Thanks for the great comments on what's needed in a booklet for people bringing home adult dogs from shelters or rescues. Keep 'em coming, either on this post or the previous one. A lot of you will be gratified to know that the points at the top of my own list are similar to many of yours: 1) patience patience patience, 2) do not expect the dog you bring home to be the dog you end up with in 3 days, 3 weeks or 3 months and 3) don't try to make up for past neglect or abuse (or the perception of it, which common but often not accurate) by coddling a dog such that she becomes emotionally overloaded by you and finally, for now, 4) no, love is not enough... love doesn't mean much if you are totally confused about what is expected of you. You simply have to teach your dog what you want, Read More
Booklet For Dogs from Shelters or Rescues
Karen London and I are planning on writing a booklet for people who adopt dogs from shelters or rescue groups. We're both aware that often it can be intimidating to sit in your living room with a new family member, whose background you may not even know. Over the many years that we've worked with people who have adopted dogs, and with our own dogs that we have taken in from difficult circumstances (5 between us), we know that these dogs can present challenges, and generate questions that are not often answered by standard training books. We have our own ideas about what to include in the booklet, we've already written an outline, but we'd love to hear from you too. If you have a dog that you obtained from a shelter or rescue group, or adopted an adult dog who might have had a difficult Read More
New Book on Human-Animal Relationships:
Oh dear, I'm behind already and the day is still young. It's not my fault, it's Hal Herzog's fault, for writing such a thought-provoking and engaging book on human/animal relationships. Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat, is the kind of book that once I start I can't put down--thus my late start to the day this morning. Full disclosure: First off, I teach a class at the University of Wisconsin-Madison called "The Biology and Philosophy of Human/Animal Relationships," so this is clearly a topic near and dear to my heart. In the class, we talk about the same complications and contradictions that Hal addresses: Is it ethical to eat cows but not dogs? If yes or no, why? If you had to choose between saving the life of your own dog or a person you'd never met, what would you do and Read More
Life is One Continuous Mistake
Those are the words of Dogen Zenji, a Zen master, quoted in one of my favorite books, Zen Miracles by Brenda Shoshanna. I repeat them here, because I think they have the power to ease life’s journey for all of us. The message is simple, but profound. Of course you, and everyone around you are going to make mistakes. It is inevitable, because, as the saying reminds us, “Life IS one continuous mistake.” Once we accept that, it is much easier to be loving and compassionate, both to ourselves and to others. When I first became interested in dog training, in the mid-80’s, I was shocked at how hard people were on their dogs. “Disobedience” by dogs was considered to be a direct challenge to a dog’s owner. Any time a dog responded inappropriately it was attributed to the dog being stubborn, or Read More
A Gift of a Book
Gail Caldwell's new book, Let's Take the Long Way Home, is nothing short of exquisite. It is a book for anyone who has had and lost a soul mate best friend, for anyone bonded to another by their love of dogs, or their need for another who understands them without explanation. It is a love story in a way, a memorial to Gail's friendship with a brilliant writer named Caroline Knapp, who most of the world knows through her book Drinking: A Love Story, and dog lovers like us know from her last book, Pack of Two. Gail's writing is so spare and honest and pure that I read the book non-stop, bleary-eyed at 3 in the morning, tears streaming because after Gail and Caroline find each other -- two single women writers who shared living alone, having similar boyfriends (the same one sequentially at Read More
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