The Dog Blog

In the 90s, I spent many hours each week at the Los Angeles city shelters. I began as a volunteer and eventually became a volunteer coordinator, training other volunteers. One comment I heard over and over from the visiting public was, “How can you stand to be here day after day? It’s so depressing!” Well, it’s true that there are aspects of shelter work that can be upsetting and even depressing. But I cannot express how fulfilling volunteering at a shelter can be, on so many levels.

Stubborn little nose
Finds its way without a map
GPS on paws

Tri-colored and keen
Pleading eyes and happy soul
The hound of my heart

Several years ago, Jessie Beagle and I visited a veterinary specialist two hundred miles away in the Windy City. Jess was fifteen at the time, which is old by anyone’s canine standard, but she was still active and spry, and I wanted to get to the bottom of some health issues she was having. I was fortunate to find a young veterinarian in Chicago, trained at Iowa State Veterinary College. She was a spitfire from Scotland and was a good sport about her Scottish accent, amidst so many Midwesterners. She quite clearly loved animals, and had a special penchant for my old, very white beagle. For the purposes of this article, we’ll refer to her as McTavish.

Lots of things “work” in dog training. Throwing a can of coins at a dog who is barking at the door might get the dog to stop barking. However, it might be a good idea to stand in the dog’s fur and ask what you’ve just learned.

You’ve learned that your owner might throw scary things at you. You’ve learned that barking at the door makes scary or unpleasant things happen. You might decide that your owner is scary and unpredictable, or that the door is a dangerous place.

Last week I was called to the Massachusetts State House to testify about “dangerous dogs.” I agreed to go because it was just an information gathering session and anyway, Representative Vincent Pedone, who invited me sounded like a reasonable guy on the phone.

When asked about breed bans I lead off with the statement that the breed bans were odious. I guess I should have used the word hateful because a lot of people misunderstood and sent me hate email (“How could a person in your position …”etc).