#73: The Things Dogs Never Forget
From bedtime treat rituals to hospice fosters and longevity drugs, this week’s stories explore memory, devotion, and the small acts of care that shape life with dogs.
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🧠 Training Tip of the Week: A Realistic ‘Reactive Dog Routine’
In this video from @taylorcezanne, she shares a very comprehensive daily plan for a reactive dog, and there are a lot of comments talking about how difficult this would be to execute if you worked out of the home. So let’s chat about it! Ultimately, there is no one-size-fits all daily plan for every dog – reactive or not – but here are some aspects of this plan that I think could be very supportive for many:
The plan builds in time to practice management outside of the context in which it would be needed. This is wildly helpful for almost any dog!
I like that the dog has needs met in ways other than just walks. For a lot of reactive dogs, walks can be really challenging. There are so many other ways to also meet needs – especially if you cannot drive to locations where walks would be relaxing for your dog.
I like that there are intentional transition moments to help dogs relax.
I love the emphasis on sleep. Dogs need to rest in order to cope with the world.
Predictability can help dogs.
That being said, this schedule would not be feasible at all for me right now, and based on the comments, I know I am not alone. That doesn’t mean you’re doomed. If a super rigid schedule helps your dog (take data!!!), then go for it. But you can also support reactive dogs in a lot of other ways (collective exhale).
Watch to see what your dog enjoys and add more of that to their days.
It’s okay to focus on adding enrichment to their days without having to spend so much time actively training with them every day. Five minutes goes a long way. Heck, one minute can go a long way!
You can create predictability with the cues in their environment while still having some flexibility in your days. With a child, there is no world in which I could have a rigid schedule, but I still focus on clear cues for my dogs so they understand when things are and are not available. Flexibility and predictability do not have to be mutually exclusive.
You can help your dog relax by starting where they already relax. Attach those feelings and behaviors to cue(s) you can transfer.
Rehearse relatively simple “wind down” routines to help transition moments.
Where do yall land on this?
📺 TOC’s Take: Viral Video of the Week
Did you see the video of the Golden Retriever who waits by the bedside table every night because a treat was left there once before bed?
A big part of me was trying to manifest a treat for that sweet dog, but I also think this is a great example of behavior. Behaviors can get attached to the broader context. The dog initially sat by that nightstand because there was a treat there. But now the nightstand (sans treat) is evoking the same behavior the treat did.
How often does this dog do this? Is it only at a certain time of day? Are there some other reinforcers for this behavior (attention?)? Absent any reinforcers for long enough, the behavior would eventually return to baseline (assume that would be basically non-existent) through a process called extinction. But if a treat randomly shows up there after a week of this, there’s a good chance the behavior becomes more persistent (aka it continues to show up even under extinction – no reinforcement – conditions).
The comments somehow made the post even better.
One person wrote:
“My dog found half of a burrito in a hedge while we were on our nightly walk and now we must always inspect the magical burrito hedge.”
Honestly? Relatable.
We want to hear yours: what random place, person, or object does your dog remain emotionally attached to forever?
🐶 Community Corner: On Showing Up Fully for What Can’t Last
This week we read Suleika Jaouad’s beautiful essay about her senior Chihuahua, Nonna Ramona — a foster dog who began having seizures almost immediately after arriving in her home.
Jaouad writes:
“Some things you have no choice but to endure. Caring for Nonna Ramona was different—it was a choice. A way to make a small creature’s life a little easier.”
The essay explores caregiving, illness, anticipatory grief, and the quiet courage of loving something fragile anyway. Throughout the piece, Jaouad wrestles with a question many dog guardians know intimately: Is loving deeply worth the heartbreak that eventually comes with it?
Her answer feels both devastating and hopeful:
“What I practice now is this: accepting that life is difficult, and moving toward the things I love anyway. I don’t want to be someone who turns away.”
Life with dogs is messy. Loving them means signing up for joy, inconvenience, grief, laughter, routines, chaos, and connection all at once. And yet most of us would choose it again without hesitation.
This piece stayed with us long after we finished reading it.
🎨 DIY This for Your Dog: Veggies on a String
This week Rachel Fusaro shared a fun enrichment setup involving veggies and treats tied to a string and suspended between pieces of furniture for dogs to investigate, sniff, and forage from.
Recently, Christie decided to try something similar at home — except with treats hidden in Solo cups hanging from a string.
Let’s just say her dogs were... significantly less inspired than Rachel’s. 😂
And honestly, that’s part of what makes enrichment so interesting: you have to find what your dog loves.
If you try this with your dog, tag us — we’d genuinely love to see how it goes.
🌍 One More Thing: What If Your Dog Could Live Longer?
This week, we couldn’t stop thinking about The Atlantic’s interview with Celine Halioua, founder of Loyal, the biotech company developing a drug designed to extend dogs’ lifespans.
The premise is both fascinating and emotionally complicated.
The drug aims to improve insulin sensitivity and metabolic health in dogs, with the hope that slowing age-related decline in dogs could eventually help researchers better understand aging in humans too.
As Ross Andersen writes:
“For thousands of years, dogs have gone out ahead of humans as wilderness scouts… Now they’re entering another new frontier.”
The entire conversation raises difficult questions:
Would you give your dog a drug designed to help them live longer?
Does extending lifespan necessarily improve quality of life?
And how do we feel about dogs helping pave the way for future human longevity treatments?
It’s one of those stories that feels more like sci-fi and sadly life seems to be trending that direction these days.
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— TOC