With animals, and in our case dogs, they are so pure and so full of love that they can show us what real, raw, positive (paw-sitive) energy is and they can help us balance ourselves in our psychotic modern society in which we live. Dogs that are balanced and healthy live in a zen-like state, because they live in the present and understand what it means to live in the Now. Too many people rush around in gridlock traffic and exchange menacing looks and extremely negative energy. The problem is that we pass our negative energy onto our dogs, creating unbalanced dogs and creating vicious cycles.
All too many times I am asked to come in and 'fix' a dog, when really my work is cut out to be a human therapist. I do what I need to do to give the dog everything that he needs- ample exercise, holistic diet, a means of communication and structure- but the most work is done on the human or the family. For instance, something as simple as learning voice control or learning to channel a relaxed energy towards the dog not only helps the dog, but helps parents communicate better with their kids or helps a couple work through their problems with clearer communication. Sometimes I'm supposed take the dog for a walk, but the owner will ask to walk with me and he or she will end up telling me about all of their hopes, fears, and secrets.
The problem isn't in the dogs who chew our shoes and attack our cats, the problem lies in the enormous amount of negative energy that needs to be expelled from our everyday lives. If people can just learn to realize their own body language and tones, and learn to walk around the world in the Now, they can learn to live as a dog does and then learn how to better communicate with their dog. For instance, all too many times I am asked, "How do I say no to my dog?". The answer is that 'no' means nothing to a dog and the only way to 'teach' them is through negative aversion, which only makes your dog not trust you and be scared of you. Instead, we need to change our 'human' way of thinking and learn to communicate with our animals (and other people) with respect and clarity. Instead of yelling "No! Bad dog!", we need to expel the negative energy and show our dogs how to live in our human world.
Despite my young age and what some may think of as a lack of experience, my whole life as been learning to live as purely as animals do. I got my first pet bunny when I was three and took the bunny everywhere, even to church and restaurants, in a little pouch that I wore around my neck. When I was four I started riding horses, and by eight I was training horses. I grew up on a little mini ranch where I had about twelve animals and seven of those were dogs. I would spend hours training my dogs to jump over obstacle courses and to do all kinds of tricks. Then I started to train the neighbor's dogs and I would put on dog shows for the whole street to come watch. I have always had a deep connection with animals and I would spend hours laying on the grass with my beloved golden retriever and would stare into her eyes wishing so badly that I could understand her. I would also sit bareback on my horse in the paddock just listening to all of the peaceful sounds that horses make as they slowly chew their food and swish their tails. My whole life has been animals and they have taught me so much. Most importantly they have taught me to strive to live in the Now and that I still have so much more to learn.
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