New Pup in Town

 I must be crazy.  I lost my beloved Ranger this June and added a new pup, Mango, to the family in July.  Now I'm the proud owner of two young dogs and a puppy.  

Mango the pup may be the mellowest of the three.  He brings the clownish male Toller pup energy to the pack with all of his goofiness.  Jackson, at three, is enjoying his role as elder statesman of the pack and Annie, at two is doing her best to be a good enough girl not to get herself into too much trouble.

Dognition Redux

Curiosity got the best of me and I signed up for a year of Dognition fun.  Part of that entailed me having to retest my dogs, as they had done some adjusting to their testing process based upon the results of the earlier beta test results of my dogs and many others.  While I wasn't exactly thrilled about redoing what had been an approximately 2 hour per dog process, I was willing to give it a go.

This time my formerly labled "Einstein" dog, Ranger, tested to be a "Socialite" and my formerly labled "Protodog", Sue, tested to be a "Renaissance Dog".  These profiles fit more in line with my preconceived notions about my guys, but I wonder if our earlier testing influenced our new results.

The dogs, and I were both a little more relaxed about the whole process this time around.  I remember that the first time we tested Ranger exhibited some stress indicating behaviors, because we were doing something new, and he does tend to worry a bit in uncharted waters.

In any case I'm looking forward to getting training games based upon our test results each month.

Dognition dog personality profiles

I was lucky enough to be chosen to be a beta tester for a new start-up, dognition.com.  This offered me a unique opportunity to work with and study the personalities of two of my dogs, Sue and Ranger.  Basically, it's the Myers Briggs Test for dogs. The results of the profiles were in a way similar to, but also very different from my opinions about them. 

Ranger

Perhaps the labels attached to the results are where I have a disconnect with the results.  While I am not sure what all of the labels Dognition has are, I do know that my Ranger, was labeled an "Einstein" which as far as I can tell means that Ranger is a very independent problem solving dog who relies more on his brain than on communication with or from me.    Hmmm, and all this time I had thought him to be stubborn, cuddly, and a little lazy.  I do think he's smart, but I would never have hung the "Einstein" label on him.

Sue

Sue, my little wunderkind princess, on the other hand, tested as "Protodog" or the most like the primitive dogs who first began the canine relationship with humans.  According to Dognition, "independent problem solving may not be a strong suit, but she has what counts - a desire to communicate and connect with you (me)".  Who knew? Well, she is my most communicative, (read whiny) dog.  However, I also like to think of her as my smartest dog.  She learns things super fast in training situations. She's super compliant, a dream dog for performance venues, really.  How can she be my "Protodog"?  I won't say that she's the smartest of my three, but she definitely is the easiest to train, and I always thought that she was smarter than the "Einstein", Ranger.  When I think about Sue, she does rely on me telling her what to do and then she does it.  She's not a very creative dog at all, but I would categorize her as an independent soul as well.  She's an explorer at heart. Often she goes off solo following trails over hill and dale until I whistle her back in, but she's not a dog who runs away, I allow her freedom to roam and she returns when I call her back.

What does it all mean?

So, what does all of this mean in the long run?  Was it just a fun activity like a quiz in a magazine? Do I have any useful information that I didn't already know here? Is my participation in the "Citizen Science" process going to reveal something monumental about dogs as a whole?  How can it help my training process with these dogs?  I think that Dognition has a way to monetize the obsession many dog owners have with their dogs.  In March, they are planning to launch Premium memberships, where each month or twelve times/year, for a fee, Dognition will send me more games to play with my dogs based on their personality profiles.  Depending on the price, I might try it. 

Don't leave your pets or children in the car

Recently,  I saw yet another news report about someone who left their dog in a hot car.  Fortunately, for this dog, someone noticed it was in distress and illegally broke out the car's window to rescue the dog.  The bystander had called for police assistance first, but after waiting over 45 minutes for a response, took matters into her own hands and rescued the dog. 

In another case, a child, who had been left sleeping in a car awoke to find that the people in the front seat were not who she was expecting.  The car had been stolen by thieves who didn't notice the sleeping child in the back seat.  Luckily, this too turned out okay and the child was returned safely to her family.

I don't understand why people continually, leave pets and/or children in the car, after all the media coverage about what happens to unattended dogs and children in cars.  Just don't leave them there.  No matter what time of year it is.