If you've been home more often than not because of Covid Safe at Home, this is a good time to ensure that your dog doesn't end up with Separation Anxiety (SA) when you go back to work. I'm concerned, as are many of my colleagues, that there is going to be a surge in separation anxiety cases once people aren't home as often. I suspect that this is especially true of all the dogs that have been adopted from shelters during the Covid crisis, and have yet to experience being home alone. Here are three tips that can help: 1. Keep calm and come home: Teach your dog that your arrivals and departures are nothing to get excited (or anxious) about. I'll admit that it’s hard to not get excited when you get home and there’s a wriggly, puddle of love waiting for you, but calm is Read More
Archives for April 2020
Don’t Think About Red (or Touch Your Face).
Midwesterners like me are pretty obedient. Think of us as the golden retrievers of the country. Like most, I've been sheltering for a month, indulging in take out only once a week, and washing my hands raw. But the CDC’s "don't touch your face" instruction? Total fail. Granted, I have a new-found awareness of how often I touch my face, and how desperately important it feels to do so. But stop touching it? Not happening. I just scratched an itch under my eyebrow, while I was writing this. The hand washing part is easy. I’m doing that so often I’m going to run out of moisturizer long before toilet paper. But every time I hear “Don’t touch your face” I want to paw my hands over my cheeks like a rebellious adolescent. Why is one piece of advice so easy to follow, and the other so Read More
Life Goes on and Spring Still Comes.
Just photographs today, in honor of the Easter weekend, spring and the insanity of our last few days. So, it's all MEANWHILE, back on the farm: I'll get right to the insanity part (as if we all needed more in our lives). Skip was running with a visiting dog, and came back to me on three legs, his right rear held up high and in a weird, unnatural position. It was sticking out laterally at the hip, as if he'd dislocated it. It looked horrific. I'll give you the good news right away: His hip is not dislocated, and it is doubtful that he tore anything. However, we didn't know that for several days, (we're still not sure) while I snot-sobbed about an endless recovery after hip or cruciate surgery under Covid-crisis conditions. But, cross your paws oh please please please; it looks more Read More
Online Dog Training–The Agony and The Ecstasy
We all know that family dog trainers don't train dogs, they train people. As I tease my veterinarian friends, our job is harder, because we have to train our clients to do the equivalent of the surgery themselves. And we all know that we, as a species, can be a bit challenging to train. Not because we're bad people, but because we inherently aren't consistent (ie, the downfall of synonyms), have a hugely variable repertoire, and focus on word content often more than inflection and visual signals. And now dog trainers all over the world are coping with social distancing rules that make in-person classes impossible. My heart breaks for all of those who are struggling right now, as are so many millions of people in so many different types of jobs. But the silver lining here is that so Read More