MAL Education - by Ruth Kellogg

Booklist

A time-honored and wise statement is "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear." As I continue my healing journey during this past year, this statement has come true time and time again for me in many different ways. During an earlier column ("Vacations"), I mentioned that I was starting to focus on my "animal studies". What has been most enlightening to me is that the books and videos that have "called" to me have also been full of pearls of wisdom and wonderful lessons that can enrich my and other readers' lives.

The synchronicity of these different books and videos appearing at a time when my mare foaled the "filly of my dreams" (Karma) and a very precious housegirl presented me with an extremely exciting bitch puppy (Echo) has not been lost on me. I know that I wasn't ready to get the full benefit of the information in these books before now. I also have my doubts that our society would not have been ready for these books even five years ago. While I freely acknowledge and salute my dogs for being my main teachers, when I (student) was ready to take another step .... the books (teachers) appeared.

Let me share with you this booklist of thought-provoking books.

1)Animal Talk (Penelope Smith) Penelope Smith is a known animal communicator who wrote this book with the intention to "continue, restore, and assist this tradition of interspecies connection for those who seek it."

2)Animals .... our return to Wholeness (Penelope Smith) In this book, Penelope expands thoughts touched on in her first book (Animal Talk) to give readers a deeper appreciation and ways of becoming a participant in the dance of Nature. This book is highly recommended.

3)Animal Speak(Ted Andrews) Ted Andrews talks about animal totems and how we and animals interact in the shamanic traditions.

4)Animals as Teachers & Healers (Susan Chernak McElroy). This is wonderful group of real-life stories that Susan Chernak McElroy collected. Many of us have had similar stories of the interaction between our animals and ourselves.

5)Love, Miracles, and Animal Healing (Allen M. Schoen DVM & Pam Proctor) This book chronicles Dr. Shoen's journey from being a general practioner type of veterinarian to become a veterinarian who practises hollistic medicine along with the scientific veterinary medicine that he was taught. An excellent read.

6)Horse Sense and the Human Heart (Adel von Rust McCormick PhD and Marlene Deborah McCormick PhD) A warming book written by two psychologists who use Peruvian Paso horses in their therapy of emotionally scarred individuals. While this book is about the use of horses, I found this book could easily be related to dog therapy work.

7)The Man Who Listens to Horses (Monty Roberts) This is a true life account of a "horse whisperer". The lessons he teaches in this book can easily be applied to our dogs and our relationships with people.

8)The Tellington Ttouch (Linda Tellington Jones) In this book, Linda Tellington Jones chronicles her journey as she developed the Ttouch methods of massage. I highly recommend this book and using Ttouch massage. (Diana, my 13 1/2 year old lady, insists on her nightly Ttouch massages - they are helping her maintain her health and comfort levels.)

9)The Tellington Ttouch for Dogs and Puppies (video) (Linda Tellington Jones). A graphic showing of the Ttouch for everyone.

10)When Animals Weep (Jeffery Moussauff Mason) This is an outstanding book looking at the various emotions of animals (all kinds). His approach and documentation was done in the "scientific" method.

11)Dogs Never Lie about Love (Jeffery Moussauff Mason) This book has recently been released. I'm waiting for my copy to arrive and if it is anything like his first book, I shall not be disappointed.

There is a common thread that runs through the above books. It is the thread of the human/animal connection. I would not classify any of the books as "training" books, but rather as educational books - to educate us humans about the wonderful world of Nature that we, through our "civilization", have isolated ourselves from. This deep connection with Nature has never been lost with philosophies or cultures that have maintained them. In my studies, I have been intrigued to learn that this deep connection with all things is in the philosophy of Hinduism and Buddhism. The aboriginal people who have maintained their shamanic traditions have never lost that connection. These traditions are all over the world. As each of us find our own connection with Nature - even in the smallest ways - we will become healthier for it. In turn, our family and animals who share our lives with us will benefit and, in a global sense, so will the world.

I encourage everyone to read these books. In turn, I am also extremely interested in hearing reactions to these books. Sharing those special stories or even little happenings/communications between our dogs and ourselves that make us say, "whoa! that's neat" is something I'd like to do in a later column.

I'm finding it rather interesting that the strengthening of the animal/human bond in regards to interacting with each other as species is in a similar position that training with "positive motivation" was about 15 years ago. Now, positive motivation training / behavioral "clicker" modification training is extremely common. Perhaps being able to interact with our animals - and ourselves - will improve over time as well!

On a personal note, I have noticed that over the months that I have been exploring my connection with my animals and nature, there has been a change in my household! The "feeling" of the household has quietened, I have noticed that all my dogs are responding to my thoughts (even when I am careful not to change my body language), the relationship with my two Arabians has deepened, and all my dogs have much larger smiles and relaxed body language.

Please remember that I am always open for suggestions for topics, comments, and certainly little "stories" that I might share with the membership.

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