0 Our responsibility for our own health

ankita asks: Are we ourselves responsible for our certain type of ill health?

Hi ankita –

Well of course I’m not a doctor, I’m a dog!  But I see enough to know that the answer to your question is… Sometimes.

Clearly, if I eat some rotten moldy maggot-infested 6-day-old meat, and I get sick, I’m pretty responsible for it.  And clearly, if I’m just saying hello to another dog and she gives me Parvo or Kennel Cough, I wasn’t responsible for that at all.

The part of the question that gets difficult is when two dogs, or two people, do the same thing, and only one gets sick.  Maybe another dog could eat that meat and not get sick; maybe another one could play with that sick dog and not get sick.  And the medicine that saves your life might be poison to me.  It’s really hard to make specific rules.

But here’s the one thing I can say for sure.  There are certain things that have absolutely no positive Continue reading

1 How to recover from lost love.

ammo asks: I lost my love and I really miss him. I can’t live without him. What should I do? I can’t do anything without him coming in front of me all the time. Help me out please.

Oh ammo, I’m so so sorry.  And I’d love to help you out…  But the truth is I can’t.

I’d love to tell you that there will be another…  And there will be, but I know you won’t believe that now.

I’d love to tell you that you’ll be better off, that the love you want is one that will last…  And that’s true, but I know you won’t Continue reading

0 What to present in three minutes

tueman84 asks: if u have 3 minutes to present something, which subject will u choose?

Hi tueman84 –

Hmmm…  Well there are things I love to present to Handsome. Dirt,

sticks, old Continue reading

0 Good topics for practicing conversation

Aree303 asks: Please give me some daily English conversation to use with my 10-year-old son. I like to practice with him. He is in bilingual school but rarely speaks English.

Hi Aree303 –

Congratulations to you for caring so much about your son’s education, and working to help him navigate a multi-lingual world.  I’m happy to help.

In fact, I think I can help a lot.  Because what you really need is help finding things that interest your son, that can both help him learn English and give you good topics to talk about.

May I recommend…   Continue reading

1 Why we sometimes feel alone.

nanny asks: Why am I always alone?

Oh nanny, I know that feeling!  It’s so painful!

But then there those days when I wake up and feel like I’ve got so many people and dogs around me I can’t find space to think!  So if that’s true, I can’t really be alone, can I?!

The truth is that we often feel way more alone than we really are.  We might spend a day by ourselves, but that doesn’t really mean we’re alone.  We’re still in the minds and hearts of our families and friends, and we have so much effect (good and not) on others all the time.  But when we feel alone, that’s about our Continue reading

0 How to find out if someone likes you too.

Hannah asks: I really like this boy, and I don’t know how to tell him I like him. We just met and he’s really cute. I just really don’t know if he feels the same about me, and I don’t know how to get him too! Please help!!

Hi Hannah –

Well, first, I’d direct your attention to Sweetparker’s question, about her confusion over two guys (it’s listed in Previous Questions, under Growing Up, Life Skills, Relationships, and School). I talk with her about ways to try to find out what a boy thinks of you.

But I want to throw a couple of other thoughts at you as well. First, know that there’s nothing wrong with being nervous and shy. Most boys think it’s really cute! The only problem is if you’re so shy you can’t even approach the boy. For example, Handsome had his first crush on a girl when he was ten years old. He never had the guts to even meet her. The only words he ever said to her were when he accidentally stepped on her Continue reading

0 How to deal with a kid picking fights with you.

Chupa Chup asks: There’s a boy that goes to my school and he comes to school care and sometimes we fight and hurt each other and hit and kick and pinch and punch. I don’t know what I can do to make him stop hurting me all of the time.

Hi Chupa Chup –

Well, there’s an easy answer to your question, that I’ll bet you’ve heard adults say before:  Stop fighting with him.

Now I’ll bet that just made you roll your eyes, because of course you can’t stop fighting with him, because he’s going to come at you and hit and kick and pinch and punch.  Right?  But maybe you can actually stop the fight instead.

You see, I’ve been in lots of fights.  And I’ve won fights and lost fights.  I’m a good fighter.  But I don’t like fighting.

Actually, let me restate that.  I love fighting, but not when it’s Continue reading

0 How to write a speech

Danish asks: Write a speech on the topic: ‘Preservation of ozone layer is the most pressing need of the time.’

Hi Danish –

A speech?  Me?  Umm… my speeches tend to sound something like “Woof, arrrrgggh, ROWH, umf.”  Dogs certainly express themselves vocally, but I wouldn’t recommend you ask us for advice on public speaking!

But I do know a bit about arguing, and it sounds like this is supposed to be a speech that argues a point.  So in order to do that well, what you need to do is, first, to show that you have a good amount of knowledge about the issue.  What is the ozone layer, what’s happening to it, what are the different theories about why that’s happening, and what’s the effect of its depletion on our world…  all these.  Then, you need to argue the issue of the word “Most.”  Is preserving the ozone layer more important than dealing with, oh, say, population, the world economy, disease, nuclear weapons, or the fact that I can’t find enough rabbits to chase?  You need to find a way to argue your point, whatever it is.

But definitely, you need to write that speech yourself.  Don’t even trust another person to do it, because after a speech people usually ask questions, and you don’t want to come off as not knowing what you talked about!

And definitely, NEVER trust a dog to teach you how to speak.  People train dogs to speak, not the other way around!

Good Luck,

Shirelle

0 How to start a teen magazine.

Ryta asks: Hello Shirelle. I hope you’re doing great. If you wanted to start a teen’s magazine, how would you go about it?

Thanks for your question Ryta, and yes I am absolutely doing great!  Especially because… Wow, what a cool question!

I have to confess, I have absolutely no idea how to get a magazine started, whether for teens or anyone else.

But I do hear a lot that the publishing business is really difficult today.  So I’m not sure I’d recommend that you make the huge investment a new magazine would require, without being able to know that you have an audience first.

And to do that, I’d suggest that you try something else – something I know as much about as any dog who ever lived!  I think you should start a

website!

You see, starting a website is really inexpensive.  Handsome only pays a fee of a few dollars a month for me to have AskShirelle.com all to myself.  That frees me to put all my energies into making the site as great as it can be.  Now part of that is that I have a fantastic website designer, Sherice.  She knows all the stuff that Handsome and I don’t, about how to create graphics and set up the system so that the site works right.  But you could save even more money if you got one of those website templates that are always advertised, and then you could just load it up with all the fun teen stuff you wanted to write, and pictures you download or upload, or even create yourself.

And then, if you’ve created something really unique, and other people get into it and like it…  maybe you’ll be set up to make a deal and get a real paper magazine made!

Hmmm…  this is getting me to thinking…  hey do you think if I put pictures of Justin Bieber on each issue of “The Pawprint,” I could get it published too?!

Thanks for the cool question!

Shirelle

0 How to make your parents trust you.

Bumpy asks: How can I make my parents trust me?

Boy, Bumpy, do I hear this one all the time from kids, teens, even some adults!  Why can’t our parents trust us?  We can be super-responsible in the eyes of the world, but these people, who know us the best and love us the most, have absolutely the worst opinion of our integrity and abilities!

Well, it’s one simple problem you’re facing:  Diapers!

Yes, you read it right, I said Diapers!  You see, when you were born, you were completely helpless – you couldn’t even lift your head up.  And you’re here today and able to complain to me because your parents did absolutely everything for you back then.  They knew you were helpless, and were there always.

Then you got a little older, and you started crawling around, walking, talking… you were feeling pretty powerful.  But no matter how smart or tough you were, they knew that you were still helpless and had no idea how to handle life, because of the big bulge around your Continue reading