Lisa Cohn's Blog, page 19

The Magical Ways Dogs Make Us Happy

How Dogs Make Us Happy

By Lisa Cohn

After our dear dog, Lucy, died about a year ago, we began searching for a puppy. Some experts say families should wait before finding a new dog. But we couldn’t stand the emptiness of a home without her.

When we first visited the breeder from whom would we buy our new dog, (Hudson), my three children and I sat in a pen full of puppies for an hour. The longer I sat there, immersed in the smells and sounds of puppies, the happier I became. I felt it seep into me, the way the smells of spring seep in and make me feel calm and fulfilled.

Just before I left the breeder’s, I asked her about those feelings.

“Sitting in that pen with the pups for an hour made me feel so happy,” I said.

“Of course!” she responded. And that was that. As a breeder, she knew that dogs make people happy.

A little research confirmed what I had observed and what the breeder already knew. The act of petting a dog can cause neurotransmitters in our head to make us feel happier. Or, as a USA Today story explained, “The mere act of petting a dog can cause a chain of events. Instantly, neurotransmitters in our heads do a happy dance — it’s involuntary. We feel good.”

Feeling happy spawns so many benefits. Studies show that when people pet a dog, they’re flooded with oxytocin, a hormone that makes us less anxious and stressed.

Even though I was suffering from intense grief over the loss of my dog, that’s exactly how I felt, sitting in the puppy pen, drenched in puppies.

Ally Sitting in the Puppy Pen

At that time, I was in the midst of writing our book, “Bash and Lucy Fetch Confidence.” My experience in the puppy pen strengthened my idea of writing a book that addresses the magical dog-human connection–or, in the case of our book–the magical dog-child connection. You can feel that connection when you watch our book trailer, in which Michael clowns with young Hudson:

In our book, a dog named Lucy–who looks like the Lucy we lost–instills confidence in the boys on a soccer team by kissing them, loving them, and making them laugh. To learn more about our book, you can visit BashAndLucy.com or Amazon.com

Hudson is calling me now. It’s time to walk him and feel happy.

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Love Your Dog By Taking Him to The Dog Wash!

Love Your Dog at the Dog Wash

Parents and kids, want to show your dogs or puppies just how much you love them? Take them to the do-it-yourself dog wash.

First of all, you don’t want to scare your dog at the wash. Keep in mind that especially if he’s a puppy like our Hudson, he may be scared at first by the feel, look and sounds of the dog wash. Be gentle and patient. Bring plenty of treats!

When we first took Hudson to the dog wash, he was afraid to go up the stairs to the wash-and-groom area. We petted him, offered him treats, and made it fun for him. Once he was up there and we turned on the hose, he started to bark. You can watch our first attempt to wash him here:

Michael says, “This is fun!” while he’s washing Hudson. Parents, we’re sure your kids will enjoy grooming, too!

Eventually, Hudson thought being groomed was fun. He now loves being washed and brushed because he enjoys all the attention. He loves to be touched. And of course, the treats are a great bonus for him.

A few tips if you’ve got a shedder like Hudson. Prepare your dog by brushing out his fur before you get him wet. Once the fur gets wet, it’s harder to remove the tangles, say Katie O’Donnell, a groomer at Urban Fauna in Portland who has groomed Hudson. Ask the dog wash’s groomer to suggest shampoo and brushes that will work best for your dog. With Hudson, we often bring along shampoo for sensitive skin plus our Furminator, which removes a lot of the fur that’s often shed by Golden Retrievers like Hudson.

And, if your dog will allow it, use the blow dryer after he’s been washed and brushed, says Katie. That will also help cut down on shedding.

When you’re all done, be sure to tell your dog how handsome he looks. Admire him, pet him and show him how much you love him! The more positive the experience is for your dog, the more likely he’ll enjoy coming back.

For more fun dog facts for kids–plus tips about how kids can have fun with their dogs–be sure to click on this link: Michael’s Dog Blog. You can also see Michael’s videos–including his book reviews of kids’ dog books–by clicking here: Fun With Michael on YouTube.  And don’t forget to show your dog how much you love him everyday–by brushing him, walking him, or throwing a ball with him (Hudson’s favorite activity).

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Encouraging Kids To “Follow Their Grief” When A Pet Dies

We’re Still Grieving The Loss of Our Dear Lucy

Parents, encourage your kids to follow their grief when a pet dies. That means kids should talk about their pet, write about their pet, and draw, paint or even sing about their beloved pet. Don’t let children hold in those feelings of sadness and grief. Tell them to share their feelings–and see where it takes them.

Here at Bash And Lucy, we talk every day about how our dear Lucy died suddenly of cancer, and how we wrote a book, “Bash And Lucy Fetch Confidence,” and made her the main character. We did this to help overcome our grief and keep her alive in our hearts. What’s more, we tell our story over and over, and when we give our Skype in the Classroom lessons, we encourage kids to use art to help them express their feelings about losing a pet.

When kids follow their grief and show how vulnerable they are, they open themselves to new experiences, growth, and even adventure. That’s what has happened to us.

As we’ve followed our grief, we’ve written a book, “Bash and Lucy Fetch Confidence,” started Michael’s Dog Blog for kids, and told our story to local and national press. We’ve met so many wonderful people along the way, including this week, when we appeared live on AM Northwest. We met two book authors, Mantu Joshi and Germaine Parra, plus a “guilty crafter,” Angela Daniels. We loved meeting these other AM Northwest guests and were really touched when they said our live interview went well, even when Michael, age 5, decided to dance in front of the camera instead of answering questions!

Michael Dances During AM Northwest Interview

And we really enjoyed AM Northwest’s host, Helen Raptis, who has a true gift for just going with the flow. You can watch our interview here, during which Lisa talks about the importance of encouraging kids to follow their grief (while Michael discovers he’s on the studio’s TV monitor and plays in front of it):

Live Interview with AM Northwest

We’d love your comments about our interview and our “follow your grief” message. Do you have any stories about how kids have used art and writing to help overcome the loss of a dear pet? Email us at BashAndLucy@gmail.com, or tweet us at @BashAndLucy. And if you’d like to learn more about our Skype in the Classroom lessons–during which we discuss, with kids globally, the importance of using art to grieve the loss of a pet–check out our YouTube page, Bash And Lucy on YouTube . While you’re focusing on helping kids follow their feelings, keep in mind that following your hearts can lead to surprises, like the surprises Lisa encountered on AM Northwest!

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We’re Touched, Inspired & Delighted By Our Skype in the Classroom Students

Skype in the Classroom students

“Are we going to Skype with some classes today?” Michael often asks when he wakes. “It’s so much fun!”

We’ve been touched, inspired, moved, educated and delighted by our Skype in the Classroom experiences, during which we teach kids about writing and publishing and ask them for ideas for our next books. (Here’s the link to the class outline: Our “Write, Publish, Publicize” Class)

Through this experience, we’ve learned so much about what excites young children about writing and publishing. And we’ve gathered from Skype students many creative ideas for the next books in our “Bash And Lucy” series.

Not only are we delighted by the classes; we appreciate the feedback from students we’ve received via snail mail, email and on school blogs. Keep it coming!

First of all, the surprise letters that arrived in our mailbox from Ms. Wendy’s 4th grade students in Texas really made our day. Heck, it made our week! Here’s what the package looked like when we opened it:

Letters from Skype in Classroom Students

The students said they loved our book, “Bash And Lucy Fetch Confidence,” that Michael is funny and that they were inspired by our class (Awww…shucks).

“I’ve really been inspired by your book and your teaching. I really want to be an author when I grow up,” said one student. “Thank you, Michael, for being funny during our Skype,” wrote another student.

We especially enjoyed the letters that were written to Michael, who is the 5-year-old co-author of “Bash And Lucy Fetch Confidence.” He generally helps “teach” our Skype in the Classroom lesson.

“Michael, I like how your are so energetic. And how you are so funny. (P.S. Love your hair)” wrote another student.

“Thanks, Michael. I loved your book,” wrote a student.

Meanwhile, Ms. Singh included us in her class blog, and the students continue to post their comments about the class. You can see the blog here:

Ms. Singh’s Blog About Our Skype Class

Many of the students say they loved brainstorming ideas for the next books in our “Bash And Lucy” series. For example, “Skyping with Lisa Cohn was such a great experience, my favorite part of the day was giving ideas for a new story for Mrs.Cohn,” wrote one student on the blog. “An idea for a new story… Bash has his friends come over everyday so Lucy feels left out. Then Lucy tries to get involved with their games so Bash gets mad because she kept on ruining everything so they were not friends. Then at the end of the story they become friends. Mrs. Cohn if you do this story Friends/ Enemies would be a nice name for it.”

Again, we encourage students to keep the ideas coming!

Here’s a sample “brainstorming session” with 5th graders in Ms. Kilpatrick’s class during which the kids come up with possible conflicts in the next books, and Michael suggests solutions:

We’ve been especially excited to work with students from all over the world, including India, Ireland and Australia! Here’s a clip from a session with a group of 4th grade boys in Ireland. They came up with some very original ideas for our next books:

You can watch more Skype in the Classroom clips here, including one of students in India doing a book review:  Skype in the Classroom video clips

Thank you, Skype in the Classroom, for giving us this opportunity to connect with kids across the globe and experience their enthusiasm for writing and reading! Thank you, teachers, for sharing your students with us!

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Our “Singing Book Reviews, Potty Training & Other Benefits of Reading Aloud” Piece

Benefits of Reading Aloud Piece By Lisa

As “World Read Aloud Day” (WRAD) advocates and big believers in the benefits of reading aloud, we wrote a piece for LitWorld.org, a non-profit literacy organization that aims to “foster resilience, hope and joy through the power of story.”

You can read it here:

Singing Book Reviews, Potty Training and Other Benefits of Reading Aloud

Or here:

Singing Book Reviews, Potty Training and Other Benefits of Reading Aloud

By Lisa Cohn

When Michael was a toddler, I had trouble potty-training him, until I came up with an idea: If I did something he loved—really loved—while he was sitting on the potty, then maybe he’d sit there long enough to learn how to use the potty.

So I lured him to the potty with a book or two. And I offered to read to him while he sat. In no time, my strategy worked.

Now Michael is five, and he continues to link most bodily functions with being read a book.

It goes like this: “I’ll eat two cheese sandwiches if you read me two books.” Or, “I’ll stop playing long enough to go pee if you read to me first.”

We don’t just bargain about bodily functions. Everything is a read-aloud deal.

As soon as he wakes, Michael says something like, “Let’s read. I can’t go to school without finding out what happened in “Nate the Great and the Missing Key.” Then of course, we’re back to trying to get him to eat. “Read to me while I have breakfast,” he insists.

Michael then packs his 24 Scooby-Doo! Collect The Clue books into a bag, saying that he plans to share them with his friends on the playground at school. When I pick him up a few hours later, he asks me to read to him and his friends on the top of the jungle gym. And yes, I read to him and four or five friends perched at the tippy-top of the playground.

Why do I spend what seems like half my day reading to Michael? The benefits are enormous. First of all, it’s a great way to connect with him. I ignore the buzzing of texts, emails and tweets issuing from my iPhone for a few precious moments and we snuggle and laugh and talk.

We have lots to talk about. After each book comes the review. Michael loves to provide his analysis. “This Scooby-Doo book was different than most of them because Shaggy gets trapped,” he says. “That never happened before.” Or, “Usually the monster is a person wearing a mask. In ‘Scooby-Doo! And You: The Case of the Leaping Lion’ the monster actually is a picture made by a computer.”

While he reviews, he makes friends. That’s another benefit of our read-aloud time. At the bookstore, after we read a book, he invariably starts talking to a dad and kid about the story. He also gives his reviews to the check-out person, climbing up on the shelf where he’s supposed to be depositing his books. “I give ‘Walter the Farting Dog” 25 stars,” he says.

Michael learns so much from the books I read to him. He often spouts facts gleaned from Velma in Scooby-Doo—facts about the physics behind waves, for example. And of course, sharing his love of books has helped make Michael a great communicator. If you’ll listen, he’ll talk—about the cool dad in “Henry and Mudge in Puddle Trouble,” or the follow-you-everywhere “Oliver” character in Nate the Great.

Michael’s book reviews, which appear on our YouTube channel, landed him on the Today Show, an event that was pretty big in my life, but just another day in the bookstore for Michael. Now he’s discovered yet another way to share his love of books: He started writing singing book reviews. You can watch one here:

From the potty to the piano, Michael takes his books with him everywhere and integrates them into everything he does. We hope his enthusiasm for books is contagious; that’s one of the many reasons we’re celebrating World Read Aloud Day March 5, with a Skype in the Classroom lesson. Parents and teachers, please join us by reading to your children on World Read Aloud Day.

We promise: We won’t make you sing—or go potty.

Lisa Cohn and Michael Cohn, co-authors of the award-winning “Bash And Lucy Fetch Confidence,” were recently featured on the Today show for Michael’s love of books and YouTube book reviews. Learn more by visiting www.BashAndLucy.com

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Writing Songs About the Kids’ Dog Books We Love: Scooby-Doo!

Singing Reviews of Dog Books By Michael

Trust me. We never expected that writing our own kids’ dog book would lead us to write songs about kids’ books. Like much of our journey–beginning with the death a year ago of our dear dog, Lucy–our adventure has followed the passions of 5-year-old Michael.

It all began the other day when Michael was taking a music lesson with “Mr. Hoo” of the Portland children’s band “The Alphabeticians.” Mr. Hoo asked Michael if he wanted to write a song. Michael decided to create a song, to the tune of his favorite Scooby-Doo song, about a Scooby-Doo book he had just finished, “Scooby-Doo! and You: The Case of Dr. Jenkins and Mr. Hyde.” The result was this song:

Here are the lyrics:

Scooby-Dooby Doo went down to the food production place

And met a doctor ghost.

They split up and looked for clues.

Shaggy and Scooby got chased.

Then Shaggy and Scooby were bait.

They dressed up like doctors

And solved the mystery of Mister Hyde’s curse of course.

This effort yielded yet another Scooby-Doo song, this one about “Scooby-Doo! and the Case of the Terrifying Pterodactyl,” which Mr. Hoo sings (with some help from Michael) here:

Here are the lyrics–and yes, they’re very similar to the lyrics above. But heck, Michael is only 5!

Scooby-Dooby Doo went down to the museum

And met a pterodactyl.

Everybody got chased

They split up and looked for clues.

Scooby and Shaggy were bait.

They dressed up like dinosaurs

And solved the mystery of the

Pterodactyl curse of course.

Here at Bash And Lucy, we’re big fans of the arts, especially the healing power of the arts, whether you’re sad about a dog’s death, a bad day, or missing your best friend. We’re excited that our adventure has led us to song. Got a dog book you’d like Michael to sing about or review? Email us at BashAndLucy@gmail.com. And be sure to follow our YouTube channel, Bash and Lucy on YouTube

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Michael, Age 5, Shares His Love of Dog Books with “Original” Songs About Them

Singing Reviews of Dog Books By Michael

Trust me. We never expected that writing our own kids’ dog book would lead us to write songs about kids’ books. Like much of our journey–beginning with the death a year ago of our dear dog, Lucy–our adventure has followed the passions of 5-year-old Michael.

So, Michael was taking a music lesson the other day with “Mr. Hoo” of the Portland children’s band “The Alphabeticians.” Mr. Hoo asked him to write a song. Michael decided to create a song, to the tune of his favorite Scooby-Doo song, about a Scooby-Doo book he had just finished, “Scooby-Doo! and You: The Case of Dr. Jenkins and Mr. Hyde.” The result was this song:

Here are the lyrics:

Scooby-Dooby Doo went down to the food production place

And met a doctor ghost.

They split up and looked for clues.

Shaggy and Scooby got chased.

Then Shaggy and Scooby were bait.

They dressed up like doctors

And solved the mystery of Mister Hyde’s curse of course.

This effort yielded yet another Scooby-Doo song, this one about “Scooby-Doo! and the Case of the Terrifying Pterodactyl,” which Mr. Hoo sings (with some help from Michael) here:

Here are the lyrics–and yes, they’re very similar to the lyrics above. But heck, Michael is only 5!

Scooby-Dooby Doo went down to the museum

And met a pterodactyl.

Everybody got chased

They split up and looked for clues.

Scooby and Shaggy were bait.

They dressed up like dinosaurs

And solved the mystery of the

Pterodactyl curse of course.

Here at Bash And Lucy, we’re big fans of the arts, especially the healing power of the arts, whether you’re sad about a dog’s death or something else. We’re excited that our adventure has led us to song. Got a dog book you’d like Michael to sing about? Email us at BashAndLucy@gmail.com. And be sure to follow our YouTube channel, Bash and Lucy on Youtube

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Grief Over a Dog Loss and the Healing Power of Writing

Grief Over a Dog Loss Led to This Book

On the first anniversary of the death of our dear dog, Lucy, we’re here to tell you about another author who, like us, experienced a dog loss and turned to writing to help her overcome her grief. Her name is Teddy O’Malley. She is 24 and wrote her kids’ dog book, “Tell Me How You Say Good Night,” when she was 23. We’re so impressed that she wrote and published a book at the age of 23 and want to encourage others to turn to writing and art to help them express sad feelings.

Here is the review of “Tell Me How You Say Good Night” that we just posted on our YouTube Channel. It’s by Michael, age 5, co-author of our “Bash and Lucy” kids’ dog book, and he has lots of nice things to say about “Tell Me How You Say Good Night.” Watch his review here:

Michael likes the fact that the reader says good night in many different languages. He’s attempting to say good night in these languages in this review.

Mia, age 13, Michael’s friend who helps him review books, says she likes this book because the dogs are super cute and the book has a real “snuggle up with your dog” feel.

Again, we congratulate Teddy for writing a book at her age and for doing it to help her cope with her grief. Our own attempts to overcome the grief over our dog loss has led us on quite an adventure this year, first writing a book, then publicizing it and appearing on the Today Show. Now we’re telling young children globally about our experiences and teaching them about writing through our “Skype on the Classroom” lessons. You can learn more about that by visiting our blog, Michael’s Dog Blog

Feel free to email us at BashAndLucy@gmail.com. And keep writing and reading!

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Cranky Crocodiles, Cool Dads & Other Tales From Our Skype Classroom Lessons

Skype Classroom Lesson

“Wow, that was fun!” said 5-year-old Michael after our first “Write, Publish, and Publicize An Award-Winning Book” lesson via Skype in the Classroom, with the energetic and tech-savvy Mrs. Magyar, Technology Coach in the Highland Falls Fort Montgomery Central School District.

On our first day of giving Skype Classroom lessons, we visited with kids age 5 to 10 in Mrs. Magyar’s class in New York State; in a school located on a remote cattle farm in Australia; and in a school India. Wow! By the time it was late enough here to talk to kids in India, Michael was exhausted, so Lisa did a short lesson that will be continued next week.

During these Skype in the Classroom lessons, we helped the Australian students, age 5 to 6, start a fictional story about a cranky crocodile who arrives in their class. After our brainstorming session with the students, Jasmine Shannon, teaching principal for Tipperary Station School, told us that her reluctant boy writers actually picked up their pencils and wrote a little book. We were so thrilled to hear this! You can watch a portion of our brainstorming session with the young authors in this video:

Kids Brainstorm About Cranky Crocodile Story

We were excited to connect with these budding authors in Australia and meet the brave Jasmine Shannon, who is so enthusiastic about working on a remote cattle farm.

During our Write, Publish, Publicize an Award-Winning Book! lesson with Mrs. Magyar’s class of adorable 5- and 6-year-olds, the students got to see our dog, Hudson, discussed the role of feelings in writing, talked about how they respond to feedback about their writing, and came up with some awesome ideas for the next books in our “Bash And Lucy” series. Here they are giving us ideas:

Kids Brainstorm About Next Books in Bash And Lucy Series

At the beginning of the class, Michael named some of his favorite books, and turns out, Mrs. Magyar happened to have one of those books in her classroom, “Henry And Mudge in Puddle Trouble.” Here she and Michael discuss what they like about this book (This is where the “cool dad” comes in):

Cool Dad in Henry and Mudge Discussion

We also visited briefly with a very dedicated teacher, Ritu Chopra, of Fountainhead School, and were thrilled to meet her class of 10-year-olds in India! We discussed how much Michael loves books, and how reading as a child inspired Lisa to become a writer. Her students provided some very thoughtful insights into what they do and don’t like about the book, “Holes.” In our next session, the kids will do book reviews of “Holes,” and we’re going to share these reviews on Our YouTube Channel, along with the kids’ book reviews Michael does with friends age 5 to 13.

Next week, we have a number of classes lined up, and can’t wait! If you’re interested in learning more about our lesson, email us at BashAndLucy@gmail.com. To follow our Skype in the Classroom updates, follow us on twitter: @BashAndLucy. And be sure to dive in and write your own crocodile stories!

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For Young Writers: Our “Write, Publish, Publicize” Skype Lesson

Young Writers Class Via Skype In Classroom

We’re so excited about our Skype in the Classroom lesson for young writers. We’re now scheduling our class with 13 teachers in the United States, Ireland, India and Australia. During the lesson, which will be conducted with these teachers via Skype, we’ll share our experiences writing our award-winning book, publishing it, and publicizing it (including being featured on the Today Show).

Today we spoke with a teacher in India who would like her young writers to learn how to do YouTube book reviews in the style that Michael does them on his YouTube Channel. Her students will do some book reviews via Skype, and we’ll post them on our YouTube Channel. We’re also working with a school here in Portland, teaching young kids how to review books. More posts about that soon!

Most of the teachers have asked that Michael, age 5, be present during the class. They say his love of books will help inspire their young writers and readers. “Tell me how he became such a book lover,” a teacher asked me today.

Michael is very excited about meeting students from all over the world. If kids ask him about his favorite books, he’ll likely say that his favorite books right now are Scooby-Doo, Nate the Great, Henry and Mudge, and Berenstain Bears. He loves books that include both dogs and mysteries and has reviewed many on his YouTube Channel.

Our Young Writer, Michael, in a Book Store

Our lesson begins with a discussion about why we wrote our book: to overcome sad feelings about the death of our dog, Lucy. We then discuss the importance of creating characters and having conflict in a story. We also address how critical it is to gather feedback from peers and adults–and how to evaluate that feedback and incorporate it into a writing project. Our advice: Listen to your gut. Young writers, you don’t have to incorporate all the feedback you get, especially if it doesn’t seem right for your project. Also included in our lesson is information about the final product and choosing how to publish it.

Publicizing a book is critical. In our Skype in the Classroom lesson, we share all the ways we’ve gotten the word out about our book. This is a long list, and includes this blog! And of course, we discuss how to write a book review (We are offering to do this as a separate class, if there’s not enough time).

See our lesson online at Skype in the Classroom here:

Write, Publish, and Publicize an Award-Winning Book!

We love the feedback we’re getting from teachers and others about our projects.

“Your blog is doing a great thing and very inspiring to a generation of future readers!” said one blog reader.

Teachers, let us know if you’d like to sign up for our class! Sign up through the Skype in the Classroom link above–or email us at BashAndLucy@gmail.com!

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