Dancing White Dogs

Last night Bizz and I headed out around 7 for the dog park. It was such a hot sunny day I thought he would do better with a long walk in the evening.  At the small dog section amazingly it was all little white dogs.  A husband and wife had two dogs - one a white maltipoo and one a white poodle and another woman had a white labradoodle.  We were all enjoying watching the four of them run around and chase each other.  The one white maltipoo had a straighter coat than Bizz but what impressed me most was that they had died the lower half of her white ear hair hot pink.  She looked so cool.  But then I was really amazed - she began to dance.  The owner was working with her and she rose up on her hind legs and began walking backwards and forwards then twirled.  She was dancing.  It was so amazing. We begged the owner to teach us and he told us it took a few months but it was like all the other training - picking a key word, reinforcing the behaviors with treats and lots and lots of practice.

So now in my mind is a mental image of Bizz dancing. He can already leap about and is up on his hind legs all the time leaning on me. So his new training word is going to be dance.

My friend Deanna has a daughter Maya who is a ballet dancer. She's been dancing since she was 2 or 3 years old and at age 10 has become an amazing dancer.  I cannot believe how strong she is and how, after all this time, she is still completely dedicated and focused.  She has lessons practically every day and I'm in awe of how she handles dance, her homework and having a great group of friends.  And of course she is a favorite of Bizz.  Somehow I can picture Maya twirling and Bizz right along side her one of these days.  Will make a great video.

What ties all this together?  Practice, dedication and passion.  In Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers he talks about how you can become expert in just about anything if you practice 10,000 hours.  That makes sense. The old adage Practice makes perfect comes to mind. 

One of the trainers and a friend of mine have both said the same thing - you have to keep your dog challenged so they don't become bored.  The same I think is true of people.  We have to be endlessly learning new things, taking on new challenges in order to keep our minds lively and sharp.

So Bizz is going to learn to dance and I'm going to learn how to be a better trainer.  Let's see how long it takes.

Rocks on My Mind

As I've written about many times recently Bizzy and I do a lot of walking.  The last few days what I've been noticing is the increasing number of people who are replacing their green grass with rocks in their yards. In fact there were several houses in a row that had replaced some or all of their lawns with the same kinds of rocks.  Made me wonder if there was a door to door rock salesman, or did one neighbor say oh let's put a few rocks in the yard and when they ordered 100 instead of 100 rocks they got 100 lbs of rocks and shared them around.

I noticed these rocks because first of all - Bizz has several times climbed up on top of a larger rock to make a deposit of sorts.   I find that very very weird.  And oddly it reminded me of a trip to China where I had to use a squat toilet while wearing a somewhat narrow skirt - suffice it to say I keep wondering exactly what inspires him to make that decision where he had to keep his balance and do his business while not falling over.

Some neighbors have a more landscaped type look to their rocks with a few very attractive plants interspersed.

 

Again I find myself wondering why.  Is it because their are ecologically minded and are attempting to help conserve water?  Is it because they just cannot bear the thought of mowing the lawn on a regular basis?  Are they tired of fighting the endless invasion of weeds from the neighbors yard (and yes there are some houses where the yards are just choked with weeds - many of whom can seriously hurt a dog)?  Or is it because they are tired of paying the endlessly escalating water bills and figure this is a great way to save money in a rough economy?

 

 

It reminds me very much of my childhood home which had a sloped front yard which my mother had as an elaborate rock garden.  Lovely large rocks with lots of different plants and ground cover throughout.  I don't know if Mom realized that for a small child scaling the rock garden was the 60's version of a climbing wall. My friends and I would gather and figure out how to get from the bottom to top just by stepping on stones.  I also wonder if she knew about the day we put a cherry bomb in a hornet's nest in the rock garden. Not my idea or cherry bomb but it was an exciting day. 

 

The rock garden is gone now - the last time I went to visit my hometown I drove by and the rock garden with all its little plants had been replaced with a smooth green lawn.  Ironically here I'm watching lawns be replaced with rocks.

 

Personally I keep hoping to see people install drought resistant native Californian plants that would offer both water savings and green.  I've loved the colors of this spring and don't want to see them replaced with beige and gray stones.

 

 

For the flower lovers here are a few more flower photos and for the Bizz lovers there's also one of him in his new favorite place- standing on the bookcase looking out the window.