If I could make my dog Honey understand just one phrase in English, what would it be? “Don’t worry. The vet isn’t going to hurt you one bit.” “If you relax in the bike cart, I’ll take you to the dog park.” “Why don’t you dig over here where I need to transplant that sapling?” …
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Is This Hamster Happier Than Your Dog?
What Makes One Person Crazy and Another Person Normal I spend a lot of time thinking about crazy people. I spend a lot of time being crazy people. Which is my tacky way of saying that questions of mental health and illness fill my thoughts. For instance, why is it considered crazy to think aliens …
What’s the Big Deal with Dog Poop?
The blood of grown men runs cold at its sight. Women faint. Children scream. What cursed thing is this? It’s the dreaded dookie! Ithacans Against Dog Poop My town has gotten complaints for not being dog-friendly. After all, who would ban dogs from an outdoor pedestrian mall or a park on the lakeshore? Ithaca, that’s …
10 Top Dog Training Tips You Can Use Every Day
Who has time for daily dog training? Between work, keeping up with your home, volunteer work, school, raising kids, and everything else that you do, there just isn’t much free time to do training. Right? Wrong. You just need to squeeze short training sessions into your every day activities. Here’s how. Top Dog Training Tips …
The Puppiness Project – Enjoy Some Healthy Competition
Gretchen Rubin wrote in The Happiness Project about the year she spent “test-driving the wisdom of the ages, the current scientific studies, and the lessons from popular culture about how to be happy.” The Puppiness Project is my attempt to learn the same from Honey, my Golden Retriever, and Chérie, our visiting Foster Pup. Sibling Rivalry is Good Honey …
If Dogs Talked About Us
Here in blogville, we can get a bit obsessive about our pups. What makes them happy? Are they frightened? How can we give them the best lives? Are they healthy? What if Dogs Talked About Us? I can hear snippets of conversation at the park now: “Y’know, she might make a good therapy person. I …
If Jackie Chan Was a Pit Bull…
he’d be this dog: By the way. Does anyone know anything about this dog? I know his name is Tret and that he lives in the Ukraine. If anyone has a link to his back story, I’d love to read it. Now excuse me. But I have to go scale a building. What’s the …
Pet Travel Book Club: Four Camels, a Woman, and a Dog Walk Into a Desert…
A Voyage of Discovery When she was 27 years old, Robyn Davidson set out from Alice Springs in Australia to walk 1700 miles to the Indian Ocean. She had something to resolve deep within herself. And she was willing to risk her life to do it. But Davidson didn’t go alone. She took her loving …
Looking Back: 5 Reasons to Chart Your Dog Training Progress
I didn’t think I’d survive Honey’s puppyhood. It was like living with a fuzzy little land shark. Honey was sooooooo mouthy. She had to put those sharp little razor teeth on everything–my hair, my ears, my hands, my sweater, my bodacious tatas. I swear I spent the first two months of Honey’s life with us …
The Puppiness Project – Never Give Up
Gretchen Rubin wrote in The Happiness Project about the year she spent “test-driving the wisdom of the ages, the current scientific studies, and the lessons from popular culture about how to be happy.” The Puppiness Project is my attempt to learn the same from Honey, my Golden Retriever, and Chérie, our visiting Foster Pup. Clicker Training is Fun Honey …