My good news...and bad sort of...is that Tango has her results back from Cambridge. It seems the lump was a plasma cell tumour, which was largely benign but did have canerous cells too. Not good, but thankfully around the cancerous cells there was a good margin of benign cells and they removed it all. We now have to monitor her and check no more grow.
On a cheerier note, we went to visit my friends new addition at the weekend. Trudi is a Guide Dog pup, mum was a Golden Retriever X Flat Coat and dad is a Golden Retriever. Trudi looks strangely like an Arctic Fox though so not quite sure how that happened. She is adorable and doing very well on the house training front. It's funny though, seeing a new addition like her makes me ponder puppy walking again, but no, it's not for me at the moment. Lots of things would have to change first, both at home for me and in Guide Dogs, but that's another story! Suffice to say it does make me think...always dangerous!!!! I have therefore been pondering training methods more than usual (well, thanks to meeting Trudi, who is pictured in a brief quiet moment during our visit) and getting involved in a couple of interesting training threads on an internet forum!!
As a teacher, I am used to ideas being fashionable, then unfashionable, then just as you have thrown out all the paperwork that goes along with the idea, it becomes fashionable again. That of course is why teachers' houses are always full and overflowing with pieces of paper from ten years ago, you just never know when it will come in handy. Put different teachers in a room and ask them how to teach the same thing...and each one will come up with a different method. Unless any of them involve pain, either physical or mental or humiliation then most of them will work, depending on the characters of the children and the teacher. Some children respond better to a given teacher and vice versa...all to do with the mix of personalities. It is the same with dog training.
In dog training, ideas come in and out of fashion (perhaps not as quickly as in the education of humans, but that is getting too political for my musings on here), different trainers will all suggest different methods and most (excluding the ones that cause pain or humiliation again) will work, depending on the personalities of the dog and trainer involved. It's why I love dog training and why I love teaching (mind you I cannot claim that my dogs are exceptionally obedient/well trained..or that the children that I have taught are geniuses...but I do enjoy it!!) I think I should put the disclaimer in at this early stage in my blogging life, that I do not focus too much on getting my dogs to be obedient creatures who behave themselves impeccably, having puppy walked for Guide Dogs for 5 years, I am currently enjoying letting my dogs be just what is says on the box...dogs.(When I am not training Tango to accept dogs running around her and not doing agility stuff with Cosmo!)
I am hugely interested in training methods though. I have seen many people try to teach their dog with quite harsh and cruel (in my opinion) methods (including one man who thought it would be a good idea to bite his puppy's ear when it mouthed his hand.....). I am not 'into' such methods. I clicker train, I am patient and I do not use any aversives beyoned a fierce 'oi' or 'no' as I don't see the need. If I align myself with any dog trainer it would be either Turid Rugaas or Sarah Fisher, both of whom I have had the honour of meeting and spending time (all be it only a weekend with each), learning from.
I think I will ponder training a lot on this blog, if it doesn't bore people too much...but often it's good to get things down as it clarifies them for me more than anyone else!
On a cheerier note, we went to visit my friends new addition at the weekend. Trudi is a Guide Dog pup, mum was a Golden Retriever X Flat Coat and dad is a Golden Retriever. Trudi looks strangely like an Arctic Fox though so not quite sure how that happened. She is adorable and doing very well on the house training front. It's funny though, seeing a new addition like her makes me ponder puppy walking again, but no, it's not for me at the moment. Lots of things would have to change first, both at home for me and in Guide Dogs, but that's another story! Suffice to say it does make me think...always dangerous!!!! I have therefore been pondering training methods more than usual (well, thanks to meeting Trudi, who is pictured in a brief quiet moment during our visit) and getting involved in a couple of interesting training threads on an internet forum!!
As a teacher, I am used to ideas being fashionable, then unfashionable, then just as you have thrown out all the paperwork that goes along with the idea, it becomes fashionable again. That of course is why teachers' houses are always full and overflowing with pieces of paper from ten years ago, you just never know when it will come in handy. Put different teachers in a room and ask them how to teach the same thing...and each one will come up with a different method. Unless any of them involve pain, either physical or mental or humiliation then most of them will work, depending on the characters of the children and the teacher. Some children respond better to a given teacher and vice versa...all to do with the mix of personalities. It is the same with dog training.
In dog training, ideas come in and out of fashion (perhaps not as quickly as in the education of humans, but that is getting too political for my musings on here), different trainers will all suggest different methods and most (excluding the ones that cause pain or humiliation again) will work, depending on the personalities of the dog and trainer involved. It's why I love dog training and why I love teaching (mind you I cannot claim that my dogs are exceptionally obedient/well trained..or that the children that I have taught are geniuses...but I do enjoy it!!) I think I should put the disclaimer in at this early stage in my blogging life, that I do not focus too much on getting my dogs to be obedient creatures who behave themselves impeccably, having puppy walked for Guide Dogs for 5 years, I am currently enjoying letting my dogs be just what is says on the box...dogs.(When I am not training Tango to accept dogs running around her and not doing agility stuff with Cosmo!)
I am hugely interested in training methods though. I have seen many people try to teach their dog with quite harsh and cruel (in my opinion) methods (including one man who thought it would be a good idea to bite his puppy's ear when it mouthed his hand.....). I am not 'into' such methods. I clicker train, I am patient and I do not use any aversives beyoned a fierce 'oi' or 'no' as I don't see the need. If I align myself with any dog trainer it would be either Turid Rugaas or Sarah Fisher, both of whom I have had the honour of meeting and spending time (all be it only a weekend with each), learning from.
I think I will ponder training a lot on this blog, if it doesn't bore people too much...but often it's good to get things down as it clarifies them for me more than anyone else!
So glad to hear they got clean margins on your girl. That is such a worry with these flat coats.
ReplyDeleteI agree training philosophies are fascinating. Good topic for discussion!