I’ve long felt that one of the most important – and difficult – things to teach a dog is how to do nothing, how to relax. We make our dogs crazy by over-stimulating, over-exercising, over-loving,  over-playing and arousing them. Dogs know how to do almost anything but nothing, and nothing is a critical thing for them to learn, it is the gateway to obedience, health and living mindfully and peacefully with us. I see Lab after Lab turned into ball-chasing addicts and one border collie after another so cranked they can barely think straight.

In my e-book “Listening To Dogs,” I devote a whole chapter to this idea and it is especially important with a dog like Red, obsessed with work, possessing tremendous energy, with sheep out the back door, therapy work regularly and all kinds of people hugging him, pushing treats at him, loving him.

Red knows how to herd sheep, he does not know how to relax, so I am teaching him something all border collies and most dogs really need to learn: how to be calm, be still, do nothing. This is not something obedience classes teach or that dogs learn in the play group or chasing frisbees. It is a long and painstaking process, in Red’s case, daily sessions of calming training, calm, quiet obedience drills, weekly acupuncture treatments and introducing him to activities where he can be still. Yesterday, I took a two-hour photo lesson with George Forss, the brilliant urban landscape photographer, and I brought Red out. He sat by the gate to the pasture in case we had sheep work to do, but then began to relax. I praised him when he was still and eventually he went to sleep and lay still for nearly an hour.

This would not have been possible for him even a few months ago.We are getting there, he is internalizing the idea of being  quiet and still. This is very good and healthy for him. I think we are loving our dogs so much we are making a lot of them crazy, which is why hundreds of thousands of dogs are now on Prozac for various anxiety disorders. I owe it to a dog like Red to help him live peacefully in an alien world.

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Good news. My book “Izzy & Lenore,” the story of my hospice work with the border collie Izzy, was offered as an e-book by Random House last month, the price is $1.99 and the book just hit the New York Times Bestseller List for October 13. Thanks. Also, the paperback copy of “Dancing Dogs,”  my first short story collection, is now out, signed and personalized copies available at Battenkill Books. You can also pre-order “Second Chance Dog: A Love Story” from Battenkill Books (518 677 2515) and Maria and I will both personalize and sign it. A book for $1.99 is a remarkable thing to get my head around, the new world of publishing.