Oh My Dog!

Last night, Emmett and Lucas were bored! I’ve had to work late almost every night this week, and it’s been so hot that we haven’t gotten much walking in either. So at around 8:30 PM, I decided to take them outside and work on a new trick. Once I discovered that Emmett was a hoop-jumping fiend, I embellished it a little, and here’s what I came up with:

( Ed. note: This was totally spontaneous, so please ignore the overgrown/half-dead grass situation and my ridiculously pale legs.)

Take 1.

Take 1: Emmett jumps Lucas from Maggie Marton on Vimeo.

Take 2.

Take 2: Oops from Maggie Marton on Vimeo.

Take 3.

Take 3: Now he’s got it! from Maggie Marton on Vimeo.

As you can see, Emmett catches on quickly, then proceeds to get a little carried away! I think we may have to refine the jumping a little bit… specifically, getting him to wait for his cue! I was really impressed with Lucas, too, for staying so still while his brother leapt over him.

This was a lot of fun, though, and I plan on working with them on more elaborate tricks!

What’s the most fun trick you’ve taught your dog? Any fun games you can try this weekend?

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

One of the funniest postcard pics yet!

Recently, I had the opportunity to watch a well-done DVD called The Pit Bull Hoax: The Truth Behind the Media’s Mythical Monster. Produced by Drayton Michaels, the video “examines the facts behind dog bite incidents, effective methods of prevention, and the opinions of today’s leading animal behaviorists on how one breed, the Pit Bull Terrier, has been unfairly cast as the villain.” The DVD is fantastic, and the message is really simple: These are human problems, not “pit bull” problems. So the question is: Why have pit bulls become “the media’s mythical monster?”

A powerful message

Unfortunately, splashy headlines sell newspapers and magazines. They get clicks on web stories. Media professionals capitalize on this and toss around the “pit bull” headline – at least when it suits their needs. Take this story, for example, “Female Dog Leads Chained Friend to Freedom.” It’s a darling, heart-warming story. Though the dogs are pit bulls, the headline certainly doesn’t reflect that. Would the story have been less appealing to readers if it had been advertised in the headline that it was a pit bull who did the courageous deed for another pit bull?

Even cats want to end BSL!

And that media bias just fuels the breed’s bad reputation. Unfair reporting means that the dogs are constantly vilified without getting the equal positive coverage that they so clearly deserve. This unjust reporting exacerbates the problem – bad people who want a status dog see the pit bull portrayed as the biggest bad ass out there, so they gravitate to the breed, then neglect, mistreat, abuse, and under-socialize their dogs, who might then bite the neighbor’s kid, which gets reported as another pit bull biting a child, and on it goes.

Oh, the sweetness!

As an aside, I can’t help but apply my years as a media professional to this situation. With nearly a decade of marketing, branding, editorial, and public relations experience under my belt, there is a tremendous opportunity here. While we’re combating BSL in Denver, I’m also starting to think about what’s next…

In the meantime, I am so incredibly excited about the progress we’re making with the Campaign to End BSL! In fact, a recent Denver Post article indicates that we’re on a winning path! I will never, ever be able to express how grateful I am to all of you for your support, your efforts, your blogging, your tweeting!

So what do you think: Why is the media so biased against pit bulls? What can change their perceptions?

Great message, darling little face!

Next Tuesday: From the mouths of babes! Thanks to a wonderful dog named Gunny, schoolchildren from North Carolina sent stacks of heartfelt, well-written postcards. They’re impressive beyond what I could have ever imagined. I’m in the process of scanning them in and will post some here next week and in a photo album on Facebook!

And don’t forget to comment if you’ve written about BSL so I can add it to the growing Anti-BSL Link Library!

I had an entirely different post lined up for today, but all the news coming from the Gulf is so utterly heartbreaking (see video below) that I wanted to put some thought into how we can adjust our pet care to reduce our pets’ dependence on oil.

10 ways to reduce our pets’ dependence on oil:

1. Avoid nylon (a petroleum product) leashes and collars. Consider ones made from natural fibers or search etsy for recycled versions.
2. This one’s tough, but don’t buy plastic toys! There are toys made from recycled materials and natural fibers readily available which are actually much safer than plastic if your little ones accidentally swallow small pieces. I wrote about a couple eco-friendly options or a DIY option.
3. If you feed your pets a commercial diet, talk to your vet about decreasing the amount of kibble you feed in exchange for adding fresh fruits and vegetables – bonus points if you grow them yourself!
4. Spay and neuter your pet. There are millions of unwanted dogs and cats who all need food, boarding, transportation, medical care – not to mention half of those animals never find homes.
5. Replace clay cat litter with one of the eco-friendly biodegradable alternatives. Not only does clay litter crowd landfills (2 million tons per year!) but it’s made from some pretty toxic stuff.
6. Instead of purchasing overly-packaged treats and goodies, make some for your pets yourself! You can grow your own catnip, whip up organic doggy ice cream, or even bake healthy biscuits.
7. When purchasing anything for your pets, avoid products made in China. Strive to cut down on the distance your pets’ products travel to get to you. Whether it’s Holistic Select pet food made in Indiana, a leash handmade in Massachusetts and purchased on Etsy, or training treats from your locally-owned dog bakery, there are locally-sourced options for just about everything you need for your pets! (Tip: Yard sales are gold mines for bird cages and small animal homes!)
8. Try bathing and grooming your pet at home. Have you ever been in a grooming salon during a busy period? Water running, electric clippers and trimmers, dozens of fluorescent lights, bottles and products everywhere – it takes an awful lot of energy to run a busy salon. I give Emmett a bath, brushing, teeth cleaning, ear cleaning, and nail filing every other week for his therapy work. We have a routine down and, from start to finish, it takes about half an hour. Lucas gets a bath far, far less often, but we invested in a pet shower sort of like this one a couple years ago to make it easier, so not only is it more energy-efficient, but it’s saved us a fortune in grooming costs!
9. Dogs get tired of toys, pets grow and need bigger beds, bigger collars, longer leashes, raised feeding dishes. Instead of tossing old items, donate them to your local shelter. Shelters always need gently-used beds, leashes, toys, bowls, and more!
10. And this might be the toughest one of all, but reduce consumption! Does your dog really need a rain jacket, a winter jacket, and a sport coat? How many brushes do you really use to groom your cat? The more you buy, the more oil you’re consuming, so try to figure out what really are needs versus what are wants. One thing we’ve tried to do is to make the toys they have last longer by rotating them – we have a handful out at a time and a handful tucked away in the pantry. Every few weeks we switch them out, making each toy last longer and it keeps the boys interested longer, so we have to buy fewer toys.

So those are some ideas off the top of my head. Most I’m trying to implement; the rest I will start immediately. I’d love to hear from you:

Any other ideas on how we can reduce our pets’ dependence on oil? What are you doing to reduce your pets’ carbon pawprint?

“I examine the faces of the sleeping dogs beside me, the improbable nature of their existence, the short lives they live with an intensity unbearable to us.”
– Jim Harrison

Lucas always tries to understand what I'm saying!

I chatter to Emmett and Lucas all day long. A lot of what I say to them has created an odd set of routines. For instance, they tend to follow me around the house. So when I’m in the office and I say “I’m going to refill my coffee,” they know I’ll be coming right back, so they don’t follow me.

Other things have really specific meaning to them – Want to go for a walk? Are you hungry? Let’s go see Cady! (meaning, play with the darling dog next door). They have really specific reactions to each of those things. At “walk,” Lucas runs and sits at the front door. At “hungry,” Emmett runs and sits in front of his bowl. And at “Cady,” they both run to the backdoor and start dancing with excitement.

But recently I realized that they respond more consistently to nonverbal cues. Like hand signals with training, dogs seem to respond to visual directions… even ones you don’t try to teach them!

For example, when I pull my navy blue running shoes out of the closet, Lucas dashes to the front door just as reliably as when I say “walk.” He has learned that these sneakers – not my black ones, not the yard work ones, THESE ones – mean we’re going for a walk.

Likewise, they’ve learned that when I pick up the single key to our mailbox, they know that they’re not getting a car ride, they’re not going for a walk, I’m not leaving… I’m getting the mail. So as soon as I pick up that one single key on its Colts football key chain, they dash to the front window to watch me walk to and from the mailbox.

Those are just two small examples of our nonverbal conversation. It goes on throughout the day with all the different cues that they’ve learned – this happens, then I get to do this! I know a lot of it is routine, but it takes some pretty deep intelligence to really get the cause and effect associated with certain actions.

What nonverbal cues does your dog respond to? Do you find that your dog does better with verbal or nonverbal communication?