Posted in General Interest on 26 July 2009 by Randy
Author’s Note: The following article combines two that I originally wrote and published on my personal blog, Large Fierce Mammal in September 2008. This will be your Sunday programming while Diana and I lead the Pack for a day in the woods.
A Tiny Tale …
Diana holds Tiny, the canine cannon ball, during the little gaffer’s “Welcome to Canada” party.
Back in 2000, I was in Florida on business and ended up rescuing a little ragamuffin toy poodle puppy named Tiny. Because I was traveling on business, I flew there and back in uniform. This was before we transitioned to the black field uniforms. At the time, we used a navy blue tactical uniform for field operations with “Whynacht Security & Survival” shoulder flashes and mine also had a bright yellow “Dog Handler” patch on the right sleeve. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in General Interest on 25 July 2009 by Randy
I was responsible for naming the family dog, a mostly black Border Collie, after "Bullet the Wonder Dog", trusty companion of Roy Rogers in the adventure series that aired from 1961 to 1964 and that I never missed.
When I was growing up in the small fishing town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia in the 1960’s and 1970’s it was the norm, after feeding them a meal of table scraps, for people to turn their often unspayed and unneutered dogs loose “for a run” in the evening with the expectation that they would go on a toot and return before the family retired for the night. While this practice makes me cringe on a range of levels too broad to mention here, and I decidedly do not recommend its adoption by anyone, anywhere, for any reason, at any time, EVER, it actually worked amazingly well, and had a few valuable side effects on my formative years that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. Most particularly, as a kid on the go in the streets of Lunenburg it was not uncommon to encounter dogs running loose, singly and in groups. Sometimes you knew one or more of the dogs you met, sometimes you didn’t. Parents of the town understood this as a reality of life, and instructed their children in the basic rules of conduct that would increase the likelihood their offspring would return home with all fingers and facial features intact. Most kids therefore understood what kinds of human behaviour would increase or decrease the chances of a person being chased or bitten, and those who didn’t soon learned the old fashioned way. I was fascinated by the obvious compulsion dogs had to seek each other out and gather in packs, and unlike the children of Lunenburg, how infrequently, when left to themselves, this resulted in any kind of conflict. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in General Interest on 25 July 2009 by Randy
Diana and I regularly encounter questions about our work, our attitudes about dog training methods and specific dog trainers, about the latest books on dog related subjects, if we do group sessions and teach obedience classes, et cetera. While we’ll ultimately post articles dealing with all of these points, this article will address the common connection people make between our methods and those of well known dog behaviourist Cesar Millan.
I’ll start with an anecdote. Most people reading this will have heard of the television series MacGyverthat ran for seven seasons from 1985 to 1992 and starred Richard Dean Anderson in the title role. In case you’ve forgotten or are too young to know, Angus MacGyver was an incredibly creative and resourceful fictional secret agent who preferred non-violent means of conflict resolution and, while he refused to use or carry a gun, was never without his trusty Swiss Army Knife. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Our Pack on 23 July 2009 by Randy
This is Minnie, a five year old Miniature Pinscher who joined our pack from the Halifax area night before last.
Minnie had belonged to a couple who also owned another dog of a different breed. That dog wasn’t so lucky. The couple had problems of the kind that often end up with perfectly healthy dogs being euthanized. Minnie was rescued but her pack mate was not.
A few days ago, Minnie’s plight became known to one of our clients who brought the situation to Diana. Diana in turn got in contact with the foster home Minnie was temporarily in. Arrangements were made and Diana and I picked her up Tuesday evening. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Health Issues on 23 June 2009 by Golden Mountain Dog Solutions
An old dog, just like us humans, will be a different animal from the one you knew in earlier life. Along with the greying muzzle, cloudy eyes, reduced hearing, slower movement, and tendency to sleep more, comes the potential for your dog to manifest symptoms that, misunderstood, can reduce both the quality and length of its life.
Much has been written about this subject that we won’t repeat here, preferring instead to focus on some age related issues that often go undiagnosed or are inappropriately treated. This article is the first in a series of illustrative stories involving first hand experience with dogs we have known.
Jasper was a beagle mutt who loved to hunt. He remained healthy as he aged but gradually became completely deaf in one ear. The effect of this became obvious when he was off-lead at a distance, and a recall command was given. He would prick up his ears and look in the direction he thought the call came from, but without functioning stereoscopic hearing the chance of his choice being accurate was roughly the same as winning the lottery. If he wasn’t looking at whoever was calling, their best choice at this point was to remain quiet as they circled around hm waving until they caught his attention, then call him again. Calling him while he was focusing in the wrong direction would ensure that Jasper would be in the next county before they caught up with him. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in General Interest, Our Pack on 5 April 2009 by Golden Mountain Dog Solutions
Dog behaviourist Cesar Millan sums up his training goals as rehabilitating dogs and training people; in that order. It is often said that the only thing two dog trainers will completely agree on is that a third trainer is doing something wrong, but whether or not you personally embrace the Dog Whisperer’s philosophy or methods, it’s hard to argue with his priorities.
In our work, clients tend to fall into a few basic categories: there’s a new puppy in the house and its owners want to start out right; a new baby is on the way and the boisterous behaviour of the one year old boxer is suddenly worrisome in the face of a new reality, a dog has a “bad habit” or two that its owners would rather it didn’t have such as pulling on the leash, ignoring the recall, jumping on people, counter surfing, etc.; and last but not least, the “problem dog“. In this latter case, the people the dog is living with are convinced that they have tried everything and are now at their wit’s end. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in General Interest on 25 November 2008 by Golden Mountain Dog Solutions
Enjoy the Christmas open house at the Shelter for Helpless Animals In Distress (SHAID), 950 Mullock Road, from 1-4 PM on Sunday, 30 November 2008! Call the Shelter at 902-543-4849 for directions or details.
Here is a reminder to anyone who isn’t on the direct mailing list that the annual SHAID open house is on and needs your support. Dogs and cats to meet, a craft and bake sale, it doesn’t get any better than this. And while you’re there why not make a donation. Any size is fine. The shelter always needs non-clumping cat litter, tinned dog and cat food, dry food with no dye, small blankets, and Javex for cleaning. Please NO treats because they have plenty. It’s the basic necessities of every day life that get short on supply.
To follow up, and for your consideration, here is an article Randy originally wrote and published nearly a year ago that comes out of how we feel about animal shelters, those who are called upon to operate them, and the animals that come into their care … Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Health Issues on 9 October 2008 by Golden Mountain Dog Solutions
Anybody who follows the news out of Lunenburg County has no doubt heard about the travails of Marni Gent and her efforts to publicize the exceptionally high concentration of Lyme disease infected deer ticks in and around her community on Silver Point Road. For those of you who either don’t live in these parts, or are too poor to pay attention, we’ll try to bring you up to speed.
Diana and I first learned of the Lyme risk in and around the Town of Lunenburg over two years ago during a routine visit to our vet, Dr. Barry Falkenham at Seaside Animal Hospital. At that time he told us that pretty much any deer tick found inside of Lunenburg, and east through Garden Lots, Heckman’s Island, Blue Rocks, and the Stonehursts could be expected to be Lyme positive. This really didn’t surprise us considering the size of the deer herd that even back then was living within the inhabited zone that made them immune to any sort of hunting activity. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in General Interest, Our Pack on 5 October 2008 by Golden Mountain Dog Solutions
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.”
~ Will Rogers
As our profile information states, Golden Mountain Dog Solutions is named in memory of Cinders, valiant and trusty comrade, lost to us on 1 December 2006. In the truest sense, she was the catalyst for what would come to be a passion for Diana and me. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in General Interest on 24 September 2008 by Golden Mountain Dog Solutions
The oldest known evidence of human domestication of dogs is approximately 14,000 years old. Only a jawbone with some teeth attached, it was found in the 1950’s buried under the floor of a cave in the region we now call Iraq, and wasn’t properly dated until 1974. In his excellent book The Intelligence of Dogs, Stanley Coren finishes the tale:
“… the importance and age of this fossil were not recognized at first. This is because the fossil was of a dog so similar to contemporary dogs that the archaeologists thought a modern dog must have wandered into the ancient cave site and died there.”
It is safe to say that were you knapping your flint spear head by the fire in paleolithic times, the dog curled up next to you would be indistinguishable in appearance and behaviour from one you might meet on any street in the world. Read the rest of this entry »
Diana holds Tiny, the canine cannon ball, during the little gaffer’s “Welcome to Canada” party.
