Put Your Paws to Paper – Why Old-Fashioned Thank You Notes Make You Stand Out From the Pack

What's so great about dogs? We are experts at appreciation! Notice that I used the word appreciation, and not gratitude.

Humans tend to lump gratitude and appreciation together, but a dog will tell you that there is a difference. Think of it this way: Appreciation is gratitude in action. It's something you feel from the tip of your tongue to the end of your tail.

Personally, I show my appreciation by doing the famous boxer "kidney bean" dance. That's when I wind myself into a half-moon and wiggle my stub tail while dancing sideways across the floor like a crab. It's my own silly way of showing appreciation for even the most basic things in life—shelter, food, water and belly rubs. Oh yes, and cheese. I love cheese.

Admittedly, the boxer kidney bean dance isn't appropriate for most people. But if someone does something nice for you, you should acknowledge their effort and express your appreciation in a genuine way. This sounds obvious, but I've observed enough human behavior to know that this sort of personal and professional consideration is surprisingly rare.

So what should you do? Phone calls and personal visits are nice, but nothing beats a good old-fashioned thank you note. And while an electronic "thank you" is better than nothing at all, I can tell you from experience that humans go ga-ga when they find a nice, personal handwritten letter waiting for them in their mailboxes.

Yet as much as humans love getting thank you notes, few bother to send them out themselves. That's a shame—for the price of a greeting card and a first-class stamp, you can automatically differentiate yourself from the rest of the pack.

My advice is to set aside a time each week to write a few notes of appreciation. You don't have to write an essay, either. Just a few well-written and heartfelt lines to let someone know you are thinking about them and that they are not just a bunch of bits and bytes in your contact management system.

(If you are whining about your terrible handwriting, then do what my Dad does and subscribe to an online service like SendOutCards which lets you send greeting cards with the click of a mouse. You can even submit a handwriting sample and a signature to make the cards look as close to handwritten as possible.)

So what's the story behind the picture at the top of this post? Well, one of the groups profiled in my book is Delta Society, a non-profit that improves human health through service and therapy animals. Last year they invited me and Mom to attend Portland's annual Doggie Palooza event with them. It was a lot of fun, and I even sold a few books—a portion of which went to Delta Society.

Mind you, we're not talking a lot of money. We barely broke $100. We did a lot more schmoozing and drooling than selling. Still, a few weeks later I got a personal, handwritten card from Douglas Day, Director of Major Gifts at Delta Society. (The picture is a copy of his card. It is a reproduction of artwork drawn by a 13-year old girl who works with her dog as a registered Delta Society Pet Partners therapy team. )

He said he was delighted, yes, delighted, to receive my gift and assured me that it would make a remarkable difference in many lives by enabling Delta Society to share the healing power of animals. Then, he said that I was adorable—just like his own boxer, Tessie! (Okay, I admit that I focused on the word adorable for quite some time.)

The point is that Doug's note was classy. It made me feel good. It made my Mom feel good, too. In fact, she's had it under her desk blotter for the last three months. Everyone wants to feel like they are making a difference, and it doesn't take much to acknowledge other people's efforts and actions.

How about putting your paws to paper and writing your own note today?