What's Next?

You might remember a few months ago when there was a hilarious snafu with the US Postal Service that accidentally sent the woman I look up to the most in this industry a box of dental supplies with my name attached instead of a copy of the book I wrote. 

It could have been SOOOOO much worse than dental supplies....

Well, snafu aside, this entire experience led to a rather wonderful email back and forth between me and Dr. Patricia McConnell where we discussed in great detail some of the specific things that make living in a city different for dog owners compared to rural settings. It was really a wonderful conversation and without the Internet, might never have happened.

Thanks, Al Gore! 

She ended up writing a fantastic piece on her vantage point as an animal behaviorist from Wisconsin visiting New York City, and included some of the snippets of our back-and-forth.

(I might have swooned, but I did keep it totally cool. I think.) 

Me. Trying to "keep cool."

What came out of it was a question she asked in our conversation. A simple question, one that seemed so freakin' obvious, but after being in the city for so long it just never occurred to me to look at things from this particular angle. Her question was this: 

"Do you have a section in it that includes a hierarchy of skills for city dogs? I looked, couldn’t find it anywhere. What you said below is SO valuable! Did I miss it in the book somewhere? The only (minor) critique I’d make of the book is that I can’t find that much info that really is about ‘city dogs’ versus suburban ones. Again, it’s GREAT info, but I couldn’t find city-specific info as much as I wanted it. (ie, broken glass every where.. I NEVER would have thought of that…) Just asking, and possibly a thought for its eventual reprinting?"

Duh! Commands! City Dog Commands.

So my friends at 2 Dogs Treats gave me the latitude to address exactly that question. "What IS the hierarchy of urban dog commands?"

In the coming weeks, I'll be cross posting from the 2 Dogs Treats Blog the urban dog commands hierarchy, and ways to teach these skills. They are longer posts, often with videos and humor. I hope they can help you out. 

And yes, I'll do an eventual 2nd edition of "Considerations for the City Dog" because...my hero suggested it :)

(No longer keeping it cool. That's the last time I'll mention it, I swear. SQUEEE!)

THANK YOU!  Seriously - all of you who read, recommended, reviewed or even helped create Considerations for the City Dog,thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thanks to you, we got up to 25 reviews on Amazon, which means that Amazon *should* start recommending Considerations for other readers who are searching books in the same category!

That doesn't mean you shouldn't review if you haven't. Amazon has tiers of how they promote books to other readers, so the more reviews the better.  If you're so inclined it only takes a moment to review on Amazon and Goodreads and it helps more than any single thing (aside from picketing outside of publishing houses changing "City Dogs Rule!")

While you're at it, review a few of your favorite books, especially if they are written by indie or "self" published authors as they don't have the long arm of a PR firm or publishing house to help get the word out. I put "self" in quotes because I think it's the biggest misnomer in the book industry. It took a team of 15 to get Considerations for the City Dog up to snuff, and bless their hearts, they all volunteered because they believed in me or the concept of the book. If there is a book you love and believe in and you know it's by an indie or "self-published" author, consider giving a quick review so they can perhaps reach that magic number. For all of you who reviewed or recommend in any way:

Thank you :) 

-M3