The Human-Animal Connection - Pet Life Radio Original

If you can communicate with an animal, you can understand any behavior. All behavior is done to get a desired result – sometimes the desire of the human and the animal don’t match. The Human-Animal Connection’s philosophy is that if we focus on relationship training – obedience is the result. If you only focus on obedience, you run the risk of undermining trust and connection. The good news is that relationship training (which is 75% teaching the human how to connect) is 300% more effective than fear-based and coercion training styles. Positive training is good for the relationship, results in faster learning, and longer retention than dominance styles. Learning what your dog considers rewarding makes training fun, easy and reliable. Your dog will show you how they want to be treated -- if you are paying attention.

EPISODE NOTES: Relationship Training – The Secret to Better Behavior

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Canines Teach Compassion is the name of The Human-Animal Connection’s class where we bring therapy dogs into high school classrooms to teach kids to treat themselves – and each other -- better. You can’t be compassionate towards others if you are constantly judging or criticizing or comparing yourself to others. Students learn how to train therapy dogs and at the same time come to appreciate how each dog learns a little differently, as do they. Students see the differences in the dogs (who are all shapes, sizes, colors, and breeds) but also come to see what unites them – they are all dogs. In this way students learn to support their own need to be unique as well as to fit in. Dogs teach lessons in love that are beyond words in the Canines Teach Compassion class.

EPISODE NOTES: Canines Teach Compassion – Empathy for Animals Makes Us Better People

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Jane Goodall once said, “You cannot share your life with a dog or cat and not know perfectly well that animals have personality, and mind, and opinions.” What does it mean to consider that the animals who share your life have opinions? In my work as an animal communicator, I find it essential to consider that animals have opinions, and they often surprise me. When I listened to Charlotte the donkey, she solved a problem that her human couldn’t see. And cats have had surprising insight into “house politics and fairness.” We can learn to communicate with animals. This is especially valuable for those people who volunteer at shelters, where the dogs are just so grateful to have someone really listen. This episode shows you how your relationship with your animals is transformed when you consider their opinions.

EPISODE NOTES: Animals Have Opinions – What that Means for Sharing our Lives Together

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Eckhart Tolle once said, “I lived with several Zen masters – all of them cats.” If you have shared your life with a cat, you know how they can focus on something with all their being – often something we can’t see. This ability to focus with all their senses in alignment is something we can all benefit from. So many things split our focus – that we don’t even know what feels right and we don’t feel like ourselves anymore. Animals can teach us a lot about the healing power of aligning your focus with the singularity of a laser beam. We can help shelter dogs be more quickly adopted by teaching them how to focus, to make eye contact with humans, It’s hard to walk away from the loving gaze of a dog who knows how to connect. And we teach our high school students this same power, in our Canines Teach Compassion class. Find out how you can use an animal’s power of focus to harness your life force for more good in your life.

EPISODE NOTES: The Power of Focus – Mastering Your Emotions and Your Dog’s Mind

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“All animals except for man know that the principal purpose of life is to enjoy it,” according to Samuel Butler. Play is truly an essential element of a balanced life. This is as true for people as it is for animals. It is one of the reasons it is so healing to spend delightful time with the animals who share our lives. They remind us to enjoy the simplicity of the moment, the curiosity about new smells, new things and experiences. When I do healing work with shy and traumatized shelter animals, the moment they begin to play, I know we have turned a corner, and have entered the power of present time. Did you know that rats love to be tickled? Now that we have advanced audio equipment, we can hear their laughter in the laboratory. And when the designated tickler enters the room, the rats laugh in anticipation of being tickled. Is there time for play in your life? Find out about the healing power of play for animals -- and human animals to make life worth living.

EPISODE NOTES: The Healing Power of Play – How Play restores the Spirit of People & Animals

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No matter how crappy your day is, if you have a dog, there is always a happy face waiting for you to come home and cuddle. In today’s world many of us are touch deprived and the hunger for kind and loving touch is very real. And so many people have experienced unwanted touch, that they have shut down the desire to have gentle touch. While gentle touch with animals doesn’t replace the need for human touch, it is a very healing experience, for the animal and for us. That is of course if the touch is what I call “giving touch.” In giving touch, it feels just as good for both sides. In “taking touch” it is like petting on auto pilot, unconsciously, repetitively, and only takes into consideration one side’s desire. Giving Touch is a balanced experience that brings us into a kind and loving state. Just a few minutes of loving touch releases positive feel-good brain chemistry. Touch is a form of communication that can touch the soul.

EPISODE NOTES: The Language of Touch Connection – How Cuddles Combat Isolation

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Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Many people will walk in and out of your life. But only the true friends will leave footprints on your heart.” What is it about animals that elicit pure love? Sometimes we have an ache that only an animal can heal. This is because words can fool us, but animals love in a way that is beyond words. Jeffrey Mason wrote a book called Dogs Never Lie About Love. He speaks about how a dog loves you without any ambiguity. They don’t love you -- but secretly want to change you in a hundred ways. They see your essence. And what is more fulfilling and delightful than to be seen as who we really are? This episode explores our spiritual relationship with animals and how loving an animal transforms us.

EPISODE NOTES: Love Beyond Words – How Sharing Love with Animal Changes Us Both

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This episode explores how animals can teach us to be more present. It is a curious thing about being human that being present is the most pleasant experience there is – yet it is so hard for humans to resist the temptation to race into the future or dwell in the past. Animals are thus our partners, or guides showing us the way back home, to being right here, right now. In this episode I speak about how a wild rabbit taught me the power of presence. Being present leads to a state of inner peace and contentment. It is one of the reasons it is so pleasing to be in the presence of animals. We can learn this through loving animals. In fact, Mis Betsy, a traumatized horse taught me so much about how healing is possible through choosing to be right here, right now. As Meister Eckhart said, “The most important hour is always the present. The most significant person is precisely the one sitting across from you right now. The most necessary work is always love.”

EPISODE NOTES: Animal Presence – How Animals Are Masters of the Present

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When you deepen your connection to animals, you awaken your intuition. This is because connecting with animals encourages us to pay attention to our intuition. By sensing the world, as animals do, we become reattuned to the realm of the senses, which will not lead us astray. Logic, while essential to humans, can also lead us to not know what is really true for us, if it is not working in tandem with our “gut sense.” It is the wisdom of the senses that connects us to our animal nature, our sense of what is good and true for us. Animals know instantly if they can trust another being or not. When we connect with this part of ourselves, we know what we need to do, who to trust and where to turn. This episode helps you find your inner sense of safety through listening to your senses. By paying honest attention to your senses, you will know who to trust. As William Ralph Inge quipped, “A cat can be trusted to purr when she is pleased, which is more than can be said for human beings.”

EPISODE NOTES: Sense-Sational Awareness – How Intuition is Your Path to the Wisdom of the Senses

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The secret to having more pleasure in your life is to come to your senses. Pleasure is something you can only experience in present time. So, if you are dwelling on the past, or worrying about the future, your sense of pleasure will be diminished. Animals help us come into the present time because they are grounded in their sensory nature. That is why it is so nice to pet a dog or cat or horse or any animal you love. Sharing sweetness and love with an animal brings us into our sensory nature. Logic is useful, we need it – but it is not the pathway to pleasure. To feel “better” you need your sensory system, to awaken your “animality,” This is your sensory intelligence -- to see, hear, feel and smell the roses of life. In this episode you’ll learn how to awaken your animal senses – and enjoy your life that much more.

EPISODE NOTES: Coming to Your Senses – Awakening Your Sensory Intelligence

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