This IS a rescue story.

A woman who knew no bounds when it came to rescuing three large dogs.

This is such a beautiful account of Veronica Shea taking action, and personal risks, to provide, firstly trust, and then love for Princess George, Grace and Steve, as they were named. The story was published on The Dodo.

Please read for yourself.

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Woman Visits Mountain Every Day To Convince Huge Dogs To Let Her Rescue Them

“They couldn’t be touched. They couldn’t be leashed. They were just terrified.”

By Elizabeth Claire Alberts

Published on the 26th October, 2023

In 2020, Veronica Shea was out hiking with her dog in the Angeles National Forest in California, when she spotted something strange moving ahead of them.

“We whip around the curve, and I look over and there was this huge black thing,” Shea told The Dodo. “He went up the side of a cliff.”

Veronica Shea

Shea followed the furry animal and came face to face with three malnourished dogs alone in the wilderness. Realizing the dogs had been abandoned, she knew she had to help them. Every day for several weeks, Shea trudged up the mountain to feed the dogs and work on gaining their trust.

Veronica Shea

Slowly, the dogs got used to her and even began eating out of her hand. But Shea had no idea how to get them off the mountain. If she trapped one dog, would the others flee? She knew she couldn’t do it alone.

Veronica Shea

When she asked for help, a whole team of rescuers stepped forward. Together, they carried equipment up the mountain and put together a makeshift cage. The rescuers carefully lured the dogs inside and carried them down the mountain.

The three dogs —mastiffs named Princess George, Grace and Steve, who are believed to be siblings — were safe now. But they still had a long journey ahead.

Veronica Shea

The rescuers approached Cheri Wulff Lucas, a well known dog behaviorist and trainer in California, to see if she could help the nervous dogs learn to trust again.

“They weren’t adoptable the way they came,” Lucas told The Dodo. “They couldn’t be touched. They couldn’t be leashed. They were just terrified.”

Princess George, Grace and Steve responded well to Lucas’ training. Still, they continued to have a “very strong startle reflex,” said Lucas. This made it difficult to find them the perfect home.

“It was going to take a very special home for them to go into because they’re not the kind of dogs that are going to go to the dog park,” Lucas said. “Even walking them on city streets would be a lot for them. And if they do spook, they weigh 125 pounds, so [they would be] very hard to contain.”

But Lucas knew the dogs were safe on her own property.

“I’m out in the middle of nowhere,” Lucas said. “There’s no traffic around here. You can’t even see another home from here. So if they did get out, they would just come back here to me.”

Veronica Shea

While Lucas never planned on keeping the dogs herself, that’s exactly what she ended up doing. This turned out to be the best decision for everyone. Princess George, Grace, and Steve continued to live in a safe and supportive environment. And Lucas discovered that the dogs could help her with her work as a trainer.

“If I get dogs that needs socialization — to be more familiar and less reactive with other dogs — I use my pack to help rehabilitate them,” Lucas said. “And all three of them are highly social with dogs. They know how to smell properly, how to not overpower the dog that needs the socialization. They’re just flawless. And that’s not something I taught them — they came that way.”

Veronica Shea

The threesome were particularly helpful when Lucas started working with another dog named Andi, who was rescued from a hoarding case.

“She had lived in a pen for seven years without human touch or being leashed or anything and she was terrified,” Lucas said. “They just came in and really made her feel comfortable. It was really sweet to see. They brought her around in a way that I never could as a human.”

Lucas ended up adopting Andi as well, bringing her personal pack of dogs to 12.

Princess George, Grace and Steve have been living with Lucas now for over three years, and they’re completely different dogs now.

“They’re incredibly playful,” Lucas said. “If you came to my house and did not know their backstory, you would think they were like any other dog.”

Lucas describes George as a “couch potato” who loves hanging around the house and socializing with the other dogs. Steve is the one who likes to play endless games of “chase” out in the yard. Grace remains a bit timid, but she shares a very close relationship with Steve.

“They’re pets — they’re really pets now,” she said. “They’re not cases for me anymore.”

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Lucas sums it up perfectly in that last sentence; “They’re pets – they’re really pets now,“

Lucas reminds me of Jean for when we first met, in December 2007, Jean had more than twenty dogs at home, all rescues, and led to me publishing my first book in 2009: Learning from Dogs.

Detecting fakes

Another good article from The Conversation.

I make no apologies for returning to the subject of scams and fakes. Because the advances in the equipment we have for viewing the internet are growing appreciably, and quickly.

We should include scams in this topic. Just a couple of days ago I had a text on my cell-phone that purported to have come from the United States Post Office, the USPS, and at first I was taken in. Luckily I left it for a while and then discovered it was a scam.

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No, you’re not that good at detecting fake videos − 2 misinformation experts explain why and how you can develop the power to resist these deceptions

By

  1. Sam Wineburg Professor of Education and (by courtesy) History, Stanford University
  2. Michael Caulfield Research Scientist, Center for an Informed Public, University of Washington
Are you sure you know what that emotionally jarring video clip really shows?
F.J. Jimenez/Moment via Getty Images

Sam Wineburg, Stanford University and Michael Caulfield, University of Washington

Someone tracking the conflict raging in the Middle East could have seen the following two videos on social media. The first shows a little boy hovering over his father’s dead body, whimpering in Arabic, “Don’t leave me.” The second purports to show a pregnant woman with her stomach slashed open and claims to document the testimony of a paramedic who handled victims’ bodies after Hamas’ attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Even though these videos come from different sides of the Israel-Hamas war, what they share far exceeds what separates them. Because both videos, though real, have nothing to do with the events they claim to represent. The clip of the boy is from Syria in 2016; the one of the woman is from Mexico in 2018.

Cheap but effective fakes

Recent headlines warn of sophisticated, AI-driven deepfakes. But it is low-tech cheap fakes like these that fuel the latest round of disinformation. Cheap fakes are the Swiss army knife in the propagandist’s tool belt. Changing a date, altering a location or even repurposing a clip from a video game and passing it off as battlefield combat require little know-how yet effectively sow confusion.

The Israel-Hamas war has unleashed a flood of fake videos on social media.

The good news is that you can avoid being taken in by these ruses – not by examining the evidence closely, which is liable to mislead you, but by waiting until trusted sources verify what you’re looking at. This is often hard to do, however.

Most people are ill-equipped to detect this kind of trickery. Research that we review in our new book, “Verified: How to Think Straight, Get Duped Less, and Make Better Decisions about What to Believe Online,” shows that almost everyone falls for it.

In the largest survey of its kind, 3,446 high school students evaluated a video on social media that purported to show election fraud in the 2016 Democratic primary. Students could view the whole video, part of it or leave the footage to search the internet for information about it. Typing a few keywords into their browsers would have led students to articles from Snopes and the BBC debunking the video. Only three students – less than one-tenth of 1% – located the true source of the video, which had, in fact, been shot in Russia.

Your lying eyes

Why were students so consistently duped? The problem, we’ve found, is that many people, young and old alike, think they can look at something online and tell what it is. You don’t realize how easily your eyes can be deceived – especially by footage that triggers your emotions.

When an incendiary video dodges your prefrontal cortex and lands in your solar plexus, the first impulse is to share your outrage with others. What’s a better course of action? You might assume that it is to ask whether the clip is true or false. But a different question – rather, a set of related questions – is a better starting place.

  • Do you really know what you’re looking at?
  • Can you really tell whether the footage is from atrocities committed by Russian forces in the Donbas just because the headline blares it and you’re sympathetic to the Ukrainian cause?
  • Is the person who posted the footage an established reporter, someone who risks their status and prestige if it turns out to be fake, or some random person?
  • Is there a link to a longer video – the shorter the clip, the more you should be wary – or does it claim to speak for itself, even though the headline and caption leave little room for how to connect the dots?

These questions require no advanced knowledge of video forensics. They require you only to be honest with yourself. Your inability to answer these questions should be enough to make you realize that, no, you don’t really know what you’re looking at.

Patience is a powerful tool

Social media reports of “late-breaking news” are not likely to be reporting at all, but they are often pushed by rage merchants wrapping an interpretation around a YouTube video accompanied by lightning bolt emojis and strings of exclamation points. Reliable reporters need time to establish what happened. Rage merchants don’t. The con artist and the propagandist feed on the impatient. Your greatest information literacy superpower is learning to wait.

If there are legs to the video, rest assured you’re not the only one viewing it. There are many people, some of whom have mastered advanced techniques of video analysis, who are likely already analyzing it and trying to get to the bottom of it.

You won’t have to wait long to learn what they’ve found.

Sam Wineburg, Professor of Education and (by courtesy) History, Stanford University and Michael Caulfield, Research Scientist, Center for an Informed Public, University of Washington

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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I hope you found this of interest. We live in many ways in a really strange world; I am talking about the digital world, of course.

Picture Parade Four Hundred and Eleven

Back to Unsplash!

Photo by __ drz __ on Unsplash

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Photo by Kieran White on Unsplash

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Photo by Karl Anderson on Unsplash

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Photo by FLOUFFY on Unsplash

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Golly, this next one looks a lot like my Pharaoh who died in 2017. Long gone but not forgotten!

Photo by Kinshuk Bose on Unsplash

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Photo by Connor Home on Unsplash

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Photo by Ja San Miguel on Unsplash

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Photo by Oscar Sutton on Unsplash

Just prefect animals. Love them!.

Six fabulous videos of dogs

A YouTube video presented to you all.

I came across this collection of videos, all short, that have been combined into a single YouTube video.

Here is the text that came with that video.

Many know that dogs are wonderful pets that quickly turn into family. These inspiring dog stories highlight the impact a dog rescue, recovery, or reunion can make in the lives of everyday Americans. From a veteran’s emotional reunion with his beloved dog to a dog surviving a bullet wound, here are great stories of dogs and the people who love them.

Very Local

Just ten minutes long it is nevertheless a fabulous account of our closest animal friend.

This year’s Reith Lecture

“The Future of Democracy” is, for me, incredibly interesting.

I haven’t a clue as to how long I have been listening to the annual Reith Lecture on BBC Radio 4. It has been many years.

As Wikipedia explains:

The Reith Lectures is a series of annual BBC radio lectures given by leading figures of the day. They are commissioned by the BBC and broadcast on Radio 4 and the World Service. The lectures were inaugurated in 1948 to mark the historic contribution made to public service broadcasting by Lord Reith, the corporation’s first director-general.

Reith maintained that broadcasting should be a public service that aimed to enrich the intellectual and cultural life of the nation. It is in this spirit that the BBC each year invites a leading figure to deliver the lectures. The aim is to advance public understanding and debate about issues of contemporary interest.

Wikipedia
From the BBC’s History of the BBC.

As the BBC explains on the BBC Sounds website:

Released On: 29 Nov 2023

Available for over a year

This year’s BBC Reith Lecturer is Ben Ansell, Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at Nuffield College, Oxford University.

He will deliver four lectures called “Our Democratic Future,” asking how we can build a politics that works for all of us with systems which are robust to the challenges of the twenty first century, from climate change to artificial intelligence. In this first lecture, recorded at New Broadcasting House in London in front of an audience, Professor Ansell asks whether we are in a ‘democratic recession’, where longstanding democracies are at risk of breakdown and authoritarianism is resurgent. And he examines how resilient democracies are to the challenges of artificial intelligence, social media and if they can effectively address core challenges from climate change to inequality.

The Reith Lectures are presented by Anita Anand and produced by Jim Frank. The Editor is China Collins. Reith Co-ordinator is Brenda Brown. The series is mixed by Rod Farquhar and Neil Churchill.

Here is the link to that first lecture: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001sty4

Ben Ansell’s website is here, from which I have taken this:

Welcome to my website. I am Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at Nuffield College, University of Oxford. My work focuses on a variety of issues in political economy, including both comparative politics and international relations.

I am also co-editor (with David Samuels) of Comparative Political Studies.

My 2010 book, From the Ballot to the Blackboard, published by Cambridge University Press, is available here. My 2014 book (with David Samuels), Inequality and Democratization: An Elite-Competition Approach, published by Cambridge University Press, is available here.

This site contains a variety of working papers, syllabi, my biography, and other information about my academic work. My CV is available here.

Picture Parade Four Hundred and Ten

Some fantastic photographs of owls!

This is a change of subject for today’s Picture Parade.

I have been for some time complimenting my son on his brilliant photographs. I have been admiring them on Instagram but, of course, one cannot copy them from there. So Alex sent me the following by email.

Plus, Alex has rightly copyrighted these photographs and also states that his Instagram profile is @Alex_handover_photography. There are more of Alex’s photographs to admire over on Instagram.

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These are fabulous and just endorses the care and attention that Alex puts into his photography.

Just a wonderful video of a dog rescue

Perfect for the last day of November, 2023!

It is also Jean’s birthday and a happy day all round.

I saw this three minute video yesterday and just had to share it with you all!

I saw it first on The Dodo but then I found it was also on YouTube which is much easier from my blogging point of view.

An inspiring TED Talk

Hannah Ritchie raises a very important question.

I was born in London before the end of World War II and to a great extent my upbringing was in the times of yesterday. But the world has moved on in many, many ways. It is too easy to say that we live in very strange times.

Thus it was enlightening to come across this talk, under the TED Talks banner, quite recently. I have great pleasure in sharing it with you. Plus, Hannah’s website is here. (From which I have taken the following words!)

(P.S. The YouTube video is just over thirteen minutes long. It automatically runs into the next video so you will have to stop it yourself.)

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The word “sustainability” gets thrown around a lot these days. But what does it actually mean for humanity to be sustainable? Environmental data scientist Hannah Ritchie digs into the numbers behind human progress across centuries, unpacking why the conventional understanding of sustainability is misleading and showing how we can be the first generation of humans to actually achieve it.

Why you should listen

Hannah Ritchie is deputy editor and research lead at Our World in Data, an online publication making data and research on the world’s largest problems accessible and understandable for non-experts. She is a senior researcher at the University of Oxford, where she studies how environmental issues intersect with others like poverty, global health and education. She has also done extensive research into the question of how to feed everyone in the world a nutritious diet without wrecking the planet. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vox, Wired, BBC, Al Jazeera, The Economist and New Scientist.

In 2022, Ritchie was named Scotland’s Youth Climate Champion. She is also an honorary fellow at the University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation, and a fellow at the Energy for Growth Hub, focused on ending global energy poverty. Her forthcoming book, The First Generation, makes an evidence-based case for why we have a meaningful chance to solve global environmental problems for the first time in human history.

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It is a very inspiring talk; please watch it!

Picture Parade Four Hundred and Nine

The last Sunday in November but still with Unsplash.

Photo by Hannah Lim on Unsplash

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Photo by Ash on Unsplash

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Photo by James Barker on Unsplash

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Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash

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Photo by Anoir Chafik on Unsplash

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Photo by Richard Brutyo on Unsplash

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Photo by Bruce Warrington on Unsplash

There you are! More beautiful dogs and, again, the most beautiful photographs.

A new website found

Well it was new to me!

But first of all I should pass on a Very Happy Thanksgiving to you all. I apologise for forgetting to write this yesterday when I was preparing this post.

I came across the Dog Training Academy site the other day and found it full of tips. I trust that with the link in place in this post I can republish articles that are found on it.

For example, on July 14th, 2023 Laura Brown published a post on the philosophy of dog training. Here is the article.

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Developing a Effective Dog Training Philosophy: Techniques and Strategies

Dog training philosophy refers to the underlying principles and beliefs that guide how dog owners train and interact with their furry companions. Different dog owners have different philosophies when it comes to training their dogs, and each approach can have a significant impact on the dog’s behavior and well-being.

In this article, we’ll explore the different dog training philosophies and the benefits and drawbacks of each approach.

Positive Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement is a popular dog training philosophy that involves rewarding desired behaviors with treats, praise, or other positive stimuli. The idea is to encourage dogs to repeat behaviors that lead to positive outcomes while discouraging behaviors that lead to negative outcomes.

Positive reinforcement is a humane and effective way to train dogs. It builds trust and strengthens the bond between the owner and the dog. It’s also an enjoyable and rewarding experience for both the dog and the owner.

One potential drawback of positive reinforcement is that it can be time-consuming. Owners must be patient and consistent in rewarding desired behaviors, and it may take longer for some dogs to learn new behaviors than others.

Punishment-Based Training

Punishment-based training is a dog training philosophy that involves punishing undesirable behaviors with negative stimuli, such as physical correction or verbal scolding. The idea is to discourage dogs from repeating behaviors that lead to negative outcomes while encouraging behaviors that lead to positive outcomes.

Punishment-based training can be effective in stopping unwanted behaviors quickly. However, it can also have negative consequences for the dog’s emotional well-being. Dogs that are punished frequently may become fearful or aggressive, and their trust in their owners may be damaged.

Moreover, punishment-based training can result in a negative relationship between the owner and the dog. Dogs may learn to fear their owners, which can lead to a breakdown in communication and a lack of trust.

Dominance-Based Training

Dominance-based training is a dog training philosophy that is based on the belief that dogs are pack animals that instinctively seek to establish a social hierarchy. The idea is to assert dominance over the dog and establish the owner as the pack leader.

Dominance-based training can be effective in certain situations, such as when dealing with aggressive dogs. However, it can also be harmful to the dog’s emotional well-being. Dogs that are subjected to dominance-based training may become fearful, anxious, or aggressive, and their trust in their owners may be damaged.

Moreover, the concept of dominance in dog behavior has been debunked by many dog behaviorists and trainers. While dogs do live in social groups and establish hierarchies, the idea that dogs constantly seek to establish dominance over their owners is not supported by scientific evidence.

Relationship-Based Training

Relationship-based training is a dog training philosophy that is based on the belief that dogs are social animals that thrive on positive interactions with their owners. The idea is to build a strong, positive relationship between the owner and the dog, which will lead to a well-behaved and happy dog.

Relationship-based training is a humane and effective way to train dogs. It emphasizes positive reinforcement and building a strong bond between the owner and the dog. It also encourages owners to understand their dog’s behavior and to communicate effectively with their furry companion.

One potential drawback of relationship-based training is that it can be time-consuming. It requires a significant amount of effort and dedication on the part of the owner to build a strong relationship with their dog. Moreover, some dogs may require more time and effort to establish a strong bond with their owner.

Balanced Training

Balanced training is a dog training philosophy that combines elements of positive reinforcement, punishment-based training, and dominance-based training. The idea is to use a variety of training methods to achieve the desired behavior in the dog.

Balanced training can be effective in certain situations, such as when dealing with complex behavior issues. However, it can also be confusing and overwhelming for dogs. They may not understand what behavior is being rewarded or punished, and their trust in their owner may be compromised.

Moreover, balanced training can lead to a lack of consistency in the training approach, which can confuse the dog and make it difficult for them to learn new behaviors.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there are different dog training philosophies, and each approach can have a significant impact on the dog’s behavior and well-being. Positive reinforcement and relationship-based training are generally considered to be the most humane and effective ways to train dogs. Punishment-based and dominance-based training can have negative consequences for the dog’s emotional well-being and may damage the relationship between the owner and the dog.

Balanced training can be effective in certain situations, but it requires a significant amount of skill and knowledge to implement properly. Moreover, it can be confusing and overwhelming for dogs, and their trust in their owner may be compromised.

As a dog owner, it’s essential to understand the different dog training philosophies and choose the approach that best suits your dog’s needs and personality. It’s also essential to seek the advice of a professional dog trainer or behaviorist if you’re experiencing issues with your dog’s behavior. A trained professional can help you identify the underlying causes of your dog’s behavior and develop a training plan that will address those issues effectively.

In the end, the goal of dog training should be to build a strong, positive relationship between the owner and the dog. When dogs are well-trained, happy, and healthy, they make wonderful companions and enrich our lives in countless ways. By choosing the right dog training philosophy and approach, you can help your furry friend become the best possible version of themselves.

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As I said at the beginning, I hope republishing this text is alright. Because I think it is a very good article from a very useful website.