Archive for the New Commentary Alert Category

Day of Reckoning: Frica Louise gets spayed Last month I had Frica spayed after contemplating all the pros and cons so many times I was dizzy. I learned a lot from this experience, including that it’s a there are a lot of clichés that can be applied to this sometimes grueling process. To read more, [...]

Sorry, I made a typo when I sent out the link to the October commentary. The correct link is here. My apologies for any inconvenience. I’ll try to get my brain and fingers working together better in the future.

Elevating Your Animal From a Problem to an Individual Have you ever taken your pet to the veterinary clinic for some problem and gotten the feeling that your veterinarian just wasn’t listening to you? Or you got the impression that the vet had already made up his or her mind regarding the cause and proper [...]

A Theory of Animal Mind Over the past few months I’ve read several books that have referred to the Theory of Mind. Never heard of it? Well, I’ll give you a hint about its content: If you were a researcher with a strong human bias who believed in such a theory, the title of this [...]

The Helmsley Multibillion Dollar Trust for Dogs: A Good Time for a Change Last month a big news story contained two elements the media and public love to talk about: great gobs of money and animals. That Leona Helmsley earmarked her estimated $5-8 billion estate to be used to establish a charitable trust devoted to [...]

The Sound of Two Paws Clapping In many ways, for me the best time of day is when I take the dogs out first thing in the morning. Particularly at this time of year, I love that everything is so fresh and clean. And quiet. It’s the quiet that’s particularly engaged my thoughts lately. These [...]

Fat Cats and Top Dogs: Animal Behavior and the Business World Recently Walter Brandes of To the Tipping Point, a New Hampshire business consulting practice contacted me for permission to use that business name because I’d already claimed TippingPoint Inc. I agreed and then he and I had a delightful chat about the role of [...]

Hormones, Miracles, and Companion Animals This month I’m going share some thoughts about hormones as they relate to an on-going miracle that so struck me as so amazing, it was impossible not to write about it. Can you guess what that miracle was and is? To find out if you’re right, click here.

Companion Animals as Teachers Last month I discussed selective mimicry, a human trait that’s also displayed by domestic dogs. That naturally segued into a discussion about how pets also might learn from us using this same method. This month we’re going to look at the flip side of this: how and what young children can [...]

Canine Learning: Why our best sometimes needs to be better It’s a well-established fact that animals learn by modeling their behaviors on those of others. But as any parent knows, children don’t automatically mimic what Dad, Mom, Sis, or some other person does. Instead, even infants make use of a mental phenomenon known as selective [...]