Lisa is joined by Kelly Conaboy, writer and author of The Particulars of Peter: Dance Lessons, DNA Tests, and Other Excuses to Hang Out with My Perfect Dog.
Lisa highlights something from every chapter in this hilarious and heartwarming book! Here is a partial list of the chapters. Listen to the interview to hear them all!
What Does My Dog's DNA Say About Him?
Is My Dog a Festival Type?
Should I Buy my Dog a Bunch of Stuff He Doesn't Need?
Should I Spy on my Dog?
Should I Sleep In Bed with my Dog?
Can I Teach My Dog to Talk?
Can Dogs Hunt Ghosts?
BOOK DESCRIPTION:
"This might be one of the month’s, if not the year’s, sweetest books — zaniest, too.” ―The Washington Post
"A hilarious addition to the dogoir canon.” ―People
"Perhaps the greatest love story ever told.” ―Refinery29 "The feel-good book the world needs." —PopSugar
From one of the Internet's most original voices, a hilarious journey through the odd corners of obsessive dog ownership and the author's own infatuation with her perfect dog Peter. The author met Peter in the spring of 2017. He -- calm, puppy-eyed, with the heart of a poet and the soul of, also, a poet -- came to her first as a foster. He was unable to stay with his previously assigned foster for reasons that are none of your business, but which we will tell you were related to frequent urination. The rescue needed someone free of the sort of responsibilities that would force her to regularly leave the house for either work or socializing, and a writer was the natural choice. Thus began a love story for the ages.
The Particulars of Peter is a funny exploration of the joy found in loving a dog so much it makes you feel like you're going to combust, and the author's potentially codependent relationship with her own sweet dog, Peter. Readers will follow Peter and his owner to Woofstock, "the largest outdoor festival for dogs in North America," and accompany them to lessons in Canine Freestyle, a sport where dogs perform a routine set to music, creating the illusion that they're dancing with their owners. From learning about Peter's DNA, to seeing if dogs can sense the presence of ghosts, The Particulars of Peter will give readers a smart, entertaining respite from the harsh world of humans into the funny little world of dogs.
Readers will accompany this lovable duo through exciting trips, lessons, quiet moments of connection, and probably a failure or two. By fusing memoir and infotainment, The Particulars of Peter promises to refresh the perennially popular dog lit category in a scrumptiously bighearted barnstormer of a book.
Lisa is joined by Kelly Conaboy, writer and author of The Particulars of Peter: Dance Lessons, DNA Tests, and Other Excuses to Hang Out with My Perfect Dog.
Lisa highlights something from every chapter in this hilarious and heartwarming book! Here is a partial list of the chapters. Listen to the interview to hear them all!
What Does My Dog's DNA Say About Him?
Is My Dog a Festival Type?
Should I Buy my Dog a Bunch of Stuff He Doesn't Need?
Should I Spy on my Dog?
Should I Sleep In Bed with my Dog?
Can I Teach My Dog to Talk?
Can Dogs Hunt Ghosts?
BOOK DESCRIPTION:
"This might be one of the month’s, if not the year’s, sweetest books — zaniest, too.” ―The Washington Post
"A hilarious addition to the dogoir canon.” ―People
"Perhaps the greatest love story ever told.” ―Refinery29 "The feel-good book the world needs." —PopSugar
From one of the Internet's most original voices, a hilarious journey through the odd corners of obsessive dog ownership and the author's own infatuation with her perfect dog Peter. The author met Peter in the spring of 2017. He -- calm, puppy-eyed, with the heart of a poet and the soul of, also, a poet -- came to her first as a foster. He was unable to stay with his previously assigned foster for reasons that are none of your business, but which we will tell you were related to frequent urination. The rescue needed someone free of the sort of responsibilities that would force her to regularly leave the house for either work or socializing, and a writer was the natural choice. Thus began a love story for the ages.
The Particulars of Peter is a funny exploration of the joy found in loving a dog so much it makes you feel like you're going to combust, and the author's potentially codependent relationship with her own sweet dog, Peter. Readers will follow Peter and his owner to Woofstock, "the largest outdoor festival for dogs in North America," and accompany them to lessons in Canine Freestyle, a sport where dogs perform a routine set to music, creating the illusion that they're dancing with their owners. From learning about Peter's DNA, to seeing if dogs can sense the presence of ghosts, The Particulars of Peter will give readers a smart, entertaining respite from the harsh world of humans into the funny little world of dogs.
Readers will accompany this lovable duo through exciting trips, lessons, quiet moments of connection, and probably a failure or two. By fusing memoir and infotainment, The Particulars of Peter promises to refresh the perennially popular dog lit category in a scrumptiously bighearted barnstormer of a book.
43:02
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
dog , peter , sweater , chapter , sleep , book , bit , thought , blue , write , ghost , kelly , people , naturally , funny , absolutely , bed , foster , super , harry
Lisa
0:08
Does your dog do? Well, we've got the wonderful Kelly Connor boy, I am over the moon for her book, the particulars of Peter dance lessons, DNA tests and other excuses to hang out with my perfect boy. Kelly, tell us something about Peter.
Kelly
0:26
Well, my favorite thing Peter does that I am very curious if other dogs do is when he needs me and I'm not, you know, if I'm on my computer, I'm not paying attention to him something, he'll come over, jump up on the couch next to me and just gently tap my arm with his paw. Like, hello, like, hello, I would like a second dinner. Or he'll just, he'll just lay and if I'm not paying attention to that he'll just lay his paw on my arm and just give me like a death stare like, hello. Oh, I'm starving. I've only been fed twice today. So far. It's my favorite thing.
Lisa
1:04
He is absolutely adorable. The book is phenomenal. And you are such a good writer. You are hilarious. You are a writer whose career includes stints at New York Magazine, the hairpin and Gawker. You've been published by the Atlantic, The New Yorker and the New York Times you and your dog Peter live in Brooklyn. Kelly, I'm going to ask you the first question I asked every guest, which is when did your love of dogs begin?
Kelly
1:28
I've always love dogs. We had dogs growing up and my family. But since adopting my own dog, I've felt it, you know, intensify like tenfold because I really feel like Peter is like my soulmate. And that has sort of blossomed into like a love of dogs, dog culture, rescues, you know, everything. That wasn't there before Peter. But you know, my I always loved dogs, but now I just am sort of obsessed.
Lisa
2:03
Absolutely. So am I and I always say that blue is my dog soulmate because my husband's like, I'm like, you're my soulmate. He goes yeah, I think it's blue. He's like independent. He's always on you. I just love the book. Okay, so first of all, I'd love in chapter one and just heads up. I'm gonna be reading a lot of quotes. It's so funny, right? What did I do before Peter? I'm trying to remember I have to imagine there were things I did computer, I guess, typed sat alone, shuffled around the apartment and stocking feet, made dinner and ate it while doing what looking at the wall? And who did I feed a noodle to no one. It's almost too gruesome to recall. Have you always had a knack for humor?
Kelly
2:46
Yeah, that's sort of was my way into writing, I think because that's the sort of writing that I loved. And that's the sort of writing that came naturally to me, like in school, you know, to make writing or to make schoolwork sort of interesting for myself, I would try to, like, entertain myself while I was writing with, you know, little jokes, or, you know, whatever. And then only later in my life did I realize maybe that could be a career. But yeah, it was sort of always something that I did mainly to entertain myself. And I'm still mostly doing it to entertain myself.
Lisa
3:20
Oh, you're entertaining others. Let me tell you, Kelly, I found the book so incredibly funny and moving and heartfelt. And it is interesting, isn't it to think What did you do before you got the dog? So you decided to foster and it was tricky, because it was a foster where they tell you you can't adopt and you went in anyway. But tell us a little bit but not too much. I want people to get the book just a little bit about this story. And how you got Peter?
Kelly
3:46
Yeah, so I, I, you know, I had dogs growing up, but I'd never had a dog of my own as like an adult. And I was missing that sort of connection. So but you know, I wasn't really sure that I could commit you know, I had a small apartment, whatever. So I fostered and I you know, they they give this whole spiel like you know, you're gonna fall in love with the dog, but just you know, stay aware that you're just signing up as a foster we need your home to foster other dogs. We could rescue more dogs, you know, totally I get it. I was like, Yep, no problem. And then basically within one day of having Peter like, Oh no, this is my dog like, I need to adopt this dog. This is you know, so yeah, it was sort of a process to get them to let me adopt him but you know, obviously ultimately they
Lisa
4:50
in chapter two, what does my dog's DNA say about him? I love this description you write when he walks down the stairs. It is moderately paced gentleman's trot. You can tell He is a bit bow legged. He has a heart of an angel in the soul of a poet. And there's a hint of sadness that makes you want to protect him against all the world's harshness. He has whiskers that are so prominent they make you second guess whether whiskers are a typical dog trait, or whether he could potentially be part mouse. And I love the story of how you decided to get the DNA check because it was a guy at a dog park being like, Oh, your dog is a blah, blah, blah. And you're like, No, I don't think so. You know, your dog is a public law. They have to be honest, when I saw your dog, I immediately thought pity, because of the bow legged and because righties are known to be incredibly affectionate, and they want to be with their person and on their person. And I was really surprised about some of the others and I don't want to give it away. I want if you'd like to share some of it, but if they want the percentages, they gotta get the deal, Kelly.
Kelly
5:49
Yeah, well getting it. I mean, I sort of had I thought maybe he was like a terrier mix, because he has this like, tiny little head, these cute little ears. I mean, he's a million different things. But the prominent ones are black lab and Chihuahua. And the Chihuahua was really illuminating. Because now, I mean, I look at him, and it's like, oh, obviously, you have this tiny little chihuahua ahead. This, you know, kind of a larger body that was very illuminating. I kind of don't even remember what the other percentages aren't. And honestly, who knows, like how accurate these DNA tests are. But yeah, it was it was super illuminating to find out
Lisa
6:30
Labrador Retriever Chihuahua, golden retriever, Doxon rat terrier, miniature schnauzer American Staffordshire Terrier, which can also be a pity and super mutt, and then again, you gotta get the book to get the exact. Now in chapter three is my dog, a festival type. So I used to have restraints in the car for my dogs, and then they grew out of them. And then I just stopped. And then when I read in your book about what can happen if your dog is loose in the back of your car in the front of your car, it's pretty horrendous. So tell us about this.
Kelly
6:57
oh, my extremely gruesome story of my mom's dentist about how he basically he got in a car accident, his dog was in the backseat. He ended up passing away because of the force of the dog hitting him when he you know, got into this accident. But for my dog I have, he wears like a little harness in the car. And he's hooked up in the back of the harness to a leash that's attached to the car seat headrest. I was taking this long car trip with him. And I'm already so like neurotic and anxious about him being safe at all times. So I really did a deep dive into all of the horrible things. It's definitely worth making sure they're safe.
Lisa
7:44
Yes. And it was so interesting. You went to this thing called woofstock. And there's a lot of different events, the dog beauty pageant, the lure courses and I never heard of that. What is the lure course. And by the way, it was so funny. The dog beauty pageant kept being like this just about looks, it's just about looks.
Kelly
did not win, even though he was the most beautiful dog.
Lisa
8:07
I know. That's crazy. He's so he's gorgeous.
Kelly
8:12
Of course, right? He, I felt so bad for him. The dogs chase, basically like a little toy through a course they jump over a log or whatever, they make a sharp turn, they basically follow this lore through the course. All of the dogs we were waiting in line for it, every dog loved it, ran through it, we're so happy, everybody would clap. We waited for our turn, we got there, use sit your dog down. And they you know, wait for the instruction to go. And so it was history and we're waiting. And then it's then they say okay, go and he just sits there. And I was like, Oh, come on. Let's go run, run run. No, was not having it at all. They they were like maybe you want to try to run with them. So then I tried to run with him. And then it was only me doing the lower course.
Lisa
9:06
How would you do?
Kelly
9:07
I did a great job. I was very impressive. But yeah, then eventually I mean, it's, you know, it was not his thing. So we took about left the lower course everybody gave us a round of applause anyway. Yeah, that I mean, the whole thing is to find out more about who he is what he likes what he doesn't like, he absolutely does not like that. So learning
Lisa
9:34
experience. Oh, yeah, you know, it's funny in chapter four should my dog play a sport? I've talked about this on my other my health show health power. I was the most uncoordinated kid ever. I not only got picked last for sports, but they fought over who it gets stuck with me, which was really bad for my self esteem. So it's interesting when you were looking at dog agility you realize it's not just dog agility. It's your agility too. And that whole idea of like he could do it but I'm true. going over my feet, how did the knee talk to us about this experience?
Kelly
10:03
Right, the thing they tell you is basically, the dogs that do agility. I mean, they can do all this naturally. And they're just following your lead. So if you lead them astray, because you can't coordinate your hand movement and your foot movement the right way, they're not going to be able to do it. But it's only your fault. And I am not coordinated at all I've tried to be, I talk a little bit of a book about how I tried to take adult ballet to help my coordination did not help. So Peter was great at it, I maybe improved a tiny bit, but I think he would be much more successful with a more coordinated human leading him through the course he loved it, though, that one he he was crazy about.
Lisa
10:52
Oh, that's fun. Now in chapter five, should I buy my dog a bunch of stuff, he doesn't need you. We're talking about dog sizes. And you write once a company asked for the circumference of Peter's neck and I looked up how to measure circumference and the answer was pi times the diameter of the circle. And I'm sorry, but no, I'm not doing that. Are you fucking kidding me? Sam got it math, and I'm bad at sports. So I was like, Oh my gosh, this is great. I totally relate to this young woman.
Kelly
11:21
Yeah, that I'm never I'm never gonna be able to find out what his accurate size is, if that's what I'm gonna have to do. So it's kind of a guessing game. We'll say he's a medium
Lisa
11:32
will tell us about this sweater because it was pretty funny. And it was for Halloween.
Kelly
11:36
I thought it would be cute to get him a dog sized version of the sweater that the boy wears in the shining with like the Apollo rocket. It's, you know, iconic. It's, it's a little bit funny because it's from The Shining. And you know, and I found a woman on Etsy who could make that for a dog. So of course, I bought it for him. It was way too expensive, but that was not going to stop it. So I got it. I thought it would be good for Halloween. It's just like a little sweater. People put all these costumes on their dogs at Halloween and the Dogs hate them. And I yeah, I can't really I I don't agree with that. But I thought this was kind of a nice compromise because we were going to be handing out candy and it would be kind of cute. Anyway, a lot of build up a lot of excitement in me waiting for this sweater to arrive. This like hand knit shining recreations sweater. I thought he could wear it forever. It was gonna be so great. Anyway, I put it on him. Hated it immediately, immediately was like, get this off of me immediately. And I thought maybe he would act acclimate to it. We took them on a walk. I could tell he hated it the whole time. And when we got back from the walk, he disappeared. I noticed he was under the covers of my bed. And it was like a lot of movement happening. And it was like, okay, he's clearly solving a problem under covers completely nude no sweater had somehow figured out how to take it off himself, while hidden under the covers. And you know, that was the last of it. I'm not going to torture him. Just because I spent way too much money on the shining theme.
Lisa
13:26
did you ever read the Harry the dirty dogs books?
Kelly
13:29
No.
Lisa
13:30
Oh my gosh. So when I was a kid, this is now because you're much younger, but I was a kid in the 70s. And they have these great books are still around Harry the dirty dog. One of them is a dog is a white dog with black spots. And he goes out one day and he's walking all over town. He gets so dirty. He comes back a black dog with white spots and the kids don't recognize them. And then the moms like bring that dog in, give him a bath. Oh, it's hairy. It's great. But there's another Harry where he gets a Christmas sweater from the grandma. And he can't stand and he keeps trying to find places to leave it and everyone's like, Oh, what's your sweater Harry, here's your sweater, Harry. And then finally, there's a bird and there's a loose thread and Harry. The bird takes Harry sweater up and it all unravels and he makes a nest out of it and the grandma comes to visit and everyone's like where's your sweater and he takes him to the tree and they look up and the birds are sitting in it and then at the end he ends up with another sweater and he's like so now that he gave me the whole books go read Harry the dirty dog. It's really fun but I was totally thinking of Harry yeah cute little terrier too I mean I know your dog is a lot of other things do um the other thing that cracked me up in this chapter was Cody time you write quote, when it's Cody time cooking and having to wear a coat. He says by the door ears plastered against his skull seemingly attempting to make himself invisible. If only he could disappear then perhaps he wouldn't have to wear that little coat. Blue does that to
Kelly
14:51
to this day, even though like in the winter? Yeah, it gets freezing cold. We have to put the code on you so you're not shivering while you're outside. Or we still you know get snow on you or rain or you know, but yeah, he has not even budged an inch on how much he hates getting his little coat. I mean, but it's really only the SEC, like the few seconds it takes to put it on. After that he kind of like shakes it off. And he's like, Okay, let's go. I'm ready. I got a fear of this adorable little. Yeah, just seconds. It's absolute torture for him.
Lisa
15:24
You know, one of the things I love about the book, not only is all the humor and the wonderful stories, but you share some great statistics, you talk to some different expert experts excuse me, which we'll get into. And you write in the book that quote, according to a survey from the American prod Pet Products Association, humans in the US spend an estimated 75 billion on their pets in the year 2019. And you right, that 480 million of that 72 billion is spent on Halloween costumes, which you mentioned really is a drag because they don't like you put anything on a dog's head. They're immediately pulling it off. No. So sad, right. And you also list all these great things that you gave, the thing that cracked me up the most was the phallic looking item that was supposed to help clean his teeth. Quote, this penis item is a lie. I'm not sure how it could clean teeth the way it claims to. It's like a big green. Well, penis, like I said, with little rubber hairs on it shaft Where did you even get that?
Kelly
16:18
Um, I think like chewy or something you can still buy, it's a ton of toothpaste you're supposed to use with it. Yeah, I just have no idea how it's supposed to work at all. And it's very upsetting to see one of many tooth brushing toys that ultimately did not work. And now we just have to brush his teeth with the actual toothbrush, which he hates.
Lisa
16:42
Now, chapter six, should I spy on my dog. So you got this device where you can watch your dogs, but you were getting a little too intense about it. And here again, you asked a researcher, you spoke with a woman named Carla Fox, he's a staff doctor in New York City's animal Medical Center. And she did say there was some practical reasons for spine. But then you can also go overboard tell us a little bit about your experience and how it kind of could get out of hand.
Kelly
17:09
Yeah, so like I said, I'm super neurotic, leaving him at home. But obviously, as a person in the world, you sometimes have to leave your dog at home. So I bought a pet camera, they have the kind that you can like shoot treats out of it's not that kind. It's just like a regular camera that you can check in on your phone. And basically, I was getting to the point where I would like go out to dinner with my friend and prop it up. So I couldn't see it at all times, you know, as if it were like a baby monitor, like as if it were something that I actually had to do, checking it constantly, just making sure zooming in making sure I could see he was breathing, you know, just being a little over the top. So I was Yeah, I was curious if there was a real reason to be that invested in what your dog is doing while you're at home. And obviously, if there are behavioral issues, he's fine, he doesn't have any real medical issues that I need to monitor. But if there are, you know, the vets told me, it's actually good. If you have one of the cameras that kind of record small bits, if you catch something, catch your dog doing something that you want to ask the vet about that can be very handy. Those are very actually helpful things to bring in to show them but otherwise, I think it's basically not something I really need to be doing. I've tried to wean myself off. I'm a little bit better now.
Lisa
18:34
Oh, that's good. What was really funny because you're talking about, you know, you're out with your friends and you show them you're like, Is he breathing? Is he breathing? Or like yeah, and you're like, I don't I don't think you see it and you'd like zoom in closer
Kelly
18:51
a little bit and stuff. But you know, we do what we we have to
Lisa
18:55
dog people get it. Now. I love chapter seven. Should I sleep with my dog? So I don't even sleep with my husband. Okay. I mean, I sleep with my husband, but I don't sleep with my husband. I don't like anyone touching me when I sleep. I just sleep better and I snore and I move around a lot. So we decided we'll sleep separate. So over the last, I'd say three months, somehow blue is decided that between 430 and five in the morning, he jumps on the bed, and he doesn't like jump on the bed and curl up by my feet. He literally puts his head on my pillow and he's 85 pounds. And he smashes me. It's like a bunch of bricks landed on me. First I was annoyed because I'm like great and I'm gonna lay here and then all of a sudden I thought okay, I'm going to enjoy this. I'm just going to cuddle them so what I lose little sleep. But now within like five minutes I'm right back to sleep and I get sad on days like once in a while he won't do it and I'm like blue. I kind of look forward to that but I'm still not ready to sleep with the full person or just yeah all night because he also farts a lot and snores really loud. So, when you have a littler dog, I would think it'd be easy but I love how you write about how we ended up sleeping in your bed so it happened pretty quick talk to us about this.
Kelly
20:06
Yeah, there was this was another so I was fostering him and the foster that the rescue one of their rules was that you're not supposed to allow them to sleep in bed with you or go on your furniture in case they're eventually adopted by someone who does not want to let them do that. So okay, fine. All right. For the first night I let him sleep in his crate. It was fine I you know, looked at him all night just in there snoozing the next night I was in my bed working and he like popped up like a little seal with his little two paws on the bed and was clearly like come on you know just kind of check out what's up there. I was like, Yeah, I'm not gonna be able to resist this yes come and then from then on. We have not not slept in the same bed for even a single night unless I'm you know away but
Lisa
21:02
I think that's so sweet. You know, the first dog we ever had Bailey. I was 33 Because again, everyone is listening to shown us My mom is afraid of dogs blah blah blah. My husband I were sleeping in the same bed at the time and we didn't have a kid yet. And Bailey was a Border Terrier Pitbull neck so picture the dog from Something About Mary but bigger, so cute. And he would tip tap and he would tip tap in our room and he tried to jump No, no Bailey go back to bed go back to bed. Go but he was so because those terriers especially a pure terrier like that. They're so tenacious. I mean, they want something every night he would make so much noise Tip Tip Tip Tip Tip two outside the door outside the door until we finally were like fine. until just now I guess I did sleep with a human and a dog. Wow, I was younger.
Kelly
21:46
Yeah. My i i have a fiance we live together. Obviously. He has a dog Shepherd mix named Frank. And we all all four of us sleeping. We decided we used to have a queen size bed but it was just kind of a lot. A lot. A lot of people so we got a king size recently. It's been a good upgrade. But yeah, it's a lot. I wouldn't change the sleeping arrangement at all even though Peter does snore sometimes Frank is enormous.
Lisa
22:21
Yeah, I love it. Well, your humor is throughout the book and in this chapter. I think this made me laugh the most you write about people who can get a little squeamish about dogs co sleeping with humans. And I love number two, you write quote, they think you're spoiling the dog in my opinion, eat shit. Oh, excuse me. That was a little heated. I'll start again in my opinion eat shit. Ah. Oh, gosh. Okay, my apologies and my opinion. Oh, no. Oh, geez. Like, hysterical. And then the other thing you said to? It's so funny. They think it's gross. Well, yeah, it is gross. Basically, in order to enjoy sleeping with your dog friend. You have to pretend it isn't disgusting.
Kelly
23:02
And yes, you really do. Like I'm just not going to even think about what the stains could possibly be.
Lisa
23:11
The worst is when blue because he's always itchy because peds have a lot of skin issues and I am treating it but it's a pain. I'm trying to do it holistically. It's a lot slower. But I'm gonna stick with that when I leave the room and he'll lick on my bed and then the sheet. It's like blue. Please don't drink. Yeah, it's really gross. It's gross.
DR. JUDY MORGAN SPOT
23:30
Does your family include a dog or a cat? Would you like to be better educated on how to advocate for their health naturally, then why not check out all of the amazing resources on naturally healthy pets.com Dr. Judy Morgan is a trusted advisor and a regular guest here on the dog eared podcast. She has over 38 years experience as an integrative veterinarian, acupuncturist chiropractor, food therapist, author, speaker, podcast host and owner of Dr. Judy Morgan's naturally healthy pets. Dr. Judy's goal is to change the lives of pets by educating and empowering pet parents just like you in the use of natural healing therapies and minimizing the use of chemicals, vaccinations, and poor quality processed foods. Head on over to naturally healthy pets.com where you'll discover healthy product recommendations, comprehensive courses, the naturally healthy pets podcast, informative blogs, upcoming events and so much more. Again, that's naturally healthy pets.com The place to learn how to give your pet the vibrant life that they deserve.
Lisa
24:55
Now, having a house show it people listen to health powers on the same platform. I I am obsessed with sleep. It's practically other than my dogs is practically my religion. I don't like interrupted sleep, although like I said, with the sing with blue, it's just it's a little bit different. And when I love that you actually did some research, and I was pretty surprised. Tell us a little bit about what you found out.
Kelly
25:15
Yeah, I was kind of surprised to. And I was also surprised that there have been like, really a couple of different studies into the effect of co sleeping with an animal or you know, a dog primarily. But what is basically found is that unless there are like, big issues like snoring or things that you are sort of insurmountable, it doesn't really have that much of an effect on overall sleep quality. But quality diminished a little bit right? When when you were sleeping versus when you're sleeping alone. But sleeping with a dog is easier than sleeping with even another person was kind of the big finding that sleeping with the dog or cat promoted healthier sleep than sleeping, co sleeping with a human.
Lisa
25:59
All right, moving on chapter eight. So I'm going through every chapter so good, does my dog like music now I sing a little song to blue, which I'm not going to sing now because then he will want to play the game that we play. It's called, I'm gonna get blue. He'll grab an old tennis shoe that I gave him to chew up and I'll chase them all around the house and he would be good at it. He, oh my god, he spins around and does this and dodges here. I can't keep up with them. And whenever I sing that song, he loves it. I used to sing songs to Bailey, my picnics I mentioned mentioned earlier about going to the woods. And your songs were great. And there was so much fun. Tell us about what you discovered about Dog music, especially the reggae that was fascinating.
Kelly
26:41
So there are also you know, a lot of studies into the effect of music on dogs. And I can attest to this with Peter too, because he he totally is affected by music, but they are really affected by soothing music shelters will play lullabies to calm dogs down. And there are incredible videos online of the shelter before and after they are playing this soothing music. But yeah, one of the studies found that of all the different genres of music reggae seemed to suit dogs the most in that study. So I played a lot of reggae for Peter, he likes reggae, too, I'm not sure it was his favorite. But whenever we leave the dogs alone, we put on their dog lullabies for them. And it does seem to suit them. The one warning that I also got from one of the researchers, if you have sort of an anxious dog into my dogs or not, I'm the only anxious one. But if you have sort of an anxious dog who doesn't like when you leave, to switch up the music you play, because you know if you play the same thing every time they're gonna get queued. Yeah, like, Okay, this is the song that means they're leaving.
Lisa
27:53
Oh, yeah. And you wrote a great song. And again, people have to get the book again, the particulars of Peter in order to see the song because it's wonderful. Now, chapter nine, can I teach my dog to talk? You were saying that in order to get your dog to talk, they have to bark. And you have to somehow say speak before the bark happens, which seems complicated. But you said Peter doesn't work, for the most part.
Kelly
28:19
For the most part that has actually changed since writing at the time, we live alone, since moving in with my fiance and his dog who barks a lot. Peter is has been encouraged to find his own voice not like on his own still, he's pretty quiet. When it's just him. If there's like a delivery person outside, Frank will start alerting us to the danger of good delivery. And Peter will join in so he's actually become a lot more vocal with that encouragement. But yeah, otherwise he's he's super quiet. And when I for the first couple years of our life together, he really very barely barked at all. Oh, wow. He would do maybe one bark if he saw a squirrel outside and he was super frustrated. He would let out a single bark. But yeah, he was super quiet and still pretty quiet. But, but I'm happy.
Lisa
29:14
Yeah. Oh, I bet. Now in chapter 10, can I communicate with my dog via pet psychic? This is really interesting because I just interviewed a couple weeks ago, a woman named Maria reach and she wrote a book about her wonderful sweet deaf Pitbull, Celeste two had a lot of health issues. And so she hired an animal communicator. I'm agnostic on this. So I'm just gonna put that out there. But I thought it was really lovely, you know, and it gave her a sense of comfort and I think that's what's important. And you work with one who was kind of off in terms of what he was trying to get at. Tell us about this.
Kelly
29:49
Right. So yeah, I'm a bit agnostic to I do believe that some people are just more naturally intuitive and maybe are able to connect On a deeper level than other people, and I totally believe that a lot of people get comfort out of this sort of thing. I have two different psychic readings, both of which were done over the phone for the chapter. The first one was pretty rough. No pun intended. He was really trying to get me to try to get me to connect with a dog that just did not. He was kind of trying to describe the dog in different ways. And none of the ways were Peter, right. And he was just really kept pressing it. Maybe this is a dog, you know, otherwise, or a dog that you saw at the dog park or a dog from a TV show that you like, like, why would I want to communicate with the dog from a TV like really trying to grasp me connecting his whatever he was describing, with a dog. And we eventually landed on that it was a family dog of mine who died, which was very emotional, even though the whole time I was like, This is bullshit. I hate this guy. Like he's manipulating my emotions. Yeah. Because he couldn't guess what Peter looked like, basically. So that one was difficult. But still, I was like sobbing, obviously. Because I was like, I didn't get that it was my dog who was trying to communicate with me, give me a break
Lisa
31:17
what was that guy was thinking. But tell us about the next one.
Kelly
31:19
Right? The other psychic I spoke with was absolutely lovely. I'm a writer. I'm skeptical. I'm not sure if she looked into who I was. But she immediately was like, so do you make art about your dog? Are you curious about what he thinks about the fact that you are putting him out into the world basically. And I was like what she had to there was like a jackhammer outside and she was like, Well, right now your dog is very unhappy with the noise happening outside and we were like foreign to the house. I don't think she was able to hear it over the phone. But anyway, the main thing I got out of that one was she described seeing Peter and I sitting next to each other, and like, the scenery kept changing. It was like, it was so beautiful. She was like the world is changing. But you guys are just always together in this like little circle of light. Like so that was nice. Even if it wasn't real, it was at least a nice experience.
Lisa
32:21
Yeah, that's what I think too. It's beautiful. Now you did so many cool things in the book chapter 11. And you asked so many great questions Can dogs hunt ghosts? And again, I just have to bring in your humor I love this so I'm gonna paraphrase you said something defective I'm so sorry for your loss. Well anyway, my dog and I would really appreciate it if we could try and hunt your wife's ghosts while she's fresh. So you went into the ghost hunting and you said there's quite a bit of expensive equipment and you did that a buying some things tell us about this ghost hunting experience.
Kelly
32:52
You know again, I'm skeptical of everything but I'm for some reason super interested in the idea of ghosts I've written like ghost hunting column before I Gawker, I did one where I went to supposedly notoriously haunted places in New York City and, and you know, whatever. I could never find a ghost but I feel like this is known information but maybe it's just because I'm kind of a weirdo. But there's the idea that dogs are so naturally sensitive to the world around them that and of course, they're that they can sniff out when there are ghosts nearby and people will say you know, they see their dogs barking at nothing and you know, blah blah blah things that can be explained other ways. But you know, maybe your dog is seeing a ghost so I was interested I think Peter is very perceptive I think he's a very sensitive young man maybe he would be one of the dogs who could sniff out a ghost so we went to a graveyard in the city like you said all of this insanely expensive ghost hunting equipment available to purchase I got some of the less expensive things that these little meters you can wear like you put on your belt and they like beep when there's a ghost nearby you know, allegedly and there's like apps at will you know tell you what the ghost is trying to tell you in words printed out on your screen you know all these little things that we'll write that probably are nothing we got all that stuff we went to the graveyard we walked around the ghost that supposedly haunted the graveyard was a dog because I thought that would be less scary for Peter if he encountered a dog ghost rather than a human ghost so so yeah, we kind of spent some time there walking around seeing if our little meter would be but never did. The app was telling us the ghosts were trying to say nothing really. I don't think we found a ghost but we got to spend some time with each other in a graveyard, which is, of course priceless.
Lisa
35:00
though much of this is all the time you get to spend with Peter, which is fabulous. Yeah, this I'd love to in this chapter you talk about Pete that beautiful Brittany spaniel from Sex in the City. Do you right? Yeah. But and if his spirit is still with us, he is on that stew forever waiting for Carrie to come back so he can tell her to eat shit. Chapter 12 can I accept that my dog will never be a dancer. So you got into the world of canine freestyle. He knew how to spin and again, this was kind of got in your way a little bit just like the agility right? A little bit because you and again, I don't want to give too much away. So I'm gonna let people read about that. Although there was something big in that chapter heater did break his elbow not doing canine freestyle, by the way. And it's so hard when your dog is hurt blue had to have both his back knees done. And, you know, you're just worried and has everything in it turn out okay. And thank God his debts like he, like picture perfect. You want a perfect example of how the surgery comes out? This is it. But yeah, we both do a lot of emotions. Talk to us a little bit about that.
Kelly
36:02
You know, it was it was so hard. The chapter starts out I had this dream of us doing canine freestyle together, which is when a human and a dog perform like a little dance routine. The videos are again, like everything, they make me cry. Like, it's silly, but it's really so so sweet. Anyway, so I had that dream. And it went to shit because Peter, I guess he had a stress fracture that I didn't know about that eventually just gave out and he broke his elbow while he was running in the park and had to immediately or not immediately it was the next day he had to go into surgery. And it was truly one of if not the worst day of my life. Just having so much fear that something terrible would happen. You know, you have to sign all of these scary forms, how they're going to save the dog's life. What happens if anesthesia, blah, blah, blah. So it was absolutely terrifying. And then that recovery process. Luckily, you know, the surgery went well. I was nervously calling the vet all throughout the day of the surgery and they say like, okay, it's still happening. Like, you just have to wait for us to call you. You're not gonna not call you when it's done. I promise we will. So yeah, that was difficult. The recovery, I just felt so bad for him having to just carry him around everywhere because he couldn't really walk having to carry around outside, put him down, see if he could go to the bathroom. First. They they let his arm. They didn't put a cast around it because they wanted to let the surgical scars breathe, I guess. But then it wasn't healing. So they eventually had to put a cast around it too. And it was just so sad seeing him hobble around with his big cast arm. Oh my gosh, it was horrible. But yeah, he has since also made full recovery. We used to live in Brooklyn, we recently moved upstate to save a little bit to cold spring where he gets a lot more time in the woods. Nice. So he looks around, hopping over logs, you know, jumping over a little stream. And I'm just so happy that he's okay. And that he can still deal with these doggy things that he loves. Because yeah, that was terrifying when it was like he couldn't even go on a walk to sniff the sidewalk, which is his favorite thing.
Lisa
38:21
It's so hard when our dogs hurt.
Kelly
38:23
because you can't even do anything about it. You can't even explain it to them. Yeah.
Lisa
38:27
Now chapter 13 Will my dog go to heaven and you write the best line ever quote heaven makes sense more as a place for dogs and it does a place for humans humans are awful.
Kelly
38:41
Standing by it
Lisa
38:42
and then in chapter 14 I love this because one of the things about doing this show that's so great is it It reminds me of things that I haven't thought about about my first two dogs Bailey and Bobo you write about how Peter will beg for blueberries even though he doesn't like them and you write this so perfectly. Like if I tried to explain what Bobo used to do with carrots I wouldn't be able to do it but you help me right in fact dislikes him so much that he seems to not even understand how to eat them letting them fall from his mouth to the floor as if he suddenly forgotten how to masticate I would give Bobo he was a beautiful sweet Irish setter German Shepherd mix. I would give him a carrot and it would literally just fall out of his mouth like it but he keeps begging right even though they just go plop
Kelly
39:25
yes yeah, he never He doesn't really ever seem to connect the blueberry that is in his mouth to the blueberry that is like in the bowl that I'm eating from
Lisa
39:35
it's gotta be different
Kelly
39:38
this has to be better otherwise why would you continue to eat it because what you gave me obviously was terrible right? She's
Lisa
39:44
giving me the bad tasting ones come on. The hell
Kelly
39:47
like barely even not a food items not recognizably a food item.
Lisa
39:51
Now I love also in chapter 14 My dog you write an obsession with time how much already has been spent and how much is left is normal. For those close relationships to dogs in my experience, Oh, absolutely, it's terrible. I'm dreading that blue is going to be eighth and June, I'm absolutely like, No, this is not acceptable. Time standstill will age and he's just like, No, no, no. Ah, so hard. And
Kelly
40:17
I know I wrote a piece for Gawker, sort of more recently, I think in the last year and a half or so. About if you could donate some of the years off of the end of your life to your dog. How many would you give them?
Lisa
40:33
Oh my gosh,
Kelly
40:35
I think I would give at least Oh, a
Lisa
40:37
lot. Are you kidding me?
Kelly
40:38
No, like, can we just meet in the middle?
Lisa
40:44
Oh my gosh. And I love to in chapter 14 Peters, your primary source of happiness. And I feel that way about Blue and of course, the appendix is hysterical, a taxonomy of acceptable nicknames. Peter, Pete, Pete, man, Peter, man, the number one Pete man, Pete, man, and then you've got all these other great things. The book is so phenomenal. Even though we talked about a lot of stuff. There's so much in here. Was there anything we didn't mention Kelly that you were hoping to touch on today?
Kelly
41:11
I think we kind of got it all. Yeah, yeah. No, I think we covered
Lisa
41:15
right. Well, the book the particulars of Peter dance lessons, DNA tests and other excuses to hang out with my perfect dog Kelly, Connor. Boy. I tell you sitting on the couch, getting to cuddle blue and reading this. It was like a gift. Like I got the best job ever. I mean, this is so funny. And you're so incredibly talented. Never stop writing. Please. Just, you are a gift. All right. Well, tell us all the ways we can find you.
Kelly
41:42
I'm on Twitter. Just my name. Kelly econo boy, I also just have a personal website Kelly convoy.com. Instagram, Kelly Conboy, basically just my name it all the normal places.
Lisa
41:54
I think you'll ever write another book about dogs. Or Peter.
Kelly
41:58
Um, I would love to, um, it's, I guess will depend on if anybody wants to publish it. But yeah, I would absolutely love to.
Lisa
42:05
Yeah, well, you are very gifted and lovely. This has been so much fun. I just absolutely love your book. And everyone keep coming back to dog eared you don't want to miss a thing. Also check out health powers on the same platform. I've been doing that show for 10 years. Oh, I listened to the book, by the way. Phenomenal. I know. She was so good. She emphasized every single word perfectly the cadence and humor. I was
Kelly
42:29
so grateful for her because I you know I can write and I'm a writer because I'm not like a good person, like an entertaining person. So I was very nervous about like having to like speak in a funny way. So I was so grateful that she could just like nail it. She was great.
Lisa
42:48
I love her. I thought she was phenomenal. Alright everybody keep listening rate, and subscribe.