May 15, 2025 • 64 mins
In this heartfelt episode of "Dog Friendly," host Brandon Bennett interviews author and psychotherapist Douglas Green from Southern California, exploring the profound bond between humans and dogs. Douglas shares the inspiring story behind his two books, A Dog of Many Names and The Teachings of Shirelle: Life Lessons from a Divine Knucklehead. He details his deep relationship with his beloved dog, Shirelle, and what inspired him to write about her life and lessons.
Douglas gives an intimate look into how he and Shirelle’s journey began—starting from her adoption when she was known as Kelly, a dog with a gentle, soft nature that earned her the nickname "Shirelle." He shares the emotional battles they faced together, highlighting her resilience and their ongoing fight to keep her safe and thriving. His storytelling is both detailed and moving, providing insight into her strength, her unique personality, and the lessons she imparted about life, love, and perseverance.
A well-spoken and thoughtful guest, Douglas reflects on the significance of their bond, why he chose to bring a dog into his life, and how Shirelle became a divine, life-changing presence. The episode beautifully captures the power of the human-animal connection, especially during challenging times.
Overall, this episode is a touching tribute to a beloved dog and a conversation filled with wisdom, love, and gratitude. Fans of dogs, life stories, and personal growth won’t want to miss Douglas Green’s honest and heartfelt reflections on Shirelle’s extraordinary life and the lessons she taught us all.
Douglas Green - He is a psychotherapist living in Los Angeles, CA. https://www.authordouglasgreen.com/ Check out the book on audio now and paperback. Paperback on Amazon, The Teachings of Shirelle: Life Lessons from a Divine Knucklehead and audio https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Teachings-of-Shirelle-Audiobook/B0DVCST24B#customer-reviews, and runs the advice website AskShirelle.com.
Grossen Bart Brewery - https://grossenbart.com/
Alpinehowl.com for your Handcrafted apparel for dogs and matching hats for their best friends.
Info@alpinehowl.com
IG: @alpinehowl
Check out Bixbipet.com for dog and cat food.
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Good morning, dog lovers.
Welcome to Dog Friendly, thepodcast where we celebrate the
joy of dogs and the adventureswe share with them.
I'm your host, Brandon Bennettfrom Alpine Howell.
Each week, I take you todog-friendly locations to chat
(00:20):
with passionate dog owners abouttheir furry companions and the
unforgettable experiencesthey've had together.
We'll also hear from experts whoshare valuable insights on
training, health, and making themost out of our time with our
canine pals, all while enjoyingthe great outdoors.
So whether you're a seasoned pupparent or just a dog lover, grab
(00:41):
your leash, maybe a libation,and join us as we enjoy the
world of dogs and incredibleadventures that await.
Let's dive into today's episode.
Good morning, everybody, andhappy Thursday, May 15th.
A lovely Thursday, even whenyour dog wakes you up with a
(01:03):
dirty nose.
Yep, that's right.
My little blue heeler, I gaveher a bone yesterday, and she
went and buried it in thebackyard.
My pity doesn't do that.
He eats it like maybe dogs oughtto, but, you know, I don't know.
It goes through the brain.
Anyway, I had a crusty nosewaking me up this morning, so
it's mild.
It's, yeah, that girl.
(01:25):
Love her.
We got an exciting episode thisweek.
I got the chance to talk withauthor Douglas Green.
He called in from SouthernCalifornia.
He is a psychotherapist livingin Southern California, but he
also wrote a couple books.
The book we specifically getinto is The Teachings of
(01:47):
Shirelle, Life Lessons from aDivine Knucklehead.
What a good one.
You'll have to pick up a copyand put those in the show notes
as well as, or you can listen onaudio.
I have both.
And wow, they're pretty good.
So here we go.
Okay.
Where is Longmont?
(02:08):
I don't know it.
Just north of Boulder, Colorado,11 miles.
Okay.
Literally just up the road.
I worked in Boulder for almost11 years and tried and true.
I'm originally from Wisconsin,but now I'm in Longmont because
it's a little more affordablethan the Boulder area, but still
crazy.
SPEAKER_01 (02:29):
That's great.
My brother has lived a littleoutside Vail for about 40 years.
SPEAKER_00 (02:35):
Oh,
SPEAKER_01 (02:36):
that's great.
Yeah, so I've been out there 100times.
Love
SPEAKER_00 (02:42):
that area.
So let's jump right into it.
We'll get into all the nuts andbolts of it.
I started off with first andlast name, and what do you do?
SPEAKER_01 (02:53):
Sure.
Just right here, right
SPEAKER_00 (02:55):
now?
You're ready?
Yeah.
We're rolling.
SPEAKER_01 (02:58):
Okay.
UNKNOWN (02:59):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (02:59):
My name is Doug Green, and professionally, I'm a
psychotherapist, but I also am awriter.
And that's how we got caught uphere, Brenda.
I have a book that I wrote anumber of years ago, came out
about 10 years ago, but a secondedition of it has just been
(03:20):
released, and an audiobook of itis being released next week.
SPEAKER_00 (03:25):
That's fantastic.
UNKNOWN (03:26):
Fantastic.
SPEAKER_01 (03:26):
It is.
It's a dream come true.
SPEAKER_00 (03:29):
I mean, I read through the book and actually,
you have two books, right?
Yes.
Okay, so I grabbed your firstbook, and that was before I got
the copy, and I'll tell you, thetearjerker, but I'm going to get
right through it.
What inspired you to write thisbook about your dog, Shirell?
(03:51):
Shirell.
SPEAKER_01 (03:52):
Shirell.
Named for the singing group, theShirells.
Yeah.
What inspired it was I had hadthis dog, had this amazing
experience, which the book isall about, And a few years,
maybe a year or two after welost her, I was struck.
(04:12):
I was looking at a bestsellerlist.
And I thought, you know, I'velooked at bestseller lists all
my life.
And some things are onbestseller lists all the time.
Certain kinds of books arealways there.
But there's three kinds of booksthat really were uniquely
specific to that time thatseemed to be on the list all the
(04:34):
time.
Whatever week you looked.
And one, for lack of a betterword, I would call guru book.
The Secret or Eckhart Tolle orthings like that.
Books that take timeless wisdomand put it in a very easily
understandable, digestibleformat.
Then there were books about whatone knows at the end of life.
(04:57):
Tuesdays with Maury being thebig one, but the last lecture,
different things that are Youknow, 200 pages of I should have
spent more time with my family,basically.
And then animal books.
And Marley and Me was, ofcourse, the huge seller.
But after Marley and Me foryears, it was always something
about a cat or something about adog.
(05:19):
And I thought, you know, isn'tthis interesting that the
greatest teacher of timelesswisdom I've ever known,
especially with things dealingabout the end of life, happened
to be a dog?
Isn't that interesting?
And I kind of walked on and thenlater that day thought, isn't
that interesting?
And then the next day I woke upand thought, isn't that
(05:39):
interesting?
And suddenly realized, Doug, Ithink you got a job ahead of
you.
And I can say very easily thatyears later, It is my favorite
accomplishment of my life.
It's the thing I'm proudest of.
And if I had any idea how muchwork that book would have been,
I never would have lifted a penfor the first word of it.
SPEAKER_00 (06:03):
Wow.
Both
SPEAKER_01 (06:05):
are absolutely true.
SPEAKER_00 (06:07):
Wow.
That's, I mean, quite anaccomplishment.
I mean, writing a book initself, like I can't even just
fathom that.
I'm more of the audio, let'stalk with each other and stuff
like that.
Yeah.
To dive into your relationshipwith, I want to make sure that,
Sherelle, correct?
Sherelle.
Sherelle, okay.
I mean, I made sure I even gotthe audio book so I could listen
(06:30):
to, to make sure I could say itright for you because I want to.
SPEAKER_01 (06:33):
oh wow you got an advanced copy that's cool
SPEAKER_00 (06:36):
well it showed up I was when I first got the
paperback I was like okay well Ialso listen to audio books and I
want to make sure that I'm doingmy research and make sure that I
dive into sound like I'm youknow again that was instilled in
me I think I learned that incollege in my upbringing but
(06:56):
Sherelle I found I listened toaudio books through Amazon and
it said available May 1st so i iliterally last night at 12
o'clock mountain standard time igot i i downloaded it on my
phone that's awesome i kid younot i paid i paid the 998 or
(07:18):
whatever it was and it was greati'm glad that i had it because i
wanted to make sure that i wasdoubling up and and getting all
the nicks and crannies of it souh i mean wow thank you
absolutely but but tell us andthe the the listeners out there,
how you met Sherelle and therole she played in your life.
(07:39):
Give us a little teaser of that.
Obviously, the book goes throughthat stuff, but how does that
meeting go?
SPEAKER_01 (07:46):
Oh, man.
Well, the meeting itselfactually starts a few months
before I met her.
I've always loved dogs.
I saw dogs growing up.
I was crazy about them.
I was living here in L.A.,living in a little apartment in
struggling, trying to make it inthe film, television, theater
industry.
(08:07):
And one day, I had a bad cold.
It was late summer, verypolluted.
It happens here, you know, attimes, famously.
And I went off into themountains just to get a break
and was walking around in thesebeautiful woods.
And at some point, I was leaningagainst a big tree or something.
(08:29):
And this voice comes to me.
And I'm not somebody who hearsvoices a lot.
But this voice came to me andsaid, you need to move out of
your apartment and get a dog.
Because Currently, nobody tracksmud into your home.
Yeah.
That was a weird line.
SPEAKER_00 (08:50):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (08:51):
But I thought, you better obey it, man.
Whoever said that to you, it'strue.
Yeah.
And I did.
I found a tiny old house, movedinto it.
And at some point when I feltready, took a friend with me and
we went and...
started going to Pound, which,as you know, as a dog lover, is
(09:14):
horrible.
You know, it just breaks yourheart.
You want to take every singleone of them home.
And I, we'd gone to, I guessthis was the second Pound we
went to, and I walked in, and Iknew what I wanted.
I wanted a very young puppy,like, you know, a month old or
something, so it didn't have anyexperiences, it didn't have any
(09:36):
abuse, whatever.
And no, they didn't haveanything like that.
But we walked through, okay.
And I'm walking through,checking out the different
things.
And suddenly, I hadn't seen thisdog, but I'm staring into this
dog's eyes.
And I hadn't reached to the dog,but my hand was in this dog's
(09:59):
mouth.
It was chewing on it.
And it was a puppy, but it wasbig.
It was like three and a halfmonths old.
UNKNOWN (10:06):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (10:07):
It was longer hair than I'd want because it gets so
hot here.
It was older.
I say it.
It was a female.
And I thought, I'm feeling thisgreat connection with the song,
but it's not really what I want.
I should go to this other poundand see if they've got what I
want.
I went to this other pound,good, lovely dog.
(10:29):
It was like, nope, it's thatone.
And the big question was, Thepound was going to be shut for
the next couple of days, and theattendant there said that
sometimes, because they wereovercrowded, sometimes the guy
who manages it comes through toclean up on the days they're
(10:51):
shut.
Okay,
SPEAKER_00 (10:52):
yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (10:53):
So I had nightmares for two nights, horrible,
violent nightmares of the puppybeing dismembered and blood
everywhere and all sorts ofstuff.
I'm there the next...
morning that they open.
I walk in.
They've got a bunch of youngpuppies, exactly what I wanted.
I don't care.
Ran through, found that dog,grabbed her, and that was the
(11:17):
beginning of the adventure.
That's
SPEAKER_00 (11:19):
fantastic.
SPEAKER_01 (11:21):
Absolutely.
And anybody who has a mysticalor spiritual or theological
argument for it, I'll say, I betyou're right.
Because there was something justeerie with that connection.
SPEAKER_00 (11:34):
Was that her name when you got her?
Or did you remember that?
SPEAKER_01 (11:39):
No.
She was a stray.
Okay.
I...
I would have named her after theattendant who saved her life,
who took her in and stole hercard so nobody would see how
long she'd been there.
But her name was Kelly, and myname's Green.
And it's funny because Iactually now have a friend named
Kelly Green.
But at the time, I thought,that's a shame.
(12:00):
That's not a name.
That's terrible.
So, yeah, didn't do that.
And the story with the name isthat I had her for a few days
and was just trying to, youknow, there's any name coming
up, but anything was sort oflogical.
I wanted something natural,organic.
(12:21):
And I was driving out to havedinner with some friends.
And on the road, I thought, boy,she is so soft.
That puppy's hair is so soft.
It's like...
Chiffon.
Chiffon.
That's a name.
It's a little prissy becauseshe's sort of a tough dog and
(12:41):
she bites a lot and stuff.
So I don't know if that's right.
And then there's the margarine.
People are associated with themargarine.
I don't want that.
But that word, Chiffon, there'sthat old singing group, the
Chiffons.
And I love them.
And that whole early 60s girlgroup thing.
(13:02):
sound in those songs.
I love those.
And that feel seems right forher.
That's her spirit.
And I'm going through in my headall these other ones.
Marbleette, Vandella, Crystal,Supreme, Shangri-La, Shirelle.
(13:22):
Hey, Shirelle.
Does that word mean anything?
It's a great song and it seemslike Just Right And I went and
looked them up in some historyof rock and roll and explained
that the name actually meansnothing.
It was a name they made upbecause there was a popular
(13:44):
group at the time called theChantels, and their lead singer
was named Shirley.
So they put it together andnamed it Shirelle.
And it was like, that's perfect!And, you know, there were some
friends who argued against it,who hated the name, and yeah i'm
sticking with it i'm stickingwith it it's great
SPEAKER_00 (14:04):
i
SPEAKER_01 (14:04):
love it yeah and i stuck with it and i i will throw
in here i'm actually gettingmarried in a couple of weeks and
the opening song played rightbefore we get married will be
will you love me tomorrow whichwas a great hit by the Shirelles
(14:26):
on purpose, that would be thething.
SPEAKER_00 (14:29):
Yeah, there was a, and I won't spoil anything for
anybody, but there was a song atthe end of the audio book that
you played.
Yeah, another one.
Yeah, which was, I mean,wonderful.
I mean, I'm telling you, thebook was just, you know, it's
dearest to my heart as far asdogs and the emotion and
everything like that.
But what a well-thought-out wayto give a dog a name.
(14:53):
One of my dogs just came withit.
it.
I have a blue heeler, Hazel.
She just came with it.
I was trying to, Penny, no,this.
I was trying to do somethingfrom, you know, just some movies
and things like that, but I'mlike, it just stuck.
So that is a great story aboutthat.
I love that.
SPEAKER_01 (15:08):
Thanks.
Have you ever seen those bumperstickers that say, let me tell
you about my grandchildren?
No.
For years, I put something on mycar that says, let me tell you
about my dog.
You can ask questions all nightlong.
My favorite topic.
SPEAKER_00 (15:24):
I I absolutely love that and you know again just
feeling it in the book and thewords that I was reading through
I could definitely tell that youlove for dogs and again that's
my inspiration behind this andgetting people to talk and let
their voices be heard out therebut that's a great bumper
sticker by the way you gottamake that happen because that's
(15:44):
perfect because everybody wantsto talk about their dogs and
your story is so wonderful and Ican't wait for more people to
hear about it and I hope that Ican help that.
That's part of my goal here isto share with people and their
stories about their love for thedogs.
The teachings of Sherelle, itblends some humor, some
(16:09):
heartbreak, and some philosophy.
How do you strike a balancebetween all that writing?
It was such a good flow.
Where did that come from?
SPEAKER_01 (16:19):
Well, that's a great question.
It began, as I told you, itbegan as a thought of writing
down what I'd learned from her.
And I started literally onenight in a bar writing on
cocktail napkins.
I love it.
Okay, here's one thing andhere's another thing.
(16:39):
And after a while I realizedthis isn't really working.
This isn't going to fill thebook the way I want it to.
And I had kept a journal that anumber of years before I got
her.
And I thought, okay, here's whatyou need to do, Doug.
You need to go back to maybe sixmonths before you got her and
(17:04):
read that journal through herentire life.
And she lived to be about 12 anda half.
So you're going to read about 13years of your life.
And I had no idea how difficultthat would be.
First of all, to anybody outthere who keeps a diary, keeps a
(17:26):
journal, if you go back and reada bunch of it, you will relive
every emotion you had duringthat time.
So if you, for example, got ajob and were all excited by it,
that went to hell, you will feelevery bit of excitement you had.
And then you will feeldevastated when it goes down.
(17:49):
If you fell in love, oh, you'llget all the ecstasy of it
because it's your own words.
It will do it.
And then you will be justslammed to the ground when that
person dumps you or you dumpthem, whatever it is.
And so it was all this stuff.
I caught a cold, it sounded likeI catch colds all the time here,
(18:11):
but I caught a cold around thetime I started it and I couldn't
shake it.
And eventually I realized thatthis is because you're
emotionally detoxing.
You're not going to get rid ofthis cold until you finish this
thing, which means not until,you know, the dog has died and
you've moved on, you know,you've gone through the whole
(18:32):
grieving process.
You have to go through it again,man.
And sure enough, I finished thatthing and I was healthy in like
two days.
But it took months to go throughit because it was so much
emotional stuff.
And when I was done with that, Ihad written down each little bit
(18:53):
in there, all these stories withher, all this stuff.
Well, it was a few hundred pagesof notes.
It was like, this is way toomuch for this book.
So that began the process ofPulling it down.
What do you need to explain whoshe was?
And as you saw in the book, anexceptional dog, exceptional
(19:15):
person.
Not that every dog isexceptional, but she really was
bizarre in some ways.
And so getting that through.
and telling just enough of mylife so that the lessons she was
teaching me make sense, but notmaking it all about me.
And that took years.
(19:36):
And then moving things around.
There's stuff that isn't inexact order because the chapters
go by subject to some degree.
So there's all that.
It took a few years, as I'msaying, more work than I ever
remotely imagined it would be.
And at the same time, it kind ofkept her alive inside me, which
(19:58):
is just great.
SPEAKER_00 (20:00):
Oh, man.
SPEAKER_01 (20:01):
And
SPEAKER_00 (20:04):
I could feel it when I was, again, I told you this
before.
There's a part of that emotionwhere, you know, in the later
part in the chapters, you couldtell that piece of it and vice
versa.
You know, when she was aliveand, you know, again, I don't
want to spoil anything, butpeople got to know that, you
know, there's that emotion.
(20:24):
internal piece that thatconnection that you two had that
you know kept her going andagain I'll keep it on the down
low for people like they gottaread the book because it was
good it was heart jerking but aquestion I have for you if she
was alive today what would shethink of the book?
SPEAKER_01 (20:43):
Ha! She probably would have chewed up one copy
and peed on another but otherthan that You know, my sense is
that, you know, in a sense sheis alive.
I think she loves it.
I think she loves it.
(21:04):
I think it says to her she wouldwant to be out there.
SPEAKER_00 (21:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (21:10):
Including the brat.
Including the jerk.
Including, you know, the badstuff.
Because she enjoys being those.
Including the, you know,shedding everywhere all the
time.
All that kind of stuff.
And the enormous heart, theenormous love she had that came
out in so many different ways,and the sweetness, and most of
(21:36):
all, and this is kind of whatyou were hitting at, at some
points in her life, herunbelievable power.
That was like awe-inspiringpower overtaking impossible
odds.
SPEAKER_00 (21:48):
Yeah,
SPEAKER_01 (21:49):
and
SPEAKER_00 (21:50):
that's awesome.
And I don't mean to cut you offthere because there's part of
that, you get a little bit intothe book about this and going
through, and I think you werelike, nah, I'm not going to go
through the process of gettingit service dog certified, right?
Right.
I think there's a little bitabout that.
(22:11):
But my question for you, andthis is to anybody out there, is
dogs are just service dogs inthemselves, right?
They're just there.
They're our service.
Right?
Wasn't she that for
SPEAKER_01 (22:26):
you?
I will say this veryspecifically.
In terms of the usefulness ofthe book, my argument has been
for some time that if somebodyhas never had a dog and they're
trying to decide if they want adog or not, I say read Marley
and Me because it will tell youeverything terrible about owning
(22:47):
a dog and why it's totally worthit.
But if you already like dogs andyou want to appreciate your dog
more, read my book becausethat's what it's about.
She was a service dog in allthese ways that you don't train
a service dog to be.
(23:08):
She didn't help me across thestreet.
She didn't help me throughairplane flights.
It was that kind of thing.
She was like a guardian angel.
Get down.
Tell me.
Here's where you're being stupidin your life, man.
This is where you're missing thepoint completely.
(23:28):
Here's what...
And here's why you're goodenough as it is.
And all these messages.
And I learned so much that Ineeded to learn from her.
And you could get, you know, youand I aren't the same.
I know your dog is teaching youstuff all the time.
(23:50):
And so they served that service.
And they also...
Through other services.
It's interesting, I was hearinganother podcast recently about
an organization to get servicedogs for veterans.
Train them and get them forveterans, which is most often
cases of PTSD and all that.
(24:13):
And they said, you know, wetrain the dogs a little, but the
vast majority is just that dogpersonality that comes out
responds with somebody andinstantly knows what they need
and is trying to help them allthe time.
We've taught them to sit andstay and heal, but the dogs do
the rest.
(24:33):
In my case, Cheryl absolutelydid that.
You brought up me choosing notto train her.
It was to be a therapy dog.
When I was starting work as atherapist, I thought, do I want
to do this?
I don't know.
It's a lot of work and money andI don't know if it's worth it.
And then eventually I had, I wasa beginning therapist.
(24:57):
I was what they used to callhere an intern.
And I had a job at a smallclinic.
And with that one, I didn't gether certified.
I just asked the boss if I couldbring her in.
At this point, she was prettyold and calm.
They would never have let mebring her in when she was
younger.
(25:18):
But she was pretty calm and AndI just asked my client, would
you be okay with it?
Every single one of them said,sure, we'd love it.
And she developed a beautifulrelationship with each of them.
SPEAKER_00 (25:31):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (25:31):
And should I tell the best story here?
SPEAKER_00 (25:34):
Absolutely.
You've got to let her rip, forsure.
SPEAKER_01 (25:37):
Okay.
Because she would, they wouldcome in and she would, walk up
to them, they'd pet her, she'dlick their hands, and then she'd
go and curl up in the corner andsleep through the session.
And that was basically it.
This is fine.
But sometimes she would do alittle more.
And one time, there's someclient of mine who's just
(26:01):
beating himself up to such aterrible degree that he almost
can't talk.
And he's just sitting there inthis pain and she just lets out
from across the room this And itwas like, so perfect.
And he burst out laughing.
I burst out laughing.
It's like, I'm so sick of this.
(26:22):
Would you give yourself a break?
Or somebody's sitting theresobbing and she gets up and lays
her head in their lap.
And you know, if I do that, Iwould lose my license.
That's illegal.
She can do it.
It's all great.
But the craziest story, I had aclient who, when she was young,
(26:46):
her father left, left thefamily.
And she was brought up by hersingle mom with her siblings,
and it was a tough childhood.
There was a lot of really roughstuff they went through.
And she became an adult andbecame very successful.
And Suddenly, Dad shows up andwants to be Dad.
(27:10):
And absolutely, half of her issaying, I don't trust you.
Why would I trust you?
Why would I let you in my lifeat all?
And then the other half is thishurt little girl who absolutely
wants Daddy back and would giveanything to get what she had
lost.
So she's really stuck with itand finally says, I'll tell you
(27:33):
what, Dad, would you...
be willing to come and see Dougwith me.
And we could talk, because thereI would feel really safe saying
everything I need to say.
And we could talk about it, andDoug's very nice, it'll all be
fine.
He says, okay.
And he comes in, we meet them,Sherelle walks up, licks hands,
(27:58):
gets petted.
We walk in the room, she curlsup in the corner, goes to sleep,
just like any other day.
And we're chatting.
And at some point, I say, okay,should we do this?
Should we do the thing?
And they say, okay.
And she pulls out a thing thatshe's written and starts reading
(28:22):
it.
And, of course, tears arestarting and stuff.
But as she's reading, I see hisposture stiffen.
And he...
gets very stern looking anduptight, his lips purse, and I
(28:42):
can see this isn't going well.
He's not really responding asyou would hope.
And she finishes, and I say tohim, is there anything you want
to say to her?
Well, I don't know.
(29:02):
know that i agree with everyword she says here but he is so
frozen he is so cold and shelooks up and she sees it and
just starts sobbing it's it'slike she would have been better
off if he'd blown up in furyyeah this is exactly what she
(29:25):
dealt with she's just beingabandoned again And he keeps
talking, and he's not evenseeing her.
He's looking at me, and he's solocked in his fear that he can't
do anything.
And I'm like, what do I do withthis?
What do I do?
And knucklehead in the cornergets up, stretches, walks up.
(29:49):
right up to him, looked him inthe eyes, and she was a big dog.
She looked him in the eyesand...
Wow.
And he's, you know, white,petrified.
SPEAKER_00 (30:05):
Yeah.
She
SPEAKER_01 (30:07):
turns around, goes back to the corner, curls up,
goes back to sleep.
SPEAKER_00 (30:11):
No shit.
SPEAKER_01 (30:13):
And he says, what was that?
And I say...
Well, I don't know.
I think she might have heard asound in another room that we
couldn't hear behind you.
So she was barking at that.
He goes, oh, okay.
And we chat a bit more and thesession goes on and it's lame.
(30:35):
And they leave.
And later that evening I callher up to see how she is.
And she says, I'm okay.
I'm okay.
I learned what I needed tolearn.
but I don't think there wasanything in the next room.
And I said, neither do I.
No, definitely not.
(30:56):
We knew exactly.
That dog was saying, I don'tknow what you're saying, but the
energy here is really, reallydisturbing me, so stop it.
And it was exactly.
And we stayed in touch over theyears.
This was obviously quite a fewyears ago.
And it still comes up.
(31:17):
It still comes up.
That was so validating in a waymore than anything I could
possibly have done, that thisnatural being is saying, this
relationship between you andyour father is really toxic.
It's really something wronghere.
And she's still in touch withhim, but it's like, nope, she
(31:39):
didn't let him in to hurt heragain.
Not a chance.
Not letting him in close.
SPEAKER_00 (31:44):
That's amazing.
So, you know, one thing about...
Did your background inpsychology and education
influence how you approached,like, the book or how you did
things with...
Oh, drastically.
Yeah?
I mean, tell us a little bitabout
SPEAKER_01 (31:58):
that.
Well, the switch...
When I got her, I wasn't in thatat all.
I was, as I say, stillstruggling in the entertainment
SPEAKER_00 (32:08):
world.
The film world.
But
SPEAKER_01 (32:10):
I had been in psychotherapy, my own self, And
so absolutely I was looking foranswers to things.
So she was where I met.
But it was about halfway throughher life that I changed careers.
And I would love to say, that Ichanged because everything was
(32:30):
going fine and I realized I hada higher calling and so
overnight I decided to do this.
No, it's because the filmtheater career had fallen to
pieces.
Nothing was working.
I was getting too old to be anew face and I went through
about a two-year depression onthe way to getting the right,
(32:54):
finding this other path, whichwas drastically the right path
and I'm immensely happier fromdoing it but that part of the
book too is her during that timeannoyingly being showing me how
life could be better when I justwas pissed off and like no I'm
going to be mad and mad ateverything and she's going like
(33:16):
well you know be more like meshut up it was all part of it
and then once I did get into thepsychology world, it was
astounding, even just in school,seeing how much you could see
(33:36):
from her.
And actually, there's a wholebunch that I kept out of the
book of a lot of descriptions ofdifferent, like, schools of
psychology and how she appliedto those and all this stuff, but
it just got to be too much.
But, yeah, just like, I'd say ina sense, All forms of
psychotherapy try to lead you tothe part of yourself that is
(34:01):
truest for you and where you canpursue happiness.
Well, that's what she was everymoment of her life.
She was true to herself andpursuing happiness at all times.
SPEAKER_00 (34:12):
And again, the book, how you talk about that.
One thing, I apologize.
Congratulations on the marriagethat's coming up, by the way.
Thank you.
I know there's some littlesprinkling in there of some
dates and things like that.
I mean, how did that work?
I got my dog.
I know.
(34:32):
One of my dogs, it kind of helpsme with the ladies.
I mean, the world wants to know.
SPEAKER_01 (34:41):
Sherelle really didn't.
And this probably has to do morewith the sorts of women I was
dating at the time.
Okay, sure.
But often there was a, I don'tknow, jealousy is exactly the
right word.
Maybe.
Like a competition of, of like,Doug, you care too much about
(35:05):
your dog.
And the funny thing is, I wouldcompare it a lot to people who
have a kid and date.
SPEAKER_00 (35:14):
And
SPEAKER_01 (35:14):
the fact is, if the person you're dating thinks you
care too much about your kid,dump them.
Because they are not good matesfor you because of course that
kid is enormously important.
And there's a story that's notin the book where I was dating
(35:34):
someone, dating a woman, andshe, at some point, it sounded
like I was trying to be vague,and like, no, no, no, no, no.
I'm trying to remember the exactstory, but it was something
where, at some point, and itwasn't like Sherelle was getting
(35:55):
anything special from me at thatmoment, but blurt out, who's
more important to you, Sherelleor me?
And I kind of froze, partlybecause when I was a child, two
of the dogs my family had weregiven away.
SPEAKER_00 (36:14):
And
SPEAKER_01 (36:15):
I feel like if you tell somebody you're the more
important one, the next line is,well, prove it.
And so I was kind of stuck withthis.
And eventually, like a daylater, my brain kind of opened
up and walked out of that littletrauma.
And I realized, I know theanswer.
(36:35):
The one who's more important tome is the one who wouldn't ask
that question.
SPEAKER_00 (36:40):
Totally.
Totally.
SPEAKER_01 (36:42):
Maybe it's only because she lacks verbal
ability.
SPEAKER_00 (36:47):
We're going to get into that, by the way.
One of you
SPEAKER_01 (36:49):
asked that question, and the other one really likes
you and is always trying to lickyour face.
I'm sticking with the one whodoesn't ask that.
SPEAKER_00 (36:57):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (36:58):
And it's funny, the irony in that is my fiancée
doesn't have any children, buthas a mother that she takes care
of.
SPEAKER_00 (37:08):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (37:09):
And people will say to me, oh...
You know, isn't that reallydifficult?
It's like, well, yeah, butthat's also the kind of person
I'd want to be with.
SPEAKER_00 (37:17):
Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (37:19):
Somebody who is that way and is caring and all that.
And it'd be the same if she wastaking care of her child.
It's like, that's not anegative.
That's a positive.
And Cheryl was a positive toanybody who was smart enough to
see it.
So, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (37:40):
That's great.
I mean, I, again, the part ofthe question was for me is, from
the background, is that, youknow.
We have our dogs, and they openup conversations.
They open up relationships thatwe have with them.
Part of this podcast isdog-friendly.
(38:00):
Dog-friendly is it also opens upwe're being vulnerable to, oh,
can I pet your dog?
It's like, all right, well, thisis my boundaries of it.
But yes, of course, this is whyI brought it around.
Yeah.
Did you take Sherelle to anydog-friendly places?
Were there any favorite placesshe liked to go?
SPEAKER_01 (38:17):
Oh, yeah.
There's a dog park.
For those listeners who are inLos Angeles, it's the one at
Laurel Canyon in Mulholland.
It's just great.
I took her to other ones, butthat one was just heaven because
it's so big and has so many dogsin it.
And she was very, very social.
And she just loved going there.
(38:38):
It was her favorite place.
And we had a number of amazingexperiences.
I mean, as Of course, people whoaren't in L.A.
are going to assume, well, ofcourse, there were movie stars
all over the place.
And I'll say, well, I sat nextto Jack Lemmon there.
Nice.
Oh, shoot, now I'm embarrassed.
(38:58):
I'm not going to even say it,but Joey from Friends was there
one day.
That's great.
That's great.
But in general, it's just a lotof people with their dogs.
Shirell...
fell madly in love and developeda boyfriend there, who was the
only dog who absolutely, theyplayed together perfectly, which
(39:19):
meant they would beat thedaylights out of each other all
the time.
And his owner and I would thenset up play dates.
We would have that dog at myhouse or Shiro at her house, and
it was great because they wouldjust exhaust each other.
And so, like...
this happened.
(39:40):
It's like, it was great.
It's just wonderful.
Uh, there's also a story I lovethat, uh, maybe what you were
thinking of when you asked whereone day that boyfriend wasn't
there, but she, she loved, shewas very much an alpha female.
She loved getting dogs to chaseher.
SPEAKER_00 (40:00):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (40:00):
That was her favorite thing.
And if they caught her great,tumble around on the ground and
play fight and you know, thenshe'll go up and run again.
SPEAKER_00 (40:07):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (40:08):
And she was there drinking some water or
something, and this bulldog mix,I guess, comes over, and he is
in love.
And he climbs up on herbackside, and she turns around
and goes, oh, you're going tochase me?
Okay, and she moves away, and hedoesn't chase her.
(40:29):
Okay.
So she goes, yeah, stop.
She stops.
And he comes up and climbs ontoher back again.
UNKNOWN (40:35):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (40:35):
And she's like, what are you doing?
And he does it again.
And she kind of turns around andgives him a little nip.
Like, no, I'm not wanting tohave sex with you.
That was enough.
But I'll play with you if youwant to play.
And he does it again.
And this time, all the fur onher back stands up.
(40:58):
Her ears go back.
She turns and just lunges athim.
Chases him across the entirepark.
Wow.
Works.
She turns around.
Ears up.
Tail up.
Okay.
Walks back over to me like,what's fun now?
But my argument, and thisactually leads to another thing
(41:19):
besides the book, but myargument here is that if I could
have filmed it, it was what Iwould show Teenagers,
absolutely.
Here is Sherelle's guide to sexand dating.
Wow.
And I will say it in this, youknow, traditional male-female
(41:41):
roles, but anything applies.
Yeah.
Regardless of gender, regardlessof anything.
But if he leans in, tries tokiss you, whatever, or tries for
more, whatever, he's not doinganything wrong, it's okay.
Just say no.
Yeah.
Right.
(42:01):
If he tries again, say morefirmly, no.
SPEAKER_00 (42:05):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (42:06):
If he tries again, say it really strongly.
Like, no, I mean no.
And if he does it again, beatthe crap out of him.
He deserves it.
And you will make life betterfor another girl down the line.
But he is not respecting you atall.
Beat him up.
(42:26):
And it's like, that's fantastic.
But it's like, not on the firsttry.
It's fine.
Go ahead and try.
It's a compliment.
But not, you've got to stop whenI say
SPEAKER_00 (42:39):
stop.
Did you, and I don't rememberthis in the book, did you ever
do a DNA test?
What type of dog and size wasJarell?
SPEAKER_01 (42:48):
Do you know?
No, I never did.
She was 65 pounds.
She was very long-legged, butotherwise pretty, and she was
thin for most of her life.
Yeah.
She absolutely had husky in her.
That's what they had thought atthe pound, and she had a lot of
husky traits.
She had the slightly slantedeyes, all this stuff.
UNKNOWN (43:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (43:10):
And I wasn't sure with the rest because she was
orange or orange and white.
But in her later years, mayberight near the end, I took her
to a vet's
SPEAKER_00 (43:21):
office.
SPEAKER_01 (43:23):
And they had one of those posters on the wall of
different breeds.
And they had a picture of aSaluki.
And the Salukis I'd known hadbeen long-haired, black and
white, whatever.
But this one was orange andwhite.
and sin, and I looked at what,wow, if that and a husky bred,
(43:46):
they would make Shirelle.
And for those who don't know,Salukis, they're from the
Arabian area, the Arabiandesert, I guess, and very fast,
which she was.
She was super fast, almost likea greyhound.
So, think of an orange greyhoundmating with a husky, and you'd
kind of have her.
(44:07):
Sure.
SPEAKER_00 (44:08):
Well, okay.
Well, that's good.
And we're going to, when we postthis next week, get a picture of
you and Sherelle so people cansee it.
It's going to be on socialmedia.
So it's great for that piece ofit and the visual.
Then it gives a little moreconcept.
But I also like to, you know,people can, when they're
listening to it, they're like,oh, I can envision that.
And, you know, some of the moreexperts out there think about
(44:28):
it.
You
SPEAKER_01 (44:28):
know, I need to check on this.
There's supposed to be a QR codewith the audio book so that if,
you can go and see theillustrations from the book,
that you can see the pictures.
And yeah, so that should bethere.
(44:51):
If it's not, I need to check inwith the public.
SPEAKER_00 (44:53):
You know, do you have any aspirations to write
any more books about dogs?
I mean, it seems like you've gota pretty good handle, and I like
it.
I mean, again, the book
SPEAKER_01 (45:03):
was right up the alley.
Actually, I...
There's the Shirell book.
The next book that I wrote wasa, or is, a novel that is about
a dog I had, but it's a totallydifferent feel from the Shirell
book.
It's actually, this was a rescuedog who was, by the time I got
(45:25):
her, she was the opposite ofShirell.
She had been beaten andabandoned.
She was frightened of lots ofthings.
She was not enjoying life theway Shirell did.
And I realized I have kind of amission here.
I have to be Shirell to thisdog.
I have to do what Shirell didfor me.
SPEAKER_00 (45:43):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (45:43):
And help this dog enjoy life more.
SPEAKER_00 (45:46):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (45:47):
And after about a year of that, because I kept
trying to figure out what thehell had this dog been through?
Because the people I got herfrom were wonderful.
They were a rescue couple thathad her for six months.
It wasn't them.
It was somebody before them.
And...
Eventually, I had come up withso many scenarios in my head
(46:08):
about what had happened to herto explain things.
I went, Doug, that's your nextbook.
You have a fictional story ofwhat this dog went through and
how she came through, how shetriumphed, how she survived.
If anything, I'd say, think JackLondon's adventure story, but a
(46:30):
tough one.
Then, After that one, I havebeen working on another book,
and my only thing I'm sayingabout it is there's not going to
be a dog anywhere near it.
It's not about a dog.
It's a totally different thing.
Fair enough.
A fiction again.
Not that I dislike dogs.
I've got other stories to tell,but they're me.
(46:56):
There may be another dog bookcoming someday, too, because
it's certainly one of myfavorite topics, and they are
such great characters.
SPEAKER_00 (47:04):
Yeah, and so if people going through the loss of
a dog...
um, what would you say to themand how to cope?
What, what's something, somewisdom that you can give through
your experiences through this?
And the books tells a lot ofthat.
I'll tell you like, yeah, thatthere is a lot of good power in
(47:24):
there.
And I, I want to put, I'm, I'm,all my friends are going to, you
know, sit down and read thisbook.
I mean, it's so awesome.
But, um, what's your, what'syour wisdom of like from your
heart of what to do?
SPEAKER_01 (47:37):
The number one is listen.
And I mean, listen with yourheart.
Because there's a really, reallygood chance that dog is going to
be talking to you.
And in Sherelle's case, it wasinsanely.
And I've had, since the bookcame out, I've had friends say,
(48:00):
you know, I know Sherelle was inmy house today.
She's a super powerful soul.
But It's the last one I have.
It's a little gift.
And just little things show up.
And so that would be the firstthing I would say.
But also know that, and this isnot original at all, the more it
(48:26):
hurts, the more that meansthey're still inside
SPEAKER_00 (48:30):
you.
SPEAKER_01 (48:31):
And if you didn't love them and you...
you know, they went and a weeklater you're totally fine
walking around, then that meansthey weren't that great.
Or the two of you weren't thatgreat.
The fact that Shirelle died 18years ago and it still
SPEAKER_00 (48:54):
hurts,
SPEAKER_01 (48:55):
that is a glorious statement.
It's like every bit of hurt islike, yes, that's how great she
was and still is in me.
That's how much I love her.
I still love dogs.
I have long before her.
I won't pretend I don't.
But really, the grief is a giftin a funny way.
(49:18):
The pain is a gift.
It hurts like hell.
And, you know, in her case, ithad many stages.
And I go through that in thebook.
Because it...
of our relationship and the wayshe went and stuff like that.
It went through a number ofreally tough phases.
(49:40):
As well as, as I was talkingabout having her in with those
clients, one part was I had todeal with all of their grief
because they were all crazyabout her and each one dealt
with it in a different way.
And so I had to be big andhandle their grief while I was
(50:04):
going completely mad.
SPEAKER_00 (50:06):
Absolutely.
Well, on a lighter note, you areofficially a howler.
So the parent company, my mommakes hand-crocheted scarves for
dogs and then matching hats foryou.
So I'm wearing a hat.
This is actually a bald cap forsummer and then we do matching
scarves.
But Alpine Howl is a parentcompany.
I'm using this as a platform totalk to people and they're so
(50:29):
fantastic.
I love it.
But you're officially a I loveit! I love it! I always ask this
(50:51):
question.
What would you say?
My dog, Hazel, would say, Dad,Dad.
And I say this one every timebecause there's like what she
says to me.
She just looks at me in themorning in the eyes and goes,
Dad, Dad, Dad.
She will just say, Dad, untillike I get up.
What would Shereld say to you?
SPEAKER_01 (51:13):
Because you said Alpine Hell, there's no
question.
I'm throwing another story in,man.
I took her on a camping tripwith my brother and his family
up in the mountains.
I want to say it was a littlenorth of the Vail area.
And it was ridiculouslybeautiful.
(51:34):
And the last day we were there,we were starting to clean up.
Yeah.
UNKNOWN (51:44):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (51:45):
And she kept running up to me.
It was early morning, so she wasfull of energy.
And she was running up withsticks and saying, you know,
play with me, play with me, playwith me.
I'm busy.
I'm going to take down this cat.
I'm trying to do these things.
Leave me alone.
And finally, I said, okay, I'llgive you what you want.
And I found this branch of thistree that was maybe six feet
(52:07):
long.
I don't know what it weighed,but...
Enough, enough to be, you know,basically impossible.
And we were by a hillside thatwas almost a cliff.
And I just threw it down there,chased that.
Then you'll find something else.
You'll leave me alone.
She runs down after it.
(52:28):
I'm cleaning up stuff with mybrother.
And then we suddenly hear thissound.
And what is it?
She found the damn thing and iscoming up this almost 90 degree
angle, let's say 45 degreeangle, in thin air, pulling
(52:48):
herself up, carrying the thingthat weighs half her weight, and
in her mouth, through trees, soit's like hard to get it around,
and getting herself up, and shemakes it to the top, and she is
so proud, and I throw it downagain, and she goes up and keeps
doing it And everyone there iskind of staring like, I can't
(53:12):
believe I'm watching this thing.
This is impossible.
There's no way this ishappening.
And the reason I say, again, yousaid Alpine, that was her
energy.
That something that seemed,there's an old love song that
says, the difficult I'll doright now, the impossible will
(53:33):
take a little while.
That was her thing.
Let me try the impossiblebecause that's how much I love
life.
Embracing life in every way.
She was perfectly happy to siton the bed too.
I'm lying on the bed shedding,messing up your place.
(53:54):
I'm loving
SPEAKER_00 (53:54):
that.
So true.
SPEAKER_01 (53:55):
Damn it.
That would be her message to me,to you, to your listeners, to
everybody.
It's just...
Do that.
Embrace life in every way youcan.
It doesn't last long enough.
It's usually longer for us thanit is for dogs.
But that means they just get itbetter.
(54:19):
Man, don't waste it.
Don't waste it.
Run up that hill.
And if you can't make it, that'sokay.
Maybe you can't.
You put the thing down and yourun up.
But try.
The joy is in the trying.
And the joy is gigantic.
SPEAKER_00 (54:41):
My theory in life, and all things in the sense of
things is that my motto hasbeen, I've lost family over the
years, and my dogs have been thebrightest part of my life
because I have two dogs, a pityand a healer.
But truly, because my uncle wentthrough a big...
(55:04):
burns Oliver's body but everyday I wake up is a good day so
my hashtag that I say if I postanything personally every day is
a good day because guess whatsome people don't wake up and
guess what you can be able to itdoesn't matter everyone goes
through their things so herenergy on that level I can
(55:26):
totally relate because when Iwake up I feel great even though
whatever is going on in theworld it doesn't matter because
I woke up Every day is a goodday.
So that is so special that yousaid that.
That's so fantastic.
SPEAKER_01 (55:39):
And the only thing Sherelle would add to it is it's
a good day if you find a way tomake it a good day.
SPEAKER_00 (55:46):
There you go.
And you can.
SPEAKER_01 (55:49):
And some days you can't.
Some days you can't.
Sure, yeah.
Day after she died, nope.
SPEAKER_00 (55:55):
Yeah, fair enough.
Fair enough, fair enough.
SPEAKER_01 (55:58):
But, but, damn it, most days...
Go out there, stick your headout the door and sniff and see
what you find.
And there's probably something.
And, you know, it doesn't haveto be the whole day is great.
But, you know, I got some toughstuff today.
I had some clients who wentthrough some tough stuff.
(56:19):
I get it.
It's time talking to you.
It's a great day.
SPEAKER_00 (56:22):
Absolutely.
I'm so thankful for it.
Hey, thank you so much fortaking this great conversation.
Got to tell you.
I'm going to plug everything.
Where can people get the book?
Where can they order?
Where's the best place for them
SPEAKER_01 (56:36):
to order?
My favorite place for you to gois a website called Circuit
Breaker Books.
These people published thesecond edition, and they've been
so wonderful with me.
And it'll give you a link toother places you can actually
buy it.
Perfect.
But also look at their otherbooks, because they're great.
Absolutely.
(56:58):
And that is true of both TheTeachings of Shirell and A Dog
of Many Names, which is theother book I wrote.
And that one also has awonderful audio book read by a
woman with a voice like butteras they say but and this most
loveliest voice yeah but theteachers of cheryl it had to be
(57:20):
me because yeah it was great i i
SPEAKER_00 (57:23):
i what you started talking it was great it was your
voice and i know like your voicebecause i was listening to it
i'm like wow this is his voiceis this so good i love that i
listen to audiobooks every weekso i love it yeah um i i can
SPEAKER_01 (57:36):
just say if anybody
SPEAKER_00 (57:39):
else
SPEAKER_01 (57:39):
If I'd hired somebody else, but as the best
reader in the world, James EarlJones, whatever you want to say,
I would have been the worstdirector in history.
Nope, you're saying that wordwrong.
Nope, you're saying this becauseit's all me.
It's all my opinions, my
SPEAKER_00 (57:56):
experiences.
SPEAKER_01 (57:57):
With the other book, it was fine.
She said things differently thanI would have, and that was
great.
It's hitting me.
Brendan, I'm going to send you aphoto.
Okay, great.
There's another weird storyhere.
This one's scary.
I...
That day when she was running upand down the hill, I had a
little instamatic panorama, notinstamatic, but a disposable
(58:22):
panoramic camera.
Took a bunch of pictures, reallybeautiful ones.
One of them came out and wascrazy beautiful.
Just like, like...
wow, that's the most beautifulphoto I've ever taken.
That's incredible.
And it was of her standing on ahillside after this, feeling so
full of herself and so strongand so powerful.
(58:45):
Wow, that's incredible.
And that was my Christmas cardthat year.
Love it.
And years later, I took it, Ihad lost the negatives, I found
them, and I took them in to getdigitized and all this.
And when I'm doing the book, Ican't find them.
(59:07):
There are no negatives.
There's no digital anything.
So it's in the book.
It's actually, if you, well, inthe original edition of the
book, it was a centerfold.
Fold it out like Playboy.
About two weeks ago, suddenly inmy photos file in my computer,
that whole role showed up.
(59:28):
What?
I did the book.
The book came out, the originaledition of the book came out 10
years ago.
SPEAKER_00 (59:34):
2015.
10 years
SPEAKER_01 (59:36):
after that, this thing shows up.
SPEAKER_00 (59:38):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (59:39):
Wow.
So I'm going to send you thereal picture.
Please do.
Of what she looked like
SPEAKER_00 (59:44):
after that.
I would love to post it too.
Yeah, absolutely.
That'd be great.
That would be great.
Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (59:50):
That would be great.
Yeah.
So that's, That's the Alpinehowl, is that photo.
SPEAKER_00 (59:57):
No doubt about it.
She'll be the dog of the day.
Doug, I can't thank you enough.
This has been absolutelyhands-down fantastic.
SPEAKER_01 (01:00:05):
The gratitude goes ten times as much for you.
So thank you.
SPEAKER_00 (01:00:09):
Absolutely.
And I'm going to give my friendsthe links.
They've got to read this book.
All my friends have dogs.
I mean, Colorado, if you evercome down, look me up.
I'll take you around.
There are some dog-friendlyplaces like you wouldn't
believe.
And, gosh, this has been trulyan honor to talk to you.
I mean it.
You got it.
And I'm going to get a hat rightnow.
Yeah, absolutely.
(01:00:29):
Take it out.
And, you know, we'll be intouch.
SPEAKER_01 (01:00:34):
I appreciate it.
I appreciate it so much, man.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
I've envied that beer.
I've been watching you drink.
I think I might have to have onemyself right now.
SPEAKER_00 (01:00:44):
Yeah, and again, this is what it is.
Tell your friends about it.
I'm going to eventually travelthe country a little bit.
I got to Northern California,hopefully get out to L.A.
I got some friends here.
They're from Long Beach.
Oh, give me a yell if you
SPEAKER_01 (01:00:56):
come out.
I absolutely
SPEAKER_00 (01:00:59):
will.
I love the area, so no doubtabout it.
Wow, what a great conversation.
And thank you again, Doug.
So great to have you on theshow.
Hope you like the podcast.
Everybody, download it,subscribe.
Grab a copy of the book, TheTeachings of Sherelle, Life
(01:01:19):
Lessons from a DefinedKnucklehead.
You can get it on Amazon.
I have all the links in thenotes.
Also, check out Doug on hiswebsite, authordouglasgreen.com.
You know, you can...
He's got links to the audiobook, Amazon, Bookshop,
AskSherelle, AskSherelle.com,another website, down to earth
(01:01:45):
advice for kids and theirparents, more readings from
Doug.
Just a great human.
That was so excellent.
And I'm thankful that, you know,like he said, you know, thankful
for the dogs that we have.
They make the day so muchbetter.
They are human therapy dogs.
beings that are living around useach day so thank you also Gross
(01:02:10):
and Bart for allowing me to sitthere and take this interview
people are coming up looking atme I'm also talking with Doug
via zoom if you want to be onthe show and talk dogs for dog
friendly drop me a line you cansend a DM through Instagram go
(01:02:30):
to Alpine at Alpine Howell Orsend me an email, info at
alpinehowell.com.
And let's talk some dogs.
Maybe even have a few beers.
At some point, we're going totry and get this video going.
But, you know, hey, I got a lotgoing on, just as everybody.
But I thank you all forlistening.
(01:02:51):
I hope you enjoyed this one.
You know, the review of the weekis of, you know, both books.
Five out of fives, you know,Happy, sad, all the emotions.
His other book, A Dog of ManyNames.
Pretty interesting story.
A dog popping around todifferent owners.
But you can tell that Doug putsin good emotion into his book.
(01:03:15):
So The Teachings of Shirell,Life Lessons from a Divine
Knucklehead.
Great story about Doug and hisdog Shirell.
Five out of five as well.
So that's the reviews of theweek for those books.
Fantastic.
And next week, We got a localcelebrity, the Uber dog.
We're going to sit down withhim.
(01:03:36):
Yeah.
All the things about, you know,having that Instagram power,
the, you know, YouTube, all thatstuff.
So cool.
He's right out here in Boulder,Colorado.
So much fun there too.
So until next time, pet themdogs.
This episode was written andproduced by the owner of Alpine
(01:03:58):
Howl, Brandon Bennett.
Hit subscribe on all the majorplatforms to get weekly episodes
of Dog Friendly.
Produced by Alpine Howell.
Check us out, alpinehowell.comfor handcrafted scarves for your
dog and matching hats for theirhumans.
We also have the latest hats forsummer with matching bandanas,
(01:04:21):
alpinehowell.com.
Want to be on the show?
Send us a message, info atalpinehowell.com.
or DM us through Instagram.
Thoughts or suggestions?
Also drop us a line.
Remember, pet them dogs.
Good morning, dog lovers.
Welcome to Dog Friendly, thepodcast where we celebrate the
joy of dogs and the adventureswe share with them.
I'm your host, Brandon Bennettfrom Alpine Howell.
Each week, I take you todog-friendly locations to chat
(00:20):
with passionate dog owners abouttheir furry companions and the
unforgettable experiencesthey've had together.
We'll also hear from experts whoshare valuable insights on
training, health, and making themost out of our time with our
canine pals, all while enjoyingthe great outdoors.
So whether you're a seasoned pupparent or just a dog lover, grab
(00:41):
your leash, maybe a libation,and join us as we enjoy the
world of dogs and incredibleadventures that await.
Let's dive into today's episode.
Good morning, everybody, andhappy Thursday, May 15th.
A lovely Thursday, even whenyour dog wakes you up with a
(01:03):
dirty nose.
Yep, that's right.
My little blue heeler, I gaveher a bone yesterday, and she
went and buried it in thebackyard.
My pity doesn't do that.
He eats it like maybe dogs oughtto, but, you know, I don't know.
It goes through the brain.
Anyway, I had a crusty nosewaking me up this morning, so
it's mild.
It's, yeah, that girl.
(01:25):
Love her.
We got an exciting episode thisweek.
I got the chance to talk withauthor Douglas Green.
He called in from SouthernCalifornia.
He is a psychotherapist livingin Southern California, but he
also wrote a couple books.
The book we specifically getinto is The Teachings of
(01:47):
Shirelle, Life Lessons from aDivine Knucklehead.
What a good one.
You'll have to pick up a copyand put those in the show notes
as well as, or you can listen onaudio.
I have both.
And wow, they're pretty good.
So here we go.
Okay.
Where is Longmont?
(02:08):
I don't know it.
Just north of Boulder, Colorado,11 miles.
Okay.
Literally just up the road.
I worked in Boulder for almost11 years and tried and true.
I'm originally from Wisconsin,but now I'm in Longmont because
it's a little more affordablethan the Boulder area, but still
crazy.
SPEAKER_01 (02:29):
That's great.
My brother has lived a littleoutside Vail for about 40 years.
SPEAKER_00 (02:35):
Oh,
SPEAKER_01 (02:36):
that's great.
Yeah, so I've been out there 100times.
Love
SPEAKER_00 (02:42):
that area.
So let's jump right into it.
We'll get into all the nuts andbolts of it.
I started off with first andlast name, and what do you do?
SPEAKER_01 (02:53):
Sure.
Just right here, right
SPEAKER_00 (02:55):
now?
You're ready?
Yeah.
We're rolling.
SPEAKER_01 (02:58):
Okay.
UNKNOWN (02:59):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (02:59):
My name is Doug Green, and professionally, I'm a
psychotherapist, but I also am awriter.
And that's how we got caught uphere, Brenda.
I have a book that I wrote anumber of years ago, came out
about 10 years ago, but a secondedition of it has just been
(03:20):
released, and an audiobook of itis being released next week.
SPEAKER_00 (03:25):
That's fantastic.
UNKNOWN (03:26):
Fantastic.
SPEAKER_01 (03:26):
It is.
It's a dream come true.
SPEAKER_00 (03:29):
I mean, I read through the book and actually,
you have two books, right?
Yes.
Okay, so I grabbed your firstbook, and that was before I got
the copy, and I'll tell you, thetearjerker, but I'm going to get
right through it.
What inspired you to write thisbook about your dog, Shirell?
(03:51):
Shirell.
SPEAKER_01 (03:52):
Shirell.
Named for the singing group, theShirells.
Yeah.
What inspired it was I had hadthis dog, had this amazing
experience, which the book isall about, And a few years,
maybe a year or two after welost her, I was struck.
(04:12):
I was looking at a bestsellerlist.
And I thought, you know, I'velooked at bestseller lists all
my life.
And some things are onbestseller lists all the time.
Certain kinds of books arealways there.
But there's three kinds of booksthat really were uniquely
specific to that time thatseemed to be on the list all the
(04:34):
time.
Whatever week you looked.
And one, for lack of a betterword, I would call guru book.
The Secret or Eckhart Tolle orthings like that.
Books that take timeless wisdomand put it in a very easily
understandable, digestibleformat.
Then there were books about whatone knows at the end of life.
(04:57):
Tuesdays with Maury being thebig one, but the last lecture,
different things that are Youknow, 200 pages of I should have
spent more time with my family,basically.
And then animal books.
And Marley and Me was, ofcourse, the huge seller.
But after Marley and Me foryears, it was always something
about a cat or something about adog.
(05:19):
And I thought, you know, isn'tthis interesting that the
greatest teacher of timelesswisdom I've ever known,
especially with things dealingabout the end of life, happened
to be a dog?
Isn't that interesting?
And I kind of walked on and thenlater that day thought, isn't
that interesting?
And then the next day I woke upand thought, isn't that
(05:39):
interesting?
And suddenly realized, Doug, Ithink you got a job ahead of
you.
And I can say very easily thatyears later, It is my favorite
accomplishment of my life.
It's the thing I'm proudest of.
And if I had any idea how muchwork that book would have been,
I never would have lifted a penfor the first word of it.
SPEAKER_00 (06:03):
Wow.
Both
SPEAKER_01 (06:05):
are absolutely true.
SPEAKER_00 (06:07):
Wow.
That's, I mean, quite anaccomplishment.
I mean, writing a book initself, like I can't even just
fathom that.
I'm more of the audio, let'stalk with each other and stuff
like that.
Yeah.
To dive into your relationshipwith, I want to make sure that,
Sherelle, correct?
Sherelle.
Sherelle, okay.
I mean, I made sure I even gotthe audio book so I could listen
(06:30):
to, to make sure I could say itright for you because I want to.
SPEAKER_01 (06:33):
oh wow you got an advanced copy that's cool
SPEAKER_00 (06:36):
well it showed up I was when I first got the
paperback I was like okay well Ialso listen to audio books and I
want to make sure that I'm doingmy research and make sure that I
dive into sound like I'm youknow again that was instilled in
me I think I learned that incollege in my upbringing but
(06:56):
Sherelle I found I listened toaudio books through Amazon and
it said available May 1st so i iliterally last night at 12
o'clock mountain standard time igot i i downloaded it on my
phone that's awesome i kid younot i paid i paid the 998 or
(07:18):
whatever it was and it was greati'm glad that i had it because i
wanted to make sure that i wasdoubling up and and getting all
the nicks and crannies of it souh i mean wow thank you
absolutely but but tell us andthe the the listeners out there,
how you met Sherelle and therole she played in your life.
(07:39):
Give us a little teaser of that.
Obviously, the book goes throughthat stuff, but how does that
meeting go?
SPEAKER_01 (07:46):
Oh, man.
Well, the meeting itselfactually starts a few months
before I met her.
I've always loved dogs.
I saw dogs growing up.
I was crazy about them.
I was living here in L.A.,living in a little apartment in
struggling, trying to make it inthe film, television, theater
industry.
(08:07):
And one day, I had a bad cold.
It was late summer, verypolluted.
It happens here, you know, attimes, famously.
And I went off into themountains just to get a break
and was walking around in thesebeautiful woods.
And at some point, I was leaningagainst a big tree or something.
(08:29):
And this voice comes to me.
And I'm not somebody who hearsvoices a lot.
But this voice came to me andsaid, you need to move out of
your apartment and get a dog.
Because Currently, nobody tracksmud into your home.
Yeah.
That was a weird line.
SPEAKER_00 (08:50):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (08:51):
But I thought, you better obey it, man.
Whoever said that to you, it'strue.
Yeah.
And I did.
I found a tiny old house, movedinto it.
And at some point when I feltready, took a friend with me and
we went and...
started going to Pound, which,as you know, as a dog lover, is
(09:14):
horrible.
You know, it just breaks yourheart.
You want to take every singleone of them home.
And I, we'd gone to, I guessthis was the second Pound we
went to, and I walked in, and Iknew what I wanted.
I wanted a very young puppy,like, you know, a month old or
something, so it didn't have anyexperiences, it didn't have any
(09:36):
abuse, whatever.
And no, they didn't haveanything like that.
But we walked through, okay.
And I'm walking through,checking out the different
things.
And suddenly, I hadn't seen thisdog, but I'm staring into this
dog's eyes.
And I hadn't reached to the dog,but my hand was in this dog's
(09:59):
mouth.
It was chewing on it.
And it was a puppy, but it wasbig.
It was like three and a halfmonths old.
UNKNOWN (10:06):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (10:07):
It was longer hair than I'd want because it gets so
hot here.
It was older.
I say it.
It was a female.
And I thought, I'm feeling thisgreat connection with the song,
but it's not really what I want.
I should go to this other poundand see if they've got what I
want.
I went to this other pound,good, lovely dog.
(10:29):
It was like, nope, it's thatone.
And the big question was, Thepound was going to be shut for
the next couple of days, and theattendant there said that
sometimes, because they wereovercrowded, sometimes the guy
who manages it comes through toclean up on the days they're
(10:51):
shut.
Okay,
SPEAKER_00 (10:52):
yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (10:53):
So I had nightmares for two nights, horrible,
violent nightmares of the puppybeing dismembered and blood
everywhere and all sorts ofstuff.
I'm there the next...
morning that they open.
I walk in.
They've got a bunch of youngpuppies, exactly what I wanted.
I don't care.
Ran through, found that dog,grabbed her, and that was the
(11:17):
beginning of the adventure.
That's
SPEAKER_00 (11:19):
fantastic.
SPEAKER_01 (11:21):
Absolutely.
And anybody who has a mysticalor spiritual or theological
argument for it, I'll say, I betyou're right.
Because there was something justeerie with that connection.
SPEAKER_00 (11:34):
Was that her name when you got her?
Or did you remember that?
SPEAKER_01 (11:39):
No.
She was a stray.
Okay.
I...
I would have named her after theattendant who saved her life,
who took her in and stole hercard so nobody would see how
long she'd been there.
But her name was Kelly, and myname's Green.
And it's funny because Iactually now have a friend named
Kelly Green.
But at the time, I thought,that's a shame.
(12:00):
That's not a name.
That's terrible.
So, yeah, didn't do that.
And the story with the name isthat I had her for a few days
and was just trying to, youknow, there's any name coming
up, but anything was sort oflogical.
I wanted something natural,organic.
(12:21):
And I was driving out to havedinner with some friends.
And on the road, I thought, boy,she is so soft.
That puppy's hair is so soft.
It's like...
Chiffon.
Chiffon.
That's a name.
It's a little prissy becauseshe's sort of a tough dog and
(12:41):
she bites a lot and stuff.
So I don't know if that's right.
And then there's the margarine.
People are associated with themargarine.
I don't want that.
But that word, Chiffon, there'sthat old singing group, the
Chiffons.
And I love them.
And that whole early 60s girlgroup thing.
(13:02):
sound in those songs.
I love those.
And that feel seems right forher.
That's her spirit.
And I'm going through in my headall these other ones.
Marbleette, Vandella, Crystal,Supreme, Shangri-La, Shirelle.
(13:22):
Hey, Shirelle.
Does that word mean anything?
It's a great song and it seemslike Just Right And I went and
looked them up in some historyof rock and roll and explained
that the name actually meansnothing.
It was a name they made upbecause there was a popular
(13:44):
group at the time called theChantels, and their lead singer
was named Shirley.
So they put it together andnamed it Shirelle.
And it was like, that's perfect!And, you know, there were some
friends who argued against it,who hated the name, and yeah i'm
sticking with it i'm stickingwith it it's great
SPEAKER_00 (14:04):
i
SPEAKER_01 (14:04):
love it yeah and i stuck with it and i i will throw
in here i'm actually gettingmarried in a couple of weeks and
the opening song played rightbefore we get married will be
will you love me tomorrow whichwas a great hit by the Shirelles
(14:26):
on purpose, that would be thething.
SPEAKER_00 (14:29):
Yeah, there was a, and I won't spoil anything for
anybody, but there was a song atthe end of the audio book that
you played.
Yeah, another one.
Yeah, which was, I mean,wonderful.
I mean, I'm telling you, thebook was just, you know, it's
dearest to my heart as far asdogs and the emotion and
everything like that.
But what a well-thought-out wayto give a dog a name.
(14:53):
One of my dogs just came withit.
it.
I have a blue heeler, Hazel.
She just came with it.
I was trying to, Penny, no,this.
I was trying to do somethingfrom, you know, just some movies
and things like that, but I'mlike, it just stuck.
So that is a great story aboutthat.
I love that.
SPEAKER_01 (15:08):
Thanks.
Have you ever seen those bumperstickers that say, let me tell
you about my grandchildren?
No.
For years, I put something on mycar that says, let me tell you
about my dog.
You can ask questions all nightlong.
My favorite topic.
SPEAKER_00 (15:24):
I I absolutely love that and you know again just
feeling it in the book and thewords that I was reading through
I could definitely tell that youlove for dogs and again that's
my inspiration behind this andgetting people to talk and let
their voices be heard out therebut that's a great bumper
sticker by the way you gottamake that happen because that's
(15:44):
perfect because everybody wantsto talk about their dogs and
your story is so wonderful and Ican't wait for more people to
hear about it and I hope that Ican help that.
That's part of my goal here isto share with people and their
stories about their love for thedogs.
The teachings of Sherelle, itblends some humor, some
(16:09):
heartbreak, and some philosophy.
How do you strike a balancebetween all that writing?
It was such a good flow.
Where did that come from?
SPEAKER_01 (16:19):
Well, that's a great question.
It began, as I told you, itbegan as a thought of writing
down what I'd learned from her.
And I started literally onenight in a bar writing on
cocktail napkins.
I love it.
Okay, here's one thing andhere's another thing.
(16:39):
And after a while I realizedthis isn't really working.
This isn't going to fill thebook the way I want it to.
And I had kept a journal that anumber of years before I got
her.
And I thought, okay, here's whatyou need to do, Doug.
You need to go back to maybe sixmonths before you got her and
(17:04):
read that journal through herentire life.
And she lived to be about 12 anda half.
So you're going to read about 13years of your life.
And I had no idea how difficultthat would be.
First of all, to anybody outthere who keeps a diary, keeps a
(17:26):
journal, if you go back and reada bunch of it, you will relive
every emotion you had duringthat time.
So if you, for example, got ajob and were all excited by it,
that went to hell, you will feelevery bit of excitement you had.
And then you will feeldevastated when it goes down.
(17:49):
If you fell in love, oh, you'llget all the ecstasy of it
because it's your own words.
It will do it.
And then you will be justslammed to the ground when that
person dumps you or you dumpthem, whatever it is.
And so it was all this stuff.
I caught a cold, it sounded likeI catch colds all the time here,
(18:11):
but I caught a cold around thetime I started it and I couldn't
shake it.
And eventually I realized thatthis is because you're
emotionally detoxing.
You're not going to get rid ofthis cold until you finish this
thing, which means not until,you know, the dog has died and
you've moved on, you know,you've gone through the whole
(18:32):
grieving process.
You have to go through it again,man.
And sure enough, I finished thatthing and I was healthy in like
two days.
But it took months to go throughit because it was so much
emotional stuff.
And when I was done with that, Ihad written down each little bit
(18:53):
in there, all these stories withher, all this stuff.
Well, it was a few hundred pagesof notes.
It was like, this is way toomuch for this book.
So that began the process ofPulling it down.
What do you need to explain whoshe was?
And as you saw in the book, anexceptional dog, exceptional
(19:15):
person.
Not that every dog isexceptional, but she really was
bizarre in some ways.
And so getting that through.
and telling just enough of mylife so that the lessons she was
teaching me make sense, but notmaking it all about me.
And that took years.
(19:36):
And then moving things around.
There's stuff that isn't inexact order because the chapters
go by subject to some degree.
So there's all that.
It took a few years, as I'msaying, more work than I ever
remotely imagined it would be.
And at the same time, it kind ofkept her alive inside me, which
(19:58):
is just great.
SPEAKER_00 (20:00):
Oh, man.
SPEAKER_01 (20:01):
And
SPEAKER_00 (20:04):
I could feel it when I was, again, I told you this
before.
There's a part of that emotionwhere, you know, in the later
part in the chapters, you couldtell that piece of it and vice
versa.
You know, when she was aliveand, you know, again, I don't
want to spoil anything, butpeople got to know that, you
know, there's that emotion.
(20:24):
internal piece that thatconnection that you two had that
you know kept her going andagain I'll keep it on the down
low for people like they gottaread the book because it was
good it was heart jerking but aquestion I have for you if she
was alive today what would shethink of the book?
SPEAKER_01 (20:43):
Ha! She probably would have chewed up one copy
and peed on another but otherthan that You know, my sense is
that, you know, in a sense sheis alive.
I think she loves it.
I think she loves it.
(21:04):
I think it says to her she wouldwant to be out there.
SPEAKER_00 (21:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (21:10):
Including the brat.
Including the jerk.
Including, you know, the badstuff.
Because she enjoys being those.
Including the, you know,shedding everywhere all the
time.
All that kind of stuff.
And the enormous heart, theenormous love she had that came
out in so many different ways,and the sweetness, and most of
(21:36):
all, and this is kind of whatyou were hitting at, at some
points in her life, herunbelievable power.
That was like awe-inspiringpower overtaking impossible
odds.
SPEAKER_00 (21:48):
Yeah,
SPEAKER_01 (21:49):
and
SPEAKER_00 (21:50):
that's awesome.
And I don't mean to cut you offthere because there's part of
that, you get a little bit intothe book about this and going
through, and I think you werelike, nah, I'm not going to go
through the process of gettingit service dog certified, right?
Right.
I think there's a little bitabout that.
(22:11):
But my question for you, andthis is to anybody out there, is
dogs are just service dogs inthemselves, right?
They're just there.
They're our service.
Right?
Wasn't she that for
SPEAKER_01 (22:26):
you?
I will say this veryspecifically.
In terms of the usefulness ofthe book, my argument has been
for some time that if somebodyhas never had a dog and they're
trying to decide if they want adog or not, I say read Marley
and Me because it will tell youeverything terrible about owning
(22:47):
a dog and why it's totally worthit.
But if you already like dogs andyou want to appreciate your dog
more, read my book becausethat's what it's about.
She was a service dog in allthese ways that you don't train
a service dog to be.
(23:08):
She didn't help me across thestreet.
She didn't help me throughairplane flights.
It was that kind of thing.
She was like a guardian angel.
Get down.
Tell me.
Here's where you're being stupidin your life, man.
This is where you're missing thepoint completely.
(23:28):
Here's what...
And here's why you're goodenough as it is.
And all these messages.
And I learned so much that Ineeded to learn from her.
And you could get, you know, youand I aren't the same.
I know your dog is teaching youstuff all the time.
(23:50):
And so they served that service.
And they also...
Through other services.
It's interesting, I was hearinganother podcast recently about
an organization to get servicedogs for veterans.
Train them and get them forveterans, which is most often
cases of PTSD and all that.
(24:13):
And they said, you know, wetrain the dogs a little, but the
vast majority is just that dogpersonality that comes out
responds with somebody andinstantly knows what they need
and is trying to help them allthe time.
We've taught them to sit andstay and heal, but the dogs do
the rest.
(24:33):
In my case, Cheryl absolutelydid that.
You brought up me choosing notto train her.
It was to be a therapy dog.
When I was starting work as atherapist, I thought, do I want
to do this?
I don't know.
It's a lot of work and money andI don't know if it's worth it.
And then eventually I had, I wasa beginning therapist.
(24:57):
I was what they used to callhere an intern.
And I had a job at a smallclinic.
And with that one, I didn't gether certified.
I just asked the boss if I couldbring her in.
At this point, she was prettyold and calm.
They would never have let mebring her in when she was
younger.
(25:18):
But she was pretty calm and AndI just asked my client, would
you be okay with it?
Every single one of them said,sure, we'd love it.
And she developed a beautifulrelationship with each of them.
SPEAKER_00 (25:31):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (25:31):
And should I tell the best story here?
SPEAKER_00 (25:34):
Absolutely.
You've got to let her rip, forsure.
SPEAKER_01 (25:37):
Okay.
Because she would, they wouldcome in and she would, walk up
to them, they'd pet her, she'dlick their hands, and then she'd
go and curl up in the corner andsleep through the session.
And that was basically it.
This is fine.
But sometimes she would do alittle more.
And one time, there's someclient of mine who's just
(26:01):
beating himself up to such aterrible degree that he almost
can't talk.
And he's just sitting there inthis pain and she just lets out
from across the room this And itwas like, so perfect.
And he burst out laughing.
I burst out laughing.
It's like, I'm so sick of this.
(26:22):
Would you give yourself a break?
Or somebody's sitting theresobbing and she gets up and lays
her head in their lap.
And you know, if I do that, Iwould lose my license.
That's illegal.
She can do it.
It's all great.
But the craziest story, I had aclient who, when she was young,
(26:46):
her father left, left thefamily.
And she was brought up by hersingle mom with her siblings,
and it was a tough childhood.
There was a lot of really roughstuff they went through.
And she became an adult andbecame very successful.
And Suddenly, Dad shows up andwants to be Dad.
(27:10):
And absolutely, half of her issaying, I don't trust you.
Why would I trust you?
Why would I let you in my lifeat all?
And then the other half is thishurt little girl who absolutely
wants Daddy back and would giveanything to get what she had
lost.
So she's really stuck with itand finally says, I'll tell you
(27:33):
what, Dad, would you...
be willing to come and see Dougwith me.
And we could talk, because thereI would feel really safe saying
everything I need to say.
And we could talk about it, andDoug's very nice, it'll all be
fine.
He says, okay.
And he comes in, we meet them,Sherelle walks up, licks hands,
(27:58):
gets petted.
We walk in the room, she curlsup in the corner, goes to sleep,
just like any other day.
And we're chatting.
And at some point, I say, okay,should we do this?
Should we do the thing?
And they say, okay.
And she pulls out a thing thatshe's written and starts reading
(28:22):
it.
And, of course, tears arestarting and stuff.
But as she's reading, I see hisposture stiffen.
And he...
gets very stern looking anduptight, his lips purse, and I
(28:42):
can see this isn't going well.
He's not really responding asyou would hope.
And she finishes, and I say tohim, is there anything you want
to say to her?
Well, I don't know.
(29:02):
know that i agree with everyword she says here but he is so
frozen he is so cold and shelooks up and she sees it and
just starts sobbing it's it'slike she would have been better
off if he'd blown up in furyyeah this is exactly what she
(29:25):
dealt with she's just beingabandoned again And he keeps
talking, and he's not evenseeing her.
He's looking at me, and he's solocked in his fear that he can't
do anything.
And I'm like, what do I do withthis?
What do I do?
And knucklehead in the cornergets up, stretches, walks up.
(29:49):
right up to him, looked him inthe eyes, and she was a big dog.
She looked him in the eyesand...
Wow.
And he's, you know, white,petrified.
SPEAKER_00 (30:05):
Yeah.
She
SPEAKER_01 (30:07):
turns around, goes back to the corner, curls up,
goes back to sleep.
SPEAKER_00 (30:11):
No shit.
SPEAKER_01 (30:13):
And he says, what was that?
And I say...
Well, I don't know.
I think she might have heard asound in another room that we
couldn't hear behind you.
So she was barking at that.
He goes, oh, okay.
And we chat a bit more and thesession goes on and it's lame.
(30:35):
And they leave.
And later that evening I callher up to see how she is.
And she says, I'm okay.
I'm okay.
I learned what I needed tolearn.
but I don't think there wasanything in the next room.
And I said, neither do I.
No, definitely not.
(30:56):
We knew exactly.
That dog was saying, I don'tknow what you're saying, but the
energy here is really, reallydisturbing me, so stop it.
And it was exactly.
And we stayed in touch over theyears.
This was obviously quite a fewyears ago.
And it still comes up.
(31:17):
It still comes up.
That was so validating in a waymore than anything I could
possibly have done, that thisnatural being is saying, this
relationship between you andyour father is really toxic.
It's really something wronghere.
And she's still in touch withhim, but it's like, nope, she
(31:39):
didn't let him in to hurt heragain.
Not a chance.
Not letting him in close.
SPEAKER_00 (31:44):
That's amazing.
So, you know, one thing about...
Did your background inpsychology and education
influence how you approached,like, the book or how you did
things with...
Oh, drastically.
Yeah?
I mean, tell us a little bitabout
SPEAKER_01 (31:58):
that.
Well, the switch...
When I got her, I wasn't in thatat all.
I was, as I say, stillstruggling in the entertainment
SPEAKER_00 (32:08):
world.
The film world.
But
SPEAKER_01 (32:10):
I had been in psychotherapy, my own self, And
so absolutely I was looking foranswers to things.
So she was where I met.
But it was about halfway throughher life that I changed careers.
And I would love to say, that Ichanged because everything was
(32:30):
going fine and I realized I hada higher calling and so
overnight I decided to do this.
No, it's because the filmtheater career had fallen to
pieces.
Nothing was working.
I was getting too old to be anew face and I went through
about a two-year depression onthe way to getting the right,
(32:54):
finding this other path, whichwas drastically the right path
and I'm immensely happier fromdoing it but that part of the
book too is her during that timeannoyingly being showing me how
life could be better when I justwas pissed off and like no I'm
going to be mad and mad ateverything and she's going like
(33:16):
well you know be more like meshut up it was all part of it
and then once I did get into thepsychology world, it was
astounding, even just in school,seeing how much you could see
(33:36):
from her.
And actually, there's a wholebunch that I kept out of the
book of a lot of descriptions ofdifferent, like, schools of
psychology and how she appliedto those and all this stuff, but
it just got to be too much.
But, yeah, just like, I'd say ina sense, All forms of
psychotherapy try to lead you tothe part of yourself that is
(34:01):
truest for you and where you canpursue happiness.
Well, that's what she was everymoment of her life.
She was true to herself andpursuing happiness at all times.
SPEAKER_00 (34:12):
And again, the book, how you talk about that.
One thing, I apologize.
Congratulations on the marriagethat's coming up, by the way.
Thank you.
I know there's some littlesprinkling in there of some
dates and things like that.
I mean, how did that work?
I got my dog.
I know.
(34:32):
One of my dogs, it kind of helpsme with the ladies.
I mean, the world wants to know.
SPEAKER_01 (34:41):
Sherelle really didn't.
And this probably has to do morewith the sorts of women I was
dating at the time.
Okay, sure.
But often there was a, I don'tknow, jealousy is exactly the
right word.
Maybe.
Like a competition of, of like,Doug, you care too much about
(35:05):
your dog.
And the funny thing is, I wouldcompare it a lot to people who
have a kid and date.
SPEAKER_00 (35:14):
And
SPEAKER_01 (35:14):
the fact is, if the person you're dating thinks you
care too much about your kid,dump them.
Because they are not good matesfor you because of course that
kid is enormously important.
And there's a story that's notin the book where I was dating
(35:34):
someone, dating a woman, andshe, at some point, it sounded
like I was trying to be vague,and like, no, no, no, no, no.
I'm trying to remember the exactstory, but it was something
where, at some point, and itwasn't like Sherelle was getting
(35:55):
anything special from me at thatmoment, but blurt out, who's
more important to you, Sherelleor me?
And I kind of froze, partlybecause when I was a child, two
of the dogs my family had weregiven away.
SPEAKER_00 (36:14):
And
SPEAKER_01 (36:15):
I feel like if you tell somebody you're the more
important one, the next line is,well, prove it.
And so I was kind of stuck withthis.
And eventually, like a daylater, my brain kind of opened
up and walked out of that littletrauma.
And I realized, I know theanswer.
(36:35):
The one who's more important tome is the one who wouldn't ask
that question.
SPEAKER_00 (36:40):
Totally.
Totally.
SPEAKER_01 (36:42):
Maybe it's only because she lacks verbal
ability.
SPEAKER_00 (36:47):
We're going to get into that, by the way.
One of you
SPEAKER_01 (36:49):
asked that question, and the other one really likes
you and is always trying to lickyour face.
I'm sticking with the one whodoesn't ask that.
SPEAKER_00 (36:57):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (36:58):
And it's funny, the irony in that is my fiancée
doesn't have any children, buthas a mother that she takes care
of.
SPEAKER_00 (37:08):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (37:09):
And people will say to me, oh...
You know, isn't that reallydifficult?
It's like, well, yeah, butthat's also the kind of person
I'd want to be with.
SPEAKER_00 (37:17):
Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (37:19):
Somebody who is that way and is caring and all that.
And it'd be the same if she wastaking care of her child.
It's like, that's not anegative.
That's a positive.
And Cheryl was a positive toanybody who was smart enough to
see it.
So, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (37:40):
That's great.
I mean, I, again, the part ofthe question was for me is, from
the background, is that, youknow.
We have our dogs, and they openup conversations.
They open up relationships thatwe have with them.
Part of this podcast isdog-friendly.
(38:00):
Dog-friendly is it also opens upwe're being vulnerable to, oh,
can I pet your dog?
It's like, all right, well, thisis my boundaries of it.
But yes, of course, this is whyI brought it around.
Yeah.
Did you take Sherelle to anydog-friendly places?
Were there any favorite placesshe liked to go?
SPEAKER_01 (38:17):
Oh, yeah.
There's a dog park.
For those listeners who are inLos Angeles, it's the one at
Laurel Canyon in Mulholland.
It's just great.
I took her to other ones, butthat one was just heaven because
it's so big and has so many dogsin it.
And she was very, very social.
And she just loved going there.
(38:38):
It was her favorite place.
And we had a number of amazingexperiences.
I mean, as Of course, people whoaren't in L.A.
are going to assume, well, ofcourse, there were movie stars
all over the place.
And I'll say, well, I sat nextto Jack Lemmon there.
Nice.
Oh, shoot, now I'm embarrassed.
(38:58):
I'm not going to even say it,but Joey from Friends was there
one day.
That's great.
That's great.
But in general, it's just a lotof people with their dogs.
Shirell...
fell madly in love and developeda boyfriend there, who was the
only dog who absolutely, theyplayed together perfectly, which
(39:19):
meant they would beat thedaylights out of each other all
the time.
And his owner and I would thenset up play dates.
We would have that dog at myhouse or Shiro at her house, and
it was great because they wouldjust exhaust each other.
And so, like...
this happened.
(39:40):
It's like, it was great.
It's just wonderful.
Uh, there's also a story I lovethat, uh, maybe what you were
thinking of when you asked whereone day that boyfriend wasn't
there, but she, she loved, shewas very much an alpha female.
She loved getting dogs to chaseher.
SPEAKER_00 (40:00):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (40:00):
That was her favorite thing.
And if they caught her great,tumble around on the ground and
play fight and you know, thenshe'll go up and run again.
SPEAKER_00 (40:07):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (40:08):
And she was there drinking some water or
something, and this bulldog mix,I guess, comes over, and he is
in love.
And he climbs up on herbackside, and she turns around
and goes, oh, you're going tochase me?
Okay, and she moves away, and hedoesn't chase her.
(40:29):
Okay.
So she goes, yeah, stop.
She stops.
And he comes up and climbs ontoher back again.
UNKNOWN (40:35):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (40:35):
And she's like, what are you doing?
And he does it again.
And she kind of turns around andgives him a little nip.
Like, no, I'm not wanting tohave sex with you.
That was enough.
But I'll play with you if youwant to play.
And he does it again.
And this time, all the fur onher back stands up.
(40:58):
Her ears go back.
She turns and just lunges athim.
Chases him across the entirepark.
Wow.
Works.
She turns around.
Ears up.
Tail up.
Okay.
Walks back over to me like,what's fun now?
But my argument, and thisactually leads to another thing
(41:19):
besides the book, but myargument here is that if I could
have filmed it, it was what Iwould show Teenagers,
absolutely.
Here is Sherelle's guide to sexand dating.
Wow.
And I will say it in this, youknow, traditional male-female
(41:41):
roles, but anything applies.
Yeah.
Regardless of gender, regardlessof anything.
But if he leans in, tries tokiss you, whatever, or tries for
more, whatever, he's not doinganything wrong, it's okay.
Just say no.
Yeah.
Right.
(42:01):
If he tries again, say morefirmly, no.
SPEAKER_00 (42:05):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (42:06):
If he tries again, say it really strongly.
Like, no, I mean no.
And if he does it again, beatthe crap out of him.
He deserves it.
And you will make life betterfor another girl down the line.
But he is not respecting you atall.
Beat him up.
(42:26):
And it's like, that's fantastic.
But it's like, not on the firsttry.
It's fine.
Go ahead and try.
It's a compliment.
But not, you've got to stop whenI say
SPEAKER_00 (42:39):
stop.
Did you, and I don't rememberthis in the book, did you ever
do a DNA test?
What type of dog and size wasJarell?
SPEAKER_01 (42:48):
Do you know?
No, I never did.
She was 65 pounds.
She was very long-legged, butotherwise pretty, and she was
thin for most of her life.
Yeah.
She absolutely had husky in her.
That's what they had thought atthe pound, and she had a lot of
husky traits.
She had the slightly slantedeyes, all this stuff.
UNKNOWN (43:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (43:10):
And I wasn't sure with the rest because she was
orange or orange and white.
But in her later years, mayberight near the end, I took her
to a vet's
SPEAKER_00 (43:21):
office.
SPEAKER_01 (43:23):
And they had one of those posters on the wall of
different breeds.
And they had a picture of aSaluki.
And the Salukis I'd known hadbeen long-haired, black and
white, whatever.
But this one was orange andwhite.
and sin, and I looked at what,wow, if that and a husky bred,
(43:46):
they would make Shirelle.
And for those who don't know,Salukis, they're from the
Arabian area, the Arabiandesert, I guess, and very fast,
which she was.
She was super fast, almost likea greyhound.
So, think of an orange greyhoundmating with a husky, and you'd
kind of have her.
(44:07):
Sure.
SPEAKER_00 (44:08):
Well, okay.
Well, that's good.
And we're going to, when we postthis next week, get a picture of
you and Sherelle so people cansee it.
It's going to be on socialmedia.
So it's great for that piece ofit and the visual.
Then it gives a little moreconcept.
But I also like to, you know,people can, when they're
listening to it, they're like,oh, I can envision that.
And, you know, some of the moreexperts out there think about
(44:28):
it.
You
SPEAKER_01 (44:28):
know, I need to check on this.
There's supposed to be a QR codewith the audio book so that if,
you can go and see theillustrations from the book,
that you can see the pictures.
And yeah, so that should bethere.
(44:51):
If it's not, I need to check inwith the public.
SPEAKER_00 (44:53):
You know, do you have any aspirations to write
any more books about dogs?
I mean, it seems like you've gota pretty good handle, and I like
it.
I mean, again, the book
SPEAKER_01 (45:03):
was right up the alley.
Actually, I...
There's the Shirell book.
The next book that I wrote wasa, or is, a novel that is about
a dog I had, but it's a totallydifferent feel from the Shirell
book.
It's actually, this was a rescuedog who was, by the time I got
(45:25):
her, she was the opposite ofShirell.
She had been beaten andabandoned.
She was frightened of lots ofthings.
She was not enjoying life theway Shirell did.
And I realized I have kind of amission here.
I have to be Shirell to thisdog.
I have to do what Shirell didfor me.
SPEAKER_00 (45:43):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (45:43):
And help this dog enjoy life more.
SPEAKER_00 (45:46):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (45:47):
And after about a year of that, because I kept
trying to figure out what thehell had this dog been through?
Because the people I got herfrom were wonderful.
They were a rescue couple thathad her for six months.
It wasn't them.
It was somebody before them.
And...
Eventually, I had come up withso many scenarios in my head
(46:08):
about what had happened to herto explain things.
I went, Doug, that's your nextbook.
You have a fictional story ofwhat this dog went through and
how she came through, how shetriumphed, how she survived.
If anything, I'd say, think JackLondon's adventure story, but a
(46:30):
tough one.
Then, After that one, I havebeen working on another book,
and my only thing I'm sayingabout it is there's not going to
be a dog anywhere near it.
It's not about a dog.
It's a totally different thing.
Fair enough.
A fiction again.
Not that I dislike dogs.
I've got other stories to tell,but they're me.
(46:56):
There may be another dog bookcoming someday, too, because
it's certainly one of myfavorite topics, and they are
such great characters.
SPEAKER_00 (47:04):
Yeah, and so if people going through the loss of
a dog...
um, what would you say to themand how to cope?
What, what's something, somewisdom that you can give through
your experiences through this?
And the books tells a lot ofthat.
I'll tell you like, yeah, thatthere is a lot of good power in
(47:24):
there.
And I, I want to put, I'm, I'm,all my friends are going to, you
know, sit down and read thisbook.
I mean, it's so awesome.
But, um, what's your, what'syour wisdom of like from your
heart of what to do?
SPEAKER_01 (47:37):
The number one is listen.
And I mean, listen with yourheart.
Because there's a really, reallygood chance that dog is going to
be talking to you.
And in Sherelle's case, it wasinsanely.
And I've had, since the bookcame out, I've had friends say,
(48:00):
you know, I know Sherelle was inmy house today.
She's a super powerful soul.
But It's the last one I have.
It's a little gift.
And just little things show up.
And so that would be the firstthing I would say.
But also know that, and this isnot original at all, the more it
(48:26):
hurts, the more that meansthey're still inside
SPEAKER_00 (48:30):
you.
SPEAKER_01 (48:31):
And if you didn't love them and you...
you know, they went and a weeklater you're totally fine
walking around, then that meansthey weren't that great.
Or the two of you weren't thatgreat.
The fact that Shirelle died 18years ago and it still
SPEAKER_00 (48:54):
hurts,
SPEAKER_01 (48:55):
that is a glorious statement.
It's like every bit of hurt islike, yes, that's how great she
was and still is in me.
That's how much I love her.
I still love dogs.
I have long before her.
I won't pretend I don't.
But really, the grief is a giftin a funny way.
(49:18):
The pain is a gift.
It hurts like hell.
And, you know, in her case, ithad many stages.
And I go through that in thebook.
Because it...
of our relationship and the wayshe went and stuff like that.
It went through a number ofreally tough phases.
(49:40):
As well as, as I was talkingabout having her in with those
clients, one part was I had todeal with all of their grief
because they were all crazyabout her and each one dealt
with it in a different way.
And so I had to be big andhandle their grief while I was
(50:04):
going completely mad.
SPEAKER_00 (50:06):
Absolutely.
Well, on a lighter note, you areofficially a howler.
So the parent company, my mommakes hand-crocheted scarves for
dogs and then matching hats foryou.
So I'm wearing a hat.
This is actually a bald cap forsummer and then we do matching
scarves.
But Alpine Howl is a parentcompany.
I'm using this as a platform totalk to people and they're so
(50:29):
fantastic.
I love it.
But you're officially a I loveit! I love it! I always ask this
(50:51):
question.
What would you say?
My dog, Hazel, would say, Dad,Dad.
And I say this one every timebecause there's like what she
says to me.
She just looks at me in themorning in the eyes and goes,
Dad, Dad, Dad.
She will just say, Dad, untillike I get up.
What would Shereld say to you?
SPEAKER_01 (51:13):
Because you said Alpine Hell, there's no
question.
I'm throwing another story in,man.
I took her on a camping tripwith my brother and his family
up in the mountains.
I want to say it was a littlenorth of the Vail area.
And it was ridiculouslybeautiful.
(51:34):
And the last day we were there,we were starting to clean up.
Yeah.
UNKNOWN (51:44):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (51:45):
And she kept running up to me.
It was early morning, so she wasfull of energy.
And she was running up withsticks and saying, you know,
play with me, play with me, playwith me.
I'm busy.
I'm going to take down this cat.
I'm trying to do these things.
Leave me alone.
And finally, I said, okay, I'llgive you what you want.
And I found this branch of thistree that was maybe six feet
(52:07):
long.
I don't know what it weighed,but...
Enough, enough to be, you know,basically impossible.
And we were by a hillside thatwas almost a cliff.
And I just threw it down there,chased that.
Then you'll find something else.
You'll leave me alone.
She runs down after it.
(52:28):
I'm cleaning up stuff with mybrother.
And then we suddenly hear thissound.
And what is it?
She found the damn thing and iscoming up this almost 90 degree
angle, let's say 45 degreeangle, in thin air, pulling
(52:48):
herself up, carrying the thingthat weighs half her weight, and
in her mouth, through trees, soit's like hard to get it around,
and getting herself up, and shemakes it to the top, and she is
so proud, and I throw it downagain, and she goes up and keeps
doing it And everyone there iskind of staring like, I can't
(53:12):
believe I'm watching this thing.
This is impossible.
There's no way this ishappening.
And the reason I say, again, yousaid Alpine, that was her
energy.
That something that seemed,there's an old love song that
says, the difficult I'll doright now, the impossible will
(53:33):
take a little while.
That was her thing.
Let me try the impossiblebecause that's how much I love
life.
Embracing life in every way.
She was perfectly happy to siton the bed too.
I'm lying on the bed shedding,messing up your place.
(53:54):
I'm loving
SPEAKER_00 (53:54):
that.
So true.
SPEAKER_01 (53:55):
Damn it.
That would be her message to me,to you, to your listeners, to
everybody.
It's just...
Do that.
Embrace life in every way youcan.
It doesn't last long enough.
It's usually longer for us thanit is for dogs.
But that means they just get itbetter.
(54:19):
Man, don't waste it.
Don't waste it.
Run up that hill.
And if you can't make it, that'sokay.
Maybe you can't.
You put the thing down and yourun up.
But try.
The joy is in the trying.
And the joy is gigantic.
SPEAKER_00 (54:41):
My theory in life, and all things in the sense of
things is that my motto hasbeen, I've lost family over the
years, and my dogs have been thebrightest part of my life
because I have two dogs, a pityand a healer.
But truly, because my uncle wentthrough a big...
(55:04):
burns Oliver's body but everyday I wake up is a good day so
my hashtag that I say if I postanything personally every day is
a good day because guess whatsome people don't wake up and
guess what you can be able to itdoesn't matter everyone goes
through their things so herenergy on that level I can
(55:26):
totally relate because when Iwake up I feel great even though
whatever is going on in theworld it doesn't matter because
I woke up Every day is a goodday.
So that is so special that yousaid that.
That's so fantastic.
SPEAKER_01 (55:39):
And the only thing Sherelle would add to it is it's
a good day if you find a way tomake it a good day.
SPEAKER_00 (55:46):
There you go.
And you can.
SPEAKER_01 (55:49):
And some days you can't.
Some days you can't.
Sure, yeah.
Day after she died, nope.
SPEAKER_00 (55:55):
Yeah, fair enough.
Fair enough, fair enough.
SPEAKER_01 (55:58):
But, but, damn it, most days...
Go out there, stick your headout the door and sniff and see
what you find.
And there's probably something.
And, you know, it doesn't haveto be the whole day is great.
But, you know, I got some toughstuff today.
I had some clients who wentthrough some tough stuff.
(56:19):
I get it.
It's time talking to you.
It's a great day.
SPEAKER_00 (56:22):
Absolutely.
I'm so thankful for it.
Hey, thank you so much fortaking this great conversation.
Got to tell you.
I'm going to plug everything.
Where can people get the book?
Where can they order?
Where's the best place for them
SPEAKER_01 (56:36):
to order?
My favorite place for you to gois a website called Circuit
Breaker Books.
These people published thesecond edition, and they've been
so wonderful with me.
And it'll give you a link toother places you can actually
buy it.
Perfect.
But also look at their otherbooks, because they're great.
Absolutely.
(56:58):
And that is true of both TheTeachings of Shirell and A Dog
of Many Names, which is theother book I wrote.
And that one also has awonderful audio book read by a
woman with a voice like butteras they say but and this most
loveliest voice yeah but theteachers of cheryl it had to be
(57:20):
me because yeah it was great i i
SPEAKER_00 (57:23):
i what you started talking it was great it was your
voice and i know like your voicebecause i was listening to it
i'm like wow this is his voiceis this so good i love that i
listen to audiobooks every weekso i love it yeah um i i can
SPEAKER_01 (57:36):
just say if anybody
SPEAKER_00 (57:39):
else
SPEAKER_01 (57:39):
If I'd hired somebody else, but as the best
reader in the world, James EarlJones, whatever you want to say,
I would have been the worstdirector in history.
Nope, you're saying that wordwrong.
Nope, you're saying this becauseit's all me.
It's all my opinions, my
SPEAKER_00 (57:56):
experiences.
SPEAKER_01 (57:57):
With the other book, it was fine.
She said things differently thanI would have, and that was
great.
It's hitting me.
Brendan, I'm going to send you aphoto.
Okay, great.
There's another weird storyhere.
This one's scary.
I...
That day when she was running upand down the hill, I had a
little instamatic panorama, notinstamatic, but a disposable
(58:22):
panoramic camera.
Took a bunch of pictures, reallybeautiful ones.
One of them came out and wascrazy beautiful.
Just like, like...
wow, that's the most beautifulphoto I've ever taken.
That's incredible.
And it was of her standing on ahillside after this, feeling so
full of herself and so strongand so powerful.
(58:45):
Wow, that's incredible.
And that was my Christmas cardthat year.
Love it.
And years later, I took it, Ihad lost the negatives, I found
them, and I took them in to getdigitized and all this.
And when I'm doing the book, Ican't find them.
(59:07):
There are no negatives.
There's no digital anything.
So it's in the book.
It's actually, if you, well, inthe original edition of the
book, it was a centerfold.
Fold it out like Playboy.
About two weeks ago, suddenly inmy photos file in my computer,
that whole role showed up.
(59:28):
What?
I did the book.
The book came out, the originaledition of the book came out 10
years ago.
SPEAKER_00 (59:34):
2015.
10 years
SPEAKER_01 (59:36):
after that, this thing shows up.
SPEAKER_00 (59:38):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (59:39):
Wow.
So I'm going to send you thereal picture.
Please do.
Of what she looked like
SPEAKER_00 (59:44):
after that.
I would love to post it too.
Yeah, absolutely.
That'd be great.
That would be great.
Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (59:50):
That would be great.
Yeah.
So that's, That's the Alpinehowl, is that photo.
SPEAKER_00 (59:57):
No doubt about it.
She'll be the dog of the day.
Doug, I can't thank you enough.
This has been absolutelyhands-down fantastic.
SPEAKER_01 (01:00:05):
The gratitude goes ten times as much for you.
So thank you.
SPEAKER_00 (01:00:09):
Absolutely.
And I'm going to give my friendsthe links.
They've got to read this book.
All my friends have dogs.
I mean, Colorado, if you evercome down, look me up.
I'll take you around.
There are some dog-friendlyplaces like you wouldn't
believe.
And, gosh, this has been trulyan honor to talk to you.
I mean it.
You got it.
And I'm going to get a hat rightnow.
Yeah, absolutely.
(01:00:29):
Take it out.
And, you know, we'll be intouch.
SPEAKER_01 (01:00:34):
I appreciate it.
I appreciate it so much, man.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
I've envied that beer.
I've been watching you drink.
I think I might have to have onemyself right now.
SPEAKER_00 (01:00:44):
Yeah, and again, this is what it is.
Tell your friends about it.
I'm going to eventually travelthe country a little bit.
I got to Northern California,hopefully get out to L.A.
I got some friends here.
They're from Long Beach.
Oh, give me a yell if you
SPEAKER_01 (01:00:56):
come out.
I absolutely
SPEAKER_00 (01:00:59):
will.
I love the area, so no doubtabout it.
Wow, what a great conversation.
And thank you again, Doug.
So great to have you on theshow.
Hope you like the podcast.
Everybody, download it,subscribe.
Grab a copy of the book, TheTeachings of Sherelle, Life
(01:01:19):
Lessons from a DefinedKnucklehead.
You can get it on Amazon.
I have all the links in thenotes.
Also, check out Doug on hiswebsite, authordouglasgreen.com.
You know, you can...
He's got links to the audiobook, Amazon, Bookshop,
AskSherelle, AskSherelle.com,another website, down to earth
(01:01:45):
advice for kids and theirparents, more readings from
Doug.
Just a great human.
That was so excellent.
And I'm thankful that, you know,like he said, you know, thankful
for the dogs that we have.
They make the day so muchbetter.
They are human therapy dogs.
beings that are living around useach day so thank you also Gross
(01:02:10):
and Bart for allowing me to sitthere and take this interview
people are coming up looking atme I'm also talking with Doug
via zoom if you want to be onthe show and talk dogs for dog
friendly drop me a line you cansend a DM through Instagram go
(01:02:30):
to Alpine at Alpine Howell Orsend me an email, info at
alpinehowell.com.
And let's talk some dogs.
Maybe even have a few beers.
At some point, we're going totry and get this video going.
But, you know, hey, I got a lotgoing on, just as everybody.
But I thank you all forlistening.
(01:02:51):
I hope you enjoyed this one.
You know, the review of the weekis of, you know, both books.
Five out of fives, you know,Happy, sad, all the emotions.
His other book, A Dog of ManyNames.
Pretty interesting story.
A dog popping around todifferent owners.
But you can tell that Doug putsin good emotion into his book.
(01:03:15):
So The Teachings of Shirell,Life Lessons from a Divine
Knucklehead.
Great story about Doug and hisdog Shirell.
Five out of five as well.
So that's the reviews of theweek for those books.
Fantastic.
And next week, We got a localcelebrity, the Uber dog.
We're going to sit down withhim.
(01:03:36):
Yeah.
All the things about, you know,having that Instagram power,
the, you know, YouTube, all thatstuff.
So cool.
He's right out here in Boulder,Colorado.
So much fun there too.
So until next time, pet themdogs.
This episode was written andproduced by the owner of Alpine
(01:03:58):
Howl, Brandon Bennett.
Hit subscribe on all the majorplatforms to get weekly episodes
of Dog Friendly.
Produced by Alpine Howell.
Check us out, alpinehowell.comfor handcrafted scarves for your
dog and matching hats for theirhumans.
We also have the latest hats forsummer with matching bandanas,
(01:04:21):
alpinehowell.com.
Want to be on the show?
Send us a message, info atalpinehowell.com.
or DM us through Instagram.
Thoughts or suggestions?
Also drop us a line.
Remember, pet them dogs.
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