“The best animal stories are about relationships, and nothing is better than a story like A Dog Named Boo, in which a person and an animal together find hope, strength, purpose and their place in the world. Lisa and Boo’s joy at helping others is inspiring; but it’s their belief in each other, even when no one else believed, that touched my heart.”
- Bret Witter, New York Times bestselling co-author of Dewey and Until Tuesday

A Dog Named Boo.  How One Dog and One Woman Rescued Each Other – and the Lives They Transformed Along the Way

by Lisa J. Edwards

She Thought She Was Rescuing an Abandoned Puppy.
Turns Out, He Was Rescuing Her.

The last thing Lisa Edwards needed was a new dog. But when she came across an abandoned litter on Halloween, her heart went out to the runt who walked into walls and couldn’t steady his feet.

Lisa—healing from past abuse and battling constant pain from a chronic medical condition—saw a bit of herself in little Boo. And when he snuggled, helpless, against her, she knew he was meant to be hers.

The dunce of obedience class with poor eyesight and a clumsy gait, Boo was the least likely of heroes. Yet with his unflappable spirit and boundless love, Boo has changed countless lives through his work as therapy dog—helping a mute six-year-old boy to speak, coaxing movement from a paralyzed girl, and stirring life in a ninety-four-year-old nun with Alzheimers. But perhaps Boo’s greatest miracle is the way he transformed Lisa’s life, giving her the greatest gift of all—faith in herself.

This is the inspiring true story of “the little dog who could,” but more than that, it’s the story of how one woman and one dog rescued each other—a moving tribute to hope, resilience and the transformative power of unconditional love.

Lisa J. Edwards is a full-time professional dog trainer and behavioral consultant. She has been a registered Pet Partner (Delta Society) with three of her dogs and has made more than 400 visits with her pets to hospitals, schools, nursing homes and residential care facilities. In 2008, Boo was honored as one of five finalists for the Delta Society’s national Beyond Limits Award for his therapy work with Lisa.

At long last we are to be able to announce A Dog Named Boo written by Lisa and to be published by Harlequin Non-Fiction in October 2012!

For our friends in the UK, we’re being published there by Little, Brown and Company and released at about the same time!

For you audio lovers, the audio book is being released by AudioGO – the company that publishes audio books for the BBC!

A Dog Named Boo is currently available for pre-order on Amazon! Here’s a link!

We can’t possibly say how thrilled we are by finally being able to talk about this! We’ve been working on it quietly – and sometimes not so quietly – behind the scenes for what seems (and has been!) years and to have it now be a real, tangible thing is just positively reinforcing.

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Overnight it seems as if everyone’s got a camera on them at all times.

I’ve got one in my iPhone, one in my iPad – and just about everyone else is in the same boat.

The ability to easily take photos has led – at least in our house – to having thousands and thousands of pictures or movies of our dogs, but it easy to mistake volume for quality. Good ones are taken mostly by chance or lost amidst the mediocre.

There are times when you want something truly special that by its nature speaks volumes on your feelings about your dog while it captures the pure essence of your dog. Maybe I’m just showing my artistic background here but to me that means a portrait.

For me, the human hand captures a quintessential element that pixels and Instagram just can’t hope to match.

Mary Schreiber, is a local artist offering pet portraiture. Here’s a sample of some of her work:

I have seen Mary’s work in person and it is quite lovely and soulful.  I suspect her love of animals is embedded in the work and if you enjoy the work here, please feel free to contact her:

Mary Schreiber
Email: mschreiber59@gmail.com
Phone: 914-548-5388

Here are her submission guidelines:

• You supply the photographs, and the more photos, the better (within limits). Photos are best when taken in natural light without a flash.

• Initial payment is 50% of the commission price when work begins. You pay the final 50% when the work is complete.

• Guarantee: if you are not happy with the piece Mary will gladly keep the art and return your down payment.

Portraits are rendered with Prismacolor ® colored pencils on high quality acid-free paper.

Her pricing schedule is as follows:

$75.00 – 8” X 10” head and shoulders
$100.00 – 8” X 10” full animal
$125.00 – 11” X 14” full animal

Her prices do not include matting or framing. Please contact her for price quotes on other sizes.

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Whether you

want to see what the Pet Partners evaluation is like
need some extra community service hours
just like to volunteer for really great causes

the Pet Partners teams who are evaluating on May 12th and 19th need your help!

In order to create as realistic a simulation as possible of the places where teams will visit, Pet Partners requires as many volunteers as possible to take part in (and even role-play!) the various test exercises and scenarios – and that’s where you can help!

Three Dogs Training has two testing dates in May – Saturdays May 12th and 19th at the First Presbyterian Church in Mahopac – and the hours that the evaluations run are from 9:30 to 5:00.

The specific needs of the testers are volunteers for the afternoon of the 12th and the morning of the 19th.

If you’d like to volunteer please contact us! Whether you want to come in for one or both days – or can only do an hour or so – the teams need your help!

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Ask Professor Boo is our recurring, positive reinforcement dog training and behavior question and answer column. If there’s a question that you would like to ask Professor Boo, please feel free to contact him.

Q: We’ve just got a new puppy and while he’s got all the rough-around-the-edges things that go along with being a puppy he does one thing that’s driving us crazy: everything becomes a game of tug. If he grabs a pillow off the couch – tug. If he grabs a towel in the bathroom – tug. If he grabs our pants – tug. How can we stop him?

A: First things first: tug is an ingrained behavior but that doesn’t mean that you can’t shape and give it rules.

It is more fair – and makes for a much happier dog – to shape behaviors they love than try to “break” the dogs of them.

If we step back for a moment and think about tugging, just what is it that we’re looking at? In short, you’re seeing a social manifestation of millions of years of their evolution.

As canids evolved and their hunting techniques developed to allow the hunting of larger prey, they faced new issues: bigger prey requires a collective effort to take them down and how would the group divide up the results?

At some point – millions of years ago – by chance one of them grabbed one end of a kill and another one grabbed the other end and what started as a solution to communal hunting and eating back then we see today in dogs as “tug.”

That is why you can see tug begin to manifest in litters of puppies barely stable enough to walk: it’s in their genes.

Bringing this back home to your new pup and how to shape his tug addiction, here are what I like to call…

The Rules of Tug

• Engage the game with a cue like “tug” or “take it”.

• Use a toy large enough so that your hands will be clear of the dog’s mouth. I like to use only one or two designated tug toys because this reduces confusion and the dog’s desire to tug everything under the sun. It also focuses their tug energies on their Super Special Tug Toy – and for that I just love the Tennis Tug!

• When the dog pulls or shakes side-to-side, relax your resistance or drop the toy completely. (You can continue the game this way if your back and arm joints are strong enough but – if you’re like me – stick with the straight-on tug).

• When the dog pulls front-to-back or straight-on, keep your resistance on the toy and play the game.

• If the dog’s teeth hit your hand or clothing at any point, drop the toy, fold your arms, and look or even walk away from the dog.

• If the dog’s paws briefly land on you, you can choose to do the same look or walk away. If they are using you as a lever with the paws up against your body, drop the toy and look or walk away.

• The dog will probably come back to you with the toy after something like this. When they do, ask for a sit and restart the game using the cue you’ve chosen.

• If the dog begins tugging any article of clothing, disengage from the dog and give them a time-out from you and the game.

These are the rules I use for our own dogs at home, and with both consistency and patience in their application they do a fantastic job of both giving the dog what they want (a great game of tug) as well as giving us what we want (rules and boundaries). It is also a great way to build trust and wear out that puppy!

In fact, tugging is so hard-wired into most dogs that you could very well find yourself shocked to see how quickly they’ll adapt to the rules. Tug is of such high value to them that they’ll jump through hoops to play it consistently.

Good luck, let me know how it goes, and stay positive!

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If variety is the spice of life for humans it’s just as important to our furry friends – especially if what we’re aiming for is to keep them cognitively stimulated.

While the Atomic Treat Ball is our go-to puzzle toy to slow down speed eating (or to just keep one of our dogs busy), if it’s the only puzzle we give them it’s going to become less and less stimulating over time. In short, the name of the game is to not allow them to get bored.

Keeping our dogs engaged in problem solving – as well as on their toes – is where the Twist ‘n Treat shines.

At its heart, the Twist ‘n Treat is very similar in concept to the Atomic Treat Ball: a puzzle toy is filled with food and it’s up to the dog to figure out how to manipulate it to get the food out. While to us it might seem as if both puzzles are exactly the same, we need to keep in mind that canine cognition does not generalize well and that the two wildly different shapes of the toys essentially makes them two completely different skill sets for the dog to master.

Shaped like a flying saucer, the twist in Twist ‘n Treat refers to the rubber screw inside the toy that you twist to open it in order to load the kibble or treats. While the loading is more complicated than the Atomic Treat Ball, the fact that you can customize the size of the gap that dispenses the food means you have a lot more options in terms of what you can put in it and it makes for a great starter toy since you can make it easy at first then more difficult as your dog gets the hang of it.

While the Twist ‘n Treat is all upside for dogs, the thick rubber it’s made from tends to bounce pretty well and the shape causes it to roll – so don’t be surprised to find yourself hunting for it underneath furniture.

As with so many of the puzzle toys out there, the Twist ‘n Treat is not meant to be left alone with your dog – especially if they are a hard chewer.

Those minor quibbles aside, the Twist ‘n Treat is a really nice addition to your dog’s positive reinforcement cognitive toy box.  And for those of you whose dogs have not quite mastered other puzzle toys, this is a good learner-toy.

Related posts:

1. Things Your Dog Will Love: Atomic Treat Ball
2. Things Your Dog Will Love: MannersMinder
3. Things Your Dog Will Love: Thundershirt

Whew!  The phone’s ringing off the hook and my Inbox is bursting at the seams with all the calls and emails asking about our next semester of classes!

So, without further ado here they are:

Basic, Wednesday, April 25th, 6:30 PM, First Presbyterian Church

Basic, Saturday, April 28th, 9:00 AM, First Presbyterian Church

Intermediate, Saturday, April 28th, 11:30 AM, First Presbyterian Church

Intermediate, Tuesday, May 15th, 10:45 AM, Patterson Recreation Center

Nose Work I, Wednesday, April 25th, 7:45 PM, First Presbyterian Church

Distract-O-Doggie, Saturday, April 28th, 10:15 AM, First Presbyterian Church

Pet Partner Training Course, Saturday, April 21st, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM, Green Chimneys

Delta Society/Pet Partner Evaluations, Saturday, May 12th, Appointment Only, First Presbyterian Church

Delta Society/Pet Partner Evaluations, Saturday, May 19th, Appointment Only, First Presbyterian Church

Click on the links above for more information on the classes.  To enroll online, please click here.

See you in class!

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The graduation photos from our first positive reinforcement Basic classes of the year are now online on our 2012 Grad Photos page!

Our congrats go out to all the furry cutie-pies (and smarties, too!)!

Related posts:

1. Things Your Dog Will Love: MannersMinder
2. Did you know Three Dogs is on Yelp?

Ask Professor Boo is our recurring, positive reinforcement dog training and behavior question and answer column. If you have a question that you would like to ask Professor Boo, please feel free to contact him.

Q: We have two Italian Greyhounds, a seven year old male and a four year old female. The female has not allowed us to leash or harness her since she was about six months old. She is extremely nervous and skittish and generally difficult to deal with. She can run in circles for hours. As you can imagine, getting her to the vet or anywhere in general is a nightmare. Have you ever heard of this, and can this be corrected? We have had no problems like this with the older dog. Thanks.

A: While it might seem as if you’ve got one single issue with your younger greyhound, from what you’re saying it seems as if there are smaller, individual problems that are snowballing together.

On the one hand, she seems as if she’s leash-phobic, which isn’t entirely uncommon, and on the other she seems to be exhibiting the classic signs of a more general type of anxiety.

Let’s address the leash sensitivity first since it presents a pressing safety concern for her.

Almost no dog is born liking their leash. It’s something they eventually learn to love, tolerate, or even hate depending on the rewards associated with them putting it on.  Going for walks, play, and general fun will make the leash much more attractive for a dog who likes those things.

Stepping back for a moment and putting it in human terms, in many ways on a behavioral level a leash to a dog is the same as a tie is for a man.

No man, young or old, likes wearing a tie the first couple times, but if they’re consistently told they look handsome in it – or if they get paid a million dollars to wear it – they’re going to learn to really like it.

Alternatively, if someone has to wear a tie to a job that they only kind of like but they get paid pretty well to do it, then they’ll tolerate the tie but – more often than not – will look forward to pulling it off the second they’re out of the office.

Finally, if the only time someone wears a tie is to go to funerals then the powerful negative associations they’ve made to the tie will essentially guarantee they’ll hate every second of wearing one.

Bringing it back to your anxious greyhound, for whatever reason she’s put herself in the “funeral” associative camp and your job is to get her from there to tolerating and then loving her leashes or harnesses.

Here’s my advice for how to deal with the leash issue:

1. Since her anxiety levels likely spike if she even sees the leash or harness, in the very beginning just bring it out so she can see it and give her jackpot handfuls of her favorite dog treats (or a tidbit of something super-yummy like cheese, hotdogs, etc.). Do this once or twice a day for the first couple days to allow her to begin to associate the presence of the leash or harness with something really, really good. Please remember that if you are using the jackpot method to cut down on her regular meals – she does not need extra weight.
2. Once she begins to display excitement when you bring the leash out – even if it’s just excitement for the treats – bring the leash or harness over to her, put it on the ground next to her, and give her the same jackpots or cheesy tidbits as before. At this point we’re trying to build comfort with proximity to the leash or harness and repeat this process once or twice a day for a couple of days.
3. Once she’s displaying excitement with having the leash next to her on the ground, hold the leash in one hand while feeding her the jackpot or other yummy goodies with the other. Like before, this is about building comfort with both proximity and having the leash or harness near her head and face so you’ll want to do this for a couple days as well.
4. Finally it’s time to move on to putting the leash on her collar or harness on her body – and like before it’s going to be jackpots or other super-yummy snacks while you clip her up and walk her around wearing the leash. Like the man in the example above learning to love his tie because he gets paid a million dollars to do it, your jackpots are her million dollars.

Once you’ve gotten to the point where she’s happy to wear her leash or harness, in the very beginning you are going to go very slowly as she builds up her confidence while she’s wearing it. Dogs feel at a disadvantage when they’re leashed so you must be very careful so you do not undo all the work you’ve done.

(As an aside, I’ve written before on the topic of how best to handle leashes – here and here.)

With regard to your greyhound’s anxiety, not knowing what’s triggering it makes it a bit harder to pinpoint a specific approach.

My general rule of thumb when it comes to a dog who exhibits anxiety is to check with your veterinarian to be sure that she is healthy and seek out a local behaviorist to be sure you are doing no harm. There are a number of over-the-counter approaches they might try before recommending consulting a medical specialist for pharmaceutical help:

• D.A.P. – Dog Appeasing Pheromone – is something that I’ve used extensively in the past in both my private and shelter consultation practices and I’ve seen encouraging anecdotal evidence that suggests it does help the dog to reduce their anxiety levels. D.A.P. is nice because it comes in a wide variety of forms from house diffusers to collars to pocket-sized sprays, and I’ve noted no negative side effects from its use.  (I’ve written about D.A.P. here, which you might find useful to read.)

• Thundershirts – like D.A.P., the Thundershirt is something that I’ve used extensively to address dog anxiety.  Essentially, the Thundershirt is a body wrap that cinches snugly around the dog and functions in very much the same way that similar deep touch pressure calms patients with autism or ADHD. In short, the pressure exerted on the body causes the wearer to relax which reduces their susceptibility to anxiety-producing stimuli.  I use the Thundershirt frequently in my shelter consultations and have witnessed anecdotal evidence that it does, in fact, work very well – especially considering the highly reactive environment within a typical animal shelter.

Ideally I would like you to address both the leash sensitivity and anxiety in parallel because the confidence she builds from the leash training might lessen the anxiety while the lessened anxiety from the over-the-counter approaches might allow her to better focus on the training.

The leash sensitivity training will take time and patience on your part, but desensitization through positive reinforcement does – and can – work wonders.

And don’t forget while you are working on these items please seek out professional help to assist you with the root cause of your greyhound’s anxiety.

Good luck and let us know how it goes! Stay positive!

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The Thundershirt isn’t a dog toy.

It’s not something that dispenses yummy treats.

It isn’t even something that you’d think that your dog would like, but if they experience anxiety from storms, company coming, or crazy human holidays your dog will absolutely love the Thundershirt.

What the Thundershirt is, essentially, is a body wrap that helps the dog become less reactive to anxiety-causing stimuli using deep touch pressure.

Research done in the latter half of the Twentieth Century by Dr. Temple Grandin, amongst others, demonstrated that deep touch pressure had significant positive benefits for individuals on the autism spectrum and those with ADHD. Dr. Grandin’s background with autism inspired her initial research with animals and it was discovered that they can receive the same positive results as seen in humans.

I initially began using the Thundershirt in my own home because Porthos, our black lab-mix, can display episodes of high anxiety related to his OCD, blood sugar fluctuations related to his diabetes, and stress from his other diseases. I also witnessed how well it worked after I suggested that we begin using Thundershirts at ARF, an animal shelter were I consult  in Beacon, New York.  While we did see similarly positive results in the even more chaotic and reactive atmosphere of a shelter we also saw some Thundershirt eating (more on that below).

So, why would you want a Thundershirt for your own dog?

Well, you wouldn’t if you don’t live in a place that has thunderstorms, high winds, holidays with fireworks, holidays with kids in spooky costumes knocking on your door at night, hunters in the woods behind your house shooting guns, etc. I think you get my point.

The Thundershirt is a great tool to add to our positive reinforcement training bag of tricks and it fills all my personal criteria:

1. It more often than not does what they say it can do – there’s a definite improvement in reactivity when dogs are wearing it. It is recommended that they first be acclimated to it by having them wear it when they are doing something they love – like taking treats, playing ball, or tug.  This allows positive associations along with the physical benefits of the snugness and will help prevent them eating the Thundershirt.
2. It’s reasonably priced.
3. I always prefer to exhaust the non-pharmaceutical options available to combat anxiety in dogs before referring owners to a specialist for medical intervention.

One suggestion we have come across – especially in the shelter setting – is to remember that even for kids on the spectrum this kind of pressure has a limited time of effectiveness. Therefore remember that your dog’s Thundershirt will probably only be effective for an hour or so at a time.  Simply remove it, give your dog something great to do, and a little while later it can be put back on them.

I find the Thundershirt to be a really good investment for anxious dogs and I think you will, too.

(Please note:  if your dog has high anxiety please see a behaviorist before trying things out on your own.)

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If you’ve never seen or heard of Yelp, it’s a really nifty site that allows users to review everything from restaurants, stores, and even your favorite positive reinforcement dog trainer. In places – like Putnam County – where traditional review outlets like Zagat’s don’t pay close attention we’ve found it to be really useful.

In fact, we tried to get a listing in Zagat’s, but when they asked what we served they seemed turned off when we said “Zuke’s, Pupparoni’s, dried chicken bits, peanut butter, and dessicated salmon all mixed up in a leather bag.”

Here’s a link to the Three Dogs Training page on Yelp – or you can just use the nifty little Yelp icon that Lawrence put in the upper right-hand corner.

If you use Yelp, we certainly wouldn’t turn our noses up at your giving us some kind words!  Positive reinforcement works on trainers, too!

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