A New Book Begins

There’s nothing quite like making the decision to get working on another book and putting that decision down on paper. All my books begin life in notebooks, sometimes they languish for a long time as scribbled ideas. That’s been the case with the book which I am about to seriously begin work on this month. It’s been lurking in the far regions of my mind since I adopted Susie-Belle. She was my first rescue dog and she taught me so much, some of which I had to learn fast, other lessons came later, much later as I fully appreciated what a privilege it is to adopt a dog.

I have gained much of the knowledge of how to help first Susie-Belle, then Twinkle and now Cerise, from speaking with a lot of experienced adopters; from seeking help from professional sources; from reading volumes, including everything I can find on the psychology of animals. The help from those who freely imparted their experience and offered good suggestions in my early days with Susie-Belle helped me to gain the confidence I knew that she needed from me.

Each dog is unique and coming from backgrounds like my dogs have, they are often uniquely complicated. Their needs can be complex, but there are common behaviours and traits which reflect what has happened to them in the breeding industry. Understanding this, and recognising common signals and having a full set of tools to help them with, is invaluable.

This is where my writing focus now is. The next few months will see me spending a lot of time working with my creative partner, Annabel Wilson, pulling together into publication, experiences, ideas, and suggestions which we hope will help adopters and the dogs who rely on humans to help them. It’s a big project, something that several people have urged me to write and now it’s happening. And like all my writing, it will aim to make the world for dogs better. It will be the second Schnauzerfest Book, with all proceeds being donated to my charity, Schnauzerfest, which helps to fund veterinary care for dogs rescued from puppy farms and the breeding industry.

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