How Did I Become a Good Pet Owner? Answering Your Questions

Previously, I asked you guys to send me questions — you came through!  Here’s the second in a series in which I talk about the things you want to know!

If you know one thing about me that’s not Bachelor related, it’s probably that I love my two dogs Lola and Ellie. These two beautiful girls of mine have been with me now for eight and a half years. They are two weeks apart in age and I got them both when they were eight weeks old. I love telling people how much they love each other and how inseparable they are. It’s always funny when I take them to a crowded dog park filled with dozens of playful dogs and they never leave each other’s side. In my eight and a half years of having them, they’ve never snapped at or even growled at each other once. And my favorite cheesy party trick is giving Ellie the command to “kiss Lola” to which she will walk over and lick her sister in the face. As I said, I love my dogs.

My favorite thing to hear from people who come over to our house is “your dogs are so well behaved.” To me, there’s nothing worse than walking into someone’s house and immediately getting tackled by a dog who can’t stop jumping on you or licking you or just pestering you. Luckily that’s not a problem at the Lowe House.

Before getting my dogs, I became obsessed with the show “The Dog Whisperer”. If you haven’t seen it, the show is about a guy from Mexico named Cesar Millan who completely transforms the world’s worst dogs into well behaved dogs. And nine times out of ten, the problem is not with the dog but with the owner. So many people treat their dogs like humans and reinforce terrible behavior. You know who I’m talking about- the person who can’t stop baby-talking to their dog in a high pitched voice as if the dog can really understand them or the person who lets their dog drag them all over the neighborhood by the leash as if the dog is walking the human.

So after getting my dogs, I wanted to make sure I did all the things Cesar describes on his show and in his book and I wanted my dogs to know that they are just that- dogs. His basic principles are pretty easy to remember- make sure the dog knows he’s not in charge, exercise your dog, and your energy will reflect in your dog’s behavior so stay calm and you’ll have a calm dog. After following his instructions for so many years, I now have two dogs who usually don’t walk with a leash, they don’t jump on people, they don’t jump on furniture, and they almost always listen to and obey what Catherine and I tell them to do.