The Mutt Room - Whole Dog Living

Goodnight Sweetheart

Hello to Everyone,

I know, I know, you’ve all seen this before. But one of my Facebook friends posted this today, and it is just too cute not to share again.

Enjoy,

Jean

Working with an Animal Communicator - session 3

Hello to All,

Last week we had our third session with Val Heart, so here is an update.

If you have not seen my first two posts about working with Val, if you read them first, this post will make more sense. Here are the links: April 29th - Session 1, and May 17th - Session 2.

As with the previous session, we started by giving Val an update. Unfortunately, Roxie and Gypsy did get into a fight since our last session, so we had to work through that. An errant ball hit Gypsy on the side while Rick and Roxie were playing fetch, which caused Gypsy to attack Roxie. Gypsy thought Roxie was to blame, even though Rick is the one (obviously) who threw the ball.

We also talked through the flea problem we’ve been having. Rick and I subscribe to a natural method of handling fleas, but they have gotten the best of us this season. Roxie is terribly allergic, and scratches incessantly despite our best efforts. Val recommended some homeopathic remedies to help de-tox her blood, including silicea and arsinicum. We are newbies to homeopathy, so we are still doing research and looking for a place to purchase them. If anyone has had experience with these products, I would very much appreciate hearing from you.

In the mean time, Rick found Best Yet by Cedarcide, which is a topical spray of Texas red cedar oil. We ordered some, and Rick has been spraying the dogs, and their bedding. Other than they both smell like freshly cut cedar, we haven’t noticed any bad effects, and it does seem to keep the fleas away. Rick also sprays it on himself when he goes outside to keep mosquitos at bay. So far, the product is working as promised.

Anyway, back to Val. After we talked about the flea issue, we moved on to some healing work. Val has extensive experience and is heavily credentialed in the art and science of healing. She uses, among other modalities, The Body Talk Healing System. Rick and I have experienced energy medicine from another practitioner, but Val looks at balancing the entire family (Rick, myself, Roxie, and Gypsy) as a connected energy matrix. I don’t purport to understand much of how this works, but it is just one of those things I take on faith. I do believe the body has all it needs to heal itself, if you give it what it requires and remove the stresses and toxins that get in the way.

We are contemplating continuing our work with Val, to focus more on the healing aspect, not only for Roxie and Gypsy, but also for Rick and myself.

I’ll keep you posted!

Jean

Working with an Animal Communicator - session 2

Hi Everybody,

We had our second session with Val Heart recently, so I wanted to tell you all how that went.

But first, I really should give you an update of what we’ve noticed since our last session (see my last post for a summary). Roxie and Gypsy have not once gotten into a fight, and our whole household seems calmer and more at peace. We have made a concerted effort to be as firm with Roxie as we are with Gypsy, and we are more consistent when enforcing the rules. I was gone to the Seattle area for a week, so it was up to Rick to keep up the work with them while I was gone. He specifically worked on the “place” command, where we have Gypsy and then Roxie go to their blankets when someone comes to the door. We still have work to do, but progress is being made.

Another interesting thing we noticed is when we took them to our vet to get their periodic chiropractic adjustments. In the past, Roxie has been a real mess, just anxious and yippy and tense. Dr. Maria made a comment that Roxie was calmer than she had ever been for an adjustment, which of course makes the adjustment easier and more effective. I was also working on my own energy, to be mindful and remain calm, instead of being worried about Roxie and Gypsy’s behavior.

With our second session, we gave Val an update, and then Val focused in on some specific questions we had for Roxie and Gypsy. As I mentioned in my previous post, this part takes a bit of faith, but what Val told us made sense.

Gypsy has a broken tail and scars on her lips. We know she was homeless for a while before she was rescued, and we’ve always wondered what that was like, and whether her broken tail caused her any problems. According to Val, Gypsy does not have any concern about her broken tail, but being homeless was a scary thing. Val told us that Gypsy seems to have a lighter energy and is more at peace than the last time. Apparently, Gypsy is more than happy to relinquish the job of pack leader to Rick and myself. (We just had to laugh at this, but the good news is Gypsy thinks we are doing our job now!)

For Roxie, we were concerned her vision may be failing, because of some difficulties she has in jumping in our vehicle and going in and out of the doggie door at night. It seems she does have an issue with night blindness and she also has pain in her back and hips. Val suggested we get her a ramp or some stairs to help her get into the truck, and to provide more light for the doggie door.

Also for Roxie, we wanted to know why she feels the need to bark at anything and everything. Val’s answer: it is mostly anxiety, but it’s also fun and Gypsy has given Roxie the task of being the pack “alerter”. So, Val gave us some suggestions in dealing with the barking. For example, during meal times when they hear something and tear off, Val suggested we make a point of leaving the table to check out what they are hearing, acknowledge them doing their job in alerting us, and then ask them to go back to their “place” and settle down. She did say we should remain calm and assertive, and not “bark back” at them.

The last thing Val discussed with us was some nutritional suggestions. Roxie and Gypsy get quite the variety in their diet, and they both eat their food with gusto. The only things she felt were lacking were trace minerals for both Roxie and Gypsy, and blue-green algae for Roxie.

We will have a third session with Val in three weeks, so I’ll sign off until then. I appreciate hearing from you, so feel free to comment on this.

Jean

Our first experience with an Animal Communicator

Hello to All from San Antonio,

Rick and I took a leap of faith this week, and had a session with an animal communicator. We have had an issue in our household that has escalated over the last couple of months where Roxie and Gypsy were getting into fights every couple of days. They have had their infrequent spats over the years, but lately it had become a serious problem. I am sure that any of you with a multi-dog household can agree it is extremely distressing when they fight each other. Plus, Roxie was getting some bad wounds, and Rick was getting bites on his hands when he would break them up.

I have known about and been interested in animal communication for awhile, and because Rick and I really did not know what to do to resolve the fighting, this seemed like the right time to give it a try. We contacted Val Heart, who had been recommended by a friend.

We first had a 10 minute consultation with her, to come to a mutual understanding of the problem, her expectations of us, and our expectations of her.

The next step was the first of three hour-long sessions with her. She taught us several things, and I had quite a few light-bulb moments. She identified the reason Gypsy was attacking Roxie: Gypsy, our alpha dog, felt Roxie was weak, anxious, timid, and unstable, and therefore a threat to the pack. Of course, a big part of the problem was our behavior. We tended to treat Roxie more gently and more protectively, and give her more affection because we viewed her as needing our protection. Also, because we were so on edge about their fighting, that translated into weakness and unstable energy. So, Gypsy felt it was her job to correct Roxie to strengthen the pack.

Val gave us some homework, including a visualization/communication exercise to “tell the story” of what we want to happen, for example, when someone comes to the door, and to remain in a calm, centered, but assertive place. The calm, assertiveness is right out of Cesar Millan’s playbook, so I was familiar with the idea, but not very good at practicing it.

We were also taught to spend more time training them, both to improve Roxie’s confidence, and to give Gypsy a clear signal of who is actually in charge.

Something else I want to mention, is Rick and I decided to no longer allow them to sleep on the bed with us. We came to that conclusion on our own, after they woke us up about a week ago at 4:30 a.m. going at each other. We thought it would be more difficult than it was, but they both caught on quickly that their sleeping spots were on the floor and not on the bed. Val told us that would have been her first suggestion, so she was glad to hear we figured it out ourselves.

We have another session scheduled in two weeks, and it is up to us to implement the ideas she gave us. I’ll give you an update after our next session.

In the meantime, if anyone has had their own experience with an animal communicator, I’d love to hear about it.

Jean