Posted on March 29th, 2009
I have a huge backlog of photos to edit, and I just made my situation even worse by taking almost 400 over the weekend. Still, I wanted to share this “family photo” from a trip we took back in September to the New Brunswick, Canada to see the Bay of Fundy.
That’s our dog, Romeo, and he just wouldn’t sit still for a photo. We almost had it with this one, but at the last second before the camera clicked he jumped in my lap and surprised the heck out of me. Oh well. No family photos for us.
Posted on June 30th, 2008
Our new puppy has an interesting way of evaluating if something is worth chewing: the more you try to take it away, the more he wants to keep it. Sometimes this makes for great fun, like when he’s playing tug-of-war with you. Sometimes it makes for a real headache, like when he’s carrying off your socks.
It turns out the solution was to teach him the command “trade.” Whenever he’s chewing something he shouldn’t, you corner him, say “trade,” and then present him with a treat. He has to decide if he wants the new-found toy or if he wants the treat. Most of the time his appetite prevails, and he’ll drop the toy to take the treat. If you can quickly get the toy out of his sight, he’ll completely forget it exists.
People work the same way. Deny them something they want, and they’ll work extra hard to get it back. Give them something better, let them voluntarily choose to take it, and they’ll completely forget about the first thing in a hurry. Think about how many people use iTunes and Hulu today who downloaded from Napster and Gnutella in the past.
