dog whispering

So, I have a dog now. He's called Rocky and he's living with me for the moment. He's been through a fair number of foster homes, a couple of adoptions (they returned him) and is now mine. In the couple of days since I've had him, I've realised:

1. He can run. And run and run and run. About ten minutes after he came here, I took him out for a walk, he slipped his lead and the next thing I knew he'd made a bid for freedom. I, of course, didn't have my phone with me so was reduced to frantically shouting (and practically crying!). Thankfully, in true bloke style, he smelled my neighbor's dog (or something) and dashed back home and up to the neighbor's stairs.

2. The reason I think he was returned by the families which originally adopted him is that he's a) quite large and b) unused to (and untrained at) walking on a lead. The shelter folks gave me a prong collar but even with the collar on, he seems to pay little attention. He pants and I am sure he's uncomfortable but when he wants to get somewhere, he pulls. Considering he's well muscled, he can drag me along if he puts his mind to it.

And he's been trying. Random smells, a rabbit, dogs he wants to say Hi to, a "why not?" feeling, etc.

I've spent the past couple of days working with him on the lead. He's a clever dog and if I have him for a month or so, I am sure I can make him walk with me. But, it's difficult because...

3. He's not motivated by food. Well, not the foods I've tried so far and he's a picky eater. Dogs which aren't motivated by food are (obviously!) far more difficult to communicate with than dogs which are. I get the feeling he is motivated by praise (and have been praising him a lot when he does slow down/stop pulling on the lead) but it's far more difficult to get any message across without a positive (food/toy) reward. We'll see how it goes.

4. So far, we've gone out 15-20 minutes three times a day and he's a lot better than he was that first time when he dragged me along the road and then ran off. Of course, this means when we go out again in an hour, he'll probably be worse as I've jinxed it!

5. He'd definitely not a dog that I can just take out to eat with me or walk along the street downtown or something. He has a very short attention span, gets bored quickly and tends to try run at any mo. This has led to...

6. The few people who have seen me at the park giving me dirty looks. I think because we always seem to be fighting while I try to get him to slow down/not pull on the lead AND he looks like he's been starved (you can see his ribs clearly). One woman this morning even told me I should feed him more and that "such collars are cruel". I know! I'm not an idiot (I didn't say that--I just said I had had him for a day and I was working on helping him walk with his person).

7. Next step is letting him run but on a long rope so I can train him to come to me when I call. I've actually never done this before with a dog who is not keen on food as a reward. I'm rather worried as he tends to go mental when he sees a rabbit (Echoes of the dog in Up but rabbit instead of squirrel).

Again, we'll see. At least it's keeping me busy. As is the daily class business (terrible idea). I miss all you FA readers (if you've made it this far, reading through my dog-related ramblings) since I often go for days (e.g. all this weekend) without talking to anyone!

Next weekend, Rocky has his first adoption "show". Hopefully, no one will like him since I would like to keep him for a bit longer. We've just started this communicating business after all :)

driving

I'm going to spend part of the weekend not doing things I should (e.g. actually buying furniture, unpacking my books and clothes, etc etc) but soaking in the football town atmosphere and reading the VA drivers' manual so I can pass the permit test next week.

With that in mind, I give you this. It is rather worrying when the manual includes an illustration of what to do in case your car stalls on a railway track. I mean, really. Isn't it obvious? You sit and wait and see if a convenient superhero will rescue you.

Me?

Well. According to Firefox's Webify Me thingy, this is me. I remain doubtful.

You can Webify yourself here.

Driving by (but not literally. Not yet)

Very much a drive-past post to say it's the first "home match" for my new uni's (American, of course) football team this weekend so there's a sense of battening down the hatches combined with restrained (so far) excitement in the air. The usual debate--oh we hate football, these people are barbarians vs this is what the town's culture is, enjoy it--has already been noted.

Me? I'm just disappointed I don't have any of these shirts yet. This also makes me realize I'll never be "too old" for wearing such things. I mean, I may be too old but refuse to bow down to such thinking when there's ridiculously awesome shirts like these to be worn.

The question now is: Hume or Hypatia? Both right? And where's Foucault?