The Dog Behavior Institute Blog
Interview with Lynn Ungar on Dogs, Writing, and Ministry
Ran here! I first heard of Lynn Ungar when her poem, Pandemic, went viral in 2020. Shortly after that, her name popped up in a Clicker Expo chat. I was like, “Is that the person who wrote the poem?” and I looked her up - just to discover that, on top of being a dog person who wrote beautiful poetry, Lynn is also a Unitarian Universalist minister (I am a lifelong UU!). Given how many overlapping interests we have, I reached out to see if she would be interested in speaking with me about dogs, writing, and ministry - and thank goodness she was! Keep reading below to learn more about Lynn, dancing dogs, the intersection of ministry and behavior change, and more.
Interview with Kim Palermo on Dog Sports & Control Unleashed
This month I am so happy to introduce you to Kimberly Palermo, of Blue Dog, a dog walking and training company based here in Massachusetts. I (Stephanie) first learned about Kim’s work when attending Conference Unleashed, a conference about all things Control Unleashed (CU). Kim gave an incredible presentation about using CU exercises in dog training group classes. Imagine my delight when I learned that Blue Dog wasn’t too far from where I live. I started taking Kerby to classes at Blue Dog and was delighted with all the approach and all the instructors we worked with there. Later on, Kim and I discovered we both were interested in teaching our dogs to herd and soon we and our dogs became good friends!
Kerby the Herding Dog?
As a researcher, the task in front of me was clear if not easy: Learn everything I can about herding, find mentors and colleagues, and then do my best to teach and learn with Kerby.