Starting to travel again? As our country gradually opens up, the question of what to do with our pets if we don't take them with us arises. I'm curious what choice you make, and what advice you have for others, about whether to kennel a dog or get a house sitter. Of course, both have costs and benefits. Sitters allow your animals to stay in a familiar place and in a familiar routine. If you're lucky, there are neighbors who can help out if there's a problem. However, sitters can sometimes be hard to find, and some are more reliable than others. Boarding kennels have systems in place to keep pets safe, but they can be noisy and stressful in some cases. Some dogs adore going to " summer camp," some dogs come back exhausted. I'll make some comments here, but I'm especially interested in Read More

What would we do without our veterinarians and vet techs?? Not to mention everyone else who helps us keep our companion animals as healthy as we can. This week I'm celebrating Veterinary Appreciation Day and I hope you'll join me. I'll admit to being a bit jaded at all the "special days" we hear about on a daily basis. (With the exception of Penguin Awareness Day on January 20th. I'm all in.) But acknowledging and thanking everyone at our vet and rehab clinics feels like exactly what I want to do right now. I got a start by ordering some foodie gift packages for the two clinics that take care of my dogs and cats. I had planned to deliver them this week, but the packages came with the words OPEN IMMEDIATELY on the box, so they got delivered on Friday. Here's a photo at the Spring Green Read More

Dogs. Babies. Adorable. Unless you're a trainer or behaviorist, and cover your eyes while watching some of the "cute" on line videos, showing young children at risk of being bitten because the dog was radiating discomfort while the parents cooed and laughed. People like me, CAABs (Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists), Veterinary Behaviorists, and a whole lot of great trainers have been working hard to try to prevent dangerous interactions between dogs and young children for years. One of the best in the business is Jennifer Shyrock of Family Paws, who graciously gave me an hour of her time based on her extensive experience helping families keep dogs and young children happy and healthy together. I asked Jennifer "What do you wish families knew, that they usually don't?" Her answer was Read More

As always, Memorial Day feels hard to wrap my head around, or maybe it's my heart. It's a day of the beginning of summer and BBQs and, this year especially, celebrations of finally being able to be with friends and family. And it's a day of mourning and respect and gratitude for those who have lost their lives because of their service in the military. My uncle, Lynn Dodwell, according to my mom, his sister, was the only survivor of his squadron of 52 RAF pilots in WWII (Royal Air Force). Every other young man was shot down and lost while defending England. Even though he didn't die himself, I don't think he ever recovered from survivor's guilt--it always felt like part of him died. On Memorial Day this year I will indeed play outside with friends, play crazy-ass croquet (who said the Read More

So I don't bury the lead, here's where I'm going today: Why does the concept that dogs can get angry make some people angry? I was reminded of that when I was looking something up in For the Love of a Dog (I often forget where I wrote what . . .) and ran into the introduction to the chapter on anger. That brought me back to an incident years ago, in which someone became enraged at my suggestion that dogs could get angry. I wrote about this briefly in a November 2008 post, relating my experience at a day-long meeting at the National Institute of Health on the human animal bond.  I was one of several speakers, in the company of zoo-anthropologist Dr. James Serpell, Dr. Sandra Barker and Dr. Joan Esnayra. Here's what I wrote in November 2008:  I spoke second, after Serpell, arguing Read More