I used to have only one rabbit and she was very lonely and did not like me spending so much time reading when I was at home. The rabbit was house clean, so it run free in my one room apartment. The rabbit get the habit of chewing paper which >I interpreted as a compensation for not being able to9 read. It continued the bad habit and chewed en enermous amount of texts. So I took a piece of paper and wrote her name to it. The Finnish language which is my mother tongue is written the way that it is spoken, so I pointed at each letter as I spoke the sound. AT first the rabbit seemed only slightly interested, as if reading was outside its social role, but lately, a few years later that is, she has been much more open in her interest to reading, staring openly at the paper, signalling me to not to take the paper away from her sight and sometimes even rushing to come to read. Anyway, she was very interested even to begin with and continued to chew papers. So I took other familiar words with the same sou8nds and indicated that those were the same than the sounds and letters in her own name. Then I just left the paper on the floor. After a while I was able to write: "Rabbit reads." My rabbit seemed proud and motivated.
Later, via the same method, I have taught my nerw younger rabbit and my two budgerigars to read. One can see from trheir gesture language and from the bird's song that they have understoos how sounds connect to letters and that they can read easy things like their names and the names of each other. The birds are quicker then the rabbits - because their pace of life is quicker, I suspect, but they may be more intelligent too. Of more complicated things I cannot always be sure whether the animals have been reading my mind or whether they really have enough vocabulary and skill to understand written text.
In the picture there is my younger and more intelligent rabbit Lissu. Please notice that the ears of the rabbit which reflect its subject of attention, are unusually attentively forward.
A CONVERSATION WITH A RABBIT CALLED URHO (25. March 2007)
I had just told in the Finnish language for the very first time my birds about calculations like 3-1=2 and 57-4=53 since they have shown an interest in such. The two rabbits had been listening and admiring the birds' intelligence.
- minus 2 = 4 ? asks the rabbit (two places of weight signal two and four places of weight with a square form signal four, a feeling in the throat area signals minus)
- No. Four is a number and �2 is a counting operation. How to explain this in a gesture language? Urho rabbit eats two mouthfuls of food from the bowl.
- Two more in the stomach, claims the rabbit.
- Two more in the stomach, two less left in the bowl. (Changing attention from her stomach to the bowl.)
- Aha, less in the bowl. Minus = less. (Forming an idea in her mind)
Some ten minutes later:
- Do you think that i am talented in abstract thinking? asks the rabbit by keeping an abstract atmosphere close to her heart and looking questioningly at me
- Yes, I think that you are talented in abstract thinking, Urho. (a positive friendly but an as non-forcing atmosphere as possible)
(The idea that she formed was certainly correct abstract thinking and in addition this was the first time that the things were explained to just her.)
SHOWING THAT THEY CAN READ
Today, 31. March 2007, I figured out how I could show that my rabbits can read. I wrote to one piece of paper CARROT FOR RABBITS and to another one NOT THIS and placed a piece of carrot on each. It will still take some training since my rabbits are not quite tame and cooperative. They want to do difficult things instead of being motivated to eat. And if I keep them hungry they hurt their feelings and stop to cooperate. Like now, after the first piece of carrot Urho demanded to get sallad instead of carrot... So I wrote SALLAD FOR RABBITS and NOT THIS... I do not knwo whether it will work out since cooperation is a different thing from understanding. But Urho did explain the trick of not eating to Lissu which was then difficult to persuade to eat at all.
The first few trials seem promising though. The rabbits eat from the paper saying FOR RABBITS, LISSU AND URHO and not from the one saying DO NOT EAT THIS (everything in the Finnish language!). I have already gotten a couple of short pieces of film of them doing so, but it goes so rapidly that one cannot film it very well with my skill. Big clear letters with certainly familiar words help to speed them up. My own compuyter is quite old, so it will take some time before I can place the films in the web with the older more non-convincing film to which there is a link from here.
ANOTHER CONVERSATION WITH URHO, 1. April 2007
- Why should one not eat from the one sayinf "Don't eat"?
- Humans use written language to give advice to each other. If it would say "Do not eat" they would be afraid of eating it and at least discuss a lot about whether it is safe to eat at all. Humans think that the only rational way to use written language is for giving advice on what to do. They consider it the only intelligent way to react to written language to follow its advice.
- Oh, intelligent. I (=the rabbit Urho herself) am intelligent, says the rabbit.
A PIECE OF CONVERSATTION WITH LISSU, 1. APRIL 2007
Lissu says that she might consider being obedient.
I say that I would them lift her high up in the air and give her a kiss.
- Why high up in the air? Lower is nicer, more rabbit like.
- OK then I would lower you down to the floor level and give you a kiss.
_ I think that we have missed some point in teaching you the basics, says Lissu.
A REMARK FROM LISSU, 1. April 2007
Since the basic idea of my texts is so easy and Gaia minded, I tried explaining it to my pets which have been very interested in my writing hobby. They seemed to understand the basic point about a healthy one working well and a broken one working poorly or not at all. But Lissu remarked to my sentence "A healthy one works better than a broken one.": - But it works MUCH better. So I needed to correct my text to be clearer and more understandable, which I did today.
My thoughts being this easy to understand my pets doubted them having any signifigance. So I asked them to think about an even bigger question, which they could not. So my birds signalled on gesture language that I should write this too (This, go to living room.) which I did too today. Believe it or not...
Explaining these things was at the same timer easier and much more difficult than I had suspected. What is a world or a paradise? How do all sides of things (which are healthy) connect to the physical sides of Lissu? But in the end Lissu and the birds exclaimed that if the that I write about thoughts were this easy, they would like to continue with ordinary thoughts instead of practising for them by doing calculations etc. So they could better participate in my daily life and in the things which seem important...
LABYRINTH 4. April 2007
The last two days I have taught my rabbits left and right, front and back by changing my attention from one place to another one. So today I also showed them the written words. Immidiately after that I wrote such instructions to pieces of paper and fastened them to the walls of my apartment low near the floor, placing some sallad under the last one which said "at this place". I let my younger rabbit Lissu run free and told her that she could try to solve a task. She followed the signs with speed to the door of the balcony where she typically is timid and touched the sign there with her nose while I filmed the whole thing but it is not a good film, unfortunately. After several rounds around the partment she went to the balcony too and to the signs there but didn't find the sallad or didn't care to eat it. She and my other rabbit Urho didn't eat the sallad at all, erven though I added some carrot and apple, they ate nothing of it. So I have a problem at motivating them but as long as it is a new task they seems motivated just out of curiosity and proudness. Urho turned out to be too timid for the task anyway.
TRYING TO TEACH URHO TO WRITE BY TYPING
Today, 5th April 2007, just a moment ago I took the resisting reclutant Urho to my lap from her cage and lifted her to the computer, showed her that the screen was empty of text (except for the text Document1), so I took her right front paw and showed that there were letters in the keyboard and that there were the letters L-I-I-N-U of her old name and pressed her paw to each letter that I had shown, showing then the text LIINU on the screen on big capital letters. She seemed to like it, was surprised and positively attituded. So next I showed the letter U and she did not resist any more when we pressed it. Then I showed the letter U on the screen and she liked it. Then similarly the other letters of her name URHO (which means Brave Man and which she has gotten bedause of her style). When we were finished she seemed happy and relaxed. I printed the texts to her to keep as a memory and to show to Lissu too. Lissu herself is not tame enough for this trick. I just hope that Urho will teach it to her...Well, this is a long way still untill Urho can really write on her own, if she ever will, but I might give it a try. It makes her happy... The texts are here for you to see, not that it would matter much...
llllllll..
p
LIINU
URHO
AN UNUSUAL CONVERSATION WITH URHO ABOUT GAIA 5th April 2007, just some moments later
- I really hope that you will succeed, says Urho. That's why I am doing this. Not for any other reason, at least not much. Because everyone - all the animals would then have things well, no suffering, especially not in the hands of humans. All would be happy, all the rabbit kind and all the animals.
- Oh, to succeed that well.
- Yes. That's what I am hoping. What we all hope, all the animals.
- I want to reward you with carrot.
- Carrot, what is carrot compared to this? Well, let it be: carrot but sallad too...
(Now that I read this I so wish that someone would write a story about my heroic rabbit! So beautiful, like from Hollywood...)
WHAT I TAUGHT MY RABBITS
Teaching intelligence to rabbits: In my opinion the ground for the thinking ability of humans and animals consists of ordinary perceptions: this is like this. And of thus forming a picture of the world in one's mind. Later one can think by imagining the thing in question as a picture in one's mind and observing it like one observes the world with one's senses.
23. April 2007
Here is Urho's first attempt at pressing the keys herself:
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKK
It is K like in KANI which means RABBIT. She choose the key herself but I had first reminded her of it.
SUMMER HOLIDAY
My rabbits are now out enjoying the summer, so there will be no new films or tricks before the cold autumn nights come and I will have to take the rabbits in again.
LIINU PASSED AWAY
My older rabbit Liinu (= Urho) passed away last night, 12. July 2007. She just slowed down - that's the only thing that I have noticed, I thought that it was the old age together with the cool summer nights but she seemed to want to spend her time outside anyway. Yesterday evening my boyfriend noticed that she was slower than usual and could not eat. He took the rabbit in to his house but before he could do anything the rabbit died away.
A NEW RABBIT
The day before yesterday my remaining rabbit Lissu got a new friend: a little bit over three months old brown rabbit boy which we have called Nikke to begin with, even though Nikke has a quite bold style, so that some bolder name would be better. This far the rabbits have net only between the bars of Lissu's cage.
Today I understood that Lissu was so much social with the young ravvit that she copied his bold and courageous style, consequently behaving as if she protected some territory. Even her tail and ears were like Nikke's style. Meanwhile Nikke copied Lissus careful style acting as if he were scared of Lissu. So I remarked this social phenomenom to Lissu and got her to understand that what she wanted to do was to treat Nikke in a soft caring careful and even timid way so as not to scare him at all. So she started doing other things than running straight to meet Nikke and when she put her nose next to Nikke's, she kept her ears carefully back and leaned backwards instead of forward like she had done before in a Nikke like way. It is a big lesson and takes some time before the rabbits have learned it fully, being able to keep it in mind all the time. Even now they are much better off than most married human couples who get shared identities instead of just being very much social with the other one... This is a real lesson to learn, so it may be that most old rabbits which get a younger pair newer learn it and consequently appear much more territorial than what they really are - at least so Lissu seemed to comment about rabbits. She had difficulties with the same phenomenom when her friend Liinu (=Urho) chased her sometimes.
THE FIRST FEW DAYS IN A RUSH
Nikke is still so young and my home with its inhabitants so new to him that he seems inclined to learn it everything in a rush. He wants to know what everything is about.
I started teaching him right away telling him that he was Nikke, and Nikke, and Nikke... Rabbits tell each other thing in gesture language, so already during hie first two days I once showed him a piece of paper with the text NIKKE in it. Lissukka wanted to read it too, and the budgerigars... Today I was typing my homework with Nikke in my lap. He seemed somewhat afraid of the sound of typing, so I said aloud each letter and each word as I typed in the Finnish language, showing the words on the screen - some ten words maybe. Later as Nikke run free I said "N - I - K - K - E, Nikke", in order to make the idea clearer. But earlier as I typed and got tired of keeping him in my lap I put him down on the floor next to the keyboard and let him walk/put his weight on the keyboard. I showedf him the letters that he had made: VVV X or something like that. Since he was so cute and soft, I was able tyo take his paw and press the buttons NIKKE as I said aloud the sounds of the letters and immediately showed him the result, telling him that it was well done. He seemed to have a slight idea of what it was about: "Nikke!"
As my boyfriend read what I had written I showed him to NIkke and Nikke seemed to understand that Lasse was reading. "Like - some familiar word that I had talked about" "Yes, but now Lasse is reading directions of where to go, that's what you can do too, like maybe Lissukka has told you about the labyrinth with left and right." " Yes, so you can write: to the cage" "Yes, but LIssukka would add: NOT to the cage" "Yes she would." Then Nikke added something which I no longer remember but which surely convinced me that he had understood right what typing was about: it is about telling things that one wants to others, and to other things like that.
Later today, as I had noticed that Nikke considered reading and writing much more difficult than they were, I showed Lissu and Nikke a plastic back containing carrots and having the taxt "PORKKANAA"=carrots in it: that simple is the idea in writing! Nikke and Lissu do well understand that much!
Later in his cage Nikke looked somewhat scared: "What will happen if people say that rabbits can read and write?" " They will get better position, getting their wishes heard better", said I. Lissukka looked bold and happy and Nikke had calmed down. "Oh it is that simple reading and writing.", remarked Nikke. "Yes it is."
SOME FIRST LESSONS
Nikke, it is better to be reactive thean to act out of your memory. If you are eyes open, you notice always how things are. But if you act from your memory, you cannot know how things are. Try it! Eyes open a couple of steps, no problem. Then from your memory - hups: you didn't notice all things but only some. Eyes open is better.
Nikke, compare your clumsy style to your sensitive soft style: how many things you notice? "Oh, a tenfold number of things at least - this one I will choose. That was a good advice."
JUST A REMARK
Humans spend about ten years in schools - working there whole days around the year. Otherwise there is no clear difference between humans and animals. I think that even brain size is insignificant. But even the uneducated humans have friends or relatives who have been educated so they know some of the tricks from that already.
IN THE FOREST
Today, 30th August 2007, Nikke wanted to go out. I didn't find the harness that I have had for my first rabbit, so I just took Nikke in my lap and went to the small piece of forest next to the apartment house that I life in. Nikke was totally quiet and calm, really enjoyed the sight - I guess that he had never seen anything like that: his natural living environment. After a while we came back in, and I promised him to take him out to the forest again maybe tomorrow... Nikke turned his back to Lissu as he understood that Lissu had never so much valued seeing the nature when she had been out for the summer. I tols Nikke that he was wise (while Lissu did not understand things like the nature).
I bought a harness for Nikke and took him out to the forest in it. He jumped around and seemed to have a clear sense of direction. He looked joyous but somewhat timid. I carried him to the nearby lakeshore and came back by another route. He wanted to go back the same route but when I remarked him about the sound of very many cars at the distance he seemed to understand that I might be correct, still when I put him down, he wanted to return via our tracks, so I had to carry him home. When I had just lifted him up to my lap, I saw movement in the bushes and thought it to be a cat or a dog but luckily it turned out to be a huge non-flying bird: a fasan(?). Nikke said that he did not like the leash and that he wanted to be a wild rabbit. I explained to him about the cold winter: he is too small to survive the winter on his own - maybe next summer then... But then too will be the next winter be coming and with it a propable death for a wild rabbit. I asked him to ask Lissu who had spent the summer outside in a cage about how the cold gets worse as one spends a longer time in the cold and how it is worse during the night. Now the cold was a new thing to Nikke: "Oh, this is what is meant by cold", he remarked, when I took him outdoors for the first time today. And When the cool late summer weather made him anxious and eager to run, nervous to stay in one place, he did not quite understand that the mood was because of the cold. I showed him how the warmth of my lap calmed him down. Now he is in his cage to warm up well. I guess that it will take a couple of times before he learns what cold is like and what it does to his mood. He was so very cute running around in the forest - really liked trees and tasted the grass - that I am looking forward to filming him...
NIKKE
I took Nikke to the living run in order to let him run free but he looked expectantly and with a positive attitude to the computer, so I tried to teach him typing. After a while of pressing the keys just because I had put him upon the keyboard, he indicated that he wanted to write "Hi Lissukka". So I took his paw and pressed the keys for that. I printed the text and showed it to Lissukka. Lissukka shined.
NIKKE WANTS TO BE CALLED MOO OR M�
When Nikke first came to my home I told him that if he wanted some other name than Nikke, he just had to tell me. So he said that he wanted to be Mikke, but that was not OK because I already know one young man called Mikke. So later Nikke communicated that he wats to be called Moo. But I let it be because it was such a peculiar name. But today, 5th October 2007, just a moment ago I lifted him to the keyboard after he had shown interest toward it and toward the social position that it gives in the eyes of Lissukka. Immediately he walked on the keyboard producing the text MŨ'IJ. The first letter is M like in Moo and the second one is the Swedish O, an A with an O on top of it, pronouced very much like O and M� can be pronouned long. My boyfriend is a Swedish speaking Finn, so this might just be possible but I am not sure. It is quite an unlikely coincidence and I am sure that Nikke understands the idea in typing but how would he know the letter �? But if he understood everything easily, like it seems, then a thing like this might well happen. I just need to give him more encouragement... Anyway, it is for sure that Nikke gets to be M� from now on!
I lifted him back to his cage and showed the text to Lissukka: Lissukka shone: "M�!"
So how is this possible? How could he have known? I have to refer to the way that small children learn by copying the ways of adults - sometimes they can be very sensitive and observant. So maybe Nikke or M� saw how we humans conceived the spoken language via the written language, like is our bad habit and especially the habit of my Swedish speaking boyfriend. Still, I find it hard to believe. but since this is how things are, I had better give M� the chance to show his intelligence and not put him down because of being too quick or observant. He has a very good beginner's style, like the zen buddhists and taoists recommend for humans...
THE SECOND ATTEMPT
Nikke-Mo wrote: 6'5. So I asked what he meant by it. He answered: "There are six of us but now is Lasse (my boyfriend) away." But how can I be sure that this is really so? - I so wish that Nikke-Mo would write sentences. Maybe some day he will learn...
SOME MORE EXERCISE NEEDED IN THE BASICS :)
I was about to leave my pets alone for two days. So I gave them twise the normal amount of food and showed with my fingers "two". "Oh, twice as much food.", remarked Nikke. So I indicated that tomorrow there would be a very sad hungry Nikke and today Nikke would have his stomach too full. "Why would you treat me so unfairly?", asked Nikke. :) Liinu-Urho was always good at counting and restrained herself from eating everything at once when I was away. I hope that Nikke will learn too.
JUST LOOKING AT THE RADIO
I took Nikke-M� to my lap and showed him the radio: how one could change its loudness via turning a button and how one could turn it off and on again. Nikke-M� asked me to turn the volume button to the direction which makes the sound louder and so milden the sound. I showed him that it still worked in the old way. "Oh, it does not work via the power of thought.", remarked Nikke. I told him that people far away make the sound sending us regards - that they have such a beautiful voice that they send regards to very many. "What are the not so beautiful (=talking) voices in between?", asked Nikke-M�. "They are just someone telling from whom the regards are.", answered I.
ANOTHER WAY TO WRITE
I gave Nikke-M� a piece of paper to read. He chewed one letter out of it: m - like in M� or Mikke.
JUST SOME LESSONS
I wrote in the Finnish language a piece of text about how Lissukka yesterday mourned the passing away of insects because of the winter. Nikke wanter something about himself. I had only one piece of text in English about him admiring the nature. So I tried to explain him about the difference between Finnish and English language. Lissu immediately taught him some words of English: "Eat", "Not" etc. I had to explain that in English you must remember how things are pronounced, that long ago it was written like it is pronounced, like the Finnish language, like I and Lissu and Nikke would propably choose to write it, but as times passed people talked and talked and the ways of talking changed but some of the books were the old ones: the puppies of puppies were reading what their parents' parents had written. So it happened. Nikke wasn'ty interested in the English text that I showed him. He preferred to be told that a carrot is called a "carrot" "A rabbit" - see Lissu is a rabbit here like in the header of the text A rabbit in the forest - "is eating" - remember "eat" like Lissu just told you - "a carrot" - like a caroot here in your own cage. That made him look glad: he had understood something that he considered that might be of use to him some day. It was abotu rabbit s and carrots and about eating which was familiar to him.
By the way, Lissu looked surprised when she had a look at the text about herself: "Don't texts always contain some principles to follow?" "No, one can write anything that one can talk about. I am just so theoretical in my texts that you have gotten the impression that texts always contain principles: so they have thsi far done." The text about Lissu and the other one about Nikke had an emphasis on my rabbits admiring beauty of nature (insects/forest). Lissu noticed that at once and wanted to know whether this is always so?! Did I consider beauty important and why did I do so? It is just a coincidence, I explained but was not quite sure of myself. I escaped from the room.
RABBIT BABIES
I let Lissukka run free with Mikke, thinking that they had been separated long enough. The first time went all right but the second time Mikke jumped to Lissukka's back, making love to her. I lifted him up, thinking that he was still to young, but he was too quick: it was just about two seconds. Since then they have both been thinking about baby rabbits, taking this family business very sertiously, just like one ought to take it. They are really cute and have clearly formed a family. Even the birds guard and take part in this suspected pregnancy. I cannot be sure that Lissu is pregnant but it really looks like so. The atmosphere here is cutely erotical and caring. So maybe soon there are really intelligent cute little rabbits available... I hope that they will get good homes, but Lissukka does not have any papers, so I do not know. Lissukka is really intelligent and they are both charming, especially now that they have formed a family.
A CONVERATION THAT I LOST
My boyfriend remarked that Mikke had eaten lots of grass. I thought to that that: - Mikke, that is othing as fine as typing. Mikke opposed: One uses one's whole being in eating grass. That is more complicated than just merely thinking how letters connect to form words and then walking on the keyboard. I could not disagree: tha fact that some deeds are considered inferior is just a consequence of the fact that they are so much needed that they are learned first in life, not a consequence of them being less complicated: using one's whole being is clearly more complicated tham just using the sense of sight to connect neighbouring things together, i.e. letters to a word and that to meaning and message. In moving the jaws there must be many more sensations than what is needed for the straight lines connecting letters to sounds. Still, we humans value just those lines instead of considering the sensing of letters or sounds the most complicated task to do. How stupid, idiotic of us! But that is just what I base my teaching of rabbits: their ability to conceive everyday things by their senses is enermous compared to the intellectual achievements that are needed for them to look human like in intelligence. Thinking is closely connected to the sense of sight.
LISSUKKA THINKS INTELLIGENTLY
My birds have been long without any entertaining, so they signalled that they would like to read a new text. I took my text The world consists of love and printed it in the Finnish language for them. Lissukka rabbit was also interested in reading it. I explained it on gesture language as I read it. Lissukka remarked: "So we are like what we were long ago.", and at the end of the text she remarked: "That's why it is good to base our lives on feelings of love." The latter one was in my opinion such a good addition that I wrote it down and printed a new version of the text for the animals. Lissukka seems to really understand things, like an intelligent human could. In my opinion most humans feel somewhat dizzy at hearing this thought of mine but Lissukka was completely clear-headed. That may of course be my own influence.
How do we communicate these kinds of things then? Feelings we can see in the gesture language like one typically observes the feelings of others, health I connect to well functioning and objects of feelings by using the visual attention and physical possibilities of movement. That way we manage to communicate quite well indeed these kind of things. Besides, I really think that Lissukka understands quite much of what she reads.
THE REVOLUTION OF THE BIRDS?
- Tell us about the revolution of the birds, asked my two charming budgerigars today. - I have never heard of such, you must invent it yourself, answered I. - WE think that you should figure it out, commanded my budgerigars. - I? Well, OK. Let's say that as the birds are so very intelligent and the technology develops and learns to communicate with birds too, maybe they will want the most intelligent ones at the top and that will be the birds. There is the revolution of birds for you...
Lissukka wanted to have a revolution of the rabbits too. I suggested the Gaian revolution of all the animals, but she wanted just a rabbit revolution. Maybe if the running skill were the most important thing, she thought... I told her that it does not matter how much one has compared to others, what matters is how much one has oneself: whether one has strawberries or carrots or not...
NO RABBIT BABIES
It seems that Lissukka was not pregnanta fter all. She just took the possibility of pregnancy very seriously, building a nest etc.
A DOG PUPPY
I plan to buy a dog puppy: a Japanese spitz, which is a small all-white spitz, a companion dog. I love dogs and have had two, a medium-sized poodle and a short-haired collie, which both lived to the age of 14. I enjoy dog training. This is propably the reason that I have so unsusual rabbits: they are forced to try to be like dogs. I enjoy the quick-wittedness of small dogs. A big one like a Samoyed could have been too slow for me. Having had two black dogs I prefer an all-white one - it is much better for my social role as a conscientously moral person. And a spitz suits my taste for dogs: is one more suited to a wilderness guide... Besides I enjoy the Japanese influence that I might get.
YUKON
Our new faily member is officially called Fuji-San Yummy Yukon. He is an eight weeks old Japanese spitz. He seems quite an indepewndent and lovable character. He is lively but somewhat too fat. I chose him because of his character. But he looks really cute too.
I might call him Vala (=oath) since I am interested in what one can do with one's whole heart and interested in keeping him as well as I can. Besides him being a lively white spitz with somewhat arctic looks that could be otherwise OK too. But I am not yet sure...
I guess that I will start a new page about his training - otherwise this page would soon be about dogs...
DOG MEETS RABBIT
Vala barks at Lissukka but gets well along with Mikke. IT is the difference in the characters of the rabbits. Lissukka is very tough, like a huskky dog might be, and so she has difficulties in being soft enough. Vala asks Lissukka to play with him. Both rabbits are in their cages. Sometimes I take Mikke to my lap to watch Vala. It will take some time before I can let Lissukka run free again. Otherwise she might hurt Vala by her paws or even teeth? Now Vala is just slightly bigger than Lissukka.
I let Mikke run free and he went right away to Lissukka, like usual. Vala walked around Lissukka's cage, moving slowly and sniffing the ground all the time. Mikke went to sniff at him, run away half a meter and the went back to sniff again and so on. Vala pretended to not to notice, he is so well behaved, and Mikke is so courageous. I filmed this, I might put it on the YouTube after a couple of days?
Later Vala chewed Mikke's cage from the outside, trying to help Mikke to escape? He does the same with Lissukka's cage... I am glad that he is still so small...
So Lissukka is tough like a husky. She has never before seen a "predator" so she isquite relieved to notice that a dog isn't so montrous but instead of a loving kind. She feels like in a nice spring breeze.
Yesterday, Thursday, I let Mikke run free and as Vala was between their cages, Mikke walked between Vala's legs, from front of him to the back.
Todaym friday, I let Lissukka run free for the first time since Vala came to us. She just fled and Vala run after her. Then she went back to her cage. Afterwards I noticed that Lissukka looked like as if she had praised herself for behaving so well.
TEACHING THE PUPPY TO READ
Vala seems to be busy learning walking, running, chewing, jumping, social life etc, so it isn't easy to get him interested in reading. He says that his mama didn't tell him that dogs would do such tricks. I wrote on a pieve of paper Vala, sit! and Vala, down! and made him do he tricks as I showed him the papers. That made him almost accept reading as an ordinary dog like trick.
Last night as I was half-awake Vala pissed on the piece of paper which said that Vala reads etc. I cleaned the mess and tried to tell him that newspapers are of a different kind of paper, more suited to pissing. Vala remarked that newspapers have text on them too. So it seems that he has really understood something. That I have also deduced from his looks: the text sit = istu makes him look sharp like i (pronounced like in the English sit), and down = maahan makes him look more steady and long lasting like the two or three a's (pronounced like in the English car).
BIRD'S HEART
Lately my yellow bird Jami has seemed to be in a poor condition. Once I even thought that he was ill but some honey n the drinking water and some live songs seemed to cure him. Yesterday je seemed in a poor condition once again and talked abpout maybe dying quite soon. The birds said that I should buy new very young birds the very day that Jami dies for them to keep company to Tenho before she too dies. I cried at the tought of Jami dying, so he seemed more alive since he was so cared about, even if I have the puppy too. I gave them some unusual extra food and today Jami seemed OK!
PUPPY "READING" + PUPPY'S LABYRINTH
Yesterday when I talked in the phone I mentioned that I had taught my puppy so many tricks that I ought to stop and let him rest. My puppy heard it and went away, under the bed, having hurt his feelings. So I decided to teach him some more tricks. He didn't look motivated, so I asked what is the matter. He wanted new tricks. And more exactly he wanted to learn reading. So I took a piece of paper and wrote some things to it. He bite my blouse and the pen, scratching at the paper. He seemed enthusiastic even though one could not notice him paying almost any attention to the written text. Today was the same thing. But from his expression one could notice that at least he was paying attention to the sounds in the words, reflecting them in his being. But I do not know how much he knows about the letters. The base for learning is right though!
Today, thursday 30. January, I talked to Lissukka about making an another labyrinth for her. Some time later she suggested or demanded that I should do a labyrinth for Vala. Vala does not know well left and right but has some grasp of the thing. So I made an easy labyrinth with four signs pointing to the same direction and showed them to Vala one by one in the right order, reading them aloud and showing the right way to go to: back, right and left, front -> a treat at the end. He seemed to have some slight idea of the thing but didn't do anything by himself, so it was a much much poorer performance than Lissukka's, which I told to Lissukka too. Still I think that one might teach Vala the labyrinth as time passes - IF he learns to read...
TEACHING INTELLIGENCE VIA THE SENSE OF SIGHT
I am teaching my puppy Vala intelligence the same way that I have taught my almost white rabbit Lissukka: this is like this and that is like that: making observations of the world around oneself and forming especially a seen but also otherwise sensed picture of what things are like and what the world around oneself is like. This takes some time because it needs to become a habit or a skill. It would also be good if attentiveness would become a habit, like it is for Lissu rabbit. Here it is most important to use a holistic view of the landscape that one is in and not a spot like view like is habitual for many humans and animals. The habits in the use of the sense of sight create directly habits in thinking. I have managed to teach my puppy these things (except attentiveness) but how to make them habits?
LITTLE BIRDS SANG
As I walk outside with my puppy, I can hear the birds sing: "a furry puppy, a furry puppy, a furry puppy,..." They informs so everyone of all that happens. They communicate by the atmosphere of the4ir song. As I was keeping the window open for a short while, I heard a bird sing: "Jami" and then "puppy". I looked like never mind the puppy, care for Jami, so I heard the bird sing: "Jami, Jami, Jami,..." really nicely. Jami looked pleased.
There is a saying; "Little birds sung" meaning information that is not from a trusted source. It could be born from the phace when people still had a closer contact with the nature and it was a part of the ordinary life for many to communicate with the little birds that winter here.
As I was walking outside our window with my puppy, I saw a squirrel on the window sill eating seeds. The squirrel looked just like my rabbit Lissu which was well in its sight on the other side of the window. I tried to communicate by gestures: "Say hi from me and my puppy to Lissu and Mikke (the squirrel added Mikke which was right beside Lissu)." The squirrel communicated that he/she had done so. I asked him/her about the seeds and the squirrel communicated that there were few left, so I promised to add some. As we came in the squirrel was still on the window sill and looked as if we were friends or aquiantages, so he/she left only when I opened the window. I hope that he/she comes soon back to find the new seeds on the window sill.
THE PUPPY AND THE RABBIT READS TRICK
I tried teaching Vala the trick that the rabbits did. There are two sides to it: he almost obeys the word "no" but on the other hand he isn't good at reading. After the first tries he looked like as he were called ota = take. Then I made a new sign saying just Vala and had thus three signs: Vala, take and no. It did not work out. He was too interested in the treats. Trying it many times one time each xould maybe calm him down enough. I have contradictory feelings about this: it is sad that the trick does not work. On the other hand I cannot expect it to work yet. And besides a dog is a different kind of animal from a rabbit, so it is natural to proceed in the teaching differently. A rabbit is more independent, the dog puppy wants to do things together.
SIT
Yesterday evening, 6th February, I felt that my puppy was in a right kind of mood: calm yet attentive. So I called him to me, gave him a treat and then showed him a piece of paper which said "sit" and the dog sat down immediately. I was gladly surprised. So I asked my boyfriend to take his camera and to film the next attempt right away. It went well and we put the video to youtube.
I do know that it still takes some practise to make a trick like this an ordinary one but we have a good start! I am still only teachning him the "down" command and "stand" is a long way away still. When he learns them both, and sitting up from lying down, then I can show him different signs needing different action, so it will make the trick clear for all to see.
INTELLIGENCE
So what is intelligence? How can a dog puppy or any animal learn things typical to humans?
Thinking means forming a correct picture of what the world is like. That is done in connection with the senses: our senses tell us a lot about what the world around us is like. Most of the rest consists of correct organisation of the memory: if you use your sense of sight to make a map of your environment, with everything in its right place in the map, like I have taught my puppy to do, you have reached quite far in understanding what the world is like.
Even intelligence consists of making correct observations of how things are. Like for example in learning reading, you need to observe how the letters correspond to spoken sounds. That is very straightforward in the Finnish language which is written exactly the way that it is spoken. So as the puppy is in a visually observant mood, I show him the letters of some interesting word, one by one as I speak the sounds in the word slowly, and then repeat in the ordinary pace just to make it sure. V - A - L - A, VALA!
DID YOU NOTICE?
Did you notice that I have here theoretical grounds for how a dog can learn to read without it being any diffrent from what dogs are typically thought to be like: very good with their senses and with an ability to connect things that happen the same time ?!
MY BIRDS
10th February 2008, I just took a nice picture of my birds: Jami peeks out of the nest and Tenho reads philosophy, even though the book is out of sight. Tenho (my both birds in fact typically do so) wanted to learn something that the rabbits cannot. So I took Esa Saarinen's book about philosophy for secondary school and gave it for Tenho to read. She complained that there were too many difficult words like "kokonaishahmotus" = holistic conception. I urged her to read first the letters, then listen to the sound of those phonems and to use her memory for finding the same sounding expressions from her experience, like "koko" = whole and "hahmottaa" = to conceive. She has heard me using such...
GRASS IN THE WATER
My rabbit Mikke does not like bottle water, so he has a water bowl. Almost every evening there is grass in it and the water just has to be changed. Now I have noticed that also in my dog puppy Vala's water bowl there is grass when the bowl is almost empty. And when Mikke's new cage was totally clean of grass, there was one single straw of grass in the water bowl in any case...
THE TRADITION AND THE TRUTH
I am horrified to find out how much unnecessary use of force there is in the upbringoing of dog puppies. Puppies are said to like biting. I have been thinking, figuring out why they like to bite. The answer seems to be that the puppies bite because they do not like us to do things the way that we do: pushing them around, not teaching them about life and above all: not explaining why things have to be dome in a human dominated way.
My rabbits live in cages. They used to run free in my apartment but that resulted them ruining the apartment, so I caomplained to them about that and finally explained that I had no other better alternative than keeping them in cages and letting them run free only every now and then. But we do discuss the subject often, especially with newcomers around.
I consider it important that I have explained to my rabbits why I keep them instead pof letting them run free in the wilderness: it is the winter and likely death there that prevents them and me from letting them run free outside.
My puppy Vala is different: typically he does not ask anything but complains and makes remarks about things that opught not be so. Like why I do not let him run free outside: it is because of the cars and a possible death for him, and because of the regulations (that is difficult to explain to him), because I do not have the money to a home with a garden and above all because he is too young to take care of himself there outside. Today Vala remarked that he does not have so terribly much to complain about, he just copies from the other puppies. :)
MOTIVATION
Typically the protection and creation of animal rights seems to be what motivates my rabbits and even my puppy, and the concern for the future of all animals. They also think of the social position that they could gain - both for themselves and for their kind.
TEACHING
I seem to have grasped some of why my puppy bites me: he wants to be taught so that he will survive well as an adult. But as he wants to be trained, he says that ordinary tricks are boring, he wants to learn reading and typing (his paws are too big for that). In fact he wants to learn about life. So I say that I am teaching him intelligence and teachging that it is important to haver many friends and as few enemies as possible. Those are the two most important lessons that I know.
I ask him if he wants to become independent as an adult , and I say that there is so very much that one needs to know for that. Like for example: why do we have carpets on the floor? They are soft, he answers correctly (attention in the paws and maybe stomach and a satisfied expression and a relaxing movement). Soft and warm, I say. He asks: why are the legs of the stool ruined - has someone biten them? No, the stool has been on a wet floor (in the cellar), so the paint has dropped off. He says that my explanation was too long but he did understand. I continue, for example: why does Lissukka eat grass and vegetables while you eat meat? I get a vague answer: parents eat, but there is the wrong impression that it is a custom, not a necessity. So I explain that the rabbit kind is originally grass eaters and the dogs hunters. Tne I explain that by biting me he does not learn hunting, even though he has thought so.
I am worried: talking to animals like this is so very unusual and ununderstood by most. Still, I feel that the animals have the right to live up to their full potential, if I only can give them teh chance - propably that potential is so huge that I cannot help all the way. There is so much that one should know, even now I am teaching by referring to things that no other human in my environment knows: mainly skills of objective thinking based on the animal nature...
HOW TO TEACH INTELLIGENCE
A paw, a step with a paw: I observe my own paw stepping: it is like this. Likewise I observe everything that I experience and meet, forming so a picture of the world, placing each thing to its rught place in my spatial - seen or very clearly heard (for rabbits) landscape of what is at each place.
Of social skills I explained to Mikke (like the above too to Mikke) that if I feel something, I mark it at the place of my body, and if someone else feels something I mark it at their own body. It canb be a landscape like view containing reactions to many different things but where it coincides with my ordinary spatial picture of the world, is at the place, at the body of the one who feels those feelings - it is like an extra transparent picture page in some children's books, above the landscape of the more conretical things.
FOUR EGGS
Yesterday when I peeked to the nest of my birds, I noticed four eggs (the birds were outside eating). Two days earlier when I asked Jami and Tenho abbout how many eggs they have, they answered "Three". So very cute and touchingly beautiful!
MIKKE'S SONG
I was dreaming that one day I could learn to compose songs, so I hummed a little piece aloud and then went to talk with Mikke. I asked him to tell me a story, like Lissukka had done this morning (A royal marriage, raising the children and then when autumn comes passing away - that was the insects). Mikke said "No. He would make a song instead: Tiruliru- DUM DUM It is a rabbit." And it sure does sound like a rabbit! Of courser Mikke was quiet all the time: I could just see in his gesture language the song, just like I myself think of music with the help of my body. I never could have composed such a rabbit like piece of music myself...
My Favorite Web sites
Bird talk
Watch a video of my rabbits at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTpaYW5klpo
How to increase the understanding of animals too
You can wact a shorter video here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv49w6IrQaI
Here is the newest piece at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAqXkl2zecY
The common ground for human and animal intelligence
The labyrinth film
Teaching talents
Paradise wins
My dog Vala