Out of the Eyrie, into the Wild

Had enough of politics yet?

2009-03-07T07:36:00.000-08:00

If you're still all jazzed up to make your opinions known, I urge you to contact the USDA to oppose a new draft rule that goes a significant way toward implementing the National Animal Identification System. The NAIS is a proposed system that effectively tags and catalogs all members of most livestock species in the US, tracks their movements and records specific information about them.

The USDA's main argument in support of the NAIS is that it will improve animal health and food safety... the problem is that it does absolutely nothing to promote animal health. The NAIS is simply a system that provides for the warehousing of billions of pieces of largely irrelevant information. The databases to register properties, identify each animal, and record billions of "events" will dwarf any system currently in existence.

The costs for implementing the program, enforcing compliance, monitoring, and storing the recorded information are astronomical. The USDA has already spent $130 million toward the NAIS without yet developing any workable system. Such a waste of money in these troubled economic times is simply unconscionable. This is an enormous diversion of resources from the far more critical needs under USDA oversight, such as disease testing, disease prevention through vaccination and improved animal husbandry practices, and disease detection--basic biosecurity measures which, properly implemented and sufficiently funded, will do far more to improve herd health and food safety than a national animal tracking system. The NAIS will not prevent food-borne illnesses such as e. coli or salmonella contamination, because the tracking ends at the time of slaughter. If we truly want to protect people from animal-borne diseases the answer is simple: stop feeding animal parts to sheep and cattle, and test slaughtered animals before they enter the food supply. Salmonella and e. coli are best addressed by improved husbandry practices and the improved oversight of slaughterhouses and processing facilities. The truth is, this isn't really about food safety.

Programs such as NAIS that burden small, sustainable farmers will hurt efforts to develop safer, decentralized local food systems. In fact, the NAIS goes a significant way toward reducing the humane and ethical handling of food animals and the cleanliness of small-scale, locally-produced foods. It discourages individual involvement in farming or animal husbandry: because of extremely high costs of participation to the individual farmer, and government intrusion, many people will choose not to participate in food production and animal husbandry, or will refuse compliance. This will result in less competition, greater reliance on centralized, industrialized food sources, worse food quality, less consistent disease reporting and treatment, and fewer choices regarding the source and humane handling of your food animals.

National registration and health surveillance will benefit large-scale, commercial operations by making their products more valuable on a global market... but for the small-scale and family farmer there is absolutely no rational basis for the government to monitor the movements of personally-owned livestock animals. Under the NAIS plan, even the individual owner of a pet riding horse or a few backyard chickens would need to register with the government as a livestock producer, purchase tracking tags, report basic health care information, and report the movements of animals that have absolutely no interaction with the commercial food supply. The whole concept of a national tagging and tracking system for all livestock animals is so mind-bogglingly wasteful and useless, it leads one to wonder who actually does benefit from this system, since it's not the animals and it's not the small-scale farmers. The truth lies in the direction of big agribusiness, the sale of RFID chips, readers and implant equipment for every livestock animal in the country... not to mention the operation of the absolutely monumental databases, privately operated and maintained. The truth lies in in 2002, when the National Institute for Animal Agriculture (membership comprised of entities such as Cargill Pork, Tyson, Micro Beef Technologies, and Global Vet Link) proposed that the USDA develop a "national animal identification system"... companies that would reap the benefits of an enhanced export market and reduced competition without having to bear any of the costs.

In much the same way that the USDA regulates and oversees large-scale, commercial dog breeding operations but does not interfere with the good work of the small-scale hobby breeder's activities, a NAIS could be implemented toward the greater oversight of feedlots and factory farms without impacting local, small-scale, homestead, and family-farm operations. Please urge the USDA to end their support of a system that only benefits big agribusiness and will do great harm to local and humane food production. Follow the link below to visit the USDA's public comments forum and make your opinion known. Click the talk-bubble next to "add comments" to do just that.

http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocumentDetail&o=090000648081c664

The Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance has some good stuff to say on the subject... much clearer and more succinct than my thoughts, I'm sure. Be sure to check the "Focus on Horses" link on the right side for more information on the NAIS impact for horse owners.

Another very tidy summary can be found at the website of the LibertyArk Coalition. The thing that freaks me out the most about this is how far we've gone toward full implementation without any kind of public discussion on the matter. It's an issue that's totally off the radar, unless you happen to be a livestock owner. I am not, currently, but hope to be someday soon. More importantly, I care very much about where my food comes from. I feel very strongly about local food production, sustainability, biodiversity, and the ability of people to feed themselves from the ground up. I want us to continue to have food options that don't involve factories, that don't involve the horrific conditions of large feedlots and commercial slaughterhouses. I want to be able to grow my own chickens and keep a pig around without it being anyone's business but my own. I want to take trail rides and go camping without notifying the government of my movements. This system is frightening in its scope and impact. I can't urge you strongly enough to look into the issue, and to make your opinions known.

More on HB2852

2009-03-07T06:55:00.000-08:00

HB2852, which would require “pit bull” owners to purchase $1M worth of liability insurance, has been referred to the Consumer Protection committee. These are the people to contact to request modification of HB 2852 to remove the breed-specific language. The fact that it has officially gone into committee doesn't mean it's set to pass--the bill could very well die in committee, but if they move on it the next step will be public hearing, where we could call for public opposition in Salem.

Below is contact information for members of the Consumer Protection committee. Please feel free to write and call. Remember to be reasonable, calm, and factual.
A hearing for the bill has not yet been scheduled.

Consumer Protection

Membership:

Paul Holvey, Chair
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1408
Capitol Address: 900 Court St NE H-275, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: rep.paulholvey@state.or.us
Website: http://www.leg.state.or.us/holvey

Chuck Riley, Vice-Chair
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1429
Capitol Address: 900 Court St NE, H-274, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: rep.chuckriley@state.or.us
Website: http://www.leg.state.or.us/riley

Jim Weidner, Vice-Chair
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1424
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, H-387, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: rep.jimweidner@state.or.us
Website: http://www.leg.state.or.us/weidner

Brent Barton
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1451
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, H-386, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: rep.brentbarton@state.or.us
Website: http://www.leg.state.or.us/barton

Jean Cowan
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1410
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, H-376, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: rep.jeancowan@state.or.us
Website: http://www.leg.state.or.us/cowan

Vic Gilliam
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1418
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, H-389, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: rep.vicgilliam@state.or.us
Website: http://www.leg.state.or.us/gilliam

Wayne Krieger
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1401
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., H-381, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: rep.waynekrieger@state.or.us
Website: http://www.leg.state.or.us/krieger

Greg Matthews
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1450
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, H-379, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: rep.gregmatthews@state.or.us
Website: http://www.leg.state.or.us/matthews

Carolyn Tomei
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1441
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., H-279, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: rep.carolyntomei@state.or.us
Website: http://www.leg.state.or.us/tomei

Matt Wingard
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1426
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, H-474, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: rep.mattwingard@state.or.us
Website: http://www.leg.state.or.us/wingard/

Staffing:
Victoria Cox
Cindy Hupp

Full list of email addresses for easy cut and paste: rep.paulholvey@state.or.us; rep.chuckriley@state.or.us; rep.jimweidner@state.or.us; rep.brentbarton@state.or.us; rep.jeancowan@state.or.us; rep.vicgilliam@state.or.us; rep.waynekrieger@state.or.us; rep.gregmatthews@state.or.us; rep.carolyntomei@state.or.us; rep.mattwingard@state.or.us

This Committee agenda may be watched here: http://www.leg.state.or.us/09reg/agenda/agendas.htm#HCP

This bill may be tracked here (click “House Bill” button and type 2852 into the box): http://www.leg.state.or.us/searchmeas.html

Previous alert and additional information can be found here: http://stopbsl.com/2009/03/03/oregon-hb-2852-requires-pit-bull-owners-to-have-liability-insurance-bsl/

Thanks to Green Dog Julie for the above links!

HALP!!!

2009-03-03T09:41:00.000-08:00

Well, it appears Senator Starr's proposed "pit bull" ban was only a diversionary tactic to try and distract the public while HB 2852 was slipped in under the radar. Proposed by Rep. Vicki Berger, HB 2852 requires owners of APBTs, AmStaffs, and Staffordshire Bull Terriers, or owners of any dog resembling any of these breeds to carry liability insurance to the tune of one million dollars.

The senate was evidently flooded with phone calls, letters, and emails regarding Starr's proposed ban. We need to make even MORE noise about this issue--let them know we ARE paying attention and that we mean what we say. The fact of the matter is breed specific legislation is ineffective, misguided, unfair, and totally unacceptable. If the issue were TRULY about public safety, we'd be talking about fair and effective dangerous dog legislation that places the responsibility squarely on the shoulders of irresponsible pet owners, REGARDLESS of breed or type.

Please, contact our representatives. Let them know that HB 2852 will do nothing to improve public safety. Responsible owners will handle their dogs responsibly, while irresponsible owners will continue to put the public at risk, no matter what breed or type of dog they own. Irresponsible owners will not purchase these insurance policies; victims of dog attacks will still have been attacked... mandating insurance policies will not stop these occurrences. Mandatory insurance and the social stigma around it will drive responsible owners away from adopting and caring for shelter dogs that even vaguely resemble pit bulls to avoid the embarrassment and hassle, leaving millions of dogs a year to die in shelters. It will lead to pet abandonment and unfairly target low-income and working-class dog owners and be nearly impossible to enforce. Add to that the near-impossibility of identifying a pit bull on sight (recent DNA testing of mixed breeds shows even the experts can't do it) and the fact that they temperament test as more stable than nearly all breeds and you can see that mandating insurance on the basis of
external appearance is sheer stupidity.

A far more appropriate piece of legislation would require dogs with bite histories or previous complaints about aggression to be insured. A far more effective piece of legislation would resemble Calgary, Alberta, Canada's Responsible Pet Ownership Bylaw (warning: PDF), a smart and effective piece of legislation that puts the onus of responsible ownership squarely with the dog owner, themselves.

...but of course we all know this isn't about public safety. Write now!

Say NO to HB2852!

rep.juleskopelbailey@state.or.us
rep.jeffbarker@state.or.us
rep.philbarnhart@state.or.us
rep.brentbarton@state.or.us
rep.vickiberger@state.or.us
rep.terrybeyer@state.or.us
rep.deborahboone@state.or.us
rep.scottbruun@state.or.us
rep.peterbuckley@state.or.us
rep.kevincameron@state.or.us
rep.bencannon@state.or.us
rep.brianclem@state.or.us
rep.jeancowan@state.or.us
rep.michaeldembrow@state.or.us
rep.chrisedwards@state.or.us
rep.davidedwards@state.or.us
rep.timfreeman@state.or.us
rep.larrygalizio@state.or.us
rep.billgarrard@state.or.us
rep.chrisgarrett@state.or.us
rep.saragelser@state.or.us
rep.vicgilliam@state.or.us
rep.georgegilman@state.or.us
rep.mitchgreenlick@state.or.us
rep.brucehanna@state.or.us
rep.chrisharker@state.or.us
rep.paulholvey@state.or.us
rep.johnhuffman@state.or.us
rep.davehunt@state.or.us
rep.bobjenson@state.or.us
rep.nickkahl@state.or.us
rep.billkennemer@state.or.us
rep.bettykomp@state.or.us
rep.tinakotek@state.or.us
rep.waynekrieger@state.or.us
rep.gregmatthews@state.or.us
rep.ronmaurer@state.or.us
rep.nancynathanson@state.or.us
rep.marynolan@state.or.us
rep.andyolson@state.or.us
rep.tobiasread@state.or.us
rep.dennisrichardson@state.or.us
rep.chuckriley@state.or.us
rep.arnieroblan@state.or.us
rep.mikeschaufler@state.or.us
rep.chipshields@state.or.us
rep.gregsmith@state.or.us
rep.jeffersonsmith@state.or.us
rep.sherriesprenger@state.or.us
rep.judystiegler@state.or.us
rep.kimthatcher@state.or.us
rep.jimthompson@state.or.us
rep.carolyntomei@state.or.us
rep.suzannevanorman@state.or.us
rep.jimweidner@state.or.us
rep.genewhisnant@state.or.us
rep.mattwingard@state.or.us
rep.bradwitt@state.or.us

Senator Starr proposes "pit bull" ban in Oregon

2009-02-28T09:24:00.001-08:00

From Green Dog Julie's BSL watchdog list, please act:
-----------------------

Hi all,
Senator Starr out of Hillsboro has proposed a statewide ban on "pit bulls", which KATU reports will be heard within the next couple of weeks. While we are waiting on more details on the hearing in order to organize a protest, please send your polite, calm and informative emails to our senators. Remember to note the ineffectiveness of BSL, the cost, and the extreme difficulty in enforcement.

For help on writing to legislators, www.stopbsl.com is a great resource.

Here is the contact information:

Senator Jason Atkinson
Party: R District: 2
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1702
Interim Phone: 541-955-0911
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., S-415, Salem, OR, 97301
Interim Address: PO Box 1704, Grants Pass, OR, 97528
Email: sen.jasonatkinson@state.or.us

Senator Alan C Bates
Party: D District: 3
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1703
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., S-205, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: sen.alanbates@state.or.us

Senator Suzanne Bonamici
Party: D District: 17
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1717
District Phone: 503-627-0246
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, S-403, Salem, OR, 97301
District Office Address: PO Box 990, Beaverton, OR, 97075
Email: sen.suzannebonamici@state.or.us

Senator Brian Boquist
Party: R District: 12
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1712
Capitol Address: 900 Court St NE, S-305, Salem,, OR, 97301
Email: sen.brianboquist@state.or.us

Senator Ginny Burdick
Party: D District: 18
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1718
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., S-213, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: sen.ginnyburdick@state.or.us

Senator Margaret Carter
Party: D District: 22
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1722
Interim Phone: 503-282-6846
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., S-209, Salem, OR, 97301
Interim Address: PO Box 3722, Portland, OR, 97208
Email: sen.margaretcarter@state.or.us

Senator Peter Courtney
Party: D District: 11
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1600
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., S-201, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: sen.petercourtney@state.or.us

Senator Richard Devlin
Party: D District: 19
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1700
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., S-223, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: sen.richarddevlin@state.or.us

Senator Jackie Dingfelder
Party: D District: 23
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1723
Interim Phone: 503-493-2804
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., S-407, Salem, OR, 97301
Interim Address: PO Box 13432, Portland, OR, 97213
Email: sen.jackiedingfelder@state.or.us

Senator Ted Ferrioli
Party: R District: 30
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1950
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., S-323, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: sen.tedferrioli@state.or.us

Senator Larry George
Party: R District: 13
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1713
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, S-307, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: sen.larrygeorge@state.or.us

Senator Fred Girod
Party: R District: 9
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1709
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, S-421, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: sen.fredgirod@state.or.us

Senator Mark Hass
Party: D District: 14
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1714
District Phone: 503-641-2742
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., S-419, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: sen.markhass@state.or.us

Senator Betsy Johnson
Party: D District: 16
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1716
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., S-215, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: sen.betsyjohnson@state.or.us

Senator Jeff Kruse
Party: R District: 1
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1701
Interim Phone: 541-673-7201
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., S-316, Salem, OR, 97301
Interim Address: 636 Wild Iris Lane, Roseburg, OR, 97470
Email: sen.jeffkruse@state.or.us

Senator Rick Metsger
Party: D District: 26
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1726
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., S-315, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: sen.rickmetsger@state.or.us

Senator Laurie Monnes Anderson
Party: D District: 25
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1725
Interim Phone: 503-618-3071
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., S-413, Salem, OR, 97301
Interim Address: PO Box 1531 , Gresham, OR, 97030
Email: sen.lauriemonnesanderson@state.or.us

Senator Rod Monroe
Party: D District: 24
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1724
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, S-409, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: sen.rodmonroe@state.or.us

Senator Bill Morrisette
Party: D District: 6
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1706
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., S-207, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: sen.billmorrisette@state.or.us

Senator Frank Morse
Party: R District: 8
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1708
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., S-311, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: sen.frankmorse@state.or.us

Senator David Nelson
Party: R District: 29
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1729
Interim Phone: 541-278-2332
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., S-211, Salem, OR, 97301
Interim Address: 1407 NW Horn Ave., Pendleton, OR, 97801
Email: sen.davidnelson@state.or.us

Senator Floyd Prozanski
Party: D District: 4
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1704
Interim Phone: 541-342-2447
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., S-417, Salem, OR, 97301
Interim Address: PO Box 11511, Eugene, OR, 97440
Email: sen.floydprozanski@state.or.us

Senator Diane Rosenbaum
Party: D District: 21
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1721
Interim Phone: 503-231-9970
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., S-405, Salem, OR, 97301
Interim Address: 1125 SE Madison St., Suite 100B, Portland, OR, 97214
Email: sen.dianerosenbaum@state.or.us

Senator Martha Schrader
Party: D District: 20
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1720
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, S-425, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: sen.marthaschrader@state.or.us

Senator Bruce Starr
Party: R District: 15
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1715
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., S-411, Salem, OR, 97302
Email: sen.brucestarr@state.or.us

Senator Chris Telfer
Party: R District: 27
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1727
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, S-423, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: sen.christelfer@state.or.us

Senator Joanne Verger
Party: D District: 5
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1705
Interim Phone: 541-756-4140
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., S-401, Salem, OR, 97301
Interim Address: 3696 Broadway PMB 344, North Bend, OR, 97459
Email: sen.joanneverger@state.or.us

Senator Vicki L Walker
Party: D District: 7
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1707
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., S-309, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: sen.vickiwalker@state.or.us

Senator Doug Whitsett
Party: R District: 28
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1728
Interim Phone: 541-882-1315
Capitol Address: 900 Court St NE., S-303, Salem, OR, 97301
Interim Address: 23131 North Poe Valley Rd., Klamath Falls, OR, 97603
Email: sen.dougwhitsett@state.or.us

Senator Jackie Winters
Party: R District: 10
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1710
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE., S-301, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: sen.jackiewinters@state.or.us

Raw Dog meets Green Dog!

2009-01-25T06:03:00.000-08:00

Raw Dog is on the ground in Portland! We’re absolutely more than thrilled to announce that as of January 2009, Green Dog Pet Supply in Beaumont Village, Portland is the newest retailer of Raw Dog Gear. Green Dog is currently stocked with a selection of black and brown leads, ¾” and 1” collars.

If you happen to be in the area, I highly recommend you visit (and support!) this fine little shop. Focusing on eco-friendly and durable product lines, they’ve got a fantastic selection of toys, treats, and gear all hand-selected for quality, and for being environmentally low-impact; though leather may not necessarily fit the traditional “green” model, durability is one component of eco-friendliness. A good leather lead well cared-for should last at least a couple human generations. Additionally, many of their product lines are locally or domestically hand-produced. One thing among many to love about this shop is their great selection of ultra-premium foods, including support for RAW feeders (hooray!).

Just poking around this shop was a blast... for one thing, the entire interior including fixtures and displays was built from recycled and reclaimed materials from demolished buildings. The displays are so clever and attractive it makes me want to go scour Bring Recycling and start building stuff!

Something else to love: Green Dog employee Julie started and maintains the Portlanders Against Breed Bans web group at meetup.com, an online resource for local residents to monitor, disseminate information on, and help combat breed-specific legislative movements in Portland and surrounding areas of Multnomah County. We remain fairly diplomatic regarding most topics political but there’s just no better way to say it;
BSL Sucks (being a totally inefficient, more or less completely useless way to reduce the incidence of dog-related injuries and fatalities).

Green Dog Rocks, we’re honored to be a part of their business.

Rathawkers extraordinaire!

2009-01-18T09:12:00.000-08:00

The last week has been great! I put out a notice on Craig's List the other day for private property on which to fly, but the response hasn't exactly been overwhelming. I've got a few areas I can fly her, but there's nothing in the way of critters to chase. There's really not much in the way of a cottontail population near by, so mostly we've been practicing the mechanics of "following on", a behavior pattern in which the bird stays even with, or slightly in front of, the handler and dog(s) so as to be in good position for the strike when quarry is flushed.

She's doing well, I just wish I had better hunting ground for her. We did manage to make our first kill as a team yesterday; she took a packrat in an absolutely spectacular dive out of a tree. We'd tried to hunt her early in the morning, but I'd fed her a bit at dawn in a clumsy attempt to course-correct when I was worried about her weight dropping too low due to an unexpected freeze overnight. We put her up into a tree and proceeded to flush three rabbits right under her, which she appeared to enjoy watching as they zoomy-zoomed right on by, so at that point I called her down to the glove and put her back in the box while we flew Chris' gos, Harlot and Sabrina's Redtail, Aala. Both birds made kills, although Aala unfortunately snagged herself a mouse or meadowvole which she swallowed in two quick bites, ending the hunt for her for the day.

Later Mr. Hoyer took the two of us and my friend Laurie to a quiet farm road with a row of trees and packrat nests lining the easement. Apparently Mr. Hoyer has been poking these same rat warrens for over twenty years--those industrious little critters will continue using and adding to their community nests generation after generation. We tried flushing a few of them, but it looked as though they'd been hunted earlier in the week, as we poked four nests without dispensing a single rodent. A few minutes later, Gaia took herself across the road and a few trees down; we followed and sure enough, flushed a rat in a nest under the tree she'd gone to.

Falconry isn't much about training a bird. You don't teach the bird really anything, their entire evolutionary history has shaped them to be the finely-honed predators they are. If you are to be successful as a falconer, you must train yourself to work within the bird's parameters; often the hawk is a better "bird dog" than the bird dogs themselves are. She'd spotted prey, and it was our job to put it somewhere she could get it. We turned out the rat, which dashed along the underbrush and scaled the next tree over--a heavily brushy, willow-sort of tree with a dense tangle of thin, limber branches. Gaia hesitated just a moment then moved to the top of the tree about fifteen feet above the rat, which was crouching on a branch just above the brush level. My heart sank; the tree was too thick, brush too dense, and the rat was one solid leap from the safety of his nest. She was hesitant enough earlier in the day that I sort of assumed she'd take a good look at it, and watch it scamper off to safety.

A heartbeat later, she tucked her wings and did a head-first dive, what they call a "teardrop stoop" dropping like a rock. The rat jumped and the two of them fell straight down, where Gaia, crashing brush like a veteran, nailed the rat mere inches above the ground! I was so stunned with the flight I didn't even have the presence of mind to have the camera at the ready, and just tossed it to my friend Laurie as I bolted by to help her if she needed assistance with the dispach. Mr. Hoyer was yelling and cheering, jumping up and down like kids at a football game, we all were. Laughing, he told us that at 75, that was one of the best rat stoops he'd ever seen, he couldn't believe she did it. It was fantastic!

The two of us, Mr. Hoyer and myself, made into the brush on our hands and knees where she was mantled over the rat. I picked the two of them up together, and she filled her crop as we made our way back to the cars. What an adventure. I'll need to put some more bunnies in front of her, but entering her to rats is sure a fine start!

Watch out bunnies... here we come!

2009-01-09T21:34:00.000-08:00

Well, I can definitely count our first hunt a success. We didn't catch anything, but they say the first few times just coming home with your bird on fist is a success ;0).
And actually, we did much more than that.

For our first hunt, I planned to meet up with Chris Fox and Mr. Richard Hoyer. Chris is an incredibly meticulous falconer; he has taught me a tremendous amount in the past couple of weeks, particularly in the realm of weight management.
An aside on weight management--it might just be the most important skill to learn in the sport of falconry, and is easily the most difficult to master... if you're wondering why I keep mentioning monitoring Gaia's weight, this is why. Precise weight management is more or less key to every element of your bird's behavior; a bird at combat weight is in a keen state of alertness, ready to hunt and kill. Hunting is hard work, and dangerous. A falconry bird is not a hunting dog, doing a job for the joy of it and to please his human hunting companion; a hawk hunts for one reason only: survival. When her immediate needs are met, she will always prefer to sit snugly on a high branch, one foot tucked, percolating her last meal and waiting for a convenient snack to mosey along immediately underneath her. As I've mentioned before, birds of prey don't work with and for you because they like you or enjoy your company. They do what suits them and only for as long as it continues to be profitable. An article I read recently described the relationship between handler and hawk like so: "The truth is, she would eat you alive while you begged for mercy, if she thought she could hold you down." Yikes!
But it's true that they return to the glove because they expect that there's something in it for them. They hunt with you because there's inherent profit to it--I provide her with better hunting than she's able to find on her own. She eats better and more consistently by hunting with me, but if ever she decides I'm not holding up my end of the bargain, she's able to sever the relationship at any time with a few quick strokes of her wings. I stack the deck in my favor with careful weight management, ensuring that when we're in the field, she's always keen and ready to hunt.

We can predict and induce this keenness for the hunt by careful weight management; a plump and comfy bird has no reason to hunt. When we enter the field they are lean and hungry. We look for a state of what we call "yarak"--a keen, alert, and aggressive bird who is... well... watching the world like a hawk. Timing this keen state requires the ability to calculate nutritional requirements navigating a complex framework of variables including type of prey, hours until the next hunt, air temperatures, predicted weather patterns, previous calorie requirements, casting pattern, and any expected variables, such as spectators or new dogs. Feeding a falconry hawk is an art and science in and of itself; and with each bird we have to learn a new set of nutritional needs, every bird is an individual. Principles are generally the same, but different birds burn different foods at different rates, and calorie consumption is affected by all the above variables and more.

Overnight lows were hovering close to freezing--they burn more calories in cold weather, a helpful variable this time, as she'd eaten well from the lure the day before and in warmer weather might not have hunted at all the next day. She was about 30g up when I weighed her first thing in the morning, but by the time we got up to Corvallis and had hunted Chris' goshawk, Harlot, she was dead on key at her flying weight.

It's too bad I didn't manage to get any good shots of Chris and his gos, they're neat birds. Goshawks are killing machines--agile forest hawks game enough to tackle any- and everything and with plenty of skill to back up their nerve. Harlot took a cottontail and two packrats in just over a half hour with the help of a beagle posse, one master falconer, one general falconer, and one apprentice.

After Harlot's flight, we took Gaia to a farm field with a convenient row of trees bordered by a hedgerow of wild blackberries for her first training hunt:

One of the major perks of this whole falconry thing is spending my time in places like this.
Setups like this are good bunny habitat, but also an ideal setup for the training of a young falcory bird. In their early flights, we set them up in such a way that we can predict which directions they'll move by the terrain, and so that we can flush prey directly below them. Their first hunts are less about catching things, and more about teaching them the mechanics of hunting over dogs and with a human companion. We want them to make a connection between the actions of the other players and the appearance of game, and to learn to move along from tree to tree, staying in good position to strike when quarry appears beneath them. All that said, the first hunt is considered a solid success if you can just get your bird down out of the tree--plenty of times once they're up high it's a real challenge to get them back down for the first time. Here she is up in her first tree:

She spent much of the time hunting on her own, without paying much attention to what we were doing, which is typical. She had two great flights, crashing down into the brush after some critter or another. She missed both times, but that she even took a shot was pretty great. At one point after we'd worked the brambles in both directions without producing any bunnies she struck out across the field, and I had another quiet moment of panic, envisioning her soaring off into the wild blue yonder without a glance back... but she landed, and far more importantly, she came back a fair distance across the field to the glove.

It was a real honor to hear Mr. Hoyer say that her glove response was better than he'd seen in a passage redtail in quite some time.

After she came back down to the glove, we tossed her back up into the same tree, and threw the bunny lure for her in order to finish the hunt with a net positive experience: exposure to and feeding from a cottontail. We scooped her up, bunny and all, letting her eat a fair amount as we headed back for the truck. All in all, a fantastic success.

We packed up then, had a quick bite of lunch, then hunted Mr. Hoyer's Harris' Hawk, Conchita, over the whole beagle posse, along a set of abandoned train tracks. Following is a series of photos that shows something more of what goes on in a "real" hunt.

Beagle posse, setting out down the tracks, warming up their noses and gearing up for action:

Setting off--Mr. Hoyer and Conchita with 14 y/o Tana in the lead:

Working the briars; the hawk is up high, both brush-beaters working the briars behind and moving any prey forward to flush underneath the bird. The beagles work their way straight through the thick of the brambles, singing all the way:

See if you can spot the happy beagle, doing what beagles do best:

Here we see Mr. Hoyer working a packrat nest. Dusky-footed woodrats are busy little critters; that nest is just about taller than any of us. Often, poking the base of the nest will dispense a bunny along with the packrats.

In this case we got no bunny, but did flush a packrat, who made the poor decision to go up into the next tree, where Conchita was waiting. You might be able to pick out the unfortunate rodent, about two-thirds of the way up the tree on the left-hand side:

Mr. Hoyer assisting with the dispach:

Harris' Hawks are also called "bay-winged hawks" for obvious reasons as seen above. They are the only birds of prey who hunt co-operatively in packs. They are "wolves of the sky," employing very similar hunting tactics, using teams to flush prey for other birds strategically positioned for the strike, or running down prey in pre-arranged relays. The first raptor I ever handled was a Harris' Hawk; I carry a reminder of her on my hide to this day. I have a tremendous admiration for these birds.

I'll leave you with this image, one last sweep before the light failed us.

Onward and upward... more to come!

First free flight!

2009-01-08T21:00:00.000-08:00

A success!
Callan and I met up this morning, north of Creswell in a field near the area where Arion was trapped last year. The weather was gray and cloudy but with light winds, and only the occasional half-hearted drizzle... in other words, perfect Oregon mixie-habitat.

I'd checked her condition and weighed her first thing in the morning and she was weighing about 20g heavy--fine for creance work but a shade heavy for an early free-flight, so we waited a couple hours and met up a little later than we'd planned. We got out to the training fields and set her up on the creance line, pressing into service the roof of my car for lack of a handy field perch... so that's my own beloved Honda you see in the background. I flew her once on the creance just to test her glove response; she was fine, if a little slow to respond. In more distracting surroundings we'd have waited another day, taking her weight down another 10g or so; on these wide-open fields there's little danger of her striking out for the next county, so at that point we took her off the creance, removed the hardware from her jesses, and, with a moment of quiet internal panic, I called her to the glove from about 200ft out. After a moment's hesitation, she came to me and all was right with the world:

Look closely, that's her wayyyyy down there, just above the horizon and to the left of the car. Here's a closer-cropped version of the same image:

Hooray!
We flew her a small handful of times, and though her glove response was fine, it wasn't as sharp as we'd have liked, so we called it a day with a throw of the rabbit lure.

As I'd mentioned earlier, it's important to introduce her to a rabbit so that she gets the connection between bouncing bunny and her noonday meal, as many young hawks may never have caught a rabbit and may not immediately recognize them as quarry. This step isn't strictly necessary, but it saves quite a bit of time and frustration for both of you when you're both after the same prey. Chris Fox was kind enough to provide me with a (frozen/thawed) eastern cottontail the other day which we threw for her in the yard for the first time. She immediately leapt from the training perch, showing a very encouraging aggression though she sort of footed it from afar. It was clear she knew there was food to be had, though I'm not sure she's terribly confident about the mechanics of the strike and hold. It makes me think she's eaten rabbit before, though not actually participated in the catching--perhaps as an eyass or early fledgeling.

The next day we took her out to a training field; I held her on the glove while Chris set up our "volunteer" in a clump of grass in a ditch. When he was ready, I turned and walked with her on the gauntlet toward him. As we got within about five yards, he took off, dragging the lure up out of the ditch and into the field. She launched herself off the glove and nabbed it, in a fair simulation of "hunting off the glove", where they're launched from the gauntlet in pursuit of close ground quarry. This time she was a bit more confident with her footing, and as before we let her break in and eat a fair crop full in order to "wed" her to cottontail rabbits.

Anyway, we wrapped up today's session with a drag of the bunny lure, wherein she accidentally spotted it before it was quite thrown properly and Callan and I both had to make a fast dodge to avoid a speeding flurry of wings and talons (yikes!). Although a bit disconcerting to have to scatter so unceremoniously, it's an awesome sign: she's clearly quite sure she wants that bunny (hooray!).
It was a good session, no doubt. At some point, Callan managed to grab this great shot of fast-incoming artillery:

Right about the time we wrapped up with the bunny, Callan's husband Burt showed up with his birds, Magic the gyrfalcon and Stormy, a juvenile peregrine falcon. With the recent de-listing of the peregrine as an endangered species, an extremely small number of peregrine capture permits were issued in Oregon (the first state to open peregrine take) and Stormy is one of the first wild-trapped peregrine falcons in the country being trained for falconry purposes. It's all very exciting!

Here you see Magic, the gyrfalcon, on the left, with Stormy the pere on the right, both hooded. Incidentally, I am way jealous of Burt's rockin' falconry rig. That perch is permanently affixed on rollers along the side window; you can open the side window for air or access, or roll out the perch as in the photo. Slick!

Seeing a hawk wag their tail makes me smile every single time =).

Longwings are trained a little differently than broadwing hawks; part of their flight training involves stooping to a baited kite for the purposes of teaching them to seek elevation and stoop to their prey. Peregrines are famous for high-speed stooping, having been clocked at upwards of 250mph in free-fall. Watching these birds work is something pretty special, they put on a high-speed aerial display of the most incredible kind. Here's Burt lofting the kite in preparation for Stormy's flight:

After the kite flight he did some lure training. For Gaia, we drag the lure on the ground to simulate the action of a running cottontail. With birds being trained for feathered prey the lure is swung in a varying orbit; the bird makes a series of fast stoops and dives in an effort to make contact. Stormy's moving so fast all you see is a feathered blur:

Gaia is wicked fast on the strike, but in comparison to the pere on the wing it's like seeing a lion next to a cheetah; brawn vs. blur.

Lure training wraps up with a nice, fat hunk o'quail:

At that point the light was starting to fail, so we were treated to one quick shot by Magic over the kite. These are about the only good photos I got; there really wasn't enough light to get much on the flight itself:

In case you're wondering, those widgets poking out are radio telemetry antennae--bird-locating equipment. In the event he gets lost you can turn on a receiver which picks up a signal within a certain distance.

So, that's my story. We did well today. With this nice showing, Gaia and I will out for our first training hunt in the morning. I'll try to edge her weight down another 10-20g tonight to sharpen her glove response, so keep your fingers crossed for sub-freezing temps tonight and hordes of bunnies in Corvallis!

Makin' progress

2009-01-04T05:42:00.000-08:00

Just a couple of photos and some Gaia updates, as always you can click on any photo for a bigger and higher-res version.

Here's a (slightly fuzzy) photo of her first short creance flight, set up in my back yard. We did one session in the yard of ten or twelve jumps of approximately ten to twenty feet from the training perch to the glove, to cement the concept that whistle + raised glove = food. Also, that returning to the glove without a recall whistle, glove, or lure does not result in food.

People are always really amazed that we're able to have these wild birds coming to us within such a short time frame after trapping, but they're predators and opportunists to the extreme. Once they come to realize that 1) they're not going to be eaten, and 2) that food comes from the gauntlet, it's not really very difficult to bring about an extremely reliable glove response. Although handling and working with a wild predator is very challenging, the actual "training" parts are surprisingly easy... much less complex than training a dog, in my opinion. As you may know if you've ever trained a dog, food rewards work best when delivered randomly. In this next photo, you see her as she's just come to the glove; the first thing she does is check for food to have appeared.

One thing I have to be reeeeeallllly careful about is that she never, never, never learns that food comes from me--it always "magically" appears in the glove. I must never allow her to make the connection between my moving hand and the appearance of food, or that my pocket is where food comes from. Those talons are wicked sharp with a tremendous gripping strength, and they are faster with their feet than you can even possibly imagine. She moves with such speed that my brain and eye cannot track the motion of her foot during a strike; she can (and has) footed me, putting a talon through my hand, before I ever even saw her move. You develop a pretty decent sleight of hand, or else you end up with a badly mangled paw or a flapping mess of wings and talons latched on to your vest pocket.

We do our long-creance flight sessions in a large park near my house. If I get there at dawn there's never anyone around, and there are several good places to work. Yesterday we went out an hour or two later in the morning than usual so I'd have good light for shooting. I set her up on a large tree stump; as she was "airing herself out" with a good rouse of her feathers someone walked by with a barking dog somewhere on the other side of the park, so in this photo you see her all fluffed up (the rouse) and with her hackles up (the dog).

We had a great session of creance work, it was a (rare and precious) gorgeous day.
Here she is coming in for a landing:

Trivia: every single wing and tail feather has a name and number designation.

The next step after teaching the recall is reshaping the glove response and transferring the predatory focus from the gauntlet to a lure and from the lure to the particular game I'm after. She's still a baby, and probably has spent most of her short life eating mice and meadow voles, packrats and whatever other little critters happened to be kicked up by passing traffic. Since I can't be sure what game she's tried and succeeded at finding and catching on her own, I'll need to demonstrate that rabbits are food--so that when we get out into the field for the first time, we're both hunting the same quarry.

I also need to ensure with good lure training that she knows where and how to target the animals for the most efficient catch and kill. One of the reasons she'll choose to stick around is because I'm (hopefully) able to provide and assist her with catching larger, better-quality game than she's able to hunt on her own. In the wild, she'll eat the game that is most plentiful and poses the least risk of physical harm in catching, but one of the reasons redtails make such fantastic falconry birds is that they are serious gamehawks with tremendous courage and ability. Typical game is cottontails and black-tailed jacks, but there are folks hawking redtails over everything from ducks and pheasant to foxes and geese--all are quarry large and powerful enough that in most cases she'd have trouble killing them on her own. I need to demonstrate how and where to catch and hold large quarry in order to best subdue her prey and hold it immobile while I catch up and can help with the dispatch when I arrive. Of course, these are things she'd quickly pick up in the first attempts at live quarry in the field, but if I can cement the notions first with a lure then we're several steps ahead when I flush that first cottontail, and with a hopefully substanially lower risk of broken feathers or lost quarry.

We are progressing beautifully, and hopefully will be out in the field by late this week. Stay tuned!

On snow and exploding whales

2008-12-28T04:14:00.000-08:00

So... back in Oregon and finally coming to a full stop... boy am I looking forward to a few days of rest.

I'm happy to report that I was able to get just about everything out the door in good time for shipping and all local pickups and deliveries made, though a few by the skin of my teeth as a handful of pieces due for pickup the last Sunday of the market were still hot off the sewing machine as of five o'clock that morning, yikes! A couple red leads didn't make the holiday cutoff, due to a series of dismally poor-quality hides having to be sent back to the tannery. Those couple remaining pieces will be shipped out on Monday morning--and a million thanks for the patience of those kind folks. The quality of my raw materials is of paramount importance to me, and I refuse to spend either my money or yours on crummy leather. If it happens, I'm always happy to substitute another color of your choice if time is of the essence, but sometimes it takes a few tries to get my paws on a side of leather that's high enough quality for me to be happy to ship gear made from it.

It's been an action-packed holiday season and I am sure happy to have worked with some really great folks on a world of different projects. This here is a custom bear paw harness done for Yuki-san, the shiba "brother" of Jiro with the rad "green flames" harness.

The bear paw cutout on the back saddle was an awful lot of fun to do, and I was pretty tickled about the claw marks on the shoulder straps, too. I dug up some photos of bear claw marks on trees for the shape. I think I've mentioned before that I often work with veterinary tools--the claw marks were dug out with a surgical curette, rather than being cut, so that the slashes would look torn into the leather.

I'll have to sit down and look through my camera for more fun stuff... I was in such a sewing frenzy that I sometimes didn't even have time to stop and shoot portfolio photos, sewing long after dark and boxing things for shipment before dawn the next day. There was a fun set of tiny little vines and leaves collars for cockapoos Carmella and Tulip, and a mini version of the squares and dots collar for beagle Copper down in Sacramento... a flat collar for landseer Moses that's bigger than my friend Claire's belt size ;0).

Meanwhile, we wrapped up the last weekend of Holiday Market in fine style. I'd decided not to do the last Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday stretch through Christmas Eve in hopes of making it down to my parents' house for the holiday. It ended up being a wise choice because I went down like a poleaxed steer on Sunday night with what I am guessing is Giardia* though remains undiagnosed because though at one point I actually blacked out in my mews while feeding my hawk, I am either too stupid or too stubborn to have gone to the hospital when my medical professional of choice was unavaliable, being pretty firmly of the school of "that which does not kill you can probably be cured with ginger ale and crackers if you wait it out long enough". Perhaps not wise, but I really do hate hospitals exactly that much**.

Anyway, between the suspected flagellated protozoan parasites and the heinous ice storms, it was an hour-by-hour thing whether or not we were going to make it out for Christmas, and when we had a break in both situations we made a quick escape out with the bare essentials; the clean socks and undies, the Christmas gifts, and the dog all made it, but the camera along with several other helpful items did not. I'd have liked to post photographic documentation of the f*n Winter Wonderland that was the Siskiyous and the Shasta pass, but this awesome artist's rendition will just have to do:

That pretty much sums it up. In case you're wondering, the crack in the rearview mirror is one of Simon's few puppy indescretions. His sharky little puppy teeth can still be felt on either side--Mr. Armadillo thought until very recently that he'd bonked it while jumping around and cracked it with his noggin... no, he actually gnawed the frame top and bottom and cracked the glass by squeezing it when I left him in the car for thirty seconds.

So... we apparently timed it perfectly to make it through the passes while everything was just under siege by slush but the temperatures hadn't dropped below freezing yet. Yucky, but not really dangerous. We made it to my parents' house on Christmas Eve, stayed through the next day, and made a quick escape the next morning, again with perfect timing as the passes were frozen again just after we got back through.

I was apprehensive about having timed Gaia's feedings, but even that worked out as perfectly as possible; she weighed in perfectly to the gram for that day's flight training so we had a quick training session with a few mews jumps to the glove for a light feeding. Wild birds don't necessarily eat every day, and falconry birds often eat on a 48 hour schedule. It's not generally a problem for them to miss a feeding, but when you're not there to monitor the situation you tend to err on the side of overfeeding, particularly when you happen to be an apprentice with a bird at a tricky and very precise stage of training and the weather is potentially severe. Often when you feed them up in anticipation of going away for a day or two you lose several more days of training while your bird doesn't have any interest in food, sitting around instead on a window perch with that comfy meal percolating through their system and one foot pulled snugly up in their warm belly feathers. But! occasionally I do something right and she was spot on target for what we call her "initial response weight", or the weight at which she becomes interested in coming to the glove for food.
So we had a quick visit in the mews and the next day, yesterday, went out for her very first outdoor flight training. It went beautifully, though we had to go out a bit early--I'd timed the amount of food I had given her the night before so that she'd be hungry around late morning. We started getting weather reports for heavy wind and rain so I made a dash out a few hours earlier than planned. She wasn't as keen as I might have hoped but did respond beautifully with a series of half a dozen short flights from the training perch and happily enough recalled to the glove from the top of the weathering yard and out of a plum tree. All in all, a very satisfactory first flight session. She ate a little heavily so today we'll go out in the mid-afternoon assuming her weight and appetite are on target for our first session on a creance line--a weighted line of fifty-odd feet that we use for longer flight distances. In theory, if I'm managing her handling correctly, we'll spend a week or so polishing her whistle/glove response and doing a bunch of training to a lure (a vaguely bunny-shaped leather and wool pad on a rope, baited with meat) on a creance line, a few days of the same sort of training without the creance, and then we'll go hunting.
There's more to it than that, but... if all goes well, things should progress very quickly from here.

And lastly, this is already miles long, but I just feel the need to leave you all with this glorious incident from Oregon's news archives. The thing that really makes me laugh about this is imagining the scenario in which when considering how best to remove a manky dead whale from your beach, clearly a half-ton of dynamite is the go-to option.
There's really no other way to say it than the way Dave Berry did:

I am probably not guilty of understatement when I say that what follows, on the videotape, is the most wonderful event in the history of the universe. First you see the whale carcass disappear in a huge blast of smoke and flame. Then you hear the happy spectators shouting "Yayy!" and "Whee!" Then, suddenly, the crowd's tone changes. You hear a new sound like "splud." You hear a woman's voice shouting "Here come pieces of...MY GOD!"

=D

Hope you all have the very happiest of holiday seasons... whichever you might celebrate, and an undisappointing Festivus, for the rest of us. ;0)

*note to self: be more careful in re: dead quail, whistles and hood braces (and other equipment that's likely end up in my mouth), and keeping better track of the pockets into which both are stuffed.

**I promise I'll call Dr. B on Tuesday, dad!

Projects:

2008-12-21T05:15:00.000-08:00

I have been keeping a lid on all the neat stuff going out in boxes in the last few weeks, for fear of spoiling any surprises, but I can show off at least one set:

This went out to Hazel in the SF Bay, mama of Diablo and the rest of the pups discussed in one of the very early journal posts. Hazel's kind of a reddish, shepherdy-looking lady.

Hazel's gear is a set made complimentary to the set I made a year or two back for Diablo. His features the same bronze raindrop triskele, framed by a set of stylized phoenix shapes that match the pattern on his coat. His lead has phoneix tail feathers that wave in opposite directions up either side of the handle from the conchos. Hazel's collar has a set of wings, drop-stitched by hand, that match the "wing" patches she has on her shoulder blades. The feathers on her lead fall down from the concho at the base of the handle. The down fluff of the afterfeather is cut in with the tip of a surgical blade; you can't see in the photo but there are tiny razor scores along the rachis to suggest the barbs of the feather, too.

I was really thrilled to be asked to do this set for Hazel, and am happy to know these great folks and their ultimately cool dogs. Talk about down-and-out, Hazel really needed someone to come along and save her life, and these folks did... and put in an incredible amount of time and effort to raise and find find amazing homes for her entire litter, too.

To Jon and Brigette: thanks for what you did with those dogs, and thank you for asking me to do this set. I hope it does her justice.

Cheers!

Raw Dogs in Action!

2008-12-17T08:21:00.000-08:00

Check out this pair of cuties!
Deshi and Tetsuya sport their new custom Raw Dog harnesses:

Thanks to Carina for the great video!

One of the best parts of my job...

2008-12-16T21:20:00.000-08:00

...is hearing some great stories about folks and the pooches they love. I had the honor of building a collar for this gorgeous lady; below is the sweet story of how sometimes the right people and critters find each other in this world. Note: Greenhill is our local private, non-profit animal shelter.

She is a beautiful girl and we feel very fortunate to have found her. She came into our life last January just a week after our old dog crossed over. Someone told us that sometimes the dying dog finds the next one. The day after Lexie died Patty was looking at the Greenhill website. She knew a person taking cat pictures for them and wanted to see them. We had talked about not getting another dog right away but there was Lily. We went out there to meet her. Most of the other dogs were bouncing all over the place but she was just sitting up on her bed like "Where have you been? I've been waiting." We had to wait for her to get spayed and recover from kennel cough before she could come live with us. She appears to be a purebred blue Weimaraner that someone socialized very well and she'd had at least one litter of puppies. We never could find out much of her prior history. The intake form said she had been around grandkids. She is an energetic girl and needs to play hard at least every other day. Perhaps her former owners couldn't do that anymore. We have been blessed to have her find us.
______________

Many thanks to George for the story, the beautiful photo, and for giving a home to a Greenhill girl!

Progress!

2008-12-09T08:54:00.001-08:00

This bird is incredible!

We're making great progress; she took food for the first time on Sunday morning, eight days after trapping. It takes a pretty powerful motivation for a wild-trapped bird to overcome their natural inclination to believe that I'm about to eat her at any given moment. She was hugely well-fed when I picked her up off the trap, it took more than a week for her reserves to get low enough to even look at the food I offered her, but she finally took some food this weekend--it's the first major step in building a working relationship and very exciting.

Other than putting on her permanent furniture, there really hasn't been much to report up until now. Falconry birds are required by necessity, tradition, and federal law to wear particular equipment (called "furniture") which hasn't much changed in several thousand years. Now we use metal grommets on their soft leather bracelets and steel ball-bearing swivels for tangle management, but the basic setup is more or less exactly the same as King Arthur and Ghengis Khan used. Documents dating before 1000 BC depict equipment and techniques we still use today. One of the things I love most about this sport is true living history, with language, equipment, and techniques all reaching back with at least three thousand years of documentation.

Anyway, shortly after trapping we put on their furniture, and the taming process begins (called "manning"). We spend hours just sitting with them in the dimly-lit mews, touching them, picking up their feet to inspect toes and talons, opening their wings, just acclimating them to touch and proximity in the first 24 or 48 hours. People think it sounds nuts to take a wild bird straight off a trap and start "petting" them, especially those wicked-looking talons... but that first day or two they're really so afraid that they more or less accept anything. They're fully expecting you to start eating them at any second. It must be completely terrifying, like being in an alien world. As time goes on and they gradually lose the fear they start to take in more of their surroundings and adjusting to their new situation. I started taking her out of the mews, sitting or walking around the yard, sitting with her in the house while we watched TV in the evenings, acclimating her to the dog and the dog to her. There's really not a whole lot you can do with them until they're good and hungry, other than continue manning them as thoroughly as possible--until they start thinking about food, they're really just waiting to get eaten themselves, and still afraid of every new thing.

I'd offer her food on the glove every day, but she wasn't even looking at it. That's okay, and expected--as I'd said, she was very well-fed at trapping, so she had plenty of reserves to keep her comfy for quite a while. I don't think she even would have eaten on Sunday if I hadn't pushed the issue, but it's starting to get very cold here and she was shivering that morning when I picked her up. I was worried she was going low enough on calories that she was having trouble staying warm, so again I sat with her and offered her some food on the glove which again she didn't even look at. Eventually I offered her a big, juicy wad of liver on a pair of forceps, stroking it along the side of her beak to encourage her to open her mouth. Eventually she nipped at it, probably more out of irritation than anything else, but once it was in her mouth she sat thinking about it for a good five minutes, flashing her pupils. She took a few more bits off the forceps, but still wasn't hungry enough to take the food off the glove, so we were done for the day. It was a good sign though, and I knew she'd probably eat in the next day or two. At least I got some calories into her!

Sunday evening after the Market I offered her food again on the glove, but she was pretty uninterested. I figured she could think about it overnight and sure enough on Monday morning I offered her some more liver off the forceps which she snatched up fairly quickly. She sat flashing her pupils for a few minutes and thinking about that food... then leaned down and went straight for the food on the glove. Breakthrough!

It really is a big deal for them to lean down and take food from the glove for the first time. They handle everything amazingly well, but leaning down and exposing the back of their neck to the handler is a tremendously vulnerable position to put themselves in and they must be either very comfortable or very hungry to do it. She wasn't real hungry and only ate a fraction of what I expected her to take, but it was a huge breakthrough nonetheless and tells me she's making great progress... they say 90% of the work of manning them is done when they take that first food off the glove.

Once she started eating, it tells me she's relaxed enough to start leaving her unhooded in the mews, which feels great. Before this point, they tend to bate a lot, thrashing around and bashing up their flight feathers. Most birds have no sense of smell and rely on hearing only supplementary to their vision. By hooding them, and eliminating their visual input, it sort of shifts their attitude about everything into neutral. They don't fear what they can't see. We hood them and acclimate them to touch, to balancing and moving around the glove, to stepping on and off from perch to glove and back, all without the element of fear. By the time we remove the hood and let them see what's happening around them, they have some familiarity with all of these things, and it makes the manning process much, much less stressful for them.

Today at first light I went out to the mews and found her resting comfortably on her perch, a foot pulled snugly up in her warm breast feathers and looking out the window--a very relaxed posture. I picked her up for weighing (we monitor them very closely for weight and condition, and keep a daily log of notes), and offered her some food. She wasn't hungry, so instead we practiced picking her up and setting her back down on the perch, unhooded, as well as walking through doorways, going from light areas to dark and vice-versa, and spent some time just walking around the yard, enjoying the frosty morning.

I left her resting comfortably on a perch out in the weathering yard, and will try offering her food again in a few hours in exchange for hopping to the glove--the first step in a flight recall. Real progress has been made, and it's very exciting!

In other news, anyone have any good name suggestions? I have been calling her Gaia. I tried out Io and Spica, but nothing seems to quite stick. Until this point she's been so terrified I hadn't seen much of her personality... maybe in the coming days she'll calm down enough to tell me what her name is. I'd love to hear any ideas anyone has!

Bit more updating...

2008-12-05T05:22:00.000-08:00

So, about that monster of a female red tailed hawk I picked up last week: if you're wondering where I disappeared to, it's there. Between keeping up with the sewing and Holiday Market stuff, this lady has been demanding every scrap of my attention and energy. I still haven't managed to name her. She's feisty and refuses to tame which is giving me much pause for thought. In this nutty season and through the growing pains of learning entrepreneurship, having something that demands I sit very still, watching and listening and learning, is something of a treasure. I tend to feel guilty when I stop working long enough to go for a run or do some yoga. It's good for me in a million ways, but I spend the whole time worrying about orders waiting to be filled, sketches to be sent, website updates... a hundred million other things that need my time and attention, and instead of coming back relaxed and ready to rock, I cut it short and come back anxious and stressed.

But in handling this bid, there are no other demands on your attention... there can't be. You clear your mind and you focus. There's a total art and science to the first week you spend with a wild-trapped falconry bird, going through the process known as "manning". It's not really a taming per se, but the building of an understanding. Thirty minutes after being trapped out of the wild, she's sitting on the end of your glove and you're eying each other. It's a lot to think about for both of us.

I also fell down a flight of stairs about a month and a half ago, and haven't been able to get a good workout, since. Like a jackass I didn't go see anyone at the time as "sitting in the ER for five hours between SARS and the bubonic plague, then being treated like a drug addict" isn't high on my ranking of favorite pastimes; a couple weeks later when I got around to mentioning it to my own doctor, she told me she thought I'd cracked two vertebrae in my lumbar spine. I may have also have effed up my right hip socket in the bargain. None of that has been super comfy, and so not being able to really get up and move in over six weeks is making me feel like I'm about to jump out of my skin. Dr. says nothing but walking for exercise until we get this back thing sorted out, and there again are not many things that rank lower on my mental list of "a million better things to do, instead".

There's a lot to be done this time of year. The demand for custom gear has exploded, and I'm learning to balance Raw Dog with the other things in life. My partner, my dog, my health, and this little, feathered dragon on the end of my arm are all reasons I wanted to spend my life working from home. It's sometimes a challenge to remember that. It's almost daylight and I'm going to head out in a bit to work my dog, to sweat, and then visit with my hawk... then come back and get some "real" work done ;0)

PS for Deshi and Tetsuya:

Very quick update

2008-12-02T08:54:00.000-08:00

Brief for now, more later (hopefully with photos)...
First things and business first: things are absolutely manic on the Raw Dog front. Though I usually try to get orders shipped within 48 or 72 hours, I'm currently running at about 5-7 days for shipping for most gear ordered through the site, such as standard collars, leads and toys. Custom leads and basic custom collars are running at roughly the same time frame, and highly custom gear such as harnesses, highly customized and embroidered collars are taking about two weeks... so if anyone is considering ordering anything for Christmas, now's the time to get your order in. I'll likely stop taking custom gear orders for the holidays by the end of this week or middle of next, in order to have everything complete and shipped to arrive in time. I thank you all for your patience and support.

A few folks are still waiting for photos of sketches or work in progress. I've been unable to get the software for my rockin' new camera set up on my work machine, so I've put my husband (Senior Vice President in Charge of Electronics) on the case and he's promised to have it set up pretty quickly.

Holiday Market continues to rock, one of my favorite things about it is all the folks we run into while hanging out at the booth. We had a surprise visit from my banker Sid and his lovely wife, Katie, always a treat, Kim Anne and Autumn, Maria, Heather and Mike, Jon O.'s lovely mama stopped by to say "hi"... if you're in the area, the Market is a great place to get your shop on. There are some absolutely incredible artists and artisans who set up shop here for these six weeks, and aside from booth after booth of art and craft-work, there's good food, good music, and the greatest parade of people-watching I could ever imagine.

Lastly, and the reason I mostly haven't been heard from in a couple days... after nearly a year of unsuccessful trapping efforts around Eugene, I've recently picked up a monster of a female redtailed hawk. Her trapped weight was 52 oz--as a point of comparison, Arion, the little male I had last year, weighed around 31 oz at trapping. She's tremendous, well-fed and feisty. I have high hopes for putting a dent in the local bunny population. Hell, at her size, maybe we'll chase a few geese, too ;0)

If you need to reach me, my cell phone is currently the best point of contact, that number is 541.520.5713. I'm sticking pretty close to the sewing machine, probably for the next few weeks, and any free second not spent sewing will be spent handling my hawk in this early, critical taming period. I'm checking my email first thing in the morning and last thing at night, but making a concerted effort to stay away from the (time-sucking) computer during the day, so if you have a question or need help right away, please do give me a call. I always have my phone on me and check it frequently. If I don't answer it may be because I've got a little, feathered dragon on the end of my arm, and will call you back soonest. ;0)
Mr. Armadillo (Senior Vice President in Charge of Invoicing and Orders) is taking incoming orders and handing them off to me as they come in, so be assured your order has been noted and will be handled as quickly as possible, even if you don't hear from me right away.
Again, thank you all for your patience and support, y'all are great.

More updates and photos to come!

Hooray for birthdays!!!

2008-11-25T08:50:00.000-08:00

Oh man, do I love birthdays. I love the celebration of one more year on this remarkable planet, all the things I saw and did this year, living in a community I love in a place I love and surrounded by people I love, and by my side through it all the most amazing partner any handcrafting, stair-falling, critter collecting, entrepreneurial dog- and art-geek ever could have imagined. This past year I made the leap into legitimate self-employment, the scariest thing I've ever done by far... and it's thanks to you that I'm able to do this remarkable thing. Every single day of my life I love going to work. In what assuredly ranks amongst the most cliched things I've ever written: I am the luckiest person in the world.
I had a hobby that just got completely out of hand. I fell into this business a little by accident and a lot because I love dogs. It's my birthday today, and I wanted to thank you all for the friendship, love, support, and encouragement you all have given me over the years. I've met a lot of incredible people and even more amazing dogs (and a few super-rad cats ;0) ) through this business; my life is infinitely richer in every intangible but thoroughly soul-fulfilling way for knowing you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Every year during the summer I pick a load of those incredible Oregon blueberries and freeze them, so that in the full swing of chilly, rainy Autumn I can bake myself a birthday blueberry pie. The ever-practical Mr. Armadillo suggests that it's possibly not a good idea to tuck in a slice of sunny birthday blueberry pie with your gear, so all orders placed today will include a little birthday present in lieu. ;0)

Cheers,
~mixie

Back at it!

2008-11-19T11:08:00.000-08:00

Well, I made it home mostly uneventfully. My outgoing flight apparently moved much slower than expected and we almost didn't land in time for me and one other guy to make the connecting flight. We made a mad dash to the terminal and hopped on two minutes before the doors closed. Whew!

I'm back at the sewing machine as of 5:30 this morning and beginning to plow through a backlog of orders from the week. I won't be at the computer much through at least the next couple of days while I clear things up, so if you need to reach me quickly please feel absolutely free to give me a call at 541.520.5713. That's my cell, it's always near to hand so is the fastest way to reach me. This weekend is the opening of the Eugene Holiday Market at the fairgrounds, I've got that to get ready for as well, so I have a feeling the next five days are going to be a bit of a challenge!

This just in: thieves suck.

2008-11-18T06:55:00.000-08:00

...the most.
It's my last day here in Minneapolis, and unfortunately my sister-in-law and I got a harsh reminder last night that for all its mid-west, Minnesota Friendly, people still occasionally suck here just as much as anywhere else.

First things first though, I have to admit this has been quite a trip. I'm not generally much for urban areas. Cities make me feel claustrophobic, and a little harried in all that hurry and asphalt. I'm surprised, though, how much I liked Minneapolis, right off the bat. The pet boutiques I visited, and the areas around them, were artsy without pretension, urbane without being supercilious. There are several lakes, a chain of them in fact, scattered right through the heart of the city--beautiful stretches of greenspace and getaway with over forty miles of foot- and bike path crisscrossing the city. As previously mentioned, the skyline is gorgeous at night, and the historic warehouse district (former home of General Mills and Pillsbury processing plants) still keeps the Gold Medal Flour marquee burning. The MIA and Walker museums are here, along with some of the most beautiful period homes I've seen.

Our trip to the northern Minnesota wilds was everything I could have hoped for, if far, far too short. No amount of time spent there is ever enough. I was incredibly fortunate to have married into a family of the most kind and caring folks I have ever known in my life, and spending a weekend every few years with them just doesn't even begin to approach enough. We arrived Friday around lunchtime and spent the rest of the weekend chatting, napping, laying around and enjoying the solitude, and stuffing ourselves silly with wild fish and game, Sharon's remarkable (secret recipe) coleslaw, blueberry pie and peach cobbler. The one downside to visiting this time of year is that we showed up right smack in the middle of the full swing of the two-week shooting season for deer, so long, early-morning runs in the Chippewa national forest which is their back yard were unfortunately out... both to avoid being plugged by an over-ambitious gun hunter and to avoid disturbing the hunt for people who hunt for subsistence, living year-round on what they're able to harvest in this short window of opportunity.

We were back late on Sunday for JJ's return to the pressing matters of life and law school. Charles and I are hoping to make a trip back maybe this summer in a repeat of the Great Road Trip of 2006 wherein we made a 6500 mile trek around the western half of the US with all my gear and a big, white dog in the back seat. I'd spend all summer at that cabin if I could.

Monday was great, Docent Larry was kind enough to smuggle me into the MIA for research purposes on a day where the museum is closed to the public. We visited a few of the permanent collection exhibitions we'd not had time for on Thursday and did a little more communing with Olive Trees. I brought along my sketchbook and pencil roll and took a lot of sketches and photos for research. We attended a discussion group regarding museum acquisitions, which was really interesting, and later in the day met with Larry's friend Margaret Osbourne, an emerging lampwork glass artist with whom I hope to align on some upcoming collar projects. Dinner time rolled around and we decided to pick up JJ at the law library and grab some moussaka and spanakopita at a Greek restaurant voted best in the city for eight consecutive years. The food was great, but after a leisurely and enjoyable meal we strolled out to find Margaret's car windows smashed in, with my semi-professional digital camera and JJ's backpack being the casualties. I'd thought to bring my camera in to the restaurant but decided against at the last second, instead stashing it under the seat, figuring that in such a busy area such minimal precautions were enough. The real tragedy, though, was JJ's backpack, which happened to contain her laptop (lame, but not a complete crisis) and a zip drive containing the entirety of her law studies along with all her photos from her European travels. In one fell swoop a couple theives walked off with her entire professional portfolio--something completely useless to them. My camera is easily replaced--lame, but no big deal. I'm far more bummed about the loss all the photos I took of the trip, the cabin, the art, but that doesn't even begin to touch the tragedy of the loss of JJ's work. Countless hours of study and labor, lost in an instant, and she's understandably devastated over the loss.

We walked through the alley, checking all the dumpsters, circling the block in case they'd grabbed the laptop and tossed the bag, but no luck. The Minneapolis PD showed up. They were very nice but pretty thoroughly unhelpful. They basically took a report and said they'd give us a call if either item showed up, but really not much else they can do. I'm not holding my breath.

Meanwhile, I'm heading out in a few minutes to spend a last hour at the MIA in the Egypt and Chinese ceramics collections before Larry drops me off at the airport and I begin the trek home. Please send your very best wishes for an uneventful trip home!

This just in: it is effing cold in Minnesota...

2008-11-14T04:59:00.000-08:00

...just in case anyone had any doubts about that.

Marching right along in a tour of recommended pet shops and boutiques, I'm having a great time in chilly Minneapolis. This city is completely different than I expected. Actually, I'm not entirely sure what pre-conceived notions I had about the Twin Cities, but at least a couple things have surprised me.
First of all, y'all have an incredible skyline! Who knew? I'm staying with my sister-in-law who is a law student here. When she told me how much she loved the Minneapolis skyline, we were on our way out to dinner (more on that in a moment) and just hopping on to the 35 freeway. We came into sight of it and... sure enough, it's spectacular! The buildings were all lighted with the Target building being particularly lovely.
Also, when I think of the midwest, ethnic food isn't exactly the first thing that springs to mind, but holy buckets have we had some fantastic meals. The main focus of these visits is to tour the great little shops and boutiques which come most highly recommended by my customers, so the first day I spent in town was dedicated to visiting the short-list of places that seemed to fit my general philosophy of business and which feature the sorts of products and services which might be a good match for Raw Dog gear. Good food has been a completely happy and indicental accident, but a completely happy one it is, for sure.

On Wednesday my sister-in-law and I had what must be one of the most incredible meals I've ever eaten at a place called El Meson. She'd been there for lunch before where they'd had a lunch buffet and said it was good but the dinner menu was just absolutely remarkable. Everything around us looked and smelled wonderful and we couldn't decide on an entree, so we ended up ordering a pile of tapas and appetizers and a carafe of sangria.
The stage was set with the freshest calamari I've ever had prepared in a wonderful light breading, quickly followed by the ceviche of the gods which was served with thin slices of fried plantains and some little rounds of garlic-buttered toast. After that came a little cluster of asparagus wrapped in chevre and prosciutto and grilled together as one piece which... just defies description. We had a little plate of cured iberian meats with a lovely Manchego and a little handful of Spanish olives. A salad with spinach, fine curls of sweet carrot, slices of strawberries, tiny chopped fruits and pecans. It was just one amazing bite after another. The whole incredible experience was capped with a grilled pear half stuffed with French brie and served on a bed of fresh spinach. It was just amazing--and what's more, this isn't anything like the kind of place where you'd expect to find such delights. Prices are completely reasonable, even cheapish, and we went dressed in sweats and jeans expecting a casual meal. Our waitress was patient and funny, just a great, unexpected experience.

The next day I spent in a dual pleasure/business visit to the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts with my husband's cousin who is a long-time volunteer docent. Two art nerds and eleven solid hours worth of art later and we only made it maybe two-thirds of the way through their incredible collection. I have a bachelor's degree with a dual study in studio art and art history; as a student we spent quite a lot of time discussing the completely definitive collection of modern and contemporary art at the Walker Art musuem but I'm not sure the MIA was ever even mentioned. I had -no idea- going in what we were going to be seeing, but their collection is absolutely encyclopedic. We spent most of the day on the second floor moving through a dozen very fine collections of textile arts. There were special exhibitions of Indian and African textiles along with an incredible collection of Native American textile crafts. There was also a really great exhibit of contemporary textile artists with a focus on the use of the natural world in pattern design which just thrilled my little heart.
After half a day spent in textiles and contemporary crafts we headed upstairs for the more contemporary section and just got lost in a world of French impressionists and post-impressionists. I could have spent hours in front of their van Gogh, Olive Trees with Yellow Sky and Sun, alone. I'm still thinking about everything we saw, so I think that's going to need to be a discussion for later. Art takes some processing.
We had a great dinner at a little hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese place and then headed over to the Walker which, for an art nerd like myself, was like seeing a rock star in person. I never thought I'd have the opportunity to actually see the place, so when I bought the plane ticket to Minneapolis, the very first thing I did was call Larry the MIA docent and ask for an art date. They're showing a companion exhibition with the MIA of Eero Saarinen's work--if you are in the area and have the opportunity to see it, I recommend you do. They've also got an enormous exhibition of Tetsumi Kudo's work which doesn't do anything for me in the least, but... there you are. I was, on the other hand, totally beside myself about theirJoseph Beuys collection and was thrilled to get the chance to see Coyote: I Love America and America Loves Me, snippets of which I'd seen but never start-to-finish. We got a small sampling of Abstract Expressionist love in one gallery, and individual pieces throughout by artists such as Yayoi Kusama and Yoko Ono, Franz Kline and Jasper Johns. I'd have loved to spend an entire day with the artists in the first three galleries, but unfortunately most of my favorites were only represented with single selected pieces and most of the gallery space was dedicated to Kudo, who I didn't appreciate one modicum more after what seemed like several floors of his work.

So, now I've got eleven hours worth of art to digest. We're heading North to spend some time with relatives in a cabin a mile away from the closest neighbor, where I hope to spend the next three days thinking, sketching, reading, and maybe even ice fishing. My internet connection will be more or less completely non existent, so any orders or questions will be addressed ASAP when back in civilization, early next week.

Beta-testing the Bulletproof tugs. Also: projects!

2008-11-04T10:40:00.000-08:00

As you may have seen, we are completely stoked to be in full production of our new Kevlar Bulletproof Tugs, and no one is happier about this than the Raw Dog himself. He's incredibly, remarkably hard on his toys. As a baby I made him those gorgeous sheepskin tugs, with a soft, plush grip--good for puppy mouths. As he got older (and stronger, and more destruct-arrific) his toy needs also evolved. As wonderful as that sheepskin is, these are dogs bred to catch and hold giant wild boar and mountain lions. His grip and pulling strength is absolutely indescribable. Eventually he was able to rip the double layers of sheepskin after a fair bit of use, so I started making his toys out of sturdy bullhide, or rough elk suede.

The bullhide tugs satisfied for grip and strength for a good long time, but in listening to the needs of some professional agility and obedience folks, we developed a tug with the comfort and grip of a braided toy, with the kind of tensile strength a hard-core tugger needs. Simon -loves- this tug. He can grip it so securely that he was almost able to out-wrestle Mr. Armadillo. In the photo you can see Simon's feet are blurry--that's because he'd brace himself and launch his whole body sideways and backwards for full-body tugging action. After countless tugs, they still look like new. I'm impressed with the materials and am happy to have found them.

In other news, a couple of this week's projects...
A sexy spikes-and-domes collar for brindle boxer-mix Karma up in Alaska:

And in progress, a custom harness for Jiro:
What you are seeing is the back saddle and belly band, with the shoulder and chest straps in progress. I'll be working on the chest plate over the next couple of days. Once the chest plate and padding are fit to the body harness, I'll adjust, decorate, and finish the shoulder straps.
The ring at the top of the saddle where the flames point is part of an optional seat belt system.

I -love- building harnesses. For one thing, it's always a chance to stretch my craft muscles. It's also a challenge to custom-fit something to a body that I can't actually put my hands and eyes on. It's for this reason I don't offer standard harnesses. I think any equipment--but particularly a piece of gear that fits around the chest and body--should be properly sized and comfortable and built to suit the individual needs of the dog and uses of the equipment. A tracking harness is built differently than a draft harness, which are both built differently than service harnesses and casual harnesses. All are designed to suit specific tasks and performance needs with the comfort and individual body shape of the wearer in mind. Building custom harnesses is a real treat.

Website updates, slowly but surely...

2008-11-01T07:52:00.001-07:00

As you may have noticed, we're working on an update of the entire site. My portfolio has grown, as have my photography skills, so I figured it was about time (okay, so I've been saying that for a while but... for reals, this time).

The awesome Helmi Bastami of FlyBorg.net (flash artist extraordinaire) has been kind enough to 1) put up with me, 2) help rebuild the various flash galleries and generally help me touch up the site, and 3) set up a couple neat new things yet to come. He's very patient.

I've updated the text on most of the pages, set up a handful of new ones, and -finally- gotten the majority of my catalog at least viewable online. Formerly you pretty much had to contact me directly to order most things. It's set up now for you to be able to order all sizes of leads and flat buckle collars as well as my entire catalog of toys, squee!

On that note, we are abso-friggen-lutely thrilled to announce the launch of Raw Dog's long-awaited Kevlar(R) Bulletproof Tugs! These tug toys are the ultimate in tensile-strength. In response to demands for a hard-core braided tug for professional agility and obedience competition dogs, we set out to find a material with enormous tensile strength that would still provide a soft and comfy grip. Results: Kevlar, a light, strong para-aramid synthetic fiber. From the Wiki page: "Kevlar has many applications, ranging from bicycle tires and racing sails to body armor because of its high strength-to-weight ratio—famously: '...5 times stronger than steel on an equal weight basis...'^[1]"

These tugs should last well-nigh forever. The Kevlar can be "cut" with dedicated chewing across the fibers, so don't leave them unattended--they aren't chew toys--but the Bulletproof Tugs should give you a fair lifetime of tugs.

As Charles can attest, I absolutely hate the idea of throwing things away with useful life remaining, so like all Raw Dog gear, I'm absolutely happy to repair them for a lifetime, as long as the piece remains "intact". That is to say if you ever need stitching, or handle replacement, or seam repair, just send 'er on back with a few bucks for shipping and I'll be happy to patch it up if it's within the realm of possibility (and structural integrity).

Keep an eye on the site for more updates to come. Currently in progress is a complete revision of the feedback gallery featuring teeming masses of your wonderful Raw Dogs in action and some of the lovely notes we've been honored to receive over the last few years. Also, all-new custom galleries with a better chunk of my custom portfolio available for view and divided into sections.

More to come!

Raw Dog hits the bay!

2008-10-08T10:29:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been quite a week here in Raw Dog land. My sister and I just wrapped up a brief tour of the central California coastal area pet boutiques for some hot reconnaissance and networking action.

I drove down from Oregon last Thursday to attend my baby sister's college graduation, then after some family time over the weekend, we took off in the awesomest car ever created... a bright orange convertible VW new Beetle.

California very helpfully provided us with absolutely pristine and spectacular weather, we couldn't have asked for a nicer excuse to drive with the top down.
Our first stop was the fabulous Argonaut hotel--free in-room yoga kits greatly appreciated. We spent two gorgeous days hanging out in San Francisco, which is one of my very favorite places in the world. We hit up a couple amazing little shops and had a couple beers with friends Jon and Brigette, owners of Diablo who sports a custom set of Raw Dog gear.

After San Francisco, we headed to Santa Cruz for one more boutique stop and a night at an awesome little 50's beach mod motel with a gorgeous view of the ocean. The next day we did a bit more exploring and headed on home.

These trips are an awful lot of fun, and I'm making a lot of good contacts around the country... but it sure does reinforce how nice it is to be home.

Next stop: Minnesota in November, a return to California in December, and possibly Virginia/Washington DC in January. After that, I hope to stay in one spot for a good, long time. ;0)

Raw Dog: now with more cowbell!!!

2008-09-25T22:14:00.000-07:00

http://www.morecowbell.dj/listen?id=EBDKs2

Raw Dog does Austin!

2008-09-05T12:50:00.000-07:00

Ohhhh man, does it feel good to be home safe and sound after quite an adventure.
First, I've got to say that the specialty was a great success--though many of the DACA board were unable to make it for various reasons, there were some beautiful dogs at the show, and I got to meet Eduardo Lavado of the great de Los Medanos kennel; as dogo folks will recognize, a great honor.

The adventure started with the random sighting of... a sleepy plott hound!

Now, coonhounds, and particularly Plotts, are not dogs one expects to randomly come across outside the deep South. Spotting one sacked out right in front of you at the airport is pretty random indeed. Bob is actually part Rhodesian ridgeback. He and his littermates ended up in coonhound rescue when the hunter who bred them decided he didn't want to bother with placing them. Luckily Bob seems to have found himself a great home and is on his way to Boston with his new owner.

The show itself was fun, watching
the baby puppies strut their stuff is always a complete crackup.

Here's a winners' photo:

And a shot of the Uniqo trophy collar. PPC Uniqo is the second ever Dogo Argentino Club of America dual-titled Grand Champion. Uniqo is the second recipient of a custom-crafted Raw Dog trophy collar.

After the show I spent a couple days exploring various pet boutiques and shops in and around Austin. Turns out Austin is a fabulously cool city with a true funky and individualistic vibe. It's much like my beloved Eugene in urban form.

One thing I've got to mention. If you ever find yourself in Austin and have even the remotest chance of doing so, you must hit up Chuy's for what can only be described as a "masterpiece of Tex-Mex cusine" (thanks, Sid!). Possibly the highlight of the entire trip, a spicy, creamy concoction of chicken enchiladas in a white jalapeno sauce just... defies description.

I'd gotten the recommendation to stop there for dinner, and due to a total of eight(!) hours worth of flight delays putting me into Austin at 10:00 pm, thought I'd missed my chance. I got a bit lost looking for my hotel, and suddenly, without warning, found myself on a freeway frontage road that spit me directly into a Chuy's parking lot. Clearly, it was meant to be.
I picked up a T-shirt and an order of enchiladas to take back to the hotel which turned out to be just up the street. After sixteen straight hours of travel, I can't even begin to accurately describe the bliss that was, when the very first bite bit back. I've found that meals described as "spicy" on a menu almost never actually are, so that these were really and truly spicy right off the menu was a real treat... but aside from that, they were just... delicious. Sid was not kiddin'.