Catgasms and Pecking orders.

While I haven't trained other species as thoroughly as dogs, I do have more experience than the average bear, with more species than most people would ever hope to own. :)

One thing I learned, early on, with the parrots, was to ignore biting, and praise the good things. With parrots, offering a treat for "good things" didn't even cross my mind, but yet they learned all sorts of words and behaviors, didn't bite me, all using just my happy voice.

They learned nearly nothing from the other keepers, and in fact would bite them quite regularly. Som'thing I found amusing, if it weren't for the other keepers smacking the birds across the head when it happened.

now for anedote's...


one thing I have noticed in other species is retention. The seem to remember the behavior the next session better than dogs. If I don't cue the behavior again, for YEARS the behavior still gets offered, perfectly, every time the animal wants som'thing. Its almost like the behavior is more resilient to extinction. They also seem to have greater understanding between reps, with shaping...as in "ah ha, I see where you are going with this" vs alot of dogs don't really know where you are going, but are following your directions, rather then skipping steps...once again, purely anecdotal.

Manipulation. While dogs do this also, the other species seem to be very, very quick to put that behavior into their repertoire of other, natural behaviors. Its like they instantly realize they now have a new tool or skill for getting what they want. The dogs figure out this also, but its not as quick, and seems to generalize slower. Teach a dog to sit up for a treat in the living room, a then move into another room and eat dinner. The dog, will likely not understand that he can use that behavior to manipulate the situation to earn a different reinforcer, right away.

Take a cat and teach it "sit up". The cat will, take that behavior and immediately begin to implement it in every situation it sees you have som'thign it wants. Theres no reteaching it in multiple places, contexts. They just get it. Its like they immediately generalize behaviors, granted heavy distraction would likely be an exception.


Buffy, my chicken, was taught to peck me (gently) on cue. She quickly learned that this is the bird equivalent of shouting "HEY YOU" at me. If I ignore her, she will very deliberately peck me for attention. But whats interesting, is she will peck me, then once I look at her (I try to ignore this, but being human...well, oh well) she then offers ANOTHER behavior. Shes literally cueing a "watch me", and oh boy am I trained.

The biggest hitch so far I have found in clicker training cats, is a phenomenon, I affectionately call the "catgasm".

Get about ten reps in, clicker training a cat, and then the cat has a moment of "OH EM GEE we are TRAINING!!!!!' and then the cat rolls around uncontrollably, purring as loud as possible, obviously in pure bliss...but also in their own world. You cannot train during a catgasm, you should not pet (will make the bliss worse) you cannot bribe or feed also I have found..you just have to wait it out. If you are lucky, you can get through the session without a relapse. Generally tho, you will have 1-2 catgasms per training session.

Annoying as these are, if you are in a hurry, I have learned som'thing very important. In a world full of dogs and dog training, we neglect to see how truely happy clicker training makes our subjects. For a dog that is happy all the time, its hard to dissect the emotions and see how much of the "happy" is because the dog likes training, and how much is the dog just a happy dopey dog.

Other species, however have greater happy/indifferent contrasts, so its really plain as day, easy to see that this way of training, builds strong bonds and associations :)

This.Shit.Is.Hard.

I recently heard the hard numbers, for how much food is wasted in the US. Its 40-50%.


Take that in a moment. We throw half our food away.

Numbers for the rest of the world is similar, its not just the wastefull Americans this time. We all suck at this apparently.

I have always grown plants, I remember being 7 years old digging up seedlings and transplanting them into pots, watering my morning glories and fussing over sunflowers (in pots that never got very big).

The past five years or so tho, I have begun to really put this deep seated urge to use. First growing indoor and outdoor potted plants...learning to remember to move, clean, water, prune them etc. Since this is som'thing you must teach yourself to remember. Plants don't cry when they are hungry, so its easy to forget them.

second, once we are in the house, I forayed into "drought tolerant". The desert scaped yard in my head, was beautiful. But it was not to be.

I found out, after I bought every succelent and cacti known to man, lowes and homedepot. That almost everything available was cacti from high elevations/mild climates...or succulents that were meant to grow under the shade of other, larger plants. Or wanted no rain in the winter, and monsoon rain in the summer, and would die if not carefully managed.

Every single one of these plants, pretty much had a heart attack if I didn't water daily, and if placed in the sun, they would burn. Ever seen a cacti burn? Its really depressing.

So in the end, the only landscaping I could do with succulents where with the ones they use on the freeway embankments, whose cuttings I stole from behind a autoparts place that backed up to an offramp. All the expensive and rare plants were useless.


So back to the drawing board. More plants, and more research later, I found the best thing for me to do, was to drive around and see what species were clinging to life in my neighbors yards. Talk about depressing...

Each house has basically no yard, or a yard of weeds, with one or two trees or shrubs clinging to life despite being completely ignored.

So what I found in my "research" is that the following plants survive here with little to no care.

Southern magnolia
Jade plants
pyracantha
cape honeysuckle
agave

and thats pretty much it.


Well armed with my new knowlege, I lansdscaped my little heart out, still lost a few to the wind, but for the most part, all is green.


So then I started learning about permaculture. Now I came to the realization, that I really should be growing USEFUL things on my land. Granted the flowers make great food and habitat for birds/insects, which was a goal...but now I really need to make use of things, or else suffer the guilt.

So began my foray into "farming".

Let me tell you now. There must be som' pretty savy people out there, or som' really magical chemicals, or else we'd have nothign to eat. This. Shit. is. hard.

Iam learning. Trial and error, research. I had to learn how to mulch, mulch correctly, how to prune/water correctly. How to plant/place trees. Times of year to grow veggies...bugs...rain...disease...placement...wind AAAAAA!!!!

Each year gets easier, but of course, each year, I try and take on som'thing new, or som'thing more than I should, so there is always a project to fail. I have finally come to grips with the fact that my soil is absolutely useless, and I will have to buy/make all my soil for the whole property.

I guess my point is, I now see why no one does this. Its hard on the body/mind/soul. But in the same note. We really DO need to ALL do this. We are running out of water/space/peace of mind. And instead of creating food and habitat, we are watering turf, and poisoning bugs, and fertilizing our roses. I can't remember the last time I used chemicals or fertilizer. That was a great feeling, knowing my yard was so healthy that everything was balancing. Seeing the birds and insects and reptiles that were NONEXISTANT three years ago makes me beam.

This is the right path, I know it. I just wish more people were on it.

Thinking, or feeling?

Forget the idea of alpha and dominance, that I don't buy into anyway...but the idea of dogs living in "packs" also makes me want to peel off my eyelids every time som'one uses it to explain behavior.


My dogs live together, they eat together, they hang out. They play, they share things, they chase each other. What a lovely little pack right?

Most people see a group of dogs in a home and think that, wow look they formed a pack.

Here's the thing.... My house has doors. My yard has a fence. My dogs hang out because they have too. Not because they want to. They get along because I've intro'd them correctly, given them each enough space they don't feel crunched and I've trained them to put up with, or even like, through countercondtioning, the other dogs habits they find annoying.

The dogs didn't "form" anything. I went out, acquired them, and now force them to live together. Kinda a new perspective on animal ownership eh?

if I left my gate open, and I wasn't here. They would wander off. I can't really say who would stick around, and who would leave, but with so many smells and things to do, I can say staying nearby is pretty boring. I imagine Tippy going the furthest, she gets so intense when she finds a scent.

Ironically, Tippy is the most attached to us, IMO. Yet, she'd be the first to bail.

I don't really envision them staying together either...maybe run down the same road until a split, and then, each engrossed in their own interest, part ways.


There are ALOT of stray, and dare I say feral even, dogs here. I see them alone, I see them in groups...BUT I always see them in DIFFERENT groups, or I see group members ALONE and then back again, but with a different group. They don't stay together. I've seen it with my own eyes. I don't need to travel to Romania, or to the Mexicans dumps. Its happening here. Right here in Socal.

Iam not a leader. Iam a resource. Just like a stray learns a house will provide food, since my dogs do not free roam, they have learned I provide food. Or attention, or access to things, etc. The dogs stay with me, not because they respect me as a pack leader. But because they need me, on a physical, or emotional level to survive.

Perhaps its the logical side of me that can say that, and not feel any ill will towards the dogs, and can not feel that cheapens the relationship we have. Truth is truth tho, truth doesn't not cheapen anything.

I tend to see things in a mechanical way, and not romanticize everything. Pack leader is a romantic title. Unfortunately, while I have no problem with romantic notions, in and of themselves...the over romanticising of ideas such as this one, can be to the detriment of our beloved dogs.

Who is training who?

There is a great chapter in Karen Pryors book Lads before the Wind where she talks about animals that have mastered the system of communication your using, and then turn in around on you and use it to communicate with YOU.

She then gives several examples, that, when you think about it, kinda makes the hair on your neck stand up. At least to me anyway. Its one thing for you, as a trainer to communicate clearly to your animal, its one thing for an animal, to communicate with you, using its normal behavior. Its totally another, and downright spooky when the animal uses YOUR method of communication, to communicate with you.


We were at the park the other day, Emma, myself and the spicy one. Both dogs are fantastic off leash, and have speedy recalls, even with the dog park in the background and rabbits everywhere.

Because of this trust, I do let the dogs get a decent distance away before I recall them. 120ish feet apparently. Interestingly enough, I had to google to figure out how wide a soccer field is...but little tan frankendogs know, without the computer.

Chili has a fasinating new behavior. He will run out, what I now know is 120ft more or less. He will stop. Turn to face me and sit.

Then he waits.

This behavior first appeared almost a year ago, but I shrugged it off. Now it is so frequent Iam 100% positive this is intentional.

Turns out, in training the recall, I would call the dogs back at varying distances. But I would ALWAYS recall them when they got so far away they were out of my comfort zone. I wasn't really noting distance, I was just going off gut feeling "eeeeh they are getting too far away, better call 'em back".


So now...Chili is INTENTIONALLY going to the edge of my comfort zone and turning around and WAITING for me to recall him. I can walk up to him, I can talk to him (usually I laugh at him or ask him wtf hes doing)...but if I don't give the recall cue, his butt is firmly glued to the grass.

So hes now training ME. Hes learned he can make me call him, which leads to treats. An unintentional behavior chain (unintentional, on my part, Iam sure VERY intentional on his)

He also has begun to bring me objects he can't seem to figure out or open. Or, since he was a puppy, bring me objects that shouldn't be on the floor. Look mom, I found a pen, look mom I found this piece of trash...etc...

He got a Kong stuck on his mouth once, he came and asked for help

Smart little snot.


The other "whos training who" comes from mimicry. Som'thing dogs are not supposed to do well. Iam sure it falls into "social learning". Though I haven't read much on the subject.

I taught Kiwi to push closed doors open with her face. Critter already did this, but the other three would not even try. If the door was ajar, they would try, but only if it was open enough that they barely had to bump it to get through.

What I taught Kiwi was, I turn the knob but the door stays closed. Kinda like the door is off just enough it can't lock..but visually looks 100% shut.

She caught onto this quick, and I soon put "push" on cue.

Within three days. Emma, Chili and Tippy learned this behavior. Unless som'thing magical happened, they MUST have learned this through observation. Tippy was first, which did not shock me, as I watched her learn how to use a buster cube from observing Chili. No trial and error. Just literally watched him, and then did it. All this after that cube sat, full of food, unused for about a year.


The dogs can learn from each other...perhaps this is why each new rescue gets easier and easier to acclimate. Fascinating!!


Anyway, Iam curious as to what the future will bring. I also can't wait for the next "ah you little shit" moment where I realize Chili is training me.

The dragons are biting.

If it has a mouth...it bites.


Dogs bite, cats bite, shit...fish bite...HUMANS bite...ask any cop or preschool teacher...


I get this "does it bite?" question ALOT. I always say that if it has a mouth it can bite you...If its som'thing that tends to be docile, I say "these tend not to bite". I can not remember a time in recent years where I've told som'one an animal was not going to bite them, in an absolute :never: way.

I find myself, more and more pondering peoples motivations behind pets. I mean, I was one of them, so I can understand it on that level, but I have "moved on" in many ways...as in, I like to have animals, but the need to go out and actively acquire new ones is a need that has left me for the most part.

I once was a consumer. Iam still, technically a producer. Even though I have for the most part shunned my former breeding operations, I still produce animals professionally, and due to my "career" assist novices in producing animals. Helping the novices, tends to produce more ill feelings than me producing my own animals, due to the sheer number of people who have bad motivators...and then here Iam, being the one having to deal with aggressive offspring from aggressive parents, having to baby non feeder snakes, which can from parents that were likely non feeders, and having to find homes for, or euthanize animals born with birth defects, when their producers reject responsibility for them

Ah, to cull or not to cull. Iam all for culling, in the spay neuter sense. As in, this dog is not perfect, lets bar it from breeding, but spare its life, and find it a home. But in reptiles, its not so easy. I can't spay/neuter a bearded dragon, and no matter how well I screen people, every year, som' tool decides that that kinked tail shouldn't stop lizzy from having babies. Or the School teacher, that year after year, produced tiny, pathetic, weakling bearded dragons, that grew slowly, the great majority of them with birth defects, and me doing everything, from reasoning, to pleading with her, not to pair the parents anymore. Every year, I'd find her eggs in the incubator, until finally, exhasted, as female beardeds become from egg laying, the mother of the weaklings passed on.

And there in lies the other evil. Egg laying. I'd say 90+% of the female beardeds I've known have died in egg laying. They get old, they get thin and their bodies just can't push them out. Its inevitable. Those that don't die in egg laying, die of accidents, or being euthanized when disease strikes their aging bodies. Males die generally of kidney failure or obesity, tho they do get to live twice as long as the girls do.

I used to say I've been bitten by beardeds twice. I remember both times...one was a very skittish animal that a person saved from a classroom where the kids were caugh torturing it. It nailed me as I tried to examine it for health. It was scared out of its mind.

The second animal, was an animal that belonged to a customer, and he felt the need to retell you its pedigree every time they brought it into the store (which was often). Reminds me of the people who approach you with their dog and blurt out "shes a champion such and such, when you hadn't even noticed the animal yet.....Of course pedigrees in bearded dragons for the most part are simply pretty animals bred to pretty animals, selected for color or pattern mutations. Anyway, despite its pedigree, it was a rather mediore looking animal, and it nailed me as I held up a nail clipper. It gave no signals, it just bit me, let go and was fine. The top of my finger was not fine

but these two stories, while I say they are the only ones, really aren't. I get bitten by babies almost daily now...som'thing I couldn't have said 6 years ago. Baby beardeds seem to be becoming more and more aggressive as the years pass, I have also noticed an increase in flightly skittish animals. Beardeds so skittish, they are almost impossible to handle, and they take quite a bit of forced interactions to 'grow out of it".

I remember a specific group of leatherbacks imported from europe. I have never dealt with beardeds that were so aggressive at a juvenile age. Absolutely untrustworthy and "evil" as we called them. They weren't a hard sell tho, they were a rare morph, and no doubt every last one of them went on to reproduce.

I have seen birth defects increase, with a big peak around 2008, I see fewer today, but I think thats due to most of the novices no longer breeding, and have given away their adults.

Thats the other thing...where are all these dragons going? This year and last, people in mass gave up their pets. It was insane. It was like I missed the "everyone relinquish anything alive" memo. People poured in wanting to give up the animals they swore were family members...many people saying the reason was the animals babies could no longer fund the hobby...ironic since the majority of people who buy a bearded dragon or two are not thinking about breeding for money...yet, once they have, and the money flow stops, the animals are worthless to them

Ironically, the pet, the exotic pet, that makes people different, is slowly going the way of the poorly bred purebred dog.

I see many more bites in my future.

Things I learned this month

Emma had this photo taken at the dog park and uploaded to facebook, not by me, and I stumbled across it...I gather those feet belong to som' poor smuck being suckered into tossing that ball.


Jigantor will do anything for a cherry tomato. Like, anything. Its fish crack, she about jumped out of the tank at the sight of one


You can teach the gourami to spin in both directions on cue in less time that you can teach it to the crazy pomeranian.

The old cats like the new cat, whether they admit it or not

I really really want to build lego but don't ever seem too.

temps over 104 will fry your corn plants but not your tomatos *shrug*

The Critter can learn to sit, leave it, and focus, but can't seem to figure out stay to save her life.

I really need to start training other peoples dogs on the side, but Iam a chicken shit.


Kiwis allergies turned out to be a yeast infection

Critter is a tick factory, her new name is "The Tick"

I feel more and more unburdened as I sell off the last of the snakes

My neighbor refered to my side yard as "a jungle" so my mission is almost complete

How to be nicer to customers at work

the handgun gets heavy after about twenty minutes

Chickens think fig beetles are tasty

The new cat is a circus performer

Peppers can dance just fine...

their owner however has two left feet and a sore back....



A very sore back. I went yesterday to a Canine Freestyle seminar...teaching routine ideas...som'thing I very much needed since Iam not very good as coming up with my own stuff unless a gun is to my head. I need to see it, decide I like it, and then I can teach it.

I dont' just like training... the finished result, but the process too, as I know the dogs like the process, but I do suffer from motivation problems. The human side of me wants to go "look! Look what I did!" but then the other human side of me thinks that no one genuinely cares and is humoring me.

I don't really even like working the dogs in public around non dog people, even if the comments aren't rude, if the comments are wrong, they bother me. A guy in petco yesterday saw me working Chili outside (just sits and downs) and then when he walked by Chili pulled towards him to sniff him. I didn't say or do anything to stop him except hold the leash and the guy made a comment about how he'll get there and learn not to pull....or something to that effect...I guess he thought I was training him not to pull???? Either way it was a wtf moment and I thought, really thought about how unperceptive the public is at the obvious.

Anyway, back to the seminar...there were five dogs, plus the trainers dogs and everyone, for the most part was very well behaved. Chili had a couple of TINY outbursts, mostly confined to dogs outside the fence and once or twice to the husky that despite instructions not to, kept wandering into our space.

He took all the tasks in stride and was like "um, ok more?" and there were a few moments where I lost him to the grass sniffing and the fact the trainers had better treats than me...

That said, he also did a hoop jump no problem despite never having seen one before, and doing a down stay and not getting upset for long periods of time (new also). His spin and turn for whatever reason fell apart but I can get that back easy.

So its a bit harder to "dance" with your dog that I thought, the fact he was a small dog just added to it, and the fact he can't do much jumping added to it..firstly, you feel like a retard dancing in front of people. Secondly, having to dumb down cues in the beginning, meant I had to be hunched over alot to keep him with me. And thirdly, I can't dance very well anyway, adding a dog and a clicker and having to keep moving, keep it interesting is HARD.

Despite feeling like a fool, I got lots of positive feedback. I was, once again encouraged to become a professional myself, which meant alot to me considering the sources.

I got to meet the "famous" (to me anyway) Splash and Tug. Tug is a firecracker, springs in his feet and is just an interesting dog to look at, he reminded me of a mouse (in a cute, good way) as he stared a hole in my head looking for treats. Hes much smaller than I imagined, more Tippy sized (longer legged tho) than the Chili size I imagined.

Splash was intense. Maybe its just a border collie thing, I wouldn't know, I've met three now and two ignored me. But I stood to close and a couple times Splash stopped in mid trick to stand there and look at me. You could tell she was figuring me out. Kinda a "I can see through you" mixed with "hi! Iam Splash". Very cute :) She was also smaller than I imagined , and I told her so, while she stared at me.

Anyway, I felt comfortable tho, I was not worried about som'one spraying Chili in the face while I wasn't looking, wasn't worried about having to explain what a clicker was and how it worked, wasn't worried som'one wouldn't understand his reactivity, wasn't worried I wouldn't fit it. It felt wonderful, Iam still on a high note emotionally today.

Time to go train som' dogs. :)