The Rescue Dogs of 9/11

“We Need a Dog Over Here!”

Originally published on September 7, 2011 by Lee Charles Kelley.

It was about ten minutes before 9 A.M. I was sitting in the kitchen of my apartment on Second Avenue and 69th Street—finishing my breakfast and watching the local morning news—when the first plane hit the World Trade Center. My Dalmatian Freddie was sound asleep.

Mike Sheehan, an old-style political reporter for Fox 5 New York, was stationed downt...

Dogs Have an Amazing Sense of Smell, But Do They Understand Our Words?

Does Your Dog Really Know What "Sit!" Means?

“Most scientists who talk about dogs have their scientist hat and their dumb hat,” says Gustavo Aguirre, a veterinary ophthalmologist ... “And whenever they start talking about dogs, they put on their dumb hat. They say things that as scientists they have to know can’t possibly be right.” (“The Truth About Dogs,” Stephen Budiansky, The Atlantic...

When people living with a mental illness were asked what helped them manage their conditions, many listed their pets. In fact, 80 percent of participants said their pets were a crucial part of their support network. There are many ways pets can help people to live mentally healthier lives. The study found that pets were beneficial in helping people to exercise and develop routines. Pets also offered a distraction, reduced the social stigma of mental illness...

(Photo via Pixabay)

House-hunters have a typical list of criteria which must be considered when scouring potential properties. Obviously, price, yard space, and the house itself are primary considerations. In addition, more forward-thinking considerations such as the school district’s quality, demographics of a given neighborhood, and kid-friendliness must also be weighed.

For dog lovers, they must also consider what their dog is going to think of the new abo...

Are We Putting too Much Pressure on Puppies to Learn Obedience too Soon?

“I have spent the past few years puzzling over why dog training is no longer working that well. Today there is much more management and less reliability...”                                                                                   — Dr. Ian Dunbar....

Holding a Mirror Up to Science and Nature: Can Dogs Pass the "Mirror Test?"

Throwing Water on His Enthusiasm 
When “The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness” was made on July 12th last year, I refrained from making any critical comments in deference to Marc Bekoff, my (then) colleague at PsychologyToday.com. I didn’t want to throw any water on his enthusiasm by writing a more realistic assessment (such as the one found here).

What is the declaration? You c...

 Observe, Wonder, Feel & Be

One evening, many years ago I was at a high school basketball court on the East Side of Manhattan with two dogs: my Dalmatian Freddie and a client’s Jack Russell terrier named Mack. (Someone in the neighborhood was on the city council, owned a dog, and had pulled some strings to allow us to exercise our dogs there in the evenings.)

The dogs were all playing nicely. Everyone was having fun. Then a light rain started, some kids began...

A Distant Feeling

If you’ve read my previous posts on telepathy in dogs, you know that the term telepathy is a portmanteau word cobbled from the Greek for distant (tele) and feeling (pathy). It was coined in 1882 by Frederic W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Physical Research.

According to Wikipedia, “Telepathy experiments have historically been criticized for lack of proper controls and repeatability. There is no convincing evidence that telepathy ex...

Barking Up a Storm

Excerpted from an article written for DogsNaturally Magazine, Oct/Nov, 2014.

Tension & Release

Fear of thunderstorms can be debilitating for some dogs. I’ve discovered a unique solution to this problem that I’d like to share with you. And, oddly enough, I learned it from a Sheltie named Duncan.

First of all, it’s important to understand that fear of any kind manifests in one of three ways: fight, flight, or freeze. I use a model of learning c...

Sigmund Freud and Two Chow Pups

Do Dogs Have an Uncanny Ability to Retrieve Our Unconscious Desires?

(Originally published in slightly different form on April 21, 2010 at PsychologyToday.com)

Dogs as a Freudian Therapists

In my most recent blog post here I presented the idea that dogs may be telepathic, that is able to feel at a distance what their owners are feeling. This ability is also present in a very common phenomenon most dog owners are either unaware of...