Welcome to Litsy!

Brilliant book about animal mental health. Brought me to tears with numerous examples of animal abuse and brought a smile on my face for the many anecdotes of love & empathy between animals and people.
A must read to understand how mental health challenges like anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicidal tendencies, affect animal wellbeing, especially in captivity. An eye opener.

Reactive to Relaxed is the most current Control Unleashed book from Leslie McDevitt. As someone who has struggled with Generalized Anxiety Disorder herself, Leslie writes that she was drawn to the dogs with big feelings. And that comes through in her thorough system to help these dogs navigate the human world. She throws in some good humor too. I‘ve used pieces of CU, but reading the A-Z of this system makes me realize that I need to commit to it.

Finally reading Control Unleashed: Reactive to Relaxed. This quote makes me think of all the dogs I see & hear out in the world who are struggling. So many dog guardians don‘t recognize the signs of anxiety in their dogs. When I‘m training Lizzie on walks, we regularly pass other dogs who lunge at us and those guardians shrug it off. I want to tell them their dog needs help, but I don‘t see that conversation going well. It‘s actually really sad.

Saturday again and the gang‘s all here.

#dogsoflitsy #coffeeandbooks

This book looks at behaviors in animals that appear very much to be analogous to mental health issues in people, from anxiety to compulsive actions. It‘s very good, but very difficult to read if you love animals. (And why would you read this if you didn‘t?) It‘s making me think a lot and perhaps realign my thinking on some things.

Excited to get this email announcement this morning. Perfect timing for #NonfictionNovember #NFN

If you‘re looking for science-backed reputable books about canine care, Dogwise Publishing is the go-to source.

🎧 They‘ve got 7 audiobooks now with plans to keep adding. Maybe someday the word will spread wide enough to drown out the harmful training techniques from a certain “dog whisperer”🙄 so #DogsOfLitsy may celebrate fear-free communication.

Neuroscientist Gregory Berns discusses his work with dogs to allow fMRI scanning of volunteer, awake dogs. Not only does he clearly love them, but the studies and findings are really interesting. He also extends out his research and discussions to dolphins, sea lions, and thylacines (Tasmanian tiger). Bindi says it‘s very good, but is concerned too many of her secrets are being given away.

A compelling book on the emotional and mental lives of animals. Braitman uses lots of research and case studies to examine erratic and anxious behaviours of animals such as gorillas, dogs, bonobos, whales, dolphins, elephants, mice, and many other species. The point she tries to make is that the emotional afflictions affecting non-human animals is not that far apart from what we humans experience ourselves. Utterly readable and very insightful

I loved reading the fascinating names for groups of animals like a fever of sting rays. This is a great introduction about animals that don't belong to a group by nature. The artwork is bright and fun.

This was a fascinating look at dog show culture. As a vet, I‘ve been involved in a lot of parts of the dog world, but high-level show dogs are something I haven‘t interacted with much. Tomlinson follows a top Samoyed, Striker, as he and his handler take one last crack at winning Westminster. He also talks about the popularity and pitfalls of owning purebred dogs and shares his own experiences as a dog owner. I enjoyed it!