Max’s behavior didn’t improve over the next few weeks, so I was very glad I had arranged an assessment at the SPCA. He was showing more dominance all the time, whining if he had to wait for his walk, and
Episode Fourteen: No Bad Dogs? Hmmm……
Episode Thirteen: Leader of the Pack
Walking with Edna was not only fun, it was also a wonderful education in pack behavior. Although the base group on these walks consisted of Edna, Brandy, Max and me, it was often augmented by other humans and pets. On
Episode Twelve: My Family and Other Animals
Looking back on Max’s early months in our household, I often wonder that he turned out as well as he did. Some of those early diary entries sound like utter bedlam. April was particularly fraught, though the chaos was understandable,
Episode Eleven: Dog Ahoy!
When we were young, my brother and I read Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons and yearned to be like the adventurous children in the novel. However, as Londoners, our boating excursions were restricted to whatever was available during our annual
Episode Ten: Spring Break and Veterinarian Bills – Could there be a connection?
Spring break brought Max’s first experience of school holidays. He enjoyed it; I did not. The first day, I came home from grocery shopping to find a mob of little girls roaring around the garden with Max in hot pursuit.
Episode Nine: Hindsight is Always 20-20.
When our daughters, Caroline and Katie, were four and one respectively, my mother gave me a diary for Christmas. With the gift came the instruction: “You have to write down all the funny things that the children say. Otherwise, you’ll
Episode Eight: A Momentous Day in Max’s Life!
In the days following Max’s defiant sprint after the dog in the woods, he reverted to good-as-gold, and we were back to debating whether his misbehavior was just puppy high jinks or whether he needed serious training from an outside
Episode Seven – A Visit to the George Derby War Veterans’ Centre
Max’s predecessor, Beanie, was a gentle dog. Throughout Beanie’s life, we had a love affair with the George Derby War Veterans’ Centre, where we served as Pets and Friends volunteers through the program founded by the SPCA. Beanie was eight
Episode Six – Not so Good as Gold After All
Max’s first few days with us had been deceptive. As he’d arrived on a Monday, he was introduced to a household where three of the four humans were out during the day so that many hours were spent having quiet
Episode Five: Early Days – As Good as Gold
Max settled in very quickly. Those first few days, he was good as gold, other than minor misdemeanours like stealing my dusters when I was doing the housework. He also made one tentative chew at the Queen Anne leg on
