Kelly Gorman Dunbar

Today is Take Your Dog to Work Day and lots of people who don’t normally take their dog along with them to their workplace will do so today. Hopefully it will go well. A dog’s got to be well trained, socialized, and have a solid temperament in order to both enjoy the experience and serve as a model canine ambassador to help persuade more businesses to become dog-friendly year round. So please only take your dog to work with you if he or she is ready for it.

There are many benefits to dog ownership, such as mood elevation and stress reduction, most of which could also benefit people in the workplace.

Summer is here and animal lovers are being inundated with important safety tips such as how to keep your dog cool, symptoms of heat stroke, and reminders not to leave dogs in parked cars – especially with the window up! This information is terribly important and I implore you to read all of the tips you come across on the topic even if they seem redundant because it’s info that could save a life.

I just finished reading Nicole Wilde’s blog post musing about how we humans are often surprised and disappointed when our dog doesn’t like another dog. There are probably a few reasons why we react the way we do.  One may be embarrassment.  Generally when a dog doesn’t “like” another dog it is communicated by growls or snaps, occasionally by pinning or biting too.

There can be harsh social consequences for owners of dogs that dare to vocalize or act like a dog in public (butt sniffing? …And Dog forbid if they hump!); it makes us owners a bit squirmy and overly-apologetic, not to mention overbearing, interfering, busybodies in our dogs social lives.

The good people at New World Library asked me to pass this contest along to Dog Star Daily readers:

Allen and Linda Anderson, best-selling Angel Animals series authors and
founders of the Angel Animals Network, are sponsoring a contest to gather
true stories of the unique relationships between women and dogs. They are
looking for experiences women have that show the benefits of finding
unconditional love, acceptance, protection, healing, and fulfillment with
dogs as partners in the dance of life. They welcome stories of remarkable
women and dog companions who give service in extraordinary ways and fulfill
their life's purpose. The Andersons consider each contest entry as a
possible story for publication in their next book, Dogs and the Women Who
Love Them, to be published by New World Library in Fall 2010.

Yesterday I learned of a police officer shooting and killing a neighborhood dog in Danville, VA. When I first heard the news my mind immediately created the scene I predicted I’d read about: A tense situation, perhaps a chase on foot, running through somebody’s yard, adrenaline high, and the stakes too. Maybe the cop was chasing an armed assailant. Suddenly a large, intimidating dog (maybe a guard dog) was running towards the officer, full frontal attack imminent, or maybe someone set the dog on the man. It was self-defense.

Then I actually read the story and watched this video. I was very surprised by the actual scenario, it was nothing like I imagined. There was no tense situation, well, not by police standards anyway, the guy was serving two warrants to a neighbor of the dog owner.

Some people still don't get it.

Bribes and lures are not the same thing. Not the same thing! Bribing is not a training method, but a weak management strategy and one I would generally not recommend because it can really become a crutch, and just as likely, the part of the antecedent cue of the training scenario.

Sometimes people just can’t see the forest for the trees, and when it comes to puppy raising this can be a grave mistake indeed. Yesterday on Twitter, WellBalancedPup brought a letter to my attention that appeared in the ChicoER. In the editorial letter the author is enraged because she feels taken advantage of by the local animal control because she has to pay a fee to impound her puppy for a ten-day bite quarantine.

I too, was enraged by the decision to quarantine a young pup for nipping, but for different reasons entirely. Sure quarantine costs and municipal fines are costly and damage the pocketbook, but money comes and goes, it’s material. The true cost of this situation is far greater than losing a few bucks and the damages are much more difficult to recover.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Or something like that. I’ve just spent two years keeping a close watch on Hugo-Louis to keep him on track with his potty training. Yes, you read right. He’s been good for a looooong time now, but I must say he was a tough nut to crack potty-wise.

He’s a Frenchie, and while I thought that wouldn’t matter (potty training is easy as pie after all and I am darn good at it, even tough cases) something made it difficult for him to learn to pee exclusively outside. Not one of my finer moments in training. The first year was rough and I stayed in my hyper-vigilant-pee-patrol role for way longer than I anticipated.

Well, Hugo turned two in April and I decided I could chill a bit now. He’s a big boy and gets the game. It’s exhausting to always be on alert. Sigh of relief.

Not only do we have an online archive for newsletters now, but we're on Twitter now too. 

I got over my fear of creating an archive! I'm not sure what my problem was, it was very easy and I've wanted to post our newsletters forever because I hate to see them go. There are so many gems in the Weekly Puppy Bite and Monthly Woof. Lots of cool links to cool people and products too.

So this is just a quick note to let everyone know that our newsletters are now available online as an archive. So if there is a favorite Puppy Bite or Monthly Woof that you'd like to refer others to or a link you discovered and would like to share, each newsletter now has a permanent home on the Internet. It's another excellent way to share info efficiently rather than just forwarding an email and then having it disappear into cyberspace.

I know I am happy to be able to just bookmark this page and finally clean out my inbox!