I spent three years writing The Education of Will before deciding that I would go ahead and publish it. I wrote and wrote and wrote for myself, as a well-documented way to resolve baggage from my past and move on. I had wanted to try writing fiction, but got discouraged by editors and agents who said, "Well, that's a very difficult world to enter; every week publishers are blasted with a fire hose of works from hopeful fiction writers. Why don't you write a memoir?" I had no plans or interest at that time to write a memoir (don't you have to be, ahem, older?), but I was also working with a brilliant therapist at the time who encouraged me to write about some of the things we were talking about. Not for her, not for anyone else, but just for myself. Writing is a powerful thing. I often Read More
Holy Moly, Trisha’s on Twitter
Don't take that to mean I know what I'm doing. Seriously, who knew this 140 character stuff was so complicated? Expect me to tweet like a 5 year old in kindergarten for awhile. FYI, it seems every variant of my name is taken, so I ended up taking the handle @McConnellWrites. Come say hi. Speaking of writing, that's all she wrote for today. I'm deep into creating four different talks for 12 book tour events in February and March for The Education of Will. Not to mention the logistics of traveling to Milwaukee, Green Bay, Madison, Columbus, Denver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco (or close to anyway), Boston and Philadelphia in a brief period of time, and arranging for AV, hotels, etc etc. Enough already. I do hope you'll forgive me for being a bit less prolific on the blog during the Read More
Resource Guarding, Dog to Dog (Repost)
I've had a lot of questions lately about resource guarding. I'm not sure why--dogs stuck together inside because of the weather? A butterfly flapping its wings in China? Who knows. But I thought it was a good time to revisit a post I wrote in 2014 about dogs who guard resources from other dogs. Here are some thoughts and ideas: There’s no doubt that RG between dogs is a bit trickier than when it occurs toward a person, perhaps because it is simply easier to control the behavior of a member of our species than it is a dog. But there is a lot one can do to prevent or treat RG between dogs. Can it solve all problems between all dogs? Do I have a bridge to sell you? No, but here are some ideas that I’ve found helpful in the past. PREVENTION I know this isn’t helpful once the problem Read More
Visits from former owners: Good for Dogs?
A few months ago I got an email from someone with a great question: Would it distress a dog to have his former owner come visit? I've been mulling on it ever since, and my answer, of course, is It Depends. But that leads to the question, "Depends on what?" Although I'm only speculating, I suspect it depends on how settled and stable the dog is in his or her new home. Here are a couple of examples, one from my own life: CASE ONE--SCOTT: Scott was the son of my first Border Collie, Drift. I loved him dearly, and then I gave him away to another owner. I did that because I was sure he wasn't happy here on the farm. Yes, he was loved and well cared for. Yes, he got to work sheep and take long walks in the country and enjoy belly rubs at night. But Scott was an anxious dog, and he hated Read More
Great Photo of “Hard Eye,” & What to Do When You See It
Meet Sam. He's a 41/2 year old Border Collie, adopted by Roberta K from a shelter in rural Virginia at the age of one. He'd spent his first year of life in a crate. It seems the elderly couple who purchased him, one wheelchair bound, found him "too much to handle." (A pause here for us all to take a breath and remind ourselves about the value of compassion, versus our shared and understandable desire to shriek and rip our hair out by the roots.) Sam was rejected by a number of potential owners after they came to meet the dog attached to the beautiful face they'd seen on Facebook. Something about him leaping repeatedly 10 feet into the air and lunging, teeth bared, at all visitors seemed to have put them off. Not Roberta, surely a true heroine, who knew that Sam desperately needed to Read More
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