Growly Class I: Hurricane Gianna Emerges

It's taken me a week to synthesize what happened: Gianna was the worst dog at Growly Class. We felt good going into classes because we took her to the training facility a week in advance so that she could get familiar with the scene via doggy daycare. Of course, she was fine off leash and hardly wanted to leave.

Our seemingly clever prep work proved ineffective for class, like running a mile to train for a marathon. Gianna outright failed every task put in front of her. Mind you, the "tasks" were simple scenarios where she met the other dogs at a safe distance while on leash. Success was as simple as her not freaking out, but she continually freaked out.

The first task, standing by our car while other dogs and owners did the same, set the pace for the evening. She couldn't handle it. She lunged and barked at other dogs she saw. When I pulled her back, she would nip at my shins and shoes like I was cattle. I'm planning to wear shinguards for the second class, seriously.

Other dogs progressed to a new trial where they were to walk down the parking lot aisle, something like a Soul Train dance line, while we struggled to keep her attention behind our car where other dogs were out of sight. The trainer took us inside to try a harness that provided better control and quarantined us in a corner of the room so that the other dogs could come inside without confrontation.

We remained in that corner of the room, near two other misbehaving dogs, for the rest of the evening. All that was missing was a dunce hat.

Gianna's fundamental problem is that she struggles with "proximity anxiety" (she doesn't like the distance limitations of a leash) and she "resource guards" (wants to protect us). That translates into behaviors where she lunges and barks and gets defensive of us when there are other dogs around. To help desensitize the leash trials, we're supposed to pop treats in her mouth when she feels anxious as a way of saying "It's OK." At first, that worked, but the treats got old after the first 20 minutes. Hell, I can only take eating human candy for so long.

By the end of the hour class, I was exhausted from trying to keep Gianna in place and using a "happy voice," Gianna was way stressed out and Amanda was on the verge of tears. We so wanted a glimmer of success in that first class but knew we had more work to do. Work continues at class tonight. Wish us luck!

The Aftermath of 'Shit Seattle People Say When It Snows'

I explained how it came to be in an interview with GeekWire. I explained why it worked on my master's program blog, Flip The Media.

I quickly felt overplayed like a Green Day song but am overall happy that I invested the little time and effort to produce those videos. The attention seemed to go away just as fast as the snow melted, and that was fine by me.

There were plenty of haters on YouTube and even a hater in my UW alumni circle who called me "narcissistic" (haven't heard that before!), but as you can see by the YouTube votes, many more people that enjoyed them and I'm glad I contributed to smiles and laughs during this year's snow days.

I enjoyed the reaction my family and friends' reaction to the videos' initial climb in views (now over 300,000 combined) and their dismay when one YouTube commenter said I look like Ryan Gosling (far from the truth, I look more like the Lady Antebellum guy).

Here are links from the coverage I could find, mostly for my own records, and the videos embedded below. Thanks to everyone who spread the word and extended the initial 15 seconds of fame to 15 minutes.

• Seattle P-I (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)
• KOMO Communities
• The Stranger
• 106.1 KISS
• 950 AM KJR
• 103.7 The Mountain

Photos: First Snow of 2012

Dog Training for Humans

Last night, we attended our first "Growly Class." We were already acquainted with the trainer, Deborah, through our private lesson, but this was the big meet-and-greet with our classmates. To minimize owner anxiety, this first meeting was "humans only." It's a smart tactic considering everyone in the class has dogs with medium to severe behavioral issues, and it's easy to get defensive about your dog when it misbehaves. By meeting people first, you get on the same page in case your dogs are less friendly toward each other.

The meeting felt like a hybrid of dog training and group therapy.

To begin, we all took turns talking showing pictures and introducing our dogs. Many people had rescued their dogs so the histories, ages and breeds were guesswork.

Our turn: "Hi, my name is Paolo and this is my wife Amanda. Our dog is Gianna, and she's a 6-year-old Collie."

After reviewing some definitions of behavior issues and talking about cognitive psychology and B.F. Skinner, we got into another round of introductions about our dogs' behavior issues. Amanda went after the guy whose Husky has bitten him hard twice.

"Well, Gianna is a really sweet little girl and didn't care much about other dogs after we first got her. She plays well with other dogs that she knows, but she gets aggressive when she's on a leash and sees dogs she doesn't know. She lunges and growls and barks at them."

I cut in, "She's a couch hog." Not my finest moment.

I'd like to think Gianna was on the lower end of behavioral issues, but she sounded fairly common compared to others' stories. There are a couple dogs in the group that have gotten into major fights before, but that didn't concern me. I went to Stadium High School, so I know what it's like going to school where people get into fights daily.

During the rest of the session we learned about the importance of rich rewards, breaking up bad dog interactions, dog "zen" (basically getting the dog to relax and focus -- dog-version of meditating) and masking or losing our own anxieties.

That last bit about anxiety was why we were all there dogless. This training session was for the humans. We all have good intentions for our dogs with issues. Unless we have confidence, our dogs won't heed to us and build confidence.

So, we listened, reflected and built our own confidence as handlers, not much different from "sit" and "stay." Next week, the dogs meet and we'll get tested in our ability to take command.

The irony of it all is the high expectation we put on our dogs. They're not people and people misbehave far more often without notice. How often do you swear or skip a chore? As much as this series of lessons will be about calibrating Gianna's behavior, it will also be about resetting our expectations.

Trip Report: Green Mountain

According to the Washington Trails Association, Green Mountain is the second highest peak on the Kitsap Peninsula. That's not saying much as it tops out at just 1,639 feet, but over our 5 mile round-trip hike and 1,000-foot elevation gain, we broke a sweat.

We drove about an hour from Tacoma to the peninsula to the trailhead. Though rain has been light, mud was on the Gold Creek Trail that we took to the top. On the way down, we took Plummer trail, which was more dry and offered some great views of the Olympics. Enjoy the pictures!

You know you're hardcore when there's a picnic table at the top of your hike.

Do you see Seattle?

Gianna needs to stop blinking in photos.

Gianna took the lead on the way back down.

This was the "wildlife" we spotted.

View of the Olympics from Plummer Trail.