It was all meant to be

Each of my dogs were divinely meant to be my family. . We were meant to find each other in this lifetime. It was divine intervention. I’ve rescued / fostered hundreds of dogs in the last 25 years but From them – these seven were meant to be my family
Each individual taught me a deep life lesson in all aspects of Mothering.

Coda- introduced me to what it means to be a mother and nd the responsibility of loving and caring for  the most innocent, amidst the chapter of my life that was wrought with wildness and excessiveness- she always pulled me back home.
Benjamin- to be a mother and take an abused dog and help build him into a dog that experienced  the WHOLE world differently because of  Loving leadership. My son who lead me to everything I am today. A true teacher of expansion.


Lucille to mother a complicated emotional being and learn how to unconditionally honor her emotional needs, by putting aside my ego. I learned how to radically accept you which brought more acceptance to my own wounded self
Madeline – to mother a being who was wiser than me. To serve as mother to a supreme  higher soul and lean on her soul for comfort and grounding
Abbey- to mother a little girl, the apple of my eye. To love and protect the pure goodness of a child. And see in her the little girl in me and love her too
Patrick- to mother a divine soul with unconditional play, sensitivity and open hearted ness. To fiercely protect and nurture the most sensitive of my children
Bernie- to mother a mother. Bernie the mama dog whose entire essence is softness and sweetness. This girl has propelled my heart to soften and expand amidst all the worry and anxiety this current life chapter has brought

I honor and love each of you forever. My children, my teachers

There is and will never be 100% guarantee, because of you

I’m feeling really frustrated today I got an email from someone and I’m going to share parts of it here. This was a potential client I worked with months and months ago and they said they would be back in touch to start working together. This dog is a vibrant slightly fear full large hound girl. I never heard from them again until this email this morning and frankly I am enraged that they put all this on the dog, they’re threatening to give up the dog in not so many words and they want “ hundred-percent “guarantee from me.

Where is the responsibility people?!

Hi Kathy,

I am sorry that we are getting back to you so late, it’s been a very hectic summer/fall for us. We are both now working full time and we have moved to a new house with more space. Addie is not adjusting well and we are (once again) at the end of our rope.

Two incidences in the last two months have been of particular note. In the summer, she bit my brother’s hand very badly when he came into the house when I was at work, and just yesterday she bit a neighbor who was reaching over the fence to give her a treat while I was doing errands this weekend.

As I mentioned before, the compressed air and treats do work pretty well, but A and I don’t think that just “managing” her for the next 10 years is reasonable. We can’t be there every second of every day, and the few times that things have gotten out of our control, she has lost control. Our new neighbor has two small kids, and I could not live with myself if she hurt them. I hate to say that I am giving up before even trying your program, but I don’t think I will ever feel safe with her and other people again and having her be 100% dependent on me or A for all of her needs at this stage in our lives is also impossible. She is entirely unpredictable and we can’t travel, we can’t leave her at home, we can’t go out with her in public. We are stuck being hermits with a dog that needs two hours of exercise a day.

What I need to know from you is, even if we go through your program, will I ever feel 100% safe about Addie when I am not there to be with her? Is there any way to be sure that she can live a life outside of her crate that doesn’t involve me or A being with her 100% of the time?
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My response :

H A and S – I’m so sorry to hear about these incidences. I’m going to be very straightforward here- both of these incidences were your human error.
You have never gotten any in-depth training for Addie for this aggression and because of this she has no comprehension how to handle being surprised by someone coming in the front door or Hands being flipped over the fence. She just did what many dogs would do – reacted to surprise that happened to be on her territory.

She’s gotten no clear in-depth instruction because there’s been no comprehensive program. You guys have just been winging it since we met several months ago.

The hundred percent guarantee I can say is she 100% needs training from someone seasoned in reactivity and aggression

I have no idea how far she would go in the program because it’s about 25% about the dog and 75% about the humans that actually follow through 100% on my commands, daily instructions, including affection, exercise, correction, obedience, structure in the home, skill set handling that is above average.

Because every human being I work with is extremely different – some malleable while some resistant. Some open-minded while some confrontational – there is never going to be 100% guarantee about any dog training program and if a dog trainer tells you that they’re full of crap
It Comes down to the owners personality and attitude and secondly the dog.

I’m only taking one a few select cases anymore with highly motivated, highly realistic, ready to diligently practices and listen to Me without argument ( I welcome healthy discussion)

I’m taking two new cases on for December
. If you’re interested in working with me I’d be happy to schedule a phone call to get all your questions answered .

The single most important bit of advice I can give you right now is to not put her in any situations where she does not feel ,safe until you have a strong consistent skill setthat you learned from a seasoned trainer. If you do that then I can guarantee 100% she won’t bite anyone

Do we ever just love a dog that doesnt have the responsibility to meet our self centered need?

I take issue…with driven sports that are very popular in Ca. Bite sports, Agiity, AKC Obedience, Fly Ball, etc-

The handler/owner LOVES their young vibrant dog when it is performing well. Most of these sport dogs are bred purposely for the sport. These people rarely to never pick from a shelter or rescue group- they want the best of the best. I call it the Eugenics in the dog world.
They express so much love for their working dog while he is competing. They eventually put their other dogs, often rescues, below the hiearchy of importance in their home.
and sadly, when the dog continues to under perform- they quietly stop raving about them on facebook, continue to look at their other dogs( rescues or non performing) as not that important-
What is the continued solution? Breed another and another until we find the “perfect sport dog”. I fuc@#$% beg to differ that these sentient creatures are only here to be bred for your ego.

Meanwhile their dogs at home become just pets that live a lonely life. Afterall, they don’t matter as much as a potential superstar.

I call BULLSHIT.

My GREATEST priveledge has been tending lovingling to a old dear precious dog that trusted me to her dying days…no matter how well she performed.

N