Word: doggedly
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...Montana is not the first state to consider dietary laws that discriminate on the basis of cross-species friendship. The sale of dog meat is already illegal in seven states and environmentalists in Hawaii are working hard to add another to the list. Legally, dogs are honored with the category of “companion animal,” presumably because they are considered cute, fluffy, and generally useful—if you happen to have lost a Frisbee...
...dog, of course, has a special place in the West, and particularly in the U.S. Dogs are the country’s most popular pet, and are well serviced by a growing industry: Good Americans can find thousands of Internet sites designed to help them feed, bathe, and clothe his mutt—and, for the really committed, dog psychologists and professional dog photographers. One Baltimore news site run by CBS even hosts a “Dog Daily” blog complete with “tips for empowering your relationship [with your dog]” (http://wjz.com...
That kind of control is in demand because dogs have become increasingly pampered and correspondingly unruly. According to the Centers for Disease Control, an estimated 4.7 million people are bitten by dogs each year, and about half of them are children. The problem, says Kilcommons, is that dog owners have become so emotionally invested in their pets that they often overlook bad behavior. "People in really stressful jobs don't want to set boundaries with their dogs. So the dogs are out of control and at times dangerous," he says. By rewarding the animal's good behavior and teaching...
...Jackson, kept sitting on the furniture and barreling out the front door. He says the sessions were like psychotherapy for the whole family. Instead of working with Jackson right away or asking Divenuto what he saw as the problems, Kilcommons first watched the family's regular interactions with the dog, then suggested corrective measures based on the bad habits he had observed...
During the process, Divenuto says he learned that "my biggest mistake was allowing the dog to dominate in the house." Now Jackson stays off the couch (because he gets attention only when he's on the floor) and calmly waits for the command to go outside before running out the door (thanks to some basic training with the command sit). And although Divenuto's son Marc, 5, is just a few inches taller than the family dog, Jackson even follows the youngster's commands to sit and stay. "There's no democracy in dogdom," says Kilcommons, who preaches that people...