Random Acts of Kindness

“How do we change the world? One random act of kindness at a time.”

(Morgan Freeman)

Mark and his wife live in Texas with their Berner, Tootsie. We have never met in person. And yet Mark rested his mind and talents on the Gems and their humans.

I knew these were being made/sent but said nothing. Alison got hers first, and immediately texted me to ask if I knew anything about it. SO FUN.

I told Mark he could send Tommy’s to my house since I see Jennifer pretty regularly. I was glad I did because it was so wonderful to see her reaction to a stranger’s random act of kindness.

Han Solo was last and we were all waiting for that one to arrive — we did not want to spoil the surprise. Tricia’s reaction was similar to Alison. I immediately got a text asking if I knew about this Mark person in Texas 💙

Mark reminds me that the world is filled with good and decent humans who do nice things just because they can.

Thank you, Mark.

The words seem inadequate. It is just hard to know how to convey all the things it means when someone is so kind to us. It is like Mark tossed a kindness pebble into a pond of humanity and sent ripples moving outward.

And now those ripples have touched you ❤️

Starry G for Going Tracking

Starry G has started tracking, and in the doing of it I feel the echoes of generations — all of my beloved girls started their performance lives with tracking.

Because we currently live in an urban area, I am training her in urban settings with a goal of earning the Tracking Dog Urban title with her before she is a year old. I like goals.

This was Starry G’s third track and the first one with a covered food dish at the end (an airtight pyrex bowl with a extra good jackpot in it). The previous two tracks on successive days (one per day) were just teaching her the Hansel-and-Gretel method that I use to train: the puppy goes from treat to treat, and the treats are closely spaced to keep her engaged and moving.

Starry G was missing treats on her second track because she was moving so quickly, and that is a sign that she was ready for treats to be spaced out a bit and the track to be a bit longer.

This is a look at her track today — you can see the little covered bowl at the end.

This is a snippet of her running the track.

I will add the puppy harness soon but for now, a collar and leash are fine. Starry G is showing a lot of promise already — very cool ⭐️

Pozy continue to be a really bad and impatient patient as she recovers from her TPLO (knee surgery) but she is getting better and her rehab is going well.

I only let Pozy hang out with Starry (above) when the puppy is tired to reduce the chance of ill-advised shenanigans — Pozy is the Queen of Ill-Advised Shenanigans.

I hope all your Sunday shenanigans are fun and safe!

YES Parties

As I was preparing breakfast for the dogs this morning, Starry G put herself on a cycle of behaviors. She did some leaps and some barks. She sat and went down and then spun around. She jumped up on me and on the counter. Repeat. Repeat. Baby Girl was EXCITED.

I “corrected” none of it. I stopped none of it.

Because what I would have been correcting or stopping is exactly what I want in a puppy: I want her to be willing to try new behaviors with confidence. I want her thinking and trying to puzzle out how to make breakfast happen faster.

Instead, I will quickly reinforce when the exact desired behavior appears in her repertoire. That means when she happens to sit or down, she gets YES! and a cookie. It won’t take long at all before she develops the habit of sitting or downing as she waits for her breakfast.

Our job is not to teach the puppy, “NO.” Our job is to invite our puppy to a “YES Party.”

“No” is a lazy, ineffective word. It conveys nothing about desired behavior, and is all about suppression. Who wants a suppressed, confused dog?! Not me. I want EXPRESSION in my dogs — and lots of it.

This is Jasper demonstrating what it looks like when a puppy lives his life in a YES Party ⭐️

And look at Han Solo Sapphire offering his early draft training behavior so confidently — because he learned that behavior at YES Parties.

Puppies who are excited and confident about offering new behaviors are a joy to train, and they learn very, very quickly.

Sometimes we cannot ignore a puppy’s behavior. If the behavior is potentially dangerous or excessively destructive, removal and/or redirection are the best strategies. That and better trained humans — pick up the shoes, puppy proof her space, and put the remote control away!

The mindset shift required to step away from all the “NO’s” and to start throwing YES Parties can be hard but it is so worth doing ❤️