Thanks for the great comments on what's needed in a booklet for people bringing home adult dogs from shelters or rescues. Keep 'em coming, either on this post or the previous one. A lot of you will be gratified to know that the points at the top of my own list are similar to many of yours: 1) patience patience patience, 2) do not expect the dog you bring home to be the dog you end up with in 3 days, 3 weeks or 3 months and 3) don't try to make up for past neglect or abuse (or the perception of it, which common but often not accurate) by coddling a dog such that she becomes emotionally overloaded by you and finally, for now, 4) no, love is not enough... love doesn't mean much if you are totally confused about what is expected of you. You simply have to teach your dog what you want, Read More
Archives for 2010
Booklet For Dogs from Shelters or Rescues
Karen London and I are planning on writing a booklet for people who adopt dogs from shelters or rescue groups. We're both aware that often it can be intimidating to sit in your living room with a new family member, whose background you may not even know. Over the many years that we've worked with people who have adopted dogs, and with our own dogs that we have taken in from difficult circumstances (5 between us), we know that these dogs can present challenges, and generate questions that are not often answered by standard training books. We have our own ideas about what to include in the booklet, we've already written an outline, but we'd love to hear from you too. If you have a dog that you obtained from a shelter or rescue group, or adopted an adult dog who might have had a difficult Read More
Raw Diets and Assistance Dogs
Several comments to the last blog brought up the issue of Delta's new policy of banning pets fed with "raw protein food" from being Delta Society Pet Partners. I'm guessing that although they were aware that an increasing number of people feed raw food to their pets, (Delta itself cites the "increasing use of raw protein diets" as a reason for their policy), they were not expecting the firestorm that blazed across the dog world once their policy was announced. Delta, as you probably know, cites studies that animals fed raw diets have increased amounts of pathogenic bacteria compared to dogs fed cooked food. Indeed a study out in 2008 found that dogs fed raw diets had increased levels of salmonella and E. Coli in their stool. However, as the excellent review of this issue published in Read More
Animal Assisted Therapy Through the Ages
Aubrey Fine's new book on AAT just came out, Handbook on Animal-Assisted Therapy, and I am pleasantly surprised at how much of general interest is in it. If you've been reading the blog for awhile you might remember that Aubrey and I wrote a chapter for it together on "what therapists need to understand about their co-therapists." I loved working with Aubrey, he and I share so many beliefs and perspectives, and in addition he is such a kind and generous man to work with. We both agreed, as we say in the chapter, that great therapy dogs are often older dogs, who have had a chance to mature and mellow a bit. As I mature (so to speak) I look forward to being semi-retired and having the time to do AAT or AAA (animal assisted activities). With Willie? Not sure, too soon to say. He is sooo Read More
Cats and Shelters
I did a fund raiser for my local shelter last night, the Dane County Humane Society. They are about to open a state of the art facility for cats, designed to treat cats with ring worm (a fungus, not a worm) so that they don't have to be put down (as they often are at shelters, even some 'no-kill' ones.) They have developed a nationally recognized treatment program, and a new facility just for cats is part of the program. They call it the FIT Center (Feline Infectious Treatment? I'm making that up.) and it will be opening up next week. Yeah DCHS! I am bushed today, but am so gratified to be able to help. Over 200 people attended, we raised lots of money thanks to a generous community and I auctioned off Willie's slightly used Polly the Pig stuffed toy and discovered it's really really Read More
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