#I won’t give y’all my personal answer to remove bias

[poohbea]

Okay I wanna solve this once and for all, FOR SCIENCE cause I’m a stem girlie AND cause I’m tryna see sum… also BE REALISTIC with who you choose.

[theexleynatureblog]

Time to talk Vaccines

I will start off with a bias - I am not anti-vax. Why? Because I come from a science background - more ecology and behavior than biochemistry - so I have a lot of exposure to ‘sciency’ stuff.  I am no expert - in fact I barely passed college introductory chemistry with a B - but as sick and tired of I am of listening to anti-vax propaganda everywhere online (and it’s rising importance to modern events) I have to put in my two cents. If y’all won’t listen to over a thousand different scientists with varying degrees and levels of experience, maybe you’ll listen to a cranky college kid who can give you the scoop in plan English.

History of vaccines gives a good, in-depth lessons about where vaccines first came from - if your interested in that aspect. In summary, it covers ancient variants of vaccines, up to Edward Jenner’s 1796 cowpox vaccine, and continued development through the 1930′s. **Penicillin may be the most popular product, but it is used against dangerous bacteria, not virus’. More information here.**

To start off simply: what is a virus? Personally, I like to think about them as tiny robots - lifelike but not living. This question is actually a hot-topic debated by the science community, because we can’t agree on whether or not they are even living. This article from 2008 seems to cover the debate pretty well. Viruses are smaller, and in terms of what they’re made of and how they work, simpler than cells.

This picture gives a good idea of sizes. Note that everything in this picture is microscopic, and cannot be seen with the naked eye. This photo is computer-generated based on information from what we’ve seen in microscopes. Corona-virus is the dark blue circle second from the left. On the far right is what’s probably a typical animal cell. The blue bean thing next to Coronavirus is a bacteria, which are living things and operate differently than viruses, though some bacteria can make people sick. Check out this article for more info on bacteria.

So viruses are smaller than cells, they are also built different. Simply put, viruses are a case of protein with a string of DNA inside. Off the bat, this sounds really similar to bacteria, but there’s one major difference: bacteria can duplicate themselves and viruses cannot. The politically correct term is ‘binary fission’, a kind of asexual reproduction that is basically an organism copying all it’s DNA, splitting the two strains apart, and then stretching everything else into two separate things. I won’t go into all the complex terms and functions (you can read about it more here). All you need to understand is it is a complex possess that requires machinery that virus’ don’t have. So how do virus’ reproduce? They sneak into other cells and hijack their machinery to produce more viruses. 

Because viruses and cells have been living together since life began on this planet billions of years ago, cells have developed forms of protection (from viruses and bacteria). A ‘lock’, basically all across the cell surface. So in order for viruses to continue, they needed to develop a ‘key’. This is why viruses have a host of different shapes. Coronavirus is named after the crown-like spikes, which are proteins that help invade a living cell. Read more about how viruses invade cells here.

Phew! That was a lot, and we haven’t even gotten into vaccine’s yet! That’s because in order to understand vaccines, you have to have some understanding of the thing they are built to fight. The question becomes: If a virus is considered not living, how do you fight it? How do you kill something that’s not alive?

The most obvious answer is just taking it apart. A virus can’t do it’s thing if it’s broken down into single elements. But, as we discussed earlier, viruses are super small. We can barely see them in microscopes (we have to use a super microscope called an Electron microscopes). There’s no physically possible or safe way to crush up/rip apart a virus. Using radiation, water, or fire isn’t practical either. Sure - fire will destroy anything, but you can’t light up a 5-year-old with the flu. Techniques of disassembling viruses are currently being studied, but we still have a lot to learn. 

So, if we can’t break it apart, the only thing we can do is stop it from spreading. This is basically how our immune system works. If a cell is infected, it will send  a piece of the viral protein, to another cell: T-cells. T-cells are cells of the immune system. One type of immune system cell will send a toxin to kill the infected cell, trapping the virus inside and preventing spread. If the toxin doesn’t kill the cell, the rapid replication of the virus will eventually cause it to burst. (Imagine a chicken egg with a thousand chicks falling out). The downside of this is if the virus spreads to fast, and hits important places like the lungs, and a lot of important cells die... whelp, the fight is over. Unlike most parasites that depend on their hosts to be alive and collect nutrients for them, viruses are more reckless - it doesn't’ matter how many cells die as long as the virus keeps spreading.

The other immune defense systems are via interferon and (more commonly known) antibodies. Interferon's work inside a host cell to stop a virus from hijacking a cell’s DNA replication machines while also alerting immune cells to an infection. Antibodies fight against viruses that have not yet entered a cell. Remember back to the ‘lock’ and ‘key’ thing? Here’s where it comes to play! Antibodies stick to the protein of viruses by matching the ‘key’ shapes. If you stick a wad of gum onto you house key, it won’t be able to fit in the lock, and you can’t get into your house. It’s basically the same thing. Antibodies can also make viruses stick together - making them easier to destroy, and also can send a signal to a cell to engulf and destroy a virus.

The reaaaaaaallllllly cool part is that antibodies can ‘remember what viruses look like’. Antibodies hold onto little bits of the virus - proteins - so they can recognize another infection. (Link)  Naturally, whenever we are infected, we produce antibodies for that specific virus/bacteria, however - they only work if A) we survive the initial infection, and B) if we keep getting infected by that specific strain/type of virus. Viruses come in all kinds of shapes and chemical makeups. Even them, groups of viruses within the same ‘species’ can have unique kinds of protein. This is why you need to get a flu shot every year - the shot isn’t for ‘the flue’, it is for the current strain of the flu spreading. (Article from UAB Medicine).

In order to fight viruses, we need to keep our immune system healthy and produce antibodies. In olden days, the way we produced antibodies was by getting infected and working up herd immunity (healthy individuals with antibodies prevent the spread of a disease to those without immunity). The problem with this is: it doesn’t always work. Nature in our world is build on the process of one force creating a wall and an opposing force finding a new way to break it (think Jurassic Park’s life will find a way). As long a pathway exists, a virus will find a way to use it. Herd immunity also works by selecting and removing the weakest links in the group - individuals who cannot fight an infection well die and stop spreading the virus. It works in nature, but in terms of human civilization - it’s not very nice. It is also unbiased, in the natural world. Wild animals have an equal opportunity to be healthy enough to fight an infection - besides those with genetic issues. We should all be painfully aware that human civilization no longer operates on this fair playing field. Only those with a good social and economic standing have the opportunity to be healthy enough. Remember this before you argue ‘herd immunity’.

All this in mind, vaccines are the last reasonable option. According to the CDC, a vaccine consists of a weakened virus or part of a virus introduced to the body so it can produce antibodies. That’s it. Seems like a really cleaver idea, don’t it?

But hang on: you got sick after taking a vaccine? If your symptoms are runny nose/coughing, good news! That’s not the vaccine - it’s you. (CDC article on why vaccine are safer than exposure)  After detecting an infection (even if its not a active virus) the immune system releases histamine, which causes inflamed blood veins and access mucus - sneezing. This can discharge virons, but also used by them to spread to a new host. Some symptoms, like a wet cough, are caused by a viral infection. Fever’s are another example of a immune response, not directly caused by a virus. It’s our brain trying to cook and break apart the proteins of the virus.

The hot topic about vaccines is they are full of scary chemicals that people don’t want to have injected into them. So lets take a closer look at one example, the influenza vaccine.

Formaldehyde - yikes! Scary sounding for sure - formaldehyde is well known for being used in embalming, and linked to cancer. What is less know is it is also an essential building block in lots of items, like building and construction, personal care and consumer products, and automobile manufacturing. The following picture is the chemical molecule.

It is a simply enough molecule made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Formaldehyde naturally occurs in the environment, as most living things produce it as part of the metabolic processes (breaking down and absorbing food). At room temperature, formaldehyde is a gas that can be dangerous to inhale in large amounts. When it comes to vaccines, the purpose of formaldehyde is to deactivate the virus - so it doesn’t actually start infecting cells. In small amounts like this, it is harmless. Personally, I’d be more worried about the gaseous forms.

Aluminum Salts - these include hydroxide and phosphate. The purpose of these chemicals in vaccines is to help the body activate it’s immune response.  hydroxide is basically any molecule with hydrogen and oxygen - example, water, and hydrogen dioxide. (What makes molecules dangerous is not necessarily their elements, it is how they are connected). Once again, these are present in amounts too small to be harmful both short and long term.

Thimerosal - This is the ingredient that has anti-vaxxer’s shouting “Oh no theirs mercury!” but that’s not completely true. Since the 1930′s, it has been used in a wide variety of products. It’s purpose is to prevent contamination of the product (vaccine) by bacteria and fungi. Without it, vaccines run the risk of exposing patients to a serious infection. It’s not even used in every vaccine - only ones that require multiple doses, the ones that are at the highest risk of contamination. Thimerosal comes from an inorganic form of mercury called ethylmercury, which is different than other forms of mercury as it does not remain in the body long enough to cause damage. ALSO: this is not the same compound as methylmercury, a toxic compound found in fish due to pollution. 

Chicken Egg proteins - Egg proteins are used to grow a virus before it is put into a vaccine. The virus and the proteins are separated, but there is risk of chicken proteins still being in the vaccine - bad news for people with allergies. This is why it’s important to discuss any allergies with your doctor. Exposure of this protein to people with allergies has not been documented as fatal, but still must be carefully monitored. Luckily, egg-free versions do exist.

Gelatin - this material acts as a stabilizer, keeping the vaccine effective as it enters the body. It protects the vaccine from effects of heat, and freeze drying. Most vaccines use pork-based gelatin, which means people with severe pork allergies should discuss more options with their doctors. 

Antibiotics - antibiotics in vaccines work with Thimerosal to prevent the growth of dangerous bacteria. The antibiotics involved are not allergy-risks, and used in lots of other lotions and ointments. 

So, there is one example. Dealing with stuff that we don’t know or don’t fully understand can be combated by simple research. If you are concerned about the ingredients in a certain vaccine, do some research! Remember - it’s not always what chemicals, but what form they are in. 

[bookenders]

Cutting Down the House

I talk with a lot of novelists, and when I mention I’m a short story writer, most, if not all of them, say the same thing:

“I don’t know how you can write something so short! That takes real skill.”

Like, sure. But long form is, in my opinion, a lot harder. How you can write something so LONG? How do you fill all that space? Where do you find all those words??

But I’m not here to fawn over novelists (again). I’m here to help y’all figure out how to cut, green, trim, and slim down your prose. I’m talking short stories, flash fiction, micro fiction, and other short stacks. 

(I have an obvious bias for short stories because that’s what I do the most.)

Here’s How I Write Short Fiction:

[Under the cut, because long post is looong.]

Let’s Begin

What kind of stories are short stories?

Shorts are somewhere between 1,000-10,000 words on average, less than that is Flash. You’ll see a lot of disagreement on how long a short story can be, but I recommend capping it around 10,000.  [NOTE: Most literary magazines only accept less than 10,000/8,000/5,000 word stories. It varies.] 

I usually put the short story cap at around 20 pages because one time someone turned in a 30+ page story in a workshop out of spite and everyone was very salty about it. 

In a more vague sense, any story can be a short story. It’s all about how you tell it. I mean, I’d pay good money to see someone shorten The Epic of Gilgamesh into a short story and make it good, but you get what I’m saying. I’ve read fairy tales, war stories, romances, holiday fluff, deadbeat father stories, midlife crisis tales, murders, you name it. If you can think it, you can do it.

The trick of the trade lies in - 

Construction

How do you structure a short story?

You don’t have a lot of space, so, like poetry, you gotta make it count. 

[Actually, I recommend trying out writing some poetry, or using it as a warm-up of some kind. Learn some poetic devices because that stuff is crazy helpful. I’m constantly thanking my English teachers and that one poetry class I took for teaching me how to be succinct.]

You don’t have the time to expand everything like you might in a novel. So you gotta whittle down your plot to a few basic steps. Just like an essay. (Eugh.) 

I think of short stories as mini arcs. If you are a long form guru, try to think of a short like a single scene. If you’re doing scenes right, that means that each one has its own arc. Beginning, middle, end, emotional change, ending on a positive, negative, or neutral as long as it’s different from where it starts, the works. But a whole lot more localized and focused. 

In my mind, a mini arc goes like this (and keep in mind, my stories are usually single location, limited cast, dialogue light, and interiority heavy):

The protagonist is in a place (physical and/or emotional) that can be changed and will change. This is your opening paragraph(s) / first page (if you’re writing a longer story, or your structure is a slow start for pacing). Start answering questions: who are they, what do they want, why can’t they get it?

Inciting incident occurs. This, ideally, happens in the first or second paragraph, no later than the end of the first page. Or before the story and is mentioned as early as possible. In short: it should happen early. A skilled writer can even throw it in the first sentence. 

Rising action is as tight as you can get it. It’s more of an approach than a rise, in my opinion. Everything in this part, or these small scenes, leads to the climax and closing - we’re learning about the character(s) and their world, learning what makes them tick and how they think and how the story leads them where they need to go. In my stories, this is the longest part.

The climax point is typically closer to the end than the beginning. Sometimes it’s the last page, last paragraph, or, my personal favorite, the last sentence. 

The falling action/denouement is, in my opinion, optional. If the climax happens right at the end of the story, you don’t have much room for it, maybe a sentence or two to close it. Otherwise, this is where you tie a bow around your theme(s) and exit on a mic drop.

While you’re planning your arc, keep an eye out for connective tissue, or threads. If you bring back a detail you mention early on when you’re writing the end, it’ll look like you knew what you were doing the entire time. 

The fancy term for this kind of thing is rhyming action. Charles Baxter has a fantastic essay about it (I’ll link to it in the reblog). I highly recommend reading it. Here’s an excerpt that hits the point home:

“...the man... is suddenly struck with what we sometimes call déjà vu, which is only an eerie sense of some repetition, of a time spiral, of things having come around back to themselves... The effect is a bit like prophecy, except prophecy run in reverse, so that it cannot be used for purposes of worldly advancement. Prophecy run forward gives the prophet the power of forecasting and a habit of denunciation. Prophecy run backward, into rhyming action or déjà vu, gives the participant a power of understanding.”

It’s one of my favorite tricks, and once you learn it, you’ll start to see it everywhere. It’s the equivalent of a 3-part thesis statement for writers: optional, but a good structural tool to keep around.

Keeping it SS

Short Stories are Short and Sweet.

It’s all about finding a way to say what you want to say in as few words as possible. Show vs tell guidelines come in handy here, but you have to use some good judgment and decide the right moments to show and the right moments to tell. 

Think about campfire stories. If they’re describing a car, they probably won’t mention any details unless they’re relevant to the plot or message. Do we care if the car is blue? No, unless the color reminds the protagonist of their ex’s nail polish, or something, and that reminder impacts the story in a significant way.

(Details are like dialogue. They advance the plot, reveal character, and/or provide a complication.) 

I once read a character description that went like this: “He was the kind of man to never use two words when one would do.” 

Be that man. Get the point across swiftly and succinctly. But also know when to draw a moment out. It’s a lot of back-and-forth with shorts. And, as always, it depends.

Remember: Like snakes, stories have a beginning, middle, and end. Some are tiny, some are a little bit longer. Sometimes they look cyclical. Keep your SS SS. (Get it? Ssss, like hissing? Snakes? 🐍)

What If I Need to Shorten What I Already Have?

There’s a technique called greening that you should reserve until your final draft. Basically, it’s taking out every single word that can be removed without losing any of the meaning. This includes frankensteining sentences together, removing extraneous modifiers, and leaving out that detail you like but has zero impact on anything relevant. It’s hard, it’s very hard, but it’s an amazing skill to have. 

There’s a great New Yorker article about it, which I will also link to in the reblog.

Have any specific short story questions? 

Shoot me an ask! I’ll do my best to help you out! I write lots of short stories and used to be the fiction editor for a literary magazine, so I’ve got all that juicy editor know-how.

Questions? Ask ‘em! Comments? Make ‘em!

For more writing advice and observations, check out my advice tag.

Like my advice and other writing nonsense? Check out the link to my Ko-Fi in my description!

[wonggu]

Pentagon Ｈ Ｏ Ｔ to ｃｕｔｅ scale?

You demon!! How oculd you possibly ask me this!! How should I answer when all of my babies are rude af but still soft balls of fluff!!!! But I will do it!

- My bias crew naturally come in the front. So I'll start with...

1. Wooseok, I mean have you seen this kid??? From way back in PTG maker, to Runaway era, Wooseok has only ever improved and he's become seriously attractive, enough to rival E'dawn cause he was my number one.

2. E-dawn. I already spoiled it when I said it in Wooseok's but this boy......hngngn......... idk there is just something about him that screams dangerous boy that can kill but at the same time weird ass dude who loves affection but at the same time wants nothing to do with it.

3. Yuto. What else can I say but go watch  'RUNAWAY', 'Like this' and 'Critical Beauty' and tell me if you don't agree with me.

4. Hongseok. His recent posts on fancafe have me up the walls but this boy, no this man, is so goddamned attractive, i could keel over. And the silver/grey/ whatever color that is hair he has is so cool to look at!!!

Cute List:

5. Yan An. Now this man, my son my love, my bias, my shanghai prince, my little food monger, is so GOOD-LOOKING!!! He's so shy and adorable and doesn't believe how good-looking he really is, which mind you, makes him 100489347 more times adorable. I won't really call him hot, cause I LITERALLY CANNOT SEE YAN AN AS ANYTHING BUT THE KID WHO KEPT STUFFING HIS FACE WITH FOOD DURING THE HEYOTV SPECIAL.

6. Yeo One. I mean I never really used to see the beauty that is Changgu but recent revelations (HEYOTV- BRUH THERE IS SO MUCH CONTENT THERE) has brought me to notice how gorgeous PTG visual really is. If you don’t believe me, right Yeo One in tumblr search and look for yourself. I promise you won’t regret it.

7. Kino-ssi. I know y’all probably expected him to be number one or at the front of the list, but yo, Yan An is still the most attractive member in my eyes. Kino, my darling son, is so attractive, and such a good dancer, and so cute, and his aegyo with Yuto MURDERED ME. (What I’m talking about is in their interview for The Star, go watch, I promise you won’t regret it.

8. Jinho, How can I not put him here??? Have you seen this 5ft bundle of joy, DAMNED VOCALS, and cuteness?????????????? I’ll list off a few of the 2984085403820433 god-like things about Jinho. His voice. Hot shit, his voice gives me chills each and every time I hear it. (Take your self into youtube and listen to ‘Thank you’ to expericence the chills). His height. Idk why this is even here but when you put him next to other short members (E’dawn) he becomes this smol acorn that gets carried around  a lot, and idk but that makes me scream in joy. His personality. In PTG maker when (spoiler alert) Shinwon got removed, the poor kid cried endlessly and I honestly feared he’d end up fainting. He’s so pure and loves his members so much, that really makes my heart warm.

Hui. EYYY LEADER!! I think in all kpop groups the leaders are always really strong and really hold the group together. This applies to Hui as well. When watching PTG maker, when the time for elimination came and Shinwon was taken out, he really held himself together and din’t cry, and that showed a strength unlike anything I’d ever seen.

Shinwon: My last member. I love this kid, but I don’t really get to see his charm point. That’s kind of why he’s at the last of my list. He’s talented and adorable, liek all of them are, but I wish he’d stop trying to be so funny and let it come, cause PTG maker had me in tears. He’s hilarious, but now I feel it’s a bit forced so that’s why he’s at the bottom, but he’s chin/cheek? dimple is so adorable and how he eye smiles has me shook

[cynological]

Hey so concerning that post about flip your card that you jsut reblogged, i'm super intrigued by your comment; would you mind sharing some of those ideas you can pull from it? Or referring me to someone/something that would?

Oh boy, buckle your seat belts y’allbecause I’m about to seriously brain dump and write a novel. Hi, my name isNovice Dog Training Nobody and I got some opinions and examples of my terriblyN00bish training mistakes.

Everything you do in dog training relies on communication. Iliked @attackfish’s explanation a LOT, because they address so many good pointsand I’ll try to expand on them and not just re-articulate what they said. One poster mentions how “talking out of turn” got themmoved, and so they never spoke up in class again. Clearly, that is someonesensitive to punishment- a simple verbal warning probably would have worked. Myfirst dog? Raising your voice was more than enough of a punishment for her.Before I knew anything about dog training, I put a prong on her to try to teachher to stop pulling. She hit the end of it once and I don’t think I ever had anissue with her trying to pull on the leash again- and then even so much as apull enough to jingle her tags got her to step way back. And just as moving theabove poster’s card to yellow prevented the poster from being disruptive again,putting a prong on my sensitive cattle dog/bbm and fixing her pulling issue,made them both overtly cautious and left an obvious emotional impact. It does not address the WHY. WHY what the person speaking upin class? WHY was my dog pulling? Were they too amped up and excited? Were theypreemptively answering a question? Trying to chase a car? Did they know theywere not supposed to speak during that time and made the conscious decision todo it anyway? Did my dog know any better (no)? What is barely a punishment forone student/dog can be devastating for another. Of course in humans, you caneasily get accused of favoritism if you alter the way you apply punishment tofit the individual, which is why most jobs have some sort of escalating ladderof punishment (verbal, written, suspension, termination) to cover their bases.Applying too harsh of a punishment for that individual will also break downyour trust- (”I never spoke up in class again.”) That is not something as ateacher you want to do to your students (or as a trainer, that you want to doto your dog), or at least not often, because then you’re going to have to spendtime rebuilding that trust, which I’ll try to touch on later. And if you’re tooharsh, you’re going to start encroaching on learned helplessness, when instead,you want to build resiliency. In dogs, the response to an unfair or overtly harshcorrection can present in a variety of ways. Some dogs will shut down, becomeovertly cautious, growl, whine, bark, muzzle punch, try to tag you, or come upthe leash. In agility, my dog has started this utterly OBNOXIOUS trend ofbarking. The easy and most obvious answer to this? Flip your card. Punish thebarking. Except for the part where it made the barking worse, which brings usto the next point: Emotional regulation. When I punished my dog for barking while we were running, Iwas not necessarily looking at why he was barking. I wanted the short termsolution: stop your damn barking. Well, it turns out, that made it worse. Why?Because he was barking out of -frustration- and not anticipation or excitement(as I’d assumed it was, and it might have been and then escalated). At the timeI did not realize it, but I was not effectively communicating what direction Iwanted him to go in, where he needed to be. So he was getting frustrated andvoicing his protests. Verbally correcting him, physically correcting him, andeven ending the run prematurely and removing him off the field thus far has notworked-he thinks it’s unfair because he does not understand why and he istrying to tell me that something is wrong. If I have him on leash and he startsfrustrated barking and I don’t do something to bring down his emotional state,he may try to muzzle punch or tag me or grab the leash.  At that level of frustration, heloses clear headedness and he’s all worked up with no outlet. As with most animals, too much or too great of apunishment, even if it’s -P, and he starts to shut down and/or escalate,especially if he does not understand -why-. And I’m getting frustrated becauseno matter what I do, my dog won’t stop screaming at me and it’s like a horrible feedback loop of confused yelling. “WHYWHYWHY.” “WHY ARE YOU YELLING.” “WHY ARE -YOU- YELLING?” “WHY-”  It wasn’t until my training mentor saw us practicingone day and basically said “Hey dumbass, stop being unfair to your dog. This isyour fault, not his. Look at where your body is facing; it’s the oppositedirection of where you are pointing/ want him to go. You’re also too late on tellinghim where he needs to go. You haven’t been working him when he’s in driveenough. And-” several of my other sins and character flaws. Guess what, improving mytiming and body language works wonders, as does working on exercises where hehas to think through that emotional state and has an outlet. It’s differentwhen he’s barking or screaming out of sheer excitement. Again, issues withemotional regulation. That can and has evolved into frustration barking,because he is much closer to that threshold. And again, we need to work onthose thresholds and work on increasing resiliency, and also trying to find away to address the barking and give him direction on what to do -instead-.  I was trying to solve it the ‘flip your card’ way,and my dog started giving up. There are two steps to learned helplessness:Nothing I do is going to be right so I’m going to escalate to try to get mypoint across, or I’m going to shut down and not want to play anymore and giveup. We don’t want either of those. My dog is generally motivated to want towork with me and to run agility. He thinks it is a blast and he -wants- to workwith me. The problem is Dad Is a Horrible Navigator and Can’t Direct Worth aShit. There is the WHY. Addressing that is the first step in fixing ourproblems.This is not to say that punishment is ineffective; just that –unfair- or –unclear-punishment is ineffective, especially if you are not working on the root causeof the issues. But that is a lecture for another day and one I’m sure peoplefar more qualified than me have written extensively on.Which, ironically, brings us to our next point: Bias. This may come as acomplete and utter shock, but there is a lot of bias in dog training, and eventhe best trainers can struggle with it. From everything concerning dog breeds, ageof the trainer, training methods, gender of the trainer, even gender of thedog, everyone has an opinion and a world view that is going to affect the waythey train. I’m biased, you’re biased, we are all biased. Identify your biasesand find a way to become less biased. Now, choice. Animals learn best through play and through decision making-comingto their own conclusions and working out problems on their own vs being toldwhat to do. This is why the FF movement has taken off in recent years. It’s notnew information by any means, but more people are becoming aware that they wantsomething beyond the bare minimum obedience out of their dog. Shaping is agreat intro to this. Try to do 101 Things To Do With a Box with a dog who hasonly even been told –what- to think, instead of –how- to think, or even play It’sYour Choice with them… compare them to a blank slate or a dog whose foundationwas in learning how to think, and the difference is remarkable. A dog who isjust working for food or a toy or to avoid punishment is going to look a lot differentthan a dog working because he is engaged in the work and understand the work isintrinsically motivating. Resource guarding is another example of this. Iabsolutely love Patricia McConnell’s method of dealing with it. Punishingresource guarding is going to make it worse. Trying to –make- it stop is goingto make it worse. But giving the dog a choice and letting it come to its ownconclusions that it’s not worth it? My dog was a resource guarder and now –brings-me stuff that he used to try to guard. I’ve watched the progress of another dogwho would have mauled someone for a ball show significant improvement in lessthan two weeks just by being offered a –choice- and not being pushed.    Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation: Think about your job:If you are only working just to get a paycheck, you are doing so out ofextrinsic motivation; you are doing it to obtain an external reward (yourpaycheck) or to avoid an external punishment (being homeless). Now, if you havea job that you love doing, and you work in that job for the sake of enjoyment,you are working out of intrinsic motivation. People who do a lot of volunteerwork, work with animals, or work with children, or who work in public servicetypically do so out of intrinsic motivation. A dog that is intrinsicallymotivated does something for the sheer joy of doing it. The name of the game wewant is Engagement. We want to build intrinsic motivation in our dogs to work –withus-. A dog who only works for food or a toy is doing so out of extrinsic motivation.It works, but it won’t be as strong as a dog who works intrinsically. Geneticsplay a huge role in this. I personally want a dog who is born motivated to work.I love watching my dog track, because he does not want to stop, even afterreaching the end and getting his ‘reward.’ He loves tracking for the sheer joyof tracking. In training, we use extrinsic motivators to help create a bridgeto building the dog’s intrinsic motivation.Now nothing is black and white, there are all kinds of grey areas and overlap.Try to communicate with your dog effectively, above all else. At some point, Flip Your Card may be appropriate. I have found that if what you’re doing isn’t working-try something else.  Forgive me ifanything is unclear; it is 0540 am and I’ve tried to address as much as I couldin less than 2,000 words.