Dog Blog

Have you ever tried wrangling three dogs into a car for what should’ve been a quick trip to the pet store? Let me rephrase: have you ever willingly created a dog-shaped tornado of fur, barking, and chaos—just to pick up kibble? Because that’s what I did. This is the story of a totally avoidable dog mom disaster. It started with the sentence: “I’m out of dog food for Mr. Darcy.” It ended with me juggling three wildly different dogs in a Pet Valu parking lot, wondering how eve

When I introduce Mr. Darcy, I get one of two responses. Many people immediately look at him and say "Darcy, aren't you cute!". Alternatively, pretty much an equal number of people look up quickly, meet my eyes and say "Mister Darcy! I love that!!". Those are the fans of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice who totally get me.....I need to introduce you to this somewhat lesser known purebred option in the "toy" dog category.

Working with both dogs who were at similar life stages actually challenged me to be better at what I do. I had to be better at planning in advance, time management and observing dog body language. Here are some of the things I did that worked and some things I wouldn't suggest when you are training in a multi-dog household.

When I got Mr. Darcy, I chose a Havanese for many specific reasons that I thought would make it easy to have him with me as often as possible. He is only about 13 lbs, non-shedding and highly unlikely to engage with a skunk! However, I didn’t originally intend for him to share the bed. ..

This time of year really pushes my ability to be flexible in my plans for exercising and playing with the dogs. It could be t-shirt weather one day, a snowstorm the next and even from one to the other in the same day! Just when we get into a routine of where and when we want to walk or play something changes. It could even be Daylight Savings!

Working with my incredible clients this year, I’ve realized that the struggle is real for SO MANY people. It’s quite possible I could specialize in just house training puppies and be busy 24/7.  There are just so many variables and every website has the same advice and the same bulleted lists that are going to “guarantee success”. ....Read on for my top three list of what I didn’t find online!

I was terrified of dogs as a kid! I wasn't much better as an adult. When I was about six or seven years old I was riding my bike through the park and a random dog started to chase me. It was terrifying.