Dogged Blog

Because napping puppy is love

I'm downstairs going through things in my mom's apartment, and Rawley came down to supervise. My mom would have adored him and his floppy puppy ears

Sent from my iPhone

Let ' s get out the vote for shelter pets

For those who think there's something wrong with shelter pets, the Ad Council's Shelter Pet Project has just one thing to say: Fugget about it.



Shelter pets are great pets, they say... and they're saying it with a three year, multi-million dollar, multi-media ad campaign. And one part of that campaign, an animated comic called "Moving/Not Their Fault," is in the running for an award at the Hugos, recognizing terrific commercials.



It's part of the Chicago International Film Festival, and it's an "Audience Choice" award, which means you can vote and put the Shelter Pet Project over the top. Just visit the Hugo Awards web site before Sunday at midnight Central Time and select "Moving/Not Their Fault." Then tell 4,567,987 of your closest friends to do the same!



If you haven't seen it, it's here:







Disclaimer: I do the social media for the Shelter Pet Project. But I'm also a true believer!

Love, structure, exercise and supervision: Recipe for a happy puppyhood

Rawley starts his first official puppy training class a week from Saturday, but that doesn't mean I haven't been training him.



Puppies are being "trained" from the day they join your family. It's entirely your decision what they learn during that time. In my decades of raising puppies, from birth or from the day I bring them home, I've always taken control of the process from the start.



So when the trainer came to my house for his in-home puppy evaluation, she pretty much made my day by cutting the cost of the program since it was clear to her that I didn't need help with the usual "puppy management" stuff like destructiveness, house-training and "puppy play biting."



I give full credit for the last to Rawley's breeder, Paula Pascoe; he arrived with excellent bite inhibition, and I've just reinforced that with the occasional whimper when his sharp baby teeth touch my skin in play.



But like any puppy, he considers everything a potential toy and every surface a potential toilet. So my solution?



Ex-pens, paying attention, and being proactive.



The only time Rawley is loose in the house right now is when I'm interacting with him. That means following him from room to room, making sure he doesn't potty or get into anything he shouldn't. It means that if I see the slightest hint he's going to squat or chew, I hustle him outside or divert him with a chew toy.



Of course, it also means he's curled up in my lap while I watch television -- cuddle time is quality time.



If I can't actively supervise him, however, he's in one of his ex-pens. I have one set up in the living room, one in the bedroom (pictured) and one in my office. It has plastic-backed pads on the bottom, covered with blankets, surrounded by a four-foot wire fence (which Deerhound owners commonly use to bring our dogs to shows or field trials). It's full of toys, and has a bucket clipped to the wire so it won't tip over.



This way, Rawley's always with me, always part of the family, but he's also safe -- and so are my carpets and furnishings.



And so is Kyrie, my 11-year-old Borzoi, who really doesn't need to be irritated by a free-range puppy while she's trying to sleep.



Now, this program only works because I'm fortunate enough to work out of a home office, and because I have a very flexible schedule most of the time. If Rawley indicates he needs to potty, I can hustle him out at the first whine. This is great, because it reinforces the house-training process: Always go outside. Yes, he's had a couple of accidents in his pen, but every time it was because I wasn't quite quick enough.



And if Rawley's feeling rowdy, I don't just tell him to be quiet. I wrap up what I'm working on as quickly as possible, leash him up, and hit the park.



This puppy-rearing system has the advantage of quickly teaching him the ropes, and creating a tight bond between puppy and owner.



However, as part of Rawley's socialization process, I'm also making sure he knows that being without me, or even entirely alone, isn't a bad thing. I started leaving him for short intervals. I don't say goodbye, I don't make a big deal of saying hi when I get back, and I never re-enter the house if he happens to be whining or crying. (Although Kyrie did once look at me like I was crazy as we stood on the front porch, waiting for a moment of silence so we could go in after our walk.)



And a couple times a week, my trainer and dog walker extraordinaire, Courtney Guntner of San Francisco's The Whole Pet, takes the little guy to his puppy play group for a few hours.



If I didn't work at home, I'd probably do exactly what I already do, but either take Rawley with me to work, as I do now on Thursdays when I'm at the Maddie's Fund offices, or put him in doggy day care, as Gina did during Faith's puppy hellion days while she was still working her PR gig.



It's not really that hard as long as you plan well, but it does require a certain amount of toughness. I'm all over the puppy with love and hugs and play -- duh -- but I also let him know that this is how his life is, and that he has to go along with the program. In fact, I structure both our lives so he has no idea there's any other way to live.



Contrary to a few hand-wringing puppy buyers I've counseled over the years, this doesn't make the puppy feel bad. If you do your job right, it makes him feel confident and secure. Dogs like to know the program; it's how they're wired.



Now, Deerhounds tend to be tractable dogs, and Rawley is the most co-operative puppy I've ever raised. He's making it easy. But even those dogs *cough Lillie cough* who felt the program sucked benefited from it, and were quickly house-trained -- allowing them the very freedom they were craving.



So my advice to puppy moms and dads everywhere: Structure, routine, lots of love, play and attention, and stand tough about keeping the puppy on his schedule and in his pen or crate when he's not being supervised.



It doesn't mean your dog will be perfect any more than you are, but it does mean he'll be comfortable with the routine of your shared life, and safe. It doesn't get much better than that.



Photos: Top: Rawley was napping on my lap when I slid him into my favorite chair and went for the camera. Bottom: Rawley's ex-pen at the foot of my bed.

Rawley the wonder puppy and his rainy day at the park

This is a true story and no names have been changed because they're puppies, yo. Who can blame a puppy for anything?



[caption id="attachment_13959" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="No, I will not run and play as long as this horrible rain is falling."][/caption]



[caption id="attachment_13961" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="I will not even move. Nothing. Not one paw."][/caption]



[caption id="attachment_13963" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="I'm not here."][/caption]



[caption id="attachment_13964" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="I don't care how many treats you give me. I want to go home."][/caption]



[caption id="attachment_13965" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="OMG It's my friend Argo!"][/caption]



[caption id="attachment_13966" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Argo is a 6 month old Bullmastiff puppy, that's why he's so much bigger than me. Otherwise I could definitely beat him up."][/caption]



[caption id="attachment_13967" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="We like to play the alligator game."][/caption]



[caption id="attachment_13969" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Rain isn't so bad when you have a friend."][/caption]

Can we talk honestly about spay/neuter?

In my column for SFGate.com this week, I touch the third rail:

The health implications of sterilizing dogs and cats are complex and highly individualized. Pet owners, animal advocates and veterinarians should be able to talk about them openly and honestly.



But we can't. Why not? The societal benefits of mass spay/neuter -- the prevention of unwanted puppies and kittens, and ending the killing of pets in shelters -- are seen as so overwhelming that the slightest suggestion of a medical downside to sterilization is met with an avalanche of hostility.



The backlash can be so severe, for example, that when I've reported research about increased health risks in sterilized dogs or cats, I've been accused of not caring about the lives of shelter pets, or of being hopelessly naive about people's ability to analyze the risks and benefits of medical procedures.



Promoting spay/neuter has evidently become so important that it trumps everything else, including the truth.

Get the rest of the story here.



Photo: Ozzy, by Amy Jo Mork.

Fuck Prozac

I jokingly said my puppy was pulling out of my depression, but I've also been taking Prozac for several weeks now. But I'm done.

When I was in Austin at SXSW, I was taking it every morning, and I spent the whole week there in a fog. No matter how much sleep I got, it wasn't enough.

When I got home, I started taking it at night, and at first that was better, but now I'm just sleepy and dazed all the time. I can barely wake up in the morning.

I'm going to see how I do without it. And yes, I did let my doctor know. I certainly don't want to be as depressed as I was before, but I'm not sure I will. I'm not chronically depressed, just having a very hard time dealing with my grief and the massive upheaval in my life caused by my mom's long illness and her really very horrible death. I don't mean to understate how much that's affected me, and if the really bad feelings return, I'll try a different anti-depressant. But this one is not for me.

Besides, now that my puppy is here, I suspect things are going to be better. He has the power.

Puppy disrupts operation of leading animal welfare organization

I do some work for the communications department at Maddie's Fund, and yesterday, I brought my 12-week-old Scottish Deerhound puppy, Rawley, in to meet the gang.



He, however, was not interested in meeting the gang. Nor was he interested in me for the four hours we were there. The minute we walked in the door, he tore into Maddie's Fund president Rich Avanzino's office, climbed into his lap, and never left.



I kept coming in to check on him, and every time he was either sleeping like a baby or snuggling and playing with Rich. I'm convinced they knew each other in a previous life or something.



The last time I came in, this is what I saw:







Photo: Rich Avanzino and Rawley at the Maddie's Fund office in Alameda, Calif.