Fresh from an exhausting yet exhilarating six-day trip to Orlando, Florida, for Global Pet Expo 2012, Camilla Gray-Nelson sits and stays long enough for a chat before she is off and running again.
Petalumans will recognize Nelson's name - or blogname ("Dog Talk Diva") - as a top dog trainer. Her Dairydell Doggie Dude Ranch and Training Center was named in 2011 by readers of the Argus-Courier as the Best Kennel, and her clients come from as far as Sacramento and San Jose. Nelson is author of a new book, "Lipstick and the Leash: Dog Training a Woman's Way," that is getting a lot of well-deserved attention.
"I was overwhelmed by the number of people who sought me out at the reception" at the Pet Expo, she says. "The contacts I made were more important than the sales."
Those contacts, to name a few, included the wife and daughter of Dr. Marty Becker, the popular veterinary contributor to ABC-TV's "Good Morning America" and resident veterinarian on "The Dr. Oz Show," the producer of Lifetime's "Welcome Home" and the producer of "American Milestones with Joan Lunden" on PBS.
"But what I found really fascinating," Nelson says, "were the number of buyers from Mexico and Central and South America who had so much interest in the book."
The title, "Lipstick and the Leash," speaks to a niche that has until now gone largely unexplored and the cover art (a Chinese Crested on a leash and a woman's red leather boots) translates into any language.
According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, 74 percent of the women in North American households are in charge of training and caring for the family dog.
"The Latin American culture is moving in that direction as well," says Nelson. "They have a lot of the same needs that women in North America have. The market is there."
Nelson sprinkles quotes in "Lipstick" from such Iron Ladies as Margaret Thatcher and Oprah Winfrey, as well as some from such disparate gentlemen as Charles Shultz and Dwight D. Eisenhower to get her trenchant points across.
For example, "Let not thy will roar, when thy power can but whisper," which is as true today as when it was first uttered in 1732 by Dr. Thomas Fuller.
And that brings up the most common mistake women make in trying to correct a dog's bad behavior.
"Yelling is a woman's Kryptonite," says Nelson in person and on the page. "Dogs expect size and strength to be dominant. And because women don't have the physical strength and stature of a man, they compensate out of frustration with angry outbursts that signal to canines and humans that they've lost control."
TV and radio personality Jan Wahl, a Dairydell client, can attest to this. "Camilla taught me how to properly get our dogs' attention," she says. "I learned some life lessons as well as doggie lessons - like avoiding that anger-in-the-voice thing."
"You can call me a dog trainer," says Nelson, "but my product is not dog training. My product is help and hope. People contact me when they are at their wit's end, when all else has failed. Most of my clients are women and I teach them how to use their inherent strengths to achieve their &‘diva dominance.'"
And that's where her book proves its indispensability. "It's as unique as she is," says Wahl. "It fills a void for people to get a simple, hands-on approach to doggie training and human training."
Nelson is gearing up for unleashed activity in the upcoming months. On Saturday at 2 p.m. Wahl will introduce her at a book signing at Copperfield's downtown. This will be followed by a six-city "Lipstick Tour" to Memphis, Seattle, Portland, St. Louis, Minneapolis, as well as San Francisco.
Leave it to Nelson to take Teddy Roosevelt's famous quote and make it her own: "Speak softly, but think like a Diva; you will go far."
(Contact Bob Canning at argus@arguscourier.com)
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