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Writer's pictureBest Ever You

Real People - Featuring Author Wendy Lyons Sunshine



In Tender Paws: How Science-Based Parenting Can Transform Our Relationship with Dogs, award-winning journalist Wendy Lyons Sunshine takes a unique look at the deep parallels between children and dogs, and shows how evidence-informed parenting research can help us improve welfare for all. Far from a standard training guide, Tender Paws synthesizes best practices across disciplines, showing how attention to parenting styles, attachment styles, developmental needs, the impact of trauma, and other considerations can help us bring out the best in the dogs we care about.



Tender Paws includes dozens of inspiring case studies, including the author’s own relationship with a rescue puppy, which benefited from methods used by families with special needs children. Tender Paws is published by HCI Books, distributed by Simon & Schuster, and available in print, ebook, and audio formats from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Dogwise, Recorded Books, and other retailers. 

 

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

In grade school I was the rare kid who loved doing research reports. While classmates complained about the assignment, I was busy digging out all the little facts and piecing together the big picture. It was my way of making sense of the world, and a short jump from there to becoming a nonfiction writer.


Author Wendy Lyons Sunshine also joined Best Ever You Founder, Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino on The Best Ever You Show to discuss Tender Paws.



Learn more about Wendy Lyons Sunshine as she talks about her journey as an author.


Describe your writing space.

My office looks out onto nature views and has a comfy couch where the dog can sleep. My desk is rigged up with an extra monitor, an ergonomic gaming keyboard that splits into two parts, and an under-desk treadmill and stationary bike for when I feel energetic.


What was your favorite part, and your least favorite part, of the publishing journey?

My favorite part of writing Tender Paws was speaking to the wonderful people who shared “as-told-to” stories for the book. I also loved finding relevant research studies and taking the reader on a journey of discovery. My least favorite part was the deadline pressure, which made my brain work overtime. I kept waking up at 3 am with ideas that demanded to be captured immediately.


What is the most surprising thing you discovered while writing your book(s)?

I was surprised by how many times it’s possible to look at a text and find better ways to express the ideas. Eventually, you just have to stop and let it go!


Have any of your books been made into audiobooks? If so, what are the challenges in producing an audio book?

All of my books were made into audiobooks. I had the opportunity to narrate Tender Paws myself and was fortunate to work with an excellent sound engineer who made the process easy. My main challenges were learning to maintain the right pacing and to give my voice enough time to rest between days in the recording studio.


Do you listen to audiobooks? If so, are there any you’d recommend?

Listening to audiobooks can be such a marvelous experience. I recently enjoyed a vintage novel, Enchanted April, written by Elizabeth von Arnim and narrated by Robin Siegerman. The narrator did a superb job of animating the sly humor and quirky characters. For those who like self-help books, I recommend Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh’s book Reconciliation: Healing the Inner Child. The narrator, Edoardo Ballerini, is expert at conveying clarity and peace and compassion.


If your book was to be made into a movie, who are the celebrities that would star in it?

The opening chapter of Tender Paws is essentially memoir, and if that were ever made into a movie, I'd travel back in time to ask Joan Baez in her early 40s to play me. (One can dream, right?)


More About Tender Paws

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.


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