So much for planning

Last fall I planted a bunch of tulip bulbs. I chose early season, mid-season and late season varieties because I wanted to enjoy tulip color across several months.

You guessed it. Due our whacko warm spring weather, they're all up now. Two of the three varieties are in full bloom and the third is up with fully formed buds that are ready to open.

This variety is called Christmas Orange. It should bloom in mid-April. Or mid-March. Take your pick.

Christmas Orange close up. The colors are stunning.

This one is called Indian Summer. It is a mid-season variety and the catalog assured me it would bloom late April through May. Or in mid-March.

The final variety is called violet beauty. I'll post pics when they open. Which is supposed to be in mid-May but I'm guessing they're not going to hold out that long.

Raiders of the lost . . . soybean field

This morning I went on my first ever archaeological expedition. The Amana Heritage Society, in conjunction with the Office of the State Archaeologist, is doing an excavation of the Patterson trading post site near South Amana. I use the word "excavation" very loosely. There was very little digging going on today, although that may change in the coming week.

The trading post pre-dates the settling of the Amana Colonies. It served the nearby (very nearby, as it turns out) Meskwaki village, population 500 to 1,200 people. This was from approximately 1843 to 1847. After the Meskwaki were relocated by the US government, the trading post fell into ruin and the land was eventually converted to cropland.

Following a "surface collection" of artifacts on the site (more on that later), metal detectors were used to check out the site, which was plotted into 10 meter by 10 meter grids. Flags marked sites of metal detector "hits" which could indicate harness buckles, barrel staves or additional metal miscellany.


Soil augering was done at sites were artifacts had been found during the surface collection and/or where metal detector hits occurred. This looked a whole lot like digging post holes to me. Soil was collected in measured depth increments (0 to 20 inches, 21 to 30 inches, etc.) and deposited in a mesh tray to be sifted. Changes in soil color and composition were noted, as they could indicate a building foundation or other man-made disturbance.


Lead shot, beads, bits of glass, brick, ash and metal were among the things found at the site. While sifting this tray, volunteers found a piece of "chinking," the stuff used to seal the logs in a log cabin. Since the trading post consisted of at least one, possibly two, log cabins, this was considered a valuable find. It looked like a piece of field trash to me, obviously there is a learning curve when it comes to recognizing stuff from 175 years ago!


Part of the morning was spent on a surface collection on the nearby area believed to be the Meskwaki village. Surface collection is just what it sounds like, you line up and walk back and forth, collecting any artifacts that are on the surface of the soil, marking each site with a flag.


Since agricultural tillage only disturbs the top 12" of soil, items buried lower eventually work their way up to the top where they are exposed on the surface. Trade beads, bits of glass, "flakes" or "chips" from arrowhead and spear-making and fire-cracked rocks (which are exactly what they sound like) were the most commonly found items. Pipe stems, pipe bowls and pieces of each were also relatively abundant. I even found a pipe stem!


Looking for tiny artifacts is a lot like mushroom hunting. Even if you know what you're looking for, there's no guarantee you'll find anything.

Choose to work

Thank you guys for confirming what I suspected: very few people truly understand drive in a dog - what it is, why you want it, how to get it, how to keep it, how to use it. A lot of people think they understand drive but mistakenly believe energy and drive are interchangeable. Many people just go “Huh?”

I tend to fall into the latter category although I’m slowly making progress to a higher state of enlightenment.

We would probably agree that all our dogs have certain drives although they manifest in different ways: drives to sniff, hunt, bite, play, chase, protect, eat, etc. It’s easy to take these for granted. It’s just our dogs being dogs. Why would we need to understand any of this for obedience work?

Because obedience is boring.

There. I said it.

There is very little that is intrinsically rewarding to the dog about obedience exercises. They are all performed at moderate speed under stringent control in a small area. Compare this to the adrenaline rush of agility, a hunt test, lure coursing, protection work, freestyle, etc. and obedience is going to pale in comparison.

Dogs do not come with an “obedience drive.” You have to create one. Tapping into a dog’s food drive or prey drive is going to be the key to get many dogs jazzed about trotting around the ring with their heads in a very unnatural position, performing one brief and precisely choreographed exercise at a time without any tangible rewards.

Amy and Graydogz asked about the “choose to work” exercises I referred to yesterday. I thought it would be so simple to refer you guys to Denise Fenzi’s blog because in the course of working her puppy Lyra she’s written several excellent posts on the topic. Then I tried to pinpoint them exactly and couldn’t. So I’ll refer you to her blog in general, www.denisefenzi.com. There is no part of it that is not beneficial reading.

The “choose to work” theory is based on allowing the dog to make the decision to engage with the handler versus the handler using compulsion to make the dog work. The dog values his interaction with the handler and is working because he WANTS to, not because he is being MADE to. Obviously there’s more to it than just waiting around until your dog decides he’s checked off everything else on his to-do list and suddenly becomes aware that you’re standing there waiting for him.

Here’s a brief "choose to work" sequence (my apologies to Denise if I’ve misunderstood any part of this): play with your dog (tugging, chasing cookies, doing an obedience exercise that he genuinely LOVES), then release him to “go be a dog.” Initially, keep the dog on a leash but you’re giving him permission to tune you out, go sniff, look around, etc. Stand quietly and just watch him.

How long does it take for your dog to decide he’d rather do something with you than without you? Re-connecting with you may range from grabbing the toy and shoving it at you or simple eye contact so pay close attention. You want to mark that moment - acknowledge your dog and re-start the game by tugging, playing, etc.

If he hasn’t re-connected with you after 1 minute, pick up his toy, tap his butt gently and show him what he’s missing. Play. Now that you’ve got his mind, ask for obedience behaviors. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Goal is to have your dog CHOOSE to play with you instead of self-entertaining with the environment. Obviously you wouldn’t do this in a room full of squirrels with a baby dog. Control the environment to a certain degree.

I like this exercise because it keeps me from starting a training session with a dog whose mind is elsewhere. If I DID start training with a passive, distracted dog, both Phoenix and I would soon reach a state of mutual frustration and confrontation, which isn’t going to yield anything either one of us likes.

Okay, enough for today. Tomorrow I get to go on an archaeological dig! The local historical society, along with the Office of the State Archaeologist and some other folks are excavating a mid-1800s trading post site along the Iowa River here in the county and they’ve invited me along for media coverage. Cue “Raiders of the Lost Ark” theme now . . .

Phoenix gets his driver's license

I'm still getting my brain around this notion of "drive" when working a dog. No, it's not a new concept. I understand (or at least think I do) the concept of food drive, play/prey drive, social/pack drive, etc. I understand some dogs are naturally higher in some drives than others and that some dogs who appear to have zero drives can have those drives built to useful levels through consistent training.

I understand that a high energy dog is not necessarily a high drive dog. Some people smile proudly as their insane dog ricochets off the walls, saying, "Oh, he's SUCH a high drive dog." No he's not. He's just crazy. I understand that a dog who is truly working "in drive" has a clear, focused mind. He is in the zone, so to speak. He's happy about doing his job and he's in clear communication with his owner, not simply indulging his own whims and desires.

I've had vague notions of how to apply these drives to my advantage when it came to training. Using food was a no-brainer with all my guys. Their food drive was definitely intact (and frequently my fingers weren't.)

But across the years, I've been told time and again to" reward" my dog when he was quiet, calm, submissive and — if I'd thought about it — totally and completely out of drive. Reward while the dog was sitting at heel. Reward the dog while he was sitting in front. Reward after the dog had completed the exercise. Reward the dog for every possible sedentary position I could find.

No one ever told me to reward in motion. Or if they did, it was just that - reward in motion, not necessarily in drive. Frequently, I rewarded my dog while he was simply going through the motions. This does not speak well for ring carryover.

In fact, many of my early training classes actively discouraged any shows of enthusiasm on the dog's part. Weren't we training our dogs to be obedient? Obedient dogs were calm and passive. They didn't leap about and anticipate exercises and spin in circles. They performed the required exercises and what happened before or after was of little concern.

At first, it didn't matter. My first sheltie was a bit of a nutter who spent a good deal of time leaping about. He nearly drove me to distraction. He was my first UD but I felt like a failure. Why couldn't I get this creature to heel quietly at my side? He leaped, he spun, he barked, he bubbled over with delight when we trained. He wanted to work. He couldn't wait for what we were going to do next.

While I won't claim this was "drive" in its truest form, Jess did love doing obedience with me and he was focused on his job. He had a ridiculously long string of Qs in Utility, which is a hard class to pass if you're not paying attention to what you're doing. I took it for granted. All dogs worked like this, right?

Connor arrived and was the sparkling combination of zeal and precision with very little effort on my part. He, too, loved to train and show. I thought I was a pretty damn smart trainer to get an OTCh.

Jamie followed. He wasn't quite as easy as the shelties but he was a wonderfully amenable dog who liked to make me happy so he did whatever I wanted. OTCh. #2 arrived but I was starting to wonder if there was some piece to this puzzle I was missing.

Phoenix crashed into my life and nothing has been the same. I easily spent the first two years rewarding him for every calm, quiet, passive state I could catch him in - which were few and far between, both during training and in daily life. Hindsight being what it is, I realize I spent a lot of time squashing him down out of drive because I thought that's what I needed to do in order to "train" my dog.

After the seminar this weekend, my eyes have seen the light, so to speak. I'm not talking about making Phoenix over-the-top crazy in the name of training. I AM talking about not starting any obedience work with a dog who is distracted or simply passive or otherwise un-engaged. I am talking about recognizing the difference between passive attention and drive. I've heeled with a dog who was paying perfectly good attention . . . from about a foot behind me. Great attention. Lousy drive.

Before the seminar I'd started doing some "choose to work" exercises when we trained, letting Phoenix engage me and tell me he was ready to work - then we could practice without confrontation and correction that comes from trying to "work" a dog who is not in drive.

The hardest part of this is re-training ME to deliver rewards while he's still in drive, not after he's settled into complacency at the end of a skill set or exercise. And asking for more effort, which theoretically builds even more drive because the dog becomes frustrated and wonders "Where's my $#@! cookie!" and works harder.

Look out.

Catching up, looking ahead

Fear not, gentle readers, I am still here. It’s been one of those weeks/weekends that has spawned a great deal to blog about and absolutely no time to do it.

Recap of the last four days:

Thursday: Got food poisoning. Trust me, this was NOT on my to-do list. List of suspects has been narrowed to salad from the deli at the local grocery store. Regretfully, spring salad has lost its allure. Actually, anything that contains mayonnaise is pretty much off the grid for me.

Developed a deep and meaningful relationship with our toilet. When not communing with said toilet, I crashed in bed and slept the day away. Both Belgians took advantage of my weakened state to sleep on the bed with me. I didn’t argue. Phoenix actually seemed genuinely concerned about me - probably worried about where his next meal was coming from.

Friday: Condition much improved. Able to attend the first day of the Bridget Carlsen seminar, held locally. Zero appetite. Water and saltines were about as daring as I got. Felt like I’d been hit by a bus - didn’t know throwing up was such an ab workout. Not one I'd recommend, either. Lived on the edge and had chicken noodle soup for supper.

Saturday/Sunday: Back in top form and able to enjoy both the seminar and the great food that went with it. Got some new ideas to explore. Without going into the minute details, Bridget’s “deal” (everyone needs a “deal”) is training your dog to work “in drive” versus just going through the technically correct motions of teaching the exercises (guilty!).

While this is not a new concept, it was new to me - at least from the perspective that while I’d been exposed to it before, I didn’t get it. Connor worked in drive through most of his career and I never recognized it - honestly, I took it for granted. Now I realize Jamie switched in and out but I didn’t show him long enough past his OTCh. for that to become an issue.

Then along came Phoenix, who has made me realize that although all the previous methods I’d used to achieve a happy working dog who earned titles and high scores were certainly not worthless, they did not address all the needs this dog brought to training.

While I don’t plan to abandon everything we’ve been doing, there are a couple of new techniques I’d like to work into our training. And since we’ve got obedience trials the next three weekends in a row I’m not about to do anything reckless (i.e., stupid) and turn everything upside down in our training.

Meanwhile, back on the farm: last Wednesday evening, before the attack of the Evil Spring Salad from Hell, I started cleaning winter trash off some flower beds and discovered that once again, my snapdragons have overwintered.


This freaks me out a little bit. I’ve had them do this in previous years, too, and it’s more than a little weird. These are annual plants that die in the fall. Or should have died. Or were supposed to die. Only they didn’t. Granted, our winter was pretty mild but we still had some days with below zero temps. This tends to kill tender vegetation. Only it didn’t.

These snaps are in a flower bed up next to the house so they are in something fancy gardeners like to call a micro-climate. I just call it the flower bed up next to the house. But trust me, it was below zero there, too. They’re not coming up from seed, either, it’s new growth off the mother plant that I didn't get around to pulling out last fall.

I love my snapdragons.

Testing 1,2,3

This is a test post from my iPhone.

Because I really don't have anything better to do.

Okay. I do. But this is way more fun than laundry.

The big dance gets started

Beginning this weekend, Phoenix has a very full dance card.

This weekend we are auditing the Bridget Carlson seminar at 4RK9s in Cedar Rapids. I opted not to take a working spot for several reasons. First, I had a working spot when Bridget was here a couple of years (3?) ago. I got some great ideas and enjoyed it very much.

But Phoenix is not the young, green, novice baby dog he was then. He and I are starting to come together as a team. What works for us (and what doesn’t) has crystallized. Or at least become considerably less muddy. I don’t want to throw a bunch of new techniques at him when the two of us are finally starting to regain some of the trust and confidence we lost last year. Right now, I want to stick with the methods I’m comfortable with.

And trying new things is pretty much what you need to be willing to do if you take a working spot at a seminar - there’s no sense in having a working spot if you aren’t going to get out on the floor and try some different stuff. I’m certainly not against trying new things but at this stage in the game, I can learn quite a bit by sitting on my behind and watching people work their dogs - it’s a very objective perspective that is hard to get when you’re the one out there on the floor, not the one watching. A couple of friends are bringing puppies and I’m looking forward to seeing what Bridget has them doing.

I have no doubt I’ll come away with new ideas to blend into my own training approach. Plus this club always has really good food and I plan to do some quick training with Phoenix during breaks (hopefully while everyone else is rushing the food table.) This summer I’ve got a working spot at anther obedience seminar (Denise Fenzi) and am definitely looking forward to getting some input on a few things.

The weekend of March 31/April 1, we’re back in the obedience ring at DeWitt. (Is it really a good idea to go to an obedience trial on April Fool’s Day?) The show site is a complete 180 degree turn from the noisy chaos of the last time we showed, back in mid-February. It’s a two-ring event in a school gymnasium. I’ve shown there for years and it frequently has the church-hush going on. I’m curious to see what, if any, effect this has on us as a team.

My club, the Iowa City Dog Obedience Club, has its trials April 6, 7 and 8 at Amana. We’re entered two days and I’ll spend one day stewarding. I’m pretty sure Phoenix isn’t a three-day dog at this point. Heck, I’m not sure I’m a three-day handler, either.

We’ll have one day to recover from the ICDOC weekend before we hit the road for Purina Farms near St. Louis, Mo., and the ABMC national specialty: one day of travel, two days of agility, one day off (with a temperament test) and one day of obedience. We’ll drive home after the obedience judging.

When we get home, I have resisted multiple efforts to get me to enter a semi-local obedience trial the following weekend. No. No! NOOOOO! I’m pretty sure all parties involved are going to want a weekend off to decompress. Multiple weekends on the road in a row are usually not as much fun in reality as they might look on paper.

But we’ll be back in the obedience ring at Marshalltown April 28 and 29, followed by another weekend off and then more obedience at Rock Island, Ill. This latter show was a tough decision because there’s a lovely agility trial that same weekend in the opposite direction.

I remember back in the day when there was only one agility trial a month and it was usually in another state. And it was random draw so you mailed your entry and desperately hoped you’d make the draw. Now, there are dozens of agility trials within daily driving distance of our house year around AND agility and obedience trials are starting to fall on the same weekend. Oh, the conflict!

But I know my dogs have always shown best if I enter multiple weekends of the same venue vs bouncing back and forth from obedience to agility and back again. Training and showing in different disciplines is fun but it's very easy to let the coming weekend's venue dictate what you train in the preceding week and this often makes it hard to make any reasonable progress in either one.

So we're going to concentrate on obedience this spring and see where it takes us. We'll still be training for agility, too, and hopefully can address a few things without the pressure of any trials in the immediate future.

Whew. What do people who don't train and show dogs do with their time?