Last weekend Jim, Willie, Tootsie and I stayed in a lovely log cabin owned by friends in the woods in eastern Wisconsin. I mention that because for the first time in her nine years of life, Tootsie got to run off leash in an unfenced area off the farm. Wooo Hooo! Some people might not…

One of the most enjoyable parts of doing seminars around the world is talking to people from a variety of countries about their countries’ and culture’s attitude  and regulations regarding dogs. A group of us got to talking in Edinburgh about the dog-related laws of their own countries, and what a range of regulations we…

Not very subtle, hey?  Apologies, but I was convinced by some well-motivated smooth talkers that some of you really would want to know that all my DVDs are 25% off until next Monday. So there, I did it, the woman who would flunk out of marketing class on the first day. Whew. Okay, now to…

Hardest thing I’ve ever done (voluntarily!), and the most rewarding. Here’s just a few photos from our adventures on the Milford Track, South Island, New Zealand. Our group had a total of 15 people, only 6 of us from the US, all good and true friends. Here we are on Day 1, after a 2.5…

A reader asked if I’d go through what I do to prepare for a trip when I can’t take my dogs along. I thought it was a good question for all of us, and a lead in to what could be a fruitful discussion. After all, leaving one’s dog(s) is hard, and the only way…

Just a quick post to let locals know that I’ll be giving a talk on December 1st at the Black Earth Library on my animal-behavior focused trips to Africa. I’ll combine the best of my and Jim’s photographs and talk about the adventures of safaris in Kenya, Botswana, Tanzania and Rwanda. We’ll talk about radio-collaring…

Greetings from Oregon. I just finished up with two talks at UC-Davis and a day long seminar in Corvallis, Oregon, sponsored jointly by OSU and Wonder Dogs. The participants and hosts could not have been more delightful, and I thank everyone for making the trip enjoyable and more than worthwhile. All three events had a…

Well, Tender at the Bone is admittedly the title of a book about food (if you love food and good writing as much as I do, this is a fantastic book by food critic Ruth Reichl), but I borrowed the phrase to continue our discussion about dental health and chewing on bones. If you haven’t…

This summary doesn’t begin to address the subject in depth, to do so would require a book, but I hope you’ll find what I’ve written interesting nonetheless. My biggest problem with this was not spending all week on it… the topic is so interesting, and almost every fact led to a question. (Territorial? Well, that’s…

I’m working on a post about the comparative behavior of wolves, coyotes, African Wild dogs and domestic dogs, but here’s a short digression for the cat lovers. An adult lioness in the Maasai Mara marks a bush after rising from a nap. You can clearly see the stream of urine in the photo. Aren’t you…

As you know if you’ve been following the blog, 1/2 the folks who went to Kenya continued on to Botswana. We all knew that seeing Wild Dogs wasn’t a guarantee, but we had high hopes because we were going where and when our chances were highest. (And no, in response to one comment, there are…

THIS WAS WRITTEN on August 11th, but not posted til now. So don’t get confused, it’s out of order! In transition, 10 minute to write. in nairobi between tent camp on edge of maasai mara in masai village and flights either to home or to So Africa for those of us going on to Botswana. …

Back in the Jo’berg airport again, but this time after having spent two days in the Okavango Delta at Chitabe Tent Camp. 1/2 of us arrived 1 1/2 days late, having barely made it when our last flight was delayed and the sun’s descent meant we might not be able to take the small plane…

An alert reader sent in a link to a story about ‘village’ dogs in Russia who have figured out how to forage for food in an urban setting. The dogs actually hop onto trains that take them into the city where there is a great deal of food. But they don’t just forage in garbage…

Well, here we are, 7 of us anyway (Matt, Kelly, Meg, Beckett, Erin, Jim and me for any relatives trying to get news), in the Jo’berg airport, over a day past when we were due to arrive in Botswana. Due to a series of unfortunate events, we were stranded and alone in the Nairobi airport…

While we’re in Africa I’m sure all of us will have our eyes out for dogs, whether owned or feral. Out of the cities, most of the dogs I’ve seen in Kenya and Tanzania have been “village dogs,” although many of them are ‘owned’ by someone in the area. “Owned” just means something different there:…

One of our alert readers sent a link to a study done by Kathryn Lord of U. Massachusetts on the “meaning” of barks in a variety of species. The link is to a newspaper article written about the study, complete with comments (mostly irate) about the findings of the work. But the study (which I…

Watched adult female and two subadult cubs (3-4 yrs? still some spots on legs) chase vultures off a recent zebra kill. Elephants coming in out of the hills to feed in the amboseli swamps, we’ll see more of them later today. Am meeting with camp naturalist to learn more… saw an animal that looked exactly…

Here we are in Amboseli. 9 pm, long day, ending with dinner watching gazelles, zebra and wildebeest walking past the dining room. went on game drive in evening, found pride of 9 lions:2 black maned males, 2 cubs and 5 females. some of us saw them very closely, my van not right next to the…

Wheeeee, the new 1/2 day seminar on play that I did in California a few weeks ago is out now on DVD, thanks to lots of hard work by Alta at Tawzer Videos. You can learn more about Dog Play on my website, but here’s the summary: The seminar focused on three aspects of canine…

Hard to imagine we’re on our way to Africa tomorrow. Even though it’s my fourth trip, going to Africa still seems like something I could only dream about, never really do. Of course, the only dreaming at this point is of things I might have forgotten, and worries about leaving the dogs and the sheep.…

I’m curious if any readers have some advice for me and a friend of mine. She and her husband have a young German Shorthaired Pointer they’d love to train to hunt, but are having problems finding any professional trainers who don’t use ear pinches, forced retrieves and a basic attitude of “Do it because I…

Well, I can’t tell you that last night went smoothly, but my Willie boy tried his best and ended up learning a lot about working sheep last night. (We went to a good friends, Peg, who has a lot more sheep and a lot more land than I do and is extremely generous with her…

The seminar in Arroyo Grande was great fun; the hosts at Gentle Touch Pet Training could not have been kinder, more supportive or better organized. The afternoon half day session on Play was a joy–and all that work creating a new seminar felt well worth it by the end of the day. During the Play…

I can’t write much, I’ve been deep in preparation for the new seminars I’m doing in Arroyo Grande at Gentle Touch Pet Training this Sunday and we’re leaving for the airport in a few hours. Predictably, we are in the usual flurry of last minute packing, house sprucing and training of new house sitter. As…

I’m leading another safari in Kenya and Botswana this August. Wanna come? It probably will be my last. The first time I went to Africa to lead an animal-behavior-focused safari, I cautioned the participants the day we arrived that we weren’t going to see what we usually see on a nature special on television. “What…

Every morning I start my day writing a list of things that I am grateful for. Sometimes they are big things (Jim, my dogs, opportunities to learn, grow and improve relationships between people and animals) and sometimes they are small (the plaintive Wooo Heee song of courting Chickadees, the deep, purple blue of the first…

I’m still thinking about all the wonderful dogs I met in Sweden and Norway (not to mention their humans!). I paid a lot of attention to breeds–it seems that the mix of breeds here in the states is changing, although that’s just a perception, not a fact. I have seen so many ‘rare’ breeds lately,…

Home. Ummmm, feels so good. Even though the trip was wonderful in so many ways, it is SO good to be home. As I wrote earlier, I greatly enjoyed presenting a seminar in Sweden—the people were so kind and interesting, and our vacation in the fjord country of Norway was heavenly. (see the photos attached).…

I’m sitting in the lobby of the old Fredheim Hotel in Flam, Norway.  It’s at the base of an endless fjord on the west coast of Norway.  Gorgeous. I’m here because last weekend I presented a two day seminar in Tomalilla, Sweden (toe-ma-lee-lah… it’s really lovely to say!), hosted by Natasja and Daniel Atterbom. (eeeps,…