Volume 12 No. 1, January-March 2009

Billie Cromwell/Retired PGC

Quote

I remember a hundred lovely lakes, and recall the fragrant breath of pine and fir and cedar and poplar trees. The trail has strung upon it, as upon a thread of silk, opalescent dawns and saffron sunsets. It has given me blessed release from care and worry and the troubled thinking of our modern day. It has been a return to the primitive and the peaceful. Whenever the pressure of our complex city life thins my blood and benumbs my brain, I seek relief in the trail; and when I hear the coyote wailing to the yellow dawn, my cares fall from me - I am happy.   ~Hamlin Garland, McClure's, February 1899

Trusting Your Animal to Another's Care

There are good and bad auto mechanics, doctors, hairdressers, and contractors. We often don't discover the bad practitioner until we have experienced his or her lack of excellent service. While it's awful when someone messes up your hair or misdiagnoses your medical condition, it's always worse to have someone do something that hurts your animal, like a groomer who traumatizes your dog, or a trainer who terrifies your horse. Worse because we know that our animals had no say in the choice we made in who we selected to groom, train, or otherwise care for them. When something goes wrong, the onus is on us.

After receiving yet another call about a nightmare experience someone had, I decided to give you my best advice for how to avoid having bad experiences with the people you employ to help you with your animals.

Two General Precautions

There are two general precautions to take whenever you are considering a new practitioner. First, do as much as you can to find out about that person before you use them. Ask for references, ask your friends what they know, and search on the internet. Do as much as you can to find out anything that is out there. Next, go see the person in action. Experience them doing what they do in a short non critical session. For example, have a groomer work with your dog while you watch, have a pet sitter come and walk your dog with you or interact with your animals and see how he or she behaves, or have a new vet give your dog an exam while you watch. As you are observing, have your intuition turned on full blast. Does it feel right? Is your animal giving you positive signals? If not, stop there and keep searching until you find a practitioner who seems right. Obviously most animals don't like the vet, so you are looking for the best you can achieve given how your animal normally reacts. Intuition is all about the feel. To truly help your animal, rather than stuffing those nagging feelings and doubts that crop up, pay attention to them and act accordingly.

The following specific recommendations will help further protect you and your animal from negligence and bad practices.

Specific Recommendations

Veterinarians

• I recommend that people use a holistic veterinarian for the majority of care for their animals. To find a holistic vet in your area go to http://holisticvetlist.com. You can check by state and zip code for a holistic vet at that site. When you view the site you will see that the vets are listed along with a key their modalities. Usually, the more modalities a holistic vet employs (i.e., acupuncture, herbs, nutrition, homeopathy, and etc) the more committed they are to using holistic medicine. This of course is not always the case and not all holistic vets are good either. But once you find a good one, it has been my experience that holistic care and feeding will help your animals live longer healthier lives. I work with both a holistic and traditional vet. I got to the traditional vet for services my holistic vet does not offer, like dentals, surgeries and the like. Make sure the holistic and traditional vets you choose agree to cooperate to care for your animal.
• Whenever you have a serious situation with an animal always get at least one second opinion (i.e., ask both the traditional and holistic vet).
• If you have to euthanize an animal it is best to use a vet you know and trust. If you have to have someone come to your home that you do not already know and trust you must to do the research to make sure they are OK. I have gotten way too many calls about vets who did not do a good job euthanizing. You do not want to go there.
• If your vet is talking about procedures that will cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, go get many more opinions before you jump into the money game. It is essential at this point to consult a holistic vet for a second opinion.
• Make sure your vet knows and agrees to whatever conditions you want for your animals (i.e., limited vaccines, no flea chemicals, and etc). If your vet doesn't agree to your conditions find one who will. Make sure the vet staff notes your conditions in your animal's chart and check to see that the information is entered. Make sure the vet technicians know your preferences each time you bring in your animal. This advice is prompted by the multitude of calls I've gotten about sick animals taken to the vet and then given a series of routine vaccines or doused with flea chemicals.

Trainers

• Whether its dogs or horses, I don't recommend leaving your animal with the trainer. Instead, have the trainer come to you or go with your animal to the trainer and watch the whole training process. Never leave your animal with a trainer unobserved. There could be a few exceptions to this if you know for certain the trainer is nonviolent and a really good person who truly loves animals. But why take the chance if you are not 100 % certain. You could end up with a lot damage that you then have to find some way to repair. In some cases trainers have killed the animals.
• Always seek out a trainer who uses nonviolent training techniques. Best recommendation for dogs: Jan Fennell's methods (The Dog Listener), and Clicker training. Best choice for horses: (Carolyn Resnick's methods, get her DVD at http://dancewithhorses.com/index.html
• If a trainer you are working with is using a piece of equipment that hurts the animal (shock collar, hobbles, stud chain) or a movement that causes pain (ear twitching, hanging by collar, hitting). Stop everything and get your animal out of there immediately and permanently. (This goes for farriers or anyone else who is handling your animal).

Pet sitters

• This is a hard one, because you are forced to leave the sitter alone with your animals. Ask friends, vets, and animal lover types to give you references for a sitter. Do all the reference checking you can and have a session where the person comes and goes for a walk with you and your animal or hangs out for a while interacting with your animal. Be hyper observant: Does your animal go to the person readily? Does the person like your animal and interact as you would with your animal? Does it feel right or is something slightly off? If something is not right, go looking for someone better.
• When you first use a pet sitter, have them stay a short time as a test, like overnight or for a weekend. Have your neighbors watch out for you and check on the sitters activities. Call the sitter regularly to talk about what is going on. When you return check out the house, the animals and their attitudes behaviors. If something is negative, go looking for another sitter.

Groomers

• I made the mistake of leaving my dog with a groomer whom I thought was reputable and she traumatized my dog and me beyond belief. So now I advise people to make a grooming appointment only if they can stay and watch everything the groomer does. If after you observe a few times your feel really good about the groomer and your dog seems to be really happy then you might try leaving them unobserved. But I would still do unannounced spot checks. Keep searching until you find a groomer who will allow you to observe, otherwise do it yourself or get someone to come to your home to groom.
• Specify that you do not want any chemicals to be used on your animal, and make sure the products used are mild and non irritating. One of my clients had a dog almost die from being doused with flea dip.
• If you leave your animal with the groomer and your animal is freaked out when you return, this would be a groomer you do not go back to.

Dog Walkers and Doggie Daycare

• Go for a walk with your dog walker. Hang out at your doggie daycare and observe. If something isn't right don't just ignore it, act accordingly.
• If your dog comes back from the walker or daycare with a new negative behavior, something bad happened and you need to find out what. You will probably have to discontinue using that walker or daycare.

Remember This

If something isn't working, if your animal acts like he or she does not like someone, make a change right away. Don't wait for the situation to get worse.

You are your animals' advocate. You have to pay attention to every clue you can observe about how your animal is feeling and you have to speak up right away if something isn't going right. No one else can do that for your animal. Even if you are not assertive or have trouble asking for the best, you have to become assertive and go for the best for your animal. Often in the process you will also learn how to do this better for yourself.

Baby Calf

Just wanted to let you know that, although it has been two years since I took you classes at the Learning Exchange, I was able to use what I learned a few months ago. In May of this year my neighbor's cow had a calf. When I was driving past I noticed the calf wasn't moving and was just a black heap next to the fence. I could see my neighbor wasn't home. I drove to my house, got on a coat (it was raining hard) and started back down to the neighbors' field. On my run down there I saw my other neighbor Tom who stopped his car and asked if I saw the calf and I said that's where I was headed. He turned his car around and drove to the field. I jumped through one of the fences and went over to the cow and her calf as close as I could get since there was another fence between us with barbed wire on top. Tom ran down the other fence to see if there was a gate to get into the field. I looked at the calf and at first it wasn't looking so good-no breathing and not moving at all. It looked like a deflated balloon. The cow was walking away from the calf that was on the ground. I started talking to the cow and asked her to come back to her calf. She started to moo very softly. I told her she needed to get closer to her baby and she mooed again and started walking closer to her calf. I knew that cows sometimes walk away from their babies when there is something wrong with them. I just kept softly talking to her and she went right up to the calf and started licking her face. She must have licked it for a minute or so when the calf's body started to expand. It was breathing! I shouted to Tom and he came running over to the fence. I kept talking to the mom, telling her she was doing a good job licking her baby's face. Then the calf's head rose up and it looked at me like "who are you and where's my mom." After several tries the calf managed to get up on her shaky legs and eventually walk over to her mom.

(At this point I am sure that Tom our neighbor thinks I am crazy for talking to the cow like I did. He is a retired minister and has worked on a lot of ranches and he told me later he thought the calf was dead.) If I hadn't taken your classes I NEVER would have thought of communicating with the cow. But it seemed so natural a thing to do. And it was funny to see the cow's almost startled reaction. Maybe she never communicated with a human before. Thank you for all of the wonderful things you teach! It does make a difference.

Angie Burger

Serendipity

Thank you for a great workshop at Palmwoods in Queensland. I believe my life will never be the same. I feel like I've entered into an exciting world. I've got a story I would like to share with you. The day we got back to Toowoomba, our dog Jessie was crying that afternoon, and I thought it must be a storm coming as she hates storms. I tried to calm her down by telling her everything was ok. I looked up to the sky and saw no evidence of a storm, so I thought I would go out into the back yard to talk to her. When I went through the door she became excited and began to sniff around, then took off down the back stopping to sniff here and there. I got the thought that she wanted me to follow her, so I did, and she led me to a baby Galah (small parrot) on the ground which could not fly. We took him back to the house hoping to raise him then later release him. He seemed to be feeding well, and to me looked healthy. On the third day when I got up to feed him he looked sad and seemed lethargic. I was really worried about him, and felt some urgency with seeking some help for him. My husband wanted to send the little bird to a rescue carer, but I felt a real urgency to get him to a vet. I tried to communicate with him, and got the word stomach. I told my husband that I thought he had a problem with his stomach, and so I did offer the Galah some Reiki (energy healing), but I felt like he was a bottomless pit. So I took him in to a vet who then referred us to another vet who specialises in birds, and he found that the bird had bacteria in his stomach which is fatal if left untreated. The bacteria coat the lining of the stomach so the nutrients do not pass though to the bird itself, leaving the bird continually hungry. This was this bottomless pit feeling I picked up. The bacteria would have been passed to him by his parents. He was a very sick little bird, and must have had the bacteria for some time. He is now on the road to recovery. Now the other interesting thing is that on the cover of your book "Ask Your Animal" there is a picture of a black and white dog. Before your workshop I began reading this book and when I looked at the dog on the cover, I would get the name Lucky in my head, and I wondered if the dog's name was lucky. Anyway I never asked you about this as I thought I would be wrong. When I walked into the vet's clinic that specialises in birds, he had a little dog there with three legs who came rushing out to meet me from behind the counter, and he looked like the dog on the cover of your book. As I remarked on what a lovely dog he was and began to pat him, the vet nurse said his name is Lucky. That hit me. I knew all this was meant to be.

Fiona Collingridge

Baby Calf

Lost Cat Triangulation I just wanted to share with you something amazing that happened the other day. A week ago I was working with a cat who was gone missing for three days. The cat had moved houses two weeks before and because he preferred his old life, he tried to walk back, but got lost. After some negotiations I asked him if he could walk back to his new house and gave him the address. Then very clearly he replied that he wanted to have the coordinates. I was stunned. I began searching on the internet and found a site where you can enter the address and then get the geographical coordinates. I gave him the latitude and longitudes coordinates. He said: Fine, I will start walking. A couple of hours later he was spotted and found nearby his new house. Isn't that amazing? I use Google Earth when working on missing animals, but I would never have thought of giving them the coordinates

Alice van Polen
www.alice-in-wonderland.nl

Whale Rescue

Why the Printer Won't Work

Unlikely Friendship

Anjana and the Tiger Cubs

This is a yahoo animal communication practice group that is very good. Check it out if you are serious about practicing:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ac_consult/

Go to Pete Ramey's site to learn about barefoot trimming for horses
http://hoofrehab.com/

Impeach Bush and Cheney

The Geneva Convention requires the prosecution of war criminals. Based on lies perpetrated by Bush and Cheney to create a phony war, hundreds of thousands of people have died, Iraq has been destroyed, and our country is in shambles. Here is a form you can fill in and file to create a citizen's action to impeach Bush and Cheney.

http://impeachforpeace.org/ImpeachNow.html#download

Join the Greenpeace online Action Group

Support the Environmental Defense Fund

Input Is Still Needed In UHC Nationwide Survey

The Unwanted Horse Coalition's National survey to assess the magnitude of the problem of the unwanted horse will remain open until the end of January 2009. This is your final chance to participate. If you wish to do so, please pass this notice on to anyone who may have an interest in the welfare of horses. We want to give everyone a chance to participate.

The Study on Contributing Factors Surrounding the Unwanted Horse Issue will be instrumental in filling factual gaps with actual data. We still need as many people as possible to fill-out this 15-20 minute online survey.

To access this survey, go to http://survey.ictgroup.com/uhcsurvey/.

Please help us get this message out to the horse community. Time is limited.

Deep Economy, Bill Mckibben

If we really want to live in a way that lets the earth and the animals breathe this is what we will have to do. It's simple really. We just have to start doing it.

Get in TTouch with your Dog, Linda Tellington Jones

This is a Linda Tellington Jones book on how to do TTouch with your dog. It is a good bodywork technique and the book makes it easy to learn.

Feel it Real, Denise Coates

This is a great book on how to manifest. One of the best ones I have seen

Confused about what happened on Wall Street and why we are now in debt over our ears? Here's the ultimate simple one page explanation:

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