New Term & Helpful Tool

I heard a new term this morning and I love it: Sheep Barometer.

A Sheep Barometer works like this: Person posts a grievance on social media. Instead of pondering if there is more to the story or considering the impact of flocking someone on social media, the comments pour in:

BAA

BAA

BAA

BAA

The sheep do not realize they have been manipulated into a giant social media pile-on because sheep — well — are not always the best critical thinkers, are they?

Better to be a goat, FYI.

Pozy loves Sparkle…

…and Karma loves Pozy…

It is just a Lovefest around here. We even love sheep! We just know to expect them to behave and think like sheep. That is the value of the Sheep Barometer — it helps us have realistic expectations.

Have a love-filled day, free thinking like a goat.

Wildflowers

Buttercup’s human teaches Puppy Kindergarten at her training school in Washington and Zeus has joined her class. This means the siblings — and their humans — get to see each other regularly. How awesome is that?!

I just love the way dogs build community.

Thank you, Penny, for the photos!

The gray puppy coats are normal for some puppies and it does not impact the adult coat, which will be black. Pozy is my first puppy in a long time not to turn gray.

Yesterday was Sunday Socializing sans Suzanne and Sadie as they are out of town. Pozy first ran a track at the university, and that went well — I even added a gentle turn this week. I need a GoPro to get videos — anyone have suggestions about which one to buy??

I brought Claire along to practice obedience in new locations on campus. I have decided, after consultation with my very smart physician, to consider finishing Claire’s CD this year. More on that soon — the Great Viral Unknown is tricky to navigate, isn’t it?

Then we went to the hopping Market on Front to pick up breakfast burritos. Pozy met about 20 people as we waited — calling in to order and pay, a long leash, and a mask are how I try to make this kind of activity safer.

We have a Kadi (Mariposa) update! Eden shares:

“Kadi was 26.2 lb yesterday.  We continue to do some meet and greet with people several times a week. Kadi is turning out to be a social butterfly.  Our puppy kindergarten class started this week but the first class was sans puppy.  Kadi will be the youngest in the class but based on the class syllabus she should be a super star since she knows most of it already . My goal is primarily continue socialization and training in new places.

We have started some tracking training. Most mornings start with some heeling foundation training. I have found that when she is peak land shark in the morning, her energy can be refocused to some quick heeling training. I must admit I was quite proud of her heeling in Home Depot today. 

Kim Perry Photo.

It appears she inherited a digging gene.  Aunt Jannu has been showing her some tricks but she seems to be a natural.  My yard normally needs aerating in the fall but Kadi is getting a head start.  The only complication is that she thinks she should be able to dig a hole in the wood flooring in the house. Hopefully, we will figure out a good alternative for her creative digging in the house. We tried swimming this week but she did not think it was a good idea even with Aunt Jannu showing her it was fun.

A miracle occurred when I saw Kadi get up and go out the dog doors by herself to the back yard to go the bathroom.  I have not seen a repeat yet but she is starting to connect the dots on the housebreaking. However she is ahead of Aunt Jannu who was 4 months when she first started going out to the bathroom on her own.

Thank you so much to Eden for the update and doing such a fantastic job with Kadi.

I hope your day is as wonderful as the Wildflowers’ lives.

What's in a Name?

I love Pozy’s name.

I love that the name conjures up a little bunch of wildflowers. The two syllables and the Z make Pozy feel like Zoey to me. It is a quick and easy name to say — I love that, too.

I want Pozy to also love her name. I want her to hear it and be filled with happy anticipation about what comes next. This means her name must always be followed by something wonderful — a cookie, a game, a tummy scratch, a toy.

I do not want her name to ever be associated with anything unpleasant or negative. This means I must not infuse her beautiful, happy name with tones of disappointment, outrage, anger, or frustration.

A loud and irritated “POZY CLARKIA!” cannot ever happen if I want this puppy to love her name as much as I do.

I also don’t want her to ignore her name. This means I must not use it in a situation where distractions are bigger than her ability to quickly respond to her cheerful, fun name.

I definitely do not want to stand there repeating “Pozy” over and over, which just teaches her to ignore her name.

I love that training dogs well is really all about practicing mindfulness.

This morning Pozy got to meet the neighborhood donkey when he was out on a walk with his equine family.

His name is — appropriately — Donkey.

Please have a terrific day!