About these puppy mills

Every year 2 to 4 Million puppies are bought from puppy mills, operations that function under terrible conditions. In a puppy mill the bitches usually live their lives in very small cages, with very little to no human interaction, under terrible sanitary conditions with the sole purpose of having one litter after another.

Puppies from these places are often riddled with medical conditions from the start, have no positive association to people and grew up under sub-standard conditions. They often end up in pet shops, or are being sold privately under the disguise of coming from a reputable breeder.

Now the number of pets that are being euthanized in shelters every year is also about 2 Million. These animals are being killed because there are no homes for them. At least that is what we are told. So half of theses killed animals are dogs and there is a demand for twice to four times as many dogs out there. So if only half of the people that shop from puppy mills would go get a shelter dog, there would be no need to euthanize another dog in any shelter.

So why are the people not going to the shelter? Why are we not putting the puppy mill owners out of business by not buying their goods?? According to Nathan J. Winograd’s book ‘Redemption: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation and the No Kill Revolution in America’ the main reasons to why people generally do not desire to go to the shelter to get an animal is the way the shelter is run. (There are more and more shelters now that are no-kill shelters, and what would it take to exponentiate that number?)

What would it take to reform shelters around the country and the world, so that the animals have a chance to be re-homed? Did you know that most of the animals dropped off at shelters are usually euthanized? Shelters are proud of their accomplishments if they ‘only’ euthanize 50% of the drop offs.

It looks to me that if we started to be more aware of the situation and demanded change we could do two things: Get our dogs adopted out of shelters and put most puppy mills out of business… How does it get any better than that??? What would you like to do?
How to recognize a puppy mill http://www.badgerkennelclub.com/puppy_mills.htm
More information on the shelter system in need of reform click here http://www.nathanwinograd.com/

Can a dog make decisions?

If you are dealing with a behavior in your dog that seems like it cannot be explained or changed you might be dealing with a decision your dog has made.

For example: I had the wonderful opportunity to work with a Boston Terrier, who had a sensitivity to his back and hind quarters. If he was being touched in a certain way it would trigger a bite response. The owners had him since puppyhood and the behavior started a few years ago. The biting was directed at anyone who was going to pet the dog by approaching over the head towards the back. The dog would bite regardless of who was petting.

While it is not really relevant to have the information to why this behavior started I found out that it started after having a severe skin problem a few years back that got the dog associating pain with being touched in this way.

The tools of Access Energy Transformation http://accessconsciousness.com/ really solved this case. I was able to assist this dog to get over his behavior in ten minutes using the tools of destroying and uncreating the decision the dog made that this particular touch meant pain. A yearlong behavior gone in minutes! A big yeah to Access.

You might think it is crazy that your dog decides something, but all animals seem to be doing that. I am sure some people would call that training in some way and it could simply be that too. I like to give the animals a bit more acknowledgement than that in a sense that I see them as beings with awareness and consciousness above and beyond training. (Although training plays a big role in all our lives).

What if your animal was deciding about stuff just like you are? And that that decision shaped their behavior in ways that might not always be beneficial to them (just like it might not be for us). A decision can give the animal tunnel vision and nothing that does not match it will come into their awareness.

Like the dog was no longer aware that the touch was not painful anymore; the decision that it was at one point overruled the awareness of the moment. Once the decision was removed the dog all of a sudden was able to ‘see’ that touch was pleasant, yet again. What a relief to the owner as well, who keeps being amazed over this result that has lasted for months now.

Is your dog jumping on everybody?

Is your dog jumping on everybody coming for a visit? Are you worried your dog is going to knock someone over, or spoil that wonderful dress your neighbor just bought? Have you tried the suggested things from ignoring to distracting to pushing the knee in the chest and nothing is working?

Would you like to try something else? What else is possible? What if the possibility to change something would not be the same for each dog and the real trick would be to ask your dog what would change the behavior? Some dogs are a lot more sensitive to your thoughts, feelings and emotions than others. For those, the approach would be different to the dog that seems to never check in with you, is constantly ‘distracted’ and doesn’t seem to know their name.

Some methods used for one dog will be too harsh for another, and the other way around, a method not getting the message across at all! So first see what energy level your dog has and how much you are connected. Some dogs find it highly insulting to be walked towards directly and others will not react to that unless stepped on, literally!

That might be the first step you could try to get your dog to give the visitor some space: Herd the dog away from the visitor. Claim your space and walk towards the dog, and let them know at the same time what you are asking of him or her. In this case it could be ‘space’ for the visitor, or to go ‘lay on your bed’, or even ‘sit’ if your dog reacts to that.

Saying ‘sit’ ten times in a row is not what I would recommend, only use the ‘sit’ command if your dog will do it on the first try and you know it! If that worked wait for the dog to be calm and reward with the visitor greeting. If that gets the dog excited and jumping, start again with claiming the space and moving towards the dog.

See if this worked for you and if it did not, or if you’d like to hear a few more tricks listen in on the show of Feb 11, 2009 on http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thehappydog

Are you and your dog compatible?

Have you ever thought you might have picked the wrong dog? Are you having sleepless nights over your dogs behavior?  Are you one of the people that picked your dog by breed, or because she or he looked cute? Is there a possibility to change the situation you are in? Well, you have definitely challenged yourself by choosing a dog that might not be the right dog for you. Your energy levels just don’t match. You are not compatible. Now what? Would it be best to find a different owner for the dog and a different dog for you? Or can this be remedied?

There is definitely not a single answer to this situation. But you can start by asking some questions. The first question I would ask your dog is: ‘Would you like to own somebody else?’ Yes, just like that. Since we do not own them, they own us- after all who goes out to work to feed them? So, really who owns who? I realize this might be a tough question to ask, especially since you are probably attached to your dog. But have you considered that your dog might know a thing or two as well? And would it be possible that he or she might give you a hard time because it’s time to move on? Just one possibility.

If the answer is that your dog would like to still own you the next question might be: ‘What can we do to change this behavior?’ Your dog will know what it would take. The answers to this question might be plenty, or just a single one. You might get them from all kinds of sources, not just your dog. If you are willing to keep asking the question, you could be surprised by all the different possibilities that present themselves!

Are we teaching the dog a new trick, or the owner???

How often do we assume that when our dog has a certain behavior there will be no chance to change it? Can’t teach an old dog new tricks? But is it really the dog we have to change, or is it the person? How often is the dog willing to drop the issue immediately, once redirected and the person has the point of view that it can’t be that easy?

I was working with a family this past weekend and their dog had an issue of being touched on the back with the had going over the dog’s head. The response was a bite, or nip, depending on the situation. So the discomfort was shown by a strong reaction. It took a few minutes to desensitize the area and to let the dog know that there is no problem with being touched there.

So what was really the great part, is that the whole family did not hold on to this issue either. They saw the dog change and they did not have to keep checking if it was gone, testing the dog’s reaction. It was clear that it was easy now to have the hand come over the top to touch the back and there had to be no fuss made over that! How great it was to see them all move forward and not hang on to the past at all. The family made it possible for the dog to change for good! And he was willing to move on!

The next day we worked with him on the beach with other dogs, since that behavior was also triggered by a playful dog putting the paw on the back, often causing a scuffle. Fourty-five minutes later he was not raising his hackles anymore and was not put off by a high energy dog approaching. Again, the willingness of the owner to not hold on to the old pattern either had a huge effect! So is teaching the dog easier than the person? Not always, but it sure helps if everybody is willing to move forward and not be stuck in the past. What would it take for more of that to show up in our lives??

Asking your dog a question?

Do you ever ask your dog a question? A real one, like “What do you require of me?” (not, what did you do that for?). Most of us use everybody else’s dog as a reference on what we should expect from our dog. What if your dog was just as different as you are? What if your dog required a totally different thing than anyone else’s dog? Would you be willing to start listening to your dog? And to yourself? How often have you actually already known what the ‘expert’ was telling you? Dogs are quite amazing creatures and they get a lot more information energetically than what we give them credit for. So what if we started asking our dogs what they require from us? And actually start to listen? In the beginning this might sound a bit strange, but really it is not that difficult. It is just like developing another muscle, it might take a bit of practice!

What you are actually saying when you use the word ‘don’t’

Dogs don’t respond to the words you are using.  Instead they respond to the energy and the pictures that you are sending with the words.  So if you are saying, ‘Don’t bite’, you are projecting the image of biting from your head. It is like if I say to you ‘Don’t think of a green apple”, not only will you think of one instantly, I am also projecting that image whether I’d like to or not. The word ‘don’t’ does not have a picture, so it really means nothing to the dog.  So they will bite which is the opposite of what you are trying to achieve. You are sending a message with the command of ‘Don’t bite’, and the energy of urgency along with the picture, of biting. From the dogs point of view you are commanding them to bite, so after the chore is done, they now get punished. For the dog quite a confusing moment.

This might sound really strange, but what if every demand we had of our dog was coming from the place of what should occur, not what should not occur. For example, instead of saying ‘Don’t jump’ to a dog jumping up on a person, say ‘All four feet on the ground’ and see the difference. It is a different approach and it might give you a new way of looking at a scenario! Give it a try!