Civilpooch

What the first day of the SF/SPCA Acdemy for Dog Trainers is like. This is a course segment designed by instructor John Buginas. The academy is directed by Jean Donaldson. Instructors include John, Janis Bradley, and Gladys Chen.

A new session of the Academy starts in July, come join us to become a professional dog trainer.

See more about Chicken Camp and the academy CTC program.

Chicago, Carmel, Seattle, New york. Nothing close to San Francisco.

From Toptenz: Looking to travel and not sure where you and your family, including your four legged family member, should go? Picking places that will welcome your dog with arms as open as those that welcome you can be tricky, so here’s a list of the top 10 dog friendly cities in the United States.

Shown at right, a San Francisco bay view from Point Isabel Dog Park (best in US) located near Berkeley, in my opinion the best in the US.

Or maybe the magic of neurscience? Our brain makes up much of what we think we see, simplifying a complex reality into a form we can digest. Magicians Penn and Teller discuss how magic works at their show in Las Vegas.

Pen starts with the "Seven basic principles of magic. Palm, ditch, steal, load, simulation,misdirection, and switch."

Our brains don't see everything—the world is too big, too full of stimuli. So the brain takes shortcuts, constructing a picture of reality with relatively simple algorithms for what things are supposed to look like. Magicians capitalize on those rules. "Every time you perform a magic trick, you're engaging in experimental psychology," Teller says. "If the audience asks, 'How the hell did he do that?' then the experiment was successful. I've exploited the efficiencies of your mind." says Teller.

Penn and Teller are long time advocates of scientific literacy and produce a show weekly show that bluntly takes on the hocus-pocus of  common myths and calls them  what they are : "Bullshit!"

Check out their blog.

Mikkel Becker is blogging her San Francisco SPCA Academy for Dog Trainers experiences at http://www.petconnection.com/blog/ . She is a student of the Academy's April 2009 class.

Mikkel is an evaluator for national Disaster Search Dog Foundation's Washington branch, where she tours shelters looking for homeless dogs to turn into lifesaving search dogs.She is also involved with training shelter dogs and with serving as the education coordinator for the Whitman County Humane Society. Mikkel has been a contributing author to Knight Ridder newspapers, House and Home, Cat Fancy Magazine and her work has appeared in Chicken Soup for the Horse Lover's Soul II. She coauthored the three books in the Ultimate Pet Lover series with part of the Pet Connection team,.

Remember the correlation between Pirates and Global Warming from the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Always a favorite of mine to demonstrate a meaningless correlation. And the case of Stephen Gould's age having a perfect correlation with the price of butter?

A new one:  Reduced importing of lemons from Mexico are nearly perfectly coordinated with the decline in US highway fatalitie (R=.97).

From Megan McCardle and Atlantic Business contributor Derek Lowe.

This is the case, but by what plausible mechanism?

The San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is increasing its presence in social networking and blogs.

• The San Francisco SPCA Facebook page is being promoted.
• You can follow the SFSPCA on Twitter. (Or me.)
• The Academy also has Facebook page for graduates.
• The SPCA has a Cat Behavior Blog.

Please contact me or see the SFSPCA Facebook Page for more information about any aspect of this effort.

Training challenge idea:

• Invite trainers of all styles to participate.
  
• Trainers must train using the style they profess is the best.
• Assign trainers a 20x20 square room.
• Choose four tasks: Sit, Down, Stay, Heel, Come; on verbal cues.
• Restrictions: No leashes, no restraint.
• Dogs can be touched, praised, pushed into position.
• Any kind of training collar permitted, collar can be used as consequence, including correction, but not  as a restraint.
• Trainer can leave the room at any time.
• Any kind of food allowed, food can be used as a consequence or a lure.
• Toys allowed as lure or reinforcer.
• Prompting can include verbal, physical, toys, or food.
• You can yell, loom, or assert calm assertive energy. You just can't touch the dog.
• 7 days of training. Two, one-half our sessions per day. Videotaped.
• Dog and trainer separated between sessions (no contact).
• Green dogs.
• See which trainers can complete the task in the time allotted.