Rolling Dog Farm Blog

The current issue of New Scientist has a package of several articles on how animals "see" the world around them, and one of the articles is on a dog's sense of smell — not only how acute the sense is, but on how they smell things. And it's different than the way we humans do. The photo above is from the New Scientist website version of the fascinating article, which you can read here.

One of the many reasons we don't consider our disabled dogs "handicapped" is because they do have this incredible sense of smell that tells them so much about their world — way more than we could possibly know. As the article points out, dogs have about 300 million olafactory receptors, while humans have only 6 million. Their olafactory cortex, the part of the brain that processes scent information, takes up 12.5% of their brains, but less than 1% in human brains. So when a dog loses his or her vision, or hearing, or both, they still have access to vast amounts of "data." 

Watching one of our blind and deaf dogs, like Spinner or Katie or Spencer, walk around the dog yards sniffing away makes us realize just how engaged they still are with their world.

Anyway, I think you'll find the article well worth reading.

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Hurricane Irene: Yes, New Hampshire is right smack in the middle of the "cone of uncertainty" for the projected path of this hurricane. It should "only" be a tropical storm by the time it gets here on Sunday (let's hope!), but that could still mean flooding and damaging winds. We've been preparing for the past couple of days, and have plenty more to do over the next two days to get ready. So if we're offline and not responding to emails, don't worry — that's because we'll be spending most of our time until Sunday getting prepared, and we may well lose Internet access in the aftermath of the storm.

We were taking photos late yesterday afternoon for the fall print newsletter when Daisy the Dachshund started going after a fly that was buzzing around.  She loves catching flies … she'll be out on the porch, snapping away at them.  And despite being so small and with a bad spine, her reflexes are so quick she actually catches more than you'd think.

Kate was behind the camera, and in the first photo above, you can see Daisy has just started to go for a fly … her tongue is coming out. (You may need to click on the photo for a larger image to see it.) Then, snap!:

Unfortunately, she missed and then became preoccupied with finding where the fly went:

It took us a while to get her refocused on the job at hand, which was looking cute for the camera:

Please note that although it may have looked in the first three photos like Alayne was standing next to a cardboard cut-out of me that didn't move, the last photo should convince you I was actually alive and present for the photo shoot.

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Still No. 3!

The current Shelter Challenge started on July 4th and ends at midnight on September 18th. Grand prize in this round is $5,000, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories … please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.

And remember, you can vote every day, so consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.

You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.

Please note:  Use Rolling Dog Ranch for our name and NH for the state and our listing will come up.  [Yes, we are still listed as Rolling Dog Ranch for the purposes of the contest, not Rolling Dog Farm.]

Because of your votes, we just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in this round of the Shelter Challenge. Please help us win more money for the animals here by voting every day, and by encouraging your family, friends and colleagues to vote every day, too. Thank you!

The final dog Lori groomed last week was our blind Husky Mitch. That's what was left on the laundry room floor when we got done. In years past, we always took Mitch to our veterinary clinic for his summer haircut, so he could be sedated during it. That's because, as I wrote in a post back in 2009, Mitch had "dominance" issues and didn't like people to mess with him, i.e., do something to him that he didn't want them to do. In his mind he was always the alpha and 'pack leader,' a notion that didn't go over very well with us when he arrived. As I wrote back then, he was a sweet, delightful dog 99% of the time — but it was the 1% that was a problem.

We have come a long way with him since then, though early on things got really ugly a few times between the two of us. I had to teach him that if I was going to mess with him, he was going to accept it. I'd win, he'd lose, and over time he came to accept this new pack hierarchy — one in which he was not, and never would be, No. 1. 

Yet he didn't necessarily regard any person as an alpha, and that meant taking him to a groomer in Missoula wasn't an option. Hence the annual trip to the vet clinic for what our vets called his "lion cut" while sedated.

But I had sensed that the passage of time and consistently enforcing the rules with him had changed our boy dramatically for the better. I figured that with me holding him, Lori could give him a summer haircut and he would do just fine. 

Which is exactly what happened. He certainly didn't like having his mass of thick Husky fur shaved off, but he sat there quietly while I held him and Lori clipped away. No muzzle, no restraints, just me with my hands on him. I was so proud of him. To be honest, I wouldn't have had Alayne or Kate hold him — Mitch still isn't sure that women can be alphas, though he is much more respectful than he once was. But considering where we started with him, it's a night and day difference.

Here is a photo I took yesterday afternoon of our sleeker Husky, sitting and extending his paw out (irresistible, and he knows it):

He's also gotten a lot better about being with other dogs, though again we have to choose his yard mates carefully. A couple of years ago he couldn't even be in a yard with others, and now he shares one with several dogs. 

Having said all of this, though, I need to point out that we have never considered Mitch an "aggressive" dog. For example, if he rolls another dog and pins it to the ground, as a normal pack leader would do, he never hurts the other dog. There's a lot of sound and fury, but having taught the lesson, Mitch promptly releases the other dog. No blood was drawn, no harm was done. If a dog foolishly fights back, though, Mitch will go all out — and that's when you can see some blood drawn. 

He would never attack a person — good grief, if we had ever worried about that, we would have euthanized him long ago. But he had to learn where he fit in the larger pack, and how to respect people as his pack leaders. I know this sounds a bit nuanced, but that's how behavior issues often are. And ultimately, for Mitch that meant learning to accept people "messing" with him. A snap or a growl to tell people to "back off" is, he discovered, not something he's going to get away with here.

Here's another look of Mr. Handsome with his summer look:

All that bare dirt is mostly from Mitch scratching at the ground; a couple of his yard mates are also "earthworks specialists," so we try to confine most of the damage to one yard. 

Now if only we could find someone who'd like to buy 14 pounds of sheared Husky fur and turn it into a unique sweater for that special someone.

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Thank you so much! We just won $1,000 for getting the most votes in week 3 of the Shelter Challenge!

The current Shelter Challenge started on July 4th and ends at midnight on September 18th. Grand prize in this round is $5,000, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories … please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.

And remember, you can vote every day, so consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.

You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.

Please note:  Use Rolling Dog Ranch for our name and NH for the state and our listing will come up.  [Yes, we are still listed as Rolling Dog Ranch for the purposes of the contest, not Rolling Dog Farm.]

Because of your votes, we just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in this round of the Shelter Challenge. Please help us win more money for the animals here by voting every day, and by encouraging your family, friends and colleagues to vote every day, too. Thank you!

Alayne got this shot of little blind Clyde at the door to the living room a couple of days ago. He'd been racing up the ramp to the door, peering in, then zooming back down the ramp, across the yard, and up the other ramp to the center hallway door (where the seven closets are).  Not finding anyone there, he'd turn around and race back to this door. 

Our groomer, Lori Fillion, had also given Clyde a summer haircut on Monday, and he's just as cute as can be with his new look and his new bandana:

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Thank you so much! We just won $1,000 for getting the most votes in week 3 of the Shelter Challenge!

The current Shelter Challenge started on July 4th and ends at midnight on September 18th. Grand prize in this round is $5,000, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories … please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.

And remember, you can vote every day, so consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.

You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.

Please note:  Use Rolling Dog Ranch for our name and NH for the state and our listing will come up.  [Yes, we are still listed as Rolling Dog Ranch for the purposes of the contest, not Rolling Dog Farm.]

Because of your votes, we just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in this round of the Shelter Challenge. Please help us win more money for the animals here by voting every day, and by encouraging your family, friends and colleagues to vote every day, too. Thank you!

Our fabulous groomer, Lori Fillion from Littleton, New Hampshire, came out yesterday to work on some of the dogs, including the terrier fuzzballs, blind Fuzzy and blind Clyde the Yorkie. Also on the list for overdue grooming was our new arrival, blind Sophie — the longhaired Dachshund whose low-slung physique and hairy coat turned her into a perpetual yard rake. She was forever picking up leaves, twigs, acorns and other unidentified ground objects in her coat.

Enough of that. She is now a sleek if still low-slung Dachshund. Most amazing of all, she actually now has some real ground clearance — we can see daylight underneath her!  It's like she grew an extra inch in her legs. (Widget says:  "Hey, will this work for me?")

Of course, what didn't change — as you can see in the photo at the top with Lori (click on it for a larger image) — is her tongue. Still sticking out.

—

Thank you so much! We just won $1,000 for getting the most votes in week 3 of the Shelter Challenge!

The current Shelter Challenge started on July 4th and ends at midnight on September 18th. Grand prize in this round is $5,000, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories … please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.

And remember, you can vote every day, so consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.

You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.

Please note:  Use Rolling Dog Ranch for our name and NH for the state and our listing will come up.  [Yes, we are still listed as Rolling Dog Ranch for the purposes of the contest, not Rolling Dog Farm.]

Because of your votes, we just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in this round of the Shelter Challenge. Please help us win more money for the animals here by voting every day, and by encouraging your family, friends and colleagues to vote every day, too. Thank you!