Category Archives for "Life Skills"

What to do when you’re feeling hopeless and seeing no reason to keep living.

Suds Asks: Shirelle, sometimes I feel so hopeless I don’t want to live anymore. Does that ever happen to you?

Hi Suds –

I’m sorry you feel so lousy.  I know what it’s like to feel really sad and frustrated and lonely and angry.  But no, I’ve never not wanted to live anymore.  That’s because dogs are different from people – we just never think that way.  But I have to tell you, I’ve never known a human who hasn’t felt just Continue reading

2 Why are ticks attracted to dogs?

Schnapsie asks: Shirelle, why are tics attracted to our kind, that is the canine family?

Oh Schnapisie, did you have to ask this?!  Now I’m going to have nightmares all night!

For a dog, ticks are just about the worst thing there is.  They latch onto us, spread disease, drink our blood, and are impossible for us to scratch off!  While we always appreciate what our humans do for us, handling ticks is one of the most important and valuable things people can ever give us.  So please:

–       Do what you can to prevent our getting ticks

–       Find ticks as soon as possible when they’re on us

–       And when you do find them, get them off of us in a big big hurry!

But your question is about why ticks are attracted to dogs in particular.  Well, the answer is… Continue reading

4 Why Does School Teach So Many Useless Things?

Lovesblackcats asks: Why don’t we learn really useful things in school like how to fix a flat tire or balance a checkbook? Why do we need to spend time finding the diameter of a circle or doing calculus?

Hi LovesBlackCats!

Boy this question gets asked all the time. I’ll bet they asked it in Ancient Egypt, and it’ll still be asked a thousand years from now. “Why do I have to study stuff that means nothing to me?”

When I was a puppy, I really cared about a few things. Biting, chewing, playing, food, making friends, and whether Handsome liked me as much as I liked him. That’s about it. I wanted to spend all my time pursuing those things. If I could have had my way, I wouldn’t have even slept! And Handsome would ruin my good times every day by insisting on Continue reading

How to deal with someone who rejects your friendship.

JLL asks: I take a drama camp and there is this girl named Emerson. At first she was really nice to me but, one day my friend Bailey and I went up to her and asked, may we please look at your necklace? She said no! in a very rude way. The next day a girl named Sue was wearing a very similar necklace , I asked Emmerson, is Sue wearing your necklace? She said, don’t talk to me! in a very rude way. Later, I told the teacher and I asked Emmerson, what did I ever do to you? She simply said, your annoying. She also said that she didn’t want to be friends. And I’m fine with that but I have the feeling that she will still be mean to me and turn people against me. I don’t want to be friends but I still want to get along with her. What do I do?

Wow, JLL, this is a tough one.  I don’t know if you’re still in drama camp (Handsome left town for a while, and I wasn’t able to post anything while he was gone – sorry about that!).  But even if you’re not, this sort of problem will happen again – it happens to adults all the time.

What you’re dealing with is that you’re trying to “play by the Continue reading

Advice for kids and teenagers on how to deal with having to clean their room.

Crooner62 asks: Why is it so hard to clean up my room when I know the mess will just get worse if I don’t?!

Crooner, I don’t know exactly how old you are, but I can tell you that things like this get easier when you get older.  When you’re a puppy, it’s just so hard to concentrate on something as BORRRING as cleaning!  I’ve written elsewhere on here how much I hate getting baths, but that’s not Continue reading

How to deal with houseguests whose children break things

DeuceDog asks: Hi Shirelle – There is a neighbor boy (7 years old) who we love to have pay us a visit, but every time he comes by – he breaks something. Whether it’s a toy that we have for him and other children, or one of our gardening tools that he likes to slam onto the ground. His father is a nice guy, but a little slack on discipline – I don’t want to overstep my bounds and I don’t want to frighten this nice little boy – but his path of destruction is getting a little difficult. What would you say to him and his father to help appease the situation? Thanks.

Well, DeuceDog, if I haven’t made it clear enough, I was just like this boy!  I was a very destructive puppy, and just loved getting into Continue reading

Why people (especially teachers) are mean

Crooner62 asks: Why are some people so mean (like certain teachers) and what is the best way to not get my feelings hurt when they yell?

Mean teachers?  Like the ones who think the way to treat dogs to sit is to swat our hynie and yell at us?!

Mean people scare me.  I’m scared when they scream at me, I’m scared when they act like they’re going to hurt me, and I’m especially scared when they really do want to hurt me.  I guess that’s the definition of a mean person – someone who wants to hurt me in some way, whether it’s physical or not.

But I think it’s important to point out that there are different sorts of Continue reading

Fair-weather Friendships

DCW asks: My friend, Patrick said “I wanted to be your friend because I wanted to be in your play,” then he wasn’t my friend anymore after the play. That’s when he said it. What should I do? I really want to be his friend.

Wow DCW, that’s really tough! It sounds to me like Patrick doesn’t really understand what friends are for, or what friendship is about. I imagine he’ll learn more as he gets older.

But for now, I don’t know Patrick. And you are my Continue reading

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