The Quintessential Hound, and how she got 100% recall.

 

My most perfect creature of heaven

She was born almost into my hands in 2013. She died in my hands in 2021. Those seven and a half years were among the greatest blessings of my life. It half killed me to lose her, and it was only what I had learned from her that enabled me in the end to pull myself out of a two year funk. I still miss her every day.

Emily (Ch Bhealaich Quintessence) was the gift that keeps on giving, though. She gave so much during her life. She kept me together when I was stressed, and taught me how to control my emotional levels at those times, a gift I still cherish and use often. And she brought so much joy and comfort to the community. Emily visited hospitals, nursing homes, churches, psychiatric facilities, and private homes on request too, in her work as a therapy dog. There were breakthroughs in the psych ward and the dementia ward because of her. There are people walkinig around today, living happy, productive lives, because of my girl. And once, a human baby was named Emily, for her. She appeared on the cover of my book, Where The Heart is, after a professional photo shoot. She was a guest star in a children's book (Astro's Indian Odyssey). And she was a star in the ring, too. She won everything. My precious girl. As I write, I look out my window and see her grave, a carpet of sweet-scented white flowers. No, I'll never really be 'over it'.

And today, Emily is going to help me share the gift of Total Recall.

I hear a great deal of nonsense about sighthounds and recall. You can't recall them once they are in chase after prey, people say. Some people even say you can't really teach them recall at all. What rubbish. There may always be exceptions, of course, but in general a Deerhound is perfectly well able to learn total recall. So, here, I share with you Emily's and my journey to find it.

It all started when I took Baby Emily to the offlead park and she refused to come back to me when it was time to go home. There was a huge crowd of high school children sitting about, and she ran in among them. In and out and around, I chased her. Not one of those evil kids grabbed her collar for me. No, they were all too busy laughing. It was one of the most humiliating experiences of my life. After she'd finally had enough fun and she was ready to go home, we walked home together. This can't go on, I told her. The next day, I stocked up on Schmackos, and started my regime.

STAGE ONE

With a pocket of Schmacko pieces (all her life, Emily adored Schmackos, she loved them more even than liver treats) I started to give her a bit every time she came up to me. I kept this up for days before I started to call her. At first, I called her when we were already in the room together. Once that was really nailed, I started to call her from elsewhere in the house. She caught on very, very quickly. All the same, I kept on at this stage for several weeks, without seeking to extend it.

STAGE TWO

For the next stage, I started the same thing all over again in the offlead park. Whenever she came up to me, a piece of Schmacko. It didn't take long for that to catch on, and then I started to call her to me, give her a bit and off she'd go again. I would do this at least two or three times on every offlead walk. I kept this up for about a month before moving on to the final stage. Note, however, that at this point she was already reliably coming when called. I wasn't satisfied, though, because she didn't want to have the lead attached, and would dance away, most infuriatingly. Getting her back on lead to go home was always a hassle.

STAGE THREE

Stage Three was about getting her on lead. I always used a slip chain with my lead, and rather than unclipping the lead, I remove the whole thing. When I called her this time, I had the slip collar over the wrist of the hand holding the treat. As she took the treat, I slid it over her head. Bingo! Dog on lead. More treats and much praise to follow, of course. This worked perfectly the first time I tried it, and every subsequent time. It never failed.

STAGE FOUR

There, job done. But wait, there's more! Emily, being Emily, took it to the next level; she started to make the chain, and then the lead, a cue. Within a short time, I could slide the chain open, making that chainy sound, and she'd rush over to get it put on. Before long, I could hold up her rainbow lead, without calling her, without even saying a word, and she would run at the full gallop to get it on, even if she was fully engaged in play with other dogs on the other side of the oval. The most I ever had to do was call her name once to make her look over.

Back in the country, her new skill was put to the acid test the first time she started to chase a kangaroo. I didn't really mind her chasing roos in the bush, because Emily wasn't a killer; she had plenty of prey drive, but she never tried to engage with kangaroos. She would chase them until she caught up, and as soon as she got within ten feet or so, she would veer away and circle back to me. It looked as though she'd made her point; she was faster than they, she could catch one any time she wanted, but for her it was all about the running. But then there was Puss-Puss.

Puss-Puss was a kangaroo, solitary for some reason, who had found his way onto my property and stayed. Now I've always had a bit of a thing that animals who find their way onto my land are safe. Except rabbits. It's always Open Season on them. But roos, echidnas, goannas, and the ubiquitous stumpy-tailed lizards, all of which I have except goannas, which are occasional, are and should be safe with me. As are foxes, and the feral cats who also share the property. I don't allow shooting over my land for this reason. So when Emily saw Puss-Puss one day and launched herself into a gallop, I called her back. And she came, immediately and without hesitation. 

I tested this a number of times in the forest, when she was in pursuit of mobs. And it never, ever failed.

So there you are. It might take a little longer for some dogs - not every dog is as intelligent as a deerhound - but as long as your bond is established, I believe you can do this.

Productivity 102

 In my last few posts I've been reviewing my daily work habits, and I've pulled my socks up a bit in response to that. But organising one's time through the working day or week isn't all there is to productivity; at least not for a writer, anyway. 

For anyone who hasn't been in touch with my life, I spent several years not doing much work after a bereavement, and last year was the first year that I really got back to taking work at all seriously. I could have done more, but I did write one book and finish the one I'd just started in 2021, when everything went to the devil. I finished that in October, and I've not written anything new since. 

Traditionally, I've always started the new year by starting a new book. I think I've done this almost every year since I went full time. But this year, I didn't. This year, I was still in the throes of releasing Operation Trash Bandit, because of Bloody Amazon taking three months to send a proof copy, and so I got out the one I finished in October, which had been in rotdown, and started on the edits. And when I finished the first edit and looked about for something else to do while I had that in edit rotdown before starting on first revisions, I decided to release Twice Seventeen, which is only out in paperback, in ebook and audio. So I've been working on that for the last week.

Now available HERE for your Kindle!

Being me, of course all this got scoped and loaded into Microsoft Project. I like to see the challenges of my year all in a glance. It's a hangover from my time in I.T. And it lets me see, realistically, how long things are likely to take, which is an amazingly long time when you figure in all the times one spends waiting for other people to do things. Beta readers, test listeners for audiobooks, getting proof copies, waiting for the State Library and National Library to catalogue things, etc. And then there are all the chunks of time for rotdown at various stages of the process. These things are why I can never be working on just one thing, except when I am actually drafting a new book. I always have several things on the go at different stages.

This works well for me in general; I finish writing something, and while it's in rotdown I do edits on something else, or wade through all the crap that's needed before I can actually release it. And this year is no exception, except that this morning, I looked at my project plan, which already fills the year up to mid-October, and realised that there is NO actual writing in it. And I've not written a word, except for this blog, since last October.

This is not good. A writer's job is to write. Everything else we do in our working day is to support that, to present the fruits of it to the public, and so on, but au fond, writing is what we do and without that, the rest of it is as nothing. So my mix of tasks in this year's project really, really sucks. I need to choose a new writing project, and pronto! 

So that concludes my New Year Productivity Review. Next week, I'll be writing about something very different - dog training!

Once More With Feeling!

I said in my last post that I was going to do another iteration of my time management. As I mentioned, my efficiency has been somewhat impaired by having a broken toe, but after the first few days it wasn't as bad as I had feared. So, I did in fact record another sample day. It isn't as typical a day as it ought to have been, because it was actually the second of January, and I was still recovering from my extremely late night on NYE. Anyway, as I'd been trying for days to remember to record my day, I couldn't bear to waste the one time I actually did remember, so I'm going to analyse that (just like Robert DeNiro, only without the being so handsome and talented).

0600: Shout at the alarm and try to go back to sleep. I usually wake up feeling great, but this morning I have a headache. I am still jet lagged from New Year, after staying up to stupid o'clock and then sleeping in until another stupid o'clock. Don't judge me unless you went to bed early and sober on NYE.

0615: Drag myself out of bed, make coffee and let Chips out.

Chips.

0645: Check on Chips. He is lying down in the little enclosed area we made to protect my mother's grave, eating the leg of a calf. Heaven knows where he got it; he must have been off property without permission. I check on the leg and note with great relief that it had been dead for some time. Have shower and get dressed. More coffee.

 

0730: Put last night's washing in the dryer and put on another load. Clean up the laundry.

0745 Take Chips into town to do training.

0815: Breakfast (fruit salad). Wash up.

0830: Check the dryer but alas, it is all still damp. Do some German on Duolingo.

0900: do physiotherapy exercises. Take a break to read some of a really fun book that I have for advance review.

0930: Do more physio and take pills. Mess about with the tracking device I have for Chips, which I have just found after he took off his collar in the middle of the back paddock almost a year ago. The control unit is not charged. Leave it on the charger; it had been on all night and is at 4%. Stronly suspect this whole system is a useless POS, but as Chips doesn't go walkabout any more, it's not a big problem. My own instinct is to throw the lot in the trash, but it was a birthday gift from my husband, so I feel I have to do my best to get it working.

0945: Water flowers and fill up the bird bath and dog water. Fold and put away the washing from the tumble dryer.

1000: Start work. This is the first edit of a book I finished last October. I already have a great stack of notes for revision. Set it all up, pause to make the bed while I nerve myself to the task, and start reading my printed ms.

This is the mockup of the cover design for the book I'm working on. It's about a dragon. I still need a really catchy title, so if you think of one, message me immediately! I will give you a free book.

1100: Take a break for some more housework. Clean husband's study and the chapel, and continue with the mending, which like the poor is always with us.

1200 The sewing is too hard on my hands to do for more than half an hour. Waste an hour on socical media waiting for lunch.

1300 Lunch. Tuna Mornay.

1330 Back to work.

1400 Take a break to wash up the lunch things, and resume work. I have made revision notes up to the end of chapter 5. That's 5 of 35, so the whole thing should take a week. Curse bitterly, because I had planned 4 days for it. Feel discouraged and take a break to do some more German on Duolingo.

1510 Go to Furpile. It is a sad little furpile with only me and the dogs; I miss our cats, who both died last year. But I have the comfort of dogs around me. And it's a very good comfort, and soothed by it, I fall asleep.

1630 Wake up parched and get a cool drink. Think about going on with the mending, but I know that abusing my damaged tendons will not lead anywhere good, so return to work.

1700 Take a few minutes to wash my coffee things. Return to work.

1800 With eight chapters done I feel better about the day. Call it quits for now and pick up my book. I'm reading Spectres and Stockings by Kevin Hess. For those who haven't encountered these books, The Trials of Bardly Whitsend series, they are a real hoot. They are much in the style of the late great Sir Terry, and they're really a lot of fun. If you enjoyed the Discworld series (and let's face it, if you don't like those, your soul is dead), then you really should check this series out. You can find it here: 

The Trials of Bardly Whitsend

1815 Realise with horror that it is Drinkies Time, and prise my husband away from the television to make my Rum and Dare. A drink just doesn't taste the same if I make it myself. We sit out on the verandah to enjoy the last of the day while the kids rush about in the orchard.

Our children at play.

2000 Go over to the kitchen to feed the dogs and then ourselves.

2045 back to my desk for a quick check of emails and messages.

2100 go to bed to read, but despite really enoying the book, I am getting back into my normal routine, and I can't stay awake for more than 10 minutes.

Analysis

 When I look back over the day, I can see with pleasure that I got a lot of work done. However, I was still working, on and off, three hours after I was supposed to have finished for the day. This was to make up for the fact that I used a lot of my morning session for doing household tasks instead of actually working. That's really something to watch, and with a four hour working day, those four hours need to be strictly kept for work. That will be my next effort. 

That said, however, I finished the book edit yesterday, having taken only six days for it. The four days I'd planned was optimistic anyway, as the state of my first draft is extremely rough, due I think to the number of times I have picked it up and dropped it since starting it in a blaze of enthusiasm early in 2021, I'm pretty happy with six days for the first edit.