Lucky

At the gym today Michal and I got on the topic of what it was like to live in communist Czechoslovakia. They only became capitalist in 1989 because all the workers went on strike. Before that, it was truly communist in the worst possible way. They got no newspapers or television or radio from outside the country. In school they would learn about the Eiffel Tower, but not anything about what life was like in France, for instance. When people went to the store there would be one kind and size of milk, a couple of different kinds of meat, and produce was very hard to come by.

But the most touching thing to me was when Michal told me that at Christmas the stores would get in special fruit. Maybe the store would get 50 pineapples for the whole town. And you would have to have a friend to reserve you one, or you just wouldn’t get one. And you’d put it in the bag in the back of the store so other people wouldn’t see you getting it, because they might just take it from you. But that one pineapple is what would make Christmas special. Sometimes it would be other fruits like oranges. It was just amazing and wonderful to everyone, because they knew they were so lucky to get it, and only once a year.

Another thing Michal told me was that there were people who were allowed to leave the country, maybe truck drivers and such, that had to go other places and get stuff that was needed. These people were very closely watched by the government and not allowed to talk about the outside world. Inevitably these people would smuggle in goods to sell. Michal’s dad once bought him and his brother each one can of Coke. Michal said he made that can last two weeks, taking one sip a day and then putting it back in the fridge. It was totally flat after the first day, but it was such a big deal and so special. Even flat, it was a treat. Then he would keep the can, and show it to all his friends. He would say, “It’s Coke, it’s from Germany!”

Super Kody

OK, you guys probably think I am posting way too much about my dog. And that there’s way too much drama. But this is one tough dog. Tonight I went to the store to get Kody some new toys. I can no longer get plush toys because he goes through them too fast, like 5 minutes. So I got an Air Kong Squeaker tough tennis type toy ring. In a half hour he had punctured it and started to make his way through it. *sigh* I took it away because once he gets started he’s going to make a huge mess and I don’t know how much of that he actually eats.

Luckily, I also got him the only toy so far that he can not defeat. I had to use it to get the other toy away from him. It’s the Petstages Orka line of toys. Tonight I got him the one in this picture. He will have the rope completely ripped out and destroyed by the end of the night, but the blue part is so far indestructible to him. I also have a tube shaped one, and we had the ball shape, but somehow lost it. I can’t imagine where it went. I just looked down at him, he’s almost through the rope. I just gave it to him right before I started typing this.

Please comment on your experiences. Are all dogs this tough on toys? The Shitzu we had when I was young wasn’t. I don’t think he would even get plush toys opened up. But Kody and his brother can both tear through Kongs in minutes. If your dog also goes through toys fast what’s your approach? Kody also has large knotted ropes, much larger than the wimpy rope in this thing. He goes through them, but it takes a couple of weeks per rope.

Perfect Kody Addendum

Just reading through my previous post and figured I should clarify a couple of things.

First, when I say “jerk” on the leash, I mean a very gentle jerk and possible positioning correction. If Kody has wandered to the right or left, I’ll bring him gently back to position by my leg. If he is distracted by something a gentle jerk will remind him to stay on task and look ahead. This is by no means a punishment or painful to Kody.

To be honest, when I first saw Cesar do this, I thought it was supposed to be a punishment and my dog was just immune. When he was younger he would run up and jerk himself and the leash far harder than I would ever feel comfortable and it didn’t seem to bother him at all. Once I realized it was just a correction/reminder and that the dog already had to be almost on track, it started working for me. If your dog is already 8 feet out the leash and you jerk it, it’s not going to do anything.

Also, the *tsst* sound is a verbal reminder meaning, “hey, back on track please”. I make the sound probably every 3 seconds at times right now. If it were an “angry” sound I’d have to be pretty angry. It’s just a gentle reminder. Having to use it more does not necessarily mean your dog is being bad, he’s just learning to deal with different distractions.

Also, we just got back from a walk around the block before I fed Kody his dinner. This time we saw a rabbit clearly running across the parking lot. Kody was distracted and growled a little and maybe a half bark and he tried to move ahead a bit, but I was able to get him focused again quickly. I think that’s one of the hardest things Kody would have to deal with.

On the food thing, I switched from lunch and then free feeding, to lunch and then dry food put down for 20 minutes around 5:00. I set down the food and set the timer on the microwave. This arrangement is much easier as I’m not always monitoring what Kody has or hasn’t eaten. It also puts me more in control of the food, which Cesar likes.

Perfect Kody

So our walks were getting very tiresome to me. That’s part of the reason I finally got off my butt and signed us up for training. But I think I mentioned that he was also better on a short leash. So I would hold the leash behind my back and clasp my hand so I could walk relatively comfortably even if Kody pulled. I also started watching the Dog Whisperer DVDs again to see if I could get some insight. I did.

Today after practicing a lot at home over the last few days, Kody and I went to the SRT and had a perfect walk. It was a big challenge because he gets really excited at the beginning and the end of the walk. But at no time did I let him pull on the leash continuously. When there was a lot to distract him it was almost constant *tsst* while jerking on the leash till he calmed down, but it worked. He barked at some bikes when we first got there but only like three times before I got him to stop. He barked once at a dog we were passing but that dog barked too. And he barked twice at some people that had parked next to us when we were going back to the car.

But enough about the bad stuff. He was so good! He quickly dealt with ignoring bikes all together. The leash was loose the entire time. He didn’t seem to want to change that much so wasn’t fighting me. He was pleasant and happy. He even let the people who parked next to us give him a treat and was very happy about it.

I know that Kody is a tough dog to train. Today worked because I had all the experience I have and paid close attention to the dog whisperer. Almost all the jerks of the leash were preemptive where I could tell though my peripheral vision Kody was distracted. I never would have been able to do that at first. And I think the preemptive nature of what the dog whisperer does was the key for me. At the first sign of distraction, he does his thing. It’s hard to see at first. He doesn’t scold the dog, he prevents them from doing what he doesn’t want and then the dogs just eventually get the picture and go along with it. That’s what I did with Kody today.

Riverdog

Yesterday Kody and I had a meeting with a trainer at Riverdog. I wanted to make sure he would be OK in a group class since he tends to bark at other dogs. When we first went in, he was a bit nervous mostly at the new location and smells, but then he didn’t bark at the dogs. In fact, he became very calm, happily making me look foolish for worrying so much.

The only time he barked is when we experimented with having him off leash around another dog. He only barked when the dog got close. They just said to let him get it out which he did in about thirty seconds. It was nervous/excited barking, not snarling or something. Then he was a mix of curious and sitting at my feet for protection, but not scared really. He didn’t introduce himself to the other dog, though.

Here’s where things get weird. Because in the 5 minutes or so that he was there he didn’t introduce himself to the dog, the trainer decided he was un-socialized around dogs. Meaning in the trainers words “he wouldn’t have a lot of doggie friends.” But he did a play posture at one point but they weren’t paying attention when he did. I think he was just nervous, the other dog was small, but still twice his size. And I can’t believe after all the going to the gym every day and playing that he did with his brother and all the socializing behavior they did (smelling crotch, lifting leg to allow other to smell crotch, smelling butt, aren’t dogs wonderful) that he isn’t socialized to dogs. These dogs are small and have a hard time getting used to bigger dogs. But Kody walks by a big dog every time we go to the gym and is fine.

Well, I hope I’m right. She is a trainer, but I don’t think they have enough evidence for what they say. And it made me so upset that I couldn’t sleep and I searched the internet for any sign of truth that dogs that didn’t have major diverse dog interaction when they were small had this type of thing happen. It’s nowhere. The dog whisperer talks about socialization, but never says an un-socialized dog can’t be socialized. In fact, his whole schtick is about doing just that. And I just have a very hard time believing that my dog ending up so calm so quick is not socialized. That’s ridiculous.

It was very upsetting to me because as you all know I tried so hard to give Kody everything he needed and tons of bonus stuff. And the idea that I would have messed up on this kills me with guilt. But my vet even recommended he stay away from unknown dogs until all shots were completed which would have been well after the 8-16 weeks socialization phase. I would think if there was some super important thing someone would have told me.

Anyway, as we were walking out to the car we passed two big dogs. Kody didn’t even act scared. Even the trainer said, “Wow, he didn’t seem to mind them.” The point is, 15 minutes around other dogs and Kody is calm. Socialize this!

On a bright note, I was very impressed. Aside from the fact that I think that one opinion is wrong, I really like the people and the place. So Kody and I are going in for Obedience 101 every week. I’m really looking forward to him getting used to other dogs in a safe environment. And I hope, and I bet that after a while, Kody will get comfortable and end up playing with some of them.

Scrabulous / Wordscraper

So there was this big online drama. There was a game called Scrabulous that everyone loved on Facebook. The owners of Scrabble were bitches and made them remove it and put their own crappy version in its place. The users of Facebook rebelled by totally breaking the impostor. Then the makers of Scrabulous retooled it and released the new application under the name Wordscraper. So knowing all the drama, I had to try it.

You can play against friends, but the best is blitz mode. Where in four minutes you have to get a higher score than everyone else by making as many words as you can with the same tiles. Then you have a minute between games to chat with everyone, then the whole process starts again.

I am warning you, this is the most addictive game ever. It’s more addictive than Tetris because you have to think more so you don’t get bored. I had to tear myself away just to post this. I think I played for something like two hours last night. Don’t start if you don’t want to get addicted.

Right now it’s a little slow if a lot of people are on, but they’re working on it.

The Wabbit!

Tonight when we were coming home from a walk there was a rabbit in the parking lot. There are plenty of rabbits around here and Kody thinks their poo pellets make great treats. However, I think this scent was a bit too fresh. Kody went wild trying to follow the scent. When we went inside and I offered him treats for a command, he just looked at the door. We’ve been out a couple of times now, but that’s it for me. He’s still whining at the door.

Ratio 2.0

I made it!

“Hi, my name is Kristy McNichol and I approve of Ratio 2.0™.”

Ratio Rodeo

This morning I woke up and it had happened, my all-time transfer ratio was 1.27. If you don’t understand BitTorrent, here’s how it works. When you want to download a file, you get a small torrent file. This file will help you connect to everyone else who’s downloading that file. Then you download a small piece from each of them so it goes really fast. At the same time, others are downloading small pieces from you. When I was downloading this file, I was downloading from up to 50 other people at the same time.

Now once you’ve downloaded the file, you can just shut off your client and screw everyone else. But the general rule of politeness is that you should at least wait until you’ve uploaded (given to others) until you transfer ratio is at least 1. This isn’t a problem because it doesn’t take much bandwidth or processor power so you just leave it going for a few days.

I had not totally trusted BitTorrent in the past, so had usually shut it off pretty early, but now I’m OK with it. I wanted to make up for all the times in the past I had shut if off early so that means getting my ratio to be greater than 1. And now it is. Notice that my transfer ratio for this one file is 7.36, meaning I had uploaded 7.36 time what I had downloaded. That’s what it took to get my overall ratio higher.

By the way, in BitTorrent terminology downloading is called “leeching” and uploading, or sharing with others is called “seeding.” That’s why it says “Seeding to 6 of 6 peers”. That means 6 people are currently getting parts of the file from me.

Kody Torrent

Kody seems to have matured to the point where I can keep him on a short leash like the dog whisperer suggests, so I’ve started doing that. He still tries to pull so far, but he doesn’t exhaust himself so much and stays calmer overall than if I don’t do it.

I used BitTorrent to download the 3rd alpha release of the next version of Ubuntu. Both downloading and uploading are so much faster now the Comcast got their ass kicked by the FCC for throttling the connections, and then lying about it. So I’m trying to get my overall ratio to 1.0, which means I will have uploaded as much as I have downloaded and therefore am a good net citizen.