It seems that we all have something we are fighting right now. This next month, I'm all about doing battle with cancer. Cancer. Ugh, I hate it. I actually began this piece with a direct conversation to cancer itself, but it contained so many swear words I had to delete it. I have good reason to hate cancer, as does almost everyone reading this article. Personally, I’ve lost two dogs, a sister-in-law and a best friend to cancer. I have several friends who are battling cancer as I write. I look at my three dogs and find myself wondering—will I lose one of them to it? (That’s not paranoid, cancer affects dogs at higher rates than it affects people.) What about Jim? Argh, I can't even go there. Of course, none of us can have a direct conversation with cancer. It’s not sentient, it doesn’t Read More
The Working Dog Center at Penn Vet
Book tours can be tiring, but there's nothing like being inspired by the work of the people of The Penn Vet Working Dog Center in Philadelphia. I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon there--basically an exercise in intellectual and emotional rapture. In general, here's what they do: "Our goal is to increase collaborative research, scientific assessment, and shared knowledge and application of the newest scientific findings and veterinary expertise to optimize the performance of detection dogs." Here's more from their website: The dogs "prevent crime and acts of terrorism, working alongside military, police, TSA, and the Department of Defense to find explosives and narcotics. Rescue victims of accidents or disasters, using expert search-and-recovery skills. Detect medical Read More
Best cake in the world
I just couldn't resist sending this out: Without question the most amazing cake ever made in the world, thanks to my hosts in Boxboro, MA at the New England Dog Training Club. Nancy and Cindy had the cake made. (My thanks to creative genius Jeannie at Wilson Farm in Lexington, MA!) We had a lovely dinner last night at Nancy and Wade's beautiful home, and I'm anticipating a wonderful night tonight, speaking in Boxboro about my memoir, The Education of Will. It sounds like there are still a few seats available, hope to see you there tonight. Please come up and say hi; I've met several blog readers and dedicated commenters on the book tour already, and I can't tell you how much I love putting faces to names. Without further ado, here's the best cake in the world: They even made Read More
Book Review: The Domestic Dog, edited by James Serpell
If you are a serious student of domestic dog behavior, you need this book. Its full title is The Domestic Dog: Its Evolution, Behavior and Interactions with People (2nd edition). It's not inexpensive, but well worth it. ($44.69 on Amazon, but don't hesitate to contact your local Indie store to see what they'd charge you.) This is not a book I can read from beginning to end, because it's a compilation of chapters, 20 in all, whose subjects range from the archaeological evidence of the dog's origins to social cognition and the emotions underlying dog behavior. It is chock full of important information (the social structure of free-ranging dogs depends on resource dispersion), just plain interesting information (wolf puppies begin exploring the environment at two weeks of age, dogs not until Read More
How to Handle Reactive Dogs
I'm just back from the first phase of book tour, and so much of what came up on the dog-lover side related to "reactive" dogs. As I talk about in The Education of Will, dogs can be psychologically traumatized too, and one of the symptoms of that is "hyper-reactivity." Just as a veteran soldier with PTSD can react to a loud noise by throwing herself to the ground, dogs with their alarm systems fixed on HIGH are usually quick to startle to an abrupt noise, or panic when an unfamiliar dogs appear. However, dogs can be "reactive" when out walking for a variety of reasons, including a conditioned response to feeling frustrated at not being able to greet another dog if on leash, or simple fear of a dog they've never met. "Traditional" responses have been to correct dogs for lunging, snarling Read More
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