown on our own melting…is more like it... it was so hot.

T came down into the lobby to fetch us and we went up on the elevator—one of the things that Maudie does not have a lot of experience with and that gives her pause. I was asked a series of questions about Maudie and about myself and our relationship while she settled in near my chair.

It takes her about 5-10 minutes to get comfortable in a new place, and she was hot, so her panting created the first impression, but, it was quickly evident that she was OK in an unfamiliar environment.

When we started to talk about interacting with strangers, it got interesting. Although Maude had a perfectly lovely encounter with a very sweet volunteer, she was uncomfortable with our interviewer and went into “is there someone else in this room with us? What other person?” mode. In short she moved away to lie with her back to T, did not respond to her invitations, paced around to me.

T has a lot of experience reading dogs and translated this to mean that Maudie wasn’t quite ready to interact with a lot of strangers; that she needed more ripening time and we should wait another 6 months to undergo the training. I kept juggling 2 voices in my head: 1) she wasn’t going to pass! She was not as outgoing as I thought and she will not like meeting all those new people in strange places. 2) Calm down, she just needs more experience, and no dog is perfect. The process just may take longer…

The conversation turned to how she deals with stress and uncomfortable situations. She turns away, either lies down, back to person, or leaves the room. T suggested that she probably goes flat---turns off----and that’s what she was doing. I expressed my surprise at Maudie’s behavior, because the Maudie I know loves to meet people, is not at all touchy and accepts a range of responses. But this is also where my knowledge sped up…and I saw Maudie more clearly. At home, where she is uber comfortable she is energetic enthusiastic and playful. In new situations where she is unsure, she pulls in and presents a very quiet picture. In fact, when I met her in Albany, she had that look; I read it as boredom. In fact she was hanging back and observing. She still likes to meet people, but in a more reserved way.

It strikes me just now that this seems very typical for a herding dog: confident but a little cautious, reserved with strangers, but not averse to new friends. Of course, the more experience she has with new friends, the more new friends she’ll be eager to collect. That she has that nascent desire is why she came to be with me on this journey in the first place.

Just as I was preparing myself to wait another 6 months to get started, Maudie walked over to T, wagging her tail, offering her Lassie paw and looking at her with “bedroom eyes” as Polly called them. Soon she was lying across her feet and letting her scratch her tummy. And T was reassessing. She said several times that she was on the fence…and in the end?

Long and short of it? We’re signed up to take the class in October. We can always pull back if she needs more time, but I do believe that we are ready to quicken our communication, leap into more experience and that we will rise to the occasion. And I left with the Delta training manual stuffed into my bag.

So. Huzzah! We’re on our way!

I couldn't resist...

and damn if it doesn't sound right!! (if I could be Polly Martin..;-)

Which Lassie Character are You?

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Maudie ges a bath

Today was bath day for Maudie...not a big deal, unless you haven't bathed a dog who weighs more than 25lbs in many many years! Of course she was a patient good girl; but like all dogs I know, she looked miserable while being tortured by soap and water and was equally ecstatic when she got out and felt how clean she was.

I lined the bathroom with towels, slapped the suction cup noose onto the tile, heaved her in and off we went....One side at a time, the bathroom turning into a sauna from the heat and the water and the breathing...

M helped me...kept her coat wet while I soaped her up with EZGroom (crystal white). Because she's a mahogany sable (my favorite color collie) it was fascinating to see the range of colors that showed up in her wet coat. Copper and black and mahogany and pale tan and grey and white..... I tried to imagine her a smoothie when she was soaked and her coat clung to her body, but I realized that I've never seen a mahogany sable smooth collie. I don't think they exist....Maybe there is not enough length to each hair to carry all those colors??

Then we brought the rocket powered dryer into the bathroom and dried her in the tub; I ended up climbing in there with the hose to get to all her parts.... still..... I let her go before she was totally dry, so now she's got a little cowlick on her back and she looks kind of fuzzy...I remember the corgis looked like that after a bath..

Its not quite as satisfying as washing a papillon who comes down off the grooming table all sparkly and silky and never looks better, every hair in place and glowing. With these double coated dogs, it takes a day or two for the oils to come back and the coat to settle down...unless of course, you spend the time drying and brushing until...well....they're dry! But she feels super clean and her whites are dazzling. It was SO hot today, I figured she'd dry off pretty quickly on her own. She did.

A preeeeety exciting day!? huh! Well, it is. Tomorrow we have our Dove Lewis interview.

I have such big hopes for us. There's no reason why we shouldn't do well, but I'm excited so I'm nervous. She's snoozin.

GusGus

Yesterday in class I watched M and Gus work on retrieving over the jump for a while. I am moved beyond...well... the moon, say....by Gus' desire to do right by M. He works so hard and with such focus. He is a special dog...
Lucky M, when Gus first came to live with us (I fell in love with him the first time I met him at my friend's house; he had just returned from the show circuit in Montana) he took one look at M and signed on for life. Pledged his mighty little papillon soul. Within the month he got his last major to finish his championship.
See how happy he is on M's arm....

la luna

Early early this morning, M woke me up to see the total eclipse of the full moon. It was a mostly clear dark sky, and the moon looked like an old penny. It was worth getting up for. Only visible way out west...

ah. writing...

There are always 2 struggles that go on for me when I write:
1.to write in my OWN voice &
2.to tell the truth on the whatever level I can find it.
But that is really only one struggle...isn't it. Can you really tell the truth in someone else's voice?
I suppose I might answer yes, if I were a fiction writer....but I'm not.

Titles and Descriptions

You can't be too obsessive about drafts when you write a blog...so I've turned my obsession full on the description under the title...watch it as it changes!!

Recap

When I began this blog, I was just starting on the journey of the 4th dog. An idea had surfaced about another way to serve, to do good, through a relationship with animals.

I have always believed that animals can guide us to our best selves; they model joy, courage and generosity. They can bring us smack into the present, back into our bodies, confer on us a sense of peace. But you know that....

I find myself wanting to embrace people with the same generosity. Like many of us whose lives revolve around animals, I have heard myself say how much more I prefer dogs to people. It was Suzanne Clothier who suggested that a lesson we should learn from our dogs, who love US unconditionally, is to also love us…our own species: human beings.

It was a natural progression to the idea then of therapy work. I could work WITH my dog to help people in various states of need. It is easy to love people who are vulnerable; in fact I think we love others best when they show us that vulnerability. A good place to start.

I started the blog thinking about breeds—probably my favorite pastime anyway—and learned a lot more about various spaniels, shelties, Bedlington and Manchester Terriers…

But when the fog lifted, the way was clear, and there at the gate was Maudie. This was late February. Since then, the focus has shifted to the bonding, the day to day, the next stage of this life together. The Art and Science.

The fact that I have a collie…a collie!!!!......again, has brought me fully into the present, into the possibility of more good work, and it has thrown yet another lifeline to that collie –obsessed girl I was….but more about that later.
(The Mythology. Meet: Albert Payson Terhune.)

Hands in pockets to feel the dust of the earth, eyes to the heavens.

The blog takes shape in the best way...it changes and grows.
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That is a photo of Sunnybank Thane...handsome profile eh?!

Breakfast

I have been feeding a homemade and raw diet for years now...but recently found a kibble I can get behind. Orijen is grain free, Canadian made, and the company appears to have a sense of ethics. (My sense is that in Canada, farms are more important than corporations...I could be wrong...sigh...)

The dogs get this kibble in the am with some cottage cheese/yogurt and for supper they have raw.
When Maudie came to me, she was eating a pretty decent fish based kibble that she seemed to do quite well on, so I went searching for a similiar product of a little higher caliber (in terms of ingredients/company profile). That's how I found Orijen. Not only are all the dogs doing well, but they really LIKE it!! Even the papillons...the wee gourmands...(ewwww, I can't eat that, the tripe is touching the egg!!!)

I can talk about dog food all day, having spent QUITE alot of time reading, thinking and prepping around it. There are lots of good options. Here's one to add to the repetoire.

Flynn

I just added links to the side bar, and I’m sure the list will grow….

I want to talk about Flynnie and how miraculous she is. Her story is written elsewhere (not on this blog), but how she has chosen to relate to Maudie from the very beginning has really astonished me.

That very first time we all went down to KV with the papillons to meet Maude, I was mostly worried about Flynn. She has not had a lot of experience with large dogs except in class, whereas Sonny and Gus both grew up with a Golden and a sheltie mix.

So she was not fond of them. In fact when we would go visit the Bairds, and one of the big dogs was out on the stoop, she wouldn’t even go past her. I’d have to pick her up. The times she would go by, she ‘d go with her best “big dog what big dog?” face. They frightened and puzzled her.

So her reaction to this full-grown collie was key. Flynnie would tell me if she was safe or not, if I listened carefully.

And damn if she didn’t surprise me once again. Flynn was the least worried of the 3 papillons. At one point, I was sitting on the floor and Maude was lying next to me and Flynnie just marched right up next to her head to remind me not to forget her. She was not at all frightened, not even concerned. She didn’t appreciate Maudie’s lack of manners…trailing along with her needle nose up Flynn’s butt…but otherwise she was OK.

Now Flynn is no dummy. IN fact I’m still not convinced Flynn is even a dog, but an alien who hopped into a silky cute suit and came on down to earth to find me. She had to know that this giant hairy girl dog had claimed a piece of my heart, and she stood the very real proposition of having to share a little more of the house with her. Besides I had talked about it with her. So its not like she didn’t know what was going on.

Flynn is my first papillon, my familiar; she is my magic dog, the one who chose me, and claimed me for her own. Our devotion to each other is unwavering. But she has never, not once, showed the slightest resentment, jealousy or peevishness about Maudie. In fact, she’s the only papillon who tries to play with her. (Wisely, she will only interact in any active way at all with her when she is on a chair that puts her at Maudie’s head level.)

And frankly she’s always been like that. She is the unquestioned queen of the household, and she rules with such benevolence and generosity. She is always the first to warm up to visiting dogs…I believe she just has excellent hostess skills. This is her house after all.

The only part she does not like at all…is the part where she has to share me in training. At Ellie’s she pitches a monkey fit when she’s in her crate and I’m working with Sonny or Maudie. And I think it unnerves her to point of distraction.

As a result, I’m changing my schedule so that I take only Maudie one week and Flynn and Sonny the next. I WANT to only take one at a time…but then each has to wait so long to go next.
They all are in the midst of an important process too. Maudie and I are learning to communicate;
Sonny has another leg to earn for his CD and
Flynn just got a new set of articles…really cute tiny articles….Her first, my first.

It’s a full life…and it is just galloping by…

The Papillons

Soon...I need to talk about the papillons...my delicious French pastries, my silky aliens, my tiny Iditarod team, my half cat half collie models, my friends...

Cesar Millan

Last night I watched the first 8 episodes of Cesar Millan’s show, The Dog Whisperer. He has caused quite a storm in the dog world and as a public figure I’d say he is the American version of Barbara Woodhouse. In other words, he is influencing an entire generation of dog owners with his training ideology. There is furious debate about whether or not that ideology is sound, particularly in terms of its stress on dominance and submission.

I had to see for myself. And this is what I have to say about him….

1. At core he is working from a deep understanding of dog/human relations and it is the SAME one that ALL good trainers understand... Primary: dogs are not furry people* and many people are more focused on projections of their own needs for affection than the dog’s needs for a secure and happy life. They need constructive stimulation and trust in their owner’s leadership skills. In a dog’s world SOMEBODY has to be in charge. They want leadership more than they want “freedom.”

*Patricia McConnell talks about it this way in both of her excellent books**: People behave like monkeys and dogs behave like dogs. Communication is not a given, as we operate from different readings of body language. IE: We see hugs as signs of affection, and direct approach as respectful: they experience hugs as strangeness to be tolerated and direct approach as aggression.
**The Other End of the Leash
**For Love of a Dog

2. His approach to that understanding is very male. It is direct, get the job done with no f***ing around. He doesn’t care that the dog he just taught how to walk respectfully on a leash is frightened and stressed. Signs: tail between legs, drooling, licking of lips. I think he figures they’ll get over it. Where he barrels through a dog’s stress and discomfort, others might slow down, be more sensitive to what the dog is saying and offer more encouragement and positive reinforcement. It is a matter of leadership styles, positive vs. negative reinforcement, “male” and female” styles. (Not men vs. woman…plenty of women lead in a “male way”)

3. It also relies heavily on a vocabulary that needs examination. Dominance and Submission are very tainted words in our culture…we tend to see the submissive as OPPRESSED by the dominant. Master/Slave. Majority/Minority. Men/Women.

If we were to substitute the words Leadership for Dominance and Trust for Submission… we might see his work more clearly.

4. There was only one out of nine episodes where I saw him adapt and soften in regards to the dog’s needs. That was the visit with the Shih Tzu who refused to walk on a leash. He was firm, gentle and upbeat…and I heard him praise the dog. Praise is RARELY heard on the episodes I saw…He uses negative reinforcement to achieve balance…”When you submit, I will stop doing this uncomfortable thing.”

5. I am grateful. Yes, GRATEFUL, that he is so popular. I have never been able to walk my own dogs as comfortably, because I think a lot of people are taking his advice and controlling their own dogs out in the world. (Well…a lot MORE people).

6. More dogs are given up and destroyed from a lack of leadership, guidance and stimulation than from “cruelty” or “lack of freedom.” The dog relegated to the backyard and ignored is the dog who was not taught how to behave properly in the house, with the family. These are the cases we see him confront. I believe he has probably saved many many lives.

It is a mixed response. I think he does more good than harm. Still, I prefer the conversation that trainer Suzanne Clothier initiates with dogs...I wish SHE had a TV show! For now, her book, Bones will Rain From the Sky, will have to suffice.
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I love that in the title sequence of his show Millan says he wants to "share the knowledge he was born with." Maybe he was. Born with it. I'm still learning how to be that leader my dogs need. It is one of my life goals....

The Pre-Education of a Therapy Dog

Several experienced people have suggested that in order to raise the odds of getting a dog who will qualify for therapy work, I’d do best to get a dog….that is…not get a puppy.
With a dog, the temperament is more evident, and there are fewer surprises. Puppies grow and change; even the most outgoing youngster can develop quirks that you may or may not be able to work with. And if your heart, like mine, is set on doing this work, why NOT increase your odds?

Maudie is 2. I sometimes wish---with a powerful yen---that I had gotten her as a puppy. Watching a collie grow up is a wonder; they go through so many physical stages…weedy, fuzzy, and then they bloom into big gorgeous peonies. And of course, I would have loved to have known and grown WITH her. Dogs are with us for so short a time…it is a little pang that 2 years of her passed without me….

Nevertheless. I chose her---and she was chosen FOR me---because her solid confidence and gentle loving spirit are large, and had developed enough for us to able call those qualities dependable.

Her early life is somewhat of a mystery, but I know L & E did many things very right. Genetically, she is sound, and knock wood, healthy; the dogs behind her have good temperaments. She was exposed to enough stimulation and variety so that I have encountered very little that daunts her…she glides over metal grates, doesn’t flinch when something in the kitchen crashes, is eager to meet people, allows herself to be touched all over, tolerates the most uncanine-like human hugs, and has a foundation of listening to human speech enough to make around-the-house communication easy. (Go in; Go out, Wait, etc.)

So what have I been doing these 6 months while we waited to have the interview that will hopefully begin the process with Dove Lewis? Well, I take her to as many different places as I can, work in obedience (which is really just learning to communicate back and forth at a deeper level), ask her to meet and greet as many people as are willing. When someone admires her on a walk, I ask them if they’d like to meet her and facilitate a little exchange. (Her stunning good looks and collie aura at such times make me feel like the manager of a movie star…hee hee…Lassie legacy.)

I discourage her from jumping and climbing on people, and try to help her become more aware of where her body is in space.

But mostly, all this adds up to a simple preparation: we are learning to be a team, partners who go out into the world together to work, who can count on each other to keep them safe, who can speak clearly to one another. We are learning how to read each other’s moods and limits, how to cheer each other up, or calm each other down. She is mine. I am hers. We walk out together.

What I Know So Far

The days rise and fall, folding into each other and flying away like leaves off my car on the highway.*

(*It’s kind of funny actually…you can tell we don’t have a garage because my car looks like Pigpen from Peanuts …trailing great swaths of dead leaves as they dry and blow off at 60 mph)

The benefit of keeping up with a journal---or a blog—is that it somehow defines time enough to hold to. What WERE those first months with Maud like? What stories do I want to keep? Which ones will become fascinating little clues to who she is; which will show me how she has changed and grown?

This is what I know so far:

She came to us with impeccable manners, sitting to greet people, sitting to have her lead put on, walking very calmly right at our sides when we go out. On the grooming table she is a dream. She lies down to eat. She thoroughly enjoys the library of beds she has to lie on; she prefers stuffed toys or plastic bottles to play with; she doesn’t much like vegetables. She is a happy girl. She is, indeed, verbally gifted and will run outside just to bark her serious big bark. She paces when she is bored, and she paces on walks because we can’t go fast enough to keep her at a trot. When she lies down she heaves a great leonine sigh, like an old lady or an enormous male lion. She floats on her feet.

Sometimes when I’m getting ready for bed, the lights are off and everyone else is asleep, she’ll get up onto the couch in the living room just to see herself up there. Like trying on a hat.

It was quite easy to turn her opinion of the car around. At first it made her queasy and uncomfortable, but I took Flynnie, a handful of chicken and Maudie out into the driveway to sit in it for a few days in a row. And on the third day we drove to Burgerville and shared a burger and ever since…well...she loves the car. She rides quietly in the back in her crate and looks forward to our next adventure.


She is easy to take places, calm, unflappable, confident, and nice. She’s truly a nice person….friendly to MOST everyone. (It’s funny, if she meets someone I’m ambivalent about, she will often ignore them utterly.) She works the room and doesn’t get attached anywhere, although she has her favorites.

Thus, her loyalty is very touching to me. When she comes back to find me and check in, she is coming back to check on her partner. Yesterday, when we were visiting some smoothie cousins, at one point she lay down between H and me and laid her head on my sneaker. It was a gesture of ownership in the finest sense of the word….in the sense of belonging.

She is lots of fun to train, being very very bright and willing, forgiving and up beat. Best of all she has a sense of humor and I get her jokes. More and more we become a team, the lines of communication opening up wider. On our walks, she will sometimes put herself into heel position, like she’s asking me to dance.

One area of some consternation is that although she has the gentlest of souls, she is a bit clumsy and she seems not to understand the difference between her 60lbs and the papillons 8… indeed I think she thinks she might BE a papillon.* It requires some vigilance on our parts: we would never leave them all alone in the house, and when we go into the backyard, the papillons go first and get to arrange themselves before she goes barreling through the door.
(* think The Ugly Dachshund)

Another is my own adoration of her name. Maudie. I say it far too often in far too many situations so that she has begun to tune it out. (Like that cartoon….”blah blah blah blah Maudie blah blah blah”) It’s just that I LIKE it so.
But I need to work on that.

And so. Six months after her arrival we are preparing to go on our first interview at Dove Lewis to assess her temperament and our suitability as a team to do therapy work. I have high hopes…yes I allow myself to have them…as well as faith, that more useful and cogent of psychic states….that we will do well and start a new life together making the world a little calmer, a little more optimistic, a little more beautiful. She is a collie after all…she goes trailing beauty after her….

a s l o w summer for writing

I’ve dropped the ball, or the pen, as far as keeping up with the essays and blog this summer. Sometimes I wonder if when “one’s” heart’s desires are fulfilled, making dog collars becomes enough... But no worries. The summer is for making things and hanging out wordlessly with the dogs. In the studio. Training. Taking photographs. But here’s a small update:

Maudie was spayed in June and had was a remarkably FAST recovery.
She has been many places with me. Crowded openings, fabric stores, my classroom on finals day, visiting, city streets. She does not disappoint. She likes everyone she meets and conducts herself with dignity. Although she has developed a yen for meeting the dogs we encounter on our evening walks and that can make her a wild girl. We’re working on it.
She is learning to heel...I think the most difficult of all the obedience exercises....and her work with the dumbbell is rapid.
She has a depth of intelligence that surprises me; she is both eager to please and an independent thinker, as well as a sophisticated and hilarious comedienne.
I find working with her very comfortable...her steady good nature rubs off on me.
Meanwhile, the papillons, my little flutterbugs, also do well. Flynn amazes me with her generosity and intelligence. she is my fairy princess, my wise alien, my heart.

It is 6 months now since Maudie has been here, so it is time to get back to Dove Lewis and start prepping for the therapy work.
I'm not quite sure what KIND of work she'll most enjoy...Probably visiting a whole gaggle of people....wihtout llingering.
ALthough when I took her with me to school for the final day, she immedieatly stretched out on the floor for a nap...so maybe she'll be a good READ dog after all!