What with jobs, family, housework, hobbies and a million and four other demands, who has time to train a dog?

You do.

That's what Carol Lea Benjamin says, anyway, and she has both the background and the book to help you. "Dog Training in 10 Minutes" ($14.95; Howell Book House/Macmillan General Reference) is the eighth entry in her top-selling series of dog-training books, which she not only writes but also illustrates.

"You can't give a dog just 10 minutes of attention a day," she said, "but you certainly can train him in 10-minute chunks."

These days, said Benjamin, that's all many people can manage at any given time.

"Lives have gotten more stressful," she said. "People are working with their dogs in ways that add stress, and a pet should never add to your stress."

Benjamin's solution is to skip the old idea of stopping everything in your life to train your dog a half-hour a day. Instead, she suggests integrating dog training into your everyday routine -- a few minutes here, a few minutes there -- as a way to build the relationship you want with your dog.

"It's about setting an accessible goal," she said. "Everyone has a minute or two. While you're waiting for the coffee to brew, for example, you work on 'sits.'

"When you set an accessible goal and meet that goal you feel terrific. And so does your dog."

The first goal to set would have to be reading the book, but Benjamin makes that easy. The trade paperback crams the author's 25 years of dog-training experience into a highly readable format, with Benjamin's bright writing and highly original color artwork helping readers pick up the important points quickly.

Her chapters on understanding a dog's body language and solving problem behaviors are lively and succinct. Her theory of dog-training, based on respect and praise, sets the tone for the book.

"There are people who think it takes something away when you train a dog, but you're really sharpening what's there," she said. "The only things you take away are bad behaviors. It's cruel NOT to address a dog's mind."

Or a dog's body, because Benjamin adds that while you can train a dog in 10 minutes, you certainly can't exercise him that way. Bored dogs with energy to burn have more than their share of behavior problems, she says. Still, for those occasional days when you simply can't manage a longer, more intense outing, the trainer offers 10-minute workouts that will help you and your dog cope.

That Carol Lea Benjamin manages to cope herself is testament to her skills as a trainer and her love for dogs. She and her husband live in New York City with two dogs, Dexter, a playful 6-year-old pit-bull mix, and Flash, a year-old border collie with the energy of three dogs. The pair would be a challenge in any environment, but to train and exercise them in Manhattan is even harder. Yet the two dogs glow with good health, good humor and good manners.

"Dog Training in 10 Minutes" was one of two books by Benjamin that came out in the early part of the year. She also made her mystery debut, with "This Dog for Hire" (Walker and Company). The second mystery, "The Dog Who Knew Too Much," is coming out in the fall, and she's writing the third in the series now. After that, she won't say whether she'll be writing a mystery or a training book next.

"I don't do anything without dogs," she said. "Fiction or nonfiction, the only thing I'm sure of is I'm not going to write a book without dogs in it."

CYBERLINKS: Cindy Tittle Moore's rec.pet.dogs home page (http://www.zmall.com/pet/dog-faqs/) is the best place to start searching the Web for information about dog training and behavior. The rec.pet.dogs.behavior newsgroup offers a place to discuss training and behavior problems, although because it's unmoderated, the quality of advice varies. For information on e-mail lists for trainers, check out "The Complete List of Dog-Related E-mail Lists" (www.zmall.com/pet/dog-faqs/lists/email-list.html). If you'd like to watch the best-trained dogs in action, the American Kennel Club's Web site (www.akc.org) offers a calendar of upcoming AKC-sanctioned obedience trials.

Gina Spadafori, the award-winning author of "Dogs for Dummies," is affiliated with the Veterinary Information Network Inc., an international on-line service for veterinary professionals. Write to her in care of this newspaper, or e-mail to Giori(at)aol.com.

4520 Main St., Kansas City, Mo. 64111; (816) 932-6600

If there's one thing for sure about cats, it's that they don't like change. Some hide under the bed. Some stop using the litter box. Efforts to soothe others may be greeted with a hiss or a growl, or even a swipe with claws

bared.

While these are all normal feline reactions to stress, the bad habits cats may develop while coming to terms with something new could become a permanent part of their routine. Which is why, for your cat's sake and your own, you need to remember one word when introducing any change to your cat.

That word? "Slowly."

Introducing a second cat to the household is one time when patience is never more important.

Despite your pet's initial misgivings, adding a companion can be a wonderful idea, especially for an indoor cat. More cats today spend their lives inside, protected from deadly hazards such as cars and contagious diseases. There are trade-offs, though: An outdoor cat's life may be shorter, but it is filled with smells and sounds and other animals. We must make up some of the difference, enriching the lives of our indoor cats.

Cat trees, screened porches, edible indoor greenery and a wide variety of toys are important, but so, too, is a playmate. For pets who spend hours alone while their owners are at work, another cat can fill that lonely time.

If you don't have a cat yet, and know you'll eventually want two, it's easiest to adopt two kittens at the same time, preferably from the same litter. Kittens don't have the sense of territory grown cats have and will settle down together nicely.

But even a solitary adult cat can learn to enjoy living with a companion. Since the worst territorial spats -- complete with urine marking -- are between cats who aren't spayed or neutered, your chances for peaceful co-existence are many times greater if the cats are both altered before any introductions are attempted.

Prepare a room for your new cat, with food and water bowls, and a litter box and scratching post that needn't be shared. (Separate gear may be a temporary arrangement, or it may be lifelong; it all depends on the cats involved.) This separate room will be your new pet's home turf while the two cats get used to each other.

Take your new cat to your veterinarian first, to be checked for parasites such as ear mites and contagious diseases such as feline leukemia. When you're sure your new pet is healthy, the introductions can begin.

Bring the cat home in a carrier and set it in the room you've prepared. Let your resident cat discover the caged animal, and don't be discouraged by initial hisses. Let your old cat explore, and when the new cat is alone in the room, close the door and open the carrier. If he doesn't want to leave the carrier at first, let him be. Leave the carrier door open and the cat alone to take things at his own pace.

Maintain each cat separately for a week or so -- with lots of love and play for both -- and then on a day when you're around to observe, leave the door to the new cat's room open. Don't force them together. Territory negotiations between cats can be drawn-out and delicate, and you must let them work it out on their own, ignoring the hisses and glares.

Eventually you can encourage them both to play with you, using a cat "fishing pole" or a toy on a string. And slowly -- there's that word again -- feed them in ever-closer proximity.

Most cats -- but not all -- will eventually learn to co-exist happily. When you see your two sleeping together, playing or grooming each other tenderly, you'll know the effort was worth it.

CYBERLINKS: The best Web site for cat-lovers is the Cat Fanciers home page (http://www.fanciers.com), a superb resource with hundreds of documents on breeds, health and behavior, as well as links to many other sites. The newsgroup rec.pets.cats.health(plus)behav is available for the discussion of health and behavior topics. And when you're through with all that serious Net surfing, visit The Amazing Cat Picture Page (http://www.islandnet.com/(tilde)jensal/cats.html) to see some fabulous felines.

Gina Spadafori, the award-winning author of "Dogs for Dummies," is affiliated with the Veterinary Information Network Inc., an international on-line service for veterinary professionals. Write to her in care of this newspaper, or e-mail to Giori(at)aol.com.

4520 Main St., Kansas City, Mo. 64111; (816) 932-6600

When Laramie's big heart finally stopped a week ago, her death was a blow to the woman who'd raised and lived with the black-and-tan Doberman for nearly 15 years.

Live with an animal that long, and it's to be expected that the first day you wake up and she's not there can be as empty as any you've ever known.

I felt the loss, too, although surely not as keenly. I'd known Laramie almost all her life, and became friends with her owner, Gay Currier, over the shared interest of our love for animals. A lot of my friendships start that way, and over the years my friends and I have consoled each other when our animals have left us -- Anitra and Sara, Toni and Binky, Kippy and Doc, to name but a few, all gone but never forgotten.

But Laramie ... this dog was a part of something bigger, something that changed the lives of thousands of people for the better.

Laramie was born to be a service dog.

The concept was still new when Laramie was a puppy. People had long accepted that dogs could be trained to help people with impaired vision, but one woman thought they could do more.

Bonnie Bergen was that woman, and she thought dogs could be trained to assist people who use wheelchairs, to turn light switches on and off, to pick up dropped items and fetch others, to provide both companionship and a degree of protection. She thought dogs could also be trained to do tasks for people who were hearing-impaired.

But more than anything else, Bonnie Bergen thought trained dogs could offer independence to the people they served.

With such a dream, she founded Canine Companions for Independence, based in Santa Rosa, Calif., and sought out dogs like Laramie to help make it come true.

"Bonnie said, 'I think you'll like this dog,'" said Gay, of her decision to become one of CCI's earliest puppy-raisers. It turned out to be an understatement of the grandest scale.

Laramie grew into such an outstanding dog that she was never given the chance to be a service dog -- she was held out to be bred. She had one litter, and one of those pups went on to be a service dog.

Laramie herself, trained to respond to more than 70 commands, became a public-relations ambassador as Gay moved on to open an office in Sacramento, Calif., for CCI, helping puppy-raisers train and socialize their charges for the work ahead of them. Laramie also worked as a therapy dog, visiting nursing homes and schools.

Gay doesn't work for CCI anymore, and the organization no longer uses Dobermans in its service-dog program. But in the course of this one dog's lifetime, the work Laramie was born to do has become an invaluable and accepted part of the fabric of our society, another example of the importance of animals in our lives.

When she called with her sad news, Gay said it seemed to her that Laramie's life went by in a flash, that it was so, so very short. And she's right in one respect: I remember the leggy young Laramie as if no time at all has passed.

On the other hand, it seems long ago that there was a time when service dogs didn't exist at all -- no dogs helping people in wheelchairs, no dogs helping people who cannot hear.

All this changed, in one dog's lifetime.

"She changed my life," said Gay. "That may be an unusual concept for some people. But it happened. It happened."

Thanks to dogs like Laramie and the people who recognize their potential, it's not such an unusual concept at all.

Just ask anyone with a service dog.

CYBERLINKS: You can find out more about service dogs by visiting the Web sites of those organizations that train and place them. Canine Companions for Independence (www.caninecompanions.org), Independence Dogs Inc. (www.ndepot.com/idi), and Paws With a Cause (www.ismi.net/paws) all have pages describing their programs. The Internet also offers support for those who have just lost a special animal companion. The newsgroup alt.support.grief.pet-loss provides animal-lovers with a place to discuss their pets, and Kathie Maffitt's pet-loss page (www.primenet.com/(tilde)meggie/petloss.htm) is a good jumping-off spot for pet-loss resources on the Web.

Gina Spadafori, the award-winning author of "Dogs for Dummies," is affiliated with the Veterinary Information Network Inc., an international on-line service for veterinary professionals. Write to her in care of this newspaper, or e-mail to Giori@aol.com.

4520 Main St., Kansas City, Mo. 64111; (816) 932-6600