Category: Free Inquiry

Cocoa on a mossy log at Francis King Park. November 30, 2019.

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Cocoa took us for a walk this weekend to Francis King Park. It is a favourite spot of ours with towering red cedars, mossy Douglas Firs, ferns, streams, mud puddles all the fun of a rainforest to explore.

It’s so important to get out and do these things I love. Making time for it even with the busy school and life commitments. The motivation to get out  comes from the feel-good part of the fresh air. That and the good company of my four-legged bud.

Motivation is such a key and something that is the most basic ingredient to teaching and learning. The motivation to learn. The motivation to teach what we teach.

And for Cocoa, what’s her motivation? According to the Dogthusiast, dogs can have a variety of motivations that can depend on breed, temperament and backgrounds.

Motivation can vary greatly and you can use it in all sorts of ways, good and bad. Your dog could be motivated by food (it’s tasty and he’s hungry), could be motivated to have fun (chase a ball), wants to get close to you because you’re fun (emotion and relationship), wants to get to safety/you (fear of something else), motivated to experience excitement (get to that park he knows is at the other end of that walk!), chase that squirrel (prey, fun, instinct, hunger!), or could be motivated to avoid pain (not get yanked on the leash, hear your yell). If you want your dog to do something, you need to work with motivation – positive forms of it.

Jen deHaan, What Motivates Your Dog? from www.dogthusiast.com

 

Cocoa is most definitely motivated by food, which has helped training efforts for the sing challenge, but it must be that high-calorie, extra special treat or she ain’t in to it. Dried liver, kidney, beef chews, cheese, and, though I hate to say it, the delicacy she goes crazy for is freeze dried lamb lung. That’s the good stuff.

Chilling at Francis King.

Cocoa bean has been working for her big debut.

The training over the past couple weeks has been starting to pay off. I haven’t been as consistent with the training, which suggested a minimum of three times a day, but we are pretty happy with the most recent (albeit short) tune Cocoa shared with us. Check it out here:

It is clear that consistency and time is what is working against us so we will keep at it and hope that this gal will be in form for a second take on the weekend. Stay tuned!

Cocoa is such a trooper! Little does she know she is the muse for my Education Tech Inquiry. Below are the four steps to get Cocoa to “Sing,” according to Babette Haggerty’s The Best Dog Tricks on the Planet: 106 Amazing Things Your Dog Can Do on Command.

1. Identify a trigger for any song-like sound from your dog, for example a fire engine or a high-pitched sound you play for her. > Cocoa will howl along to another dog or human howl. So, we are good there. See video below with a howling Cocoa.
2. Once she starts howling, tell her, “Sing Elvis, Sing.” Praise her lavishly. > Hmm, may need to edit that command to just a simple “Sing Cocoa, Sing.” Mmm, treats, love and more treats!
3. Repeat this whenever you catch her howling. Over time you can play around to help her develop different pitches, and play with your own voice so she’ll sing back to you. > I swear I’ve heard Cocoa say “I love you” before. Mental note to prove this in the inquiry.
4. Practice three to five times a day for seven to ten days. > We are getting there. We tried three times today; off to a good start!

And because who doesn’t want to hear a dog say, “I love you!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxOnfcYpGYI

Looking for #dogs and #dogtrainers? Here are a few social media influencers out there in the #dogsofinstagram world. Twitter and Instagram have a lot of dog people offering advice, information and shared knowledge about how to care for your dog.

Twitter

@VHSanimalrescue Victoria Humane Society is a community-based, registered charity where animals and their needs come first. VHS rescues, rehabilitates and rehomes animals.

@BC_SPCA BC SPCA is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting & enhancing quality of life for animals in B.C.

@zakgeorge Well-known relationships-based dog trainer.

@PetLifeGuru Developing healthy, happy, holistic dogs is our passion. Sharing the best dog nutrition, health, recipes & canine CBD tips.

@cesarmillan Dog-training guru and author with over a million followers on Twitter. Rehabilitates dogs and trains people. Known as the dog whisperer.

@ModernDogMag Modern Dog magazine – the best dog magazine ever!

Instagram

@zakgeorge

@Kikopup

@dogsofinstagram

@healthyspot

And, in case you are wondering…Instagram’s most popular dog account belongs to a Pomeranian named @Jiffpom. Add yourself to his followers list that has tipped over the 9 million mark.

According to the Canadian Animal Health Institute, there are 8.2 million dogs in Canada, a close second place to that feline species who populate the land with 8.3 millions. “41% of [Canadian] households have at least one dog.” For the latest Canadian pet population numbers visit the Canadian Animal Health Institute.

What is it about the human-canine bond that has so many of us giving our four-legged-friends a seat at our table and branch on our family tree?

NPR posted a great interview about how dogs and humans became acquainted thousands of years ago. Listen to the interview here.

Interview Highlights:
On puppies
“There’s something about them that makes us friends with them. There are people who dislike dogs for sure. But dogs also have an uncanny ability … to walk in a room and pick out the one or two who seem to dislike dogs the most and make friends with them. It’s happened to me with some of my dogs on numerous occasions. I think there’s a deep — some people call it love, I call it a ‘deep empathy’ between these two species that resonates with each other in a way that makes them comprehensible to each other, even though they don’t speak the same language.”

On the cultural evolution of dogs
“This is one of the reasons why people like to speak of the dog as a separate species than the wolf, even though they’re so closely related. The dog lives with us in a way that wolves don’t. It is created by us in different ways.”

How to Train a Dog!

I may have taken on more than I can chew with training Cocoa to play dead. Perhaps, I should go with something a little easier…I am trusting there are amazing resources out there that will lead me down the right path to getting our loving pooch to try something new.

A friend lent me this book: The Best Dog Tricks on the Planet by Babette Haggerty. The book is filled with easy-to-follow dog tricks that go from simple to more complex as the page count rises. I was originally looking at getting Cocoa to ‘Play Dead’ but after looking through this book I think I will change it up to have Cocoa’s husky-wolf pack genes come out and get her to ‘Sing’.

According to this book, training a dog to sing should take an average of 7-10 days, if practiced three to five times a day.

Difficulty: Advanced! Eek

All right, here we go!

Meet Cocoa. Cocoa is our three-year-old husky mix from the North. We adopted her as an eight-week-old puppy from the Victoria Humane Society not knowing who her parents were, nor how big she would end up. She has grown into a 75-pound, smart, affectionate, intuitive Cocoa bean. We like to call her our northern dog with an island edge.

Now, Cocoa may not be an old dog, but she is a stubborn dog. The question is: Can we teach her new tricks? Her current rotation of dog tricks include sit, down, stay, come, shake a paw, roll over, spin around and the occasional bark on command.

As my free inquiry project I am hoping to teach her how to play dead. I will look into online sources, library, social media and any dog experts out there to help us get to our goal. I like the idea of working with Cocoa for this project because what better way to pair a busy, work-heavy schedule with a little stress-relieving doggy love.

I hope you enjoy this inquiry and feel free to join along with your four-legged pup!

I’ll leave you with this cute puppy video of Cocoa at the beach.