Press Room

Press Room

Sophie made her mystery debut in the short story "Clicker Training," thinly disguised as a water dog named Zelda. To read the story, click "here."

“Oh, What a Tangled Lanyard We Weave”, Murder Most Crafty (Berkley), featuring Stanley Hastings, has been nominated for 2006 Shamus Best Short Story Award .

The BIG NEWS is Sophie, my Portuguese water dog passed the highest level at the Nugmeg water trials this summer. Sophie was the only dog to pass Courier at the Monroe, Connecticut water trials, and the only dog to pass Courier Excellent at the water trials in Farmington. At my direction she had to jump out of a boat, carry pouches from boat to boat, retrieve a float line from shore, retrieve two idential objects in a directed order, stretch a fishing net from one boat to the other, and, the one they all fail, jump out of the boat, carry a ball on a rope to a marker 60' away, follow directions to a spot ten to fifteen feet beyond the marker, and, on command, leave the ball there and return to the boat. This is very hard, since all the other exercises are retrieves, and this is the opposite. I take no credit for Sophie's accomplishment. Her breeder, Pat Volz, is a very good trainer, and Sophie is a very smart dog.

Schedule:

Malice Domestic 2006, May 4 - 6, 2007, Arlington, VA