Soooo, Ava gets to be in pictures... then so does Luna.



This afternoon Luna and Numa happened upon a trapped fly in the house and were literally entertained for hours. The outcome for the fly was bleak but wow... I'm thinking of rounding up four or five more just to let loose in the house while I am away next week. I have a feeling I'll be back before they even know I'm gone. The video is classic Luna. Luna believes if he sits, he will be awarded any treat his heart desires, and apparently that wish list includes flies. Numa turned into Ninja-Kitty and almost took out a screen during the hunt (he is out of frame waiting in his camo fatigues for the outside chance Luna will scare the fly into a low flight where he is ready to pounce). To my surprise, they worked well as a team, with Luna reaching high spots and Numa hunting low. The fly eventually waved her little white hanky and cried for mercy, but there was none to be had.
Luna ate her for an appetizer late in the afternoon... so I guess we are once again back down to Defcon-yellow and the area known as my house is "no-fly" zone as far as the eye can see.

The voices in the video are me (whispers and giggles) and my son (shocked and delighted with Luna's antics once again). Ava is wandering in and out of frame wondering what all the fuss is about, while Luna eyes her suspiciously as if she is going to steal his prize fly. No chance there... Numa didn't even get leftovers and HE was part of the hunt. Tough pack to run with if you ask me!


He literally does not take his eyes off the fly and stayed in that position for 10 minutes just waiting for it to make a move. Hardly a fair fight.

WARNING!!! Mute your computer before watching it. The terrible buzz from the air conditioning unit is disturbing. Not a great quality video, but as promised here she is moving and it is good enough to get that across.

It was soon after Ava joined us here that I realized her training was going to take a very different road than I had envisioned. In the beginning, we had intended to adopt a dog with just deafness as an issue, but the first little girl dog wasn't a good fit with the animals we already had here, so Ava came instead. Ava is both deaf and has very limited sight, so signs alone were not going to be enough. I needed a new plan for training and trust me when I say it is still a work in progress.

First, I should say getting to know a deaf dog is pretty much the same as getting to know a hearing one. Perhaps a few more precautions need to be followed at times, but the rest is just figuring out what works and what doesn't. When I first started working with Ava, I borrowed techniques from Deaf culture to get her attention (I work as an ASL interpreter).

For example, if she is outside at night and I want to "call" her to come in, I flip the backyard light on and off a few times and she knows to come to the door. During the day I send Luna to get Ava's attention, which I had no idea he understood as a command? I was like... what the heck?! I was clueless as to how smart he was until Ava got here. Honestly, had me hoodwinked and then some, until suddenly there was competition in the house for attention and he had to come clean with the amount of smarts he was carrying around in that big head of his! Crazy smart dog?! For crying out loud... obviously watching too much Animal Planet during the day while we're out!

(deep breath) Sorry about that... I was on a tangent there and couldn't find the exit.

I also use a lot of touch and certain areas of her body have certain commands attached to them. Touch her nose and she backs up and sits down. Touch her chest and she'll lay down. Touching certain spots on her hips let her know to move or turn in that specific direction.

If the light is too low or too intense for her to see me clearly for a hand signal, she will cue off Luna to figure out what is happening, (Oh? Got it! He's laying down... genius... I'll do the same). All of that, together with some hand signals and whatever energy she can feel coming off me, make up the communication I have with her. But this next one is where it got interesting!

In the house, across a large room, I stomp on the floor to get her attention. If she is doing something "wrong" then the stomp is usually followed up with a "claw-touch" to her shoulder as a sign she needs to cease and desist with the current plan and find a new one - pronto! Well, one day I noticed some pretty pointed behavior coming from Ava. From what I am able to piece together, I can say she gets worried when I stay in one place for any length of time. Sitting at my dining room table, working on my laptop for too long, is apparently NOT how she wants to see me live my life.

One afternoon, Ava came up to me, stared for as long as 20 seconds and when I made no movement toward her or appeared to be going about my business as usual, she stomped. At first it didn't register with me, but no worries because she did it again. She actually stomped her paw at me and then followed it promptly with a snout poke to my arm. I was in shock. I thought I might have imagined it. Was she honestly mimicking me? Let's see?... I want her attention... I stomp. I want her to stop what she is doing... I poke her!!! What the...?! There it was plain as day for me to see. I laughed and thought - touche!

She has used it ever since and I laugh every time I get "the stomp". I usually take it as a sign I need a break from the rays of my monitor and head out for some fresh air with the danes.

They are mirrors to my world.
I just need to know where to look.

Those of us needing the extra large kennels and accoutrements for our beloved animals... I finally found were they make them! Jeeeez... not losing that address twice?!




Honestly, I took this picture traveling 70 mph down the interstate the other day. Being the daughter of a truck driver, I couldn't resist.

Love this shot.

Remember I said Luna prances when he walks?
Well, he REALLY prances and everyone who has a chance, comments on it (no doubt he conjures all kinds of images of the Lipizzaner Stallions?!). In fact, they ask if I trained him to do it. I clear my name by assuring them I did NOT and that I'm actually trying to get him to just relax and walk, without the whole prancing display. See, when he prances he is actually "on watch", which has led to dog aggression. He is actually very insecure around other dogs while on leash (at a dog park or fenced in area? whole different story... happy and easy). I have tried all kinds of things to get him to relax and just enjoy the walk with only moderate luck... so I bought him a backpack. The idea is, if he is in working mode, he is less likely to go into the state of mind where he feels he needs to protect (so saith the Dog Whisperer). Well, I encountered a few problems right off the bat.

*First, where in my area do I find a store that keeps them in stock? And if I DO find a collection of them, his size is inevitably the most vacant hook in the store.

*Once that has been remedied, there is the fact that Ava gets as close to Luna as possible while I am putting it on him - even going so far as to nuzzle her nose inside the straps. It appears she is trying to crawl inside with him? Obviously, this closeness of theirs has gone too far or she just wants to be "pretty" too.

*That of course leads me to the final hurdle, where Luna is now SOOOO proud of his backpack, he prances even taller on walks while wearing it?! Oiy?! But persistence is paying off! Now after adding weight to the pouches, (2 potatoes each side seems to do the trick!), I may be back on track to using it as a training tool and not just another pretty thing added to the harnessing routine prior to walks.

The one down side yet to be addressed? Well, as you know because of their size, danes are commonly referred to as horses and the backpack looks too much like a saddle for people to resist commenting. Which of course is energy Luna feeds on and we are back to prancing again. Can't win for trying.