Life

The Mind of a Police Dog

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

Sasha never ceases to amaze me. She’s an incredibly smart dog and certainly picks up on many things we feeble humans miss.

One thing about her that gets me is her sniffer. She’s got quite a nose, which is apparently fairly standard for the Kuvasz breed. They’ve been used for tracking… and yeah, I’ve wondered how well we could develop this. Of course, I tend to think about that when it comes to game tracking… easier to find that hog or deer that got shot and ran off into the thick brush at sundown. 🙂

But one thing a Kuvasz is not acceptable for is police work, because they’re just of a different temperament and not really suited for what that work requires.

So when I came across this article about The Mind of a Police Dog, it was fascinating… and shattered some widely held notions about police dogs and their ability to sniff things out.

Several studies and tests have shown that drug-sniffing dogs, scent hounds, and even explosive-detecting dogs are not nearly as accurate as they have been portrayed in court. A recent Chicago Tribunesurvey of traffic stops by suburban police departments from 2007 to 2009, for example, found that searches turned up contraband in just 44 percent of the cases where police dogs alerted to the presence of narcotics.

[…]

[Researchers] asked 18 professional dog handlers and their mutts to complete two sets of four brief searches. …. What the handlers were not told was that two of the targets contained decoy scents, in the form of unwrapped, hidden sausages, to encourage the dogs’ interest in a false location. Moreover, none of the search areas contained the scents of either drugs or explosives. Any “detections” made by the teams thus had to be false. ….

The results? Dog/handler teams correctly completed a search with no alerts in just 21 of the 144 walk-throughs. The other 123 searches produced an astounding 225 alerts, every one of them false. Even more interesting, the search points designed to trick the handlers (marked by the red slips of paper) were about twice as likely to trigger false alerts as the search points designed to trick the dogs (by luring them with sausages).

[…]

The dogs who failed Lit’s scent tests did not lose their sense of smell. But in the process of domesticating dogs, we have bred into them a trait that tends to trump most others: a desire to please us—and toward that end, an ability to read us and a tendency to rely on us to help them solve their problems. Any training program that does not take this tendency into account will produce dogs who frequently issue false alerts.

Interesting, but not necessarily surprising once you think about it.

So much of the training work we do with Sasha is ultimately based upon that want to please us. As well, there’s so much involved in reading us. The relaxation techniques we use with her? It’s all her cuing off us. We are alpha, we are leader, we are the ones in control, and so… it’s all cues from us.

It just has a lot of grander implications, say for criminal matters. Read the full article; it’s food for thought.

However they learn, so long as they learn

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

My Sons’ room is a mess.

My Daughter is very good at organizing and cleaning.

She made an offer to her brothers, to clean their room for $50. She dropped it to $40 when Youngest said he didn’t have enough money.

Agreement was made, and she’s cleaning their room. Isn’t taking her long, and she’s getting $40 for it. Pretty decent rate of pay.

Wife is a little unsure about this arrangement, but I’m fine with it. Why? Because they are learning a lot.

Daughter is saving money to buy new cymbals for her drums. The cheapest cymbal pack, plus stands and so on? It’s going to run her at least $400, so she’s got a way to go…. but she just made 10% of it. 🙂   She’s setting goals, she’s working towards them. She’s seeing things she wants in life, and tho the kids know I’m willing to loan them money (with interest, of course… everything is a lesson), she refuses to do that because she’s learned that debt is generally to be avoided, especially for non-essentials in life. She’s being resourceful, looking for ways to earn more money, sooner. She’s not afraid of work. I also gave her more lessons in negotiation, which she didn’t have to use with her brothers, but she was enabled with just in case.

The Boys are learning the value of money and time. The landscaping I want in my yard? Sure I could do it and save a lot of money, but it’ll cost me a lot of time, and what else could I be doing with that time? And so, that’s what the boys are seeing… plus it means they don’t have to do something they find unpleasant. But, they’ll learn the bigger lesson when they realize they farted away their time, and also gave up a nice chunk of their money that they now don’t have for other things. But, it’s their money and their time, and they have to learn how to spend them wisely. Perhaps the $20 (each) was a worthwhile tradeoff, because I’ve seen how they clean their room… this way is certainly faster with a lot less complaining and more peace in the household. 😉

Whether good lessons or bad lessons, they are lessons and there are things to be learned.

HABITURF

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Saw a story on Austin YNN about Habiturf.

From research here at the Wildflower Center that is funded by Walmart, we have found that a mix of Bouteloua dactyloides (buffalograss), Bouteloua gracilis (blue grama) and Hilaria belangeri (curly-mesquite) and other species needs less mowing, watering and weeding and also replicates nature’s shortgrass prairies. Although the species are different, these grasses have almost identically shaped leaves and color and produce a great-looking, even-textured, dense lawn that does well in full sun but also tolerates 50 percent shade. The mixes are available from native seed suppliers such as Douglass King Company and Native American Seed. For every 1,000 square feet you will need about 3 to 4 pounds of HABITURF™

More info.

That’s pretty cool. I’ve seen buffalograss planted for landscaping at some shopping areas, and it doesn’t look bad, but it also isn’t as awesome as St. Augustine. But, St. Augustine just can’t handle it out here: you have to fertilize it a lot, ensuring a lot of sulfur (to counteract all the limestone), and you have to water the stuff to no end. Now with our drought, St. Augustine lawns are just going to die out. I love how well it stands up to foot traffic, I love how it looks and feels, but folks, it just doesn’t work here.

Really, what works best and grows best anywhere is that which is native to the area. And obviously the seeds that make up HABITURF are about as native as you can get for this area.

The only bummer I can see is these grasses don’t stand up that well to traffic. They can handle a little, but not a lot. That’s a bummer because I’d love to try this in the backyard, but that’s going to have a lot of dog running traffic. This year we were finally able to get all the St. Augustine in the backyard to die out and it’s now mostly all bermudagrass. I’m still not in love with bermuda, but all things considered it’s the best that can be done.

Nevertheless, we’ll continue our efforts to xeriscape. Now that the heat has broken, our landscaper, Fertile Ground Organic Gardens (who BTW just 3-peated in the Austin Chronicle’s Reader’s Poll for Best Landscape Services) was just back out here to get some measurements. Once all is done, I’ll finally post some pictures of the work.

How to be lucky

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

maczter tweeted about this. An interesting article about “how to be lucky”.

In the wake of these studies, I think there are three easy techniques that can help to maximise good fortune:

  • Unlucky people often fail to follow their intuition when making a choice, whereas lucky people tend to respect hunches. Lucky people are interested in how they both think and feel about the various options, rather than simply looking at the rational side of the situation. I think this helps them because gut feelings act as an alarm bell – a reason to consider a decision carefully.
  • Unlucky people tend to be creatures of routine. They tend to take the same route to and from work and talk to the same types of people at parties. In contrast, many lucky people try to introduce variety into their lives. For example, one person described how he thought of a colour before arriving at a party and then introduced himself to people wearing that colour. This kind of behaviour boosts the likelihood of chance opportunities by introducing variety.
  • Lucky people tend to see the positive side of their ill fortune. They imagine how things could have been worse. In one interview, a lucky volunteer arrived with his leg in a plaster cast and described how he had fallen down a flight of stairs. I asked him whether he still felt lucky and he cheerfully explained that he felt luckier than before. As he pointed out, he could have broken his neck.

Goodbye, Zoe

/ hsoi / 8 Comments

Zoe came into our lives one Labor Day weekend.

We had 2 older cats that we knew weren’t long for the world, so we wanted to get a couple of kittens to bring into the house before the older cats were too old to accept others, ultimately to ease the transition for the children.

So down to the Town Lake Animal Shelter we went. We fell in love with 2 cats, Estella and Zoe. We couldn’t take them home due to them needing to be spayed beforehand, and since it was Labor Day weekend there wouldn’t be any medical work until Tuesday. But they were ours, and the shelter folks put the two of them together in one larger cage area. The two bonded instantly… the kids refer to them as “sisters”, and while they really aren’t, they sure act that way. Quite well bonded to each other.

We’re not 100% sure of Zoe’s age, but we figure she was probably 6 months or so when we adopted her.

That was 7 years ago.

We didn’t think we’d be saying good-bye so soon.

About a week ago we noticed she wasn’t looking right. Zoe was always a secluded and aloof cat, so it’s not easy to notice if something is wrong… especially when it happens so slowly, so gradually. We don’t know how it happened, but in short, liver failure. Once we noticed we took her to the vet. We’ve had her on various medications, I’ve been force feeding her multiple times a day, all sorts of things. But alas, her body had enough and was spent… it just couldn’t go any more. This evening we took her to the emergency vet clinic, they examined, we discussed, and had Zoe put to sleep. 😦

We all took it hard, especially Daughter. Zoe was her cat; they had a bond that no one else had. She worked hard at helping me with Zoe this past week, spent as much time as she could just being with Zoe, sitting with her in the sunlight, or whatever she could do. Daughter was brave until the end, seeing Zoe all the way to the Rainbow Bridge.

Zoe was cool because she wasn’t a typical cat. She did her own thing, she didn’t need you, but yet she did. Her meow wasn’t a typical cat meow either; there’s no way I can describe it, but they were soft and quiet yet expressive. I remember how she jumped up onto things… the way she cleared things made her look like she just effortlessly glided up there; it was so cool to watch. Of course, there was the time she decided to jump onto the railing around the landing at the top of the stairs… then decided to take the flying leap of the railing, down to the tile floor some 15′ down! (she was fine, and of course never did it again).  I’ll remember her most tho for being one of the most obsessive cats I’ve ever known… constantly needing to lick and clean things, especially Estella. She was also rather obsessive about being on things, especially cardboard and boxes (see the picture. There’s a box! I must sit on it!!!). You couldn’t leave a piece of paper on the floor without her deciding she had to be on top of it. I know all cats do that sort of thing, but she took it to a whole new level. 🙂

Yo-yo… we’re going to miss you. Thank you for being a part of our lives.

The Pinewood Derby

/ hsoi

In the world of Cub Scouting, is there anything bigger than Pinewood Derby? I think not!

Browsing around The Art of Manliness website (cool site, BTW), I saw their post on “How To Build a Pinewood Derby Car“. It brought up memories, both old and recent.

As a Kid

When I was a Cub Scout, Pinewood Derby was THE event of the year. I remember working with my Dad, building the car, but the performance was horrible. So the next year we tried again. Now we did note that we never got the built-weight up to the 5.0 ounce limit, so they were always taping pennies onto our car… which blew the way it looked and it still didn’t perform all that well.

Little did I know how much Dad was paying attention.

My third year at it my Dad got serious. We made a different design, putting more weight into the car and towards the back. The wood block was cut in a wedge design with very little wood up front (in front of the “drivers slot”). Then I recall we dug around in the junk buckets in at the workbench to find weight that would work, such as a large nut. We drilled out holes in the bottom of the car and puttied the weights in there. One thing I was particularly proud of at the time was while Dad was at work I was digging for more weights and found this dome-shaped hunk of metal. I took the hacksaw to the post it was on, stuck it into the “drivers slot” and then painted it. It looked just like a driver with his helmet and goggles all hunkered down behind the wheel. I thought that was so cool (I wish I still had the car and could show a picture here). I just remember thinking how cool and clever I was, because it was functional but also artistic. 🙂

We worked hard to make that great racer and I remember coming in third place. I also remember that I actually came in first place, but the Dad’s manning the finish line didn’t get things right and the one Dad that recovered my car didn’t speak up so I just got shoved into 3rd place. Oh well, it didn’t bother me much because in the end I was just happy to have made a car that worked well — and did it with my Dad.

As an Adult

So then my sons do Cub Scouts. Pinewood Derby in our Pack was different. They opted to do away with “first, second, third” place finishing and so on. Why? Because it had gotten out of hand. Apparently the year before I joined the Pack, they had some incident where some Dad was outside yelling at the Pack leaders, threatening to sue, and just generally going stupid about the whole thing. As volunteers, the leadership didn’t need nor want the grief, so they just did away with it — it was no longer a competition, it was an “exhibition” race. Part of me did not like that because it just reeked of the wussification of America, because well… learning how to deal with loss and learning how to be a gracious and humble winner is very much a part of life and character building to become a well-adjusted adult. But by the same token, I could totally understand not wanting all the hell and hassle. And as one leader pointed out to me, it didn’t really matter. In the end, the kids all know who has the fastest car, who has the coolest car, they’ll still cry if their car doesn’t do well, you’ll still have one kid that needs to learn what “gracious winner” is, and so on. So in the end, the dynamics really remain.

Plus, it got rid of the micromanagement of rules, and I think it also encouraged more “let the boy do the work”. Since Dad didn’t have to go nuts trying to over-engineer the car, we didn’t sweat things too much. Sure we encouraged everyone to follow the rules, to mind some level of guidelines so things didn’t get stupid, but hey, if someone wanted to go full-stupid they could, but to what gain or end? I think in the end it generally worked out better for the boys.

Because….

In reading that Art of Manliness article, the article itself was pretty straightforward and had reasonable tips. Back before the Internet, you had to learn these things and pass these coveted secrets down. But now, just a Google search away. Then as I read some of the comments, it just bothered me the level to which some of these Dads went with things. But then, that’s them, that’s not me, and in the end that’s OK.

I couldn’t comment on the article since it’s old and comments were closed, but after reading through it all I could only think of one thing:

What do you want to teach your son?

If you want to teach him about engineering, friction, physics, and so on? Sure, over-engineer the daylights out of it! In fact, if you’re in to Scouts for the long haul, plan the lesson over the course of his entire Cub Scout career, letting the first year perhaps be a loser year, then doing it better each year so he can see first-hand how it all works and goes. That’s a lot of long-term planning, but could be a bigger and better life lesson.

Do you want to teach them about winning and losing? About competition? About sportsmanship? About wood working?

In the end, you have to remember: this is for him, not you (and yes, suggestions of having a “Dad’s Race” or “Open Class” are good ways for leaders, siblings, and over-achieving Dads to have THEIR fun). Figure out what you want him to get out of it, then pursue that goal. Scouting is about building character, developing leaders. Work to help your son towards that end.

Thanx, Dad. 🙂

Goodbye, Steve

/ hsoi

Steve Jobs passed away today.

If not for him, Apple wouldn’t be what it is… either then with things like the //e, later the Mac, Mac OS X, and of course the massive revolution that is the iPod and iPhone.

I know my life and career wouldn’t be the same, given how much Apple’s been a part of my life.

We’ll miss you Steve, but thank you for caring about “the rest of us”. We’ll keep on thinking differently.

Austin Police Department Burglary Unit – on Facebook

/ hsoi

The Austin Police Department’s Burglary Unit has set up a Facebook page. Why? To enlist the public’s help in locating victims of theft or burglary.

Starting Tuesday October 4th, 2011 the APD Burglary Unit will begin posting updates with recovered stolen property, surveillance videos, success stories of victims reunited with property, top property offenders, and crime alerts.

I think that’s pretty cool. If you’re on Facebook and in the Austin area, go Like the page.

I have a “Defense Dog”

/ hsoi / 7 Comments

We have a “defense dog”.

Or at least, I think that can be a good term to describe her.

She’s not an “attack dog”, both by breed nature and by well… this morning’s example.

Every few years, Austin Energy comes around to trim trees away from the power lines. This morning was our day, and they’d need to get into the backyard to have access to some trees. I knew the guys were out front, but they were still finishing breakfast (as far as I knew). Sasha had been wanting to go out and I figured one last pee break would be a good thing. I went into the backyard to check, saw no one, went back to the door to let Sasha out… she zoomed out the door, and by the time I turned around she was barking and going nuts.

It seems, by sheer coincidence of timing, that the moment I let her out was the same moment the tree workers decided to open the fence gate and come into the backyard! ¡Ay dios mio!

Sasha barked big and hard, but she didn’t rush the workmen. She barked, made aggressive “go away!” posturing, but was constantly fading back as if to assess the situation and buy herself time while things unfolded and she could determine where things were going (Kuvasz are smart dogs, they think). I know the workmen had the daylights scared out of them so there was certainly no posturing on their part, certainly retreat and signs of not just submission but “OH SHIT!” 🙂  Within seconds I was between them, ordered the workmen to leave the backyard, and was able to snap the leash onto Sasha with little trouble and get her back inside.

Once inside, I went to explain things to the workmen, and of course they had questions, like if she’d bite. And this is where I came up with “defense dog”.

You see, if we have the time to explain things to people, we can explain that she’s a Kuvasz, that the breed is a livestock guardian dog, that their demeanor is not to attack but rather to control the intruder, keep them away from the flock, pose and posture looking as big and scary as possible, all in an effort to scare the intruder away. They don’t want to attack, they don’t want to chase (because then they’d leave the flock, undefended, unprotected), but if attack is the only remaining option then so be it because protecting the flock is their job, what they are programmed to do.

But you see, that’s a mouthful. We’ve been searching for ways to describe and explain Sasha to others in a manner that’s brief, concise, yet accurate. That would explain what she’s like, and why we got her (in particular). To say “defense dog” I think can work, because that’s what she is. She is NOT an attack dog, she was not gotten to hurt anyone, to be aggressive to anyone. Kuvasz are there to defend the flock, and that’s why we got her… kinda rolls with the whole personal defense Lt. Col Grossman “sheepdog” paradigm.

So we’ll see how the term goes. My hope is that it’s enough to explain it, but that people will be likely unfamiliar with the term (and I expect they’ll be familiar with the “attack dog” term and will probably make a quick mental connection there that should make them go “huh?”) and then perhaps they’ll ask for more detail. Hopefully it’ll work. 🙂

Drove through Bastrop today

/ hsoi

I drove through Bastrop today, on my way to teach @ KR Training.

It’s the first time I’ve been to the area since the massive wildfires.

It was… shocking. The devastation was vast. What was once thick, dense, lush, evergreen… it’s now just lots of charred black sticks and scorched earth.

It’d be odd too. You’d see one building burned to the ground, all the trees and ground burned, then another building seemingly totally unharmed. Just the way things happened, the way the wind blew, whatever. Can’t explain it, but that’s how it was.

At the south end of TX-21 just past the entrance to Bastrop State Park, I saw stacks of fenceposts on the side of the road? Huh? But then I kept driving… and saw all the guardrails lying on the ground… their posts were wood, burned by the fire. Work crews everywhere, clearing burned trees, trying to repair the guardrails.

I got to speak to someone who lost their home. She told me how her whole neighborhood is gone. Think about that. Consider your neighborhood… now think about all of it being gone. Just… like… that.

 

It’s going to take years, decades perhaps, for Bastrop to “return to normal”. Will it even? Who knows what it will become. But the funny thing about fire… if you set aside the devastation, you have to remember that fire does bring rebirth… it’s the Earth’s way of clearing and starting anew. You could see people coming together, people helping, people doing whatever it takes to start over. The land will be reborn, the people will too.