Different Moods

This week we had Tuesday of from school. So I had the chance to observe Tyara in the morning for once, since all the other days I observe her after after school. With me observing her on Tuesday in the morning, I noticed there was a change in her behavior, she started to jump on me when I went outside . She also seemed to be more awake and out going in the morning.  I didn't pay much attention to it until I observed her on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon that I saw the difference in her attitude. "She kept running around with her bone in her mouth. I started to chase her and mess around with her when I saw she kept wanting to run." field notes 11/4. This is a video that I recorded of Tyara while she was in a good mood on Tuesday. (Please ignore my awkward sound effects in the back.)

In the video here, Tyara is really happy and energetic, she jumps on me twice. She has done that a couple of times before but now I was wondering why she does that? I know it probably has something to do with her being happy, but what does it mean? With this question I decided to do some research in why dogs jump on people. According to  ASPCA:"Teaching Your Dog Not to Jump on People",  dogs jump on people to try to get their attention. Since when they meet a new dog, they will smell their face, dogs try to do the same thing to us humans. They try to sniff our faces, but since we are way much taller than them it causes them to jump up. I never really thought of it that way, I just thought Tyara jumped on me because she was happy and had a lot of energy in her.

The rest of the week Tyara wasn't as happy and energetic as she was on Tuesday in the morning. I had more fun observing her in the morning than I did any other day that week.

Pic taken by me 11/4 (Tyara playing with her bone)

Work Cited

"Teaching Your Dog Not to Jump on People." ASPCA. N.p. n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2014.



















Memory

"Today I saw she had mud on her paws, I got a bit worried because I thought she was digging up my mom's flowers." Field notes 10/31. When she saw me she went running back to where she had been digging, there was just a tiny hole. It made a big mess because the dirt was wet. I saw Tyara grab something and the first thing that came to my head was that it was one of her dog bones. Once she went to the grass she dropped what she had in her mouth and yes, it was an old dog bone. We gave her that bone like 2 weeks ago. That just made me think, how does she know where her bone is after she buried it?

With this question wondering in my head, I decided to do some research. According to Rena Sherwood, dogs use "visual markers" in order to know where it would be easier to bury their bone. The visual marker can be something like a plant, rock, or anything that is near that will stand out to the dog. Something else that Sherwood states that a dog uses for memory is their sense of smell. Dogs can smell a bone even if it's buried down piles of dirt. Since a dog's nose is way better than a human being, they can smell a bone that has been buried for months. But in the end if a dog can't fine where they buried their bone, Sherwood says they will just start digging in random places hoping to find something new. This came familiar to me, because Tyara will sometimes be digging different holes in different places, I always wondered why she did that. I thought it was because she likes to dig and has fun doing, but now I see it is because she is hoping to find something new.

After I saw what Tyara had found (her old bone) she just went back to playing with it again. There was still some mud stuck on it, but that didn't seem to get in between of her and her bone. Field notes 10/31.

Tyara chewing on her bone pic taken 10/31

Work Cited

 

Sherwood, Rena. "How Dogs Know Where They Buried Their Bones." eHow. N.p. n.d.    

 

       Web. 1 Nov. 2014.

 

it's time for the cold!

As many of you know, Tyara is a snow dog. So her favorite time of year is almost here! Cold weather means a new fur coat for her. While I observed her this week, I have noticed she has gotten a lot bigger than she was just a couple weeks back. Then I saw she is shedding just a little bit now since she shed it all during the warmer climate; she still sheds but not huge chunks as she did before when it was more warmer in the day. Tyara isn't a fat dog. She is actually really skinny, but her fur now, in the winter, makes her look all big and extremely fluffy (although she's still fluffy either way).

I have always wondered when does a  body of a dog know it's time for a new fur coat. According to Gina Sapdafori a dog will start growing their winter coat during the fall, while they still shed out their thin summer coat that they grew out in the spring. It really doesn't have anything to do with their body; it's practically just when the seasons change is when the dog's fur coat changes. It's pretty crazy to think a dog will grow new fur twice a year for ever year that they live. Can you imagine how much fur it is to comb off Tyara since she is a snow dog? Every other day in the summer I will brush her to  make her thin coat better.

In the site Dog Day Afternoon Spa: "Shedding 101" compares a dog's fur coat to trees and their leafs. I found this comparison really cool and it shocked me because they are both so similar. They are the same in how they change because of the seasons. In the fall, the leaves change color and start to fall, just like a dog's summer fur falls, and to some may change color. I have also noticed a change in Tyara's fur color; it changes from a lot of white to a lot of grey and maybe even some brown. I have noticed that this year her fur is growing a bit more dark with a lot of more grey in it.

Tyara's fur coat, Pic taken 10/23

Even if I have to  comb her a lot, and take out full bags of her old fur coat, I would rather be doing that to make her fur coat for the winter look nice and shiny.

Work Cited

 Spadafori, Gina. "The Pet Connection." VeterinaryPartner.com. Veterinary Information                         Network, 7 Nov. 2001. Web. 24 Oct. 2014.





more than a pet

My dad always calls Tyara my sister (even if she's my pet). I also considered her as one, while I observed her this week, I noticed that she does act like a little sister whenever I go outside to observe her, she will come and see what I'm doing, it's like if she knew she was being observed. She will come to me with a ball for me to play fetch with her, just like any little brother or sister does to their older siblings for them to play with them. Whenever I come home from practice, as soon as I'm in the garage to go outside to see her, I hear her dog collar jingle since she is running to the garage to see who just came home. I feel it's like a little sibling waiting for their big brother or sister to come home.

"I was feeding her lettuce, she really really likes it, I don't know why. The lettuce got her hungry so she went to eat her dog food. Sometimes for her to eat her food I have to go and shake her dog bowl for it to make a noise and sometimes feed her one by one until she goes and eats on her own." field notes 10/15. The way I sometimes have to feed her like that or get her attention to her food, reminds me of how I would have to feed my little brother before. Tyara will act as if she is eating her food. She puts her snout in her bowl but doesn't eat anything, I will think she's eating and leave her alone so she can finish her food. Then I will come back outside and she would just be laying next to her food, once she sees me coming, she will get up again and do the same thing, just this time I actually sit outside with her  until she eats her food!

She loves to lay in her dogloo. I sometimes have to make little noises for her to come out of there because she will literally lay in there the entire time I go outside and observe her. When she does that, it reminds me of my little brother and how stubborn he is in the mornings not wanting to get up for school. As soon as she hears me make noise or she hears something strange, she gets out and goes check out what the noise was. She's curious just like a little sibling. She just isn't a pet to me, I actually love her more than that, I really consider her as a sister.


pic of Tyara inside dogloo taken on 10/16

My Brother

During this whole week while we are  on fall break, I couldn't observe my dog since I went out of town, but this gave me a chance to observe my little brother,  Jeferson, during the long car rides. 

Jeferson is 9 years old, and like any other little brother, he is a pain in the butt. Being in the back seat with him for hours is a lot of work. Many people would guess he would just stay calm and play with his phone, but that only lasts for a little while, because then he starts asking "Are we there yet?" Or "How much longer?" 

I've paid a lot of attention to him lately  (well since there isn't much to do in car rides lol) I have noticed that after he gets bored with his phone, he starts to annoy everyone for a bit, nut after all that seems like he gets tired and decides to take a nap. He doesn't feel a thing when he sleeps while we are in the car, he's a very hard sleeper. Once he wakes up he does this face like, "where am I?" and of course the first question he asks even when he just woke up is "are we there yet?"


pic taken 10/9

"He actually smiled at the camera this time when I asked if I could take a picture of him, he usually doesn't let me." field notes 10/9.

It's hard for us to get along at times, since the age difference is 7 years ( a lot! I know!) but during this trip we actually bonded, while we watched movies or played cards in the car. "I saw the way he smiled when I played with him something or just tickled him, his cheeks got all red when I started to tickle him, his laugh would make me laugh and we'd both end up laughing in the car." field notes 10/10

Looking at my Surroundings

Ever since my last post I've been putting even more attention to Tyara. She is starting to shed a bit because she is getting ready for the winter. Her top coat is falling off a bit, she is growing out her new thick fur coat for the winter. When chunks of fur fall off they look like little pieces of puff balls.

Since it has been warm lately she has been really happy. She really likes to sleep where the sun hits the most. I don't understand why, I ask myself wouldn't she get really hot because her fur? She likes to sleep a lot, and she isn't even so old yet! She looks at me strange while I'm observing her. She gives me a look like "What are you doing?" then she goes back into doing what she normally does, lay on the grass. "She keeps laying down exactly in the middle of the grass while my dad mows the lawn, it's like she finds it really refreshing after being on the hot sun." Field notes 10/2.



 Picture taken 10/3





  While I was observing my beautiful dog, something else captured my attention. My mom's two Zebra Finch birds she has hung up on a cage, Tyara was laying under them and outta nowhere I see a feather of one of the birds fall off. I had heard them chirp lately but not this much, it seemed as if they were fighting with each other like two married couples!(It is one male and a female.) They have this cool chirping noise they do when they communicate with one another. In the video below that I recorded myself (make sure volume is high) you can hear them chirping to one another, and at one point you can even hear the male chirp really loud because it hears a cars horn, which I found really funny.

On this picture it shows the two birds, these are exactly how the one my mom's has look like, the female on the white and the male with the gray and brown. The female has laid eggs before, but they just ended up killing their babies. I always asked myself that and what I found out from the site according Lady Gouldian Finch: "Chick Tossing & Nest Abandonment" was that they will abandon and kill their babies if  they are first time parents (which these were) they don't mean to do it but they will start to panic when they see something strange happening in their nests, which also includes their eggs hatching. http://www.finchniche.com/features_abandoned.php that site will talk more in depth why they would kill them.(What harsh parenting!)



From Scientific American
 

Doing this observation, I have not only learned new things from my dog, but also from other pets that  I have! I hope to learn more new things and you can read them in my next up coming blogs.

New Things

It's actually really weird just sitting outside and observing Tyara. I've seen her for about 6 years now and I never really noticed how she is or what she does.

After spending a total of a few hours outside watching her, I noticed many different things that I had not yet caught on. Her tail is always up, since she is really fluffy. When her tail is down I know there is something wrong with her. Every time I go outside she starts smelling me, the first afternoon I did this observation she sniffed my notebook and everything I had with me because it was all new things for her. She spends most of her time on the grass or in her dogloo (name for dog house for snow dog).


picture taken 9/21

"Tyara just laid on and wiggled her tail. She kept staring at me while I sat on the swing and stared at her." Field Notes 9/12

Tyara is a mix of an Alaskan Malamute and Akita, that's were she gets her fluffiness. She is small like an Alaskan Malamute but has the face of an Akita.

She doesn't really do much because of her age but she still messes around like a puppy at times. Even though it feels like I've had her for like forever, with these observations I start to wonder new things of her. I wonder if while the smoke was going on if it affected her? Or if she feels like a weight on her because of her fur?