sideblog for reptile stuff

In January this year, I attended Dr. Amy Cook’s PLAY WAY seminar at Pasadena Humane Society.

The seminar was about “social play” as a tool for rehabilitating reactive/stressed/fearful dogs. “Social Play” has been defined as something different from playing with toys (tug, fetch, etc) It is literally “goofing around” with your dog in a way that they like that makes them happy. Body language responsiveness, movement and timing is everything.

Not only did we get to see some inspiring and entertaining video footage of Amy Cook playing with her dogs, some attendees had also brought their own dogs to play with, while Amy offered coaching.  

It was an amazing and delightful experience and I couldn’t wait to get home to play with my 15 year old Boogie who hasn’t been interested in Tug or Fetch in over a year due to his vision loss.

The Play Way class was like learning a new language, a new vocabulary. You had to be there.

As far as I know, there is no other information out there on how to play with your dog without using toys, and until this seminar, I had no idea that dogs LAUGH. (I don’t think Boogie has ever laughed)

This infographic cannot possibly do justice to all the material covered in the Play Way seminar, which also focused on play as “therapy”. For now, I hope this is enough to pique everyone’s interest in the subject. This is another way to be mindful and respectful of our dog’s body language and of our own body language. I still have a lot to learn!

- Lili

LINKS:

Download Poster here in high-res (shareable without modifications, and with attribution)

Amy Cook’s online Play Way class 

Extinct tree grows anew from ancient jar of seeds unearthed by archaeologists

by Stephen Messenger

“For thousands of years, Judean date palm trees were one of the most recognizable and welcome sights for people living in the Middle East — widely cultivated throughout the region for their sweet fruit, and for the cool shade they offered from the blazing desert sun.

From its founding some 3,000 years ago, to the dawn of the Common Era, the trees became a staple crop in the Kingdom of Judea, even garnering several shout-outs in the Old Testament. Judean palm trees would come to serve as one of the kingdom’s chief symbols of good fortune; King David named his daughter, Tamar, after the plant’s name in Hebrew.

By the time the Roman Empire sought to usurp control of the kingdom in 70 AD, broad forests of these trees flourished as a staple crop to the Judean economy — a fact that made them a prime resource for the invading army to destroy. Sadly, around the year 500 AD, the once plentiful palm had been completely wiped out, driven to extinction for the sake of conquest.

In the centuries that followed, first-hand knowledge of the tree slipped from memory to legend. Up until recently, that is.

During excavations at the site of Herod the Great’s palace in Israel in the early 1960’s, archeologists unearthed a small stockpile of seeds stowed in a clay jar dating back 2,000 years. For the next four decades, the ancient seeds were kept in a drawer at Tel Aviv’s Bar-Ilan University. But then, in 2005, botanical researcher Elaine Solowey decided to plant one and see what, if anything, would sprout.

“I assumed the food in the seed would be no good after all that time. How could it be?“ said Solowey. She was soon proven wrong.

Amazingly, the multi-millennial seed did indeed sprout — producing a sapling no one had seen in centuries, becoming the oldest known tree seed to germinate.

Today, the living archeological treasure continues to grow and thrive; In 2011, it even produced its first flower — a heartening sign that the ancient survivor was eager to reproduce. It has been proposed that the tree be cross-bred with closely related palm types, but it would likely take years for it to begin producing any of its famed fruits. Meanwhile, Solowey is working to revive other age-old trees from their long dormancy.”

***Does anyone in the know have any comments?

Those of you without your glasses on may be asking: "why are there fruit gummies on this leaf?"

This speech-language pathologist taught her dog 29 words, and he can even form full sentences.

They do understand our words. This is not true of all domesticated animals (horses, for example, can only manage to distinguish a relatively small number of spoken commands…but boy do they know what you’re really saying).

They don’t understand “just your tone of voice” as a lot of people think.

As of 2016 the record vocabulary for a dog demonstrating understanding of words is over 1,000.

So if you give them a way to talk back, they’re going to use it.

The development of language skills is probably a side effect of domestication and of being kept in close contact with humans. A dog that was a better hunting partner would be kept and bred and over time they developed a better understanding of language.

In other words, dogs are pretty dang smart because we need them to understand us.

Check out the owner Christina’s Instagram: one of the first things I saw was a video where the dog started barking and, when prompted by the owner, said “outside, look look look look look look look, come outside.” Which is basically exactly how one would expect a dog to speak. 

The owner described bringing an unknown package into the house, and the dog ran away to push the buttons for “help no no help help” which is also about what I expect goes on in a scared pup’s mind.

In another video, the dog tried to push a button, and the button wasn’t working. The dog paused and then pushed the buttons for “No. Help.” 

In yet another (which the owner seemed impressed by), Stella said “come eat come play.” The owner asked the dog which she wanted to do, to eat or to play? And the dog clarified “come eat.” After eating, then the dog tried to instigate play. So the dog may have been able to understand a short spoken question, and how “questions and answers” work, and also understands sequences, even if she can’t express them (”I want to eat, THEN I want to play”)

Stella can even recount short-term memories, like when her family returned from the beach for dinner and she said “water good, no eat, play”

By the way, the owner uses the buttons as well, which probably really helps reinforce their meaning. She uses them to say things like “Stella all done eat” or “Stella and Christina go outside, bye!”

A post about how I got my leopard gecko to trust me.

adammartinphotography

In honor of World Turtle Day, I’ve decided to make a fun little post on the taxonomy of turtles, to show just how diverse these animals are!

All turtles, tortoises, and terrapins belong to the order Testudines. This order has representatives on every continent except for Antarctica, and all over the oceans of the world.

From there, the turtle lineage branches off into two paths, the suborder Pleurodira, otherwise known as the side neck turtles, withdraw their heads by tucking them in horizontally along their shells

This suborder further divides into three extant families. 

Pelomedusidae is the family of the African side-necked turtles

Chelidae is home to the one and only mata mata

The other branch, the suborder Cryptodira or hidden neck turtles, withdraw their heads straight into their shells.

Carettochelyidae belongs to the pig-nosed turtles

Trionychidae holds the softshell turtles

Emydidae holds the pond turtles…

Box turtles…

and water turtles

Geomydidae includes many species including Asian leaf turtles…

Asian box turtles…

and roofed turtles

Testudinidae includes many turtles referred to as tortoises

Chelydridae is home to the two species of snapping turtles

Dermatemydidae is solely the domain of the Central American river turtle or “hickatee”

Kinosternidae has both musk turtles…

and mud turtles

Cheloniidae contains most species of sea turtles

and finally Dermochelyidnae has the leatherback sea turtle

Check out this amazing caiman lizard paludarium! 

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