Apologies... I sliced the tip of my finger with a newly sharpened knife and it makes typing ridiculously slow and tedious. As a result I am terribly behind in most everything I have to do on a computer, which more often than not, is most everything I have to do for much of the day. At least it's not a dog's paw--I had a dog who badly cut his a pad on his paw and it was absurd trying to keep it clean and dry! In lieu of words, here are 2 photos a fantastic photographer, Nic Berard, took of Will (the same photographer who did the photos on the top of the blog and website), Lassie and me. I love the one of Will playing because he looks half insane (and who doesn't when they are completely lost in exuberance?) and I love that Lassie is in the background looking engaged and youthful (she was Read More
Fairness in Dogs? Lassie’s Birthday Party
First things first! Lassie's party was a joy. Many of her friends came to talk, eat and belly rub, and Lassie proclaimed it good. Very good indeed. Lassie reveled in the attention, Willie got tons of petting too and we all ate ourselves silly. Only downside is that I forgot to take photos (camera out and at the ready on the counter...) of Lassie and all her friends. Big disappointment, I have a photo of my first Border collie Drift, at his 15th birthday party, and it means a lot to me to have it. He died 2 months later and I think that's part of what motivated me to have this one, and I'm so glad I did. However, I fully intend and expect to have a rip roaring 16th birthday party for Lassie next year, so I'll just get a photo next year. Here's a picture after the party of Lassie delving Read More
Are Pets Important? Will Comes into his Own.
I was working on my new book, coming out from Dogwise in early November, and found a section that relates, I suspect, to the cancellation of my radio show, Calling All Pets. The book, coming out from Dogwise, (Tales of Two Species) is a collection of my columns from Bark magazine. One of them is titled "Pet Peeves." In it I write about our country's ambivalent feelings about our pets. On the one hand, many of us love them, treat them like family and can't imagine life without them. They are as important to our well-being as is literature, music and art. (For some of us, I'd add food, water and oxygen.) And yet, look at how often we hear people say, demeaningly, that an animal is "just a pet." Here's an excerpt from the essay: “Just a pet.” How many times have you heard someone say Read More
Never Repeat a Command
If you're a professional dog trainer, you've repeated "never repeat a command" countless times. Surely it's one of life's greatest ironies. I've said it myself many a time, and I've written about how hard it is to follow that advice. How easily the second "Sit" comes after the first one, yes? I've gotten pretty good at saying things just once, although that doesn't mean I'm perfect. If I had five bucks for every time I've repeated "Lie Down" to my working Border collies I'd be a rich woman. But still, I'm better than most... and am the first to explain why it's so important not to repeat a command. (If you want your dog to respond to a signal, then repeating it simply teaches him to not respond to the first time you say it and wait for the second.) So answer me this: the man I call the Read More
“Dog Training” versus “Real Work”
So I'm working Will, my young Border Collie, last night, asking him to push the lambs into a corner so that I could catch and treat a sick one. (Lambs get diarrhea just like people and dogs do, I suspect it feels just as bad for them as it does for the rest of us. Poor little guy looked miserable.) Willie is doing really well at this kind of task, even though he can be the kind of dog who is "sticky" and won't push the sheep forward when it's needed sometimes. But he seems to love real work, when the sheep really have to get into the truck, or the lambs have to be pushed into a corner so that we can catch and treat one. How do I know? Well, I don't for sure, but his eyes seem brighter, he looks especially animated when we are done and most importantly, he is much braver when we have "real Read More
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