The Nicholberry Dispatch
Some terrible first covers, some terrible trainers, and some wonderful news about kindness
BOOK NEWS
When I first started this Substack, I promised to share some BTS content about how Puppy Brain came to be. Well. This is a screenshot from my camera roll, back when we were playing around with colors and trying to imagine how subtle neurons could be incorporated into the design. From the beginning, I envisioned a white cover. But creating a cover is a serious process and you cannot imagine how many iterations the cover went through before we finalized it (and I’ll never forget being at the Kauai Writers Conference when it came in and immediately sharing it with Adrienne Brodeur and Patti Callahan Henry, my extraordinary faculty for the week). Curious - do any of you like any of these colors better, or did we make the right choice going with white?
Next Puppy Brain Book Club: Wednesday October 2nd 12pm PST
The Puppy Brain Book Club is a ridiculous amount of fun and I simply cannot wait for this week’s gathering! Last week I got to share Mr. Orange with everyone, but this week I imagine we will get to show you all of the puppies. We’ll see. Either way, we’ll have a great time chatting about everything up and through the first three weeks of life, including the answer to this week’s burning reader question: Where is the poo?
If you haven’t yet added your name to my mailing list, please do so here. I will send the registration link on Monday. I am not posting the recordings, so hopefully you can make it!
And whether you can make it or not, please ask whatever questions you have from Chapters 0 to 7 here and I will put some of my answers in future newsletters.
SOMETHING TO LISTEN TO
Survival of the Fittest … or the Kindest?
One of the things we humans do is hear a phrase and then build an erroneous narrative around it. It’s reasonable to assume that if “survival of the fittest” is a correct theory, then being competitive is the key to happiness and success. Right? Spoiler alert: it’s not. Dr. Laurie Santos and Dr. Jamil Saki find that there are plenty of examples in the animal kingdom and human world where cooperation, kindness, and compassion prove to be the winning strategy.
SOMETHING TO LEARN
Yesterday I posted a request for a Charlotte, NC trainer referral on Instagram. So many kind people sent ringing endorsements to their favorite trainers, but when I clicked through to assess their programs, I discovered that nearly all of them used e-collars, pinch collars, and choke chains. One had a horrifying justification for the intentional use of flooding and all I could picture was a terrified dog, emotionally shuttered due to every door of his brain being closed. This link goes to Clickstart Dog Academy and as far as I’m concerned, they set the gold standard for a training facility. I constantly joke with them about opening a franchise in every city, as we really need one. They provide a safe, nurturing, fun environment in which puppies can bond with their humans and remain emotionally engaged. If you know of a training facility like this near you, please comment, and I will begin compile a resource for everyone seeking a kind, humane approach to raising their pup.
SOMETHING TO CONSIDER
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
SOMETHING TO LOVE
So sad that some people still want to use aversion training for dogs and puppies. That type of training has no place with an animal who is loved.
The cover you-all chose is the best!