I took our four dogs out for a walk in the pasture this morning and when we got back, Maria said an interesting thing to me. She said, “I know you are uncomfortable sometimes being seen only as a dog person, but you are very good with them. You had these four dogs walking off leash, following you, you knew you could handle them and they all did what you said. You trained each one of them.”

It was an interesting comment, I thought about it. I am uneasy sometimes when people make assumptions that I only care about dogs, only write about dogs and that I am a trainer or amateur vet. I consider myself a writer, not just a dog writer and I don’t like being pigeon-holed the way many people do. For as long as I can remember, people have come up to me and say, “hey, you’re the dog guy, aren’t you?” And I smile and nod, but that isn’t the way I see myself and I wonder why people tuck others into narrow labels – left and right comes to mind also.

Still, it is true. Here I have four very disparate and boisterous dogs – a border collie from Ireland, a Rottweiler/Shepherd mix who was abandoned in the Adirondacks, and two big Labs who will eat anything anywhere. I can walk them all off-leash, I trust them around donkeys and sheep, they never go near the road, they eat peacefully and politely with one another, they all find their quiet corners of our small house and let us do our work, they get along easily and peacefully with one another.

When Pearl arrived last night, I never doubted for a second that we would make it work and be safe and comfortable for everyone.

Frieda can be protective, but the dogs make little noise, and all of them understand and respect the nature of our work, our need for some peace and quiet. Pearl slipped right back into my life, and my life with Maria.

My ideas about communication, trust and calming training have all paid off for me – this is why I wrote “Listening To Dogs”– my latest e-book. I take it for granted, but when I took these for dogs out into the pasture, sheep grazing 100 yards away, I did see it, I am good at this, this is my calling too, it is something to talk about more, to be more open about. It is not the whole picture for me, not the whole story, but it is a big one and a big part of my life.