It’s a Mystery.
Well, this is weird. It's Monday morning, and I'm not in my usual place, writing my blog on my laptop in the dining room, Skip curled up against the door, Maggie out of sight in the living room sprawled on the couch. No, I'm writing to you on the huge iMac in my study, the one I don't let myself use unless I'm writing a "big book." No internet unless for book research, no email, no nothing but working on the book. It's the room where I wrote The Other End of the Leash, For the Love of a Dog, and The Education of Will. I conditioned myself to use it, and only it, for serious writing, as a way of fighting off the lure of endless distractions. Classical conditioning isn't just for dogs. I'm Read More
Some Good Things to Keep Us Sane
I don't know about you, but the state of the world is such right now that I need lots of healthy distractions. (What, is the vodka, triple sec, pomegranate, lime juice, club soda drink I sort of invented not healthy?) I am indeed doing what I can to be a good, active citizen, but one can't spend all day in the weeds of chaos without descending into the murk permanently. And so, let's have a discussion about new and wonderful things. They don't have to be new to the world, just to you. Here are some things on my list: Emma Parson's The New Click to Calm book has a great chapter titled "Teaching Emergency Behaviors." This section is especially relevant given our discussion last month Read More
Anxious Owners, Anxious Dogs?
Dr. Hal Herzog, a PhD psychologist specializing in behavior and human/animal relationships (see Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat), recently wrote an article for Psychology Today that got my attention. Before publication, he talked to me about it briefly, with the following question: Did I find that anxious owners tended to have anxious dogs? My response was a bit different than some of the others he interviewed, who said, "absolutely!" In contrast, what I remember most are the multitude of clients I saw who had healthy, happy, well-behaved dogs until they got "that dog," the one who barked at everything or paced all night or was terrified of his own shadow. Often they Read More