Wow… our first blog post!

As I sit here think­ing of some­thing clever and witty to write I’m watch­ing my Bernese Moun­tain Dog, Koos bet­ter known as “the Toaster,” dream.  His lit­tle legs twitch­ing and the quiet half bark.  It reminds me of when some­one wants to sing along to a song, but not loud enough for any­one to hear them.  Won­der what he dreams about.  I won­der if he ever dreams about training.

Koos dream­ing about dog training

A long time ago in a pre­vi­ous life­time (in col­lege) I waited tables.  And I can’t tell you how many times I would have night­mares of being “in the weeds” or wake up real­iz­ing that I never brought ketchup to table 14.  (For those of you who have ever worked in the restau­rant world, you know what I am talk­ing about.)  You live and breath wait­ing tables so much that you have dreams (read: night­mares) about it.  And of course on the flip side, when some­thing fun and excit­ing has your life immersed you often dream of that too.  The third time I was in France I actu­ally spoke the lan­guage and tried to dive head first into the cul­ture.  And what hap­pened?  My friends told me I was talk­ing in French in my sleep.  So my ques­tion is, are dogs (or any other ani­mals) any dif­fer­ent?  Not that there are French speak­ing, sleep walk­ing dogs, but if a dog missed the chance to chase the squir­rel in the yard ear­lier, is that why he’s run­ning in his sleep?

Ani­mal behav­ior is some­thing that has always fas­ci­nated me.  And my per­sonal opin­ion is peo­ple don’t give ani­mals enough credit for their intel­li­gence, emo­tions, or learn­ing abil­ity.  With advances such as clicker train­ing and pos­i­tive rein­force­ment meth­ods, train­ing has become so much more humane than pre­vi­ous years.  Although, not every­one uses this style (yet), many, many peo­ple have seen just how easy, fast, and fun clicker train­ing can be.  I have per­son­ally trained dogs, cats, fer­rets, guinea pigs, rab­bits, and fish; and have pro­fes­sion­ally worked with an array of other small ani­mals, rep­tiles, amphib­ians,  and insects.  And if I’m going to be totally hon­est here, I didn’t give half the ani­mals I have worked with the credit they deserved when I first started work­ing with them. Thank­fully, I had my eyes opened and was able to see each of their per­son­al­i­ties over time.

So today I invite you to think about your pet’s lit­tle quirks that makes him who he is.  What makes him spe­cial?  What sets him apart from the oth­ers?  I know my dog loves train­ing.  And I’d like to believe he dreams about it.  He wags his tail, twitches his body, and acts like he’s eat­ing some­thing (a treat maybe?).

My name is Jules Nye, and I’ll be your host.  (Since I own this blog.)  So until next time, sweet dreams!

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