Oh, Behave
B&Tea — Our Training Blog
Dipping your toe in the water or already deeply immersed? If you can’t get enough, check out the Behavior & Training blog for fun stories on training triumphs and foibles, cat and dog foster challenges and happy endings along with general musings on living life well with animals.
Gratitude, Guinea Fowl Style
By Dawn Kovell You probably won’t find a lot of people using gratitude and guinea fowl in the same sentence, let alone article. FDSA Ranch, where I have lived since February, blends a dog training destination with a nascent holistic collection of other domestic animals. I use the term “domestic” loosely with the guinea fowl. What we have learned thus far, is that there is tick season, mud season, fly season, foxtail season, sticky weed season (specially designed to adhere to [...]
The Accidental Foster Mom
By Candace Key The question was only slightly less jarring since I was standing in the parking lot of a pet supply store. I turned to see an agitated young man who had just exited the store throw up his hands in frustration. He had wandered the store, desperately asking if anyone could take the cat he had pulled from the traffic twice and chased up a tree. “I’m sorry, I’m only visiting here and I have no way to keep [...]
Jack the Lab – Escape Artist, Fierce Hunter and Schemer
By Neil Lurssen At first sight there was no real reason for Jack to get much attention. As Labrador Retrievers go, he wasn’t the handsomest member of his breed. His eyes were set quite close together for a blocky English lab and his black coat turned ash grey in blotches before he was two – maybe because he liked to plunge into our chlorinated swimming pool several times a day, rain or shine. After his swim he would sometimes find his [...]
Foster Reunions
By Kim Bromley and Susie Harper If you’ve fostered a pet - especially kittens and puppies - you’ve heard this question: “How can you give them back? I could never do it.” And it’s true, fostering isn’t for everyone. We’ve written about fostering before in this blog: the joys and challenges, senior partners and the fun of seeing your fosters in their new homes. What we haven’t focused on solely is reunions. Herewith, one of the many pleasures of fostering: seeing [...]
Who Needs Four Legs Anyway?
A feisty little Terrier by the name of Petey is showing everyone at the Marin Humane shelter how he gets about fairly well with only two good legs. Petey was born with his rear legs badly deformed and not very useful for the type of running and playing that every spirited dog enjoys. He has taught himself to be remarkably agile despite this problem. In games of chase in grassy paddocks at the shelter, Petey keeps up with doggie playmates in [...]
Ranch Recalls
“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” – J.R.R Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings This winter I moved from my adorable, extremely comfortable cottage in downtown Larkspur to live on a 100-acre ranch in Petaluma. A friend inviting me to join her on a Big Adventure initiated this move. As it turns out, it was an [...]
