Deborah J. Ross's Blog, page 122
April 15, 2015
[link] Charlaine Harris on blending genres
Over on the Gollancz site, Charlaine Harris offers a few characteristically charming observations on how to blend fantasy and mystery. Listen up, folks. She knows whereof she speaks. It's a short article, full of humor and wisdom.
My favorite bit:
I must have been channeling Harris when I wrote "Survival Skills" (Sisters of the Night) back in the mid '90s. Barbara Hambly had taken on the editing of an anthology of female vampire stories and, being much involved in my younger daughter's elementary school PTA, I wondered what it would take for a mother vampire to raise two kids in Los Angeles, where I lived at the time. My vampire's problems didn't involve paying taxes, but did center around managing all the ways our governmental structures look over your shoulder when you are a parent. It was easy enough to imagine a night school for families whose adults worked night shifts in the movie industry, but what about truant officers, PTA fund raisers, school lunches and sports ("don't play with your food"), and translating the skills learned from centuries of dealing with paper-based bureaucracies into computer-based hacking?
"Survival Skills" will appear in my upcoming collection, Transfusion and Other Tales of Hope, from Book View Cafe later this month. Stay tuned for the official announcement.
My favorite bit:
I think it’s also a good idea to make sure the reader knows that being a supernatural creature of any sort does not mean you can live a life without problems. There are always bills to pay of one sort or another, groceries to shop for (even if you shop in a bar or cemetery), and taxes to pay. Yes, always taxes. You can’t swan around in a velvet cape looking mysterious and swoony. The electric bill must be covered, and the telephone bill, too.
I must have been channeling Harris when I wrote "Survival Skills" (Sisters of the Night) back in the mid '90s. Barbara Hambly had taken on the editing of an anthology of female vampire stories and, being much involved in my younger daughter's elementary school PTA, I wondered what it would take for a mother vampire to raise two kids in Los Angeles, where I lived at the time. My vampire's problems didn't involve paying taxes, but did center around managing all the ways our governmental structures look over your shoulder when you are a parent. It was easy enough to imagine a night school for families whose adults worked night shifts in the movie industry, but what about truant officers, PTA fund raisers, school lunches and sports ("don't play with your food"), and translating the skills learned from centuries of dealing with paper-based bureaucracies into computer-based hacking?
"Survival Skills" will appear in my upcoming collection, Transfusion and Other Tales of Hope, from Book View Cafe later this month. Stay tuned for the official announcement.
April 14, 2015
[link] Horses, Trust, and Patience
The blog Spellbound features a fascinating article on how horses that are worked "on the ground" are more relaxed when ridden under saddle than those which are not. It's actually a report and commentary on a study done in Germany on dressage horses. The scientists were actually studying something else and found this correlation fortuitously.
From this, the researchers concluded that, “Perhaps horses trained in ground work had more trust in their rider.”
Trust
We tend to think about riders trusting their horses and forget that this is a partnership. Skilled horse people understand that the horse must trust its rider as well. Once we stop thinking about horses as animate transportation machines or ego-appendages but sensitive, responsive creatures whose intelligence is different from ours but nonetheless exists, we open the door to a relationship of mutual respect. "Training" should not mean "instilling automatic responses through discipline." Perhaps we need a different term to get away from the old association. Training is establishing a relationship in which communication becomes clear and trust is established. It's learning to "talk horse" and "listen horse."
The blog concludes,
I’m glad to learn research revealed ground work is good for horses. Horses with a low heart rate are relaxed and relaxed horses perform better and live longer. In this day and age of people starting horses under saddle in under an hour and increasing monetary rewards for the “young horse dressage program“, everything seems to be done in a hurry. The entire horse culture seems to privilege “getting up there and riding your horse”. But as one of my favorite writers and accomplished horsewoman,Teresa Tsimmu Martino writes, “In today’s horse culture there are clinics that brag about starting a colt in a day, as if the quickness of it was the miracle. But old horse people know it takes years to create art. Horses as great masterpieces are not created in a day. An artist does not need to rush.” We need more scientific studies like this one to encourage us to slow down and take our time with our horses.
From this, the researchers concluded that, “Perhaps horses trained in ground work had more trust in their rider.”
TrustWe tend to think about riders trusting their horses and forget that this is a partnership. Skilled horse people understand that the horse must trust its rider as well. Once we stop thinking about horses as animate transportation machines or ego-appendages but sensitive, responsive creatures whose intelligence is different from ours but nonetheless exists, we open the door to a relationship of mutual respect. "Training" should not mean "instilling automatic responses through discipline." Perhaps we need a different term to get away from the old association. Training is establishing a relationship in which communication becomes clear and trust is established. It's learning to "talk horse" and "listen horse."
The blog concludes,
I’m glad to learn research revealed ground work is good for horses. Horses with a low heart rate are relaxed and relaxed horses perform better and live longer. In this day and age of people starting horses under saddle in under an hour and increasing monetary rewards for the “young horse dressage program“, everything seems to be done in a hurry. The entire horse culture seems to privilege “getting up there and riding your horse”. But as one of my favorite writers and accomplished horsewoman,Teresa Tsimmu Martino writes, “In today’s horse culture there are clinics that brag about starting a colt in a day, as if the quickness of it was the miracle. But old horse people know it takes years to create art. Horses as great masterpieces are not created in a day. An artist does not need to rush.” We need more scientific studies like this one to encourage us to slow down and take our time with our horses.
April 13, 2015
Deborah Millitello on "Green Is the Color of Her Eyes So Blue" in GIFTS OF DARKOVER
On a wondrous planet of telepaths and swordsmen, nonhumans and ancient mysteries, a technologically advanced, star-faring civilization comes into inevitable conflict with one that has pursued psychic gifts and turned away from weapons of mass destruction. Darkover offers many gifts, asked for and unexpected. Those who come here, ignorant of what they will find, discover gifts outside themselves and within themselves. The door to magic swings both ways, however, and many a visitor leaves the people he encounters equally transformed. Gifts of Darkover will be released May 5, 2015, and is now available for pre-order.
Deborah Millitello on her story, "Green Is the Color of Her Eyes So Blue"
I read all the Darkover books and was fascinated by the mixture of fantasy and science fiction. I especially liked the newest book, The Children of Kings, which started me wondering why the Dry Towners didn’t have the psychic power called laran. What if one of them did have laran? What if a Dry Towner had laran because she was different from everyone else?
That’s when I thought about my granddaughter Danielle. She, her brother and sister, mother, aunt, and cousin all have a genetic condition called ectodermal dysplasia. They have no sweat glands so they can’t tolerate heat. Their skin is extremely delicate, often cracking and raw on hands and feet. Hair is brittle and breaks or falls out. Fingernails and teeth are often deformed.
So what if a Dry Towner had a genetic condition like my granddaughter that let her use laran with the help of a special crystal, similar to the starstone? What could she use it for? Two things would be important in a desert land – water and food. I chose quickly growing food as her ability, and she uses it to feed the poorest people in the Dry Town capital.
My newest book is The Water Girl, a YA fantasy adventure, released February 4, 2015 from Word Posse. Seventeen-year-old Hamalah lives with her grandmother in a nomadic tribal society and is blessed by Myruh, the water spirit, with the ability to find water in the desert lands her people inhabit. Led by Myruh to a cave, Hamalah discovers Crown Prince Dahoud, the son of her people’s chief enemy, who has been bound, beaten, and left for dead. Together, they uncover a plot to kill the prince and his father and usurp the throne, a plot that reaches from a member of Hamalah’s own tribe to a powerful noble of the kingdom, a plot that will pit the elemental spirits and the people who follow them against each other. Hamalah and Dahoud are drawn to each other despite the long history of hatred between their races, but they must gather forces who were once enemies and lead them in a fight to free her people and save the kingdom. The Water Girl is available from Amazon in paperback or as ebook.
My next book, coming out in November 2015 from Word Posse, is a collection of short stories entitled Do Virgins Taste Better? and Other Strange Tales. It will be available in paperback and ebook from Amazon.Deborah Millitello published her first story in 1989 in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine. Since then her stories have appeared various magazines such as Dragon Magazine; Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine, including the third-place Cauldron winner “Do Virgins Taste Better?”; Science Fiction Age; and anthologies such as Aladdin Master of the Lamp; Witch Fantastic; Sword and Sorceress; Tales of Talislanta, and Bruce Coville’s Book of Nightmares. Her first book, Thief’s Luck, a YA fantasy mystery, is out from Double Dragon Publishing, and a YA fantasy novel, The Water Girl, will be out in February 2015 from Word Posse. She spends her free time baking cookies, cakes, and pies, making gourmet jams such as strawberry lemonade jam, lemon blueberry jam, and tangerine marmalade, knitting & crocheting, and growing herbs, vegetables, berries & orchard fruit. A member of the Alternate Historians writers group, she lives in southern Illinois with her husband Carl (who has put up with her writing obsession for over forty years), has three children and nine grandchildren, one great-grand child on the way, and works at a doctor’s answering service as her day job.
April 10, 2015
Thunderlord snippet - Storm-sense
Please remember that this is a work in progress and drafts have a habit of changing drastically from inception to finished book.
From Thunderlord Chapter 12
Now it was Kyria’s turn to look astonished. “You studied at a Tower? Neskaya itself? No wonder you knew how to heal the horses and that poor man of Francisco’s.”
“What I did was no great thing in itself,” Edric said. “Every novice studies monitoring and the principle of laran healing. But the lineage we share –” he gestured to himself and then to her, “— our Rockraven blood –” although we not so close that we might not marry if there were no other impediment, “-- that explains why Scathfell wanted you. You’re right, not for anything having to do with you, Kyria, as a person, but because of what you carry in your genes.”
Kyria frowned. “What? A predisposition for dropping kitchen spoons and assaulting banshees with cooking knives? A talent for trapping small fur-bearing animals?”
“Storm-sense. Which, in its fully realized form, means the ability to not only detect but controlcloud and rain…and lightning.”
She fell silent for a time, considering this. “My family told stories about the Witch-Child of Aldaran. She was Aliciane’s daughter, I believe, and therefore your kinswoman as well. ‘Tis said she could do these things. But me? I have no such power.”
“Search inside yourself, inside your mind,” he urged. “You’ll see I’m telling the truth.”
Kyria looked away, and for a moment he thought she would reject everything he’d said. “Ever since I was a little girl, I have been able to feel when a storm was coming. My father said I used to have nightmares about lightning even when the sky was yet clear. But my storms always came; I was never mistaken. He told me other stories, of how such powers were bred in the Towers and then used for terrible purposes. Men bursting into flames, whole kingdoms laid waste, the very land poisoned and forests set ablaze. I never put much faith in those tales. But I’ve thought – I’ve wished – oh, how I’ve wished! – that I could send a storm somewhere else. But I’ve never been able to, not even the slightest bit. And to be able to summon one out of a clear sky – I cannot imagine how that is even possible.”
She stopped climbing and faced him, her eyes fierce. “What do you know about such things? You said you studied at a Tower – were you part of these breeding programs? Is that how you know?”
“No, nothing like that! Yes, such things happened in the past, and records are kept in some of the Towers and also at the monastery in Nevarsin. Today no reasonable person would participate in a program that looks at women, and men, too, as of no more value than their seed.”She shuddered, but said nothing. Her very silence demanded the truth.
“I know of these abilities because I have them, too,” Edric said. “I can not only sense storms, I can send them where I wish. I can, if you will excuse the colloquial phrase, call down the lightnings. I went to Neskaya Tower to learn how to control my storm-sense so that I would never misuse it, as has been done in the past.”
From Thunderlord Chapter 12
Now it was Kyria’s turn to look astonished. “You studied at a Tower? Neskaya itself? No wonder you knew how to heal the horses and that poor man of Francisco’s.”
“What I did was no great thing in itself,” Edric said. “Every novice studies monitoring and the principle of laran healing. But the lineage we share –” he gestured to himself and then to her, “— our Rockraven blood –” although we not so close that we might not marry if there were no other impediment, “-- that explains why Scathfell wanted you. You’re right, not for anything having to do with you, Kyria, as a person, but because of what you carry in your genes.”
Kyria frowned. “What? A predisposition for dropping kitchen spoons and assaulting banshees with cooking knives? A talent for trapping small fur-bearing animals?”
“Storm-sense. Which, in its fully realized form, means the ability to not only detect but controlcloud and rain…and lightning.”
She fell silent for a time, considering this. “My family told stories about the Witch-Child of Aldaran. She was Aliciane’s daughter, I believe, and therefore your kinswoman as well. ‘Tis said she could do these things. But me? I have no such power.”
“Search inside yourself, inside your mind,” he urged. “You’ll see I’m telling the truth.”
Kyria looked away, and for a moment he thought she would reject everything he’d said. “Ever since I was a little girl, I have been able to feel when a storm was coming. My father said I used to have nightmares about lightning even when the sky was yet clear. But my storms always came; I was never mistaken. He told me other stories, of how such powers were bred in the Towers and then used for terrible purposes. Men bursting into flames, whole kingdoms laid waste, the very land poisoned and forests set ablaze. I never put much faith in those tales. But I’ve thought – I’ve wished – oh, how I’ve wished! – that I could send a storm somewhere else. But I’ve never been able to, not even the slightest bit. And to be able to summon one out of a clear sky – I cannot imagine how that is even possible.”
She stopped climbing and faced him, her eyes fierce. “What do you know about such things? You said you studied at a Tower – were you part of these breeding programs? Is that how you know?”
“No, nothing like that! Yes, such things happened in the past, and records are kept in some of the Towers and also at the monastery in Nevarsin. Today no reasonable person would participate in a program that looks at women, and men, too, as of no more value than their seed.”She shuddered, but said nothing. Her very silence demanded the truth.
“I know of these abilities because I have them, too,” Edric said. “I can not only sense storms, I can send them where I wish. I can, if you will excuse the colloquial phrase, call down the lightnings. I went to Neskaya Tower to learn how to control my storm-sense so that I would never misuse it, as has been done in the past.”
April 8, 2015
What Was Your Favorite Experience Meeting An Author?
Nathan Bransford asked this question. It made me smile, because I have a bunch of answers and they
are all wonderful, inspiring moments. Here are a couple.
Very early in my writing career, Poul Anderson was Guest of Honor at a convention I attended. At the "meet the guests" reception, I spied him standing alone. I guess everyone else was too awed by him to say hello. I went up and said hello and how much I admired his work. We began chatting, and when he learned I was a writer -- I think I'd sold maybe 2 or 3 short stories then -- he looked at me and with absolute sincerity asked what I was working on now. I was a fellow writer, a colleague, or at least he thought I was. That moment of encouragement carried me through many rejections and discouraging times. I do my best to pass it on.
Meeting Octavia Butler for the second or third time and the two of us laughing that she remembered me but not my name. I came away with the understanding that I don't have to "be known by name" or to toot my own horn in order to have meaningful conversations. Just being present and listening carefully is a gift to the other person. I remind myself that my writing stands on its own
At World Fantasy a few years ago, standing out in the garden area for an evening reception and realizing, "I'm talking shop with Peter S. Beagle..." At that same convention, I had a lovely exchange with Charlaine Harris, in which I told her how I loved her Aurora Teagarden mysteries.A librarian detective plus layers of depth woven into a rocking good story. She replied, "That means a lot to me, coming from another writer."
I can go a long way on that.
What are your favorite memories?
are all wonderful, inspiring moments. Here are a couple.Very early in my writing career, Poul Anderson was Guest of Honor at a convention I attended. At the "meet the guests" reception, I spied him standing alone. I guess everyone else was too awed by him to say hello. I went up and said hello and how much I admired his work. We began chatting, and when he learned I was a writer -- I think I'd sold maybe 2 or 3 short stories then -- he looked at me and with absolute sincerity asked what I was working on now. I was a fellow writer, a colleague, or at least he thought I was. That moment of encouragement carried me through many rejections and discouraging times. I do my best to pass it on.
Meeting Octavia Butler for the second or third time and the two of us laughing that she remembered me but not my name. I came away with the understanding that I don't have to "be known by name" or to toot my own horn in order to have meaningful conversations. Just being present and listening carefully is a gift to the other person. I remind myself that my writing stands on its own
At World Fantasy a few years ago, standing out in the garden area for an evening reception and realizing, "I'm talking shop with Peter S. Beagle..." At that same convention, I had a lovely exchange with Charlaine Harris, in which I told her how I loved her Aurora Teagarden mysteries.A librarian detective plus layers of depth woven into a rocking good story. She replied, "That means a lot to me, coming from another writer."
I can go a long way on that.
What are your favorite memories?
April 6, 2015
Leslie Fish on "Compensation" in GIFTS OF DARKOVER
On a wondrous planet of telepaths and swordsmen, nonhumans and ancient mysteries, a
technologically advanced, star-faring civilization comes into inevitable conflict with one that has pursued psychic gifts and turned away from weapons of mass destruction. Darkover offers many gifts, asked for and unexpected. Those who come here, ignorant of what they will find, discover gifts outside themselves and within themselves. The door to magic swings both ways, however, and many a visitor leaves the people he encounters equally transformed.
Gifts of Darkover will be released May 5, 2015, and is now available for pre-order.
Here Leslie Fish chats with editor Deborah J. Ross about "Compensation."
Tell us about your introduction to Darkover. I first ran into Darkover on the paperback book-racks of a general school-supply store. It was the Ace double edition of The Sword of Aldones and The Planet Savers. I read them both in less than a week, and I was hooked for life.
What about the world drew you in? The fascinating ecology, the number of intelligent species, the politics of a semi-telepathic society, and the characters. I was already a SciFi fan, and this was excellent SciFi -- red meat!
What do you see as the future of Darkover? More exploration of the interactions of the various intelligent species, more political entanglements internally and with the rest of the galaxy, and further elaborations of the environment.
Is there another story you would particularly like to write?I'm working on it already.
What inspired your story in Gifts of Darkover? Would you believe, our local small-town library? The number and extent of books in even a little library is astonishing. You could probably re-create a whole society from the knowledge contained in one American library.
Tell us about your story in Gifts of Darkover.I got to considering the effect of literacy on the mind, how it leads to precise, logical, and critical thinking. I recalled that most Darkovans, at least before the Terran Re-Contact, were illiterate; most of their record-keeping was done in the Towers, by psychic recordings. How, I wondered, would that difference effect the thought-patterns of Darkovan culture?
What have you written recently? A few new songs, actually -- and my blog (http://lesliebard.blogspot.com). My most recent books are a Fantasy/Romance, Of Elven Blood, available on Amazon.com, and a Historical/Romance, For Love of Glory, from Fireship Press.
What lies ahead? I'm currently working on a short story for John Carr's continuation of Pournelle's "War World" series, and I'm also collaborating with an old friend, Chris Madsen, on a SciFi/Fantasy novel about the physics of metaphysics. We're already hunting for an agent to peddle it.
technologically advanced, star-faring civilization comes into inevitable conflict with one that has pursued psychic gifts and turned away from weapons of mass destruction. Darkover offers many gifts, asked for and unexpected. Those who come here, ignorant of what they will find, discover gifts outside themselves and within themselves. The door to magic swings both ways, however, and many a visitor leaves the people he encounters equally transformed. Gifts of Darkover will be released May 5, 2015, and is now available for pre-order.
Here Leslie Fish chats with editor Deborah J. Ross about "Compensation."
Tell us about your introduction to Darkover. I first ran into Darkover on the paperback book-racks of a general school-supply store. It was the Ace double edition of The Sword of Aldones and The Planet Savers. I read them both in less than a week, and I was hooked for life.
What about the world drew you in? The fascinating ecology, the number of intelligent species, the politics of a semi-telepathic society, and the characters. I was already a SciFi fan, and this was excellent SciFi -- red meat!
What do you see as the future of Darkover? More exploration of the interactions of the various intelligent species, more political entanglements internally and with the rest of the galaxy, and further elaborations of the environment.
Is there another story you would particularly like to write?I'm working on it already.
What inspired your story in Gifts of Darkover? Would you believe, our local small-town library? The number and extent of books in even a little library is astonishing. You could probably re-create a whole society from the knowledge contained in one American library.
Tell us about your story in Gifts of Darkover.I got to considering the effect of literacy on the mind, how it leads to precise, logical, and critical thinking. I recalled that most Darkovans, at least before the Terran Re-Contact, were illiterate; most of their record-keeping was done in the Towers, by psychic recordings. How, I wondered, would that difference effect the thought-patterns of Darkovan culture?
What have you written recently? A few new songs, actually -- and my blog (http://lesliebard.blogspot.com). My most recent books are a Fantasy/Romance, Of Elven Blood, available on Amazon.com, and a Historical/Romance, For Love of Glory, from Fireship Press.
What lies ahead? I'm currently working on a short story for John Carr's continuation of Pournelle's "War World" series, and I'm also collaborating with an old friend, Chris Madsen, on a SciFi/Fantasy novel about the physics of metaphysics. We're already hunting for an agent to peddle it.
April 4, 2015
Collaborators on the Tiptree "Long List"
Collaborators by Deborah Wheeler (that's me, writing under my former name) (Dragon Moon Press, 2013) has been honored by the James Tiptree Jr Award jury with inclusion on the "long list" of notable works. The awards are presented annually to works of science fiction or fantasy that explore and expand gender roles. Read more about them here.The back cover copy reads:
When a crippled Terran spaceship makes landfall on an alien world...The Terrans land, unaware that their advanced technology threatens the fragile balance of power for the native race. Aliens, for whom gender has a very different meaning and whose instincts can drive a crowd to madness.Despite the Terrans best intentions, misunderstandings mount and violent retaliation escalates. Soon everyone — scientists and soldiers, rebels and lovers, patriots and opportunists — are swept up in a cycle of destruction.
Buy from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
April 3, 2015
Thunderlord snippet - Banshee Attack
Please remember that this is a work in progress and drafts have a habit of changing drastically from inception to finished book.
From Thunderlord Chapter 11
When Kyria clasped her hands over her ears, Edric’s instincts urged him to do the same, to shut out the banshee’s cry. It was said to drive men mad, but he had never before understood why. The sound pulsed, throbbing, until it vibrated his eardrums and seemed to fill his skull, driving out all rational thought, and then subsided. But he had learned discipline at Neskaya, how to overcome physical discomforts and to master his fears. In a working matrix circle, a lapse on the part of any one worker might have disastrous consequences for them all. He drew Kyria to him, held her close against his body, and forced himself to listen.
The banshee wailed again, louder now. The cry rose and swelled, shrill and eerie, cresting and dying down only to begin again. The mare snorted and tossed her head; the whites of her eyes showed as gleaming crescents. Kyria shuddered, ducking her head into the curve of his shoulder. Yes, the banshee’s cry was definitely louder. The thing must be coming closer.
“The fire!” Kyria glanced toward the opening to the shelter, where the embers still glowed red. “It’ll draw the banshee. They hunt by warmth. We have to put it out!”
He grabbed her arm and stopped her before she could scatter the remains of the fire. “Listen to me! The banshee will come to the fire, yes, but it will seek out the hottest object first. That will give us a chance to get away…or, or find a way to kill it.”
“Kill a banshee?” Kyria stopped struggling. “Are you nuts?”
From Thunderlord Chapter 11
When Kyria clasped her hands over her ears, Edric’s instincts urged him to do the same, to shut out the banshee’s cry. It was said to drive men mad, but he had never before understood why. The sound pulsed, throbbing, until it vibrated his eardrums and seemed to fill his skull, driving out all rational thought, and then subsided. But he had learned discipline at Neskaya, how to overcome physical discomforts and to master his fears. In a working matrix circle, a lapse on the part of any one worker might have disastrous consequences for them all. He drew Kyria to him, held her close against his body, and forced himself to listen.
The banshee wailed again, louder now. The cry rose and swelled, shrill and eerie, cresting and dying down only to begin again. The mare snorted and tossed her head; the whites of her eyes showed as gleaming crescents. Kyria shuddered, ducking her head into the curve of his shoulder. Yes, the banshee’s cry was definitely louder. The thing must be coming closer.
“The fire!” Kyria glanced toward the opening to the shelter, where the embers still glowed red. “It’ll draw the banshee. They hunt by warmth. We have to put it out!”
He grabbed her arm and stopped her before she could scatter the remains of the fire. “Listen to me! The banshee will come to the fire, yes, but it will seek out the hottest object first. That will give us a chance to get away…or, or find a way to kill it.”
“Kill a banshee?” Kyria stopped struggling. “Are you nuts?”
April 2, 2015
The Tajji Diaries: Getting Out Of Dodge
Focus A little over a year ago, Tajji, a retired German Shepherd Dog guide dog, joined our family. She retired partly due to her age (she will be 11 years old in May) but primarily because of her reactivity to other dogs and sometimes pedestrians. We have been working with her, using positive training techniques such as desensitization and reinforcing alternative behaviors. She has learned to make eye contact with us (something she never needed to do with her former, blind owner), to walk on a loose leash, and how to reduce her own anxiety, although this last is subject to her being overwhelmed with arousal. Her distance threshold for reactivity to other dogs is still quite long. She has excellent vision, and when she came to us, she would bark and lunge at any dog she could see. In class and real-life situations, she has now had many experiences of seeing another dog without “going ballistic.” Once or twice, in a controlled class environment, she has been able to remain alert but relaxed at a distance of 20 or 30 feet (as opposed to 1/8 mile).Despite these achievements, there are many occasions in which she is overwhelmed. When walking on the street, another dog may come upon us suddenly, for instance around a corner or rushing up to a fence. Then it is no longer possible to teach Tajji — we as her human partners must managethe situation. Our primary tool is to increase the distance between her and the other dog: “Getting Out Of Dodge” (GOOD)
GOOD usually takes the form of human dashing in the opposite direction (or for the nearest visual barrier), using a happy voice, “Let’s go!”
When we first used this technique, Tajji had difficulty disengaging. She would continue to bark and lunge. The front-clip harness allowed us to turn her away from the provoking object, as well as preventing her from rushing toward it. Even then, she would continue to bark, glancing over her shoulder, until the other dog was no longer in sight.
With repetition, she learned that running away (GOOD) meant safety. She came away more easily, stopped barking sooner, and reduced the behavior of glancing back. At the same time, we had more instances in which she alerted but did not go into full-out bark and lunge. She “huffed,” an abbreviated bark, while still responsive to her handler. When she “went ballistic,” she was incapable of obeying commands she normally had no difficulty with, and she would ignore even her favorite treats. But in this “huffing” zone, she was able to do both. This meant that she was gaining a measure of control over her arousal.
Walking in the neighborhood, with all the attendant risk of encountering another dog, has many valuable aspects. Tajji gets to sniff — an amazing banquet of smells, I imagine, as the area is home to not only many dogs but to an array of wildlife. The stimulation is pleasurable and beneficial, and something she was not permitted to do while in guide harness. We often get to practice seeing another dog and immediately being rewarded (“see a dog, get a cookie” desensitization or “see a dog, get to a safe place” management). In the natural course of events, she’s had the chance to see and not react to a dog moving away from her at a distance, and occasionally perpendicular to her, also at a distance. Slowly she is learning that not all dogs are scary under all circumstances.
Sometimes dogs walk past our property. Tajji cannot see them, as the yard is enclosed by a 6 foot solid fence, but she knows they are there. From time to time, this occurs while she is in the front yard by herself. On sunny days, she likes to lie out on the patio. When the dog comes by, she will bark. Undoubtedly, she learned this bad habit from the neighbor’s noisy, territorial dogs. We see this situation as a time when she needs our help, so we intervene as soon as possible. At first, this meant going into the yard and physically leading her into the house, where she quickly calmed down. It didn’t take long before she would come readily when called. Recently, I have noticed her give a half-hearted bark or two and then run to the back door, tail wagging.
What next? We have yet to try the experiment of leaving the back door slightly ajar to see if she will come in on her own. Another option for taking the next step is to go out in the yard with her and practice relaxation exercises with the goal of making the back yard feel as safe as the inside of the house. Coming into the house is a form of GOOD management, but associating dog-in-street with happy-yard-play represents learning something new. With a dog this old, we will use a mixture of techniques. Either way, GOOD is our secret weapon!
March 31, 2015
A Few Thoughts on Awards
Some awards are genuine recognitions of excellence, but I think it's a waste of time and creative energy to get all bothered about those that are essentially The War of the Cliques. If I want adoration, I have a lovely dog right here who is delighted to smother me with it.
Ego strokes can be a lovely thing when you're feeling that no one reads your stories and you wonder why you are wasting your time trying. The things that matter most to me are letters from readers whose lives have been touched by my work. That feedback is better than a ton of politically-manipulated awards.
Ego strokes can be a lovely thing when you're feeling that no one reads your stories and you wonder why you are wasting your time trying. The things that matter most to me are letters from readers whose lives have been touched by my work. That feedback is better than a ton of politically-manipulated awards.
