by Kate LaSala | Mar 3, 2025 | Dog Training, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs, Resource Guarding, Separation Anxiety
Behavioral euthanasia is touchy topic and one that tends to bring out keyboard warriors. Euthanasia for any reason is a difficult decision but behavioral euthanasia is often not given the same understanding as a euthanasia for physical reasons like cancer or...
by Kate LaSala | Feb 24, 2025 | Dog Training, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs, Resource Guarding
We recently adopted a new dog, Gertie, aka Gertrude Wigglebottom, a little over ten months after we said goodbye to our precious BooBoo. Surprisingly, adopting a new dog dredged up lots of grief feelings about Boo, which I’ll talk about another time. I wanted to...
by Kate LaSala | Feb 21, 2025 | Dog Training, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs
I was recently honored to be a guest on the The Pet Loss Companion podcast, talking about behavioral euthanasia and my death doula work. While behavioral euthanasia is touchy topic and one that tends to bring out the keyboard warriors, it’s an important...
by Kate LaSala | Feb 10, 2025 | Dog Training, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs
Ten months ago I said goodbye to my sweet BooBoo. It boggles my mind how it’s been that long when some days it feels like it’s just a few weeks ago. Thank you to those who keep reading. My hope is that I continue to share my grief journey so others...
by Kate LaSala | Feb 5, 2025 | Dog Training, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs
I was recently honored to be a guest on Behavior Buzzzzzz with 2 Amys podcast, hosted by Dr. Pike and Dr. Learn, both board-certified veterinary behaviorists chatting about a variety of topics but most notably about my work as a companion animal death doula and...
by Kate LaSala | Feb 3, 2025 | Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs
Doulas can provide a broad scope of services but my focus for death doula work is companioning through anticipatory grief (that period before your beloved animal dies but when you know it’s coming), proactive planning and helping clients navigate stigmatized...
by Kate LaSala | Jan 27, 2025 | Dog Training, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Rescue Dogs
There’s a lot of euphemisms in dog training, mostly trying to smooth over things that don’t sit well with us. Words matter and how you talk about your dog matters and influences how you feel about your dog. Owners tend to sugarcoat things or...
by Kate LaSala | Jan 21, 2025 | Dog Training, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs
I was recently honored to be a guest on the The Resilient Animal podcast and had a lovely discussion about my companion animal death doula work and other dog topics. This was a more personal conversation than some of my other podcast appearances, talking about...
by Kate LaSala | Jan 20, 2025 | Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs, Separation Anxiety
What is a death doula, or an end-of-life doula for pets? What do you do? These are common questions I get. Let’s start at the beginning. Most people don’t know what doulas are, or if they do, it’s in relation to birth doulas. The Greek word doula...
by Kate LaSala | Jan 13, 2025 | Dog Training, Dog Training Regulation, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Puppy Training, Rescue Dogs, Resource Guarding
Here’s the situation: Your dog barks, growls or jumps on someone (or the counter in the kitchen). You respond with a sudden, unpleasant noise like “eh-eh!” Innocent right? Nope! Unfortunately, when people are frustrated or don’t know how...
