I suppose I should say something about myself. My name is Irene and I live in the New Jersey suburbs of Philadelphia.

Ever since I can remember, I just loved dogs. Well, to be completely honest, the first thing that I remember was that I wanted to actually be a dog. Yep. You read that correctly. When I realized that was not possible, I just wanted to be around dogs and eventually I really really really wanted a dog. We finally got a dog when I was 12. We had no idea what we were doing. I’ll give you all the messy details later. I adopted my first dog as an adult when I was in my 20s. I was terrified and more than a little clueless. I started reading a bunch of books. Then my friend got us into dog agility. And I talked to a bunch of people and read a bunch more books. At not the best time in my life, I adopted Lexi. Wow! If I thought I was clueless about dogs when I first adopted Joy, my little brown dog, I felt like I was starting all over again with Lexi. She was terrified of everything, territorial, and a nipper to boot. I read more books. Talked to more people. Cried a lot. I even hired a very expensive vet/trainer. Then I cried some more. Then I took a deep breath and looked at my terrified dog. I said out loud to her, “it must be very difficult being you.” At the point I realized that this statement was 100% true. And so my story began again.

If you have questions, comments, or a behavior that you want to discuss or have a story you want to share, drop me a note using the contact form below.