Tender Paws takes a deep dive into the practical benefits of applying therapeutic parenting best practices to
dogs in our care.
When Wendy Lyons Sunshine got her first puppy—abandoned behind a gas station, struggling with worms
and anemia—she was in over her head. As puppy training guides failed to help her with the out-of-control,
traumatized bundle of teeth and claws rescue pup, she turned to her work helping world-class child development
experts. Could strategies for raising happy, well-adjusted kids transfer to a puppy?
As it turns out, yes, they can! From the first try, parenting wisdom transformed Sunshine's relationship with
her challenging little one. Soon enough, Sunshine's view of her puppy shifted from one of adversity to one of
compassion and understanding, and she was able to bring patience and therapeutic concepts to meet her dog's
needs. When Sunshine reached out to experts, they affirmed that science-based principles used with at-risk
children align well with best practices of holistic, positive, and progressive dog handling. Exploring parallels
between human and canine research, attachment styles, history of trauma, parenting styles, and her own "inner
child" proved a mindful path for pet parenting.
Far from a standard dog training manual, Tender Paws explicitly applies parenting wisdom and best practices
used with special needs kids to a cross-section of scenarios, from recognizing developmental trauma and
unmet core needs, to making decisions about appropriate equipment, to responding to difficult behavior, to
understanding the parenting style from which we approach our dogs.
Sunshine empowers you and your dog by offering:
A synthesis of the fields of child development, attachment, trauma, sensory integration, neurobiology, learning,
animal behavior, and ethology.
A problem-solving framework that makes dog training decisions clearer and behavior frustrations easier to
resolve.
Parenting wisdom to help your dog move beyond trauma and into wellness.
Borrowing the principles of parenting for dogs feels obvious to some people: instinctive and ordinary and
inevitable. But that's not true for everyone, especially those of us who had a less than ideal childhood and bear
the scars of early harm, loss, trauma, or deprivation. Tender Paws provides an interdisciplinary, comprehensive,
evidence-based guide for readers who want to honor the needs of—and improve outcomes for—puppies and
dogs they care about.
