purple_mog

morning all I slept in - ooops am very jealous of Kats Inc am drinking coffee and trying to find enthusiasm for work

well I don't much like kids generally (tracey.s 's family being the exceptions so far!) and I'd honestly rather not share my eating space with noisy ones - so I choose not to go to 'family' type restaurants. And that leaves the family friendly places for the parents to help their kids learn how to eat out etc without having to worry about people like me but - if its a choice between having to suffer children or having to endure smokers - I am so in favour of the kids (and since moving down to England am amazed at the number of eating places that it is still okay to smoke in)

ooooooh - good essay topic - almost certain to get good marks if you run some pubmed and psychinfo searches and cite anyone other than just Loftus! Hangon - you're at Aberdeen right? I went to some seminars there on interviewing techniques and stuff that linked in really well to false memories....trying to remember names....

and for Amber. One of my favourite teachers always reminds us that our greatest moments of understanding occur in the midst of chaos. Chaos allows our boundaries and rules to relax enough that real change can occur. Of course it often feels like hell at the time, but thats still usually better than carrying on in the frozen place you're in before. thinking of you and your hounds

oh dear, think may have accidentally dropped a colleague in it at work. Have sent complicated email to my boss to re-explain everything just in case I've somehow not explained things properly. Worried that I might have caused problems now

makes sense to me - we're practicing it on our morning walks at the moment until I'm 100% sure he's got it in the positions he usually manages, then we'll try changing my body position like you suggest ta muchly!

ah - we've tried that one too - he just sits extra fast if I don't reward he'll give paws, then try lying down super fast and sitting again hmmmmmmm, tricksy hound. He does understand "back" facing me and beside me though...

ooh - whats the other way? Only Finn has a trick where he dives through my legs from the front, then comes from the back and sits between my legs - so as soon as I stand over him he sits very smartly and stares up at me

Finn is happy with the first move, so long as we can use hand signals. Not started doing twist/twirl as opposed to "round you go" with hand direction because my left and right is so apalling I can't work it out myself! Having problems with the reverse - he backs up in front of me or beside me perfectly but only if I move with him, so we're trying to reduce the amount of movement I do.... going backwards through my legs not a hope just now, but will see no pics as just me and Finn doing it together for now.

well - Finn and I have been working on the first move for about a week now so we better update I guess!.. Finn already knew all the individual bits but getting him to do all of it together is more tricky. Still using hand signals and voice commands at the moment but we can do it all for just one click and treat at then end of it all. Notice that he gets progressively more excited about each stage as we go through it and is positively sproinging round by the last turn

h'okay, first dumb question! 1. like Neo - Finn knows "round-you-go" and goes in the direction of my hand, or nod - should I teach him specific turns? or can I just use the hand signal? 2. should all of that be trained to one command? 3. do we use vocal commands or just hand signals? very confused!

Handler : Purple_Mog Dog / s : FinnDog Breed / type : BC Dog age/s : 6yrs approx Joined challenge : week one stiffness and intermittent lameness loss of control of left back leg, no physical abnormality and vet advised to try things as normal - so we'll see.... Totally echo what tracey said - its something I use with Finn in new situations or stressy ones - he has many reactivity triggers

thanks for that great post Snow I find the dis-inhibition part fascinating, mostly because I don't seem to "get" that part. It takes me months of chatting online to people before I would feel comfortable posting intimate or sensitive details - probably says a lot about my obsessive need for privacy and fear of mockery LOL I particularly like what you wrote about stepping back and sleeping on thigns before posting, I find that often after doing that I realise that I was so very worked up about something rather small, and posting/not posting my arrogant or inflammatory response will make little difference to the world. thankyou snow - and now that I think about it - it makes for pretty good advice in face-to-face communication too

might have known Mel would have started this one!! Always called minnie in my house - nothing more exciting