DOGS
Dog Days
Who’s walking who? What these dogs
and their owners do to stay connected – and why
WRITTEN BY LIZ BROUS GUEVARA
D
ogs may be man’s
best friends, but –
as these dog owners
have learned – our
four-legged friends
can bring us together
with besties of the two-legged variety.
Here, four groups of dog devotees
share what’s special about the time
they spend together and what they
really talk about during those walks
and backyard play sessions. (Spoiler
alert: It goes way beyond who’s been
chewing up the furniture!)
BACKYARD
BUDDIES
Nine years ago, when Karen Kahn
decided to get a puppy from local
breeder Lisa Siracuse, she looked at
the litter of adorable chocolate-brown
Labrador Retrievers snuggling together and felt sad that they would be
separated. When Siracuse told Kahn
that most of the litter would be going
to homes in town, a light bulb went
Tara Pickard
and Brady
42
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNE-MARIE CARUSO
MILLBURN • SHORT HILLS MAGAZINE HOLIDAY 2016
Robin Sysler
and Duncan
off: She asked Siracuse to put her
in touch with the families adopting
Coco’s littermates, and a long-standing puppy group was born.
It could have disbanded within the
first year: Puppy groups, like baby
groups, often peter out as parents gain
confidence, requiring less of the in-thetrenches advice from the group that got
them through the newborn and toddler
phases. But, as the members (in addition
to Kahn: Sallie Bunn, Jeri Dana, Tara
Pickard, Robin Sysler and Sarma Van
Karen Kahn
and Chloe