Last week I savored your responses to my Giving Thanks post. No matter how big or how small, it's good for us, and those around us, to let gratitude soothe our souls. Today, I'm focusing on giving thanks through the "Giving" part. It's Giving Tuesday, and although, like me, you mighty be feeling a tad overwhelmed with all the requests, I still love the idea of a day that counters the Spend Money on Things forces that flow like lava around us. There are so many good causes out there that need money and/or resources; here's what I'm contributing to this holiday season: FOR COMPANION ANIMALS: LOCAL: My local shelter is the Dane County Humane Society, and I plan to donate a big box of my books to it. I'll be sure to bring lots of Love Has No Age Limit books, which we've put on sale Read More

The downhill holiday slide has begun: Cook everything you can think of for Thanksgiving dinner! Get an early start on Christmas cards to get them on sale! Order Christmas presents that have to be mailed soon! Decide what to give to everyone else, including the dogs! Start Christmas cooking! Work on future blogs about good Christmas books for dog lovers, and avoiding canine stress over the holidays! Be joyous and full of cheer! Or, the only important thing: Give thanks. Be thankful. Celebrate Thanks Giving. That's my focus today, and I'll keep the warm light of gratitude shining within me throughout the end of the year. I hope you'll join me to celebrate the true and beautiful spirit of this week's holiday: Giving Thanks. First, and always, I am thankful for my husband, partner, Read More

Last week's post on teaching dogs "Enough," when you are tired of being a petting machine, elicited a request from reader Nana-Mary: "Speaking of our two dogs, I would love some tips on controlling the BARKING! I know that we don’t want to discourage ALL barking, but sometimes it gets way out of control. It’s like a game. They seem to bark to get the other one riled up. I would love to hear how to make them STOP!!" Whaaa? Barking? Dogs? In my first month of working as an applied animal behaviorist, I literally asked a potential client--who was calling about a barking problem--to repeat herself because I couldn't hear her. Because--you know where I'm going here--my dogs were barking. Unlike adult wolves, who rarely bark, most domestic dogs are veritable opera singers, from Read More

Let me start with a story, one that I relayed in Bark Magazine in 2005: When I was taping the Animal Planet show Petline, a veterinarian-turned-sales-rep asked to borrow Cool Hand Luke for a demonstration on dental care. Luke and I had JUST finished a segment on how much dogs dislike being patted on top of the head, and had directed the audience's attention to Luke's look of disgust when we did it to him. Sure enough, after jerking Luke's mouth open several times (as though she were cleaning clams), the woman said "Thank you, Luke," and gave him three short, bouncy pats on the top of his head. We had to stop taping because the camera crew was laughing so hard they couldn't continue filming. The fact is, people just love to pat, pat, pat dogs on the top of their heads, and most dogs Read More

It's just a wonderful feeling, knowing that what you've written has been published in a variety of languages. Imagining people reading The Other End of the Leash in Polish or Spanish makes me smile. It's not just the intellectual knowledge that one's books have circled the globe; it as much a feeling of connection. A connection to other cultures, other countries, other people who love dogs as much as I do. It is that connection that feels so important right now, in a time when being truly connected to other people feels increasingly threatened. So, join me, in celebrating that people all over the world can bond over their love of animals, and that, in a variety of languages, we can read the same books, under the same sun and the same moon, on our tiny, green, gorgeous, and Read More