Blogger Dog, Brito!

My passion is my dogs and part of that passion and the way I connect with my furry family members is through training.  Training a dog shouldn't be looked at as a chore.  Training can be fun and if done properly becomes one big game for the dog.  It's a lot like the way we like to run our education programs here at HAWS; the kids do some fun activities and learn something along the way!

Because of how I want to train my dogs I've become a big fan of dog trainer Denise Fenzi whose training philosophy matches my own, and who has an amazing way of building relationships with dogs.  I've learned a tremendous amount since I've started reading her blog and books.

Recently Denise published a book for children called "Blogger Dog, Brito!".  The book is written from her dog Brito's point of view in a blog format and he writes about being adopted from a rescue, his introduction to his new family, learning new things, and playing fun games.  We get to see how dogs express themselves through body language, and how they can thrive when someone understands them and allows them to have choices.  It's the perfect book for HAWS humane education program. 

Since our camp started this week, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to introduce the book to our campers.  We read the children a few of the chapters, talked about Brito and how he felt during the situations he described, and then we had the kids do an activity.  The kids could choose to either write a blog from the viewpoint of one of the adoptable animals at HAWS, or they could comment on Brito's blog post from the viewpoint of another animal and draw a picture.  Here are some of the results.