Can we talk? I need some advice about WDJ. Last month, I mentioned that both my writers and I have endured some various challenging life events this summer, which delayed the appearance of a few articles. Fortunately, other terrific pieces were prepared ahead of schedule, or in a few cases, appeared out of thin air from one of my regular contributors. Despite the drama, we’ve been able to bring you a full 24 pages of information you could immediately put into practice – even if it wasn’t on the topics we hinted at in the “what’s ahead” bar that appears on page 24.
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Mentioning these difficulties last month accomplished one nice side effect: I received a number of notes or email messages containing suggestions for other articles. It gave me an idea: While regrouping, I should take this opportunity to formally ask all of you about what you’d like to see in WDJ. And so I’ve asked the Web guys at our publishing HQ to add a link to WDJ’s home page (whole-dog-journal.com) for a short survey. Would you please go to the survey and answer just a few questions about what you’d like to see more of, or less of, in WDJ? We promise not to ask you any personal questions about your age or household income or weight, for goodness sakes! I just want to learn what you’d like more information about.
Just so you know: When planning each issue, I try to maintain a balance between dog-friendly, force-free training; holistic healthcare (including conventional medicine) for dogs; product reviews; and nutrition. In the best of all possible worlds, I’d have a bit of information about each of these in each issue.
Sometimes, however, the pendulum swings hard one way or the other for an issue or two. Last month, for example, we had a lot of training and behavior-related articles; this month, the issue is top-loaded with two in-depth articles having to do with health: chemotherapy for dogs with cancer, and Addison’s disease. We’re going to have a ton of food-related coverage in the next few months. It all evens out eventually – at least, I hope it does.
I also try to balance some of the very long, detailed feature articles with shorter offerings, such as the “5-Step Action Plan” column and “Canine News You Can Use.” Generally speaking, the idea with the long pieces is to give a reader who is struggling with that particular subject everything they need to know to really make a difference to their dog’s condition, whether the issue is health- or behavior-related. I understand that if you are not, yourself, dealing with that issue with your dog, these long pieces can be tedious. The idea is, though, that if your dog – or your brother’s dog, or your neighbor’s dog – ever did develop that condition, boom! You’d have an article on file that would really help address the problem.
Check out the “Survey” link on whole-dog-journal.com. And thanks for your interest in WDJ!
