Back Yard Fox

It rained last night, but I put out the game cameras anyway, as I got three new memory chips in.  This was the camera in the back.  While setting it up, I spooked a deer who spooked me!

Coffee and Provocation

Charlie Manson comes in for coffee most mornings.

The Rise of Robotic Pets
Robotic dog trainers are just around the corner and so too are more robotic pets. “If you'd described Facebook to someone 20 years ago, they'd think you were crazy. But we are already seeing people form strong emotional bonds with robot dogs in Japan."

Groundhog Day Bed and Breakfast for Sale
The Bed and Breakfast hotel from Groundhog Day is for sale at a cost of $785,000. Bing. The one weatherman Phil Connors kept waking up in that didn't have any hot water? Bing again.

A Deadly Clamato Encounter
People are nuts. Prairie Mary tells the tale of a fellow in Hamilton, Montana who was served a "red beer" with Clamato in it instead of tomato juice. This sparked a religious tempertantrum, a gun was drawn, and a dog ended up dead.

The Greatest Global Threat
Scientists say the earth is threatened by the rise of a new strain of fact-resistant humans.

National Geographic's Marijuana Cover
National Geographic is getting pretty pro-pot.

Worst Thing for Sale on Amazon This Week
How about a coffee enema starter kit?

"Stranger Danger" is the Wrong Fear
Cars, not strangers, are the biggest threat to kids.  Also fill in your backyard pool and vaccinate your kids.

Rothko Sells for $46.5 Million
I will sell you an original painting, signed by the artist, for $1 million. Please specify colors and whether you would prefer Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore.

A Transportation Cloud?
There's a better than good chance private car ownership will disappear over the next 15 years as ride-sharing proves easier and more economical for most urban and suburban residents. Things will only speed up with driver-less cars. "Morgan Stanley’s research shows that cars are driven just 4% of the year, which is an astonishing waste considering that the average cost of car ownership is nearly $9,000 per year. Next to a house, an automobile is the second-most expensive asset that most people will ever buy—it is no surprise that ride sharing services like Uber and car sharing services like Zipcar are quickly gaining popularity as an alternative to car ownership. It is now more economical to use a ride-sharing service if you live in a city and drive less than 10,000 miles per year. And current research confirms that we would be eager to use autonomous cars if they were available. A full 60% of US adults surveyed stated that they would ride in an autonomous car, and nearly 32% said they would not continue to drive once an autonomous car was available instead."

The Three Point Rule
Whether you have three minutes or three hours, three points is all anyone can remember. Think Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Think A-B-C and Do-Re-Me. Ask anyone to name the Four Freedoms and they are good for three, but probably not for four.

The Continuing Crisis
There is a shortage of male porn star actors in Japan.

A Bad Sign

When even the dogs are offering commentary, you may be in trouble. 

American Wild Cat vs. American Wild Dog

Juan Cholo was riding his bike through River Legacy Park in Arlington, Texas when he encountered a bobcat and a coyote having a face off next to the trail. Neither animal seemed to care that a human was watching -- humans were clearly not seen as as big a threat to the wild dog as the wild cat, or as a big a threat to the wild cat as the wild dog!

Leveraging Kennel Club Heuristics Going Forward

Nothing is so funny as an incompetent who wraps him or herself in jargon and babble in order to claim authority no one in their right mind would give them.

The world of "management consultants" is riddled with this charade and the butt of many jokes as a consequence.

I bring this up because a self-styled management expert whose own expertise in dogs can be properly summarized as "consumer failure" has taken it upon herself to explain to the world that problems associated with canine health are broad, without clear or specific cause, and that it's really consumers who are at fault.

What makes this so funny is that this is coming from a woman who bought a working dog she never intended to work, who bought a pedigree dog for the preening pretension of the papers that came with it, and whose canine acquisition was soon enough dead because she knew nothing about dogs or dog breeding, and was too arrogant to ask or learn.

The memo below is a parody, but only in the sense that I have "turned it up to 11." This really is this person's core message and this really is the world she comes from.

To:          All Stakeholders

From:     Director of Very Deep Thinking

Subject:  Leveraging Kennel Club Heuristics

Going forward, all stakeholders will be tasked to proactively think outside the box and produce a synergistic vision for leveraging Kennel Club heuristics. Our organizing principle is that all parties are implicated in the low quality of both performance and health-based metrics, and so no hierarchy of change players need be established and, in fact, it is important that it not be established in order to maximum the buy-in for minimal change.

This is a ground-breaking chance to get behind this concept 120% and to idea-shower strategies for leveraging our Very Deep Think. We want to incentivize dynamic solutions in order to evolve a set of win-win deliverables to add value to this high-value debate over putative canine imperfections.

We need to recognize that some will continue to engage in "blame game" framing, which is why we need to be proactive and self-actualizing in order to pick the low-hanging fruit and have values-based deliverables based on disappearing baseline metrics which we will operationalize in such a way as to show progress based on non-linear motion. 

I trust we stand united behind this values-based approach that recognizes that a demonstrated core in-competency in buying, training, working, and breeding dogs is a prerequisite for leadership at this critical time, and that science-based thinking will likely lead to an endgame which might produce detrimental results that will supercycle us into change which would be anathema to the economic and political empowerment of the stakeholder collective.

B.B. King :: Riding With the King

B.B. King: September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015. He was one of the greatest guitarists and most influential blues musicians of all time.

Flash Back Friday

Above:  My father and Louis Armstrong in my father's office in Bamako, Mali in January 1961. The only time I ever saw my father cry was the day Louis Armstrong died. My father lived for jazz.

Below: My mother at a party at our house in Bamako, Mali in 1961 or so. She's still a looker!

Do People Have More ADD Than Dogs?

Humans have a shorter attention span than goldfish?

A study of 2,000 people found that the average human attention span has fallen from 12 seconds to 8 seconds, which is less than that of a goldfish (nine seconds).

I have always said that dogs have epic ADD, and for a simple reason: they are bombarded by scents we cannot discern, have pent up prey drive we cannot fully understand, and get all kinds of cues from other dogs and animals that we are completely unaware of.

Combine that with a much simpler mind wired for immediate binary choices, and we have an animal whose attention is constantly shifting, always looking for some higher form of stimulation.

And yet that description comes pretty close to describing the modern human.

The modern human is constantly looking for more stimulation, our concentration drifting from TV screen, to computer screen, to telephone screen, to... Woah! Was that a squirrel?

Fish on Friday

AKC Touts an E-Collar as "the Most Humane and Effective Way to Develop a Well-behaved Dog"

It seems someone at the AKC actually took the time to USE a modern e-collar and as a result, the Mini Educator, made by E-Collar Technologies (the same model I use on my three dogs) is being touted by the editor of the Spring/Summer "Gear Guide" column in the AKC's Family Dog publication as "the most humane and effective way to develop a well-behaved dog."

Yes indeed.

Of course, you still have to learn how to train a dog.  

It's not all about one tool or one thing. Training is a process, not an event, and yes it still involves a leash and treat bag as well as an e-collar.

That said, it is as it has always been:  Experience trumps theory, performance trumps fear, and a happy obedient leash-free dog is a walking case-statement on four legs.

"Show them, don't tell them."

Someone at the AKC got shown, and so now one of the very best of the modern e-collars is being touted as "the most humane and effective way to develop a well-behaved dog."

As always, ignorance is a treatable disease.  

But has everyone gotten the treatment?  

No. of course not. The AKC is still full of airheads and dim bulbs. This is, after all, an organization that salutes closed registries and the failed eugenics theories of Victorian England. Inside the AKC show ring, health counts for zero, work counts for zero, and temperament counts for zero. And what about dog training? Here too, the AKC is generally stuck in the 19th Century.

But let us celebrate anyway.  

It seems someone actually tried a modern e-collar, and seeing was believing.

It's funny what experience can teach you, if you let it.

• Related Post:
  ** E-Collars, the Natural Paroxysms of Innovation, and the Back-to-the-Future Future of Dog Training

Team Work!

Fishing: You're Doing It Right

True catch and release.

Loading the Squirrel Box

Caught a squirrel this morning, and loaded him up into the squirrel box for go-to-ground training.

As you can see, the solid back of the box rotates on a single corner screw, and it is fixed in place with another screw. The squirrel gets apples, water, and sunflower seeds for his troubles, and is always let go, unharmed, the same day he is caught.

Squirrels are much more animated than pet store rats, or even wild rats, and are also a type of sciuridae, so they smell more like groundhogs (the largest of the sciuridae).

One More Promise to Keep

This post is from December of 2007.

Trooper is getting old.

His teeth are like broken piano keys, pushed to destruction in part by his propensity to chew on rocks when he was younger, and his penchant in old age for chewing on cedar mulch and hickory sticks. He gets a rawhide chew every day, but it only takes him a minute or two to wolf that down, and then he is back to his sticks and mulch. There is no stopping him.

Trooper has always been a big Border Terrier -- a 15-inch tall dog with an 18-inch chest when he was in working condition -- bigger now. His sire and half-brother were the #1 Border Terriers in America in their day, but I do not think either one of them saw a single day of honest work underground in the field.

Trooper saw more than a little though, didn't he?

His claim to fame is not that he was led around on a string at the Westminster Dog Show, but that he has worked every kind of critter found to ground in our area.

Trooper has always been too big, but he made up for it with a fire called desire. And despite all, he did get in some pretty tight holes in his day.

But, of course, he also did not get in a lot of holes too. He was just too big. He had to be rescued at times when he got stuck underground.

Such are the trials and tribulations of an over-large working terrier.

Troopers' last day in the field was almost his last day on earth. I do not talk about that injury very much, because such injuries are rare and as a general rule they should be kept private.

But I have been asked about Trooper in an email, and so I will respond here, because there is no shame in the story, only deep regret.

For the record, it was a serious injury -- the kind of thing that happens so rarely as to be a freak occurrence.

But, of course freak occurrences occur all the time to dogs, don't they? Ask any vet who has treated a dog impaled on a steel picket while trying to jump a fence.

Ask any vet how many balls, socks, and Christmas ornaments he or she has had to surgically remove from canine stomachs.

Bad things happen to good dogs all the time -- dogs that never left the couch but once to run out the door to be struck by a car.

Only one bad thing ever happened to Trooper. And, for the record, it happened while he was doing something he loved.

The problem with Trooper, to be honest, has always been Trooper.

If you forgive him his size, he is a wonderful dog in so many ways: gentle, kind, obedience, loyal, mellow, and smart.

Yet, Trooper is also as hard as a cut nail.

I have seen a fair number of terriers at work in the field, but I have never seen a dog harder than Trooper.

This is said as a regret. If you have a really hard dog, regret is always a cloud looming on the horizon.

I myself do not value a hard dog. I know some who do, and each to his own. I have had a very hard dog, and I do not want another.

Of course, hard is as hard does. I always said Sailor was a soft dog, and as a consequence some folks expressed genuine surprise to see her go teeth-in to quarry. In their mind, a hard dog was any dog that used its teeth, and a "soft dog" would only bay.

Such is the world of theory. In the real world, dogs are not quite so easily divided, are they?

Most working terriers learn to mix it up and to differentiate butt from breath. A really hard dog, however, does not.

That is what I call a hard dog. It is a dog that is always dead-silent and teeth-on from the beginning to the end.

Trooper was such a dog.

A truly hard dog is like a boxer who only knows how to hit. Feint? Weave? Back up? Duck? Use psychology? The hitter knows none of that. He thinks boxing is all about hitting, and so all he does is hit, and he has a very short career in the ring as a consequence.

The same is true, in my experience, for a really hard dog. These dogs have no reverse. If they meet a tough and toothy thing in a hole, they do not care.

It is well positioned behind a rock? So what? It can slash and rip with impunity? No matter.

The hard dog simply pushes forward, and tries to make the impossible turn in the pipe in order to bite harder -- never mind the incredible punishment it is going to take for all its futile efforts.

A hard dog is not necessarily stupid.

Trooper is hard, and brilliant. He is a very biddable dog. He is smarter than most of the people I know.

But Trooper is a hard dog.

A hard dog can be an asset in some situations, but in truth not nearly as often as its owner might wish.

A shovel and a pole snare do better work at the end of a dig than any hard dog, and they are a lot cheaper to feed and maintain as well.

A hard dog does fine in some situations, but in hard soil and small earths with formidable well-placed quarry, the odds swing in the other direction.

The odds swing, but the dog cannot swing with them. The hard dog has no change-up to throw in this ball game. He only knows how to double down with a losing hand.

And so that is what he does, and tragedy is too often the result.

Of course, some people tell a different story. Like the boxing promoter who says "this new hitter is so hard and fast he cannot be matched or damaged," they will say their dog is the exception. Their dog will not get seriously damaged.

And perhaps it won't. If a hard dog is only worked in soft ground, and a truly bad location never presents itself, it may escape a wreck.

Similarly, if a dog is not worked too often, it may win the roll of the dice and come out hand-high every time. A hitter can win every fight if he does not box too often, or too long.

Whatever. Each to his own. Perhaps others can get by with a hard dog. I could not.

Of course, my beliefs are shaped by my experience, and my experience is shaped by the land and the wildlife on it.

I dig in the Eastern U.S. where our pipes are tight, our ground is often very hard, and our quarry is so common as to be available year-round and without interruption.

Put all that together, and then go out 20 or 30 times a year digging on three or four critters an outing, and a hard dog's odds begin to slip south over time.

The most damage my dogs have ever taken has not come from fox or raccoon, but from the lowly groundhog. Part of this is a function of numbers; lots of groundhogs. Part of the equation is a matter of demeanor; a groundhog will stand back in silence, and the dog does not always know where it is. A well-placed groundhog can open up a lip faster than it takes to say it.

A groundhog may not look like much, but it is not a soft target. Groundhog skulls are as thick as a skillet, and the animal has no neck at all. And, as impossible as it sounds, even a 10-pound groundhog cannot be pulled from a tight pipe in hard earth by a very strong 15-pound terrier. I am 200 pounds, and not all lard, and it is no easy thing for me to tail out a groundhog. They do not "go gentle into that good night."

As for teeth, a groundhog's are like wood chisels. And though the jaw is not deep, the bite is powerful and crushing. If a groundhog gets situated in the right location, head out, a dog's only smart strategy is to stand back and bay.

Which is what most terriers do -- one reason serious damage to working terriers is not all that common. Most of the time my dogs come away unscathed, and the more experience they have in the field, the less likely they are to see damage.

The occasional small lip rip still occurs, of course, but those tend to heal up in a few weeks. They are expected -- part of the bump and grind of terrier work.

Trooper's wreck was something altogether different.

Oddly, Trooper's last groundhog was not a large one; only 10 pounds I think.

In fact, the relatively small size of this fellow -- coupled with Trooper's oversized frame -- was probably what contributed to the situation.

Trooper had hammered himself into a too tight pipe following this groundhog, and he could not move forward or backwards. In the end, while both Trooper and the groundhog could both bite each other, the groundhog could move around a bit, while Trooper was pinned in the earth like a bug on a board.

Before he died, the groundhog managed to work his curved chisel-like teeth up under Trooper's lip where he carved upward, cutting away gum and connecting tissue that lay underneath. Somehow, the groundhog managed to go around the muzzle like a paring knife loosening a grapefruit skin. The end result was not dramatic from a quick glance at the outside, but it was devastating on the inside.

When I finally dug down to them, the groundhog was stone dead, but Trooper could not stand up to get up out of the hole. He appeared to be in shock. I could tell Trooper was in a world of hurt, and I did not waste time examining him too much. Instead, I loading him up and sped him to the vet. There, it was quickly apparent what the problem was -- Trooper's maxilla could be lifted up entirely off his face like the bonnet of a car. The skin on his muzzle lifted up from a hinge just below his eye. This was a devastating injury -- far worse than it looked from the outside -- and in the end it cost me $3,000 to get Trooper's face sewn back on.

Trooper and I were fortunate in that one of the top five maxilla surgeons in the United States was nearby, and he came in -- on a holiday -- just to work on Trooper.

Three days after his surgery, I took Trooper home. I had to feed him through a tube in his neck for the next two weeks.

Trooper recovered pretty quickly both spiritually and emotionally. Physically, however, he has never been quite the same old dog.

The surgeon sewed Trooper's face back on slightly crooked, and one tooth peaks out from under his front lip if you look at him straight on.

Trooper's nose is still there, but it's as hard as an olive pit, and as wrinkled as a prune.

More seriously, the groundhog's bite crushed one of Trooper's sinus cavities, and as a result Trooper snorts. In winter he is prone to colds because things don't drain quite right. He sneezes a lot.

And yet, Trooper is a happy dog.

If health is to be judged by a wag of the tail and the full-on charge to the food bowl, Trooper is in fine fettle.

He is the first dog at the door to greet me in the evening, and he is the loudest barker in the pack if a stranger comes up the driveway.

And Trooper's basic good nature has not changed. He is still as loyal and obedient as any dog I have owned, and he will give you an honest grin even when you don't have a bit of food to share.

But, though Trooper is more than willing, I have never hunted him again. Not after the wreck.

Trooper does not quite understand why the other dogs get to hunt, but he does not. He sniffs at the other dogs when they return from the field, and he can smell the story on them: dirt and vine, groundhog and skunk, raccoon and possum, fox and deer.

He knows.

He knows what he is missing, but I am in charge of things, and it's been my job to balance his longevity against his biggest joy in life.

Perhaps now, however, in Trooper's old age, it is time to reassess that balance.

After all, Trooper is old now.

He does not have too much time left.

Over the course of the last 7 years, I have allowed him to get a little fatter than I did when he worked. I do not strip him out as much.

He does not have the muscle on him he once did, but he is still very mobile, and his eyes are still clear.

His heart is still willing, and I think his body is able.

His rear section is not as strong as it was. That is true.

And this winter his sinuses seem to be having a particularly hard time staying clear.

Trooper has several lipomas as well -- flat fatty tumors -- on his stomach. They are doing him no harm, but they are not a good sign either. There is nothing to be done about them, but they are more evidence that the clock is ticking and the sand is running out of the glass. I know it, and I think Trooper does too.

There is an arc to a life, and you do not need to be a weatherman to tell which way the wind blows. Even a dog knows when his clock starts to wind down.

And so I think it is nearly time to pay off my promise to Trooper.

You see, back when I took Trooper out of the field after his wreck, I promised him once last hunt. I do not know if Trooper will be here next year, or whether he will be able to work.

"Maybe" is my answer to the first question. "I doubt it" is my answer to the second.

And so, if Trooper has one hunt left in him, this winter is his time.

And it will be fox if we can swing it.

One last flash of fur on white snow. One last taste of life as God intended. There is, after all, more to life than longevity. The dogs have taught me that, if they have taught me nothing else.

So I will let this old dog -- my old friend -- have one last taste of his youth before time hunts him down. He will go to earth one last time, of course, but before that fateful day he deserves to have one more day in the field as the hero of his own story.

That was the promise. And that is the promise I will keep.

.

My Father, Two Years Gone, Still Very Much With Me

My father died on this day in 2013. A massive loss, but a wonderful life. A good man who was lucky enough to meet a great woman. I wrote this note about my father two years ago.

Nothing loved is ever lost.

The Cat Said What??

A woman named Cat is telling us what the dog knows?  And we trust her?? 

Coffee and Provocation

Dog and cat meat seller, London, 1933. Source

Is the Dog Dead Yet?
Delta Airlines has added a new "service" and gadget to help give traveling pet owners peace of mind. The new gadget, available for $50 per flight from ten U.S. airports, is attached to crates to provide real time data on the surrounding temperature, what position the animal is in, and the kennel orientation. If the temperature rises above 85 degrees Fahrenheit, the device will send an alert to Delta's call center. The statistics can also be checked through a web site.  Note that Delta is asking customers to pay for monitoring what it is supposed to be doing, and which it should be monitoring as a matter of course.

Integrate Your Scale into Your Apple E-Collar
The Apple Watch (an e-collar for humans) is going to end up being a powerful training tool for people that want to improve themselves. For example, if you buy a blue-tooth enabled scale, it will integrate directly into Apple’s HealthKit framework (or its own app, if you’re an Android user). How much walking and standing do you need to do to achieve your weigh and fitness goals? How many calories have you consumed today?

Giving Directly
I am famously cheap, but I also believe in philanthropy and paying it forward. I am sometimes asked if there is a direct way to give to the poor in the developing world. Yes, there is now.

Solar Is the Future NOW
MIT says current solar technology is good enough to take us into a clean energy future.

Solar Roads Are Better Than Imagined
Engineers in the Netherlands say energy-generating solar roads that were installed outside of Amsterdam last year are working better than expected. A 70-metre test track has generated 3,000 kwh of electricity in its first six months - enough to power a single-person household for a year.

Lawrence of Arabia and the Motorcycle Helmet
TE Lawrence died from head wounds suffered while riding his motorcycle. He was only 46 years old. His death in 1935 sparked research into, and the development of, motorcycle helmets which have since saved countless lives.

Ocean Science Drones Will Think for Themselves 
MIT scientists have programmed autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to think for themselves, problem solve, and even fix hardware malfunctions as they go about their work mapping ocean floors and monitor the health of fisheries. Given a goal, the bots are left to figure out how to best achieve the goal and if something comes up that prevents them from achieving that goal, they can change goals to achieve something else.

Much Tougher Spider Silk
Simply spraying spiders with graphene makes them produce silk that is six times stronger than normal. Scientists are not sure why this occurs, but one theory is that spiders mop up materials in their environment and incorporate them into the silk as they spin. 

The Keystone Kops' Klavel
Drug field tests used by cops are so bad they react positively to air, soap, and candy. Perfect for creating trumped up charges to bust minorities!

Are Robot Drivers Safer Than Humans?
Of course they are. Notes Chris Urmson, director of Google’s self-driving program: "Over the 6 years since we started the project, we’ve been involved in 11 minor accidents (light damage, no injuries) during those 1.7 million miles of autonomous and manual driving with our safety drivers behind the wheel, and not once was the self-driving car the cause of the accident."

Aged Forward Forty Years

I was reading this post by former White House speech writer Dan Pink, and he mentioned that there was aging software (an app!), so of course I had to try it as I waited in traffic on the way home from work. This was done with "Oldify".

Blue Buffalo Is Preparing to Lose

On May 6, 2015 Blue Buffalo’s admitted to the court that a “substantial” and “material” portion of Blue Buffalo pet food sold to consumers contained poultry byproduct meal, despite advertising claims to the contrary.

To put it in plain talk: Shit-tons of dog food have been sold by Blue Buffalo that contained EXACTLY what they said it did NOT contain (poultry byproduct meal), and the company had NO IDEA what it was selling, had NO ONE at the plant where it was being produced, and did NO TESTING of their product to confirm what they were selling was what they were delivering, EVEN WHEN TOLD it was adulterated.

For those coming in late to this story, a man who used to sell such notable health products as cigarettes and sodas, decided to enter the dog food market which is loaded with low-information gullibles who know no science, have no understanding of nutrition, and who want to prove they are “smarter” and “better” people because they lay down a lot of cash for dog food with magic words printed on the side of the sack. The magic words change from brand to brand scam to scam, but may include “natural,” “holistic,” “organic,” “human-grade” or “grain-free.”

William Bishop, the fellow who invented “Blue Buffalo” got it right: people are idiots, and he got rich as a consequence. Blue Buffalo made $750 million in sales in 2013.

After Blue Buffalo’s May 6th confession to the court, Purina spokesperson Keith Schopp noted that Blue Bufflalo still had not informed consumers of the presence of poultry byproduct meal in Blue Buffalo dog food, refused to accept responsibility for the product they sold, and continued to blame its suppliers as if Blue Buffalo itself had nothing to do with making or selling the dog food.

Blue Buffalo now claims it had no way of knowing the bags contained byproduct meal. A manufacturer is responsible for knowing what’s in its product, and a simple audit of its supply chain would have revealed what we discovered after reviewing the documentation… Blue Buffalo owes consumers an apology for all the false statements, false labels and false advertising. More than this, it is time for Blue Buffalo to be transparent with the public and prove to their ‘pet parents’ that no mislabeled product remains on shelves.

For its part, Blue Buffalo continues to bloviate and assume American dog food consumers are stupid. Any why not? William Bishop has made millions of dollars betting that way in the past, and why would he change a winning game now?

And so, if we go over to the Blue Buffalo web site we find the company calling the facts they already have admitted to in court a “smear campaign” when they are repeated by others. And yet, we also find that Blue Buffalo admits that a “substantial proportion of its shipments” were, in fact, adulterated and mislabeled and that a “material amount” of their dry dog food was sold with lies.

In an effort to pay the fines, penalties, damages, and courts costs they now KNOW they are now going to have to pay, Blue Buffalo has asked the court to add their contract dog food manufacturer to the case as a defendant.

Bottom line: Blue Buffalo is EXACTLY what I have always said it was: a “lick and stick” dog food company that did not make its own food, had no one at the plant over-seeing production, and who sold its product untested with a marketing campaign based on lies, disinformation, fear-mongering, and clever graphics.

• Related Posts:
  ** What Dog Food Hysterics Won't Tell You
  ** No Evidence One Dog Food Is Better Than Another
  ** Dog Food: Let's Try Science!
  ** Get Over It: Bagged Dog Food is Fine for Fido
  ** Wysong the Crackpot Dog Food Maker
  ** Blue Buffalo Thinks You Are An Idiot
  ** The Blue Buffalo Poops Again
  ** True Blue LIES from Blue Buffalo
  ** Business Week Calls Out Blue Buffalo Customers
  ** Honest Kitchen?
  ** What is the Work of Dogs in this Country?
  ** Murder by Can Opener: How Pet Owners Kill Dogs
  ** Why Dogs are in Better Shape Than Their Owners
  ** Treat Me Like a Human
  ** Canned Beaver as Dog Food?
  ** Dog Food Secrets "They" Don't Want You To Know
  ** Dog Food Blues: A Waive of Pancreatitis Is Next
  ** A Brief History of Dog Food
  ** Dog Food Recipes Cannot Be Patented
  ** Why Do Dogs Eat Grass?
  ** HSUS Promoting Imported Dog Food
  ** Are There Dead Dogs and Cats in Dog Food?

Doing it Right

Source

Doing It Wrong

Rock and Roll

Miso loves being on top of things -- tables, rocks, logs.

Moxie? Not so much.

Evidence of a Circle of Life... and Death

Walking the dogs yesterday, we found these feathers, along with breast feathers, scattered across a little glade in the woods. The work of a Cooper's Hawk no doubt. At first I thought these might be Mockingbird feathers due to their dark color, but David C. suggested they were Mourning Dove and a quick google search confirms David is right.

Coffee and Provocation

Pet Passport Forgery on the Rise in the UK

No doubt this will lead to a massive entry of terrierists.

Fox Hunting Back on the Agenda
If you don't think it's the same all over, look at the recent election in the UK, where the left got beaten like a chimpanzee in a gorilla cage because they embraced stupid and wrong policies on fox hunting and immigration, which are the US equivalent of stupid positions on the Second Amendment and immigration. For fox, which are beyond biological limits in the UK, and immigrants, who cost society money and who are taking jobs, the British left has gone down like the Hindenburg at Lakehurst.  As a result, social welfare programs are going to be cut to the bone and civil rights are going to the ash can. One the upside, fox hunting is back on the agenda.  My advice to the British Left is to vote fox hunting back in -- send a message that when you asked for leadership on the left, you were not looking for a leader of Lemmings. And for God's sake learn something from the bright burning success of the Scottish National Party where the left gave people something to vote for.

Time to Declare War on Texas
Thank goodness O'Bummer is taking the lead on this. A war on Texas?  I'm in! Fire up the drones. Dust off the terminator droids. Unleash the mechanical dogs. Let's go Jade Helm 15!  Here's the plan: We declare war on Texas, LOSE, give it back to Mexico, and build a massive fortified fence on Oklahoma's southern border.

The Smart Suitcase
Samsung and Samsonite are working to create a line of microchip-enabled smart luggage that will use GPS to track your bag's location and send you updates via smartphones so you will know when your bag is lost and deposited onto the carousel.

The Great John Brown 
The great John Brown was born this week in 1800.  This is a man who risked and gave his life to end slavery. And as a consequence we remember him in song and story to this day. His truth still marches on.

The Great Elon Musk
The great Elon Musk has sold out his Power Wall home battery station in less than a week.  Nothing available until mid-2016.  Tesla may end up being a battery maker that happens to sell cars.

The Great Trancontinental Railroad
It was 146 years ago this week that the last spike joining the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads was hammered home. Traveling across the country no longer meant a ship passage around South America or a months-long journey by covered wagon.

Want One
George Crawford's little vardo wagon has rolled 20,000 miles in five years. A thing of practical beauty and craft.

Like Clouds in My Coffee:
“It's just like when you've got some coffee that's too black, which means it's too strong. What do you do? You integrate it with cream, you make it weak. But if you pour too much cream in it, you won't even know you ever had coffee. It used to be hot, it becomes cool. It used to be strong, it becomes weak. It used to wake you up, now it puts you to sleep.” - Malcolm X

A New Critter Box

I slammed together a new squirrel/ critter box for pup training yesterday, as the old squirrel box has gone the way of all things. This loads from the back and lines up perfectly with the Hav-a-hart trap (9-inch sides).  The back panel rotates on one corner screw, and is held firmly in place by a second screw.  Welded fox mesh keeps the squirrel in, and thick wooden bars at the end of the practice tunnel keep the dogs back from the mesh. The box is the same size as the wooden go-to-ground liner. The handle makes the thing easy to lift and place in a fork of the tree for the "bolt" part of the training exercise. "No animals were harmed in the making of this movie."

Hillary's Going to Take Your Guns.

Hillary! It's Hillary that's going to take your guns. Bunker, bunker, bunker!!

When Poodles Go Bad

Descended from wolves, they were always ready to turn on their masters.

The Apple Watch E-Collar for People

Over at Medium they are trying to figure out how the Apple Watch will change things:

After twenty-four hours of reflection, I think I get it.

Why is the Apple Watch such a big deal? Well, there are tons of really neat things about the Apple Watch. It is personal. It is intimate. It knows your heartbeat. It tracks your steps. It empowers emotional communication.

But, in essence, what are we really looking at here? After adding everything together, what is the Apple Watch’s game-changing super power?

One word: habits.

The Apple Watch can change your habits unlike any device before it.

... Combine convenience, knowledge of your current habits, and effective nagging and you have a lean, mean, habit building machine. I believe the killer apps for the Apple Watch will be those that take advantage of this unique superpower to make you a better person.The Apple Watch can change your habits unlike any device before it.

    

Over at KQED they note that Apple Watch knows where you are, and quietly reminds you to be a better person.

You’re waiting in line for a coffee, eyeing a pastry, and your wrist-watch buzzes with a warning.

Flashing on the tiny screen of your Apple Watch is a message from an app called Lark, suggesting that you lay off the carbs for today. Speak into the Apple Watch’s built-in mic about your food, sleep and exercise, and the app will send helpful tips back to you.

Over at Forbes, they are examine the Apple Watch as a behavior modifier.

In order for wearables to fulfill the promises of positive behavior change, Fogg says they must “help you see that you are succeeding.” This imperative is not so much a matter of self-esteem as of physics. A positive spark is required for a feedback loop to ignite. For this reason, Fogg suggests starting small. His research shows that small actions properly reinforced are the most reliable channel for large permanent changes in people’s lives. He refers to these seeds of change as ”baby steps” or “tiny habits.” Another important factor is diversity. Not everyone wants to do the same things. In order to trigger an action you have to do three things: match a person with the action they want to do, give them the opportunity to do that action and let them know that they have done the action successfully. As with a sales conversion, if any of these three components is missing the person “falls out of the funnel.”

The Apple Watch is a particularly good medium for delivering these triggers. It has sound, vibration and visuals to get your attention. It also has location and time-awareness. Finally, it is connected to your data/identity complex in the cloud. These capabilities give app developers unprecedented ability to deliver the right trigger at the right time in the right place to motivate you to do the things you have indicated you want to do.

Terrier Names: Pairs and Triplets

Dog names should be short and start with a hard consonant.  Or so I am told.  I think it's good practice, but I have given dogs longer names, like "Mountain," and names without hard consonants, like "Sailor".  Gideon and Moxie have been the two best names I have used, but of the names below, I like "Grip and Grin" quite a lot, as well as "Jeckyl and Hyde".

• Grip and Grin 
• Gin and Tonic 
• Punch and Judy 
• Fur, Feather, Fin 
• Hook, Line, and Sinker 
• Jeckyl and Hyde 
• Twig and Branch
• Hammer and Nail 
• Alpha and Omega 
• Gizmo and Gadget 
• Banjo and Harp 
• Judge and Jury 
• Bow and Arrow 
• Bark and Bite 
• Skull and Bone 
• Tarzan, Jane, and Cheetah 
• Milk and Egg 
• Tried and True 
• Rough and Tumble 
• Bell and Whistle 
• Hammer, Sickle, Tong 
• Law and Order 
• Tooth and Nail 
• Chicken and Egg 
• Rant and Rave 
• Blood, Sweat, and Tears 
• Crate and Barrel 
• Larry, Curly, and Moe 
• Ball and Chain 
• Slip and Fall 
• Rope and Twine 
• Whiskey, Tango, and Foxtrot 
• Catfish and Dogwood 
• Pilgrim and Deacon 
• Petal and Thorn 
• Flint and Steel

This list is not meant to be complete.  Add your suggestions in the comments!

______________________

Elevated from the comments:

• Sparta and Athena
• Owen Meany (Owe and Meany)
• Belle and Beast
• Tic, Tac and Toe
• Charlie and Chaplin
• Sherlock and Holmes
• Sherlock and Watson
• Fast and Furious
• Lemon and Lime
• Stars and Stripes
• Hansl and Gretl
• Robinson and Crusoe
• Hellas and Atticus
• Dodge and Dip
• Thing One and Thing Two
• Grant and Lee
• Vice and Grip
• Faith, Hope and Charity. 
• Moriarty and Watson
• Holmes and Lestrad.

The Root of all Things

Mom and Darwin

My mother has been a steady, sensible rock my entire life. She is a constant life-long learner, perpetually curious, always reading, brave, tough when she has to be, nobody's fool. 

She grew up as a single child in a small town in Kansas, went to Syria the day she got married, and has been everywhere worth going to, from Petra to Zimbabwe, from Machu Pichu to Japan, from Paris to Mexico, from Mali to Peru, from Germany to Libya, from Turkey to Canada, from California to Lebanon, from Norway to Iran. She knows about the world because she has been in it, double drenched in wonder.

Through it all she raised two kids who now have jobs and kids of their own, and as a teacher for over 40 years, she taught an army of school kids about insects and life cycles, patterns, and history, native cultures, and great story.  

My mom can bait a hook, build you bookshelves, raise a brood of chickens, make a lemon meringue pie, and haggle her way through an Arab bazaar earning respect in every stall.

And is she a terrierwoman?  Only for 75 years, with Trouble, Scoot, Stuff I, Stuff II, Pearl, and now Darwin.

I am my mother's son, and damn proud of it.

  

Dachshund Gargoyle

Unknown location.

Scraping the Pot, Outdoor Life, 1923

Source

Plant Sale

I was out getting more perennials for the yard today. Put down more weed block in some beds and sheared the hedge too. Yard work is never done.