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...
by Kate LaSala | Jan 6, 2025 | Dog Training, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Rescue Dogs, Separation Anxiety
Happy New Year! With the start of the new year, I thought it would be a good reminder to help get you started off with some things to implement for 2025 to set your dog (and you!) up for success. Stop using punishment based methods and aversive tools like...
by Kate LaSala | Dec 23, 2024 | Dog Training, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs, Resource Guarding, Separation Anxiety
I can hardly believe it but last month marked 5 years that I’ve been writing weekly blog content (except for the time I took off during the decline and death of BooBoo). Each year my alma mater, The Academy for Dog Trainers holds their annual Academy...
by Kate LaSala | Dec 9, 2024 | Dog Training, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs
Eight months ago we lost sweet BooBoo. I continue to share my grief journey so others know they’re not alone and that their grief is completely normal. With the holidays upon us, I’ve got a feeling of dread. Our Christmases for the last 15 years...
by Kate LaSala | Dec 3, 2024 | Dog Training, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs
I was recently on the RISK! podcast talking about what else? Dogs! If you’re not familiar with Risk!, it’s a storytelling podcast (similar to The Moth, but not always PG!) and my husband is one of the audio editors and engineers. RISK! is weekly...
by Kate LaSala | Nov 27, 2024 | Dog Training, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs
I was recently honored to be on the podcast, Good Grief with Nikki The Death Doula, talking about what a companion animal death doula does, how I help clients suffering from stigmatized losses like behavioral euthanasia, and how to best prepare for the death of...
