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If Only Marley Had a Good Shrink
Saturday, June 02, 2007
A couple weeks ago, I was invited to speak in Birmingham, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, at a fund-raiser for canine cancer research. Unlike most of my talks, this one was filled with a large number of veterinarians, animal behaviorists and other dog experts. Also in the audience was Neal Rubin, a columnist for the Detroit News. Detroit is my home town, and I have been reading Neal's work for years. He introduced himself to me after the event, but what he didn't tell me was that he had sat next to a dog-behavior expert who, after hearing me detail Marley's, how shall we say?, over-the-top zest for life, came up with a clinical diagnosis. Based on my description, anyway, it turns out the world's worst dog actually "had a hypervigilance for stimulation, coupled with extreme emotionality." Yes, that sounds right on target.
Marley with a psychiatric condition? Who would have thought? And I just figured he was a wildly slobbering goofball.
Here's Neal's column, which ran May 22. The link is:
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070522/OPINION03/705220405
Author's delinquent dog latches on to readers
By Neal Rubin
John Grogan has had 18 months now to learn how to be a famous literary figure after spending 23 weeks atop the New York Times best-seller list with a story about his delinquent dog. He's used to the attention and the gushing about how much his book meant to some stranger who recognizes him from across a coffee shop.
So he was already dipping into his pocket for a pen, he says, when a woman approached him not long ago, and he was about to break out his self-effacing smile when she said, rather sharply: "Young man, you're all out of sweetener over here!"
It was a nice reminder that before the wealth and attention, he was just a guy who loved his Labrador. And to the expert seated next to me, as Grogan told the story, it was a tale of what might have been, had the golden Lab ever seen a shrink.
Grogan, 50, a Detroit native and Central Michigan University alumnus, had serious doubts that anyone would publish "Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog" (William Morrow, $21.95). Ultimately, six houses bid on it, and as for his follow-up doubt that anyone would bother reading it, the book is now available in places where English is a head-scratcher and dogs are on the menu.
Even Howard Stern said kind things about "Marley & Me," notes Grogan, a former Philadelphia Inquirer columnist, "and if I can move Howard Stern, that's saying something about the relationships between our dogs and our families."
Grogan, who now lives in rural Pennsylvania, spoke last weekend at the annual Winston Canine Cancer Foundation benefit.
The foundation bankrolls cancer research and also pays for cancer treatment for leader dogs and other canine helpers, so if ever someone was preaching to the choir, he was the guy. Even if you're lukewarm about dogs, though, it's hard to resist a specimen like Marley.
"He was at our feet when we found out we were having our first baby," Grogan says. "Then he ate the pregnancy test strip." Marley's list of snacks also included bottle caps, Handi Wipes, grilled cheese sandwiches, pieces of a stereo speaker, a brand-new gold chain and his diploma from obedience school.
Maybe he was just inordinately hungry. More likely, says Jim Lessenberry, he had a hypervigilance for stimulation, coupled with extreme emotionality.
Lessenberry, 51, owns Animal Learning Systems in Rochester; call (248) 236-9974. By trade, he's an animal behaviorist. Ask him if that means he's a dog whisperer and he says no. Barbara Babb of Bloomfield Hills, his host and a former client, says he is.
He earned a degree in psychology from Wayne State and started applying it to animals -- 99 percent of them dogs -- 21 years ago. While stressing that he never examined Marley, Lessenberry says the actions (and appetites) sound highly familiar.
He also points out that there was nothing wrong with Marley, who was simply being a goofy Lab. The problem was that his behavior did not match the expectations of the average family.
"This dog was titillated, if you will, by stimulation itself," Lessenberry says. That's the hypervigilance part. Beyond that, "he had no gradient from one emotional state to the next," which is to say his pedal was always pushed to the floor.
Yellow Labs, he says, are more likely to combine those traits than black or chocolate Labs. Heaven knows why. But yes, he could have taught Marley to relax and focus on cue, the same way dogs learn to sit or heel.
That would have changed the destiny of more than a few sofa cushions, and it could have saved Grogan some embarrassment at the coffee shop. But considering what it would have cost, it's probably fortunate Marley and Lessenberry never had a chat.
posted by John Grogan at 5:06 AM
 
2 Comments:
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Hiya, John,
Just thought I'd let you know that our newest rescue, Bear, a 3-year old black & tan coonhound, was so eager to devour Marley and Me that he went right to the end. Yep, chewed up half the back cover. Since I borrowed the copy from a friend, I get to keep this "extra special copy" and buy her a new one.
By the way, Bear thought the book was delicious. We told him that nice people don't eat books, but he was unfazed. Fortunately, we'd had the opportunity to read and enjoy it most heartily!
A regular follower of your Inky articles,
Betsy :-)
It surprises me that you would promote an individual without atleast doing a background check on first their credentials and second their criminal history. It's funny how convincing a good criminal can be. But truth be told, the person your promoting is nothing but a common criminal calling himself an Animal Behaviorist who pretends to know a thing or two about dogs. You have been played, just as many others have been before from this thief.