Jacki Skole's Blog, page 3

Happy Birthday Galen!

On September 25, the New York Times’ Sunday Styles section paid tribute to “Fashion’s Favorite Pets”: Marc Jacobs’ bull terrier Neville, Karl Lagerfeld’s Birman cat Choupette, and Thom Browne’s miniature dachshund Hector, all of whom, the article says, inspire their designer-owners. The news hook for the story was the kick off of the fashion book season. (If you didn’t know there is a fashion book season, you’re not alone. Apparently, it corresponds with the launch of the women’s wear fashion season.)

According to the Times’, the book that stands out this year is Neville Jacobs: I’m Marc’s Dog, which features pictures of Neville taken by photographer Nicolas Newbold. The book’s cover features Neville wearing a blue and yellow sweater presumably designed by Jacobs. No stranger to photo shoots, Neville has appeared on the covers of Paper magazine and Architectural Digest. “If there’s a set of lights and a tripod he’ll go right to set and sit and look,” Newbold told the Times.

Neville, photograph by Nicolas Newbold

To celebrate Galen’s sixth birthday, I’ve profiled her the way the Times profiled Neville, Choupette, and Hector. (You can read the Times’ story here.)

Galen Belle Skole, Australian shepherd-black Labrador retriever

Age: 6 years old

Instagram: 42 followers (Not quite the 194,000 followers Neville has, but perhaps after this post she’ll have closer to the 2,300 followers Hector has.)

Major media moment: Galen still awaits her moment in the klieg lights. (Film rights to DOGLAND anyone?)

Best friend: Galen prefers people to dogs, a fact that makes my mother’s dog, who loves Galen with all his heart, quite sad. Thus, the honor of best friend goes to Nicole, who works at one of Galen’s all-time favorite places: doggy day care.

Galen and the boy who loves her

Daily life: Galen’s got it good. One day a week she goes to daycare where she is spoiled by Nicole and the rest of the staff. On days she’s home, she curls up in her crate—her safe place, or shoves her head under the couch—I’m not sure who she thinks she’s hiding from, or she ventures outside—through the doggie door we installed for her—to soak up the sun or chase the random squirrel or deer or gopher that trespasses through our yard. Indulged as she is, she’s not quite as pampered as Choupette who spends her days with Lagerfeld and two women “tasked with entertaining her, taking care of her white hair, putting beauty treatments on her eyes and more.”

I’m hiding!

Books about her: DOGLAND: A Journey to the Heart of America’s Dog Problem

Friendliness level: Galen’s not Neville who will “snuggle up with anyone”—she’s too aloof for that. (Alas, she doesn’t even snuggle with family.) But while she’s no lover-girl, she is a gentle soul who befriends everyone she meets, especially those—like the mail carrier and UPS driver—who visit bearing treats.

Food habits: Galen takes her meals outside, rain, snow, or shine—her choice, not ours. She started this habit as a pup when she decided she no longer liked walking or standing on hardwood floors. In fact, the room in the house she enters least is the room that most dogs enter most: the kitchen.

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Changes are coming to my blog… stay tuned!

Canine Comprehension

I’ve long believed that Galen understands me when I speak to her. If she didn’t, would she drag herself out of her crate and run upstairs to my daughters’ rooms to wake them each morning upon hearing me call out, “Galen, it’s time to wake the girls?” Would she, when standing in the garage, meet me at the sliding glass door on our deck when I say, “Go around?” And then there are the simple commands she follows, like sitting when I say, “Sit” or coming, when I say, “Galen, come.” (Of course, she sometimes decides not to come, but that is a decision she makes with intention, not for lack of understanding.)

That dogs understand words isn’t something researchers are just discovering. It’s likely you’ve heard of Chaser, the celebrated border collie whose owner, John Pilley, taught her more than 1000 words, including proper nouns, verbs, adverbs, and prepositions. But now imaging studies of dogs’ brains are giving researchers insight into how the canine brain works—and it turns out, it works much like the human brain.

Callie, in a magnetic resonance imaging machine at Emory University, where similar studies are being done.

Humans process words, which are merely symbols representing ideas, in the left hemisphere of the brain. We process tone in our right hemisphere. Dogs do the same, according to the findings of a newly released study out of Hungary. Thus, the researchers conclude that a dog’s understanding of what humans say goes beyond intonation to the specific words that are used.

Science magazine has a nice little article explaining the study, along with a short, even easier-to-follow, video. I encourage you to check them out. And if you want to learn more about Chaser, this remarkable border collie has her own website.

Dogs trained by Emory University researchers to sit in MRI machines.

Potpourri

Where did the time go?

How often do you ask yourself this question? I seem to ask it all the time. For instance, it’s been about a month, and I’ve not posted a darn thing. Where did the time go?  So, please indulge me–there is no theme stitching together the snippets below, but perhaps you will find one (or more) that speaks to you.

If you haven’t watched The Present, an animated short about a teenage boy, a dog, and their special bond, I highly recommend it. You have the time–it’s under five minutes.

 

And check out this video by an amazingly talented self-taught artist who has an unusual way of painting animals. (Thank you for sharing it with me, Aunt Doris!)

 

In need of summer reading? If you haven’t read DOGLAND, it (of course) is my first suggestion. But if you’re looking for something else, check out EcoLit books. There are some new reviews online, including one written by yours truly.

Read my review of Lab Girl at EcoLit Books.

July 4th is days away, and that means fireworks. Fun for us, not so much for many dogs–including mine. How can you keep your dog from freaking out? That, and more, in this story I posted last summer.

 

I’d love for you to follow me on Facebook (if you don’t already). I primarily populate my timeline with interesting stories about all things dog. And you can find me on Twitter @jackiskole.

DOGLAND and other dog book news

Just a quick post to update you on all things DOGLAND:

Saturday, May 14, I will be promoting DOGLAND at Pet Valu in Hillsborough, NJ. All proceeds from book sales will be donated to SAVE , which will also be onsite with some of its adoptable dogs.
Sunday, May 22, I will be at Pet Rescue of Mercer’s 8th Annual Pet Fest at Veteran’s Park in Hamilton, NJ. Proceeds will go to Pet Rescue of Mercer.
Interested in the story behind the writing of DOGLAND? Have questions about why so many Southern dogs live out their lives in New Jersey? Want to know how to tell if that rescue you see at your local pet retailer is legit? If you’d like to know the answers to these questions or if you have questions of your own, I will be speaking and signing books at the Morristown & Morris Township Library at 7 p.m. on June 2nd. Proceeds will go to animal welfare organizations profiled in DOGLAND.

 

My goals in writing DOGLAND were simple: Get the book published. Sell it. Donate the proceeds to animal welfare. Of course, to sell a book, you need to promote it, and nothing promotes a book more positively than word of mouth or winning an award. Kevin encouraged me to not forego the latter, and I’m glad I listened. To date, DOGLAND has received three awards: The Maxwell Award from the Dog Writers Association of America for Best Rescue Book of 2015, a 2015 Nautilus Silver Award for Journalism/Investigative Reporting, and a 2016 Next Generation Indie Book Award in the Animals/Pets category. Hopefully, the publicity that comes with winning these awards will lead to increased sales and bigger donations. To all of you who have shared my Facebook posts and talked up DOGLAND to your friends and family, THANK YOU! (And please keep up the good work!)

 

In other dog book news:

Kim Kavin’s new dog book, The Dog Merchants: Inside the Big Business of Breeders, Pet Stores, and Rescuers is now out. You can read my review at Ecolit Books .

Costa Rica’s Territorio de Zaguates

Photographs of the dogs of Costa Rica’s Territorio de Zaguates are making the social media rounds again, this time courtesy of Reuters photographer Juan Carlos Ulate. I wrote about this remarkable organization three years ago, when it launched an ad campaign that went viral. Today, more than 700 strays call the organization’s sanctuary home–that’s up from 500 when I wrote about it–and according to Yahoo! News, some 8,000 have passed through, with most adopted into loving homes.

Want to know more? Here’s a look back at my post from September 2013:

My Black Merle Aussie Sheprador

I’ve always considered Galen a mutt, or in more politically correct terms, a mixed breed. I thought of Gryffin the same way. When people would inquire about his pedigree – and they often did because he was fabulously handsome – I would answer, “Pure mutt.”

But now I realize I wasn’t giving my dogs their due.

I should have answered with their “razas unicas” – their unique breed names. Thus, Gryffin was my beloved Golden Flag-tailed Chowtriever.

Gryffin

Galen is my quirky Black Merle Aussie Sheprador.

Galen

If you’ve never heard of such breeds, I’m not surprised. As I said, these breeds are unique.

Perhaps, I should explain.

A video by an animal rescue organization out of Costa Rica, highlighting its efforts to increase adoptions, is burning up the Internet. The organization – Territorio de Zaguates or Territory of the Street Dogs – runs a sanctuary for the country’s abandoned dogs. These are canines – there are upwards of 500 of them at the sanctuary at any given time – that if adopted, would make great companions. The problem – and the impetus for the campaign – was that the dogs weren’t being adopted, primarily because many Costa Ricans have a stigma against mutts. Such dogs are perceived as less valuable than purebreds and, according to a blogger who visited the sanctuary, are “widely referred to as rats.”

The innovative campaign, which includes social media, community outreach, a national art exhibit, and TV appearances, seeks to undue this stigma by highlighting the “razas unicas” of the country’s canines. “They only exist in our country,” a dog expert crowed on one of Costa Rica’s most popular programs. “They are wonderful specimens… they are unique breeds.”

The message, as simple and creative as it is, is being heard. Attitudes are shifting. Adoptions are up. And as the campaign continues, dog lovers everywhere can only hope these trends continue and, they might, perhaps, even heed the message themselves. After all, who wouldn’t want to own a Shaggy Shepherd Dachspaniel, an Eye-patched Australian Dalmapointer, or a Schnaufox Melenudo?

As for me, I’m very happy with my Black Merle Aussie Sheprador, because it’s not just her breed that’s unique — she has one heck of a unique personality, too.

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I’ve got lots of links to share. Click here to see the video and here to see Territorio de Zaguates’ facebook page.

Go to Buzzfeed to see photos of some of Costa Rica’s canines, along with their unique breeds. My eleven-year-old daughter and I laughed together, as nothing puts a smile on your face like close-ups of smiling mutts mugging for the camera.

Go to Travel Mother to read the story of one blogger’s hike with Costa Rica’s street dogs. “The herd of five hundred dogs pouring out of their enclosure is a spectacular site. The pack flows like a rapid river as they turn down the trail entrance and out to the open hills. We volunteers then follow them for a couple hours of exercise, fresh air, and doggy-human socialization.” (Added to my bucket list: Hiking with the street dogs of Costa Rica.)

Books for Dog Lovers

Love dogs? Love books? How about books about dogs?

Right now, Ashland Creek Press is offering 30% off when you buy DOGLAND and STRAYS, a young adult novel by Jennifer Caloyeras. You can check out the promotion here.

A little bit about STRAYS: My 11-year-old and I both read the novel over the summer and highly recommend it. So does The Bark, which had this to say, “There’s been much talk about the age-bending popularity of young adult books, and with Strays, a novel by Jennifer Caloyeras, one can readily understand why…an engaging book about a journey of self-discovery that should inspire readers of all ages.”

Here’s the back-of-the-book blurb:

“Sixteen-year-old Iris Moody has a problem controlling her temper—but then, she has a lot to be angry about. Dead mother. Workaholic father. Dumped by her boyfriend. Failing English.

When a note in Iris’s journal is mistaken as a threat against her English teacher, she finds herself in trouble not only with school authorities but with the law.

In addition to summer school, dog-phobic Iris is sentenced to an entire summer of community service, rehabilitating troubled dogs. Iris believes she is nothing like Roman, the three-legged pit bull who is struggling to overcome his own dark past, not to mention the other humans in the program. But when Roman’s life is on the line, Iris learns that counting on the help of others may be the only way to save him.

With sparkling prose and delightful humor, Jennifer Caloyeras’s novel beautifully portrays the human-animal bond.”

Happy reading!

Book Review: Only the Animals

A Russian tortoise launched into space during the Cold War.

A Lebanese parrot abandoned on the doorknob of a pet store during Israel’s 2006 bombing of Beirut.

A US Navy-trained dolphin called to serve in the Second Gulf War…

These are just some of the quirky and haunting stories you’ll read in Only the Animals, Ceridwen Dovey’s recently released short story collection. If the plots above aren’t enough to send you to the book store, you can read more of my review at EcoLit Books.

DOGLAND: Behind the Prose

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to speak with Keysha Whitaker on her popular podcast, Behind the Prose. We talked about writing, publishing, and of course, dogs. The program is now online, and you can listen here.

I will forewarn: Keysha and I talked for almost an hour, so getting through the whole thing takes commitment. But if you are interested in the craft of writing and the publishing process, I encourage you to listen–and not just to my interview but to Keysha’s other interviews, too. You’ll hear useful nuggets of information that you’ll find helpful no matter where you are in your writing life.

 

DOGLAND wins Maxwell Award

Thank you to the Dog Writers Association of America for recognizing DOGLAND as the Best Rescue Book of 2015.

Prior to the awards luncheon yesterday, I attended a seminar sponsored by the DWAA. One of the speakers, Ranny Green–long-time journalist for the Seattle Times, former DWAA president, and DWAA hall of fame member–talked about the process of reinventing one’s self. It’s something many of us in the journalism field find we have to do throughout our careers, as this is such a turbulent time in the media industry. (I will spare you the pros and cons of all this turbulence!) Green’s point, which he repeated time and again so we would neither miss it nor disregard it, was, “Don’t give up!” Simple enough, but often the hardest advice to follow.

There were many times along my journey that I considered giving up. After all, I’d never written a book before–my background is broadcast journalism, not print, and my search for an agent went nowhere. But of course, I didn’t give up. I found Ashland Creek Press, an independent publishing company that had faith in me and my story, and together, we ushered DOGLAND to market. To date, I’ve been able to donate nearly $2000 to animal welfare organizations that do amazing work on behalf of companion animals. Hopefully, winning the Maxwell award will lead to more publicity, increased sales, and more donations.

The thing about the message, “Don’t give up,” is that it’s universal–it’s meant for all of us, not just journalists. And there are many times throughout all our lives that remembering these simple words and taking them to heart, can reap never-imagined rewards.

DOGLAND-DWAA’s Best Rescue Book, 2015

You’re invited…

This Friday—that’s February 5— at noon I’ll be talking about DOGLAND with Behind the Prose’s Keysha Whitaker on BlogTalkRadio. If Keysha models my interview on those she’s done in the past, our conversation will focus as much on the craft of writing as on the content of the story.

The program will be available on the Behind the Prose website later in February—I’ll let you know when it’s posted—but those free at noon Friday can listen live. You can even ask a question.

Here’s everything you need to know: To listen to Friday’s program, click this LINK. Also:

Use Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox
Have a reliable broadband Internet connection
Plug-in a microphone and headphones (Common Apple or Android earbuds with a built-in mic, headsets, and USB mics are options – Do not use the internal microphone on your laptop!)
Have access to a quiet recording space with as little echo and background noise as possible

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A note to writers: Whether you’re new, established, or if writing is simply a hobby, Keysha’s interviews are always insightful. One of the programs I enjoyed most features author, editor, and educator Dinty Moore. I highly recommend it!