Still searchin'

Mom got real upset the other day when she let me out into a lot of tall grass to go to a pond to go swimmin' with Jenna. Even with Jenna there, (she's my grandma) I figured there was something I ought to go find so I went running off into the tall grass and kept looking for someone to find. there wasn't anyone so I finally came back. Mom told me she was mad at me. She kept calling and I heard her, but I didn't feel lilke coming back. So Mom figured I needed to start to learn to come when she called me, she haddn't really paid attention before.

Hello everyone: One of the most important things which face ALL owners of dogs is that sooner or later you absolutely MUST teach the dog to stay with you, to not run off, and to come when called. A good idea to do this training is to capitalize on what the dog already knows and to re train or train with that in mind. Phoenix already knew that there wasn't always someone hiding for her in the grasses. She learned that by herself the day she ran off looking. The next thing for her to find out was that it was pleasurable when I called her, that there would be a SURE reward if she came. Something that was totally awesome. So...I cooked up nuked hot dogs. RESERVE these treats for something special. Yes they are cheap but they are an extremely motivating treat. Anyhow...here's what I did:

"Mom took me walking the next day in the woods. She had my leash on. The neighbor kid came along. I really loved that cuz I love all the neighbor kids. When we got into the woods Mom took off my leash. I heard her telling the neighbor kid that even if I ran away I couldnt go anywhere far cuz there would be a fence. Anyhow when she took off my leash I didnt want to go anywhere cuz just before she took it off she had the neighbor kid give me the very best treat I had ever had!! So I stayed with them for a little while. But pretty soon I thought maybe I should run on ahead into the woods. I did, but in just a minute the neighbor kid called me and gave me one more of those neat treats. So I kind of watched for awhile and walked with them for awhile. Then I went on ahead to check things out. Next time when the neighbor kid called I ran back to see if I would get another treat. But that time the neighbor kid just gave me a really big kiss and a belly rub. I didnt care about the treat then cuz that belly rub felt really good. So anyhow we walked for a long time. Every time I went away after while mom or the neighbor kid would call me and I would get either a treat or a nice kiss and hug. It was great. Besides I found out that if I stayed close enolugh to mom she really liked it if I went a little ways ahead and then just looked bak at her every so often. Every time I did that she told me what a good girls I was...."

BYE NOW AND GOOD SEARCHIN'

MOM got the Newf page back up again!!

it's me again...Phoenix. Mom has been working on the Newf web pages and finally is starting to get 'em back up again...you can check 'em out by clicking on the title. Anyhoo.....I got to go for a "blind search" the other day, at least that's what mom calls it. She put me in the car, (actually I jumped in) and we went somewhere where there was a road. I got out with mom and walked down the road with her. she stopped me after awhile and put on my collar. The one that makes a noise, she calls it the bell collar. Right after that I smelled someone. I ran through the grass and I found a kid in the grass!! boy this searching thing is really fun!The only thing though is that when I can't find the person sometimes I have to run BESIDE the wind and lift my head up and smell, usujally I can find 'em again.

If you want to learn about all kinds of dog stuff you can learn it here: "PETS" and you can learn other stuff too!

this is a really cool place

Some information about the noses of dogs and their sense of smell:

The Canine olfactory sense (sense of smell) is without doubt so far superior to that of man as to be beyond imagination. It could be like comparing a bunaglow to a skyscraper, there simply is no comparison.

Depending on the dog and the size of the dog’s muzzle, there can be more than 200 milliion olfactory cells. Mankind has only 5 million. So the first thing that determines the precision of a dog’s sense of smell is the numbers of olfactory cells that the particular dog has. Some researrch has been done which has led to the discovery that not all dog’s noses are the same. It is now known that dogs with smaller noses do not have the same numbers of receptive cells as dogs with longer noses.

Although it is of course impossible for mere human beings to understand exactly what dog is thinking or smelling, another factor which probably is equally important is the dog’s ability to discern between smells. In the sazme way that we humans use our eyes combined with our brains to tell us about the world around us, dogs use their noses combined with what their brains have discovered about the sense of smell. It comes with practice and learning about the world, the same way humanbabies learn about the world with their eyes and their sense of touch...dog babies learn from the beginning what different smells in the world mean..they "read" the world with their sense of smell.



by Kathy Reed


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