Videos
Bringing out the best in a cat or dog is a hands-on task. Seeing it in a video is often better than reading it. My goal with these videos is to make behavior management easier to understand and implement.
The South rim of the Grand Canyon is a wonderful 70° in early November. It’s a really dry place. We dropped 1180 feet as we hiked 3.5 miles to this splendid dripping spring. It’s a shady spot at the end of a rather arduous and sometimes narrow trail. Climbing back out is a little harder but the Grand Canyon is worth it. Start early, pack a lunch, and lug a couple of liters of water. I love this place but I had to leave my good dog Mick Jagger home this time. No dogs are allowed in National Parks. That’s…
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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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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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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…
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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…
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A cat parent is concerned about her cat who is fearful of using the litter box.
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Remember the Paul McCartney tune Band on the Run? Well, this isn’t it. But I caught myself singing as I watched, at a great distance, as this herd with youngsters, galloped across the vast Valles Caldera in Northern New Mexico. They clearly didn’t see us. And that is as it should be. We were visiting their rightful home. We left no trace.
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I spied this wily golden mantled ground squirrel while hiking in the Valles Caldera of Northern New Mexico. He noticed me and Mick, the Nichol family Border collie but wasn’t worried. Check out what he did see in the video called Hungry Coyote- Big & Too Well Fed
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This healthy guy was so big that at first I thought was seeing a wolf. But Ranger Dean at the Valles Caldera Ranger Station confirmed that he was, in fact, a coyote. Theirs grow taller and beefier than the scrawny variety we have in Albuquerque. If you watch this video you’ll notice his gender affirming behavior. He must not have been quite hungry enough to catch the little rascal who saw him first in my video titled Too Squirrely for Hungry Coyote.
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Housetraining can feel like such a challenge that many people just give up and mop up. You can get so completely flummoxed and frustrated that you lose their patience. You can teach your spiffy new puppy – in just one day – where to find the dog bathroom. He’ll learn that all good things come from you. Get ready to be the benevolent and loving head honcho who controls the resources that you will be delighted to help your puppy learn to earn. I hope you find this information useful. You’re welcome to share this video with any of your…
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