Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Holy cow!  Those are gorgeous!  Although I'm feeling very strange
right now since I thought my 'tiel was just being super friendly all
those years.  

Thanks for answering my query about the weird questions.  The oddest
question I usually get asked about my rabbit is whether he drinks
water.  So I guess my next question is, when are you going to do a book
on rabbits and/or guinea pigs, please please please?
  

    
I would like to. Unfortunately, there's not much of a market for it,
and I gotta make a living. As you may know, I adore my rabbits! 
  

    
interesting about the cats and direct eye-contact. presumably
with cats that -are- willing to make direct eye contact
they
a) have previouslt estbalished cordial relations with you?
b) if they are previously-unknown-cats-to-you, then
they are utterly fearless/totally lunatic/have decided
right off the bat that you are the friendly sort, since
they -are willing to make eye-contact with you?
  

    
It's different with dogs, though, isn't it? What I mean is, dogs don't
like direct eye-contact either, I believe (few animals do -- maybe
fish?), yet a dog, given a choice, nearly always pads right over to the
dog-lover in the room. 
  

    

Say, I have a "Why do Dogs DO that type question" -- why do dogs 
like to stick their heads in tiny places, like armpits, sofa cushions,

and, yes, crotches?  

I loved the anecdotes, too.  My favorite was the one about the
"good old days" being now.  It does seem like people are more
knowledgeable about what good pet ownership practices are than
when I was a kid. Do you think that things like positive 
reinforcement are common knowledge now?

(Those birds are gorgeous!)
  

    

I was amused by the answer to the question, "If a purebred dog mates
with a mutt and has puppies, ae future litters from the purebred dog
going to be mutts, too?"

Specifically: "With so many unwanted dogs... it's sometimes very
tempting for veterinarians and other pet experts to tell the person
whose purebred dog just had a 'whoops' litter that such a thing is
true..."

Another temptation I had never even imagined!  I need to get out more.
  

    
Dogs like sticking their nose in little places because the smell is
concentrated there. 

And dogs do make eye contact naturally. They just know to avert their
eyes to show lesser status. But we teach our dogs that looking at us is
OK. 

Remember, though, that wolf pack stuff only takes you so far. It
assumed that a dog wasn't raised by morons who didn't leave the puppies
with their moms and siblings long enough to understand canine body
language, or that they weren't in a high stress situation like a puppy
mill. 

The number of truly screwed-up puppies sold by pet stores, or clueless
or careless breeders is incredible, so you do have to take every dog
as an individual, because you don't know what he knows.

Because there are so many screwed up dogs, your generally safe in
doing anything you can to get the clueless and careless to spay the
pets. Everyone is better off.
  

    
By the way, I'm in downtown Marriott in Kansas City, a "business
hotel" with the most pathetic WiFi -- and it's not even free! 

But, after an hour and three tries with tech support I was able to get
online, to check in here, and to check my e-mail. The latter brought
good news: We've made the NYT best-seller list. No. 12 in the how-to
section, for the dog book. 

Whoo-hoo. 
  

    
Congratulations!
  

    

Yow, NYT best-seller list... Brava, Gina!
  

    
Excellent, Gina!
  

    
Congrats!
  

    
Gina! Wow!
  

    
Great!
  

    

Party time!
  

    
My excitement is somewhat tempered when I see the "how-to"
best-sellers also on the list are mostly celebrity diet books, but what
the heck!

I think I missed the cat eye contact question. Yes, cats can and do
learn to enjoy eye contact with people, especially their own.

To put it another way ... cats and dogs do come with some basic
hardware, but their software is very adaptable, for behaviors we enjoy
or don't. 

I won't be around much today ... I'm in business meetings all day here
in Kansas City. But I'll be back on tonight. 

In the meantime, for those who'd like a taste of the books in quiz
format, try these: 

<http://www.universityofmeow.com>
and
<http://www.universityofwoof.com>

Report back your scores if you dare!
  

    

I'm out of town and using Mom's dial-up, so haven't been able to
participate until now.  Loved the cat book.

OK, here's one for you:

Did you know cats just love tomato sauce?  Don't believe me - offer
your cat some spaghetti sauce or even tomato soup.  I discovered this
quite by accident and would have never guessed it.  Most people think
I'm nuts when I tell them that, but try it and you may be very
surprised!

Little old Nutmeg in her dotage preferred Safeway's Tomato Bisque soup
(which is quite spicy!) mixed in with her food, but would happily lap
it up all by itself!  The vet said what the hell, at 21 she can eat
whatever she pleases.
  

    
I had a cat who made little smacking noises when she watched the shadows of
birds on our roof that were cast on the wall next door in the evening.
Lusting for an abstraction based on what?  Had she learned by seeing birds
and their shadows years before when she was an outside cat?  Instinctive
reactoin to bird shapes or motions?

The other two times she would make those noises were now and then when we
unwrapped fresh fish, and every time we cut into a ripe cantaloup.

No tomato interest.  Slight interest in Cheerios. Trembling passion in
anticipation of cantaloup, some fish and the abstract visual 
representation of live birds.  

Moving images --  shadows in her case, but somebody has made a business out 
of a similar behavior -- making videos of birds and rodents for kittens 
and cats.

Makes me wonder what kind of fantasy life these housebound critters have.
  

    
> made little smacking noises

That's hysterical.  And congrats, <giori>... now go get yourself some
barbeque to celebrate!
  

    

As a dog person who hangs out with my dear in the dog park as much as
possible, I find myself in the middle of discussions of Cesar Millan and
Ian Dunbar from time to time.  I'm curious about your view of dog
psychology and training.

PS: I did badly on the test. Lila did not want me counting her teeth. But,
from experience, I knew about humping and a dog biting while wagging its
tail.  My opinion of doggie breath was as a result of putting a mint into
our dogs mouth after she had dined on fresh, warm cow pattie hot from
the 'oven'.
  

    

We used to have a dog who loved Puss And Boots cat food, which is
mostly fish.

After eating the cats' food, she'd then come up to you while you were
sitting on the couch and exhale in your face.  Eeeeewwwww.

This dog (a collie) found ringing telephones very annoying, and
decided that somehow the cats were responsile for that, so anytime the
phone rang, she'd pounce on the nearest cat.  Talk about Pavlovian
conditioning, after a while if the phone rang the cats would jump up on
the highest nearby piece of furniture, whether the dog was in the
house or not.
  

    
If it's a spam telephone call, the cats are definitely responsible.
One way or another, cats are responsible for all annoyances. 
  

    
For many years now the gap between trainers has been getting as wide
as the one between right-wing Christians and secular liberals. Part of
the problem is that you have to have a "brand" as a trainer and that
means not for one moment accepting someone in the other camp may have a
point. 

I think Cesar Milan is a charismatic TV personality with a degree of
basic dog sense and some training skills that have been pretty much
eclipsed by better techniques. In other words, noting new here except
the goateee. 

That said, I myself draw from both extremes, but not extremely. I
train my retrievers for field competitions, and that does involve the
use of an e-collar. But I also use clicker training for other things. 

The best thing I can recommend is not to get involved in guru worship.
There are a lot of techniques, and some work better than others on
different dogs. 
  

    

Thanks! You just confirmed my opinion.

We've used a Cesar technique on Lila. When she was jumping at the fence
after a possum, rather than yell at her, we walked to the fence and stood
where she was trying to jump. She still wanted to jump, but we had claimed
that part of the fence for ourselves. She stood there for a few seconds
and then basically "said":  "Ok, you win" and followed us inside. OTOH, we
loved Ian Dunbar's Sirius puppy training classes.

With my background in psychology (although never professionally used), I
have a different people need different things philosophy which translates
into the dog realm as well.
  

    
Gina, can you say anything about the taste buds of cats and dogs?  A
previous cat, otherwise well-behaved,  used to dig cantalope rinds out
of the trash, feast on them, then vomit.  One of my mother's cats loved
corn on the cob ... pretty amazing sight to see a cat trying to eat
corn on the cob.