Household Harmony

I currently have three dogs, it feels like five if you take into account how huge Elvis is.   Many of us manage multi-dog homes and sometimes the furry siblings just don't get along perfectly as we would like.  It's really quite reasonable for beings to not get along 100% of the time, but they can learn to be tolerable most of the time, and civil all the time.

Elvis kindly tolerates a young Nestle

 
When dogs misbehave it is difficult to curb our own reactivity.  We get embarrassed, angry, frustrated.  Our blood pressure goes up, heart rate increases, muscles, diaphragm and vocal cords tense.   Basically, we get pretty wired up one way or another.  In essence, this reactivity actually compounds the problem rather than alleviating it.   A dogs way of being in a stable and nurturing environment is pretty harmonious and peaceful, so when a dog reacts to something and then we react, our reactivity affirms (to the dog) that their reaction is well founded because we got upset *WITH THEM*.   For example,  a family member comes home from work and the dogs rush the door, bark like crazy and generally go nuts.   The person already at home reacts and gets wired up over all this crazy commotion.  The incoming person shouts at the dogs to settle down and is wired up as well.  Over time, when this event is anticipated, the humans become tense and prepare for upheaval .... and so does the dog.    It's a mess of a situation that's probably even worse when guests come calling..... and we taught them this.  "People come inside and it's time to get wired up",  is precisely how the dog sees it.   Fido is doing his job.  In TTouch we say, "change you and you change the dog".

As the higher being, we shouldn't have to deal with this, right?  It should be easier.  And, it can be!   We just need to approach the issue with a different mind set and intention.  The huge factor is the energy we bring to the situation.  When we come from a place of calm authority, the dog will reflect this.   When we are as reactive as our dog, well... that's fuel for the fire, not a quenching drench.   How do we find our inner calm?  Here's an extreme example:

At the TN/NC state line on Hwy. 129, "The Dragon" in 2006

 When I was cycling hundreds of miles a week, I encountered a LOT of dogs and 95% of them fell into 'prey drive' behavior and would come after me as I came roaring by at speeds upwards of 17 to 30 miles an hour.  You know.... you really don't want to crash at those speeds!  So, staying safe with a dog barreling down on you is an issue that needs immediate resolution for the safety of all involved.   No second chances, whatever is going to happen must work.    Even though I'm a healing/harmless being, I don't project this soft energy at a dog who's running my ass down because you know what?  It's not going to work!   Calm, positive energy works when meeting a dog on foot, but not at speed (that prey drive thing).  .... Although I'd never dream of actually harming another being, it is strong, determined, deadly energy that I project in this situation.  As a higher being I could (in theory only) rip the animal apart and *this* is the energy and intention I send to the dog.  Instead of being "the hunted", I became "the hunter", a calm, lethal being that IS coming at the dog with the intention of ripping it limb from limb.   This kind of calm, dangerous energy that comes from the core of the gut without fear, and without reservation is the kind of energy that works wonders to diffuse a reactive situation.  A dog can pick up this energy from 15 yards away.  You *ARE* the higher being.   When dogs are having a fuss, this sort of predatory, calm methodical way of dealing with it can be very effective and certainly give you an upper hand.  .... Basically a sniper isn't thinking about fluffy cupcakes when they take aim.  It takes mental intention to create the desired outcome.   Mental intention is the key.  One who worries about falling, will.  One who concentrates on success, succeeds.

As I mentioned, my mental intention when cycling is an extreme example of how to project energy to affect the dog.  Most of us don't encounter this fast-paced "do or die" situation with dogs and bicycles and high speed decision making.   Hopefully you get my point on how much the mind and intention can influence a dogs behavior. 

In addition to how you think and what you project in a situation you can also affect the behavior on a cellular level with TTouch.   TTouch is a great promoter of mental and emotional balance in animals and a house with several dogs will find an increase in harmony if all dogs receive TTouch, rather than the bitchy dog alone.   An example is my house of three dogs.  When the Uberhound was diagnosed with diabetes his body chemistry changed and the other two became quite bitchy which would easily escalate into fuss-fights (not really full blown fights).   As mentioned earlier, being reactive doesn't really work.  If a dog reacts and then we react, the dog takes our reactivity as a sort of agreement rather than a correction.  You've "joined forces" rather than telling him to "cut it out!".   Hence the key to diffusing the situation is to remain calm.  Breath.  Find that core of "higher being" calm in your gut.

Being "the calm" in a doggie storm does wonders.  What once was a house of three dogs storming my husband upon his coming home, has turned into three calm, happy dogs who greet him without the barking and uncontrolled behavior.   TTouch is the foundation, intention helps it to happen.

Why did my two dogs become reactive towards an otherwise friendly, harmless dog?   Because of a chemistry change.  Every dog receives daily TTouch sessions and calm intention assistance when reactivity occurs.  Finding my inner calm and combining that with TTouch has resulted in a definite increase in harmony amongst my canine family.   Jazz was the most negative towards Elvis (the diabetic uberhound) by showing her teeth, snapping, growling and lunging at him.   This simply wasn't appreciative nor necessary behavior!   Jazz receives regular TTouch mouthwork, ear work and general body work,  and Elvis receives equally targeted TTouch for relieving his own tension patterns in his feet, croup, tail and hindquarters.  Both receive TTouch and verbal reward when bidding for my attention with no more negative behavior between the two.   Both dogs need validation of their worth and love from the human they're seeking attention from.  The results have been great.  The two are not close by any means, but they are civil and that's all I ask. 

Nestle Kindly tolerates an inquisitive Elvis

With my own canine family, I rarely need to discipline or give warning, but when I do, I reach into my inner ape to deliver a warning sound.  ....You know, as humans we do not growl.  Dogs growl.  Cats growl.  Humans and apes grunt, not growl.  So why do we try to imitate something we don't naturally do.... and why do we expect it to work?   It may be speaking the dogs language, but it's not *our* language.  A growl comes from the chest and no matter how well we try, it's an unnatural noise to our species.  A grunt comes from the diaphragm, is much deeper, lower and is a very natural sound to the human species.  It is, in essence, more convincing because it's real!  So, my dogs get a grunt for major infractions.  Because they know that's "it", they comply right away and are rewarded for it.   Pretty easy, everybody is happy and remains so.   But, what if the grunt is ignored?   Well, then, I calmly walk over and push the dog and grunt again.  Many times the dog rolls in his/her back and begs for forgiveness.  I stare deep into their face and grunt again then release and walk away.   As I walk away, I reclaim the joy in my being because somebody is going to be right behind me to make peace and it's then that we rejoice and deliver calm praise.  It's important to the dog for there to be no hard feelings, so it's important for the human to recover quickly. 

For lesser infractions I use a sort of snake/hiss noise.  Just enough to distract and divert attention to something more favorable and rewarding.  Corrections are momentary, dogs don't dwell on the issue and neither should we.  Dwelling (on the part of the dog) is a sign of lacking confidence and having more issues under the hood....so to speak.   If the hiss is ignored, the grunt comes and then there's potential for mild physical contact as mentioned above.  Not once do I let my heart rate rise, or tension to occur....this tells the dog that there *IS* something to be upset about because *WE* are obviously upset, our bodies convey it.  Remember, body language is the core communication between human and dog, don't muddy the waters by being reactive.

Just because they are dogs and we are not, doesn't dictate that *we* need to behave like them to be understood.  We as humans simply need to get in touch with our own basic wiring as it is here that communication succeeds as all other mammals have this same core of basic wiring and understanding happens at this level.    Be creative.  Be positive.  Find your happy and calm place.  You deserve to live there and your animals enjoy this part of you the best.    Modern life can be stressful but we don't need to dump it on our dogs.  They are our release, our sanity and our connection to the real word.

Jazz

Magic Moments

Happy New year!  I hope you not only survived the holidays, but did so with joy.   It was a crazy time around here, but we sailed through with joy and gratitude.

We moved the music shop ~in its entirety~ just after Thanksgiving and got things in place to get through the gift giving season  {{gasp!}}.  Things are at long last getting put in their places and a bit of order is coming into place.   The new place ("the farm") is wonderful!   Once things are cleaned up and worked on a bit, there will be two great outdoor TTouch areas to play with and some nifty trails.   For now, in this wet and coldish winterish weather, the warm of the indoor space is a delight.

So, Nestle has always had this issue with barking and barking (and barking!) at customers/visitors/strangers of any kind and at long last I had found the magic ... while a fellow was visiting the farm, I slipped away to the dogs and put a ttouch wrap on both of them.  I then let the dogs out to meet this fellow;  Nestle came into the room and behaived calmly the entire time.  Jazz as well.   A few minutes later they were both relaxed enough that I removed their wraps and they remained 'just fine'.   I am so pleased!  It's not the first time they've been wrapped for customers, clients, visitors, etc., but it was the first time I had put a head wrap on Nestle, who just needed to be reminded to 'think' instead of react..... and he did just that.  That was a magic moment.

It's so nice to have all my toys out and readily available ~ my office for the music shop shares the TTouch room's space.  Ya, it may sound weird that I work out of a garage, but I really enjoy it.

If you've been thinking about giving TTouch a try, I hope you'll come pay a visit some time. 

Till then,
Heart Hugs

Animal Totems

I took a journey recently. A visual journey in a light meditative state to a magical location and animals spoke to me. Well, only a couple actually spoke. As crazy as it sounds, it was a very powerful journey.

On this journey I had close, personal encounters with a Leopard, a deer, a fox and an Indigo Bunting, a species of bird that is brilliantly blue. Why these particular animals? Folks would peg me with dogs, horses, and maybe a butterfly or two . Leopard, fox, deer and one species of bird? My daughter chimed out, they're your animal totems!

What is an animal totem? If I understand correctly, animals we have a kinship with help to teach us things about ourselves such as patience, endurance, quiet, etc., things we may not be as conscious of as we should be. ….But animals I've always been drawn to were not the ones who drew themselves to me on this journey. Or were they? I've always felt great fondness and appreciation for these animals.... I suppose my attraction to them wasn't as conscious as the draw to horses and dogs. It has been on a much more subconscious level, much as the self-consciousness of the qualities they remind me of.

Here are my animal totems in alphabetical order as quoted from StarStuffs.com:

Thank you to www.starstuffs.com!

Bunting (bird)

Colorful Buntings may mean adding color and vitality to one's life. Blue/Indigo Buntings is significant of good, truth and love with spiritual origins.

If you know me, you know I'm rather colorful. I'm not the run-of-the-mill human....that would be dull. Good, truth and love.... things I aspire to achieve with every breath I take.

Deer

Power of gentleness, love, alertness, camouflage, balance and alertness, attention to subtler outside influences, ability to listen, attention, shows how to walk gracefully and carefully, connections to children and people for best interests of all, vision, hearing, smell, helps discern what actions to be done. Teaches empathy for others, soft direction and leadership abilities. Are you awakening to your own innocence? Are you listening to your inner child? Deer walks softly and gracefully. Are you ready for new opportunities that will reflect this gentle love to others?

Kinda sounds like a Ttouch home run, doesn't it?

Fox

Skilled and ingenious, cunning, a new world and creative process opening up, look in between yourself and others (physically, mentally, spiritually), teaches gentleness, swiftness and persistence, courage, power of observation, good eating habits and taking care of health concerns, shift awareness to feminine energies for balance. Fox can teach you how to walk in both worlds and in between since he is the master of camouflage and shape-shifting and walking the spaces in between. Are you in harmony with your surroundings? Blending in with others? It is a time to be careful and discriminating, aware of your communication abilities, and to be alert to your surroundings. Fox teaches how to be still and silent and all the qualities of patience.

This is interesting, it sounds like yet another Ttouch home run.

Um, I haven't had any sugar since this visual journey took place. And I hadn't noticed till just now. I did however just finish eating a plate of raw vegetables. I can't recall the last time I did that.

Leopard

Silent, inconspicuous, strong intuitive abilities (inner instincts), overcoming haunts of the past, renewal of vision, helps in strength of inner demons, leaps about to be made spiritually, mentally and physically. Aids in overall sensitivities, communication abilities and movement in dream world and the unconscious realms. Are you listening carefully of the world within and around you? Leopard teaches the nuance of hearing your heart and intuitions and when and how to react.

Ttouch is speaking to me. I get it. This animal I tried to make anything else to no avail. Silent, yet insistent and rather powerful.

I've thought about sharing the details of my journey with you, but I have since decided that keeping it unto myself is part of the power... the magic. I've shared pieces and that's enough.

Since having taken the journey it's like I've reconnected with myself. My whole self. I smile all the time and apparently I really dig vegetables and no longer eat sweets!

How interesting.

Heart Hugs till next time.

Mental Musings

When I was a very small child, I had a moment where I was 1) frustrated and 2) wondered what causing harm would feel like. The family dog was an established part of our life by then and I without rhyme or reason, kicked him. I'm sure I had some 5 year olds' excuse, but did that matter to the dog? No. Immediately I felt huge, profound remorse for my misdeed and though the dog forgave me, I have never forgotten that moment or the deep depth of pure "wrongness" that I experienced. I have never laid an ill-minded hand on another creature since. There is no need to do so unless maybe if the animal is actively chewing your limbs off.

So, why do we think it's okay to put prong and choke collars on our dogs or use hard-handed tactics and label it "dominance training"? How is that different from kicking them? I meditated over this article while in the shower this morning and low and behold while at work I was steered towards a similar article on the web! The Universe is yelling at us about the importance of opening our umbrella of knowledge, there's new stuff to catch! Check this out, it is a poignant read: http://lifeasahuman.com/2011/pets/blunt-force-trauma-canine-reality/

Now, I'll not claim to be "above" such human behavior. I am human, after all. I've taught obedience for many years and I have advocated the use of prong collars. I have advocated being "dominant". Best of all, I have grown beyond this way of being since those times and no longer own prong or choke collars, nor advocate their use. There are better, kinder ways to share our lives with our furry friends and much better kinder ways of helping them be in our world in a manner that is suitable to our own selves. The ground work in TTouch helps teach balance so a dog learns to walk more freely and without needless pulling. No prongs. No chokes. No sudden direction changes. No stopping suddenly while the dog wonders why. The dog simply learns how to do it correctly by doing it correctly. We don't learn to drive cars by being yanked around and corrected for every faux pas, so why should we say it's okay to teach an animal who possess less conscious reasoning ability than ours in a manner that makes no sense to them? We admit we don't have their sense of smell, so why do we expect them to have our level of consciousness?

Dogs have amazing abilities, many of which reach way beyond our human scope of understanding. Have you tried mental thoughts with your dog yet to see what happens? It takes discipline much like meditation to clear your mind of the static and send clear messages to the dog, but you'd be surprised at what they receive. Ditch the prongs and chokes and scare tactics, silly human. These divine creatures deserve more from us than that.

Next round... analysis of the game show buzzer.

Peace

Brenna & her cat, Beau
RIP

Mental Musings

I've lived along the main channel of the Tennessee River for 20 years now and in all that time I've never had a fenced yard. I would prefer a fenced yard, but the layout of my house, driveway, front walk and that lake make it awful hard to figure out just 'where' to put a fence that will do its job but not impede with the regular comings and goings of the human inhabitants.

Studying energy medicine had given me some new insights and ignited some odd experiments. Have you ever heard the quote, "Change your mind - change your dog"? That's where I'm headed with this. Hang in there.

Okay, so let's go back a year or so. I was taking the three dogs for a walk down our quiet, wooded lane (where a fenced dog is an exception rather than the rule). We got to dead end of our lane where a lovely Australian Cattle Dog lives and who happened to be out in his yard when we arrived and he came running to check us out.

My body went into reaction/alarm mode. I stiffened up, my heart began racing, my body was preparing for battle. "Wait-a-minute!", I suddenly thought to myself. "I'M the human. I'm the animal with the larger brain here. I'm bigger than all these guys. I am in charge here and I'm going to handle this!"

Immediately my body relaxed. My dogs were looking at me in surprise. I stepped forward and placed myself in front of Elvis, turned to him and let him know, "I've got this". His body softened and he let me take the lead. I turned to face, "Cobber" and giggling with relaxed ease, I calmly told him to, "go home!". And.... to my amazement, he did. No altercation happened, no barking, no pulling on leads. All was calm and this was a deeply profound experience for my three dogs. A brief encounter that radically changed my life.

Fast forward to the present day and here I am becoming something of a "dog whisperer", as I have been dubbed on occasion, and that old saying rang in my head one day, "change your mind - change your dog". While learning energy medicine and other wonderful things that are all things "dog", I have experimented with mental intentions towards dogs...... in this case, I "think" a command and you know what? Each and every time, the dogs respond to the thought!

Now, I've been hesitant to share this, after all, it's a large chunk of reality that we humans find hard to digest, because "we" don't read minds or hear thoughts. Mostly. So, rather than hop on the believing band wagon, I've continued testing this theory and I'm getting to the point where believing is as basic as believing in water..... you'll still get wet when you jump in.

After a couple of weeks of carefully monitoring my thoughts when it came to my dogs, and receiving exceptional feedback, I decided to really put this theory to the test. What if I imagined my yard to be fenced? A sort of mental barrier between the house and our neighbors and especially the road.

Jazz accepted this mental barrier right away. Nestle would run up to the road on occasion, but I would immediately think thoughts of, "danger!" and "come back here where it's safe!".... and he would do so right away. It's been (at this writing) about 5 weeks since I put the mental fence in place and the two dogs still enjoy dashing out the front door, but they don't keep going. They stay in the yard and they stay with me.

Early in this "mental fence" stage, Nestle would leave the yard and stand in the road contemplating wild ramblings but would come running back the moment I mentally asked him to. After a few successful experiences like this one, I decided I'd test him to see if it was all just a fluke or if he really was hearing my thoughts. The next time Nestle left the yard and stood in the road I yelled the mental thought, "I'm going to KILL YOU! Get back here!!"..... and he ran off and was gone for well over an hour.... only when I sent Jazz to go find him did he come back. ..... Lesson learned. I have not used negative mental thoughts towards the dogs since and Nestle has not run off since.

Yesterday was the biggest test. I'd left the little doggie door open for the cat and Jazz & Nestle had a free pass to the outside world. A neighbor dog came into our yard and out they ran to meet him. Normally this would result in running amok through the neighborhood for a prolonged period which would include hunting feral cats, squirrels, etc. But, it didn't. In fact, Jazz & Nestle never left the yard and they came in when I asked!

I'm still taken aback by this. Try some mental intentions with your dogs and see what happens. Your thoughts should be as clear as verbal speech and without distractions to be most effective. I discovered when I began trying this that my dogs looked at me with a sort of astonishment....like speaking for the first time, or something.