Dog Friendly

Paws in the Pages: Douglas Green’s Tribute to Shirelle

• Alpine Howl • Season 3 • Episode 17

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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.

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Dog Friendly Podcast TM

SPEAKER_00

Good morning, dog lovers. Welcome to Dog Friendly, the podcast where we celebrate the joy of dogs and the adventures we share with them. I'm your host, Brandon Bennett from Alpine Howell. Each week, I take you to dog-friendly locations to chat with passionate dog owners about their furry companions and the unforgettable experiences they've had together. We'll also hear from experts who share valuable insights on training, health, and making the most out of our time with our canine pals, all while enjoying the great outdoors. So whether you're a seasoned pup parent or just a dog lover, grab your leash, maybe a libation, and join us as we enjoy the world of dogs and incredible adventures that await. Let's dive into today's episode. Good morning, everybody, and happy Thursday, May 15th. A lovely Thursday, even when your dog wakes you up with a dirty nose. Yep, that's right. My little blue heeler, I gave her a bone yesterday, and she went and buried it in the backyard. My pity doesn't do that. He eats it like maybe dogs ought to, but, you know, I don't know. It goes through the brain. Anyway, I had a crusty nose waking me up this morning, so it's mild. It's, yeah, that girl. Love her. We got an exciting episode this week. I got the chance to talk with author Douglas Green. He called in from Southern California. He is a psychotherapist living in Southern California, but he also wrote a couple books. The book we specifically get into is The Teachings of Shirelle, Life Lessons from a Divine Knucklehead. What a good one. You'll have to pick up a copy and put those in the show notes as well as, or you can listen on audio. I have both. And wow, they're pretty good. So here we go. Okay. Where is Longmont? I don't know it. Just north of Boulder, Colorado, 11 miles. Okay. Literally just up the road. I worked in Boulder for almost 11 years and tried and true. I'm originally from Wisconsin, but now I'm in Longmont because it's a little more affordable than the Boulder area, but still crazy.

SPEAKER_01

That's great. My brother has lived a little outside Vail for about 40 years.

SPEAKER_00

Oh,

SPEAKER_01

that's great. Yeah, so I've been out there 100 times. Love

SPEAKER_00

that area. So let's jump right into it. We'll get into all the nuts and bolts of it. I started off with first and last name, and what do you do?

SPEAKER_01

Sure. Just right here, right

SPEAKER_00

now? You're ready? Yeah. We're rolling.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

UNKNOWN

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

My name is Doug Green, and professionally, I'm a psychotherapist, but I also am a writer. And that's how we got caught up here, Brenda. I have a book that I wrote a number of years ago, came out about 10 years ago, but a second edition of it has just been released, and an audiobook of it is being released next week.

SPEAKER_00

That's fantastic.

UNKNOWN

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_01

It is. It's a dream come true.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, I read through the book and actually, you have two books, right? Yes. Okay, so I grabbed your first book, and that was before I got the copy, and I'll tell you, the tearjerker, but I'm going to get right through it. What inspired you to write this book about your dog, Shirell? Shirell.

SPEAKER_01

Shirell. Named for the singing group, the Shirells. Yeah. What inspired it was I had had this dog, had this amazing experience, which the book is all about, And a few years, maybe a year or two after we lost her, I was struck. I was looking at a bestseller list. And I thought, you know, I've looked at bestseller lists all my life. And some things are on bestseller lists all the time. Certain kinds of books are always there. But there's three kinds of books that really were uniquely specific to that time that seemed to be on the list all the time. Whatever week you looked. And one, for lack of a better word, I would call guru book. The Secret or Eckhart Tolle or things like that. Books that take timeless wisdom and put it in a very easily understandable, digestible format. Then there were books about what one knows at the end of life. Tuesdays with Maury being the big one, but the last lecture, different things that are You know, 200 pages of I should have spent more time with my family, basically. And then animal books. And Marley and Me was, of course, the huge seller. But after Marley and Me for years, it was always something about a cat or something about a dog. And I thought, you know, isn't this interesting that the greatest teacher of timeless wisdom I've ever known, especially with things dealing about the end of life, happened to be a dog? Isn't that interesting? And I kind of walked on and then later that day thought, isn't that interesting? And then the next day I woke up and thought, isn't that interesting? And suddenly realized, Doug, I think you got a job ahead of you. And I can say very easily that years later, It is my favorite accomplishment of my life. It's the thing I'm proudest of. And if I had any idea how much work that book would have been, I never would have lifted a pen for the first word of it.

SPEAKER_00

Wow. Both

SPEAKER_01

are absolutely true.

SPEAKER_00

Wow. That's, I mean, quite an accomplishment. I mean, writing a book in itself, like I can't even just fathom that. I'm more of the audio, let's talk with each other and stuff like that. Yeah. To dive into your relationship with, I want to make sure that, Sherelle, correct? Sherelle. Sherelle, okay. I mean, I made sure I even got the audio book so I could listen to, to make sure I could say it right for you because I want to.

SPEAKER_01

oh wow you got an advanced copy that's cool

SPEAKER_00

well it showed up I was when I first got the paperback I was like okay well I also listen to audio books and I want to make sure that I'm doing my research and make sure that I dive into sound like I'm you know again that was instilled in me I think I learned that in college in my upbringing but Sherelle I found I listened to audio books through Amazon and it said available May 1st so i i literally last night at 12 o'clock mountain standard time i got i i downloaded it on my phone that's awesome i kid you not i paid i paid the 998 or whatever it was and it was great i'm glad that i had it because i wanted to make sure that i was doubling up and and getting all the nicks and crannies of it so uh i mean wow thank you absolutely but but tell us and the the the listeners out there, how you met Sherelle and the role she played in your life. Give us a little teaser of that. Obviously, the book goes through that stuff, but how does that meeting go?

SPEAKER_01

Oh, man. Well, the meeting itself actually 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 in the film, television, theater industry. And one day, I had a bad cold. It was late summer, very polluted. It happens here, you know, at times, famously. And I went off into the mountains just to get a break and was walking around in these beautiful woods. And at some point, I was leaning against a big tree or something. And this voice comes to me. And I'm not somebody who hears voices a lot. But this voice came to me and said, you need to move out of your apartment and get a dog. Because Currently, nobody tracks mud into your home. Yeah. That was a weird line.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

But I thought, you better obey it, man. Whoever said that to you, it's true. Yeah. And I did. I found a tiny old house, moved into it. And at some point when I felt ready, took a friend with me and we went and... started going to Pound, which, as you know, as a dog lover, is horrible. You know, it just breaks your heart. You want to take every single one of them home. And I, we'd gone to, I guess this was the second Pound we went to, and I walked in, and I knew what I wanted. I wanted a very young puppy, like, you know, a month old or something, so it didn't have any experiences, it didn't have any abuse, whatever. And no, they didn't have anything like that. But we walked through, okay. And I'm walking through, checking out the different things. And suddenly, I hadn't seen this dog, 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 mouth. It was chewing on it. And it was a puppy, but it was big. It was like three and a half months old.

UNKNOWN

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

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 this great connection with the song, but it's not really what I want. I should go to this other pound and see if they've got what I want. I went to this other pound, good, lovely dog. It was like, nope, it's that one. And the big question was, The pound was going to be shut for the next couple of days, and the attendant there said that sometimes, because they were overcrowded, sometimes the guy who manages it comes through to clean up on the days they're shut. Okay,

SPEAKER_00

yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So I had nightmares for two nights, horrible, violent nightmares of the puppy being dismembered and blood everywhere and all sorts of stuff. I'm there the next... morning that they open. I walk in. They've got a bunch of young puppies, exactly what I wanted. I don't care. Ran through, found that dog, grabbed her, and that was the beginning of the adventure. That's

SPEAKER_00

fantastic.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. And anybody who has a mystical or spiritual or theological argument for it, I'll say, I bet you're right. Because there was something just eerie with that connection.

SPEAKER_00

Was that her name when you got her? Or did you remember that?

SPEAKER_01

No. She was a stray. Okay. I... I would have named her after the attendant who saved her life, who took her in and stole her card so nobody would see how long she'd been there. But her name was Kelly, and my name's Green. And it's funny because I actually now have a friend named Kelly Green. But at the time, I thought, that's a shame. That's not a name. That's terrible. So, yeah, didn't do that. And the story with the name is that I had her for a few days and was just trying to, you know, there's any name coming up, but anything was sort of logical. I wanted something natural, organic. And I was driving out to have dinner 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 because she's sort of a tough dog and 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 the margarine. I don't want that. But that word, Chiffon, there's that old singing group, the Chiffons. And I love them. And that whole early 60s girl group thing. sound in those songs. I love those. And that feel seems right for her. That's her spirit. And I'm going through in my head all these other ones. Marbleette, Vandella, Crystal, Supreme, Shangri-La, Shirelle. Hey, Shirelle. Does that word mean anything? It's a great song and it seems like Just Right And I went and looked them up in some history of rock and roll and explained that the name actually means nothing. It was a name they made up because there was a popular group at the time called the Chantels, and their lead singer was named Shirley. So they put it together and named 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 sticking with it it's great

SPEAKER_00

i

SPEAKER_01

love it yeah and i stuck with it and i i will throw in here i'm actually getting married in a couple of weeks and the opening song played right before we get married will be will you love me tomorrow which was a great hit by the Shirelles on purpose, that would be the thing.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, there was a, and I won't spoil anything for anybody, but there was a song at the end of the audio book that you played. Yeah, another one. Yeah, which was, I mean, wonderful. I mean, I'm telling you, the book was just, you know, it's dearest to my heart as far as dogs and the emotion and everything like that. But what a well-thought-out way to give a dog a name. One of my dogs just came with it. it. I have a blue heeler, Hazel. She just came with it. I was trying to, Penny, no, this. I was trying to do something from, you know, just some movies and things like that, but I'm like, it just stuck. So that is a great story about that. I love that.

SPEAKER_01

Thanks. Have you ever seen those bumper stickers that say, let me tell you about my grandchildren? No. For years, I put something on my car that says, let me tell you about my dog. You can ask questions all night long. My favorite topic.

SPEAKER_00

I I absolutely love that and you know again just feeling it in the book and the words that I was reading through I could definitely tell that you love for dogs and again that's my inspiration behind this and getting people to talk and let their voices be heard out there but that's a great bumper sticker by the way you gotta make that happen because that's perfect because everybody wants to talk about their dogs and your story is so wonderful and I can't wait for more people to hear about it and I hope that I can help that. That's part of my goal here is to share with people and their stories about their love for the dogs. The teachings of Sherelle, it blends some humor, some heartbreak, and some philosophy. How do you strike a balance between all that writing? It was such a good flow. Where did that come from?

SPEAKER_01

Well, that's a great question. It began, as I told you, it began as a thought of writing down what I'd learned from her. And I started literally one night in a bar writing on cocktail napkins. I love it. Okay, here's one thing and here's another thing. And after a while I realized this isn't really working. This isn't going to fill the book the way I want it to. And I had kept a journal that a number of years before I got her. And I thought, okay, here's what you need to do, Doug. You need to go back to maybe six months before you got her and read that journal through her entire life. And she lived to be about 12 and a half. So you're going to read about 13 years of your life. And I had no idea how difficult that would be. First of all, to anybody out there who keeps a diary, keeps a journal, if you go back and read a bunch of it, you will relive every emotion you had during that time. So if you, for example, got a job and were all excited by it, that went to hell, you will feel every bit of excitement you had. And then you will feel devastated when it goes down. If you fell in love, oh, you'll get all the ecstasy of it because it's your own words. It will do it. And then you will be just slammed to the ground when that person dumps you or you dump them, whatever it is. And so it was all this stuff. I caught a cold, it sounded like I catch colds all the time here, but I caught a cold around the time I started it and I couldn't shake it. And eventually I realized that this is because you're emotionally detoxing. You're not going to get rid of this 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 grieving process. You have to go through it again, man. And sure enough, I finished that thing and I was healthy in like two days. But it took months to go through it because it was so much emotional stuff. And when I was done with that, I had written down each little bit in there, all these stories with her, all this stuff. Well, it was a few hundred pages of notes. It was like, this is way too much for this book. So that began the process of Pulling it down. What do you need to explain who she was? And as you saw in the book, an exceptional dog, exceptional person. Not that every dog is exceptional, but she really was bizarre in some ways. And so getting that through. and telling just enough of my life so that the lessons she was teaching me make sense, but not making it all about me. And that took years. And then moving things around. There's stuff that isn't in exact order because the chapters go by subject to some degree. So there's all that. It took a few years, as I'm saying, more work than I ever remotely imagined it would be. And at the same time, it kind of kept her alive inside me, which is just great.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, man.

SPEAKER_01

And

SPEAKER_00

I could feel it when I was, again, I told you this before. There's a part of that emotion where, you know, in the later part in the chapters, you could tell that piece of it and vice versa. You know, when she was alive and, you know, again, I don't want to spoil anything, but people got to know that, you know, there's that emotion. internal piece that that connection that you two had that you know kept her going and again I'll keep it on the down low for people like they gotta read the book because it was good it was heart jerking but a question I have for you if she was alive today what would she think of the book?

SPEAKER_01

Ha! She probably would have chewed up one copy and peed on another but other than that You know, my sense is that, you know, in a sense she is alive. I think she loves it. I think she loves it. I think it says to her she would want to be out there.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Including the brat. Including the jerk. Including, you know, the bad stuff. Because she enjoys being those. Including the, you know, shedding everywhere all the time. All that kind of stuff. And the enormous heart, the enormous love she had that came out in so many different ways, and the sweetness, and most of all, and this is kind of what you were hitting at, at some points in her life, her unbelievable power. That was like awe-inspiring power overtaking impossible odds.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah,

SPEAKER_01

and

SPEAKER_00

that's awesome. And I don't mean to cut you off there because there's part of that, you get a little bit into the book about this and going through, and I think you were like, nah, I'm not going to go through the process of getting it service dog certified, right? Right. I think there's a little bit about that. But my question for you, and this is to anybody out there, is dogs are just service dogs in themselves, right? They're just there. They're our service. Right? Wasn't she that for

SPEAKER_01

you? I will say this very specifically. In terms of the usefulness of the book, my argument has been for some time that if somebody has never had a dog and they're trying to decide if they want a dog or not, I say read Marley and Me because it will tell you everything terrible about owning a dog and why it's totally worth it. But if you already like dogs and you want to appreciate your dog more, read my book because that's what it's about. She was a service dog in all these ways that you don't train a service dog to be. She didn't help me across the street. She didn't help me through airplane flights. It was that kind of thing. She was like a guardian angel. Get down. Tell me. Here's where you're being stupid in your life, man. This is where you're missing the point completely. Here's what... And here's why you're good enough as it is. And all these messages. And I learned so much that I needed to learn from her. And you could get, you know, you and I aren't the same. I know your dog is teaching you stuff all the time. And so they served that service. And they also... Through other services. It's interesting, I was hearing another podcast recently about an organization to get service dogs for veterans. Train them and get them for veterans, which is most often cases of PTSD and all that. And they said, you know, we train the dogs a little, but the vast majority is just that dog personality that comes out responds with somebody and instantly knows what they need and is trying to help them all the time. We've taught them to sit and stay and heal, but the dogs do the rest. In my case, Cheryl absolutely did that. You brought up me choosing not to train her. It was to be a therapy dog. When I was starting work as a therapist, I thought, do I want to do this? I don't know. It's a lot of work and money and I don't know if it's worth it. And then eventually I had, I was a beginning therapist. I was what they used to call here an intern. And I had a job at a small clinic. And with that one, I didn't get her certified. I just asked the boss if I could bring her in. At this point, she was pretty old and calm. They would never have let me bring her in when she was younger. But she was pretty calm and And I 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 beautiful relationship with each of them.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And should I tell the best story here?

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. You've got to let her rip, for sure.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Because she would, they would come in and she would, walk up to them, they'd pet her, she'd lick their hands, and then she'd go and curl up in the corner and sleep through the session. And that was basically it. This is fine. But sometimes she would do a little more. And one time, there's some client of mine who's just beating himself up to such a terrible degree that he almost can't talk. And he's just sitting there in this pain and she just lets out from across the room this And it was like, so perfect. And he burst out laughing. I burst out laughing. It's like, I'm so sick of this. Would you give yourself a break? Or somebody's sitting there sobbing and she gets up and lays her head in their lap. And you know, if I do that, I would lose my license. That's illegal. She can do it. It's all great. But the craziest story, I had a client who, when she was young, her father left, left the family. And she was brought up by her single mom with her siblings, and it was a tough childhood. There was a lot of really rough stuff they went through. And she became an adult and became very successful. And Suddenly, Dad shows up and wants to be Dad. And absolutely, half of her is saying, I don't trust you. Why would I trust you? Why would I let you in my life at all? And then the other half is this hurt little girl who absolutely wants Daddy back and would give anything to get what she had lost. So she's really stuck with it and finally says, I'll tell you what, Dad, would you... be willing to come and see Doug with me. And we could talk, because there I would feel really safe saying everything I need to say. And we could talk about it, and Doug's very nice, it'll all be fine. He says, okay. And he comes in, we meet them, Sherelle walks up, licks hands, gets petted. We walk in the room, she curls up 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 that she's written and starts reading it. And, of course, tears are starting and stuff. But as she's reading, I see his posture stiffen. And he... gets very stern looking and uptight, his lips purse, and I can see this isn't going well. He's not really responding as you would hope. And she finishes, and I say to him, is there anything you want to say to her? Well, I don't know. know that i agree with every word she says here but he is so frozen he is so cold and she looks up and she sees it and just starts sobbing it's it's like she would have been better off if he'd blown up in fury yeah this is exactly what she dealt with she's just being abandoned again And he keeps talking, and he's not even seeing her. He's looking at me, and he's so locked in his fear that he can't do anything. And I'm like, what do I do with this? What do I do? And knucklehead in the corner gets up, stretches, walks up. right up to him, looked him in the eyes, and she was a big dog. She looked him in the eyes and... Wow. And he's, you know, white, petrified.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. She

SPEAKER_01

turns around, goes back to the corner, curls up, goes back to sleep.

SPEAKER_00

No shit.

SPEAKER_01

And he says, what was that? And I say... Well, I don't know. I think she might have heard a sound 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 the session goes on and it's lame. And they leave. And later that evening I call her up to see how she is. And she says, I'm okay. I'm okay. I learned what I needed to learn. but I don't think there was anything in the next room. And I said, neither do I. No, definitely not. We knew exactly. That dog was saying, I don't know what you're saying, but the energy here is really, really disturbing me, so stop it. And it was exactly. And we stayed in touch over the years. This was obviously quite a few years ago. And it still comes up. It still comes up. That was so validating in a way more than anything I could possibly have done, that this natural being is saying, this relationship between you and your father is really toxic. It's really something wrong here. And she's still in touch with him, but it's like, nope, she didn't let him in to hurt her again. Not a chance. Not letting him in close.

SPEAKER_00

That's amazing. So, you know, one thing about... Did your background in psychology and education influence how you approached, like, the book or how you did things with... Oh, drastically. Yeah? I mean, tell us a little bit about

SPEAKER_01

that. Well, the switch... When I got her, I wasn't in that at all. I was, as I say, still struggling in the entertainment

SPEAKER_00

world. The film world. But

SPEAKER_01

I had been in psychotherapy, my own self, And so absolutely I was looking for answers to things. So she was where I met. But it was about halfway through her life that I changed careers. And I would love to say, that I changed because everything was going fine and I realized I had a higher calling and so overnight I decided to do this. No, it's because the film theater career had fallen to pieces. Nothing was working. I was getting too old to be a new face and I went through about a two-year depression on the way to getting the right, finding this other path, which was drastically the right path and I'm immensely happier from doing it but that part of the book too is her during that time annoyingly being showing me how life could be better when I just was pissed off and like no I'm going to be mad and mad at everything and she's going like well you know be more like me shut up it was all part of it and then once I did get into the psychology world, it was astounding, even just in school, seeing how much you could see from her. And actually, there's a whole bunch that I kept out of the book of a lot of descriptions of different, like, schools of psychology and how she applied to those and all this stuff, but it just got to be too much. But, yeah, just like, I'd say in a sense, All forms of psychotherapy try to lead you to the part of yourself that is truest for you and where you can pursue happiness. Well, that's what she was every moment of her life. She was true to herself and pursuing happiness at all times.

SPEAKER_00

And again, the book, how you talk about that. One thing, I apologize. Congratulations on the marriage that's coming up, by the way. Thank you. I know there's some little sprinkling in there of some dates and things like that. I mean, how did that work? I got my dog. I know. One of my dogs, it kind of helps me with the ladies. I mean, the world wants to know.

SPEAKER_01

Sherelle really didn't. And this probably has to do more with the sorts of women I was dating at the time. Okay, sure. But often there was a, I don't know, jealousy is exactly the right word. Maybe. Like a competition of, of like, Doug, you care too much about your dog. And the funny thing is, I would compare it a lot to people who have a kid and date.

SPEAKER_00

And

SPEAKER_01

the fact is, if the person you're dating thinks you care too much about your kid, dump them. Because they are not good mates for you because of course that kid is enormously important. And there's a story that's not in the book where I was dating someone, dating a woman, and she, 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 exact story, but it was something where, at some point, and it wasn't like Sherelle was getting anything special from me at that moment, but blurt out, who's more important to you, Sherelle or me? And I kind of froze, partly because when I was a child, two of the dogs my family had were given away.

SPEAKER_00

And

SPEAKER_01

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 with this. And eventually, like a day later, my brain kind of opened up and walked out of that little trauma. And I realized, I know the answer. The one who's more important to me is the one who wouldn't ask that question.

SPEAKER_00

Totally. Totally.

SPEAKER_01

Maybe it's only because she lacks verbal ability.

SPEAKER_00

We're going to get into that, by the way. One of you

SPEAKER_01

asked that question, and the other one really likes you and is always trying to lick your face. I'm sticking with the one who doesn't ask that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And it's funny, the irony in that is my fiancée doesn't have any children, but has a mother that she takes care of.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

And people will say to me, oh... You know, isn't that really difficult? It's like, well, yeah, but that's also the kind of person I'd want to be with.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01

Somebody who is that way and is caring and all that. And it'd be the same if she was taking care of her child. It's like, that's not a negative. That's a positive. And Cheryl was a positive to anybody who was smart enough to see it. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

That's great. I mean, I, again, the part of the question was for me is, from the background, is that, you know. We have our dogs, and they open up conversations. They open up relationships that we have with them. Part of this podcast is dog-friendly. Dog-friendly is it also opens up we're being vulnerable to, oh, can I pet your dog? It's like, all right, well, this is my boundaries of it. But yes, of course, this is why I brought it around. Yeah. Did you take Sherelle to any dog-friendly places? Were there any favorite places she liked to go?

SPEAKER_01

Oh, yeah. There's a dog park. For those listeners who are in Los Angeles, it's the one at Laurel Canyon in Mulholland. It's just great. I took her to other ones, but that one was just heaven because it's so big and has so many dogs in it. And she was very, very social. And she just loved going there. It was her favorite place. And we had a number of amazing experiences. I mean, as Of course, people who aren't in L.A. are going to assume, well, of course, there were movie stars all over the place. And I'll say, well, I sat next to Jack Lemmon there. Nice. Oh, shoot, now I'm embarrassed. 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 lot of people with their dogs. Shirell... fell madly in love and developed a boyfriend there, who was the only dog who absolutely, they played together perfectly, which meant they would beat the daylights out of each other all the time. And his owner and I would then set up play dates. We would have that dog at my house or Shiro at her house, and it was great because they would just exhaust each other. And so, like... this happened. It's like, it was great. It's just wonderful. Uh, there's also a story I love that, uh, maybe what you were thinking of when you asked where one day that boyfriend wasn't there, but she, she loved, she was very much an alpha female. She loved getting dogs to chase her.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

That was her favorite thing. And if they caught her great, tumble around on the ground and play fight and you know, then she'll go up and run again.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

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 her backside, and she turns around and goes, oh, you're going to chase me? Okay, and she moves away, and he doesn't chase her. Okay. So she goes, yeah, stop. She stops. And he comes up and climbs onto her back again.

UNKNOWN

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

And she's like, what are you doing? And he does it again. And she kind of turns around and gives him a little nip. Like, no, I'm not wanting to have sex with you. That was enough. But I'll play with you if you want to play. And he does it again. And this time, all the fur on her back stands up. Her ears go back. She turns and just lunges at him. Chases him across the entire park. Wow. Works. She turns around. Ears up. Tail up. Okay. Walks back over to me like, what's fun now? But my argument, and this actually leads to another thing besides the book, but my argument here is that if I could have filmed it, it was what I would show Teenagers, absolutely. Here is Sherelle's guide to sex and dating. Wow. And I will say it in this, you know, traditional male-female roles, but anything applies. Yeah. Regardless of gender, regardless of anything. But if he leans in, tries to kiss you, whatever, or tries for more, whatever, he's not doing anything wrong, it's okay. Just say no. Yeah. Right. If he tries again, say more firmly, no.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

If he tries again, say it really strongly. Like, no, I mean no. And if he does it again, beat the crap out of him. He deserves it. And you will make life better for another girl down the line. But he is not respecting you at all. Beat him up. And it's like, that's fantastic. But it's like, not on the first try. It's fine. Go ahead and try. It's a compliment. But not, you've got to stop when I say

SPEAKER_00

stop. Did you, and I don't remember this in the book, did you ever do a DNA test? What type of dog and size was Jarell?

SPEAKER_01

Do you know? No, I never did. She was 65 pounds. She was very long-legged, but otherwise pretty, and she was thin for most of her life. Yeah. She absolutely had husky in her. That's what they had thought at the pound, and she had a lot of husky traits. She had the slightly slanted eyes, all this stuff.

UNKNOWN

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And I wasn't sure with the rest because she was orange or orange and white. But in her later years, maybe right near the end, I took her to a vet's

SPEAKER_00

office.

SPEAKER_01

And they had one of those posters on the wall of different breeds. And they had a picture of a Saluki. And the Salukis I'd known had been long-haired, black and white, whatever. But this one was orange and white. and sin, and I looked at what, wow, if that and a husky bred, they would make Shirelle. And for those who don't know, Salukis, they're from the Arabian area, the Arabian desert, I guess, and very fast, which she was. She was super fast, almost like a greyhound. So, think of an orange greyhound mating with a husky, and you'd kind of have her. Sure.

SPEAKER_00

Well, okay. Well, that's good. And we're going to, when we post this next week, get a picture of you and Sherelle so people can see it. It's going to be on social media. So it's great for that piece of it and the visual. Then it gives a little more concept. 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 more experts out there think about it. You

SPEAKER_01

know, I need to check on this. There's supposed to be a QR code with the audio book so that if, you can go and see the illustrations from the book, that you can see the pictures. And yeah, so that should be there. If it's not, I need to check in with the public.

SPEAKER_00

You know, do you have any aspirations to write any more books about dogs? I mean, it seems like you've got a pretty good handle, and I like it. I mean, again, the book

SPEAKER_01

was right up the alley. Actually, I... There's the Shirell book. The next book that I wrote was a, or is, a novel that is about a dog I had, but it's a totally different feel from the Shirell book. It's actually, this was a rescue dog who was, by the time I got her, she was the opposite of Shirell. She had been beaten and abandoned. She was frightened of lots of things. She was not enjoying life the way Shirell did. And I realized I have kind of a mission here. I have to be Shirell to this dog. I have to do what Shirell did for me.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

And help this dog enjoy life more.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And after about a year of that, because I kept trying to figure out what the hell had this dog been through? Because the people I got her from were wonderful. They were a rescue couple that had her for six months. It wasn't them. It was somebody before them. And... Eventually, I had come up with so many scenarios in my head about what had happened to her to explain things. I went, Doug, that's your next book. You have a fictional story of what this dog went through and how she came through, how she triumphed, how she survived. If anything, I'd say, think Jack London's adventure story, but a tough one. Then, After that one, I have been working on another book, and my only thing I'm saying about 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. There may be another dog book coming someday, too, because it's certainly one of my favorite topics, and they are such great characters.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and so if people going through the loss of a dog... um, what would you say to them and how to cope? What, what's something, some wisdom that you can give through your experiences through this? And the books tells a lot of that. I'll tell you like, yeah, that there is a lot of good power in there. And I, I want to put, I'm, I'm, all my friends are going to, you know, sit down and read this book. I mean, it's so awesome. But, um, what's your, what's your wisdom of like from your heart of what to do?

SPEAKER_01

The number one is listen. And I mean, listen with your heart. Because there's a really, really good chance that dog is going to be talking to you. And in Sherelle's case, it was insanely. And I've had, since the book came out, I've had friends say, you know, I know Sherelle was in my 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 first thing I would say. But also know that, and this is not original at all, the more it hurts, the more that means they're still inside

SPEAKER_00

you.

SPEAKER_01

And if you didn't love them and you... you know, they went and a week later you're totally fine walking around, then that means they weren't that great. Or the two of you weren't that great. The fact that Shirelle died 18 years ago and it still

SPEAKER_00

hurts,

SPEAKER_01

that is a glorious statement. It's like every bit of hurt is like, 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 gift in a funny way. The pain is a gift. It hurts like hell. And, you know, in her case, it had many stages. And I go through that in the book. Because it... of our relationship and the way she went and stuff like that. It went through a number of really tough phases. As well as, as I was talking about having her in with those clients, one part was I had to deal with all of their grief because they were all crazy about her and each one dealt with it in a different way. And so I had to be big and handle their grief while I was going completely mad.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. Well, on a lighter note, you are officially a howler. So the parent company, my mom makes hand-crocheted scarves for dogs and then matching hats for you. So I'm wearing a hat. This is actually a bald cap for summer and then we do matching scarves. But Alpine Howl is a parent company. I'm using this as a platform to talk to people and they're so fantastic. I love it. But you're officially a I love it! I love it! I always ask this question. What would you say? My dog, Hazel, would say, Dad, Dad. And I say this one every time because there's like what she says to me. She just looks at me in the morning in the eyes and goes, Dad, Dad, Dad. She will just say, Dad, until like I get up. What would Shereld say to you?

SPEAKER_01

Because you said Alpine Hell, there's no question. I'm throwing another story in, man. I took her on a camping trip with my brother and his family up in the mountains. I want to say it was a little north of the Vail area. And it was ridiculously beautiful. And the last day we were there, we were starting to clean up. Yeah.

UNKNOWN

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And she kept running up to me. It was early morning, so she was full of energy. And she was running up with sticks and saying, you know, play with me, play with me, play with 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'll give you what you want. And I found this branch of this tree that was maybe six feet long. I don't know what it weighed, but... Enough, enough to be, you know, basically impossible. And we were by a hillside that was 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. I'm cleaning up stuff with my brother. And then we suddenly hear this sound. And what is it? She found the damn thing and is coming up this almost 90 degree angle, let's say 45 degree angle, in thin air, pulling herself up, carrying the thing that weighs half her weight, and in her mouth, through trees, so it's like hard to get it around, and getting herself up, and she makes it to the top, and she is so proud, and I throw it down again, and she goes up and keeps doing it And everyone there is kind of staring like, I can't believe I'm watching this thing. This is impossible. There's no way this is happening. And the reason I say, again, you said Alpine, that was her energy. That something that seemed, there's an old love song that says, the difficult I'll do right now, the impossible will take a little while. That was her thing. Let me try the impossible because that's how much I love life. Embracing life in every way. She was perfectly happy to sit on the bed too. I'm lying on the bed shedding, messing up your place. I'm loving

SPEAKER_00

that. So true.

SPEAKER_01

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 you can. It doesn't last long enough. It's usually longer for us than it is for dogs. But that means they just get it better. Man, don't waste it. Don't waste it. Run up that hill. And if you can't make it, that's okay. Maybe you can't. You put the thing down and you run up. But try. The joy is in the trying. And the joy is gigantic.

SPEAKER_00

My theory in life, and all things in the sense of things is that my motto has been, I've lost family over the years, and my dogs have been the brightest part of my life because I have two dogs, a pity and a healer. But truly, because my uncle went through a big... burns Oliver's body but every day I wake up is a good day so my hashtag that I say if I post anything personally every day is a good day because guess what some people don't wake up and guess what you can be able to it doesn't matter everyone goes through their things so her energy on that level I can totally relate because when I wake up I feel great even though whatever is going on in the world it doesn't matter because I woke up Every day is a good day. So that is so special that you said that. That's so fantastic.

SPEAKER_01

And the only thing Sherelle would add to it is it's a good day if you find a way to make it a good day.

SPEAKER_00

There you go. And you can.

SPEAKER_01

And some days you can't. Some days you can't. Sure, yeah. Day after she died, nope.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, fair enough. Fair enough, fair enough.

SPEAKER_01

But, but, damn it, most days... Go out there, stick your head out the door and sniff and see what you find. And there's probably something. And, you know, it doesn't have to be the whole day is great. But, you know, I got some tough stuff today. I had some clients who went through some tough stuff. I get it. It's time talking to you. It's a great day.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. I'm so thankful for it. Hey, thank you so much for taking 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

to order? My favorite place for you to go is a website called Circuit Breaker Books. These people published the second edition, and they've been so wonderful with me. And it'll give you a link to other places you can actually buy it. Perfect. But also look at their other books, because they're great. Absolutely. And that is true of both The Teachings of Shirell and A Dog of Many Names, which is the other book I wrote. And that one also has a wonderful audio book read by a woman with a voice like butter as they say but and this most loveliest voice yeah but the teachers of cheryl it had to be me because yeah it was great i i

SPEAKER_00

i what you started talking it was great it was your voice and i know like your voice because i was listening to it i'm like wow this is his voice is this so good i love that i listen to audiobooks every week so i love it yeah um i i can

SPEAKER_01

just say if anybody

SPEAKER_00

else

SPEAKER_01

If I'd hired somebody else, but as the best reader in the world, James Earl Jones, whatever you want to say, I would have been the worst director in history. Nope, you're saying that word wrong. Nope, you're saying this because it's all me. It's all my opinions, my

SPEAKER_00

experiences.

SPEAKER_01

With the other book, it was fine. She said things differently than I would have, and that was great. It's hitting me. Brendan, I'm going to send you a photo. Okay, great. There's another weird story here. This one's scary. I... That day when she was running up and down the hill, I had a little instamatic panorama, not instamatic, but a disposable panoramic camera. Took a bunch of pictures, really beautiful ones. One of them came out and was crazy beautiful. Just like, like... wow, that's the most beautiful photo I've ever taken. That's incredible. And it was of her standing on a hillside after this, feeling so full of herself and so strong and so powerful. Wow, that's incredible. And that was my Christmas card that year. Love it. And years later, I took it, I had lost the negatives, I found them, and I took them in to get digitized and all this. And when I'm doing the book, I can't find them. There are no negatives. There's no digital anything. So it's in the book. It's actually, if you, well, in the original edition of the book, it was a centerfold. Fold it out like Playboy. About two weeks ago, suddenly in my photos file in my computer, that whole role showed up. What? I did the book. The book came out, the original edition of the book came out 10 years ago.

SPEAKER_00

2015. 10 years

SPEAKER_01

after that, this thing shows up.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Wow. So I'm going to send you the real picture. Please do. Of what she looked like

SPEAKER_00

after that. I would love to post it too. Yeah, absolutely. That'd be great. That would be great. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01

That would be great. Yeah. So that's, That's the Alpine howl, is that photo.

SPEAKER_00

No doubt about it. She'll be the dog of the day. Doug, I can't thank you enough. This has been absolutely hands-down fantastic.

SPEAKER_01

The gratitude goes ten times as much for you. So thank you.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. And I'm going to give my friends the links. They've got to read this book. All my friends have dogs. I mean, Colorado, if you ever come down, look me up. I'll take you around. There are some dog-friendly places like you wouldn't believe. And, gosh, this has been truly an honor to talk to you. I mean it. You got it. And I'm going to get a hat right now. Yeah, absolutely. Take it out. And, you know, we'll be in touch.

SPEAKER_01

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 one myself right now.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and again, this is what it is. Tell your friends about it. I'm going to eventually travel the 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

come out. I absolutely

SPEAKER_00

will. I love the area, so no doubt about it. Wow, what a great conversation. And thank you again, Doug. So great to have you on the show. Hope you like the podcast. Everybody, download it, subscribe. Grab a copy of the book, The Teachings of Sherelle, Life Lessons from a Defined Knucklehead. You can get it on Amazon. I have all the links in the notes. Also, check out Doug on his website, authordouglasgreen.com. You know, you can... He's got links to the audio book, Amazon, Bookshop, AskSherelle, AskSherelle.com, another website, down to earth advice for kids and their parents, 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 much better. They are human therapy dogs. beings that are living around us each day so thank you also Gross and Bart for allowing me to sit there and take this interview people are coming up looking at me I'm also talking with Doug via zoom if you want to be on the show and talk dogs for dog friendly drop me a line you can send a DM through Instagram go to Alpine at Alpine Howell Or send 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 to try and get this video going. But, you know, hey, I got a lot going on, just as everybody. But I thank you all for listening. I hope you enjoyed this one. You know, the review of the week is of, you know, both books. Five out of fives, you know, Happy, sad, all the emotions. His other book, A Dog of Many Names. Pretty interesting story. A dog popping around to different owners. But you can tell that Doug puts in good emotion into his book. So The Teachings of Shirell, Life Lessons from a Divine Knucklehead. Great story about Doug and his dog Shirell. Five out of five as well. So that's the reviews of the week for those books. Fantastic. And next week, We got a local celebrity, the Uber dog. We're going to sit down with him. Yeah. All the things about, you know, having that Instagram power, the, you know, YouTube, all that stuff. So cool. He's right out here in Boulder, Colorado. So much fun there too. So until next time, pet them dogs. This episode was written and produced by the owner of Alpine Howl, Brandon Bennett. Hit subscribe on all the major platforms to get weekly episodes of Dog Friendly. Produced by Alpine Howell. Check us out, alpinehowell.com for handcrafted scarves for your dog and matching hats for their humans. We also have the latest hats for summer with matching bandanas, alpinehowell.com. Want to be on the show? Send us a message, info at alpinehowell.com. or DM us through Instagram. Thoughts or suggestions? Also drop us a line. Remember, pet them dogs.