Last updated: Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:44:00
It is now Thu, 15 May 2008 05:32:41
Last updated: Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:44:00
It is now Thu, 15 May 2008 05:32:41
Coherent Dog is my personal web site. I have no other.
My purpose is to share information with others who choose to live with dogs, particularly, as part of the family. The domestic dog is innately predisposed to live in families, and to maintain family-style friendships in mutual support.
My emphasis is on watching and listening to the dogs who share their lives with us. When we meet them on their terms, dogs are trustworthy to the hilt. Dogs tell the truth. We need only meet all their real needs to have them live with us in friendship.
In short, dogs are coherent creatures. When we meet all their real needs, they trust us, as is innate in them to do, and they do their best to live in harmony with each other and with their humans.
You will find the article on A Dog's Real needs on the Articles Page in the archives.
All the material present on Coherent Dog previously is still available. To find anything older than 2008, you can use the link to Old Home on the main navigation bar near the top of the page.
To find your way back here to the 2008 part, you can use the link from the archives to return here, or you can use your browser's Back button.
Turid Rugaas, International Dog Trainer, has a new translation of her book on barking, published by DogWise, available.
Barking: The Sound of a Language appeared in March, 2008. I'm not clear on just how this happened, but while the main text of the book remains pretty much as Turid Rugaas intended, somehow, confusion developed over the photos and their captions, so that those actually contradict the content of the book.
I was checking links while working on revising Coherent Dog, and so, discovered that Turid had posted corrections on her site.
I asked Turid's permission to reproduce her corrections here, word-for-word, and she gave it, so here are the corrections as posted on her site, slightly re-formatted here.
Turid has updated the notice on her web site about corrections to her Barking book, and, with her permission, I am copying them here, to replace the originally posted ones. I'm very glad that Dogwise is doing their part, and will be reprinting the book.
I received my own copy in the mail today, and am very grateful to have it, as it is another of Turid's very fine works on dogs.
By misfortune the American version of the barking book, Barking - The Sound of a Language, came out with some wrong pictures and texts to same, some quite serious as they contradict what I actually teach people. Dogwise has taken the responsibility for this and have been just great in correcting the mistakes very quickly. I am very grateful for that.
For the ones who have already got the book I need to explain some of the pictures, as I certainly do not want readers to think I do what the texts say. Read more here.
There are some serious mistakes in the photo texts in this book. I never saw them before the book was printed, so I got a shock when the book came.
The text contradicts all I try to teach my students, so please understand that this is not what I do!
1. I would never use sit-stay (or any kind of obedience) in a stress situation. The ones who know a little about stress will know why. This is what the text should say: "Have your dog sit for a second or two before opening; no words, just the hand signal" Page 22.
2. Parallel walking is walking parallel - not meeting, which is totally different. Page 66. This is NOT parallel walking. The only way to start in many cases is to walk in the same direction, as that is the least threatening to a dog in defence and high stress.
3. Blocking/splitting up or whatever you call it can NOT be done like this! Pages 55 and 82.
This will be provocation and not calming. Never bend towards a dog, NEVER look at the dog in this position (!) or stretch out an arm in this way. If this had been a fearful dog, a stressed dog, a dog in defence, you would have got a negative reaction.
Right way to do it:
These small differences in handling make all the differences in a training situation. Doing it wrongly might mean that you never achieve anything of what you wanted to. We did these mistakes in the beginning of this training 20-25 years ago, but I learnt very fast that it did not work. It is very upsetting to see it shown so wrongly after having told people for so many years how to do it properly.
Please notice my corrections, and do not do it the wrong way yourselves. It might mean life or death to a dog in trouble.
Turid Rugaas, March 2008
I am changing from HTML to PHP, in order to permit scripts that will provide Coherent Dog with a larger measure of flexibility than is possible with HTML coding only.
VekToria TwinkelMaus is putting together material on diabetes in dogs, as that certainly affects our lives, and we are meeting others online whose lives are similarly affected. Vekkie has her own area in which to work, on Vekkie's Diabetes Playground. I have given her a free hand, and you can expect changes, quite frequently, especially at first.
Vekkie is true to the CoDog tradition, so she will be playing a lot, and she invites you all to witness her play. Kwali and Kumbi enjoy her companionship, and sometimes have snippets to offer.
Coherent Dog may be unavailable for brief periods during the changes; please try again later if you can't reach the site. Links may be broken, until I can clean up after making changes.
Typically, people whose dogs or cats are diagnosed with diabetes are terrified at first. A support email list I frequent and recommend is at Muffin Diabetic Pets Association .
After a week and a half of mostly sleepless nights, I am opening the new Coherent Dog.
I have felt rather urgent about adding new material, because first, I thought the sooner human Caretakers of diabetic dogs have access to helpful information, the better. Second, I just learned of the very serious errors contained in the new Barking book by Turid Rugaas. I was very upset, though not as much so, surely, as Turid was, and I've felt it urgent to assist people in learning that there are very specific ways to communicate with dogs, for their well-beings and even safety. Turid says it so well.
Undoubtedly there are rough edges; typographical errors, and I have lots to fill in, but the structure of the site is in good order, and the pages on the main site and in the Diabetic Playground all validate to current standards. Pages in the Coherent Dog Archives need one line in each edited, to bring them to current standards, which do change from year to year. I should be able to edit the 163 or so pages there in a day or two.
If you have technical problems with the site, please click on my name in the footer of the page to send me email. Make sure to send in plain text only, or your mail is likely to be dumped as potentially unwanted. I would not like that.
Also, some links may be broken; I will be checking these. You can help me; if you find a broken link, please send me email. Thanks.
The new stuff is dedicated to Muffins.
Thank you, and I hope you find Coherent Dog both useful and fun.
I will be adding to this new part of Coherent Dog.
