Coco's Training, Day 2

Today we tried treats to motivate Coco to stay until released when I threw her toy. The last couple of times she really seemed to have the hang of it. Waiting until I said "go get it" before taking off. She is getting good about bringing the toy back instead of running around with it, but she has a hard time giving it up.

As I look at the agility training book, there is so much to do that I wonder if this is a realistic project. The actual training is only 10 minutes a day, but there are all the obstacles to build. Tomorrow we are supposed to have rain/snow so I wonder how our session will go.

Coco's Training, Day 1

Nearly three years ago, when Coco, the family dog for whom this blog is named, and her best friend, Starsky, were mere pups, Brad and I enrolled the two of them in a dog agility class. That's where the dogs run over an obstacle course, like the weave poles, the teeter-totter, the A-frame (up one side and down the other), the tunnel and various jumps. At the time, Coco was far too wild, though she demonstrated a lot of drive. Now I've decided to try training her. We've worked on "come", "sit", "stay" and "back", most of which she does pretty well. She loves to play fetch but she's more interested in tug-of-war when she brings whatever she fetches. But she's learning to give.

Today was the first day of her training. We worked on "stay" after I threw her toy. I can see it will take a while before she learns that command when there's something fun, like chasing a toy. Our first session was only 10 minutes, the recommended time, since dogs' brains are the size of a walnut and their attention span is short.

Be Grateful, Be Happy

This week I'm in St. George at the Utah Bar's Spring Convention. Our keynote speaker today was a psychologist who studies why people are happy. Lawyers need to be happy because we have twice the risk for drug and alcohol abuse and suicide as the general population. It's because we are trained to look for the worst-case scenario.

It seems there are ways to increase your happiness, and happy people are more resilient than those who are not. One way to be happy is to create exciting and pleasant memories. Another is to find a cause you believe in and donate your time or money. This is a case where money actually can buy happiness. But the best way to be happy is to be grateful. The speaker suggested writing a letter to someone to whom you are grateful for something. Instead of sending the letter, take it to the person and read it to them. Keep a gratitude diary. Write down what you are grateful for, why you are grateful and what you did (if anything) to foster that feeling of gratitude. Studies have shown that depressed people who do this are able to overcome their depression by this alone. It looks like the saying "develop an attitude of gratitude" was right all along.

How to be Famous

This has to fall under the category of rants. Last night I was at Target (yes, I know, Target on December 23. Not good). Anyway, as I'm walking out I pass the book section, which is like a tractor beam, pulling me in. As I persue the offerings, I find a bright yellow book entitled How to be Famous, by Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt, a/k/a Speidi. What is this? Heidi and Spencer (for those of you who live under a rock -- I hope you catch the sarcasm) are a couple of A-List wannabees who are maybe C List on a good day. If you missed their performance on last summer's "I'm a Celebrity, Get me Out of Here," a short-lived Survivor-knock off show, you missed the best cheese with that whine performance I've seen in ages by Heidi.

The book is a handbook on becoming famous, and contains such priceless gems as this: "Go where the paparazzi are. They won't look for you (at least at first) so go where the paps are." You have to love it. Speidi have taken an eponym (paparazzi is the name of a character in Felini's La dolce vita, not, as most people assume, Italian for photographer) and created another one out of it, probably because paprazzi, with its four syllables, is too hard for either of them to pronounce. But I digress. The whole idea of Speidi writing a book on becoming famous is ludicrous. These are people whose only claim to fame is that they are famous.

Anyway, if you're looking for a last minute gift for the narcissist on your list, this might be it.

Pheasant Hunting

November brings the annual pheasant hunt in Utah. It's not nearly as big as it was even 30 years ago, let alone in the mid-1950s when I used to go out with my dad. Mainly that's because there is far less pheasant habitat. But every first Saturday in November I think of those days when we could go out in Cache Valley after school, drive around and likely see pheasants in the fields. So many years I still go out. This year was no exception. Like last year, I took Coco (a/k/a Killer) to the Salt Creek WFA near Tremonton. Last year Coco was a real sissy. She would hardly get off my heels in the long grass and a few times I kicked her under the chin with my boot because she was right behind me. This year she got out more and even got into the deep cattails and rushes. We didn't see anything, not even a hen, but it was a beautiful day.

The Salt Creek WFA is a beautiful place. It's not like the Pacific Coast Highway or the mountains, but in its own way it is so pretty. I've seen fox, deer, hawks, owls and the occasional pheasant there.

Spogg

I just came across a delightful blog called Spogg, the Society for the Promomotion of Good Grammar. It goes along with one I found last year devoted to the elimination of apostrophe abuse. You know, the tendency that people have to make a plural of something by adding an "apostrophe S" as in apple's. Spogg doesn't limit itself to bad punctuation; it points out bad spelling, bad grammar and all sorts of abuse of the English language. I've added it to my blog list. Take a look sometime when you want a little entertainment.

Road Trip

We just finished a road trip to Illinois. Thanks to the cash for clunkers program, we retired the 1994 Dodge van that had served our family so well, at 197,000+ miles. It was sad to see it go, but we got a new Honda Civic, which meant the 2001 Mitsubishi Mirage was an "extra" car. So we decided to drive to Bloomington, IL, to deliver it to Brad and Melanie so they would have 2 cars. Nancy and I set out on Wednesday, Sept. 9, at 5:00 p.m. and made 291 miles to Rawlins, WY, that night. The next morning, we drove 784 miles to Des Moines, IA. Along the way we stopped at the highest point on I 80, a rest stop in Wyoming with a 3 ton bust of Abraham Lincoln. Unfortunately the light was such that had I taken the front view, it would have been in shadow.

In Des Moines, we checked out the medical school for Jeff -- he thinks he might want to attend the University of Des Moines. It looke like a nice school. Then it was another 300 miles to Bloomington, to see Brad, Melanie and Chloe. Although we didn't stop, we passed the self-proclaimed biggest truck stop on I 80, called Iowa 80. It was definitely huge.

We delivered their "new" car, named Maurice the Mitusbishi, courtesy of Leah. They seemed happy to have a second car. It was a short (for me) visit. We had a hard game of Play 9, in which Brad got minus 20 points on one hand, resulting in a double V-snap and picture text to Jeff to brag, then he promptly got plus 24 points a couple of hands later and fell out of contention. The next morning, we all piled into their car and drove to Chicago to put me on a plane home, where I covered the same distance in 2 1/2 hours.

On reflection, I'm struck by the vastness of this country. Driving as far as we did you can see just how big America is. The plains of Nebraska are truly awesome in their own way, every bit as much as our mountains. Iowa is different from Nebraska; there are rolling hills instead of flat plains. Truck stops are interesting places. People meet briefly and then disperse. In the middle of Iowa we ran into two guys from Utah, our cars parked next to each other, both of us doing much the same thing, delivering stuff to family members in other states. Where but Nebraska could you find a lunch buffet offering liver and onions?

It was a great trip, fun time spent with Nancy, an all-too-brief visit with Brad, Melanie, Chloe and little soon-to-be Ezra. Now I'm home and looking forward to work (oh, please forgive me for lying on the Sabbath).