Bella's Blog

Bella Like Novelty

10/15/2012

What's novel in the first pic is the way Bella used the Kong to add interest to a leash sculpt comprised of overlapping circles, similar to designs she's done before. Each day, I stuff three Kongs for the three dogs, usually with a combo of peanut butter and sweet potato. I freeze the stuffed Kongs so that the pleasure of de stuffing them will last longer. Like the Kong, the Octopus has been around for awhile. What's new is the way Bella used it. Bella was clipped to the family room tie out leash just minutes before the second photo was taken. I unclipped her to take her to another part of the house and bingo, she put the Octopus at the end of the leash in her place. She's done this before with the Black Pups (see 7-6-11 entry). The Octopus has more possibilities though, what with its wide open eyes and floppy legs. Bella arranged it in a way that looks almost coy -- she gives that impression herself sometimes.

Scenting for Fun

8/21/2012

I'm hiding something for Bella in a eucalyptus grove when a boy on a bike stops and asks, "What are you doing?" "It's a game for my dog," I explain. I invite him to sniff the small tin box which contains a scent called Sweet Birch. "You can watch if you want." I get Bella out of the car. Bella wants to greet the boy, so I let her lick his hand for a moment. Then I get Bella's attention and tell her to "search." She catches the scent quickly and follows it the little red box, which she touches with her paw to let me know she's found it. I give her a treat. The boy is obviously impressed. When it's time to go, he pets Bella while I put stuff in the car. "Load up, Bellaroo," I say affectionately and she hops in. "Good bye, Bellaroo," the boy says with a smile.

Does Bella See Colors?

6/5/2012

What humans see.

What dogs see.

Dogs see only part of the range of colors that humans see and are typically red/green color-blind. Photos of Bella's constructions show the full spectrum of light and color seen by the human eye. What does Bella see when she uses red or green objects as part of her creations? I found a color blindness simulator which helps shed light on this question http://www.colblindor.com/coblis-color-blindness-simulator/. The first photo for this entry shows one of Bella's older constructions, made up of three red objects. The second photo, generated by the simulator, seems to be an example of the dichromatic vision found in dogs. I suspect that Bella found the strong contrast of the ball, leash and heart against the light carpet appealing, which is why she used them to make a sculpt, arranging them in a curve shape, easily recognized by humans. Bella's sense of line and form is more fluid and sophisticated today, the result of a process which seems to be internally motivated. The colors of the rainbow are great, but color isn't everything....

Kepu Goes Tail to Tail With a Pup

10/13/2011

Bella's not the only one to arrange herself with a pup at the end of her tail. Here, Bella made an elegant construction then retired into her canvas crate. Then Kepu came along and made himself part of her construction by lying tail to tail with one of the black pups. The evidence suggests that Bella sees the pups as "dog like" and similar to herself. She also seems to understand that the pups are different from the stuffed deer. Is Kepu learning to see the world Bella's way? Perhaps Aaron was right when he said that Kepu sees Bella as a star and he wants to be one too!

Aaron's Visit

10/7/2011

The dogs were thrilled when our nephew Aaron came to visit. In honor of the occasion, I brought out a colorful new toy for Bella. Ordinarily, Kepu leaves the plush toys to Bella, but he was excited to have company and grabbed the new toy, eager to get in on the action. "He wants to be a star like Bella," said Aaron, who had been touring Bella's website. While Aaron played with the dogs, I sewed a decorative collar on one of the black "pups," wondering if Bella would treat it like a new toy. I was delighted when she took the pup in her mouth and began rolling around with it, making it squeak repeatedly. On the last day, Bella placed the pup with the decorative collar on the floor at the foot of Aaron's bed, signaling that she was happy to have him with us. Shortly after we said good bye, I found Bella resting in the living room with the black pup at the end of her tail, both facing towards the door through which Aaron left.

Scene of the Crime

8/2/2011

I got a roast chicken out of the refrigerator, and then the phone rang. The chicken was gone when I returned a few minutes later. I wondered if Bella nabbed it, but there were no bones on the ground and no sign of the plastic dish the chicken was in. I looked in the refrigerator, then in the trash -- nothing. I told my husband that the chicken was missing, then left with Bella for dog class. When I got home, hubby told me that he'd found the plastic dish under the sheet which covers his drum set, and it was licked clean. A few days later, I found that Bella had laid her tiger braid in a line from the edge of the rug to the edge of the sheet where the chicken dish was hidden, as if to cordon off the entry to the kitchen and memorialize her little caper.

Tiger Braid

6/13/2011

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At the time I started photographing Bella, in May 2010, she wasn’t making constructions; she was just so sweet and pretty and did such cute things playing with her toys that it was fun to take pictures of her. Many dogs dislike having a camera pointed at them, or flash bulbs going off, but Bella didn’t seem to mind. In fact, it wasn’t long before she would pause for the extra moment needed so I could “get the shot.” Reflecting on Sally’s comment, the thought occurred to me that my little Kodak camera was probably giving Bella feedback about things that pleased me, encouraging her experimentation with her cloth toys to evolve into the making of constructions. The transformation took place gradually and, for a long time, I wasn’t sure what I was seeing I did wonder if the increasingly lovely things Bella was doing with her cloth toys might be purposeful behavior. Bella would curl up and use the tiger braid to frame herself, so that it followed the curve of her back, or she would lie down with back arched and upwardly curved tail, her fleece ball at the tip. My heart would melt on these occasions, and I would run and snatch the camera. One day, I walked into the living room to read on the couch, and there at my feet was Bella’s tiger braid, arranged in a perfect right angle aligned with the corner of the rug. This was the “aha” moment for me. Bella had carefully made a right angle with the braid and placed it by my reading station on the couch, so that I would find it when I went to sit down. It was obvious that she had done this with intention, and this realization filled me with happiness. Little did I know that I would have occasion to feel this kind of happiness again and again as Bella’s making of constructions took hold.

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Two Braid Sculpture

6/6/2011

The cloth toys which make up Bella’s constructions are mostly plush fleece, and they’re indoor toys, according to the rules of the house. The living room is her favorite spot for sunbathing, playing with her toys, and seems to be the experimental lab for her constructions. Many of her early constructions, or sculpts as I sometimes call them, were made of fleece braids measuring 3 to 5 ft. long, which Bella arranged in single or double loops. If two braids happened to be out, Bella would come up with a construction using both of them -- like a true herding dog, Bella likes to bring the things in her care together. She also has her own ideas about where certain things should be, such as the early Tiger Braid/Zebra Braid Sculpt which Bella chose to place in the middle of the front hallway, and a Two Braid Sculpt made several months later, which she boldly placed in the doorway to the kitchen, the most high value location in the house.

Welcome to Bella’s Blog

5/18/2011

Welcome to Bella’s Blog, a journal of life in the contact zone, that place where dog and human meet. I thought I’d jump right in by sharing a delightful interaction I had with Bella a couple of months ago. I was standing in front of the bathroom mirror combing my hair when I noticed that Bella was standing behind me, watching me in the mirror. Our eyes met, and a playful thought came to me. With both of us facing the mirror, I made the arm motion for down and asked Bella to down. Down she went, watching me intently in the mirror. Then I used the hand signal for get up, and asked her to sit, and of course she did that, too. Chuckling, I did the down up sequence with her one more time. Dogs can’t chuckle the way we do, but Bella found another way of expressing her pleasure in the exchange because I walked out of the bathroom to find an elegant single loop sculpt waiting for me in the hallway, as you can see from the photo which accompanies this entry.