Welcome to Bay Woof, April 2021

Hello Dog Lovers!

So many dogs are naturally athletic, even if their best sport is surfing the countertop the minute your back is turned. But, in fact, sports don’t always require athleticism or even a competition. For both humans and animals, there’s a wide range of ways to get your game on.

Some dogs are quite content with a nice cushion and reachable platter of bone-bons (they might lunge, but they’ll never luge). Other pups live life in a virtual tracksuit, jogging in place, waiting for a starter pistol - or the closest open door - to be off and running. 

But whether you’re a gung ho athlete or a couch-based cheerleader, you’ll find something to love in this month’s Dog Sports issue.  

Sandy Rogers with Ace Dog Sports lets you in on how to use sports as a training device to enhance your bond with your furry friend. Kelly Gorman Dunbar with Sirius Dog Training writes about the fancy-sounding French Ring Sport (curious? read it). K9 Nose Work® expert, Linda Fletcher of Palo Alto Dog Training, shares the joys of sniffing out her chosen dog sport. And Ren Volpe (GoDogPro) offers useful tips for running with Fido, including gear options, general fitness, hydration, and aftercare - great info for starting any dog sport. 

The April issue also includes our regular Nose for News column, featuring the best dog-headlines as gathered by BW editor S. Emerson Moffat (seriously, where else can you laugh over the news)? The Monthly Woof column, penned this month by pro-trainer Angela Gardner, reveals how her pal Rookie (BW cover dog Sept. 2020) became her paddle board companion on the San Francisco Bay.

And this month’s Good Dog! column, by local dog-pro Cydni True of True Training 101, stresses the need to see our dogs as dogs, arguing that excessive anthropomorphism can actually harm our pets. 

Our Shelter Zone column comes all the way from Mexico this month, as Lynn Bailey, director of A Dog’s New Life, shares the challenges of managing a south-of-the-border shelter during the pandemic. April’s Commission Tails, contributed by city animal commissioner Annemarie Fortier, discusses the importance of leaving one’s animal prejudices at the meeting room door. And Mr. Smarty Pants points to a study finding that women are generally kinder than men to dogs…to which we say, did they really need a study for that?

Finally, we pulled this month’s Ask Dr. Dog column from the archives because it so perfectly fits our sporty theme, with beloved Dr. Arnold Gutlaizer writing about injuries our furry athletes may acquire and how best to ease their aches and pains.

Whether we’re admiring the grace and athleticism of a dog flying through the air to snatch a frisbee or chuckling at the canny mental chess of a pup maneuvering to snag a sandwich, there’s a little bit of a sports fan in all of us. However you get your game on, Bay Woof salutes you!

– M Rocket
Publisher

About the cover: © Bay Woof 2021

Columns from the April Pack