ilovepugs
Angel Diva
Yes yes yes
Dog #2 (Pippin) is a lab/whippet mix. The most under-posted to social media and the MVP of my crew. What do you want to know about him?
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- Thread starter Native Vail Gal
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Dog #2 (Pippin) is a lab/whippet mix. The most under-posted to social media and the MVP of my crew. What do you want to know about him?
SkiGAP
Angel Diva
Lab/Whippet sounds like a mix of the best personalities :-) . Whippets are one of the types on my list... I understand that Whippets (at least purebreds) enjoy bursts of exercise and then more or less chilling out the rest of the day. I was wondering how hardy they are for long hikes, runs, etc. Would they just plop down after 30 minutes and refuse to move :-) ?
SkiGAP
Angel Diva
Very cute. As I sit here in Southern France in our European head wave, that snow looks delightful. I plan to head up to Andorra today to escape some of the heat for the weekend. I've not been to my place for over a month. BTW, Andorra is a dog country. I rarely see a person walking with only 1 dog, it feels like - it's 0 or 2+. But lots of open space for them so I get it.
NWSkiGirl
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Southern France! I'm so jealous - of really anywhere in France. I'm embarrassed to say I've never heard of Andorra, but it sounds lovely! Maybe I should relocate there.
These two pics were over the winter, unfortunately! But my dogs adore the snow just like me.
NWSkiGirl
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I had italian greyhounds at one time, which are smaller than whippets. The greyhounds, whippets, and IGs are not really endurance dogs, unfortunately. Although it depends on how far you want to go with them. They're fast (45, 35, 25 MPH respectively), though!
ilovepugs
Angel Diva
Whippets love comfort and relaxation but enjoy an joyful and energetic sprint. I can only talk about my wonderful mixed doggy, but to be honest he is the best hiker of my three — good in the heat with good walking-speed endurance. At this point he is an old boy and I’m careful not to push his joints too much (so no trail running or even jogging on my hilly dirt road), but he enjoys nothing more than going to dog camp where he roams for two hours on a thousand acre farm. That said, I generally agree with @NWSkiGirl’s statement that whippets aren’t built for running endurance.
I believe you are talking about the pug:
Nancy Poitras on Instagram: "My funny for the day! When it's suddenly 90+ degrees out everyone gets a little lazy dayz! @contraireindication"
8 likes, 3 comments - alpinedogvt on May 18, 2017: "My funny for the day! When it's suddenly 90+ degrees out everyone gets a little lazy dayz! @contraireindication"
www.instagram.com
(Did that work?)
MissySki
Angel Diva
Tomorrow will make 2 weeks since I gave Sookie her first 2 buttons and around a week and a half since she went up to 5. Since that day when I said she started spamming the outside button a ton early last week, she has really taken to using them everyday. She will often use them to get our attention if we are doing something else and she wants something, and she'll also use them if I ask her what she wants. I feel at this point she knows what "Outside", "Food", and "Play" mean very well and uses them in appropriate contexts majority of the time. "Water" has been difficult to gauge. And maybe that actually isn't all that surprising because she always has fresh water available and I don't think it's an overly motivating thing to her. A couple of times she has pressed it after she finished taking a drink, or she'll press it and I'll bring her bowl over to her and she'll drink. But she also has been pressing it a bit when she doesn't actually want any water that I offer, so I'm not sure if she is trying to use it to mean something else or if she is hoping for a different meaning or what lol. She doesn't really use "All Done", which is fine because I have that to model for her that something is all done. Seems to be getting the point of it when I use it which is good. She has pressed it a couple of times when I was doing something else, and I have read that other dogs have taken to using that button as telling their owner that they should be all done with whatever they're doing at that time and pay attention to them instead. haha I don't really think she is there yet though, I think she is probably sometimes just exploring her soundboard and "babbling". Occasionally she'll go down the front row and press each button in turn, which I also take as her exploring. Usually when she is specifically requesting something she will hit that button and then look at me expectantly, when she might be exploring she doesn't look at me afterward she just goes along her way. So I'm trying to decide when to add a couple more buttons and which words they'll be. I might add some later this week, or I might wait because next week I'll be gone for several days for a work thing, and therefore won't be here as much to keep up with modeling. Dad will be here and will work on her with it as well, but I'm definitely the main one who is focused on this project and don't want to miss anything.. so we'll see.
I wanted to show a short snippet of one of our exchanges this morning. Apologies if the video is a bit crummy. It should be better if you are on a smaller device screen than a desktop since it's a download from my Furbo dog camera.. which is also why it's only 15 seconds because it records in 15 second intervals after motion is detected. I snagged another Ring cam during Prime Days last week on Amazon, so I should have some better quality video soon for this purpose and it will record longer durations as well.
To set the context (and please excuse my mismatched pajamas and puppy stuff everywhere lol) Sookie had already had her breakfast for the morning. She requests more food and I model the "all done" button saying she'll have more food later. She then switches gears and asks to play instead, which I was happy to oblige and we got into a rowdy game of fetch.
Had to link from YouTube as I didn't realize I couldn't upload a video here directly. Hope this is okay!
Video: Sookie asks for food then bargains for play
Here's a pic of my sleepy coworker once we settled in for the workday. This is under one side of my desk.
I wanted to show a short snippet of one of our exchanges this morning. Apologies if the video is a bit crummy. It should be better if you are on a smaller device screen than a desktop since it's a download from my Furbo dog camera.. which is also why it's only 15 seconds because it records in 15 second intervals after motion is detected. I snagged another Ring cam during Prime Days last week on Amazon, so I should have some better quality video soon for this purpose and it will record longer durations as well.
To set the context (and please excuse my mismatched pajamas and puppy stuff everywhere lol) Sookie had already had her breakfast for the morning. She requests more food and I model the "all done" button saying she'll have more food later. She then switches gears and asks to play instead, which I was happy to oblige and we got into a rowdy game of fetch.
Had to link from YouTube as I didn't realize I couldn't upload a video here directly. Hope this is okay!
Video: Sookie asks for food then bargains for play
Here's a pic of my sleepy coworker once we settled in for the workday. This is under one side of my desk.
newboots
Angel Diva
This is awesome! I tuned in late, so what a surprise!Tomorrow will make 2 weeks since I gave Sookie her first 2 buttons and around a week and a half since she went up to 5. Since that day when I said she started spamming the outside button a ton early last week, she has really taken to using them everyday. She will often use them to get our attention if we are doing something else and she wants something, and she'll also use them if I ask her what she wants. I feel at this point she knows what "Outside", "Food", and "Play" mean very well and uses them in appropriate contexts majority of the time. "Water" has been difficult to gauge. And maybe that actually isn't all that surprising because she always has fresh water available and I don't think it's an overly motivating thing to her. A couple of times she has pressed it after she finished taking a drink, or she'll press it and I'll bring her bowl over to her and she'll drink. But she also has been pressing it a bit when she doesn't actually want any water that I offer, so I'm not sure if she is trying to use it to mean something else or if she is hoping for a different meaning or what lol. She doesn't really use "All Done", which is fine because I have that to model for her that something is all done. Seems to be getting the point of it when I use it which is good. She has pressed it a couple of times when I was doing something else, and I have read that other dogs have taken to using that button as telling their owner that they should be all done with whatever they're doing at that time and pay attention to them instead. haha I don't really think she is there yet though, I think she is probably sometimes just exploring her soundboard and "babbling". Occasionally she'll go down the front row and press each button in turn, which I also take as her exploring. Usually when she is specifically requesting something she will hit that button and then look at me expectantly, when she might be exploring she doesn't look at me afterward she just goes along her way. So I'm trying to decide when to add a couple more buttons and which words they'll be. I might add some later this week, or I might wait because next week I'll be gone for several days for a work thing, and therefore won't be here as much to keep up with modeling. Dad will be here and will work on her with it as well, but I'm definitely the main one who is focused on this project and don't want to miss anything.. so we'll see.
I wanted to show a short snippet of one of our exchanges this morning. Apologies if the video is a bit crummy. It should be better if you are on a smaller device screen than a desktop since it's a download from my Furbo dog camera.. which is also why it's only 15 seconds because it records in 15 second intervals after motion is detected. I snagged another Ring cam during Prime Days last week on Amazon, so I should have some better quality video soon for this purpose and it will record longer durations as well.
To set the context (and please excuse my mismatched pajamas and puppy stuff everywhere lol) Sookie had already had her breakfast for the morning. She requests more food and I model the "all done" button saying she'll have more food later. She then switches gears and asks to play instead, which I was happy to oblige and we got into a rowdy game of fetch.
Had to link from YouTube as I didn't realize I couldn't upload a video here directly. Hope this is okay!
Video: Sookie asks for food then bargains for play
Here's a pic of my sleepy coworker once we settled in for the workday. This is under one side of my desk.
Lmk92
Angel Diva
I need these, especially after skiing. ;)
MissySki
Angel Diva
So yesterday was interesting, I think Sookie has started to put two words together in an intentional way. Sookie doesn't eat out of a bowl, she has food bowls but for the most part I like to use portions of her kibble allotment to do training and enrichment activities throughout the day. Currently she still gets three small meals per day, and I usually put some in her regular Kong toy that I freeze with some little additive like apple sauce. Then I use a small handful to run through training and tricks that she knows or that we are working on. Lastly I put the rest in a food puzzle, puzzle ball, Kong wobbler, or snuffle mat. She seems to really enjoy all of these activities so we've stuck with it and switch up what she gets day to day.
I was preparing her lunch yesterday and she pressed "food" "play".. I couldn't see her at the time so I wasn't sure if it was intentional or if she'd just hit the play accidentally or out of excitement after pressing food (until I went back to watch the Furbo video). I then was asking what she wanted as I continued working on her lunch prep. She went back and pressed the same thing again, "food" "play". My interest was peaked at that point. So once I finished getting her food puzzle ready I carried it over to her soundboard before giving to her and asked her to tell me what it was and pointed to her board.. I am trying to start using the term "use your words" as I've seen others do but we aren't there yet. Once again she very deliberately pressed "food" "play". That's when it really dawned on me that she might be trying to describe her food puzzle or that activity, and that perhaps she considers it both eating and playing.
I'm still skeptical on whether I am reading too much into it (which is easy to do!), but the more she uses it (she did it again this morning when I was preparing her breakfast with a snuffle mat) the more I am wondering if this is her first two word request that she's intentionally put together on her own. It's exciting, but I don't really know what it means fully yet. I use the word "puzzle" or "snuffle mat" or "wobbler" with her, so "food play" is not something I've ever used to describe these items or activities.
If I wasn't going to be in Boston for most of next week (my company is having our first annual full company fly in to get everyone together from across the country) I would add a few new words tomorrow to start working on. Instead I am planning to wait until the end of next week when I'm back and we can work on them a bunch.
Here's a video of yesterday's encounter. I pulled together the 3 applicable clips from the Furbo into one video for ease of viewing if anyone is interested.
Youtube: Sookie Combining Words?
I was preparing her lunch yesterday and she pressed "food" "play".. I couldn't see her at the time so I wasn't sure if it was intentional or if she'd just hit the play accidentally or out of excitement after pressing food (until I went back to watch the Furbo video). I then was asking what she wanted as I continued working on her lunch prep. She went back and pressed the same thing again, "food" "play". My interest was peaked at that point. So once I finished getting her food puzzle ready I carried it over to her soundboard before giving to her and asked her to tell me what it was and pointed to her board.. I am trying to start using the term "use your words" as I've seen others do but we aren't there yet. Once again she very deliberately pressed "food" "play". That's when it really dawned on me that she might be trying to describe her food puzzle or that activity, and that perhaps she considers it both eating and playing.
I'm still skeptical on whether I am reading too much into it (which is easy to do!), but the more she uses it (she did it again this morning when I was preparing her breakfast with a snuffle mat) the more I am wondering if this is her first two word request that she's intentionally put together on her own. It's exciting, but I don't really know what it means fully yet. I use the word "puzzle" or "snuffle mat" or "wobbler" with her, so "food play" is not something I've ever used to describe these items or activities.
If I wasn't going to be in Boston for most of next week (my company is having our first annual full company fly in to get everyone together from across the country) I would add a few new words tomorrow to start working on. Instead I am planning to wait until the end of next week when I'm back and we can work on them a bunch.
Here's a video of yesterday's encounter. I pulled together the 3 applicable clips from the Furbo into one video for ease of viewing if anyone is interested.
Youtube: Sookie Combining Words?
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MissySki
Angel Diva
Today I added more hextiles and buttons to Sookie's setup. I added the hextiles so the full number of categories for words are now in place, as I don't want to confuse her later with rearranging. I added 3 new buttons, "love you", "help", and "ice". I'm specifically trying out "ice" because I feel like Sookie still uses her "water" button to ask for ice chips and things like frozen Kongs versus actual water. So I want to see if this helps distinguish them.
Within 5 minutes of my adding to the board Sookie went and pressed "love you". She got really excited and started kissing my face a ton. I'm not sure if she fully understands what the new button is, or what "love you" means to her in particular.. but I do say "love you" anytime we cuddle up/hug/etc. so I wanted to start working it in. Everyone on the forum for talking pets says how rewarding of a button that is for the owners, especially when they start saying things like "mom" "love you" and I'm excited to start on it. She then proceeded to press almost every button on her board while looking down at it and seeming to listen intently. These were not presses when she expected me to do anything, she just seemed to be orienting herself. When she got to "ice" her head popped up and she stared at me, so I modeled that for her and she's already pressed it once more on her own after that now. She loves ice chips and we have a game we play with them as well.
Anyway, I'm excited to see how these buttons get incorporated into our day to day. I have so many I want to add, it's hard to hold back, but I also don't want to push to fast. Looking forward to adding more soon though! I have a list of the top 20 some odd words people seem to add, and I'm somewhat following that for now outside of "ice" anyway.
Within 5 minutes of my adding to the board Sookie went and pressed "love you". She got really excited and started kissing my face a ton. I'm not sure if she fully understands what the new button is, or what "love you" means to her in particular.. but I do say "love you" anytime we cuddle up/hug/etc. so I wanted to start working it in. Everyone on the forum for talking pets says how rewarding of a button that is for the owners, especially when they start saying things like "mom" "love you" and I'm excited to start on it. She then proceeded to press almost every button on her board while looking down at it and seeming to listen intently. These were not presses when she expected me to do anything, she just seemed to be orienting herself. When she got to "ice" her head popped up and she stared at me, so I modeled that for her and she's already pressed it once more on her own after that now. She loves ice chips and we have a game we play with them as well.
Anyway, I'm excited to see how these buttons get incorporated into our day to day. I have so many I want to add, it's hard to hold back, but I also don't want to push to fast. Looking forward to adding more soon though! I have a list of the top 20 some odd words people seem to add, and I'm somewhat following that for now outside of "ice" anyway.
MissySki
Angel Diva
I’m not sure she “knows” it yet, but she has pressed it several times now and then given me kisses.. so I think she gets it in some way.
liquidfeet
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
You two are having so much fun!
MissySki
Angel Diva
We really are! This short experiment has really highlighted how much Sookie desires to communicate in another way, which is really fun to play around with. My significant other was quite skeptical to start and has been so impressed with how Sookie has taken to it so enthusiastically.
Interestingly, I had a weeklong meeting in Boston last week with all of my coworkers. It was really fun, and we had a number of meetings with ice breakers that asked for fun facts of what was going on with us. In one of them I mentioned that I’m teaching my puppy to speak with recordable buttons.. this led to a ton of future conversations throughout the week where people came up to let me know they were planning to start the same, that they had tried unsuccessfully and wanted tips, or to ask about it in general because they hadn’t heard about it previously. I hope I did my part to inform more pet parents about this growing field. Glad I had videos to share as well, seeing is definitely better than just hearing from me about it.
Cyclone6
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I recently added "Mad" to Bucky's board. He was using "Concerned" to express general upset (in addition to being scared), for example, if I tell him that we're "all done pool." This past week, my boyfriend went out of town. Bucky has been missing him a lot and presses the Dad button a couple times a day. Today he pressed Mad, but I hadn't told him No or anything to prompt that. I asked him why he was mad, and he pressed Dad! I told my boyfriend that he's going through the 7 stages of grief.
MissySki
Angel Diva
Awwww it is so cool that he can express himself this way!
liquidfeet
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
This is just amazing.
Mudgirl630
Angel Diva
My rescued girls. Mairin and Manon.
