Is there a human inside?

Bingo
The temperature in Denmark is dropping.
It’s autumn now, the leaves are turning into yellow-brownish and the days are short.

We can no longer let the door be open all day, it’s too cold.
Yesterday Pandora barked for the first time because she wanted to go out and pee. Great!

Our two cats are now coming into the house again although Pandora is there. She still chases Shiva the female cat occasionally, but the other cat Odin has figured out that if he lies still (superciliously on the dinner chair) Pandora simply do not know what to do with him so she leaves him alone.

Dominant brute
These days I am studying a lot of wolf background to get to know my dog better. I see the ‘light’ over and over again as the books describe the almost exact way I have trained my dogs so far. Not being a dominant brute seems to be the main keywords which suits me fine as it was never my style.
I have always trained my dogs by playing with them. I feared in the beginning that Pandora would need a tougher way of training, but it’s not the case. All the things the ‘old psychology’ dictated to show your domination, turns out to be rubbish. Such as:
Eat before your dog – well we don’t and we never did. It makes no sense anyway.
Make forbidden areas/furniture in the house – Pandora can be where she wishes to be except on the tables. Just like any other ‘animal’ in the family.
Walk through the door before your dog – Why? I couldn’t wrap my mind around that and remember it even if my life depended on it.

And I could go on. In my life with animals mutual respect has always been the issue. I don’t do things TO my dog I do things TOGETHER WITH my dog. To get her respect I have to be exciting and inspirational, just as other people have to be exciting and inspirational to get my attention. It’s quite logical.

The ‘difficulties’ with Pandora is her individuality. She’s not stupid but she can ignore things totally if she’s on to something else. Certain things are easy to teach her, other things seams to be so not interesting that she plays deaf. But with ‘tricks and treats’ I can lure her into the game.
I would never ever punish her physically and I discovered that starring into her eyes is enough punishment.
Another important thing is the way we socialized her from day one. She has met more than 30 dogs she could ‘talk’ to and she has at least 3 regular play pals. She has also been socialized with as many people as possible, and she meets other people every day and has at least 10 people who’s not afraid of her and can handle her – also playing a little roughly.

The human in the dog
Let me point this out: THERE IS NONE!
As mammals we have similar behaviour in many ways. This gives us a good base for understanding each other. But we have different bodies and therefore different body languages and visual appearance. Showing my teeth means smiling, when the dog shows its teeth it’s almost never a ‘smile’ etc.

Your dog never gets in the ‘assertive age’ or does things to provoke you; your dog is maturing and trying to stand on its own four feet just as any other teenager.
(See the sub site: Chronological Stages)

Your dog doesn’t need cakes, ice cream, chocolate, candy or any of those things it would never find in nature.
Confession: My old dog loved pizza, but Pandora has never tasted it and she never will.

A dog has fur!
Which is smart, it’ll make the dog resist cold wind, snow and rain. Your dog DOES NOT NEED clothes!
(Except for few breeds that needs a little help in the winter). Your dog DOES NOT see itself as cute in at pink pyjamas or a laced skirt.

Your dog doesn’t need to be carried around in a bag. It has four super designed legs to walk on. Let it!

Conclusion: There is just as much human in a dog as there is dog in a human. We are individual beings, behaving differently. Respect that!

We’re all in a box
A funny thing about humans is that we are just as predictable as any dog or breed.
Looking at which people chooses which dog breeds, tells us a lot of things.
It seams like those who chooses the ‘natural’-looking dogs (with long snouts, upright ears and long tales) almost never buy pink collars with rhinestones, fluffy footwear or velvet leaches to their dog.
On the other hand a lot of moloss owners buy a huge leather collar with spikes, call their dog Tyson and cut their bleached hair short. It’s really funny. Just go to dog exhibitions and see for yourself.

This was a bit different blog and I might have offended some people with my opinions, but I’ve seen so many pictures of dogs dressed up to amuse people and it disgusts me. Sorry.

Link: http://www.moloss.com

Pandora watching washing machine

Pandora watching a stuffed wild boar

Pandora hiding – tired of people!

Sleeping beauty and the track

(This blog is written a week ago and a lot have happened since. Next blog will be about BARFing)

Facts: As last time
We love mornings
Waking up with a sleepy dog. Mostly she’s lying in the foot end of my bed. Lazy, small eyes, yawning. Everything stupid she did yesterday is forgiven. The night takes the badness away. She is gorgeous.
And now, as we leave her in the morning, there’s no panic. Actually this morning she would hardly get out of bed.

Ten days ago I laid a track for her. All made up be shrimps and salmon.
(Before we started at all, Pandora tried to wear her track harness half an hour or so, to get comfortable with it so it wouldn’t distract her on the track.
)
Careful if there is a lot of wind the track will actually blow sideways (or wherever the wind comes from)
Leave it for at least 15-20 minutes the first time to make the grass leave some smells as it starts to putrescent. When the dog gets older and hard core to do tracking a track can be several hours old, even days.
Don’t EVER punish your dog, don’t shout, don’t do ANYTHING negative as the dog follows the track. You can ruin months of work, or even destroy the dogs ability to walk a track ever again!

Without the dog
The track was app. 10 meters (30 feet) long.
 I use wooden Chinese chopsticks to mark my track (natural smell, no bright colours) which is important so I can guide the dog in the EXACT direction in the beginning.
 At this first track, I took very small steps so that one footstep would touch the next. I did it at a lawn with well grown green grass. No obstacles were distracting (such as dead birds or more exciting obstacles – whatever would be more interesting than salmon?). For every 5-6 steps I put shrimps or salmon on the ground. As I know that she is very good at using her nose, I bend the track just a little. When I left the track, I made sure not to cross it again.

With the dog
After 15 minutes or so I returned to the track with Pandora wearing her track harness.
I showed her the beginning of the track and just few centimetres in I had left the first piece of goodie. Now she kind of understood that here was something exciting.  All the time, I showed her with my hand near the grass saying: seek, seeeeek in a soft tone, but animating.
 At this first track I almost showed her every bite I had put on the grass. She was a little unconcentrated, but then again she had no idea of what was expected from her. She ran around, and crossed her own track a couple of times.
The last few metres she started to react as she had understood the deal, but then the track ended. 
At the end of the track, a little more salmon was waiting, and she had millions of praises. Good dog, so clever, beautiful …

Track no 2
Yesterday I laid a new track. 15 metres long. Salmon and raw beef. Again marking every 1-2 meter with a wooden chopstick.
First she was a little confused again, then it was like she remembered! Ouh, meet!
And then she did an almost perfect track. Finding every bite on the ground. Of course she ran around herself a few times, but she didn’t miss a bite, she walked the exact perfect direction (and for every finding  I ‘clicked’ the clicker). A the end of the track a huge bite of salmon was put, but she didn’t want to end the track, so she follow my footsteps for several metres where I had walked as I left the track.
All the way home we walk in the side of the street and she couldn’t stop sniffing in the grass. It was like she suddenly had an urge to use her best ability. Sniffing. Using the nose.

The rest of the evening she was relaxed and calm. I had a walk with her later and she walk perfectly in the leach.
Right by my side, and sitting everytime we stopped to cross the street.
 It was obvious that the stimulating track gave her something important, and that it kind of took the stress out of her.
From now on I’ll lay tracks for her often.
The next 10 days we’ll be away from home together with her, so there’ll be lots of time to play, lay tracks and so. I’m really looking foreward to that.

Worries and food
I have made a discition to change Pandoras food as soon as we get home form our holyday.
 Right now she is getting dry food. Expensive, with the right amount of protein and stuff, but she drinks so much water and she pees indoor. Last night and the night before, she peed indoor 5 times – in the evening!
 That’s crazy. That’s too much. I’m afraid that she’s getting ill and loose too much weight.
I’ll look a little more into BARF (raw meet). It kind of appeals to me because she’s ‘half’ wolf. More about that next time.

A tired dog

Bark at the moon

Facts: 55 cm, 17.8 kg, 4.5 month old

Lost 2 teeth this week

Stars shining
I think I mentioned it last time. In the morning Pandora always has at least 10 stars in her ‘book’ and sometimes she looses them all half an hour before we go to bed. But not this week.

She seems to be more and more competent at: being alone, not peeing in the house, in our beds or where ever.
She’s been very good.

Growing fast – loosing teeth
To my big surprise I measured her Monday evening and discovered that she had grown 3 cm in one week! That’s crazy. But I’m certain that as I look at her last weekend she suddenly looked like an almost grown up dog. Her features were suddenly matured and her chest had broadened. And I was right. 3 cm is quite a lot in such a short time and I started to get a little anxious that she could be in pain. Sunday morning she seamed a little tired and worn out. That was also when I discovered that one of her teeth was very loose, so she didn’t want to eat her own ‘hard’ food. We gave her a little boiled chicken and raw salmon. In the evening she lost the tooth. We heard her playing with it at the wooden kitchen floor, so we actually found it.
After that, she could eat her normal food again and she brightened.
Yesterday she lost one more. Now she looks a little silly as one of her canine teeth is missing.

Rabies vaccination
Wednesday we went to the vet to get her second and last Rabies vaccination. In 120 days (not less!) she’ll have take a blood test to see if the anti bodies are in her blood.

Explanation: Rabies and worms
To go to Sweden a dog has to be rabies vaccinated. After the vaccine it has to be confirmed that the antibodies are in the blood. Sometimes the first vaccine can be a little too weak, and therefore our vet (most vets I guess) vaccinates the dogs twice, to be sure that it’ll make anti bodies.  After the second vaccination there has to be 120 days before the anti body confirmation. NOT 119 days but could be 125 days, it’s ok. The vaccination will be written into Pandoras passport so that she can go with us to Sweden next spring.
Just before we go, she’ll have to have a worm treatment also as Denmark has a sort of worm that Sweden does not have.

Over exercising
I walk 6-10 km once every week. I’d started to bring Pandora with me as her fitness level is increasing, but suddenly I got afraid that I might have overrated her ability to walk 6 km. Now I’ve talked to friends, vets and pet letterboxes and they all seem to agree that 6 km is a little too long, but if we are careful and she doesn’t jump too much it’s ok.
As she was vaccinated, the vet also tested her joints to see if she felt any pain but she didn’t. There were no reactions what so ever.

By the way she loves to climb big stones and she spends a lot of time examining water. All kinds of water.

Clicker training
This week I bought a clicker to use for training.
I’ve heard a lot of good and bad about clicker training. I understand the different opinions. Clicker training is only for people who know exactly what they are doing or are guided by an experienced trainer.
The clicker is used to guide the dog in the exact moment she does the right thing, but first she’ll have to connect the clicking sound with something positive, so all Saturday and Sunday she ate sausages and listened to clicks. Yesterday I accidently pushed the clicker and Pandora came to me for sausage, so the training worked. I haven’t done much into it yet, but I’ll tell more as we use it more. I think it’s good training for her. Especially because she’s having trouble with ‘COME HERE’ commands. And with the clicker I can guide her the instant she’s doing the right thing.

Little wolf by the lake

Pandora at the stream next to our house