test blog 5

Cookie does not, will not, come when called. She is just not interested. At mealtimes, "wanna eat?" will bring her running. And if she's in the backyard or on the deck, the sound of the clicker and the treat jar will usually work. But at the beach, she has no intention of coming back to us. We've done the high-value treats, we've done... everything. The beach is simply too wonderful to leave. I am Cookie, and I answer to no one. Last year, on a wet, cold day, I was waiting outside the library for Allan to pick me up. He was late. I knew he had taken the dogs to the beach in the morning, and knowing he soon had to clock in to his own work, I thought he forgot about me. When Allan showed up, I learned that Cookie was still at the beach! It was getting late, he knew I was waiting, didn't have his phone with him -- so he left (with Kai)! Now he was going to head back to the beach to get Cookie. I was worried and scared! But a few minutes later, Allan and Cookie ca...

It's been a while since I updated wmtc readers on the continuing adventures of Cookie and Kai. Short version: they are doing great. They are healthy, happy, and a constant source of entertainment, not to mention love and affection. But when it comes to dogs, who wants a short version? The great escape. Cookie has matured and settled in -- but she is still a wild child, and very independent. I have to lock my closet door, and if I forget she will find a shoe to use as a chew toy. Now that she knows she'll earn a treat for coming inside, she stands on the deck and waits for me to put my hand on the treat jar before trotting in. She's that kind of girl. You may recall that shortly after we moved in, we discovered that (a) the backyard fence wasn't very good  and (b) Cookie was an escape artist. When she first let herself in , we thought it was so cute and funny. But when we forgot to lock the front door and she let herself out , not so much. So we have a beautiful new fe...

It's been a while. 1. Mom went home. My mom went home two weeks ago, after spending seven weeks here. I was sad to see her go! We had a great time, and it got better as we went along and settled into a routine. The dogs must especially miss her. They loved to hang out in her room, and she adored them. 2. I took union training. I was in Nanaimo this week, participating in some training with my union, the BCGEU. I had three days of courses, plus a full day of travel each way, so I was gone for the whole work week. My workplace has an interesting union model. All the frontline staff are members of CUPE, and the professional staff -- librarians, senior librarians, and library managers -- belong to the BCGEU. This means I'm the only BCGEU member in all five of my libraries. However, there are BCGEU members in many other workplaces in my area. It's a very diverse union that represents social workers, administrative staff, BC Liquor and BC Cannabis workers, correctional officers, ...

As we enter the last week of my mother's extended visit, we took one last day trip, out to Grant Bay, on the west coast. As I've mentioned, there are no paved roads to the Pacific coast in the North Island. In fact, only two roads on the whole island go to the Pacific coast. In the North, the west coast is only accessible either by backcountry hiking or on logging roads to a few isolated beaches. We've been to San Josef Bay (Sanjo) several times, and I'm sure we'll go again, but we were very curious about Grant Bay. We heard it was a smaller version of Sanjo. This turned out to be true. We also heard that the beach was a five-minute walk from where you park. This turned out to be false. It's quite a bit longer, but not so long as to be prohibitive. So first there's the long, slow, bumpy drive on the logging roads -- about 2.5 hours, a bit closer than Sanjo. Then there's a short hike through a lovely bit of rainforest. Not knowing what we'd find, we ...

Remember this ? Recall from canned salmon and dehydrated liver treats? Worked once. Didn't work a second time. On our next visit to Storey's Beach, both dogs were completely absorbed in harassing the little fish. Cookie had zero recall.  And  Kai regressed and had none either, no doubt learning from her little sister that crime does indeed pay. Even worse, Cookie seems to have developed some form of separation anxiety. She busted out of her crate (a cheapy we bought second hand), destroying it in the process and went a ways towards destroying the nice new one we recently bought. I recently emailed a dog-trainer friend. Both dogs are crated when we're not home, and overnight. Both have always been completely fine with being crated. Cookie will wait until she knows she's getting a treat, but if we're holding treats, she'll jump right in, and once she's in, she settles right down. We go out to dinner or whatever, an hour here or there, and both dogs are calm an...

First there was Incident With a Fish Head . Then there was this. What is that dog doing, you may ask. She's chasing tiny fish. She did this for two hours . Two hours!!! We brought treats to practice recall, but I didn't remember to make them high-value treats. No way this dog is leaving her mad fishing fun for a crunchy cracker, even it is poutine flavoured ! We tried everything, but Cooks was in her own world. Her own fishing universe. The tide came in, so she was no longer in a tide pool. Just out there in water up to her neck, trying to catch tiny fish. After about two hours, she finally started slowing down. Some other dogs came over to say hi, and while she was distracted, I was able to grab her collar. It starts out as funny and adorable. It ends in frustration and exhaustion. We live so close to this beautiful beach, we could pop down there to give the pups a good run any time. Several times a week for sure! But if it takes 90 minutes to get Cookie back in the car, then ...

This weekend we took Kai and Cookie to the beach both days. The beach was Diego's favourite place in all the world, so it was sad to be there without him. But the Littles are so entertaining; they keep us in the moment. Yesterday, however, Cookie put on a show that was anything but entertaining. The dogs were running and playing when, much further down the beach, a woman, a child, and an older dog appeared, walking to the water. The woman had a bucket.  There are houses right near this beach -- for some people, the beach is directly across the street. We didn't know that people fish, clean their catch, and bring the refuse to the water to feed the birds.  Both our dogs took off down the beach, likely to greet the old dog. Eagles and ravens appeared. Our dogs were not far behind. Before I even got close, Cookie splashed into the water, and in a flash was running past me with the head of a salmon in her mouth. I could see the bright red flesh of the fish, the open mouth, the sta...

We said goodbye to our Diego yesterday. We had surgery to repair a ruptured knee ligament (ACL) about six weeks ago. He recovered quickly and was doing really well. And then. Two days ago, the other knee went. The repaired leg wasn't strong enough to hold his back end. He was not able to walk at all, or even stand. We could have had the second knee repaired, but it was clear that Diego's repaired leg would not be strong enough to support him during that recovery. That meant he'd likely end up re-injuring the first knee. For two days, he was only able to walk when we used a towel to sling his whole rear end -- and then only for a few steps. * * * * Diego was the happiest dog I ever knew. He was a big goof who loved everyone. From the moment he got in our car and left Toronto Animal Services, he loved his life. He especially loved the beach. We couldn't say the word beach  around him, he'd go nuts thinking he was going. Then we couldn't say b-e-a . We would say to...