Soul Dog: Animal Behavior and Science

11/04/2024

Mayor Fern doing her job at the Teller County Regional Animal Shelter: finding out if pups are dog friendly. She has amazing socialization skills and is able to remain neutral for all her shelter friends. She gives us a good read on if dogs are good with other dogs or may need a little help. Today was an awesome day hanging with her friends!
TCRAS

11/01/2024

So much this!!!

A friendly reminder for you to always keep in mind while training with your dogs.

10/28/2024

My Oliver ❤️

10/13/2024

How my sighted dogs (white pittie is deaf) play with my blind dog Keller.

10/12/2024

This!

10/11/2024

Using punishment is not training. It’s just punishment and suppression.
E-collars and Prong collars are not training collars, they are punishment collars by definition.
Training involves teaching as dog what TO DO. Not what not to do or to suppress behavior.

10/09/2024

For those that need this in their life, Lark as a sunflower. Or lion. However you see it.

10/06/2024

Mornings with Lark.

Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who make the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and crotchety–

best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light–
good morning, good morning, good morning.

Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.
- Why I Wake Early, Mary Oliver

10/03/2024

When you’re Mayor, you drink water out of a wine glass.
- Fern, Mayor of Divide

10/03/2024

And then she said, yes, I choose the dog.
And lived happily ever after.

09/23/2024

My heart beat was slow, quiet. Hope was lost. I didn’t want to do this anymore. Three months prior, I had tried to take my life and had several stints in the hospital. No more.
NO MORE my heart screamed.

Then. Oliver.
On September 22nd, 2018, I showed up at my local shelter to see some puppies and take one for the day to take pictures and do some marketing. That day, I chose little Walnut as he was called. He came home with me and was brave and fearless and adorable. I fell in love quickly. And named him Oliver.

Then it was like a jump start to my heart. It began to beat again. Loudly. With passion. He lifted me up off the ground and breathed new life into me. He saved my life.
And so we began our life. He learned to be my service dog and got me back to work and living. Until he could not longer do that job- what a gift he gave me though. Now he is my companion and ever present reminder that I am alive.
I AM ALIVE.

Thank you Oliver. For your love. Your kindness. Everything you are. Because of you, I stand here today celebrating you. Because of you, my life is possible. Happy Gotcha Day. Thank you for teaching me to stay awhile.

WHEN I AM AMONG THE TREES

When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say, “
and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”
- Mary Oliver

09/21/2024

And sometimes you need to see something beautiful. With part of your pack. To feel their love. To watch them in nature. To plan camp outs. To have very important conversations.

This drive was beautiful. I don’t have any answers, but I feel closer to them, somehow.

Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river?
Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air –
An armful of white blossoms,
A perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned
into the bo***ge of its wings; a snowbank, a bank of lilies,
Biting the air with its black beak?
Did you hear it, fluting and whistling
A shrill dark music – like the rain pelting the trees – like a waterfall
Knifing down the black ledges?
And did you see it, finally, just under the clouds –
A white cross Streaming across the sky, its feet
Like black leaves, its wings Like the stretching light of the river?
And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything?
And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for?
And have you changed your life?

– Mary Oliver

09/21/2024

Sometimes you drive somewhere pretty. With your dog. And you share dinner. And connect.
Sometimes it’s hard to connect with other humans. Or sometimes those connections end and your left with all the feelings.
There is nothing wrong with taking your dog out to dinner and watch the sunset.

So Lark came. We laughed. I cried. He let me pet him. He rested his head on my arm. He fell asleep. I drove home.

Humans don’t deserve dogs. Thank you Lark for your kindness and love. And dinner.

09/18/2024

Did you know 🤭

09/11/2024

Two puppies. Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum. Born out of wedlock to a single mother on the streets. She tried her best and gave them the best start she could. One day a rescue came their way and she threw them on the transport. And now they are in Colorado, seeking a better life.
So freakin GO RUN AND ADOPT THEM! These puppies are the real deal! Three month old lab mixes that are adorable. And smart! Picked up sitting, walking and walking on leash within 15 minutes! They were so loving and sweet. And just pleaded, ADOPT ME!
Why they are at the shelter escapes me. So tell your mother. Tell your friends. Tell your kids. Go adopt one of these puppies!
Note: CANNOT be adopted together. Just come grab one of them! At the Teller County Regional Animal Shelter. Call them. Stop by. Adopt. Thank you.

09/07/2024

Join Mayor Fern at Jade’s Promise! A fundraiser for the Cripple Creek Dog Park- Mountain View Dog Park!
There are even puppies for adoption!! And a silent auction! Come see Mayor Fern!

Mountain View Adventure Park
510 Co Rd 89
Cripple Creek, CO 80813

09/02/2024

Term of the Day! Negative Reinforcement!
Negative Reinforcement. The removal of an aversive stimuli to increase the future likelihood of a behavior to occur again.

There is a lot to unpack here- at its core- an aversive must be present for the rest of this to work. It is that removal of that aversive that ensures the behavior may occur again.

Get in the car, an annoying sound plays, until you buckle your seatbelt. This ensures you put your your seatbelt when you get in the car.

Prong collars- can either be seen as negative reinforcement or positive punishment. For the negative reinforcement aspect- Put on a prong collar, dog pulls, feels pain and uncomfortable feelings, they stop pulling and walk at a slower place. In the future they don’t pull to avoid that aversive and walk at the desired slower pace. Or they walk at various paces and try to figure out which one does not give the pain.

All these things work because an aversive is present. Not all reinforcement contingencies are necessarily good ones. Negative reinforcement can be effective and in the short term but should only be reserved for the short term while a more positive plan is figured out.

Negative R can be more aversive and ineffective due to poor timing, reliance on removal of the aversive stimuli- prong collars are examples of this- people continue to use prong collars and rely on the pain it produces to stop the pulling, rather than switching to a harness or other means and teaching the dog through positive reinforcement to walk at a gentler pace. This leads to further fall out. Again negative reinforcement should be used in the short term only while a plan is worked out for more learning of what is expected.

Further fallout includes lack of motivation to learn, with the animal doing just enough to avoid the aversive stimuli but no motivation for more. This can inhibit learning greatly.

If you think of humans- how many of us want to learn by the removal of a painful or uncomfortable stimuli. Eventually this ruins relationships and damages motivation.

So negative reinforcement- introduce an aversive stimuli and use its removal to create behavior change and increase a behavior due to the removal. Unlike punishment, the avsersive in present before or during a behavior and once the organism does what you want, the aversive is removed. A much more difficult and harder way to learn or teach and organism something especially due to its fall out and effect on the learner.