Happy Independence Day!
Posted by lisa on Jul 5, 2008
We started out the day with a quick walk down the old tracks, sneaking through the bittersweet to see our friend at the Wayland Convenience store, who came out to give Smitty and Fergus their favorite treats for free. On the way back, we picked blackberries growing wild along the tracks. The dogs didn’t think they were ripe enough, but we picked plenty to have with icecream later. I intended to take a small nap, but was instead whisked off to Trout Brook Reservation in Holden, MA to walk the dogs and let John do some fishing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the dogs so happy. Ferg had to jump in the brook and scare the fish away from every good fishing hole, so John may have not been so overjoyed. But when the pups are happy, so am I. Then, another failed nap attempt, and we were off to a barbecue at Land’s Sake Farm, where our friend Eric lives and works. Pretty much a dog park, today. My boys got to play with their buddy Zee, as well as new friends Mikey and Moose. I gave all the dogs massages, which were well received. Moose, a big ol’ shepherd/chow mix, liked his quads and hips done, and gave me a huge blue-tongued kiss. Zee laid over my legs for her massage, once I’d resigned myself to getting muddy, and occasionally jumped up to shove her head into my arm pit before flopping back down. She is a love. She is a rescue yellow lab/hound that my friends Liz adopted at six months. Unfortunately, Zee had a stubborn case of heartworm, and Liz found herself trying to keep a lab puppy quiet for six months. A labor of love. I wish I had known Reiki then, but I did give her T-Touch, which is good for calming animals. We snuck out before the fireworks and had our icecream and berries. The dogs are tired and I am full, so it was an excellent day.
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Music of the Earth: On topic if you use your imagination
Posted by lisa on Jun 26, 2008
I had a pretty good day, but I think the best part was reading Mark Morford’s April 23rd column on SFGate, on the deep musical hum made by the earth. You need to read the whole thing, but here are a few quotes:
“The Earth is humming. Singing. Churning out a tune without the aid of battery or string or wind-up mechanism and its song is ethereal and mystifying and very, very weird, a rather astonishing, newly discovered phenomena that’s not easily analyzed, but which, if you really let it sink into your consciousness, can change the way you look at everything.
Indeed, scientists now say the planet itself is generating a constant, deep thrum of noise. No mere cacophony, but actually a kind of music, huge, swirling loops of sound, a song so strange you can’t really fathom it, so low it can’t be heard by human ears, chthonic roars churning from the very water and wind and rock themselves, countless notes of varying vibration creating all sorts of curious tonal phrases that bounce around the mountains and spin over the oceans and penetrate the tectonic plates and gurgle in the magma and careen off the clouds and smack into trees and bounce off your ribcage and spin over the surface of the planet in strange circular loops, “like dozens of lazy hurricanes,” as one writer put it.”
That’s some amazing description. The best part is when he uses his imagination to try to explain it:
“Me, I like to think of the Earth as essentially a giant Tibetan singing bowl, flicked by the middle finger of God and set to a mesmerizing, low ring for about 10 billion years until the tone begins to fade and the vibration slows and eventually the sound completely disappears into nothingness and the birds are all, hey what the hell happened to the music? And God just shrugs and goes, well that was interesting.”
It goes on from there to more possibilities, swinging out into the solar system and the galaxies, and back in to explore how all humans and animals seem to have an inborn love of music. You need to go read it. Go on, now, you can come back later.
….
Thanks for coming back. My only disagreement with Mark is that I can’t wait for science to figure it out. It’s a wonderful mystery to contemplate as it is, but seeking complex explanations sparks my imagination just as much mystical ones.
To belatedly tie it back into massage and Reiki, sometimes I idly think about the music we play during sessions, and how much more smoothly the energy flows when the music is playing. I always thought it was simply relaxing for the client and rhythmic for me, which made everything better. Perhaps, though, the music facilitates the connection between us, by tapping into that primordial rhythm that surrounds us all.
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Picking up on cues
Posted by lisa on Jun 11, 2008
One of the tenets in Kathleen Prasad’s Reiki Code of Ethics is
I always ask permission of the animal before beginning, and respect his or her decision to accept or refuse any treatment. I listen intuitively and observe the animal’s body language in determining the response.
If this is your goal, it is extremely important to learn what an animal is saying to you through his body language and vocalizations. A dog (usually) tries to tell you several times that he doesn’t want to be touched on the back before he finally snaps. You have to become a master at reading these signals, to save your fingers, and to save the session.
A massage isn’t like a skin scraping or Xray that must be done– nothing bad is going to happen if you work the left scapula but not the right, or skip the back for a session. The dog will reap fewer benefits in that session, but will learn to trust that you will listen to his wishes.
I firmly believe, especially with energy work but also massage, the animals understand more than we do about their bodies. We might not know about the clot or tumor in his leg, but he knows that leg feels uncomfortable and it gets worse when you touch it. There is no harm in backing off a bit, and letting the owner know there might be an issue in that leg.
“Listen” also for times the animal asks for longer treatment in a certain spot. Work it more or at least return to it often. Responding appropriately to his cues will strengthen your relationship and perhaps help a condition that he is aware of and you are not. Later I will write about how to recognize these signals, and some ways to eventually get around to that forbidden spot.
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Massage Class, Take 2
Posted by lisa on Jun 9, 2008
The second massage class with the boys was much more successful. I “cheated” and gave them something to reduce anxiety, which worked wonders. I’ve used Quiet Moments before and it usually takes the edge off, but doesn’t entirely relieve a specific anxiety like separation or car anxiety. Today their behavior was like night and day, so I think they most likely felt a little more familiar with the school and the people.
As far as the massage goes, Smitty allowed me to do a full sequence and ended up belly to the sky, blissed out. Fergus allowed two students to massage him. At the beginning I needed to keep one hand on him, too, to keep him calm, but not for long. I’m so proud of my boys. It wasn’t easy for them but they got past it.
I doubt anyone will choose to use Fergus for their Massage Techniques 1 final exam next week, but I’ll bring him and lots of treats, just in case. We have two written exams and a massage practical. Cross your fingers for me.
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Massage by the pond
Posted by lisa on Jun 4, 2008
After work I pulled some weeds then relaxed in a chair by the pond. I practiced massage on Smitty, who sat in my lap, and shared a ginger ale with John. The Smit was cooperative and let me do most anything. I could see his back muscles in the lumbar region shiver as I performed deep pressure down the sides of his spine.
Apparently many dogs hold tension in the lumbar, just as many humans do in our traps. It makes sense, I suppose, since the canine spine is horizontal. The sacral vertebrae are interlocked with the pelvis, and the thoracic vertebra get some support from the ribs, costal cartilage and the intercostal muscles. The lumbar vertebrae are just hanging there with just fascia, cartilage, and muscles to hold them in place.
As I worked on Smitty we watched Fergus fishing in our small pond. He is “friends” with out two year old fish Napolean, who we hatched from an egg stuck to a water plant. He looks like a comet, orange and white. We just replaced our missing second fish with Josephine, a shubunkin. 
God knows what she thinks about Fergus swatting at her, but Napolean and his erstwhile brother would taunt him, pulling on his paw fur and darting away, hiding under his belly and laughing at him. He will stare at the water for 45 minutes, hunting for fish. It must be good intellectual exercise, all that concentration and aiming. And pouncing.
Massage by the pond watching Fergus’ tail wag at merely the thought of fish… it doesn’t get much better, does it?
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I love a lively dog…
Posted by lisa on Jun 3, 2008
I like my dogs lively. Ready to go, ready to run, ready to play at a moment’s notice. Able to relax and just be when the situation warrants. 
My beloved dog, Muffy, who shared almost half my life, was a lively dog even at sixteen. She’d sleep all night with me, sleep most of the morning with my mother, and then be ready to run and spring and sproing and delight us. She loved to go for walks despite her aging limbs and would follow me happily until she’d reach a certain point and sit down, refusing to budge. We had gone, she decided, exactly half of the distance she could comfortably walk, and it was time to turn around. If we did, we would trot home; if I coaxed her to go further, I would find myself carrying her home the extra distance.
This was a dog that was in tune with herself.
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Hands-On Dog Massage, Finally!
Posted by lisa on Jun 2, 2008
Finally, the first day of hands-on massage training with dogs! In earlier weeks we had learned all the strokes on people to make sure we had them down, and this week we would learn them on the dogs. I brought both Smitty and Fergus, which was quite a challenge.
We survived three and a half hours of Anatomy and Physiology, an exam, and lunch (little Smitty tried to eat a huge dog named Sam but failed), and then it was time for massage.
I tried hard to keep them from getting anxious: I brought Smitty’s baby bed into the massage room and their kongs, so they wouldn’t worry about another dog getting them. We put on soft music. My classmate S. was going to massage Smitty, who loves massage, and I would work on Fergus, who loves it not so much. Smitty had other ideas, and glued himself to me. He wouldn’t let Susan anywhere near him. I felt so terrible… S. wasn’t going to get any practice on my dogs. I wondered if she should go find a more tractable dog to learn on. Instead, I suggested we give them Reiki, since she is also a practitioner. We put one hand on each dog and started giving Reiki. They calmed down amazingly quickly. After awhile, she concentrated on Fergus, whose hip was taking a lot of energy, and I worked on the Smit.
When our instructor came in to show us the application of the strokes, we hadn’t had any practice, but had two dogs who were relatively comfortable. She was able to show us the sequence, switching between Smitty and Fergus when they got edgy. Unfortunately, the pups avoided S. and myself when we tried to practice on them.
Then something amazing happened. Our other instructor, Marlene, came in to see if we had any questions and sat on the floor with us. We talked about body mechanics and how to work on dogs that were reluctant. She said this is something we would have to deal with a lot the first time we meet new canine clients. Suddenly Fergus approached her and licked her on the face, a rarity. As he walked away, she said she didn’t try to massage him just then because she was just honored that he’d accepted her. Then Smitty went to her, stretching his neck as far as he could to sniff her without getting too close. After a bit he consented to a pat. Then, I couldn’t believe it, he slapped Marlene on her hand with his paw, as close as a dog can get to saying “massage me!” He let her do whatever she wanted and even let S. join in on the other side. Thank God, because I was feeling awful for her.
Well, my dogs won’t eat fresh fruit unless it’s perfectly in season. Maybe they insist being massaged by none other than a Certified Small Animal Massage therapist.
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