Dog Yoga Blog

The Seattle Humane Society’s fundraiser, Walk for the Animals was a huge success this year with over 1000 people and dogs participating. The picture is of the doga demo I did with Gus and Honey after the walk. Nelson was there too, but he’s new to the stage and to doga so I only had two dogis on stage with me.
I also led everyone in pre-walk stretches.
I normally don’t get nervous when I teach or do a demo…but when Gus and I climbed up on the little cube stage to teach pre-walk and looked out at the sea of over 1000 people, I thought “holy sh**!” and a couple of butterfies fluttered around in my stomach….but only for a second, then a big breath and jump into the deep end and it’s all o.k. Brad said I didn’t seem nervous at all so that made me feel better… until I found out he forgot to take pictures! But he did get shots of the demo later on (see above) so all or at least most is forgiven.
Lots of fun and money raised for a good cause and I was honored to be a part of it.

I’ve loved animals and had the desire to care for them since I was really little. This turned into an adult desire to adopt rescue and shelter dogs and support rescue organizations
The photo is my first “rescue”. Butterball the Bear. I discovered Butterball when I was about 5 years old. Butterball was living in a box of old abandoned toys in my cousin Todd’s garage. I remember feeling such compassion for Butterball because he was living without love in a dark garage and he was blind in one eye. I convinced my cousin Todd and my Aunt Ann to allow me to take Butterball into my home, where he would live happily ever after with my many other stuffed animals on my bed and toy shelf. I always preferred stuffed animals to dolls when I was a kid (my barbies always ended up with chopped up hair and pierced ears with straight pins, go figure) and with my vivid imagination they were always very real to me. Butterball is one of two stuffed animals that somehow managed to stay with me throughout the vagabond, travelling years of my youth. I’m pretty sure my other toys met the fate of one of my 13 nieces or nephews at grandma’s house.

Anyway, this weekend The Seattle Humane Society is having their annual fundraising Walk for the Animals. I’ll be there participating in the walk and leading the Peeps and Pets in pre-walk stretches. Come on down if you are in the Seattle area and support a good cause.

My summer was really fun in many ways…sunshine, friends, dogs, bikes, beer and bbq. But there were also some challenges, some situations that were not all pleasant and kinda surprising. Stuff that made me question my faith even though I was surrounded by sunshine and friends and bbq.
So after losing faith, I decided to approach faith again, but with a little more caution…like approaching a strange dog, or petting a new cat or starting a new relationship with someone you really like but who makes you nervous.
Yes, I broke up with faith, but then decided to take it back, because I realized deep down I love faith unconditiionally. Let me explain.
Basically I’m more happy with faith than without. So it make sense to just have faith. Without faith, I’m kinda depressed and pathetic. Faith offers me a tiny beacon of hope, a dream, a place to smile and say “what if?”.
A place to keep my glass 1/2 full instead of 1/2 empty…and approaching everyday with something that is even 1/2 full instead of 1/2 empty makes a difference to me.
I sit here with two of my dogs on my lap (two dogs=64 pounds), and realize they’ve been a little clingy. It’s like they know when I lose sight of myself, when I have the occasional WTF?! moment. They know, even if I don’t talk about it to anyone, they know, and they respond. Their presence encourages me and makes me see and feel love. And this is why I have dogs and why I write about dogs and why I teach about the esoteric relationship we have with our dogs. Because of their weird understanding of me that I don’t need to understand, I just have the faith that it’s there and it exists, and that’s all I need to keep my glass 1/2 full.

Well Yogis and Dogis it has certainly been a while since I’ve posted a tip o’ the week. But fall has arrived and with it the desire to get back on the writing track. I feel like my blog has been away at summer camp and it’s finally back to school.
Anyway….The Tip:
Adding a new adult dog into the family.
1.The introduction. Neutral territory is a good thing. Think Switzerland. Not literally, but introduce your new family member to your current dog(s) in a place that holds little emotional attachment. If everyone is nice on the leash, a group walk (probably one person per dog is best) could be a positive way to meet and greet.
2. Respect. One of the most important things to remember is to respect the current dogs that have been in the home before Newby arrived. This means, they get fed first, they get to sleep in the spot they have been sleeping in, and they get attention first most of the time.
3. Feed separately. Everyone gets their own bowl in separate areas of the kitchen, if you have a resource guarder (a dog that gets upset or aggressive if someone gets near what they consider their object, and this could take additional training), separate rooms are best.
4. Take a little time to make each dog feel loved and special separately. I’ll sneak a treat to one of the dogs when the others are out of the room, or maybe take a walk or run with one of the dogs without the others.
5. Here comes the “woo woo” portion so if you’re not into it…stop at number 4.
I frequently meditate with my dogs in the room or on my lap and I’ve always heard that dogs communicate with “pictures” in their minds besides just the body language and vocals. So, you can try introducing your dogs pre-physical meeting in a meditation. Visualize them meeting, let your dogs know in the meditation that this is the new family member and visualize the meeting going well. Couldn’t hurt, right?
There you have it, the tip of the week.

Doga class tonight at 7:00 Seattle Humane Society.

Our new family member, Nelson took some getting used to. But he is settling right in and we really love him.
Adopting a pitbull really forced me to look at my own fears and misconceptions. I’ve always championed the breed, but when faced with actually bringing one into my family, I had some fears surface that surprised me. Somewhere deep down I had let all the negative stuff I’d heard about the breed take root in my blackened little soul forcing me to uproot the fears and really look at them. So that’s what I did, I did research, I talked to other PB owners, I searched my own soul and heart, I looked Nelson in the eyes and saw beyond the bad rap into the beautiful soul of a dog that only wants love and play. He has already taught me about love and trust and judgement and I look forward to learning more.