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Archive for February, 2010

I’ve always been impressed with this breed’s conformation

Posted in dog breeds, tagged , on February 28, 2010 | 4 Comments »

It’s like a dog that became a lion.

Then its lips started to grow.

And it got really wrinkled.

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An amazing fact about Malayan tapirs

Posted in Absolute Piffle, wildlife, tagged , on February 28, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Source.

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Wanna tame fox?

Posted in dog domestication, domestic animals, wild dogs, tagged , , on February 28, 2010 | 9 Comments »

Source.

Remember that oft-repeated story about the Soviet silver fox experiment?

Every time I mention it, I get a query about where you can get one.

When I first started writing about them, I found that they weren’t exporting them to the United States. They were offered for sale as pets, but there were fears that they would become a mass-produced fad pet– like African hybrid hedgehogs and pot bellied pigs.

Well, now there is a company that is offering them for sale in this country.

I won’t be getting one for two simple reasons.

1. They are a bit costly: $5,950.

2. I live in a state that refuses to offer any permits for pet red foxes. We have had a rabies outbreak in the southeastern part of the state, so the DNR no longer offers permits for pet red or gray foxes, raccoons, or skunks.

So if you want a pet fox in West Virginia, you better get a Pomeranian.

Just not the Pomeranian that this Chinese man purchased.

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Red Fox color variations

Posted in wild dogs, wildlife, tagged , on February 27, 2010 | 4 Comments »

Photo by shakko

These look like fur-farmed foxes.

The ones that are spotted are definitely fur-farmed.

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A good example of negative reinforcement

Posted in dog behavior, working retrievers, tagged , , on February 27, 2010 | 24 Comments »

This is a demonstration of a “conditioned retrieve,” which is also popularly known as force-breaking or force-fetching. I now prefer the term “conditioned retrieve.”

Part I

Source.

Part II

Source

Just about everything Robert Milner is doing here is negative reinforcement.

What is negative reinforcement?

It is NOT punishment.

Punishment is anything we do to a dog that will cause a behavior to stop.

Reinforcement is anything we do to a dog that will encourage a behavior.

Punishment and reinforcement have positive and negative versions.

Positive reinforcement and positive punishment are when the trainer adds something. Positive reinforcement is giving a dog attention or food for doing a behavior. Positive punishment would be a leash pop or a nick from an e-collar when a dog does something we don’t like.

Now that makes sense.

Negative punishment is when we take something away. Let’s say we have a dog that likes a certain toy, but every time she has this toy, she decides to pluck try to tear it up. We can punish this behavior by taking away the toy every time she starts trying to tear it up.

Negative reinforcement is exactly what you’re seeing in these videos. To enforce the sit command, Milner holds the dog’s collar. This causes the dog discomfort. When the dog sits, the pressure on the collar is released. We’re taking something away to encourage the dog to do something. Negative means taking something away. Reinforcement means something that encourages a behavior.

The toe and ear pinches are also examples of negative reinforcement. The dog really isn’t being hurt here, but it is causing some discomfort. To get rid of the discomfort, the dog has to take something its mouth or release it to get rid of the discomfort.

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I joined this website

Posted in housekeeping on February 26, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

It’s free right now, so why not give it a shot?

Source.

I like to market.

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Gemsbok in New Mexico

Posted in wildlife, tagged , , on February 26, 2010 | 2 Comments »

Source.

Yes, I know it says “Oryx” in the title of the video.

Gemsbok are species of oryx. There are four species in the genus Oryx, and the Gemsbok is Oryx gazella.

Now, what are they doing in New Mexico?

Well, just like feral horses, feral burros and ring-necked pheasants, these were introduced.

In 1969, the New Mexico Department of Fish and Game introduced them to the White Sands Missile Range.

There are now about 3,000 of them in the Tularosa Basin.

They have very few predators. Cougars don’t seem to be very effective gemsbok predators, and coyotes take only the very young.

They are hunted to control their numbers, but it’s likely that they are here to stay.

And this is in North America, a place with no native antelope or gazelles.

In the East, we’ve spent a very long time making everything look like Europe. In the West, are we trying to make everything look like Africa or Central Asia?

I’d much rather have a lot of pronghorn on that range than gemsbok.

***

Gemsbok means chamois in Dutch. In Afrikaans, it refers to this species of oryx.

Lots of African antelope are named in this fashion. The eland is named for the Dutch word the elk or moose (Alces, not Cervus). The steenbok is named for the Alpine ibex and the Spanish ibex. The term “bok” (cognate with the English word “buck”) usually refers to a goat, but the term has been expanded to include antelope.

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Does this dog look like it has rabies?

Posted in dog behavior, dog health on February 26, 2010 | 5 Comments »

Source

It is foaming at the mouth, but dogs can foam at the mouth for a lot of other reasons besides rabies.

This dog  is super aggressive, but so are many tethered dogs.

What do you think?

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The Plague Dogs

Posted in Absolute Piffle, animal welfare, tagged , , on February 26, 2010 | 4 Comments »

Look what I found on youtube:

Source.

This film is based upon a 1977 novel by Richard Adams.

The ending of this film is quite depressing, but the novel ends with the dogs being rescued by Ronald Lockley (who wrote The Private Life of the Rabbit, which Adams uses as his “scientific reference” for Watership Down, his most famous novel) and Sir Peter Scott ( who was a Conservative conservationist, ornithologist, naturalist, and Loch Ness monster hunter who was the son of Robert Falcon Scott, the Antarctic explorer). The dogs are returned to Snitter’s owner.

The film isn’t quite that sunny.

My favorite character is the Tod, a wild fox who speaks Geordie. He’s quite crafty, and amazingly, he teaches Rowf and Snitter how to kill their own food.

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Korthals Griffon puppies

Posted in dog behavior, dog breeds, tagged , on February 26, 2010 | 4 Comments »

Source.

This is another HPR breed.

They were developed in France by a Dutchman named Eduard Karel Korthals (Kor-tals).

I refuse to call them Wire-haired pointing griffons for two simple reasons:

1. All griffons are wire-haired. Most are scent hounds. One exception to this rule  is the Petit Brabançon, which is considered a Brussells Griffon in the AKC. It is a smooth-coated dog.

2. This is an HPR. It doesn’t just point.

I wish they’d actually shown what a “conditioned retrieve” is. I’m going to use the really PC term for the force breaking/force fetching.

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