Clicker training - voluntary "heel"

A funny thing happened when I was walking the dogs. I had decided to use clicker training to teach Lucy to stay closer, since she mostly gets to be off leash. I started by clicking every time she looked at me, and she would come running to get the treat. I also clicked every time she approached me. Gradually she started hanging around very close to me and I was having trouble not using up all the treats before we got home. So on the next walk I only clicked when she walked at my left side, then only if she also looked up at me. Gradually I waited for 1, then 2, and up to 5 steps walking at my left foot and simultaneously looking up at me before clicking. That day she walked at "heel" voluntarily for hundreds of yards. When I teach "heel" it normally takes major concentration just to keep it up for 10 - 20 yards. With Lucy I used to pretty much have to hold the treat in front of her nose the whole time. The next day I started increasing the distance that she has to walk at my left side while looking up at me to 20 steps. I then varied between 5 and 20 steps and she still spends a lot of time "heeling" voluntarily on our walks. I've even tried left and right turns and changes in tempo. She "heels" like a champion. Now I have added a new aspect. If I feel her body against my leg, I immediatly click and treat. Otherwise she has to walk 10 - 20 steps before I click. The idea is gradually to get her glued to my leg for "heel" excercises. On our walks it has all been voluntary, and probably I will keep it this way. However I plan to add the command on our training sessions soon.

There IS a life beside nursing.

In march I remember assessing whether I even had a life outside of work and study. This weekend I have realized that since completing the nurse anesthesia course, my life has become rich and full of the most varied activities and interests. Work takes up a large chunk of course, as well as the ongoing search for a nurse anesthetist job, but much of my attention is now focused on non-nursing related activities. For a while I studied Italian and soon I plan to take up Spanish. I continue to do excersises in meditation, observation and self-developement. I have discovered a new author, new to me that is: Stephanie Meyer. I read "The Host" first, a book that I found facinating. It was when I asked at the library if she had written anything else, that I discovered that she is the author of the Twighlight series. I have now devoured the first of these, and am on the library waiting list for the others.



Getting back in shape by cycling, orienteering and doing pilates took a lot of the summer, but once the orienteering season ended I began to spend more time on training Lucy. There is mileau training on mondays, obedience on tuesdays and agility on thursdays. Lucy is very nervous - afraid both of strange people and dogs. Her anxiety can quickly manifest as aggressive behavior, based on the premise (in her mind) that attack is the best defence. At the first agility training we went to, Lucy and I were the only participants, so the instructor spent about 15 minutes just getting Lucy to approach and make contact with her - not by giving her treats out of her hand, but by throwing a treat a little ways away each time Lucy came a little closer. Lucy overcame her fear, and because the treat wasn't coming out of her hand, she was more aware of the act of making contact with the instructor. At the next session we were again the only ones there. I asked if the principle could be applied to other aspects of training. For example I can get Lucy to walk at heel when I hold a treat in front of her nose, but she is so focused on the treat that I doubt she realizes what she is doing. So the agility instructor introduced me to clicker training, as a means of separating the behavior and the treat slightly so that the dog actually becomes conscious of what she is doing. It sounded interesting so I bought a clicker and after doing some research online I signed up for a 7 day free online clicker training course. This turns out to be a whole philosophy of dog training, which I am now trying to assimilate and put into practice. As I become more familiar with the whole concept and gain some practical experience I will post how it goes.

Job Interview and a dog fight

Today I had a jobinterview with a temp company called Jobzone. They were looking for a nurse anesthetist for a client. The job was in Oslo, and would be a daytime job, no weekends, evenings or nights. Originally I found the idea of commuting to Oslo prohibitive, but when I thought more about it I thought that if I could work 4 days a week, and have a regular rhythm it might just work. I was really excited when they called to set up an interview, and also kind of scared at the thought of giving up my steady job for a temporary anesthesia job and who knows what that would lead to. But I am determined to try to get an anesthesia job one way or another.

Anyway, this morning I got up at 5 to walk the dogs before taking the 6:55 train to Oslo. It was pouring rain when I walked the dogs, and still pouring rain while I waited at the station. When I got to Oslo I found the subway alright. When I emerged at my destination it was still pouring rain. I followed the instructions I'd been given: exited throught the main doors and discovered the Oslo Business School directly across the street. I walked around the building and at the back I found the Jobzone office.

First I was kept waiting for half an hour. The lady who was doing the interview was held up in traffic. When she arrived she was just. so. nice. After a few minutes she suggested that she call the chief nurse anesthetist of the client - a private clinic in Oslo - and maybe set up an interview right away. When she mentioned the name I realized that it was the name of a clinic to which I had applied a couple of weeks ago, but who had not yet responded.
When she resumed the conversation with: "I will be completely honest with you..." I knew what was coming. They wanted folks with experience.

Why is it that anesthetist managers don't send that letter saying: "thank you for your interrest. But the position has been filled with someone more qualified/we require minimum X years of experience" ? Do they think that their applicants like their patients are unconscious and won't notice if they get a rejection letter or not?

Still had a nice talk with the nurse recruiter and she assured me that she would do what she could to find me a job, she wasn't giving up on Aleris either, sooner or later they might get so desperate that they would take me in spite of my lack of experience (should I even hope for that? - if the reason is that they are not set up to give the backing that new nurse anesthetists need?). Whatever.

It had stopped raining when I returned to the subway and arrived at the train station with an hour to kill. Used it to get Irene a birthday present. Met my dentist waiting for the same train. The latest crisis met me upon my return. Topsy had attacked Lucy again - she has begun attacking her unprovoked. Lucy fought back this time, but when the scuffle was over she was limping on 3 legs. The vet felt around at her paw, couldn't figure out whether it was sprained or broken. Lucy tried to bite her to make her stop, so we muzzled her. Even with a muzzle on she fought to get away, get the muzzle off, bite. She got herself all exhausted. I was a bit worried how she would react when we took the muzzle off, but after only a minute or so she was accepting goodies from the vets hand. So I guess their relationship isn't totally ruined.

A Dog's Christmas

I am Topsy. I am 9 years old and I used to be an only dog, back in the good old days. About 9 months ago Master and Mistress brought home another dog, Lucy, who is a Real Pest. I have to let Master and Mistress pet her. She belongs to Mistress, and that is Okay, but why do I have to let Master pet her too? I can't have anything to myself anymore. They let her go on walks with us and she is always showing off how fast she can run. She gets to lie in my bed when they go away, and she gets to eat at the same time as me. They don't seem to understand that as younger dog she should be getting my leftovers only.

Christmas is fun. Master and Mistress always put up a tree in the living room. It has lot's of stuff hanging on it, and underneath are boxes and parcels wrapped in colored paper and string, and there is always one parcel hidden among the others with a yummy pigs ear inside. This year there were two. I went straight to the pile and picked one out, but they took it away and put it back. Said I had to wait. Well, I parked myself in front of the tree. I was at least going to make sure Lucy didn't get one of those pig-ear parcels. Later on in the evening they let us each have one. Lucy took hers and hid behind Master's chair with it. It's too bad she's so sneaky 'cause I would have taken it away from her otherwise. It's fun tearing up the paper before getting to the pigs ear. Pigs ears are my favorite goodie!



Believe it or not, next morning they put these delicious smelling kibbles in gravy out in bowls. Why they put them on a counter where only the cats could get at them I can't understand. I tried to stand on my hind leggs to eat from the bowls but Mistress wouldn't let me. Imagine wasting such yummy food on cats!

The cats tried to palm a mouse off on me. I didn't want the mouse, I wanted the catfood in gravy! Of course the mouse might have been meant for Lucy. She plays with the cats a lot. Thinks she's very brave making feignts at them snarling and showing her teeth, all the while trying to avvoid those sharp claws. Cats play dirty, so I don't even bother anymore. Anyway, Lucy had only just started chewing on the mouse when Master saw her and took it away. I guess the cats felt sorry for her cause they brought her a new mouse later on and she managed to chew it up and swallow it before Master was able to get hold of it.



I try to teach Lucy manners whenever possible. But she always starts crying and then Master and Mistress come running and make me stop and comfort her. It's sickening. Still I let her know whose boss as often as I can and give her a thrashing whenever I can get away with it.

50 years - the beginning of the rest of my life!

I see turning 50 as a landmark. The start of a new Era.
The first 20 years of life were my childhood. A happy childhood in most areas.
The next 30 years saw the establishment of my family, the search for love and meaningfull occupation. An area in which I could serve and contribute to society and to the earth. Thus I became by turns a farmer, full time mother and finaly a nurse.

Now, at 50 my parents are getting older and I am aware that I will be facing the loss of at least one parent in the near future. This is prompting me to take a closer look at death and dying in an effort to prepare myself both for the transition of a parent to the spiritual world and my own eventual death. I am thankfull that I have a close relationship with my brothers and sister. I recently had a patient who died suddenly and whose daughters who had had no contact with each other for years started fighting and even hitting each other in the halls of the ER.

My own children are now practically grown, and I look forward to seeing what paths their lives will be taking, and hope some time in the future to become a grandmother.

I still carry elements of my previous occupations with me. I grow an organic garden, and keep a few chickens. I enjoy running in (orienteering) and walking the dogs in the woods. I try to support the health of the environment by buying organic products, now that I have the means to do so.

When I was 20 I had my whole life ahead of me, but no clear idea of what I wanted to do with it. Now, at 50 there are so many things I still want to accomplish and the time to do it all in seems limited. In only 10 - 20 years I will be facing retirement. I want to make a contribution to people in developing countries and experience first hand the life there, either with disaster relief or through some other work as a nurse. To this end I embarked on an 18 month course to become a nurse anesthetist this year. I look forward to this enhancement of my nursing skills.

As I look ahead I hope for a period of increased freedom and mobility now that the children are grown. A chance to travel extensively. Illness is an increasing possibility that can limit my plans for work and travel and I become more and more conscious of the need to take care of my health, and to appreciate the good health that I currently enjoy. Perhaps I will make "Live Slowly" my motto for the future.

I am celebrating the beginning of this new era, not only with a change in career, but with a new dog, given me by my children, a trip to Paris given to me by my husband, and in June I have invited my family and a few close friends to join me for a dinner cruise on the worlds oldest paddle steamer. Today, though, we will celebrate modestly: my husband has made a delicious cake: "After-8 cheese cake", the girls are coming for dinner and we plan to go to the movies in the evening to see "Angels and Demons."


This is my birthday present from the children: Lucy the belgian sheepdog

Election night

Driving to and from work is a perilous undertaking - in fog the consistency of oatmeal and roads covered with an icy glaze.

For the first time I was able to follow the presidential election, since I had to work last night. They were broadcasting results on Norwegian Television from 1 am on. Unfortunatly a patient came in at 1:10 and we weren't done with him until 3 am and by that time it was clear that Obama had a good lead. Still it was fun watching the states on the CNN map turn from grey to blue or red as the night wore on. Barak Obama won. I feel optimistic, though the tasks he is facing are formidable. Must say I agree with the Norwegian newspaper (Dagbladet) who's front page said "Puh, we survived the worst president ever".

Our cat's have the right idea when it comes to the weather. I find them curled up asleep in various parts of the house. Fluffy is somewhat put out by the winter weather. When it first snowed she balanced along the fence trying to avoid having to walk in that cold wet yucky white stuff. She is intrigued however, by the bird feeder on the wall outside the kitchen. Perched on the roof above the feeder, she stretches her paws down to see if she can catch one of those delectable morsels, flying back and forth and feeding on suet balls and peanuts. The birds of course seeing that she can't reach them pay absolutely no attention.

Cat tales

PUSELINE

PIRIL

FLUFFY

GARFUNKLE



I got the idea to write this post this afternoon. I was sitting on the porch freezing Kale. It was a lovely warm (for the season) afternoon, with the late afternoon sunlight flooding the garden. While I worked I was watching the cats.

We have 4 cats. They are Puseline, the mother and oldest, 6 yrs old. Daughter Piril is 5 years, son Garfunkle, 4 years and newcomer Fluffy, who is 2 years. Fluffy actually belongs to Irene (as Piril belongs to Audun, except that Piril has been living here off and on since birth and all the time for the past 3 years). Since Irene can't have a cat where she is living she brought her here. Fluffy used to be an indoor cat and she absolutely loves the outdoors.
Now Puseline is the boss cat, though Piril has been challenging her constantly. The problem is that Puseline takes off for weeks and months at a time in the summer, so Piril doesn't want to give up top cat status when she comes back for the winter. This year however her sovereinty is undisputed. Piril and Fluffy are much too busy spatting between themselves.
Just now Piril went in through the cat door. Immediatly afterward Fluffy showed up from under the veranda. They had a little fight on each side of the cat door, growling and spitting and hitting the swinging flap with their paws so that it swung wildly rattling back and forth - until Topsy came to break it up.
Piril's favorite trick is to wait until Fluffy has climbed onto the roof, and then sit on the railing so that she can't get down, without landing on her. Garfunkle as the only boy, doesn't participate in all the power struggles. He just lies there and looks lordly.

I want to end this post with a memorial picture of Sebastian, who was with us for 12 years, and whom we had to have put down last winter because of a skin condition.

SEBASTIAN

Home but Robbed!

Returned home from Crete yesterday, to trees fiery with gold, yellow, and red; and a black velvet night sky, studded with stars. Not too cold either: temps are 50's.

Topsy was all excited to see us again. A happy surprise was that Puseline, who has been gone since May 1 has come back, lonely and skrawny, but bossy as ever. She and Fluffy seem to tolerate each other, occasionally hissing at each other, but otherwise ignoring each other. Fluffy was Irene's cat whom we adopted when she and her boyfriend split up. I'm sure Puseline was not pleased to see that we had taken in a strange cat, and Fluffy must have wondered at this impudent stranger just walking in and making herself at home.

My wallet got stolen at the airport. All the years travelling in Italy, Egypt, Greece, London, Paris I've escaped thieves only to have it happen in what is practically my home town! It is outrageous! I had purchased train tickets and then bought some juice and a couple of bananas, paying each time with my VISA card since I didn't have Norwegian currency. We sat for halv an hour, then 10 minutes before our train was due we went down to the track. "Do you have the tickets?" asked Tor. "They're in my wallet" I replied. That's when I noticed that the zipper to my bag was open and the wallet gone. I retraced my steps, hoping it had just fallen out and was still lying there. No such luck. Called the lost-and-found, introduced myself, and asked if anyone had turned in a wallet in the past half hour. "No," the girl said, "No wallet. What was your name again? Someone turned in two credit cards with your name!" It was my bank debit card and Master Card. The VISA card and wallet with my drivers licence and various insurance cards remained missing. What cinched it for me was that when I asked where the cards had been found it turned out to have been on an escalator in a part of the Arrivals Hall where I hadn't even been. My theory is that someone watched me use the card, made note of my PIN and then opened my bag and took the wallet out while I had my hands full of groceries.

Obviously we stopped all the cards as soon as we discovered that the wallet was gone. So now I have no credit cards and no access to my bank account, and the bank will be closed until monday. Ordered new insurance cards on the internet today, and went to the police station to get an interim drivers licence until I can order a new one from the dept of motor vehicles. Luckily I still had picture ID. My passport was in Husband's pocket, not in my wallet.

Home again

Once home it seems we have been on the run all afternoon/evening: Husband unpacked, then mowed the lawn, vacuumed where Funky has left a trail of sawdust and the birds have been spitting seeds and feathers, and picked strawberries. I picked up Topsy who had had an adventurous farm vacation complete with bicycle accident. She had to have stitches and antibiotics, but Andrea, the dog-sitter had taken care of everything, taking her to the horse clinic just down the road, and she has healed up just fine. Not even limping anymore. Afterwards, I unpacked, sorted and started laundry, and went through my mail, canceling books from my 2 book clubs, and making a list of things to take care of after the weekend. In the mail was a speeding ticket. Believe it or not, driving 88 km/h in an 80 zone is going to cost me $320! I am never going to speed again. Finally I picked up Blubbulf (my beta fish), and started washing 3 weeks worth of eggs. For dinner we had omelet (we'll be eating a lot of eggs for a while) and peas from the garden.

GARDEN NEWS
Started getting caught up with the garden today. Pulled up all the turnips and radishes, getting two large bowls of each. I expected them to be both wormy and woody, and was surprised to find that the ones I cut up for salad today were clean and tender. Two heads of lettuce had gone to seed so I pulled them up, but there is more lettuce as well as arucula, new zealand spinach, sugar peas, and for the first time ever scallions! The corn is getting close to knee high, the zuccini is blooming, the beans and kale, onions and carrots are looking good. A second sowing of lettuce has just come up. In the flower garden I see that I missed my new iris', though I'm happy to see that they did in fact bloom. Hopefully they will survive another winter so that I can enjoy them next year. The clematis and honeysuckle have grown, still no flowers though. In front of the cabin the poppies and lupines which were blooming when I left are done; peonies, lilies, roses and delfiniums are blooming instead. The herbs are all doing well; in the sandy bed on the south side of the house, lavender and flax are blooming, while the chamomile is going to seed. My indoor vegetables this year consist of a cucumber, a tomato, a melon and several peppers. The tomato is so heavy with green fruit that the branches were breaking off the stem. The melon actually has a melon on it and another threatening. But I'm dissapointed in the cucumber. So far the female blossoms have all dried up and come to nothing. There are a few more blooming right now, if they dry up too I'm throwing it out.

Chicken Brains

There is something called chicken brains isn't there? There is in Norwegian at least. My little flock of 13 hens are an example. The weather has been gorgeous and we had repaired the outside run. Now we are just waiting for the chickens to actually go outside, scratch around in the dirt, and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine. But no, the closest they have gotten by themselves is for the two bravest hens to lie on the platform outside the opening to sun themselves. First I stopped feeding them inside, until evening and scattered oats on the ramp. Then I moved the feeder outside and filled it there. Still those stupid chickens just craned their necks to peek out the opening put did not venture outside. Finally I simply waited until they had laid their eggs for the day and then chased them outside. The result: 6 or 7 came straight back inside, 5 of them didn't come in at all and had to be caught and put inside in the evening. They had forgotten to make note of the way in when I chased them out. Talk about chicken brains! Husband is sick and tired of catching chickens every evening. Tonight I'm home for once and this time I locked them out after chasing them out. Maybe if I don't open up until evening those 5 will learn from the others how to go back in. What I really need is to get a rooster who can teach them proper chicken behavior. They killed the rooster I had bought with them a few weeks after I got them.