Holistic Care for Those With Paws
New York Times
An owner of Whiskers Holistic Pet Care in the East Village says he wouldn't carry anything in the store that he wouldn't be willing to eat himself.
"We keep some things the same every session," says Alysa Slay, a clinical psychologist who co-founded the Camp Dogwood sessions in 2001, "but we're always adding new things."
The scores of activities and lectures include water sports, herding, dog fur spinning and ask-the-vet sessions.
Most canine camps are held at waterfront facilities — rustic cabins and/or tent or RV sites — that serve as kid camps, music workshops or couples-counseling retreats most of the time but that occasionally go to the dogs.
Most limit participants to 20 to 100 humans plus their dogs (some allow two dogs per person), and many exclude kids younger than 18 on the grounds that a person keeping track of children isn't as able to bond with a dog in the ideal way.
Some campers partake of every offering they can cram in. But if the two- and four-legged clients just want to chill, that's fine. "If someone wants to sit under a tree with her dog or go for a stroll, just the two of them, that's just fine," says Lory Kohlmoos, director of Camp Winnaribbun, a three-times-a-year week-long camp in Stateline, Nev., on the shores of Lake Tahoe ($1,300 for lodging, meals and activities).
"Everyone learns a lot about themselves and about their dogs," Kohlmoos says, even if the humans skip some of the dozens of activities, which range from tracking to crafts to homeopathy sessions.
An owner of Whiskers Holistic Pet Care in the East Village says he wouldn't carry anything in the store that he wouldn't be willing to eat himself.
"We keep some things the same every session," says Alysa Slay, a clinical psychologist who co-founded the Camp Dogwood sessions in 2001, "but we're always adding new things."The scores of activities and lectures include water sports, herding, dog fur spinning and ask-the-vet sessions.
Most canine camps are held at waterfront facilities — rustic cabins and/or tent or RV sites — that serve as kid camps, music workshops or couples-counseling retreats most of the time but that occasionally go to the dogs.
Most limit participants to 20 to 100 humans plus their dogs (some allow two dogs per person), and many exclude kids younger than 18 on the grounds that a person keeping track of children isn't as able to bond with a dog in the ideal way.
Some campers partake of every offering they can cram in. But if the two- and four-legged clients just want to chill, that's fine. "If someone wants to sit under a tree with her dog or go for a stroll, just the two of them, that's just fine," says Lory Kohlmoos, director of Camp Winnaribbun, a three-times-a-year week-long camp in Stateline, Nev., on the shores of Lake Tahoe ($1,300 for lodging, meals and activities).
"Everyone learns a lot about themselves and about their dogs," Kohlmoos says, even if the humans skip some of the dozens of activities, which range from tracking to crafts to homeopathy sessions.
