by Kate LaSala | Aug 31, 2026 | Dog Training, Dog Training Regulation, Dogs and Babies and Kids, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs, Separation Anxiety
One of the hardest moments in caring for an animal is realizing that the medical treatment they need costs more than you have. It happens every day, in emergency rooms at 2am, in exam rooms after a scary diagnosis, and in the quiet panic of trying to figure out how to...
by Kate LaSala | Mar 23, 2026 | Dog Training, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs, Resource Guarding
A little over a year ago, we adopted a new dog, Gertie. Full name: Gertrude Wigglebottom, because if you’ve seen some of my videos of her…well, it’s obvious. If you’ve been here a while, you might remember that just four days after making her...
by Kate LaSala | Sep 8, 2025 | Pet Loss & Grieving
The loss of a beloved pet can be devastating. Our companion animals often play a constant role in our lives, offering comfort, companionship, emotional support and unconditional love. When they’re gone, the change in your daily routine, the lack of caretaking...
by Kate LaSala | Aug 11, 2025 | Pet Loss & Grieving
When someone you know is grieving the loss of a beloved pet, it can be hard to know what to say, even if you’ve lost a pet before. You may feel nervous about saying the wrong thing, or unsure how to offer comfort to them…and maybe you just think staying...
by Kate LaSala | Jun 16, 2025 | Pet Loss & Grieving
Saying goodbye to a beloved pet is one of the hardest decisions you’ll ever face. It’s emotional, painful, and deeply personal. That’s why I created “When Is It Time To Say Goodbye?”, a free downloadable guide designed to help you navigate this heartbreaking time with...
by Kate LaSala | May 19, 2025 | Pet Loss & Grieving
My doula work has become a bigger and part of my clients in the last year or so. And one of the topics that comes up if a person has an animal that is ailing but not quite terminal yet, is whether to do a bucket list. If you’re not familiar with the idea of an...
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 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 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...
