Lassie went home today.I am thinking of the famous story about Hemingway, in which he challenged his writer friends to write the shortest story possible. All agreed that he won. Here's what he wrote:For Sale. Baby Shoes. Never Worn.Since then, summarizing one's life in six words has become something of a parlor game. I have done so for Lassie, summarizing what she means to me in six words, and I think it would bring pleasure and comfort to everyone who reads this blog if you were inspired to do the same for your own special dog, and to share them, if you would, for us all to read.Here's for my Lassie:French Vanilla. Ice Cream. Summer Day.Off you go dear Lassie, my god how I loved you. Read More
Love, Guilt & Putting Dogs Down
With apologies for the change in topics, I just have to respond to a comment on my last post, and to the hundreds of comments I've heard over the last 20 + years, about the guilt associated with putting a dog down. It is always wrenching, heart-breaking to euthanize a beloved dog, but taking a dog's life away for a behavioral problem can be especially hard. I can't take away the pain, no matter what the reason for the death, but here are a few things that I have found that have helped me and some of my clients.First, for anyone who has had to euthanize a dog, I hope it helps to know that devoted owners are often wracked with guilt, no matter why the dog died. For example, I euthanized Cool Hand Luke after a long battle with kidney failure. By the time he died (he was close to death Read More
Willie Rocks, Lassie Gives Me a Scare
I took Will to a friend's to work him on different sheep in a new environment. I'm getting to the point where he and I don't have too much more we can do at home. My small flock is so tame that Will has to be within a few feet of them to move them, unless I split out a few and force them away from the main flock. Then they are flightier (and more challenging), and I'll do that more and more, but don't like to stress the ewes and lambs too much when the lambs are young. Either way, it's still the same sheep in the same place, and Will needs to learn how to work lots of different types of sheep in different places. (So do I!) We are used to working in first gear, when most sheep work in done in 4th.I wish I could show you a video of how he did. We were at a gorgeous farm where Will has Read More
Tulip’s Tulips
As promised, I'm going to write soon about helping dogs with Thunder Phobia (and the very interesting issue of reinforcing fear and/or the behavior that expresses it) , but I couldn't resist posting a few photos from this morning.Here's Mr. Will, front and center as usual, as I try to take a photo of the tulips that are blooming over Tulip's grave. I named Tulip, in part, after the white tulips I planted in honor of my first Great Pyrenees Bo Peep. We buried Tulip with the hundreds of fresh tulips her admirers had spontaneously brought to a celebration of her life a few hours before we put her down.Tulip the dog may have been all white, but her spirit was a rainbow of colors. The flowers are planted over her grave, in the place that she spent so many hours, chewing on bones, Read More
Human-Animal Relationships; People and Dogs
I started teaching my University of Wisconsin course yesterday, titled "The Biology and Philosophy of Human/Animal Relationships." It is, granted, a lot of work, but I love doing it. I love the intellectual stimulation it creates, and I love working with 150 smart, motivated young people with minds like steel traps (okay, most of them) who are hungry to learn how to relate their education with the day-to-day issues of life. We'll be talking tomorrow about "humans and animals." Or, is it "humans, and other animals?" What really makes us different from the rest of the animal world, and what makes us the same?I love thinking about those questions, and I love how dogs are always reminding me that while we humans are special... different in so many ways than all the other animals on earth, Read More