Isis was on Prozac when she died. We’d just increased her dosage. While I don’t think that caused her sudden death from bleeding near the heart, I have a bad association with it. I don’t even know if it worked. The night before she died, Isis cowered under a table shaking. Ergo, I hesitate to […]
I was reminded how much respect and gratitude people in this country have for veterans when I went to Disney World last month with Rob’s dad, a career Navy man. When he wore his Retired Navy hat, total strangers thanked him for his service all day long, sometimes bringing a tear to his eye. Today, […]
As if anticipating the short, dark days ahead, Leo has been antsy since we set the clocks back Sunday, even though we’ve been keeping up with our regular exercise schedule! On both Sunday and Monday, after he raced around at the park, when I was ready to settle down with my book, he started pulling things […]
The theme for this month’s Positive Pet Training Blog Hop is training mistakes. Before I caught on to this whole positive training thing, I made so many mistakes that I wrote a book about them, called Bark and Lunge: Saving My Dog from Training Mistakes. Everyone makes technical mistakes, like using the wrong gear, or using […]
Looking at my Instagram feed last week, I realized with shame that it had been a while since I posted a picture of Leo. It’s not that Mia is more beautiful or more photogenic than Leo, just that Rob had been taking Mia to work a lot. He takes her on long walks during his […]
I’ve written before about the two dog parks in town, but due to my self-inflicted rules for this All-Positive A to Z Challenge, I can repeat the name of only one of them: The Good Dog Park. (You can probably guess the name of the other.) Now there’s a third, henceforth to be called The […]
It goes without saying that the greatest gift you can give any dog lover this Christmas is my book, Bark and Lunge, but I’ll assume because you’re reading my blog that you already know that. Here are ten more books to give the dog lover in your life. I have extremely high standards for dog books, […]
Whenever I’m preparing for a trip, I get a twisty, angsty feeling in my chest because I hate leaving my dogs behind. Lots of places in the Pacific Northwest welcome dogs, but they wouldn’t necessarily welcome leash-reactive Leo. Since I don’t consider it socially acceptable to take him on walks where he barks and lunges […]
I really wanted to call this post How I lost 30 pounds walking dogs. Turns out that won’t happen unless I also cut back on the M&Ms and french fries. When I first started volunteering at the Humane Society of Skagit Valley, I went two or three times a week and walked three dogs about 20 […]
The magic of Mia is that I can take her anywhere. Truly. She doesn’t even need a leash; she sticks right by me. Even on a leash, she doesn’t bark and lunge at any of the usual suspects. My original plan for the Festival of the River was to take Mia with me both days, […]
