Meditation has never been a complete success or bust for me. I usually come away from attempts at it with a grocery list and the recollection of where I put those papers I need for filing taxes. Although 'stillness' is something I readily attain given a lawn chair and some sunshine, this 'quieting' the mind stuff isn't so easy. Over the years I've discovered recreations ...
So yes, Nibbles in now my dog. I didn't want a 4th dog, I didn't want Nibbles, but when the head of the rescue group responsible for him (legally that is) told me they were going to send someone to my house to pick him up and transport him a 7 hour car ride and plane or ferry ride away, I panicked. I had been ...
A common misunderstanding about ways to work with dogs who are fearful is that we can show them that they don't have any reason to be afraid of something. We think of it like this (you can replace anything that might scare a dog for the 'man with hat'). Dog sees 'man with hat'-feels fear-nothing bad happens. If the dog sees 'man with hat' frequently ...
Standard- an accepted or approved example of something against which others are judged or measured. I was recently contacted by someone who was starting a rescue group for dogs with mild to moderate behavior challenges. I'm not sure how 'mild to moderate' was being quantified and nothing about the information they readily shared gave any indication that they did either. They may be skilled people ...
When I was growing up it was likely you'd find a box of wooden 'strike anywhere' matches in any household. For kids these matches provided hours of recreation and skill building. First we had to learn to light them using the rough siding on the box, but we didn't stop there, we were determined to put the definition of 'anywhere' to the test. Rocks, sidewalks ...
I have the opportunity to talk to many people about their fearful dogs. One thing almost all of them have in common is that they waited too long to get help for themselves and their dog. I'm not pointing a finger of blame at them, I understand the delay. Most of the dogs we've lived with have been adaptable, resilient and tolerant. Some have been ...
Apparently irony is lost on Sunny's hoarder Tammy Hanson. She is suing the sheriff's department and others for cruel and unusual conditions she claims she was subjected to while in prison for cruelty involving dogs she had collected on her property. Certainly jail time is not meant to inflict the same conditions on someone which they were convicted of inflicting on others. Nor is it ...
For over a decade I worked at a summer camp in New Hampshire. They were blissful summers, as summer is often remembered by New Englanders who get too little warmth and sunshine the rest of the year. I had different jobs. Some years I traveled with groups of teenagers exploring the world and introducing them to a variety of recreations, alternate years I returned to ...
Given the recent news about antidepressants and the 'placebo effect' I thought I'd go there first before folks get themselves all in a lather about those medications and their usefulness treating dogs with fear, phobias and anxiety disorders. That there are other ways to treat mild depression other than medication is not news. Research demonstrating the 'placebo effect' in patients suffering from depression dates back ...
There is no magic to what we do to help fearful dogs, however you define magic. It's time, energy, and effort all resting on a nice bed of patience. In order to survive every species has to have reason to crawl out of bed every morning, or evening if they're nocturnal. If they can't it's an indication something is wrong, seriously wrong. If we have ...
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