Biscuit and I are on our second go-round with Puppy School. Our first attempt was in West L.A. on Saturday mornings. The trainer taught with a large hat and sunglasses on. I have NO IDEA what she looked like. Puppy school seems to fall into one of several broad approaches:
Pet store puppy school. It costs a little more and is marked by a inevitable certificate.
People based puppy school. My friend Naomi did this one. Mostly they listened to lectures about dogs and dog behavior.
Obedience based puppy school. These are taught by AKC obedience clubs and are geared toward both good dog behavior and toward getting the smarter, more able purebreds into competition.
Both of my puppy school attempts with Biscuit have been of the obedience school variety. Big hat teacher was ok for a while. Then she had us "groom" our dogs. Since Biscuit thinks having her ears cleaned is tantamount to canicide, I went to get some toilet paper and proceeded to try and clean her ears. She began, as usual to go berserk. (Honey describes the ear cleaning process as like watching me "wrestle a wild mustang.") After several exhausting minutes wherein Big Hat went around and praised people for having calm dogs, she finally made her way over to me and said, "get her under control." I asked how to do so. And she said, "just get her on the ground." I had a couple of more classes coming and even tried to go on thanksgiving Saturday (when no one was there).
Since I live in the Valley, I thought I'd give it another shot with the Valley club. They seemed more flexible and were a lot closer. One of the notable things about the valley version is that one of the trainers was featured on Showdog Moms and Dads on Bravo last year. Sometimes I see her practicing with her dogs. They're impeccably trained Australian shepherds who walk next to her, off leash, within inches of her leg and stare at her face the whole time.
Biscuit, thanks to these twelve+ weeks of training can sit and lie down. Sometimes she heels. Usually that's because I have a piece of cheese between her face and mine. Mostly she pulls.
I asked the trainer last week what to do after our appointed six visits were up. Take the class again, he said. And he tried to up the ante on me by having Biscuit sit more. My cheese bills are bound to go up.
As for how well this translates into good home behavior, she's started eating anything she can dog out of the litter box. She's actually a clever dog. She grabbed and started shredding a napkin last night. Once I extracted it from her, she shot across the room and licked the pop tart I had been eating. It seemed very calculated, truth be told.
She's a sweet dog, but I sometimes worry if the puppy school affect (negligible) is at all similar to the affect of my efforts in IHE. At least I never wore a big hat while teaching.
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Monday, January 30, 2006
Beginnings
Today is the first day of the spring semester at the IHE at which I administrate. (IHE for those of you not in the know is an acronym for institution of higher education). For many years I looked forward to the beginning of the semester (or quarter while I was at UCLA) with great enthusiasm. When I was a student I was always anticipating that maybe, just maybe, The South Since Reconstruction would be the best course ever. Once I became a T.A. in graduate school, I was excited about the sort of faux authority I "wielded" by sitting or standing in the front of the lecture hall making oh-so-erudite comments that the UCLA football players in the big G.E. for which I was a T.A. would be impressed.
Once I was a faculty member, the excitement was on the new students and new ideas and completely lame-ass hope that my version of the anthropology of religion would actually be a good course this semester.
Now, I administer things. I've been sending out e-mails about adding students to classes. I watch the world pass by my window. I ordered a new mechanical pencil from our supplier to celebrate spring semester. It's a nice one. And I got extra leads and erasers. I read the OfficeMax guide to leads before I chose the "2b" type. Supposedly it's bold, easy to read, and surprisingly smooth. Who is it supposed to surprise? Maybe I'll forget how smooth it's supposed to be between now and when it arrives on Wednesday.
Happy first days to all who have them. Today I just have another today. Of course, there's nothing wrong with today, it just doesn't hold the kind of false promise I used to crave.
Once I was a faculty member, the excitement was on the new students and new ideas and completely lame-ass hope that my version of the anthropology of religion would actually be a good course this semester.
Now, I administer things. I've been sending out e-mails about adding students to classes. I watch the world pass by my window. I ordered a new mechanical pencil from our supplier to celebrate spring semester. It's a nice one. And I got extra leads and erasers. I read the OfficeMax guide to leads before I chose the "2b" type. Supposedly it's bold, easy to read, and surprisingly smooth. Who is it supposed to surprise? Maybe I'll forget how smooth it's supposed to be between now and when it arrives on Wednesday.
Happy first days to all who have them. Today I just have another today. Of course, there's nothing wrong with today, it just doesn't hold the kind of false promise I used to crave.
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Birds
I am not a birder. My friend AB used to be married to a birder. Lovely guy, but you'd go over to their house and he'd put on warbler CDs and then quiz you. He has a life list.
I don't have a life list. I do have bird CDs, courtesy of Bry and Slangred, which I like. I use them for reference for birds that visit my backyard. I think they'd approve of this use, as they're both reference librarians. I also have bird books. I like them, looking at all the pictures and trying to match the picture up to what I see outside my window or on a walk through the woods. It verges on birding, but I think falls just short.
One reason I got into the bird thing pretty hard was WBU. WBU is Wild Birds Unlimited. They're a national chain, but the "local" one (15 miles away, but freeway close!) was run by the fantastic couple. One liked birds, the other people. They had a standard poodle and a very warm shop. They loved it when I brought Red in. In September, I went wandering in with Biscuit and Jenny and I had a great talk about new dogs. Biscuit thought Jenny was beyond great. Then Jenny mentioned leaving and that she and Chris were moving to the Midwest and here was the new owner. My heart sank.
L.A. is such a non-place. I can slip through my days and never connect to anyone but those I already know. Box (house) to box (car) to box (office) and back. I do like that the baristas at my Starbucks know and are nice to me. I wish the arrogant crew at Jamba with their fakey "Hi!" greetings would be as nice as the sbucks crowd. But WBU was different. It was like the places I went with my Dad growing up. He liked knowing his pharmacist, his mechanic, his cleaner counter folks. He's moved too often since to maintain that, but they still know him at the butcher store. At WBU, Jenny always remembered what birds I fed, what kinds of feeders I had. She always asked after Red and Honey. She recommended the ordinary--the "Eliminator" to prevent squirrels and the extraordinary--a sock stuffed with rotting bananas to attract more vibrant birds.
Since she and Chris sold the shop, I haven't been back, even though I have "banked" seed.
Yesterday, I filled all the feeders for the first time in a long time. A flock of goldfinches came around almost immediately. Goldfinches are the best birds I get in my yard. Little yellow jewels hanging upside down all over my feeders (they like the hang upside down when they eat). I root for the underdog birds too. Lots of doves pecking around.
We went to see Sandra, Joel and JMPR last night. Ever since they bought their house, I have had an intense jealousy of their built-in outdoor aviary. They have tried, with some lack of success, to maintain a zebra finch population out there. Their last one died a while ago and with a new baby the finch issue isn't foremost in their hearts. On the way out, I stopped at Petco and bought them two Society finches, a brown and white one and a white one. Joel almost made me cry when he said the white one looked like a dove. I hope they have a vibrant and very inbred colony of society finches soon. If they don't, those two I bought should have some happy times in the aviary. It's got to be better than the San Dimas Petco.
I don't know if its the return of the goldfinches, but I think I may be ready to go pick up some banked seed at WBU soon. It won't be the same without Jenny, but I want to keep getting goldfinches around the yard.
I'm not always sure how to separate the people and the birds. When I go back east, every robin I see turns my head. My grandmother and I looked for acorn tops to have "tea parties" with the robins. When I find a kind place like WBU, I want to hold on tight. But my arms are weak and I'm not in charge of the world.
I don't have a life list. I do have bird CDs, courtesy of Bry and Slangred, which I like. I use them for reference for birds that visit my backyard. I think they'd approve of this use, as they're both reference librarians. I also have bird books. I like them, looking at all the pictures and trying to match the picture up to what I see outside my window or on a walk through the woods. It verges on birding, but I think falls just short.
One reason I got into the bird thing pretty hard was WBU. WBU is Wild Birds Unlimited. They're a national chain, but the "local" one (15 miles away, but freeway close!) was run by the fantastic couple. One liked birds, the other people. They had a standard poodle and a very warm shop. They loved it when I brought Red in. In September, I went wandering in with Biscuit and Jenny and I had a great talk about new dogs. Biscuit thought Jenny was beyond great. Then Jenny mentioned leaving and that she and Chris were moving to the Midwest and here was the new owner. My heart sank.
L.A. is such a non-place. I can slip through my days and never connect to anyone but those I already know. Box (house) to box (car) to box (office) and back. I do like that the baristas at my Starbucks know and are nice to me. I wish the arrogant crew at Jamba with their fakey "Hi!" greetings would be as nice as the sbucks crowd. But WBU was different. It was like the places I went with my Dad growing up. He liked knowing his pharmacist, his mechanic, his cleaner counter folks. He's moved too often since to maintain that, but they still know him at the butcher store. At WBU, Jenny always remembered what birds I fed, what kinds of feeders I had. She always asked after Red and Honey. She recommended the ordinary--the "Eliminator" to prevent squirrels and the extraordinary--a sock stuffed with rotting bananas to attract more vibrant birds.
Since she and Chris sold the shop, I haven't been back, even though I have "banked" seed.
Yesterday, I filled all the feeders for the first time in a long time. A flock of goldfinches came around almost immediately. Goldfinches are the best birds I get in my yard. Little yellow jewels hanging upside down all over my feeders (they like the hang upside down when they eat). I root for the underdog birds too. Lots of doves pecking around.
We went to see Sandra, Joel and JMPR last night. Ever since they bought their house, I have had an intense jealousy of their built-in outdoor aviary. They have tried, with some lack of success, to maintain a zebra finch population out there. Their last one died a while ago and with a new baby the finch issue isn't foremost in their hearts. On the way out, I stopped at Petco and bought them two Society finches, a brown and white one and a white one. Joel almost made me cry when he said the white one looked like a dove. I hope they have a vibrant and very inbred colony of society finches soon. If they don't, those two I bought should have some happy times in the aviary. It's got to be better than the San Dimas Petco.
I don't know if its the return of the goldfinches, but I think I may be ready to go pick up some banked seed at WBU soon. It won't be the same without Jenny, but I want to keep getting goldfinches around the yard.
I'm not always sure how to separate the people and the birds. When I go back east, every robin I see turns my head. My grandmother and I looked for acorn tops to have "tea parties" with the robins. When I find a kind place like WBU, I want to hold on tight. But my arms are weak and I'm not in charge of the world.
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