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Mike is demonstrating Rally skills with “Bree”, his Pomeranian. At Sandia Dog Obedience Club in Albuquerque, Mike and Rene are instructors in the dog sport called Rally. It’s like obedience but more fun. My Border collie “Mick” and I like it because we’re learning to work as a team. We’re having such a good time we plan to compete. Mick wants to be just like Bree.
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Are baby boomers concerned about their cognitive abilities declining? It gets my attention. I published my residency research on cognitive dysfunction syndrome in elderly pets. There’s a whole lot of data, on dogs and on humans, supporting the benefits of healthy stressors like physical exertion and learning hard things. Caring for a pet can also make a difference for the aging human brain A study authored by Jennifer W. Applebaum, sociology PhD candidate at the University of Florida, measured long-term outcomes of cognitive tests on 1369 people over age 50. All participants had normal cognition at the start of the study; 32% of them were long-term pet owners. The pet parent group had less hypertension and a slower decline in their cognitive scores. You can’t draw a cause-and-effect relationship but this work supports keeping a pet to help protect against dementia. Interestingly, the pet parents in this group were more…
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My Border collie “Mick” loves to work for me because he always earns interactions and sometimes food. Dogs aren’t in the mindset of pleasing a master; they look to us for access to essential resources like food and behavioral cues. They are programmed to earn their survival but it doesn’t have to be all business. Mick and his leader (that’s me) have good fun honing our Rally skills. Next week I’ll share a video titled “Circus dog? Robot dog? AI dog?” so you can see how it’s done by a couple of pros.
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Last in a series Fear is a miserable emotion. It happens in-the-moment, before there is time to think. And it can be dangerous. Whether a threat is real or imagined you need to either get the heck outa there or drive off a scary monster – who might retaliate. Stimpy had trembled and hidden from visitors, but later chased those beasts while snapping at their heels. He’d improved. While his good leader Amy entertained guests, he stayed busy in the other room extracting bits of sustenance from challenging food toys and puzzles. Not bad. Amy now wanted Stimpy by her side as she swilled red wine with her pals. Was she dreaming? But if he could stay occupied… We knew that if he eyeballed another alien invader (anyone other than Amy) he could wig-out and relapse. She needed to keep him working. So I told Amy, that social butterfly, to…
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Fear and anxiety are miserable emotions. Whether a threat is real or imagined a freaked-out dog wants drive off a scary monster – who might retaliate. But if he could stay occupied… You know that if he eyeballs another alien invader (anyone other than you) he could lose control all over again. You need to keep him working. Put your hungry dog in the bedroom with a food toy prior to your friends arriving. After everybody was seated and settled try bringing your nervous Nellie out on-leash to find – a “lick mat” smeared with whatever she can’t resist. Dogs will labor for extended periods, focusing on the narrow food-packed grooves, to reach every bit of liver pâte, peanut butter, or whatever. And when they’re done, they are tired.
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Third in a series Which of these statements is true? (a) Some dogs try to dominate their people and need us to keep them in line. (b) Dominance behavior among dogs happens but is sexual in nature. (c) It is a rare dog who tries to bully a human. (d) Alpha rolls work on dogs because they are innately knowledgeable in the Greek alphabet. (e) None of the above. Stimpy, the alpha-rolled heel nipper, feared annihilation by anybody other than his person. In his anxious mind, they could all be mass murderers. What started as trembling and hiding from strangers, had advanced to barking and then chasing and biting. Nothing Amy tried made a difference. If anything, the problem had worsened. The brain is considered the most complex organ in the body. Neuroplasticity – the ability to change its function and structure– can bring hope. As Stimpy repeatedly freaked-out toward…
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This Western box turtle paddled by us yesterday at the Bachechi Open Space. They’ll eat from a menu that may include earthworms, grasshoppers, beetles, slugs, fruits, or plants, depending on the season. If you want a box turtle for a pet be sure to get educated first. They’ll need to hibernate for the winter soon, necessitating the right “substrate” – that’s the stuff they burrow in. The Rio Grande Turtle and Tortoise club loves to teach folks how to give these gentle creatures good homes. But they are wild animals who belong in the wild. Don’t try to catch one and make it yours. But if they visit your yard you can make their lives excellent.
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Second in a series Remember what happened to Stimpy, the ankle biter? He was alpha rolled and pinned to change his behavior but, call me crazy, I’ve never known bullying to help anyone get well. The disconnect for Amy (Stimpy’s person) and her visitor was believing that dogs need to be dominated to learn their rightful place as our subordinates. Unbeknownst to these folks, as they swapped jokes on the couch, Stimpy’s dread had him hiding in the shadows. His burst of bravado as he ran, snapping and growling at the heels of the departing visitor was not about him trying to be boss. When this big alien stood and turned away, the bottled up fear in that canine brain evaporated. Stimpy’s self-preservation immediately kicked in. With no path for retreat he was bent on creating distance from the scary monster by chasing him out the door. It’s not that…
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I like turkey but that’s not what comes to mind when you see a turkey vulture eat dead animals. This bunch was hanging out in the Rio Grande Bosque this morning as I rode my bicycle. They weren’t looking for or sniffing out live prey but dead meat. That’s OK with me. Because of these on-duty carrion sentinels I can enjoy my ride without having to dodge decomposing animals. Let’s hear it for consumers of rotten meat.
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