Online only: New pet advice column - Coeur d'Alene Press

Posted: Friday, June 3, 2011 9:15 am | Updated: 2:48 pm, Thu Jun 2, 2011.

By GRETCHEN HALL

Special to cdapress.com

As a child, I always had an intense fascination with critters of all kinds.

My parents had to put up with my bringing home all sorts of things that crept, crawled, or slithered, as well as strays, orphans and injured animals. As I got older I helped with wildlife rescue groups, raising orphaned babies to release back to the wild. It was only natural that I go off to college to get a degree in Zoology. I had grand plans of becoming a veterinarian or working in a zoo.

Life has a way of going different directions though and I ended up at the phone company for many years, married, then raising a daughter by myself.

Since my mother had always been a Pug dog fancier, I found myself becoming quite an enthusiast with the breed. I got involved showing, breeding and later, rescuing. I also fostered several other breeds of dogs and training became an essential tool when living with a houseful of canines.

When we moved to Idaho, I thought how fun it would be to work at Petco.

I finally got hired there after a year and moved into dog training.

I discovered I really enjoyed educating people when it came to all the different sorts of canine care issues that arise as well as small animal care. I am happiest when I can assist people in giving their dogs and other pets the best care possible. I am constantly learning new things as well with every dog and owner I train!

I began to think that writing a column about pet care, dog care and answering questions from readers might be a useful resource — as well as entertaining.

I get a wide variety of questions almost every day and often people are asking the same things. What’s the best way to potty train my puppy? How do I make my puppy come to his name? My child just came home with a strange looking lizard. What do I do? What do frogs eat?

The list goes on. This will be great learning experience for me too since I’m sure someone will come up with a question that will have me stumped!

Email Gretchen your pet question: lucky7pugs@hughes.net

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