Author: Pam Hogle

Happy Birthday, Dotty!

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White golden retriever Dotty leaps on a snowy field, her ears flyingDotty is one year old today!

Unfortunately, my celebration with her will be delayed …

She’s spending some quality time with her trainer. A great deal of quality time, which started during a recent trip I took. Dotty went to board with her trainer, and he promised to work on some of the issues I’d raised with him and … well … found that Dotty needs a lot of work.

To be fair, she’s very typical of golden retriever puppies; she’s just more than most puppies I’ve worked with: More energetic; more aware of every little sound or movement in her environment; more excited to see people she knows, people she doesn’t know, dogs, cats, squirrels, deer…

Orly had a Highly Energetic phase in her adolescence, but it only lasted a few months. Dotty … hasn’t settled down yet. And Orly never achieved the heights — quite literal — of Dotty, who is given to leaping high into the air, with all four feet off the ground, several times in a row(!) when she’s excited.

So Dotty is learning to have better impulse control and to focus on the task at hand even when temptation tempts, whether in the form of a squirrel nearby, a plastic bag blowing in the wind, or a random stranger walking toward her on the sidewalk.

Dotty is also typical of golden pups, adolescents, and adults in that she adores everyone, loves to snuggle, and is sweet and goofy. We (her trainer and I) are still optimistic that she’ll be a fabulous service dog some day. But maybe not just yet.

Walk Your Dog!

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Golden retrievers Dotty (white) and Orly (gold) look out a large wood-framed window.
Watching the world go by is nowhere NEAR as much fun as smelling it!

Bored? Feeling stiff? Been staring at a screen — any screen — for too long?

Walk your dog.

A recent Washington Post article points out the many reasons to walk  your dog. Nothing earth-shatteringly new, but it bears repeating.

Walking your dog is good for your dog in so many ways — mostly not about exercise. Or not primarily about exercise.

Quality time

Your dog loves spending quality time with you. Walks are the pinnacle of quality time for dogs (well, for some dogs a game of fetch or tug or a belly rub might claim the top spot). This means no “multitasking,” mostly seen as fiddling with your phone while walking your dog. Focus on the dog — and on meeting the dog’s needs and wants.

I do this by letting the dog(s) choose the direction we walk and by letting them stop and sniff frequently.

Dogs need to sniff & learn

The sniffing is essential. As Kelly Conaboy, the Post writer says hanging out only in their own yard is like “reading the same book over and over again.”

Dogs discover so much about the neighborhood and its other canine (and squirrel, raccoon, and deer…) inhabitants by sniffing. Entire books have been written on the importance of sniffing (to dogs) and their astonishing abilities. Smell walks provide the kind of mental stimulation that we dull humans cannot provide, no matter how many treat toys, training sessions, and games of backyard fetch we offer.

For Dotty and Orly, the sniffing is huge — but so is the opportunity to see new things. They are ardent squirrel-watchers, love our safely distanced encounters with deer, and live for the frequent opportunities to greet friends, neighbors, and random strangers: Whenever we walk to the park, we get to say hi to George, an older golden retriever gentleman who is nearly always in the most beautiful yard in the neighborhood, and who comes running over to say hi (OK, maybe I am the one who gets the most out of these encounters …). A chance encounter with the neighbor who always carries top-grade dog treats is like winning the lottery! A stop at a different neighbor’s always-stocked treat jar (actually a plastic fire hydrant with an elaborate screw-off top) is a close second, more like winning $50 from a scratch-off. Some days, we get all three!

In the months she’s been with us, Dotty has watched a large house get a new roof; seen an old house be demolished, a new foundation dug, and walls begin to go up; and studied countless fire trucks, street sweepers, delivery trucks, motorbikes, and more. She’s met preschoolers at the playground and watched them splash in the turtle fountain and play on the climbing equipment. We see the neighbor kids board the school bus many mornings, often after they give each dog a pat or scritch.

Exercise for both (all) of you

With two young dogs at home, I could take the easy way out and let them play in the yard. They get plenty of exercise wrestling and chasing each other.

When it’s very cold and icy, I (very occasionally) do that. But we go for at least one and usually two (or more!) walks a day. I need the exercise and the break. They need the exercise and the break.

Most dogs will not get enough — or any — exercise alone in a yard. The exception is a young dog like Dotty, who has far too much energy for her own good: She often runs laps in the yard just to burn off steam. This makes me sad (and a little relieved …) since it makes clear how far I am from meeting her needs. Unless she’s training to run in the next Missoula marathon…?

Shockingly (?) a third of the respondents to a 2011 study admitted to not taking their dogs for regular walks. (How many more lied?) Don’t be one of them! Dress for the weather, leash up … and head off to wherever your dog takes you!

“Bed Rest” for a 10-Month-Old Puppy?!

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White golden retriever pup Dotty wears a navy blue fleece with red-patterned sleevesDotty was spayed recently.

She’s not my first puppy, so I have been through the post-surgery experience before, several times. But Dotty is far more energetic, impulsive, and active than any of my previous puppies.

Keep her “quiet” for the next two weeks, the vet tech says. As Dotty, mere hours post-surgery, explodes into the exam room, dancing and bouncing. Quiet. Right.

I prepared by purchasing some new dog chews and stuffing Kongs and Toppl toys with kibble and peanut butter and freezing them. I dug out the “suitical,” a doggy onesie that snaps around the tail.

The first few days were fine. Dotty likes clothes, so she was happy to wear the surgical suit, as well as a fleece jumpsuit that covers her belly. She did not try to lick, chew, or scratch at the stitches.

But by four days in, Dotty had forgotten about the surgery. She wanted to play. She desperately begged Orly’s hiker to take her along. She ran in circles in the back yard.

Orly was no help, constantly play-bowing to Dotty and trying to sneak in some wrestling while I was in work meetings. I hauled out the Kongs and separated the girls with gates.

Protecting the surgery site

I also failed to prepare in one critical way: I did not get out the soft cone and get her used to that.

Soon, the clothes got dirty. More furry than anything (except the time I forgot to unsnap the suit before taking her out to pee…). Ok, I thought, I’ll just wash these and put the cone on …

Silly me.

Dotty took one look at the cone and ran up the stairs. I lured her back down, showed it to her … and off she bolted.

Golden retriever Orly models a gray and teal donut-shaped collar
More cookies. NOW.

I got a surgical “donut collar” and … similar response, even after Orly (unhappily) agreed to model it while eating cookies. Lots of cookies.

We spent a couple of days playing with the donut. Orly would poke her head through and get a cookie. I put it on the floor and put cookies inside it. After watching Orly scarf down dozens of treats, Dotty wanted in. A few play sessions later, she gingerly agreed to put her head through the donut. By the next day, she was reluctantly agreeing to wear it.

At this point, though, my barely functioning brain had come up with a new idea: belly bands.

Dotty, a white golden retriever, wears a blue belly band with small turtles on it. She's yawningThese are designed for boy dogs who are either not house-trained or have incontinence issues (post surgery, or injury or age-related, etc.). Coincidentally, the target area for soaking up boy-dog dribbles is an anatomical match for the girl-dog post-abdominal-surgery stitch area. In other words, a belly band perfectly covers the stitches while fitting closely enough to block curious noses and scratching paws. Even better, it allows the dog to pee, unhindered.

Belly bands are inexpensive and washable. So basically, the perfect solution has been available all along, and I only figured it out with the last puppy I plan to raise … Typical.

 

My Most Demanding Job

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Goldens Orly and Dotty and boxer mix Stella line up at the door, asking to go out in the dark early morningMy teammates at work might think that my most demanding job is prepping for the annual conference where I select and manage the speaker program. They’d be mistaken.

My year-round, 24 x 7 x 365 job is to serve as doorperson.

I spent Christmas with some of my favorite members of the extended “pack-family” — Stella and Cruiser. They, along with Orly and Dotty, kept me pretty busy. Besides the critical responsibility of letting them in and out, constantly, there were auxiliary duties: Playing tug with Stella and her Large Orange Toy. Throwing balls and other toys so Cruiser and Dotty could run after them, catch them or pick them up, then run around with them and not bring them back.

4-month-old golden puppy Orly, wearing a gray coat, touches a bell next to a wooden doorBut mostly, it’s doors. Dogs and doors have an ancient issue, which is that dogs are always on the wrong side of the door. People, having invented doors and therefore caused the problem, are duty-bound to solve it. Over and over and over.

Golden retriever Cali tries her magic sit by the wood-and-glass back door, facing the yard

Some dogs, like a very young Orly, learn at a young age to use tools to get their humans to open doors more quickly. It’s really fun to ring the bell over and over, getting the human to open the door, close it, open it, close it. Bonus points if you time the ringing to seconds after the human sat back down.

Others try to use the magic sit, which only works if the human is in the same room and paying attention.

Dotty is learning the bell system, mostly from Orly. She still abuses it, asking to go out to play, wanting to go in and out constantly.

As a member of a steeped-in-tech generation, Dotty is quickly picking up a new solution I am testing out, the Smart Bell 2.0 from Mighty Paw. I first saw this as a “Gear of the Year” selection in Whole Dog Journal, and quickly ordered one. Dotty adjusted to the change immediately, while Orly, of a slightly older generation, is taking a little longer to catch on to the nose-press gadget that triggers a sound that gets the human to come to the door.

It’s still new, but advantages I see are that I can put a transmitter outside, so the girls can let me know when they are ready to come in, and the sound (which offers multiple ring tones and volume levels) is loud enough that I can hear it anywhere in the house.

I’ll let you know how it’s going!

The ‘H’ Dog Is a Superstar!

Pam Hogle The Thinking Dog Blog

Black Lab Hildy lies on a red pillow with her front paws cuddling the pillowGuiding Eyes Hildy, who had no desire to be called Hayley, Hilly, or anything else, has proven an outstanding addition to the Thinking Dog pack.

She’s taken to the neighborhoods of St. Petersburg like the pro that she is, unfazed by wind, strange birds — even very large ones blocking the sidewalk — and large palm fronds blowing around or also blocking her way. She expertly guides past construction, broken sidewalks, cars, bikes, boats, and anything else in her path. She was momentarily startled once by a dog-and-raccoon kerfuffle (don’t ask) but even took that in stride.

Black Lab Hildy stretches out on a tan floor with her front paws crossed. She’s charmed the groomer, the vet, the neighbors, the yoga class, and fellow concert-goers throughout the city. She enjoys watching yoga, perched on her own mat, with her paws delicately crossed, though she often chooses to join in, performing each pose with natural grace.

Best of all, she’s an excellent traveler. Hildy is quickly learning all of the tricks of the trade, finding Sky Clubs, identifying her suitcase on the carousel, and finding the correct restroom as needed. She’s calm on the plane. Well, except for that incident with the severe turbulence … but even then, all she wanted was a cuddle. After a long travel day with many delays, Hildy made peace with airport restrooms-for-dogs and understood the value of an opportunity to take a break.

She’s playful and silly when she’s off duty, and she shares Koala’s and Alberta’s love of the midday treat-ball break, efficiently bringing the ball to be filled, emptying it, then putting it away. (Maybe she’ll teach Orly and Dotty??)

Good girl!

 

Guide Dog Stars in New Museum Exhibit

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Artist Emilie Gossiaux holds a white cane as she stands in the room with her exhibit. Two trees with papier-mâché leaves are behind her.Artist Emilie Gossiaux’s recent fellowship at the Queens Museum resulted in an art installation centered on her guide dog, London. Three Londons, in fact, dancing around a maypole. The maypole is actually a 15-foot-tall white cane, a symbol of how she regained freedom following an accident that caused her to lose her eyesight.

Her artwork since then has often focused on London, her 13-year-old Labrador guide — and more broadly, on removing barriers between animals and humans and celebrating their partnership and mutual dependency.

The Queens Museum exhibit, while Gossiaux’s first solo museum exhibit, is not London’s first starring role in her art. Gossiaux told the New York Times that her work featuring London has been influenced by the writer and scholar Donna Haraway, who examined relationships between humans and non-humans in multiple works, including The Companion Species Manifesto.

In addition to the human-adult-sized dancing Londons, Gossiaux has created other sculptures and drawings focusing on other aspects of her life with London and of other interspecies relationships.

Other Worlding is on exhibit at the Queens Museum until April 7, 2024. If you’re lucky enough to be in New York before then — and can arrange to visit the museum — let me know what you thought!

A Dog by Any Other Name …

Pam Hogle The Thinking Dog Blog

Black Lab Hildy holds a blue stuffed toyThe Thinking Dog family has welcomed a new member, Guiding Eyes Hildy. Or Hil, Hilly, Hillary … or maybe Hayley. Miss H is Deni’s new guide dog from Guiding Eyes for the Blind, and she arrived at the end of November!

Whatever Deni ends up calling her, she’s off to a very promising start.

Hildy is a creative problem-solver and a bubbly and affectionate pup, wrapped in a compact black Lab body. She’s been with Deni for just over a week as I write this and has already explored some of St. Petersburg’s best restaurants, shops, and parks, as well as visiting the airport, the vet, and, of course, the dog beach.

Hildy shares many characteristics with Alberta, Deni’s first Guiding Eyes dog: Her sense of humor; her willingness to try new things; her silly, licky, wriggly love for physical contact; and a penchant for sitting with her hands crossed during rare moments of calm.

That may be because they are closely related: Hildy’s grandma is Alberta’s half-sister!

Hildy loves toys; a favorite is a squeaky koala. She likes to be challenged and is already a bit bored with the morning walk along the waterfront. She was delighted with the dog beach, unsurprisingly. After an moment of hesitation, she entered the water cautiously — and within a minute, was racing up and down the surf, swimming, and splashing.

I hope that Deni and Hil…ly enjoy many years of working and playing together!

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Dotty’s Breakthrough Moment

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Dotty, an 8-month-old white golden retriever, picks up a cellphone case from a multicolored rugDotty has been working on her retrieve. It’s an important job for service dogs who assist people who use wheelchairs or have poor balance. The dog can pick up items the person has dropped or that are difficult to reach. Ideally, the dog brings the item to the person’s hand or maybe to a tray attached to the wheelchair.

Dotty has had limited enthusiasm for this task, though she’s slowly getting more attentive. She drops things a lot, and often loses interest before getting the item to my hand.

Recently, I started asking her to carry things up or down the stairs. The idea was to get her to hold the items for a longer time. It has been working well, though getting her to carry an item into the office and hand it to me is still dicey. I wasn’t sure how much she understood of what I wanted her to do.

Until recently.

8-month-old Dotty, a white golden retriever, carries a cellphone case. Her left ear flies out to the side as she turns.I was on a zoom call with my boss, and I was writing something down. I moved the pad or the mouse or something and the pen flew off the table and landed on the floor behind my chair.

As I looked for it, I noticed Dotty eyeing the pen, then looking at me. I whispered encouragement, and she … performed a miracle.

Dotty came over, picked up the pen, and placed it into my hand.

!!!

A major breakthrough.

I gave her several treats and whispered praise. The meeting continued.

Though I have asked her to pick up things I have dropped many times, I was far from thinking she had understood and bought into the goal — moving the “pick up dropped item” behavior to an almost automatic behavior. In fact, I was wondering whether she would ever get there.

Doing it once does not mean that she will ever do it again, of course. But I think she’s beginning to understand that I want her to pick things up and that I am weirdly excited and happy when she does. And that she gets paid pretty well in delicious cookies.

It’s great progress.

Hangin’ at the Mall

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Dotty, a 7-month-old white golden retriever, wears a blue service dog-in-training vestThe brief glimpse of snow is long gone, but the weather has been cold, gray, and often wet. Dotty is hoping to spend more time at the mall.

We’ve visited lots of places that regular dogs are not allowed to go. Besides the mall, Dotty has been to numerous local cafes and bakeries, the airport, some shops and banks, and a grocery store.

It turns out that wheeled carts make her very nervous. She’s not crazy about automatic doors, either, or those weird freezers in the supermarket. But the carts really get to her.

The solution turns out to be hanging out at the mall. Every teenager’s dream. (Well, it was when I was a teenager …)

The point is literally to hang out and watch the world go by. People. Wheelchairs. Children running and jumping and screaming. Those all-terrain, 2-kid strollers that are bigger than some cars. Normal strollers too. Kids riding 3-foot-tall motorized stuffed animals.

And the smells — from the two pretzel shops to the Cinnabon to the stinky bath products stores… the smells are overwhelming to me, and I know that Dotty’s nose is thousands of times more sensitive.

Dotty, a 7-month-old white golden retriever, watches passersby, wearing a blue service dog0in-training vestDotty just watches. Sometimes, something surprises her and she gets up to take a closer look. But we hang out out of the stream of shoppers and mall walkers, just watching.

We also wandered a bit, past the video game arcade and the photo booth and the electronic “rides” for small children. Past the larger-than-life wooden forest ranger (she was not too keen on him) and the massage chairs. She checked out the shoeshine station pretty thoroughly.

This kind of watching and wandering can, of course, be done outdoors as well. But, as the weather turns wintry, sitting in parks has lost its appeal. (We did a fair bit of that over the summer, but clearly not enough.)

The idea is to get her used to everything, and anything. So that she won’t be surprised by people, carts, or whatever else pops up when she’s out and about. It’s a kind of “desensitization” training that, I hope, will build up her confidence in preparation for when she, as service dogs do, goes into new places and experiences unexpected things.

Snow!

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Young golden retrievers Orly and Dotty stand on grass covered with a light coat of snow
SNOW!

In late October, Dotty woke up one morning and went outside, as she usually does. It was still dark, and very cold. And there was some weird wettish cold stuff all over the ground.

It smelled wet and fresh.

When Dotty went back inside, some of the white stuff came in, too. So she ate it. It didn’t taste like much.

A little while later, Orly (who is not a morning dog) stumbled out of the bedroom. When she saw the white stuff, she got very excited.

Orly told Dotty that it was called SNOW!

SNOW! (always said with great excitement) is a super fun thing that happens in Montana oh, anywhere from 6 to 11 months of the year.

The two dogs went outside together and raced around in the snow, dug in the snow, kicked the snow, ate the snow, lay down in the snow, peed on the snow, and rolled in the snow.

Since there was only a very light dusting, they had to use their imaginations quite a bit.

After about 10 or 15 minutes, they realized that they were cold and hungry, so they went inside and had breakfast.

Orly promised Dotty that she’d see more — better, bigger, deeper — SNOW! soon.