I occasionally miss things about New York that I never would have anticipated, including weird urban sights like smoke rising from manhole covers in the middle of the street. Frankie would hate the city, I suspect — too many people, too much noise — and he’s not a competitive urinater. He either squats or lifts…
Why Girls Who Own Dogs Make Better Wives: Marriage Advice From an Unmarried Dog Trainer
Today I’m turning my blog over to Dino Dogan, the titular Unmarried Dog Trainer. I first met Dino on Twitter a few months ago, when he started retweeting my tweets so often that I couldn’t fail to pay attention to him. He then wrote a post on seven bloggers he admired, and included yours truly,…
Friday Focus: Of Pet Allergies and Airplanes
After posing the question on Sunday, How do pet allergies work? — geared towards determining how they affect travel — and checking into airplane policies, I thought I was going to have some definitive data to present. Instead, I was left with more questions and: — Awe at the commitment that several people with allergies…
Dog Talking with Tracie Hotchner
This past Saturday, I was on “Dog Talk,” a NPR affiliate show hosted by Tracie Hotchner. The author of The Dog Bible, an invaluable resource when I was writing Am I Boring My Dog. Tracie was so enthusiastic about my book that I couldn’t wait to post the interview. I figured it would be simple…
Training Tuesday: BAT Calming Signals, Some Visuals
As part of the continuing series on Behavior Adjustment Training (BAT), a system created by Grisha Stewart that trainer Irith Bloom has been kind enough to explain to me — and you –on the last several Training Tuesdays, here’s a video that Irith put together. It demonstrates calming signals, discussed in our last post on…
Friday Focus: How Do Pet Allergies Affect Travelers?
It’s easy to dismiss other people’s phobias and foibles. When a veterinary dentist in one of my exercise classes freaked out at the sight of a bug, I thought it was nuts that someone who works with animals on a regular basis should be comfortable with one species but not with others. Of course, a…
Seven Canine Diabetes Myths
When my dog, Frankie, was diagnosed with diabetes mellitus at the end of 2007, I did what many people do when they learn their pet has a chronic, incurable illness. I wept. Ok, maybe a little more and a little more noisily than many people. Then I started researching the disease on the internet, which…
A Leap of Faith
One of the best things about blogging is the virtual community you join. Its members include not only fellow pet bloggers, but also readers who want to communicate because you’ve struck a chord with them. Some of their stories and concerns are sad, including the one I recently posted about pet loss. But some, including…
Lily Greyhound, Departed Diva, Rest in…What?
My friend Karyn had to say good-bye to her greyhound, Lily, on Friday. It’s always tough to part ways with a beloved pet, but Lily was 12 3/4 years old, very long-lived for a greyhound, and Karyn knew she was doing the right thing when the vet told her that Lily would never be able…
Friday Focus: Pet travel – the new frontier
I asked on Sunday for people’s pet pet-travel peeves, my own being excessive fees for dogs staying in hotel rooms. The comments I got in response divided into two categories: Those, like mine, that focused on the travel vendors’ (hotel, airlines) practices, and those that focused on being a responsible pet owning traveler. The latter…