Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Tuesday Night Tricks Class

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Tuesday evening Delilah and I headed to our tricks class.  What I really love about this class is there is no pressure.  If you don’t do your homework, you don’t get in trouble. 🙂

Tuesday night we began learning Sit Pretty (some people refer to this as Beg,) Over, Target (or Touch) and Balancing a treat on the nose.

Delilah has the basics of Touch, and Over is a given for her, since that’s what I say to her in Agility Class.

Ariane (our instructor) said some of the bigger dogs have a problem with Sit Pretty because of their size, it requires some good strength in their back legs (and a bit of balance too.)

I’ve seen her sit pretty, (I actually thinks it looks the way those trained bears sit from the circus) but I’ve never known how to teach it.

You hold the treat over their head and raise your hand up and back, hoping they will lift their front feet off the floor.  You reward and treat even if they only come up a little.  Don’t worry you will eventually work them so they get farther and farther off the floor.

Does it work?

The proof (as they say) is in the photo.

 

Sit pretty my love. Yes Mama, as long as you give me that banana chip.

 

I knew balancing a treat on the nose was going to be a challenge.  We’ve tried this trick at home.  Sampson can balance the treat and when he is given the okay, can catch it in his mouth.

When we tried this with Delilah you have to move your hand very quickly or it will get caught in a snap.

She. Just. Can’t. Wait.

With a little instruction from Ariane, I worked it this way.  I held a treat in my left hand with it directly in front of her nose.  I used my right hand to place a treat and told her to leave it.

Leave it.

 

In this photo my left hand had dropped slightly and truthfully it sounded more like, leave it, leave it, leave it, leave it.  Whatever, it was definitely easier at home!

Anyhoo, when I showed the trick to Hubby, she actually sat there with the banana chip on her nose for a good 5 to 10 seconds, that may not sound like a lot to you, but believe me, that was amazing for her.

At this point I’m not letting her flip the treat and catch it, I’m actually removing it from her nose and giving her the treat from my left hand.

So ladies and gentlemen (is there a gentlemen that reads this blog?) without further ado…

I’m so freaking proud of her!!

 

I told you she shines in the classroom.

Do you find it easier to train the tricks by having someone show you (like me) or can you figure this stuff out on your own?

Don’t forget to order your calendars!!!

What I Learned From NaNoWriMo

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I learned a lot in the month of November, thanks to the NaNoWriMo challenge (National Novel Writing Month.)

For those who don’t know the NaNoWriMo is “Thirty days and nights of literary abandon” or as one of my fellow participants said, “Write until your eyes bleed.”

For me it ended at 10 pm on the 30th, that is when I saved the file, pulled the thumb drive and shut off the computer.  I’d had enough and couldn’t wring another word out.

Oh don’t go congratulating me, I didn’t meet the goal of 50,000 words.  I tapped out at 37,335 words.

November was a hectic month for me, I knew that going into the challenge, so I’m fairly pleased with the word count I achieved and I feel pretty good with about 75% of it.

I absolutely love the first four or five paragraphs.

I learned a lot too, both about writing and myself.  I thought I’d share some of what I learned with you.

  • A truly gifted and dedicated writer really CAN turn out 50,000 words in a month.

Turns out I’m neither.

Of course some showoffs perfectionists geniuses can actually scrap their original novel on day 17 and complete the 50,000 word challenge in the remaining 13 days (Donna Owczarek.)  I’m so proud of you and honored to call you my friend.

  • Even though I stopped reading blog posts, you all did not stop writing them.

When I signed into my googlereader on Monday, I had 518 posts to read. Please bear with me as I work my way through them.

  • Facebook, e-mail and Twitter will not help you write a novel.

No matter how many times per day I checked them, no magic plot line appeared.  I actually had to write.

  • If you hit a wall with a character or scene, don’t worry about it.  Go on to something else.

You can waste an awful lot of time trying to figure out if/when you want your heroine to become involved with someone.

  • The highlighting feature in a word document is your friend.

You use it to change scenes or to remind yourself of something you need to correct or research. Or figure out your heroine’s romantic dilemma when you aren’t so crunched for time.

  • You may want to research your topic a little bit before starting.

Having to pause, in order to google and read about a topic can really throw off your rhythm.

  • It also probably doesn’t hurt to have an outline or character synopsis’ for any major characters you want to showcase.

I think I based the heroines characteristics after me, but I’m not really sure.

  • Characters and storyline develop as you write.

Even though you want to write a mystery, it can turn into a love story. 🙁

  • You can start your book heading in one direction and in the middle of the writing, find a better beginning.

When this happens cut and paste is your friend.

Any of my fellow NaNoWriMo participants have anything to add?

When I do this next year, I hope to not have all the additional activities that made this challenge difficult, but who knows, if I can write the same amount next year, I might actually have a novel. 🙂

And just because I can, here are some cute pictures of my dogs.

Did your mom abandon you for NaNoWriMo?

 

She’s boring anyway, always on that computer, I”m going to sleep.

What Do You Think?

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A couple of weekends ago Hubby and I took Sampson and Delilah up to the field/trails at the top of the street.

As we entered the field we noticed a bone. Not an animal bone, one of those white bones that are stuffed with processed peanut butter or cheese.  (I fill these with pumpkin and applesauce and freeze them for treats for the dogs.)

A small stuffed bone to keep Delilah occupied while Sampson goes to the vet.

 

The discovery caused me to stop and think for a minute, Delilah had discovered a bone in the field a week or so before.

This particular bone still had stuff inside it.

I can’t imagine what’s inside it.

 

Hubby picked it up and tossed it into the woods.  We continued our walk

I said, I wouldn’t have tossed it, I would have taken it to the garbage can and thrown it out.

Why? He asked.

It makes me suspicious, who would let their dog bring a bone to the field, and a stuffed bone at that?  What if it’s been poisoned?   There are supposedly coyotes and fisher cats in these woods, maybe someone is trying to get rid of them.  There are certainly people in this world that are capable of that.

You’re right, Hubby said.

When we got back to the field he went into the woods and found the bone, he threw it in the trash can on our way out of the park.

This past weekend during our walk on the trails, Hubby and Sampson were in front of Delilah and me.  I saw Sampson deviate slightly into the woods and heard Hubby say, Leave it.

What is it? I asked.

Part of a stuffed toy, but it could be bait, you never know.  There are some sick people in this world.

Do you notice things like this?  Do they make you suspicious, or is it just me with my writer’s imagination?

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