Today I met one of the Siberian husky puppies that was born at my friend Monica's kennel in November. She is called Vaar Ashoka and below are picture of the proud parents.
Mother Tessa.
Father Birk.
It was very clear when you saw Vaar Ashoka that she had inherited her fathers head and color, while she had the same fluffy fur that her mother has.
Siberian husky Vaar Ashoka 3,5 months old.
Vaar Ashoka 3,5 months old.
It was a happy reunion between Monica and Vaar Ashoka!
So I'm in the process of finding me a puppy. It must be a Danish Swedish Farmdog puppy, and it must be female. And the breeder of the puppy must be serious and know a lot about the diseases in the breed and make good decisions in relation to this when she chooses to breed her dogs. The mama dog and the papa dog also has to be to my liking. Then the puppy must be born in a time when I 8 weeks later am able to go and get it and take care of it.
All of this I have found. Only problem is that other people were already waiting to buy a puppy from this breeder and when the puppies were born, there was no female puppy left for us.
Then a glimpse of hope! One of the buyers was uncertain if she could get time off from work to take care of the puppy, and needed a few more days to think.
And this is where I am at now. Waiting to find out if I will be the lucky person that gets to bring the little puppy home. Wish me luck!
Today we went for a walk down by the sea. It was really a beautiful winter day. We trained "heel", "come here" and to come when we whistled. Scott did a very good job! We only had a leash on him when walking to and from the sea shore and when we met a dog, an English Setter female that really wanted to play. But she seemed a bit too energetic so we didn't let them. Despite being 4 years old she totally ignored her owners when they called her, and if we would have let them play I doubt we would have been able to get them to stop and to get them to come back to us. Scott seemed quite content just to meet her and then move on, he probably felt she was a bit too stressed too.
All in all this has been a really good day, in spite of the fact that last night we found out that we will not get to buy the Danish Swedish Farmdog puppy we hoped for, it was already promised to someone else. But who can be unhappy and disappointed when Scott is around? Not me, that's for sure!
In most parts of the world, wolves have the color and pattern seen in the picture above, but for some reason in North America, wolves have a larger spectrum of colors, from almost white to pitch black. Researchers have recently found that the reason for this is that the North American population of wolves has been mixed with domesticated dogs. The gene for black fur in wolves is the same one found in dogs, and since black wolves are found all over North America, the mixing must have happened a long time ago. It must therefore be mixing with the dogs of the native Americans, rather than the dogs of the Europeans, that is the reason for this variation in color in the North American wolf.
According to some sources, the mixing of dogs with wolves was encouraged by some native American people who believed that they would get stronger dogs from it. But since all (examined) dog breeds of today are more closely related to the middle eastern wolves than to, in this case, the American population of wolves, it seems that the puppies born in wolf-dog mix litters were unfit to live with people, and only the ones born to a wild mother and incorporated in the society of the wolves lived on to get offspring. This is quite expected as the same text that gave me this information (see the sources below) also stated that the dogs of the native Americans were easily trained and good with children and people. Something that wolf-dog-hybrids aren't exactly known for.
A "wolf-colored" dog, Siberian husky, that in spite of it's appearance isn't more closely related to wolves than any other spitz-type dog. See the blogpost about the origin of dog breeds for more info on that [link].
I have previously written a little bit about the origin of the dog in THIS post. There I write about bones of dogs that are 33 000 years old and found in Siberia and Belgium. I've since read a lot more about the origin of the dog and of different species of dogs. The picture below shows the genetic relationship between different species of dogs and wolves.
Picture borrowed from http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/dogs-likely-originated-in-the-155101.aspx
Apparently most breeds of dogs (except for a few ancient Asian dog breeds) are most closely related to the middle eastern population of wolves. The reason, the researchers think, for the ancient Asian breeds to be different is that they have at a later point been mixed with Asian wolves. What baffled the researchers is that the different types of dog, i.e. herding dogs, retriever dogs etc., were also genetically close within the groups. It was previously thought that breeds that had similar traits might just be the result of selective breeding towards the same goals at different geographical locations, but this seems not to be the case. This means that rather than taking what dog you have and turning it, through selective breeding, into the type of dog you want, dogs have been bred within its own groups to increase certain characteristics. One exception however, is the many miniature variants of breeds. These have often been accomplished by mixing the standard variety with miniature breeds. So that group is very genetically diverse.
So why am I making another dog origin blogpost? Well in part simply to be able to say, "I told you so". If all breeds that exist today seems to originate from the same population of wolves in the middle east, then the theory that the dog was domesticated many times (in order for them to have been at two separate geographical locations 33 000 years ago) is simply not true. The scientists behind that study thought that the reason why we don't see that kind of genetic variety that multiple domestication processes would show in the dog breeds of today, is that these dogs were extinct. I still don't think that is the case, I still think that the dog was domesticated at least 40 000 years ago, probably even earlier. They have yet to prove me wrong.
Researchers at the University of Liverpool have in a study found that
pregnant women owning a dog is 50% more likely than women without dogs
to achieve the recommended 30 minutes of exercise a day. Failing to
achieve this increases the risk of gaining too much weight during the
pregnancy, which in turn increases the risk of complications during both
pregnancy and child birth, and the risk for the child to be over-weight
or obese itself will be higher if the mother is or becomes over-weight
during the pregnancy. Being obese or over weight is itself a risk as
this increases the risk of different diseases, like for example
diabetes. Another rather alarming realization gained from this study was
that some pregnant women don't walk their dog at all. Which brings us
to the second part of this post.
What about the weight and health of the dog itself? Another
study, also at the University of Liverpool showed that obese dogs that
lost
weight had an increased quality of life. Obesity is in dogs just as in
humans, a serious condition that can lead to many health disorders
including diabetes, heart disease and arthritis. The increased quality
of life however that the dogs experienced after losing weight was only
in part due to these direct health benefits. Other effects were
reduction of pain and emotional disturbances and increased vitality.
Methods of keeping the dog lean and healthy, or losing weight if
necessary, include portion control, increased exercise and diets specifically
formulated for overweight pets.
So what to do? Walk your dog! Both you and your beloved pet will be healthier and happier!
Me on a mountain walk with Siberian huskies Birk and Tessa, july 2011.
I learned something new about my favorite breed of dog today. They can be used as herding dogs! I knew they used to work on farms back in the olden days, but I was always under the impression that this was first and foremost to keep the rats away and to guard the farm (like other pinschers and small terriers). That is why I always thought it so puzzling that the D/S Farmdog is so easily trained and that it seeks approval and company by people in a way that I think is unusual for pinschers and terriers in general. But if the D/S farmdog has been used for herding it all makes sense. The smartest dog we have today is the Border collie, which is also the best herding dog there is. And in many ways the temperament of the Farmdog resembles that of the Border collie.
Not only do you get healthier from growing up with animals, you also get better social skills compared to children without pets.
In a study from 2011, that had followed 566 children from birth until they were 18 have showed that living with a dog or a cat during your first year of life decreases the risk of allergies against these pets by as much as 50%. This was true for both sexes when they lived with cats, while the same effect was only seen in boys not in girls when they lived with dogs. Exposure to pets during any other time than the first year of life had no effect on the prevalence of allergies later in life.
So in short, living with a cat or dog does not increase the risk of becoming allergic to these pets. To have an effect you need to live with these pets as an infant and the effect then will be that the risk of getting allergic is decreased, possibly by as much as 50%.
So what other effects of growing up with pets have been found?
A Swedish study found that pet exposure during the first year of
life was associated with a lower prevalence of allergic rhinitis and
asthma in children ages 7 to 13 years old.
A large–scale survey of 11,000 Australians, Chinese, and Germans
found that pet owners made up to 20 percent fewer annual visits to the
doctor than non-pet owners.
A study of 256 children, ages 5 to 11 years, in three schools in
England and Scotland found that kids with pets had fewer sick days.
A study of 100 children younger than 13 years who owned cats
found that more than 80 percent said they got along better with family
and friends.
Studies have linked family ownership of a pet with high self–esteem in young children and greater cognitive development.
Children with pets at home score significantly higher on empathy and pro–social scales than non–pet owners.
I wish I had had these facts to back me up when I as a child relentlessly begged my parents to give me a dog. Maybe it would have made a difference..
Sources:
Wegienka G, Johnson CC, Havstad S. Lifetime dog and cat exposure and
dog- and cat-specific sensitization at age 18 years. Clinical &
Experimental Allergy.
The above video is a short trailer for a video about operant conditioning, that gives you an idea of the variety of things an animal (chicken, tiger, bear, dog etc.) can learn by this method. In the video you can see that they use a so called target (a stick with a ball, or other similar thing at the end, or just a piece of paper). This i very useful since you can teach the animal to touch the target with it's nose (or beak) or paw, and when you want the animal to go to a certain place you just put the target there. This can be used to for example teach your dog to walk into it's crate or up on the scale or even to teach it to turn of the light or to close the door. A target can be anything from a post-it to your own hand and the possible uses for it in teaching your dog is only limited by your own imagination. Below is a video on how the target is used to teach the dog different things, in the video you get more examples of what can be a target.
Casper keeping an eye on all the neighborhood dogs.
My boyfriends parents are taking care of a dog for a friend of theirs over the weekend, so when me and Mads went there to see them I had to bring my camera to take some pictures. This is the first time I've met a Basset artéstien normand, so this was also an opportunity for me to get to know this breed better. The Basset artésien normand is a French hound type dog, bred for hunting and are so called "walking dogs" which means that the dog follow game and the hunter walks behind it. The short legs of the breed makes them ideal for this type of hunting since it means that the dogs won't get too far ahead the hunter while hunting. This breed is together with the Blood hound the origin of the Basset hound. One could say that this is the functional version..
Casper, the basset, had a great time with both two- and four-legged members of the family, and he is a really sweet tempered dog. But with a lot of energy! Below are some pictures from yesterday.
Please Scott, play with me!
The playing were at times very energetic, with Scott and Casper chasing each other through the house.
But they were also calm together, here checking out the dachshund walking on the road below the house.
Casper was really appreciated by all of us, here he is held by Mads.
There is always time for a cuddle on the lap.
After a long day of meeting so many new people and playing with Scott, Casper fell asleep in front of the fireplace.
Animal training should always be based on positive reinforcement. You can beat an animal into submission and make it learn what behaviors will make you stop hitting it, but it is not the most effective way to teach an animal a new behavior or for that matter to make the animal keep up that behavior. And of course that method is inhumane and morally repugnant and even if it was the most effective method (which again it isn't!) it should not be used. So back to the subject, positive reinforcement. In dog training there are two main methods that are based on positive reinforcement: Luring and shaping.
Luring is probably the most widely used method. It means that you, by holding a treat (or toy) in your hand and moving your hand, manipulate the dog into doing the wanted behavior. For example sit, see video below.
Shaping is not really a new method, but it is relatively new in the dog world. Dolphins are trained largely by shaping and if you've seen a dolphin show you know that this is a powerful method of training. The basic idea is that the animal should "offer" you a behavior that you can reward it for. A dog will for example do a lot of desired things during a day, and simply by rewarding it when it does something you like, you increase the likelihood that the dog will do that again. In a training situation you wait for the dog to offer you the particular behavior you want and then reward it. You can see an example of how to shape "sit" in the video below.
As you can see in neither method the command "sit" is given. When teaching an animal a new behavior you should not start using the command until the animal knows the behavior. In this example, you should not start saying "sit" until the animal already knows that sitting is what you're after. When luring a dog the dog might not even realize that it is sitting down, it just wants the treat. So if you start saying "sit" while training, the dog thinks "sit" means "take the treat". This is a problem I've had while training Scott to stand up and still. We usually start with him sitting or lying down, so he thinks that since he gets the treat when he stands up that "stå" (which is the word I use) means "stop sitting/lying and come and get the treat". He has not realized that what he is rewarded for is the change in posture. So the command looks like it's working just fine, as long as you keep the treat in your hand just in front of him, but as soon as you are standing farther away it becomes clear that he has not understood it, because when you say "stå" he comes running to get his treat.
This is not a problem you will encounter when teaching the dog a new command by shaping but the rule of not saying the command before the dog knows what to do, is still true. When shaping the sit, the dog will not know if the command "sit" means "look at me", "step with your paws" or "to sit down" or what ever other behavior the dog might do like blinking or licking it's nose. Since in the beginning it will try different things to get the reward, continually hearing you say "sit" will only make it confused, it has nothing to connect the word to.
So is there a preferred method here? Well for the dog it doesn't really matter as long as you don't correct/punish it for not doing what you are trying to teach it. Punishment will only make the dog insecure and worst case scenario is that is doesn't want to do any training at all with you, it is to afraid to dare to offer you a behavior. For mental stimulation the shaping technique is better, since the dog actually has to think. Luring is in a way easier since the dog doesn't have to learn anything before you can apply this technique. Shaping on the other hand demands that the dog learns that a certain sound (like in the video, the sound of the clicker) means that it gets a reward. After that it has to learn that in order to get "the click", it must offer behaviors. When this is done the dog is ready to start learning new behavior by shaping.
The click is a so called conditioned or secondary reinforcer, that is the click will only reinforce a behavior if the dog thinks the click means it will get something it wants. The treat or toy that it get after hearing the click is the primary reinforcer. This is actually quite similar to the command rule (that is, don't say the command until the dog knows what behavior you want), but you teach the dog in a somewhat different manner. To teach the dog that the click means there is a treat coming, you just have to get some treats that you know your dog loves and start clicking every now and then and immediately give it a treat. Preferably you click when the dog does something you like, but don't chose just one behavior at this point. (Examples: when it sits or lie down, when not barking at someone walking by, when walking nicely on the leash etc.) When the dog starts to respond to the click by going to you to get its reward, you can start the training. You can start having short training sessions where you decide before you start what behavior you want, and only click when the dog does this behavior. It is important that the dog doesn't get stuck to one behavior at this point, so change what behavior you click for the next time you are training the dog. Don't practice too many behaviors at the same time though, but you could for example train sit, down and standing in different sessions, and vary which one you're doing in one particular session.This way your dog will start learning that offering different behaviors will give it rewards. When the dog starts to get the hang of a specific behavior, you can start adding the command and within a short while you will see that the dog knows the commands. At this point you don't really need the clicker anymore, the clicker is for LEARNING the behavior, to maintain it you just have to give the dog a treat every now and then after preforming the right behavior after the command. This goes for luring too, you don't have to keep luring the dog forever, just until it knows what to do.
Just to be clear here, there is no need to use a clicker to be able to shape behavior, but the sound (or if you prefer light flash, hand movement or other visual or audible cues, even smells can work but are hard to do in practice) has to be the same every time, so it is actually a bad idea to use the voice since your own state of mind is easily understood by the dog by the tone of your voice, and if you are not genuinely happy when the dog did the correct thing it will pick up on that and not be as motivated to do it again.
I'm at my good friend and Siberian Husky breeder Monica tonight and of course I brought my camera, so here comes some pictures from tonight.
Right now the main project is training little 14 weeks old Vida to sit.
The huskies in varying degrees of "sit"
Tessa, the only grown up female knows what to do when given the command, 14 weeks old Vida just want the candy and 7 months old Noor has at least understood that something is asked of her..
It's nice to take a brake from training and cuddle a little bit. Here is little Vida, her father Birk and Monica.
Mother Tessa, father Birk and little Vida, all wants the treats.
My sister's boyfriend's family's Danish Swedish farmdog Sally.
Sally again, on the lap of my sister.
Scott posing for pictures
Scott wanting a treat
Here you can see the "heart" he has on his back. It's upside down and just in front of the tail.
Scott on a spring walk.
Danish Swedish farmdogs at a dogshow in Tromsø.
Petit Lelo, one of Scott's friends were at this dogshow.
The other female dog at the dogshow.
The best in breed at this dogshow.
This is the kind of dog I am planning to get, we are on the waitinglist for a puppy from a breeder in Sweden at the moment, and hopefully we will get to bring a puppy home in the end of April. All of the pictures above is taken by me and most of them I borrowed from my other blog.
According to new findings by scientists at the University of Arizona, the dog (or the wolf) was domesticated more than 33000 years ago. This is based on the finding of two dog sculls (not wolf sculls) from Siberia and Belgium, both approximately 33 000 years old. According to the scientists this indicates that the dog has been domesticated several times and does not have one ancestor as the DNA has indicated, but several. This also means that there is now proof that out of all the domesticated animals we have today, the dog was the first one (and maybe apart from the cat, the only one) to choose a life by our side. For more about this here's a link to the original article:
In my opinion this doesn't indicate that the dog has been domesticated several times, but rather that the dog was domesticated long before we previously thought. I wouldn't be surprised if the dog was domesticated 100 000 years ago or maybe even earlier than that. The dog is so very in-tuned with our body language and gestures and we are so finely tuned to theirs (well for the most part) that we simply must have co-evolved for a very long time. But that is just my humble opinion.. But I didn't actually come up with that myself, it is from the BBC documentary "The secret life of the dog", part of which you can watch below.
I will focus on the part of learning theory that is relevant for animal trainers, be that dogs, dolphins, chickens or rats, and that is called Behaviorism. In behaviorism all learning is the acquisition of new behavior through conditioning. This sounds complicated but is really no more complicated than that you will tend to do stuff that makes you feel good and tend not to do stuff that makes you feel bad. It is as simple as that. This is called operant conditioning and is together with classical conditioning (i.e. Pavlov's dogs) the basis of behaviorism. There is four expression you need to learn to get a first idea of how learning works. These are:
Positive reinforcement
Positive punishment
Negative reinforcement
Negative punishment
If someone does something that you think is good, for example your husband does the dishes, and you praise/thank him for it, maybe even does something special like letting him watch the sports channel all evening instead of interrupting him when you want to see something else, you are using positive reinforcement. That is, you are reinforcing this behavior by showing him that you appreciate what he does and give him something he wants (of course he has to know that doing the dishes is the reason why he can watch the sports channel, in order for it to work as a reinforcement).
If your husband leaves all the dirty dishes, and you complain, yell or nag, you are using positive punishment. That is, you are making him uncomfortable because he did something you think is wrong, and hopefully this will lead to him doing the dishes...
If he then does the dishes, and you stop complaining but doesn't thank him, you are using negative reinforcement. That is, you stop making him feel uncomfortable but didn't make him feel good when he did something you liked.
If your husband leaves the dishes, and you refuse to have sex with him because of this but otherwise doesn't yell at him or complain but remains calm, you are using negative punishment. That is, he doesn't get something he wants because he didn't do what you wanted him to.
I by no means mean to say that husbands need to be trained, so all men reading this, I am only using these examples to show what the different terms mean, not to say anything about husband-wife relationships or what is correct behavior between them. That being said, I believe that most of you quite quickly will see what kinds of reinforcements and punishments are going to make, in this case the husband, continue to do the dishes on a regular basis.
So why am I telling you all this? Well because understanding these principles will make you a better dog (or any other animal) trainer.
In order to not bore the people following my regular blog with dog talk I decided to start this new dog blog. Here the plan is to write about news in the dog world, training of dogs, scientific research about dogs, and last but not least about dogs I know and the dog I will buy soon (at least before this year is over). I will post videos on dog behavior and dog language and write about the dog-human relationship.
Hopefully you will find interesting information about mans best friend here and if I'm lucky I will be able to show you why I am so fascinated of everything about dogs and maybe open your eyes to the possibilities of dog training and interesting properties of the dog-human relationship.
This is me with the Lapponian herder Urax and the Nordic spitz Freja on my lap. Urax got jealous when little Freja got all the attention and decided to sit on my lap too.
