The Intimacy of Dog Training

I wonder how our intimate relationships would shape up if we invested in them the time, effort and wisdom we invest in training our dogs. Take recall, for example. This has been one of the top challenges for me with Tilly, and I learned that: – If I chase her, she’ll run farther away from … Read more

A Dog Moms Breakthrough

I went to the off-leash dog park and here is why this was a personal breakthrough: Bucharest, early 1980’s There was one oval patch of grass in my city neighbourhood, surrounded by streets and traffic. I was walking with Mushi, an incredibly beautiful black Cocker Spaniel whose ears touched when they met over the tip … Read more

Anxiety and Dogs

I had the first full-blown panic attack when I was eighteen. I had no name for my experience. My mother, who had died a year before, used to describe episodes of what she said it felt as if she was going to die. Romania of the 1960’s had no psychotherapy, no understanding or mentioning of … Read more

Dogs and the Animal Nature of the Body

I grew up in a tiny one-bedroom apartment in Bucharest with my mother and father, two full-time professionals who hired a nanny to take care of me. We decorated our home as everyone else did, the kitchen table in the center of the living room, right underneath the lamp. A sofa, that doubled as bed … Read more

Anxiety and Your Dog

A Reiki Alpha Bitch post If your fur baby suffers with anxiety, her distress very likely causes you distress. And you’d like to help, and you’ve tried everything. The problem is, your own distress goes right back at Pup and distresses him again. Dogs are highly empathic creatures, and very much tuned in our embodied … Read more

Reiki Dog

Was it a coincidence that the very same day that I was reading a book chapter about treating dogs with Reiki, was the day when my dog Dubi had indigestion? “If I had Reiki, I could help him!” I thought, and soon after that day, I went to be trained and initiated in the Japanese … Read more