When we had our first foster (from late April to early June) Sean and I got decided to paint both dogs in the house (our resident cattle dog Scout and bully breed mix foster Val).
We took our current foster puppies on a socialization outing this evening and I got a cute picture of Mystic looking at the camera. Sean said it looked like a good picture to paint fromā¦ so here we are!
A new tradition is officially born. Iām not sure how many more fosters we will have before we embark on full time van life in early 2023, but I love having these silly handmade memories to look back on.
Who did it better? ššš
Meet our second and third fosters, eight-week-old Arlo (male, tan + white) and Mystic (female, black + white)!
These two littermates just came into our local shelter and needed a place to crash for a couple weeks. Sean gets Husband Of The Year: at 3:50 pm I asked him how heād feel about taking in two puppies, and by 5:50 these wiggly noddles were in our backyard š
So far theyāre both delightful. Bold (borderline fearless), energetic, in love with each other (weāll take steps to prevent littermate syndrome but for now are happy theyāre sharing comfort in a new place), clumsy, just too cute to be real.
Scoutās wary but doing as well or maybe a little better than I expected. Sheās agitated (fair, we just brought two squeaky little alien creatures into her home) but curious. Weāll take things slowly on the introduction front ā top priority is simply making sure every creature in our home feels safe and fulfilled. All three dogs have barked off and on but the puppies show no nervousness about Scoutās noises, and our cattle gal is self regulating nicely when they cry.
For now weāre knee deep in classic puppy stuff. These babies have had a lot of chaos in their first two months of life, so we hope to provide some stability and foundational skills:
ā¢ Play of course!
ā¢ Potty training
ā¢ Crate training
ā¢ Handling / grooming
ā¢ Safe socialization outings
Theyāll be available for adoption on August 3rd. If you know anyone near Floridaās space coast looking for a new addition, let me know!
In the meantime: Hereās to the puppy joy. And rest in peace my sleep schedule š
This weekās #WackyTrainingWednesday has me looking like an absolute weirdo on our street. Youāre welcome, neighbors šš
Ever since daylight saving time ended and itās gotten dark earlier, Scoutās been a bit more on edge when hearing noises from outside our house.
Sheās always alert barked some, and I donāt feel any need to fully eliminate it since 1) itās her instinct and 2) she reliably catches herself and goes to a safe spot (either her crate or dog bed) on her own.
At the same time, I decided to make a point to play more frequently out front, especially in the morning and evening when light is feeble. I donāt mind natural cattle dog territoriality so long as sheāll listen to me, but I *do* want to make sure sheās as comfortable as possible on our home turf ā and extra exposure to our neighborsā movements / sounds / bikes passing by / leaves blowing in the dark / etc. is never a bad thing!
I sort of attempted to not look like myself by hiding under a hood and baseball cap, going for a fast-moving startle attempt š I think we should have tried when it was a little darker and maybe next time Iāll carry keys to jangle or make some other sort of noise, since she simply did not care that I was there.
After I stopped filming because I ran out of ideas to be weird, our diagonal-across-the-street neighbors came out to work on their boat, which was perfect. Scout observed curiously and returned to the game on her own without being a nosy neighbor š
I have noticed a significant increase in her comfort in our front living area after the sun sets in the past few days. There are always confounding variables: Is it that sheās just adjusted to the earlier darkness? Has she simply gotten used to us having the windows open more regularly now that itās cooler? Is the more focused play really working wonders?
Either way ā Iām happy. And she seems to be too. And there is no such thing as embarrassment when it comes to trying to make
Weāve been slacking on our #WackyTrainingWednesday shenanigansā¦ oops.
I donāt know if itās because weāve done so many weird things that they just feel normal now (I truly do not think twice about performing the chicken dance in public in the name of proofing my dogās obedience š) or if Iāve been putting too much pressure on ourselves to always think of something totally new? While we still goof off plenty day to day, coordinating an official mid-week activity has fallen by the wayside.
But we dove back into it! Here I am in the newest fall fashion: footie pajamas accessorized with an assortment of plastic bags š
Scout sometimes gets weirded out by trash or flags blowing in the wind, and sheās still quite spatially sensitive. We did something similar to this once before where I had bags only on my legs and rewarded with food ā it was nice to play instead and see how she felt! All in all pleased and had a blast.
How are you being wacky and having fun and developing your dogās life skills this week? š
Some contrafreeloading and hand feeding thoughts today š
Last week I gave Scout a cup of kibble (just placed it on the floor) before we filmed Wacky Wednesday and left for yoga. She usually gets it in a puzzle feeder, but we were short on time.
Sean said she pushed it around a little before eating, joking that āshe doesnāt see the point if she canāt play with her food firstā š
He wasnāt wrong. Our cattle dog definitely enjoys overcoming some sort of resistance to earn her meals ā and she isnāt alone!
This is a concept called ācontrafreeloadingā. Animal psychologist Glen Jensen described it as āwhen an animal is offered a choice between free food or identical food that requires effort, and prefers the food that requires effort."
Weāve tested it many times. If we set down both an open bowl and puzzle with the same type of food, Scout always chooses the puzzle first.
For a while, contrafreeloading was one of the reasons I had her earn all of her food from me through hand feeding. Itās in her nature to overcome resistance for sustenance (which ties back to the āfightā aspect of the predatory sequence).
But as time has gone on, Iāve thought more about *where* exactly that resistance comes from.
I absolutely want to honor the fact that itās satisfying for my dog to work for her meals ā but I donāt want to always be the cause of that pressure myself.
Which is why I love that things like snuffle mats / puzzle feeders / other enrichment have allowed us to honor contrafreeloading without making our relationship feel transactional!
We do still use food in training (and there is a lot of nuance in terms of what āhand feedingā means to different people in different contexts). We just try to be conscious about avoiding constant leverage or undue pressure.
As always, thereās no hard-and-fast ārightā or āwrongā ā but this has been fascinating to think about. I love seeing Scout continue to grow as I continue to l
On this weekās episode of #WackyTrainingWednesday, Sean pretended to be a rogue cattle on the park trail. The whole thing was a bit poorly executed on the human end (yay for my shaky POV filming š) but Scout as per usual put up with our shenanigans beautifully.
It was largely nonsense, but it did actually let us work on a few skills:
ā¢ Scout dealing with one of us going out of sight and being able to keep attention on the one who stayed behind
ā¢ We can never practice middle too much!
ā¢ Middle into a down while I step forward to handle a situation (child running up, off-leash dog, etc.) is a great real world skill
My favorite two parts were when Sean had to put the makeshift long-line lasso around his body himself (šš) and when Scout immediately wanted to play after greeting Sean-the-cattle when I released her from her down.
I love this little family. How are you being wacky today?!
A minute of our short tug session this evening after a lazy day at home. Thatās my bold little cattle dog!
It took a long time to build Scout up to where sheād fight through things like me grabbing her head, neck, and feet. I will never forget the first time I tried to gently touch her throat ā she not only immediately let go of the toy but was also hesitant to reengage at all. Oops.
But oh, how far away that feels tonight! Sheās pushing through more and more of my strategies to win lately, which means itās getting increasingly difficult for me to gain possession. That makes the game feel real and evenly matched and FUN š and I continue to notice her environmental confidence grow as she plays with us in more and more new places.
Whatās your favorite way to play?
(And an unrelated but important PS: Yesterday I took Scout out in my favorite yellow sundressā¦ and today I trained with her in Seanās shirt and sweatpants. She doesnāt care what Iām wearing, and my clothes donāt make me a better or worse handler š)
#WackyTrainingWednesday is back again with some help from two of our favorite Scout portraits!
Besides looking utterly silly (and maybe also a bit creepy watching it back š) tonightās fun actually worked on two specific things:
The first was verbal-only commands, which is something Scout struggled with for AGES. I relied heavily on hand signals and head nods and my overall body language for a really long time (I owned her for more than six months before she had a single verbal-only command).
Thereās no huge problem with that in most of our daily adventures ā but I do like knowing she can listen even if my hands are still and she canāt see my face!
The second was play around food. I had a few freeze-dried minnows in my pocket, and historically Scout has had a hard time getting into toy play when she thinks the opportunity for food is also on the table.
Food and play activate different parts of the brain ā I read a fascinating anecdote about a playful Komodo dragon in an article called Play, Stress, and the Learning Brain by Sam Wang and Sandra Aamodt that inspired me to prioritize the difference ā so itās been really fun to see her get into āpure playā mode around treats.
Weāve worked on this in a few ways, and we donāt regularly use that much food in training anymore. As of last winter sheād tug with me outside even if I had her kibble on me, but higher value things were another story. So tonight was great!
And all in all, laughs were had, which is what matters most š
On this weekās episode of #WackyTrainingWednesday: rain canāt get us down! And Scout isnāt too perturbed by popping umbrellas āļø
Itās been raining a LOT here recently, so tonight we embraced it and had some play time our front. Even though our house has a fenced backyard, I like playing with Scout in view of the road sometimes because weāre exposed to more distractions, giving us more opportunity to keep building up our game.
Of course, today no one was out but usā¦ and we probably win the weirdest neighbor award š
Scoutās play has come a long way. I was afraid the opening umbrella would be a bigger challenge for her, but she was bold and invested in fighting Sean for the toy. Plus we all had a blast once we accepted weād be soaked ā win-win all around š
How are you being wacky and having fun and building up your dogās real-world skills today?
Wacky training Wednesday is BACK!!
Itās been way too long since we posted some silly shenanigans that are both 1) tons of fun and 2) great for proofing Scoutās skills in the real world.
Between the house renovations, the move itself, wedding planning, work, and generally being a bit overwhelmed for the past months (and very thankfully knowing that my relationship with Scout is solid enough we can ārun on autopilotā for a while if we need to), active training has taken a back seat.
Of course, we're always training when we live with dogs, whether we realize it or not ā weāve kept up lifestyle skills on walks and in the house, weāve taken Scout to several public patios, weāve explored our new area. All sorts of good stuff!
But I was missing the belly laughs that come from enlisting Seanās help in a ridiculous settingā¦ and when we returned from dinner with a slight buzz and a new toy, what better way to spend the evening? šš
So tonight we interrupted tug with a ridiculous upside-down shenanigan (that didnāt quite go as planned, but good girl held her stay š). We did one dry run before this video, and I was honestly kind of shocked she listened to me when I was hanging like that. I did flip my hand signals to make it easier which I think helped quite a bit.
I know itās so silly ā and this one especially so ā but practicing absurd things like this truly has helped Scout be better at listening in all sorts of distracting environments. Either way, I hope you enjoy tonightās wackiness as much as I did š
Reunited and it feels so good!!
Scout had a great time with @saintpaisley this weekend while Sean and I visited one of our best college friends. It was wonderful to get away for a bit and not worry about bathroom breaks or biological fulfillment!
It was also the first time she and I were apart for more than 9-10 hours in over a year and a half ā and even though it was just over three days total, we were pretty thrilled to be back together.
This isnāt a level of excitement I often encourage when we come home, but it felt appropriate today. Notice her ridiculously cute ācat burrowingā as we call it, and the fact that she runs to Sean firstā¦ Iām telling you heās been her favorite for ages š
As convenient as it is to ānot have a dogā sometimes and take little breaks, I really couldnāt imagine life any other way. She is the best creature and Iām so psyched to be home with her.