Radio show today

Jon Katz and his wife, Maria Wulf, began their new radio program today called Katz and Wulf on Animals.  Great beginning, and I bet it will lead to going to a two hour show.  Maria has so many animals to talk about that are not the usual dog and cat tales.  I hope she will tell more about her fascination with snails.

Jon introduced the topic that so many of us are concerned with-barking dogs.  He had some new ideas as well as ones we had spoken about in last week's program.  Two ladies called in, one with an update on her two dogs and the second lady telling about a dog she is attempting to rehome.  

I called in during the final quarter hour.  Since the subject of barking had been the primary topic, I could not wait to tell about Edgar's most recent interpretation of "bark training".  In case you missed the show, here it is again.

 My daughter was visiting Saturday evening.  Edgar saw something outside the window.  It was getting dark and I had not yet closed the blind.  Quite often Edgar sees reflections in the window at that hour.  No one is actually out there.  Since he cannot hear, his eyes tell him everything he wants to know.  He fancies himself quite the watchdog.  So whatever he saw, or did not see, he began to bark.  He has a very loud bark.  My daughter said, "He needs to be spanked."  I explained to her the way I was training him--just ignore him.  After a moment he did stop and went back to his cushion.  Not too much later Edgar "saw" those creatures at the window again.  His persistent barking was giving my daughter a head ache so I had to break training, go over to the window and close the blind.   Edgar looked at me.  I gave him the quiet signal.  Edgar went back to his bed and I gave him a toy.

The next day Edgar spotted Pat walking her two Shih Tsus.  He began barking loudly.  I was ignoring him.  Then he turned and looked at me.  I gave him the "quiet" signal--finger over lips--which he knows (but does not always obey).  Edgar left the window, picked up a toy, placed it on his bed  AND began barking at the toy! How could I not laugh?  Does he have a sense of humor or did he simply misinterpret the lesson of the night before?

As Jon said, when to bark and when not to bark is probably the hardest thing to teach a dog.  It is very hard with a dog who has all his senses in good working order.  I wonder just how successful I will be with deaf Edgar.