What if dogs had cell phones?

I finally broke down last month and maxed out my cell phone plan with the number of phone lines by getting my youngest daughter, 10 year old Sophie, her own phone. Within a week or two of that I was convinced by my gaggle of girls to modify the plan so we could do unlimited texting to ease communication as their summer plans include increased independence. Sophie texted me at 7 pm on Thursday June 25 asking me "Did you know Michael Jackson died?" The reported news of The King of Pop's tragic death was less than an hour old and she was out at her job walking a dog!

I have taught service dog pups to carry cell phones, I have heard tell of dogs who have swallowed cell phones whole, but what if dogs could increase their communication skills from the Twilight Barking a la 101 DALMATIONS and make calls, send texts..heck, why not teach them how to Tweet on Twitter? What would they say?

My Guestbook

Curiosity about how much regionalism affects the attitude towards pets has compelled me to post a guestbook. Feel free to communicate, whatever your connection to A Better Pet.

OMG...a Pocket Har-Vest for Pocket Dogs and Gasp...CATS!!!!

Build it and they shall come. And in this case, not move.

Some weeks ago a word of mouth client who learned about Har-Vest ordered an XS Har-Vest. Sadly, she returned it (for a full refund) because it was, even as an XS, just too darn big for her little pocket dog.

But my nurtured optimism genes floated to the surface at the reason for the return -- a too large XS -- nagged at me, and so I went back to the drawing board. I'm thinking, see, well, pocket dogs seem to be increasingly popular as people scale down the size of dogs to literally fit in pockets, little packs or otherwise become an accessory. From the streets of Hollywood to the high rises of Manhattan, and everywhere in between, the pocket dog movement is growing. And while the whims of the fans create potentially dangerous complications for the mini moms pumping out the mini mini pups, I do know many are becoming indispensable aids for their people in positive ways.

Thus earlier this week, all the way from the sewing rooms of my manufacturer, no, not from a slow boat from China, but right here from the sewing stations on my manufacturer's floor here in Cleveland, Ohio, to my porch in Cleveland Heights, a prototype was delivered. Since I had no pocket dog handy, and I was eager to see it on a live one as opposed to the chicken, I figured it would fit on any of my 3 cats whose general weight and size wise were comparable to the pocket dogs and

LO AND BEHOLD

Upon fitting the Har-Vest on both Grace, my white and black cat (TOP) AND Byrne, my black with white cat,

both immediately acted as if they had been shot with tranquilizer guns and didn't MOVE. They didn't complain, they didn't act concerned, they just lay down and gazed tranquilly at me.

When the Har-Vest came off, both got up and walked about calmly. When I put it back on, flop flop and BAM, somnolence.

So now I need some Crash Test Dummies. If you can slap on a Har-Vest, anaesthetize the cat without chemicals, hasten any medical intervention and avoid over stressing the cat, and then, when it comes off, poof, cat is no longer sedated, I can imagine that would be a really cool thing.

Very cool. So if you want to talk about it, let me know.

I Love Dug

I laughed. I cried. I had fun with all 3 of my kids!!! And at last, a film for all ages that shows an honest portrayal of what dogs think. I don't want to give it away, because if ever a movie should be seen by dog lovers, this is the one to see. And it's in 3-D which is sort of cool. But it's really the story that resonated.

In this Pixar movie called UP we learn about the cone of shame, the real distraction squirrels can be, and a dog collar translator that tells us in English what dogs are thinking that nuanced observers can learn without spoken language.

Take your kids, your friends, your parents and if your dog is a service dog, take your dog too!

Know when to ask for help. I'm asking now!

Abraham Lincoln once said in the 19th Century that you can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time.

And we have the African proverb "it takes a village to raise a child," made famous by Hillary Clinton some 13 years ago back in the 20th Century.

I'd like to add a new phrase to the world for the 21st:

You can learn a lot about a lot of stuff and you can become an expert in some things, but no matter how much you learn about a lot of stuff, there are others who are experts in those things you can't grok!

To that end, I'm putting out an SOS for marketing help in taking my Har-Vest to a greater level of sales. If you can suggest a company, organization, club, affiliation, boutique owner, discriminating dog owner with marketing savvy, or other entity or individual that might help me in my quest, please have them contact me or send them to learn more about Har-Vest and how they can get in on my Sizzling Summer Special for all wholesale (for orders bewteen 10-100) orders placed before June 26th.

Thanks!

The Honesty of Dog Owners

I don't know if dogs are sending telepathic ethical or moral messages to us when we sleep or if it's just their joy of living in the moment, even if that moment is fraught with naughty behaviors, but I just have to say that dog owners are overall the most honest group of people I know.

Dog people come from all walks of life with varying family dynamics and sizes, at different life stages, from all cultures, ages, genders, number of dogs and sizes or breed/breed type. From my experience, the clients I have known over the past 10+ years of carving out a rich career in all things dog, I have never known a group that reminds me when I have forgotten to charge their credit card or returned things I forgot I let them borrow. Or just just more decent, more responsible, more mentshy.

I feel better knowing that Bo is in the White House to give President Obama, previously not a dog owner sort of fellow, the loyalty and non judgmental feedback as Barack, not the leader of the free world. It will help keep our kinetic president honest, and that trickle down will bring a continuing and tangible benefit to the country, despite the naysayers.

PTSD in Dogs Redux

As Memorial Day has recently passed and May winds down, I make a mental note that I have one full year left to the biennial renewal of my LISW and have successfully received a few CEU's already by attending and even participating in a recent autism conference. Bean and I went to learn from other experts as well as share with others the benefit a well trained dog can provide clinically for children and teenagers and adults with special needs including but not limited to autism / Aspbergers or PDD/NOS diagnoses.

Ironically, my post in Feb. 2008 on the issue of PTSD in dogs has by far solicited the most private comments from people. I thought a lot about that as I tried to share with my kids the real history and meaning behind Memorial Day (no, kids, it's not about just a day off or shopping sales!)

Veterans of WWII are aging and dying off. My own father, a POW captured in the Battle of the Bulge in Dec. 1944, is himself, although hale and hearty, 85 now. I strongly suspect that being the child of a man whose most seminal event must have been the experiences he had as a young man, 19-21 years of age in war torn Europe -- from which such events helped mold him into arguably THE most optimistic person I've ever known -- trying to imagine the effect of such horror on different temperaments probably helped form the path to becoming a mental health professional.

Veterans of other conflicts and wars, including returning veterans of our current military operations, are often returning to civilian life showing symptoms triggered by connection to the horrors they were exposed. These horrors have affected their minds as much if not more than their bodies, and they deserve to get the treatment, as does anyone with PTSD, to get help when triggered by events that cause great distress.

My most fascinating dog training cases, from a clinical perspective, are dogs who by a combination of nature and nurture, have symptoms of PTSD. These dogs can be triggered by what appear to be benign things that can trace back to their original "traumatic event". The good news, in my experience, is barring any organic problems, a plan can be carved out to help produce a valuable, safe and enjoyable life IF the dogs are paired with people who understand. People who understand the quirks that such trauma (nurture) can have on the nature and thus the behavior.

When you can observe how the quirks manifest, you can absolutely fine tune, like a laser beam, those triggers that create the problem and modify them to work the dog through the reactive and thus non desired behaviors. Combining behavior modification with a holististic approach can, trust me, really work.

And if you are committed to your dog but can't figure out where to put that laser beam, seek out a qualified behaviorist/trainer to help you.