Resident Draws Attention for Work on Dog-Lovers Magazine

For a hard-working Berkeley resident who works out of her converted garage with her husband, a small staff and three dogs, the 20-hour-long workdays have paid off.

Claudia Kawczynska is the editor of The Bark - a local literary arts magazine for the "dog-centric reader" that has recently been making a lot of noise on a national scale.

Her magazine, which features articles ranging in topic from what dogs dream to "How to Survive Your Dog's Adolescence," has garnered national attention since its launch three years ago.

Major newspapers and magazines have featured articles on The Bark and have interviewed Kawczynska, who in addition to being the editor, is also one of the magazine's original founders.

A well-known Internet site run by college professor Emir Husni listed The Bark as one of last year's top magazine launches.

"(The Bark is) setting a new standard for pet magazines," Husni writes.

In addition to featuring interesting literary pieces about dogs, The Bark also publishes articles and tips to help people become responsible guardians of their pets.

Other articles have provided suggestions about how owners should act in society with their dogs, Kawczynska says.

The magazine also includes stories on political issues such as the debate on off-leash areas and encourages pet adoption from animal shelters.

Despite the magazine's unusual subject matter, The Bark nevertheless seems to speak to a large variety of readers. The circulation of the quarterly publication is currently 60,000 people and growing.

What makes Kawcynska's magazine unique among the plethora of other dog publications out on the magazine racks is that The Bark is a publication that does not just focus on dogs. Instead, it focuses on the relationships between dogs and humans, she says.

"Other dog magazines didn't speak to them like The Bark did," Kawczynska says of her readers.

She says that the three-year-old publication has become famous because of its luck in procuring a staff filled with a variety of well-known writers who are, more importantly, also dog-lovers.

Her magazine gives these talented writers - who often write on other topics for other publications - a venue to write stories about their personal experiences with their dogs.

Kawczynska also credits The Bark's success to the famous "look of the magazine." The magazine's layout is designed by Kawczynska's husband Cameron Woo, who is an award-winning artist.

She adds that readers have also told her that other dog magazines were not intelligent enough to hold onto their interests.

The idea to create The Bark came in the form of a piece of political work that Kawczynska once wrote to Berkeley city officials.

Kawczynska created the magazine out of a political action newsletter she wrote about the issue of off-leash rights at Cesar Chavez Park.

"We wanted to inform the city council members of what we wanted and that we are taking this issue very seriously," Kawczynska says.

It has been through excellent artwork and advertising that the magazine has garnered its success, Kawczynska says.

She points out that ever since the launch of the magazine, she has had a staff of people who are capable of writing very well and who, more importantly, make the publication seem like it has community support.

As for the debate over off-leash rights, Kawczynska says she continues to work on this issue, though now separately from the magazine. She is currently taking part in a pilot project on 17 acres of the park.

An active member of the community, Kawczynska is also chair of the waterfront commission, and works as part of The Bark to support non-profit pet-related organizations.

"It is very important to be busy in the community," she says. "I feel very honored that I can serve my

community."

The popularity that The Bark has gained can be credited to the fact that we are living in a time when the role of pets, and more specifically, dogs, is changing in our society, Kawczynska says.

According to Kawczynska, a revolution to try to understand pets began five years ago after people who, as a result of sitting in front of the computer too much in their daily lives, became divorced from nature and realized they wanted to go back to it.

"People started focusing on what it meant to be another species," she says. "It is something outside of who we are."

What is very popular now, she says, are enrichment activities that owners take part in with their dogs. Activities can range from going to the park, to bringing a dog to work, to even going to summer camp with dogs.

These days, the lives of dogs and humans are more "intertwined," she says. People take their dogs on walks and often go to parks where there are other dogs and dog owners.

"Dogs force us to look at the world through someone else's eyes," she says, adding that dogs exhibit characteristics that many people desire in their lives.

Kawczynska points out that dogs are non-judgemental and make people laugh - all elements that many people need in their lives.

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