The Academic's Response to Any Problem

I've decided to write an article about the "Gotta get Zen with your dogs" incident.

Seriously.

Perhaps not for College English, but I might try The Bark or some kindred publication.

The thing is: I realize the most important thing I can do to bring my dogs back into balance--to a place where they're "comfortable with themselves" as the trainer said--is to establish a more balanced routine at home and to project calm assertive leadership. I've read, literally, several dozen books on this subject but implemented very little of it. Evidently it's time. And I've found a way to make myself accountable for working on it:

The Academic's Second Solution: Attach it to a Class

In my grad-level tech writing class I'm doing a little creative-writing experimentation this semester. The majority of my students have expressed that they loathe writing and experience tremendous anxiety about it. (The class is a requirement for their curriculum in the B-school.) So I'm injecting some activities and assignments intended to help them alter their relationship with writing--find more enjoyment and comfort in the process of reading and writing and working with words. To model this I'm keeping a writing journal along with them and I'm encouraging those so-inclined to also maintain journals as a low-pressure place to experiment with poetry and other genres outside the conventional realm of business and technical writing.

I'm already using the journal to log my scholarly reading on a collaborative research project that I wanted to track. So I'm now devoting a section to writing about my Zen Dog Project--establishing a daily routine of work, play, and meditation as well as ongoing reading and writing (which I do anyway). Guess I'll have to get a creative commons license for this blog now :-D