Yesterday was bulk trash day, and the trash men gave me a hard time about the two piles of green refuse that my tree guys left in the swale. They were saying it was too much blah blah blah. The bottom line is if the professional tree guys would have put all that in one pile, then we would have been all right. But because there were two piles, the trash men had attitude. Besides the fact that I hardly ever leave out bulk trash, there was not much going on with bulk trash on my block. It was another city worker pushing around his policy power. He finally did take both piles, but it was not a pleasant experience. However, being that they took the first pile and left a pamphlet on my door and left, and I came home to this half-done job at lunch, I was very happy that it turned out the way it did.

After I got the pamphlet, I drove down the street to where I saw a bulk trash man picking up debris. He was very nice and I will say that trash man went out of his way to help me by phoning in the problem – half my bulk trash was left behind – and getting the message they will be back for the second pile, but had left because their truck had been filled. I called into the trash company to give kudos to this man for going above and beyond. It was the fact that the pamphlet and attitude wasn’t enough from the leaf trash man that got me riled up. He had to knock on my door and give me a lecture over the entire thing before he picked up the second pile. Then he tried to turn it into a personal conversation while the clock was ticking away on my precious lunch break. I’d much rather have been spending it with my dogs than being lectured to or chit-chatting. Eeegads!

Let me just say that I’m glad that whole tree business is done. Now I’m facing a very hairy front yard and swale, which needs some mowing. This weekend will be mowing weekend. Call me a dud, but I’m not looking forward to that.

In between running back and forth to talk with the trash men, I was watching the flight of the Dragon Flies in my back yard. I had taken a few pictures of them, but not enough due to time constraints. I’d never seen such a swarm of Dragon Flies enjoying the day before. It was quite an event. The FDSP didn’t notice them being they flew a few too many feet above their heads for noticing. A good thing.

I worked more on Raven’s sit staying Tuesday night, but last night I let it slide. She is also learning to pay attention to the dumbbell. Her favorite part of all this is getting treats.

I’d also worked a little with Bunny Butt on her sit stay Tuesday night. She’s got such a spastic behind that getting 10 seconds of it staying planted on the floor was next to impossible. So we worked on half that time.

Luigi worked on scent discrimination. He had been practicing on the FDSP Budha Dog. We are both learning this process of scent discrimination exercises using clicker training – me how to teach it that way and him how to learn it that way. Anytime he doesn’t get it, it’s my fault. He and I both determined that. I found a how-to article on training scent discrimination on line. It’s written by Morgan Spector.

He also wrote an entire book on obedience training using the clicker. It’s very good, and if you’d like to order it, CLICK HERE.

I see some of his ideas on the process of training scent using clicker have changed. Mainly in the book he makes comment about people who put the scent articles they want to be cold in the fridge over night. He thought it un-necessary. But the article, which is newer, mentions to do both:

“There are various ways to make sure that there is a clear difference between the “hot” and “cold” articles when you practice with your dog. You can put the “unscented” articles in a refrigerator before practice; the cold will essentially neutralize scent and will retard incidental scenting. You can put the “hot” article in a Ziploc bag, which will intensify your scent.”

Growth is a good thing, and I highly recommend the book. It’s a great price and teaches the trainer a humane and fun-for-the dog way to learn the commands to compete in obedience and get those titles!

Meanwhile, last night Uigi and I by-passed working scent till I could get my brain and the theory and my actions to coincide with the right process, but we did work on the go-out and touch-the-pole exercise. Well, basically, Uigi brought me his red Cuz ball, and I wouldn’t throw it till he touched the pole. He gets so excited about the game, he thinks he has to grab the pole in his mouth, and I’m sure he’d pull it out of the ground if he didn’t get his click fast enough. But so far, I am fast enough, and I throw the ball, he gets it and we start all over again. He’s a brainiac, my boy is.

Meanwhile, Bouchard and Ollie have very nice sun tans. They work hard on maintaining that sun-tanned look daily. If sun bathing were an Olympic event, you could count Bouchard and Oliver in as a prize-winning team.

The synchronized sun bathing team!

Helen