One of the issues readers have asked me to address is how to help a dog feel comfortable when being left at a kennel or a friend's while they are away on a trip. It’s a great question, and is especially relevant now that the GREAT ROLLER COASTER OF HOLIDAYS is looming ahead of us. (You do have your Thanksgiving dinner made and all your Christmas presents purchased and wrapped, yes?) I’m going to expand my answer to include teaching dogs in a variety of contexts that they are not being abandoned because their owner has to leave them in an unfamiliar place. This seems like a reasonable fear, although perhaps not in the sense of "my owner is deserting me" but rather "My owner just walked away and I have no idea what is going to happen next". How would an adult dog dropped off at a Read More
From Fearful to Fear Free: Book Review
From Fearful to Fear Free is a breath of fresh air. It's a new book by Dr. Marty Becker, DVM et. al. and available exclusively from Dogwise. The book was motivated by the lead author's insight after listening to a talk given by Dr. Karen Overall. She discussed the damage being done in veterinary clinics by dogs who were terrified, if not traumatized, by veterinary procedures. Dr. Becker left the talk shaken to the core. As much as he loves dogs, and as experienced as he was as "American Veterinarian" on Good Morning America for 19 years, he had never thought about how much damage standard medical procedures can do to the health of the dogs who are frightened by them. Fear changes a dog's physiology and how it presents in the clinic. It can suppress a dog's immune system and exacerbate many Read More
Detecting Subtle Injuries, Dr. Chris Zink at APDT
Years ago I was chased by a bull. A ground-pawing, snorting, massive animal right out of a cartoon who drew a bead on me and began to attack from about 30 yards away. The gentleman I was with ran too, passing me in a heartbeat, and yelling “Pick up a stick!” over his shoulder. I glanced at the ground to find nothing bigger than a twig on the ground, decided through careful deliberation that it probably wasn’t going to stop a fifteen-hundred pound animal charging at full speed, turned and ran as fast as I could toward the fence. At the last moment I made it through, where I and my hero stood panting in relief. We turned to walk away, and my right leg collapsed underneath me while I shrieked in pain. I’d sprained my ankle. Badly. But I hadn’t known it until I began to calm down, because one Read More
Celebrating Adopt a Dog Month
October is now officially "Adopt a Dog Month" and what a great addition to fall colors, apple pie and pumpkins (who I believe to be taking over the earth). Here's a repeat of a post I wrote in June of 2011, right after the first copies of Love Has No Age Limit came out. Since then, over 80,000 copies of the book have gone out into the world, and hopefully, helped a dog settle happily into its forever home. From June of 2011: Love Has No Age Limit, the book I co-authored with Karen London about adopting an adolescent or adult dog, was delivered yesterday morning at 8 AM. I pulled up just after Denise had spent heaven knows how long carrying boxes from the truck into the office. (The delivery man’s comment, while first refusing to unload the boxes, was “Do you know how many books Read More
For The Animals Shall Not Be Measured By Man
I've started several different posts this week. One is about helping dogs feel secure in new surroundings, one about teaching frustration tolerance and problem solving, one about the power of being positive. However, I just can't seem to finish them. After last week's brouhaha over my review of the Monks' new book, I find my mind swirling with things I want to say, but none crystallized well enough to send them out into the universe. The good thing about being almost 69 is that you finally start listening to yourself. If I'm not ready to finish the articles, then, well, I won't. What I will do is look to the animals for peace and wisdom, from the ones who live in our homes, to the wild ones whose lives we affect every day by our actions (or lack of). Do you know the Read More
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