Chew bones and tasty snacks are nice, but here is what I think our dogs really want for Christmas: 1. CLARITY: Our dogs are living with aliens--us. They may love us deeply, but they still spend much of their life confused. After all, dogs are living in a world in which we yell at them for eating poop, and then pick it up and hoard it ourselves. We have five synonyms for one command, change the rules day by day, and say one thing with our voices and something different with our bodies. The best gift you can give your dog is to spend some time during the holidays and ask yourself: How can I make life more clear, and thus easier, for my dogs? No matter how brilliant we are with our dogs, surely every one of us could pick one potential source of confusion and clear it up for 2014. 2. OUR Read More
Archives for 2013
Why Doggie, What Beautiful Teeth You Have!
Last week I wrote about my desire to have a tail and all of its functions. (Don't miss reader's submissions of "If I Only Had a Brain" re-written with lyrics about a tail. It'll make your day.) This week I'm going to focus on teeth, prompted by research supported by the Human-Animal Interaction research projects of Waltham, regarding a child's interpretation of a canine tooth display. Unlike tails, teeth are a body part that we all share with dogs, but we don't always use them in similar ways. Generally, we humans show our teeth while smiling, and generally we are usually smiling when we are happy. This, of course, is not always true... think of the strained, cold-eyed smile that we've all seen on occasion (I call it the "What a nice dress" smile, said dripping with sarcasm). There is Read More
If I Only Had a Tail…
This is the time of year that I regret not having a tail. If I had one, I could curl it around my nose as did Nellie and Polly this morning, the thermometer descending toward single digits. Better yet, I could use it to wag from the shoulders back, like Willie does when Jim comes home. Or perhaps I could toss it up into the air, stiff and straight, and leave a committee meeting in a huff, my tail rising up like a standard held high in medieval England. I'm not sure where that image comes from, given that I've never left a committee meeting in a huff in my life. But then, it doesn't mean I haven't wanted to, and if I did, wouldn't a raised tail make it that much more effective? The fact is, tails are amazing things. Just look at all the functions that tails provide: BALANCE (see Willie Read More
Thanks Giving, Giving Thanks
The best part of Thanksgiving has got to be cold turkey sandwiches the next day, with cranberry sauce and stuffing (yes, that's bread within the bread, an explosion of carbohydrates that never fails to make me happy). Or maybe it's lying around, dog-like, after eating a big meal, with no expectations beyond passive digestion. A close second, however, is the chance to stop, get off the merry-g0-round of life, and spend some time being grateful for what we have. Every year around this time I like to write down what I am thankful for (actually, I do it several times a week but it always feels extra special during the Thanksgiving holidays.) I've posted two blogs with similar themes in the past (2009 and 2011), and it's interesting to go back and read what I've written. If you are not in Read More
Great Books for Gifting
Books, books, books: Surely one of the greatest inventions of humankind. I love to give books as gifts, and last night I found myself pondering what books to give to which person for the holidays. That, of course, led to thoughts about great books to send the dog lovers that I know, and that led me to you, good reader, who is so often an excellent source of wonderful things to read. I'd love to hear your ideas about great books to pass along to dear friends. While pondering "great books about dogs," I thought it might be instructive to look at what others had to say; not just about new books but about dog books written over the ages. Here are some of the lists I found: First off, a dear friend sent me this link, from Mother Nature Network: Six Books Every Dog Owner Should Read. Of Read More
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