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 | Dogs and Babies and Kids, 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 | Nov 4, 2024 | Dog Training, Dogs and Babies and Kids, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs
Navigating the loss of a beloved animal is never easy but it can be even harder when there are children in the family. Often the death of a pet is the first loss a child will experience and as an end-of-life death doula for animals, my strong belief is that the...
by Kate LaSala | Sep 16, 2024 | Dog Training, Dog Training Regulation, Dogs and Babies and Kids, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs, Separation Anxiety
While this may not be a happy, joyful post, it’s a necessary one. Please, bookmark this post for when you need it. I hope you don’t need it any time soon, but when you do, come back here. And, be sure to share this post with friends who need it now. I am a...
by Kate LaSala | May 6, 2024 | Dog Training, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs, Resource Guarding
It’s been almost a month since we said goodbye to our precious BooBoo. I’m still navigating grief and her loss daily. But I wanted to make this post as my first one back to help others. As an end of life pet doula, and general advocate for planning, both...
by Kate LaSala | Sep 18, 2023 | Dog Training, Dogs and Babies and Kids, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs, Resource Guarding, Separation Anxiety
There’s often posts and memes that circulate on social media that get under my skin. Videos that people think are cute or funny when I see a stressed dog. Videos of dogs and kids that anyone educated in dog body language would see as incredibly unsafe and...
by Kate LaSala | Aug 14, 2023 | Dog Training, Dogs and Babies and Kids, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs, Resource Guarding, Separation Anxiety
Companion animals are family for me, as they likely are to you. And thinking about or dealing with their loss is often a topic that just isn’t talked about. And as a society, we tend not honor pet loss with the same gravity as losing a human. Or we do for a very...
by Kate LaSala | Jul 31, 2023 | Dog Training, Dogs and Babies and Kids, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs, Resource Guarding, Separation Anxiety
As someone who specializes in fear and aggression cases, a few times a year, I have clients who are facing the consider of rehoming, surrendering or behavioral euthanasia. I am also a certified companion animal end-of-life death doula, so I am uniquely qualified to...
by Kate LaSala | Mar 28, 2022 | Dog Training, Dog Training Regulation, Dogs and Babies and Kids, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs, Separation Anxiety
Updated 8/2023: I am now a certified end-of-life companion animal doula. You can read more about my service offerings here. Resources last updated 1/2/25. (Barbo and BooBoo have both passed but I’m keeping this text preserved.) I’ve written before about...