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Kerry Nichols on raising puppies, training humans, and writing a ‘fat’ first draft.
By Zazie Todd PhD
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Puppy Brain: How Our Dogs Learn, Think, and Love by Kerry Nichols is a guide to the early life of puppies that manages to be both sweet and scientific. We learn when their eyes and ears open, what Nichols does to encourage her puppies’ brain development, and how to successfully bring a new puppy into your own home. With the cutest photos of Golden Retriever puppies, Puppy Brain is smart, adorable, and full of tips on how to raise a happy, healthy pup.
You can hear Kerry Nichols talk about the book at Bark! Fest, the book festival for animal lovers. She’s on a panel called Canine Blockbusters with Alexis Devine, Kerry Nichols, and Teresa J. Rhyne.
Puppy Brain is available from all good bookstores, including via Bookshop (and Bookshop UK) which support independent bookstores, as well as my Amazon store.
Below, Kerry Nichols answers my questions about the book.
Why did you write this book?
For 15 years I raised puppies for families and received the same questions back from those families over and over again. Questions about setting up a puppy zone, how to transport a puppy home, potty training, and introducing an existing dog to a new family member. From the beginning I maintained a private blog for our Nicholberry families and just kept adding to it with each litter, ultimately creating a training program that helped equip our families to raise an emotionally resilient and happy puppy.
As my Instagram account grew, I found that my DMs filled with the same questions that came from our puppy families, so I wrote the book with the hope that it would equip all people who were raising a puppy or young adult dog. But as happens when writing a book, it continued to mushroom, and we included chapters on things like explaining how the canine brain develops from birth to eight weeks, making an educated decision about spaying and neutering, and processing end of life decisions.
What are the main themes of your book?
The themes are a reflection of my goals, which are to help humans understand dogs so that their dogs can have happier, more fulfilled lives, and so that they can maximize the relationship that is possible between human and dog. Main themes include agency, honor, respect, mutuality, patience, change, and love.
What surprised you while you were writing the book?
I was surprised by how difficult it was to write the “First, Train the Humans” chapter. I sent it to a variety of people, wanting to make sure that the message was getting through. I recognized that if people didn’t assess their underlying beliefs about dogs (such as, a good dog is rigidly obedient), or evaluate their approach to dogs (such as an alpha dog mindset), my book wouldn’t have much of an impact. Putting that into words was so much harder than I anticipated.
I was also surprised by the bouts of imposter syndrome. It came in waves, but it was like a secondary story that was running under the surface the entire time I wrote my manuscript. I learned an awful lot about myself in the process.
Tell me something about your writing process and how it shaped this book.
“Write fat.” That was my guiding principle, as I didn’t want to constrain myself with concerns about the end product, a word count, or even staying within my outline. I allowed myself to do a massive data dump into my computer, knowing that later I could come back and trim it down. What came out of that was an awareness that I must write chapters on spaying and neutering, on therapy dogs, and on end of life decisions (none of which were in my original outline).
Who will especially enjoy this book?
Obviously, anyone who is or will be raising a puppy. I continue to hear back from readers that they felt completely prepared for their new puppy and have seamlessly implemented the Puppy Brain protocols. But because it’s so heavy on storytelling, it has been a big hit with dog lovers as a whole, regardless of whether they currently have a dog or are reflecting on a dog they’ve been loved by in the past.
What are you working on right now?
If all goes as planned, I’ll have two day old puppies when we do this panel. They will be my full time job for the next two months! I’m also partnering with the Aoki Foundation to raise awareness about human brain health and will be participating in their big fundraising gala, where I will teach about the impact that dogs have on our brains.
Beyond that, I’ve been working on a memoir, as I have raised puppies to change other people’s lives, but in the process, they have radically changed mine. Not only in the very tangible way of infusing my life with joy, but in the unexpected, bringing extraordinary people into my life and ultimately, helping me see that I can do hard things.
“I continue to hear back from readers that they felt completely prepared for their new puppy.”
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