The Author's Note
I wrote this book because three Miniature Schnauzers share our home — Bacio and Lucca, who are mine, and Bosco, who belongs to Erik, my partner, an Episcopal priest based in Michigan. And because I spent months caring for Elmo — Erik's dog, Bacio's brother — through a terminal illness that taught me more about love and loss than I knew how to hold.
I have lived every scenario in these pages. I know what it is to call a dog's name with full authority and watch them very deliberately not look up. I know the particular helplessness of watching three dogs simultaneously discover something in the yard that, based on their enthusiasm, might as well be buried treasure. I know how a breed this small can occupy every inch of emotional space in a home — and how completely empty that home would feel without them.
This book started as a training guide. It became something larger because the truth is, you cannot fully understand how to train a Miniature Schnauzer without understanding the breed — its history, its health, its psychology, its specific needs and vulnerabilities and extraordinary gifts. Everything connects. The stubbornness that makes Leave It challenging is the same tenacity that makes this breed extraordinary to live with. The diet restrictions that protect against pancreatitis are the same metabolic quirks that make them prone to weight gain when treats are used for training. You cannot separate the parts. This book does not try to.
The Four Schnauzers
Bacio
Bacio is twelve now. He is the first dog I ever had a real relationship with. He came to us as his fourth home — the same number of homes Elmo had before he came to us. That was not a coincidence I noticed at the time. I noticed it years later, when Elmo was gone.
Elmo
Elmo was diagnosed with hemangiosarcoma at nine years old. The oncologist gave us the median: one to three months with surgery alone, four to six with surgery and chemotherapy. We did surgery. We did chemotherapy. We enrolled him in the clinical trial of what was then the Yale Canine Cancer Vaccine — now branded TheraJan — under Dr. Mark Mamula. We bought every month the science could give us and we paid full freight in every currency the cost was paid in: money, fear, lost sleep, the particular dread of knowing the diagnosis and not knowing the date.
Twenty-two months. He died twenty-two months to the day after the diagnosis.
This book is dedicated to him.
Lucca and Bosco — The Litter Mates
I said I would never get another dog. I broke my own rule. When I did, I did not break it small. I did not get one dog. I got litter mates.
Lucca came home with me. Lucca's brother, Bosco, went home with Erik. Same litter, same start — and they have been categorically different dogs from the day they arrived. Different temperaments, different fears, different motivators, different favorite spots on the couch.
This is the best thing I have ever done with my life as a dog owner.
With Gratitude to Erik
For your hours of careful reading, your eye for what was not yet clear, and for catching every place this book needed to speak to every schnauzer owner — not only to ours. This book is better because you read it. Thank you.
About the Companion Site
The book is the spine. This site is where the work happens — where you log the 12-week training program for each of your dogs, where you keep their medical profiles current, where you read updates on TheraJan and the canine cancer vaccine, and where you share your own schnauzer story with the community.
If you are reading this and you do not yet have the book, the companion site is built around it. Get the book — it includes a unique access code on the inside back cover that unlocks the interactive tools here.