Darcie: I read this article about how to create a less boring day for your dog by providing food type toys but wanted to know how you feel about each of the foods being suggested for the dogs and the way in which the toy is being married to the food… is this a good idea? (SNIP web address) Blayne Douglas

Dear Blayne,

It’s a great time to talk about treat and food dispensing toys. SitStay is having a big sale right now! Take advantage of us, save some money, and buy a lot of things for the dogs you love. The holidays are right around the corner. Do your shopping early!

I snipped the article web address you sent so I don’t embarrass the writer with my answer to your question. The writer is a young person who probably didn’t stop to think about what harm could come of the suggestions they made. The things that the writer suggests are things that have caused many people a great deal of heart break and thinner pocketbooks, too. It might seem at first glance that it was a good article with good and cheap ideas but when you think about it for a minute, maybe not. The things suggested as toys and treat dispensers might be okay if you’re there to take them away before the dog eats them and if you don’t mind teaching your dog some bad habits at the same time. They are not good as time passers if you’re not going to be home with your dog.

I’d suggest that before we take someone’s advice for our most beloved dog, we give that advice the three point test. Will anything about the advice hurt our dog during or after we use it? Are the products recommended safe for dogs? Who is the author and why do they think they know so much? These three questions will usually be enough to help you decide what is good advice or best skipped.

The food items mentioned aren’t a problem for me, just about anything that you eat is okay for your dog. (Check this list of foods that are not good for dogs, it’s an older article but still relevant today.)

The “toys”  recommended in the article aren’t all that safe for most dogs. I was pretty surprised that they are being recommended as toys and treat and food dispensers. My Dancer would have never eaten or swallowed anything that wasn’t food but Oliver and Frankie will. They and thousands and thousands of other dogs are the perfect reason not to leave dogs unsupervised with the “toys” and “treat dispensers” suggested in the article. A friend of mine had a Dalmatian who would eat socks and panty hose even when they weren’t filled with treats, it was a terrible habit. That friend spent a lot of money paying for surgery to remove those from the dog’s gut until she asked me what to do. I said, “Put your socks away.” Once you teach a dog how fun it is to play with your socks, it’s not so easy to unteach it.

You’d think that paper wouldn’t be a problem, it gets all soft and gushy when the dog chews it up. But what about colors and scents and chemically treated paper and the glue that holds the paper to the roll, what’s that made of? Toilet paper and towel tubes, cereal boxes and cardboard boxes might be fun to tear up but they are not good as food if somebody should swallow and what happens to the boxes you didn’t say the dog could have? Like the Christmas presents under the tree, the UPS delivery, and the shoe box that your brand new, really expensive shoes are still in? Aren’t they all boxes? Your dog will probably think so. Smearing any of these with peanut butter or cream cheese will almost insure that your dog will eat at least some of the paper, that stuff is hard to lick off without getting the paper wet and wet paper goes down the throat along with the goodie. AND you will be teaching your dog that playing with paper is a lot of fun. Think your favorite books, the family bible, magazines, newspapers, your incoming mail, your paycheck….

Plastic containers like cottage cheese, empty yogurt cups, plastic water bottles, and milk continers are a no no in my house unless they are supervised play. If you have a dog who can tear them up, like my Dancer and our Oliver, the dog may also swallow and a vet visit might be next. Dancer could and would tear these things up and spit them out, it was something that she only did when I said she could. Oliver? He can tear up just about anything no matter who’s looking and he tries to eat some of it. Plastic can have sharp edges so surgery is not only about removing undigestible things but also about repairing a torn digestive system.

Socks are okay as toys if you don’t care that most dogs don’t usually know a play sock from a sock that you like to wear. If you give a sock to play with tie a knot in it and keep your real socks in your drawer. I wouldn’t put food into a sock, it’s too easy to eat through the sock and swallow some or all of the fabric. For all the dog knows, “Wow these treats taste just like a sock. I’ll eat the whole thing!” and proceeds to put holes in your sock and swallow some of it. Filling socks or other fabrics with food or treats isn’t a very good idea and most definitely not if you’re not going to be there to rescue the sock from going down somebody’s throat. Rope and rope toys are another big reason for surgery. Dogs chew the rope and eat the strings which can twist around inside the gut and make blockages. Indigestible things that are eaten often become caught in the throat or gut, another trip to the vet and often surgery for that.

I read recently that some of the kiddie pools are made with a chemical that you don’t want your dog or your children to absorb either through their skin or eating or drinking water out of. If you want a pool for your dogs and kids, check out the food grade livestock pools. You can find them online or at your local country store. Check with the maker, before you buy, that they are food grade.

To make a digging spot for your dog, dig a hole in the yard about two feet deep by at least four feet around, fill it with sand. Play with your dog for a while so he knows “this is where we dig”. Burying toys is a fun idea. Not food though, unless you want rodents moving in. If you don’t have a yard, get the food grade pool and fill it with balls from SitStay. Your dog will have so much fun!

The SitStay Dogs do get to play with treat and food dispenser toys. They love them! We like the safe toys. Go to www.sitstay.com and click on Toys in the left menu to see them all. Treat and food toys are a really good way to give your dog mental and physical exercise. We have several choices to match any dog. They are strong and are made for this purpose. I’ve never yet heard of any dog being hurt by any of these toys. Know your dog, supervise until you know that your dog can be left alone with the toy.

Twist ‘n Treat was Dancer’s favorite, she had hours of fun with it; Oliver the Black Lab Mastiff with power jaws can destroy it, it takes a while but he can do it.

The Yuppy Puppy Treat Machine has always been Tilli’s favorite. Try it with Liver Biscotti or any dry treat about 1/4″ size. Most dogs are working to get the treats and haven’t tried chewing this one up. It makes a great Christmas present, too.

Original Kong toys and Kong Stuff-a-Balls toys are always great. Freezing food inside, stuffing with treats, or as plain old empty toys that jump all over the place, your dog will like these. Even Oliver hasn’t been able to chew up a Kong yet.

Frankie loves all toys. I watched her have a ball with the HI.Q. Puzzle Orbs and Toys stuffed with treats right up until Oliver came over and bullied her out of them. If she won’t let go, he lays on her. Immediately after we watched what was going to happen, Oliver was relieved of the toys and they were returned to Frankie. She didn’t blink an eye. She never blames him for taking her stuff, she’s grateful when someone will go and get it back for her, though. Kent is working hard to get Oliver not to be so much of a bully. Poor Ollie, remember he was almost drowned as a puppy, shouldn’t he have special privileges because of that? No. No. No. LOL!

The Buster Cube is an all time favorite of all of our dogs. This is a tough, tough toy. Our shipper returned one to us one day years ago, it was in pretty bad shape but it still worked! The driver had dropped a package and accidentally backed over it. He said he brought it back to us because he was amazed that it was still working, his truck squooshed it down but couldn’t break or flatten it. That’s a pretty good trial for a toy. We let our customer know why her shipment was going to be late and shipped her a new one. She was so pleased that she bought three more for her daughter’s big dogs.

When you read someone’s advice or recommendations, step back a step and take a breath. What will happen after you give those things to your dogs? Will you be creating habits you want your dog to keep? Does your stuff mean the world to you or is it okay if the dog chews it up? How deep is your pocketbook? And would you or your children be safe eating this stuff?

If your dog is eating the house because he’s bored while you’re out, crate or find a really good doggie day care or a dog walker. It’s cheaper than buying a new couch, less time consuming than contacting the bank to send the account statement again, easier than being mad because your People Magazine is unreadable, and replacing a pair of socks daily.

Or if you’ve supervised the play with the toys, treat and food dispensers, and you’re sure that your dog will not ingest them, go, leave your bored dog to amuse himself with all of them. We leave our dogs with Bully Sticks, too, we have the best you’ll ever find. Well, we leave everybody except Oliver. He’s a powerhouse chewer. We’d rather supervise that guy. Maybe when he’s older. He’s only eleven months now and still deciding what he wants to be when he grows up, a monster dog who chews up everything or a sweet cute cuddly armful of warm sweetheart. While he’s in his power chewing phase, we’ll continue to use him to test your toys.

Use common sense and be practical with your dog. It will keep your most cherished friend safe and healthy. Thanks for asking and for listening. – Darcie

It’s official, at least for one. No thumb sucking for 30 days with chiropractor and massage therapy and I quote, “Miraculous. I didn’t go a day without sucking my thumb for 48 years.”

Sometimes it’s good to share the things we learn and hear.

Read the original post on Adult thumb sucking. A Cure?

A young family was at the house today. They told me that a few years ago they adopted a terrier who had some issues, nothing major at the time but definitely in need of some training. They’d watched Cesar Millan’s The Dog Whisperer and saw dogs doing things like their dog was doing and being fixed by Cesar “like it was magic”, so they tried it on their dog. They did everything he told them to, walked, no affection before discipline, and they handled the dog just like they’d seen him do on TV. They lifted him high off the ground when he tried to attack someone, using a leash up close behind his ears, they ‘alpha rolled’ him when he threw a temper tantrum, they cornered him to catch him and put pressure on him to move him away from things, “touched” him with a foot, grabbed him with a hand that was suppose to be translated as “a bite by the dominant dog”, and made the sound ’ssst’ just like Caesar showed them. Their dog went from warning people to stay away from him to attacking with no warning at all. Now they have a dog who is so aggressive, no one can look even at him.

After several weeks, which is what the TV programs told them, they thought they’d have a great dog with good behaviors. They quit using the TV show’s methods when the dog got worse instead of better.

To this day when they have company, no one can look at the dog at all. If their eyes happen on the dog, they reach to pet, speak to or try to come into the house, the dog attacks. This young family doesn’t want to put him down because he is pretty good with the Mom, who adopted the dog, and pretty good with the Dad. The children have to completely ignore the dog to be in the same house with him. When he warms up to them, then they can carefully pet him until the next time they come into the house.

These are the stories I’ve been hearing from people who use the show’s methods to train or change their dogs’ behavior. They are creating biting dogs when they only hoped to do the right thing for the dog.

I gave them some ideas to keep everyone safe and strongly suggested that they find professional positive training. I hope they take my advice and get some help. The dog has already bitten and means to bite again when he attacks. If they stay in touch with me, I’ll share the end of the story with you.

The TV show warns and warns against trying the methods at home because partly, I believe, the training you see on TV is not complete. What you see on TV is not all there is to it. If you are having behavioral problems with your dog, please find a positive trainer and get them to help you. Even some of the worst dogs have been turned around with positive training. The best thing? The positive training is more likely to stick with the dog. The old traditional training may change things for the short time while someone strong and unafraid is in the room, but it probably won’t last. I have noticed on the new episodes that even Cesar is saying that this is not magic, it takes time and effort. I’m happy to see that no episode this season has ended by claiming a cure like in the past several years of shows.

The ironic part of this story is that I just watched a new The Dog Whisperer on TV. Cesar was dealing with this same problem only with a bulldog, not a terrier. The problem with the terrier was created with the old episodes of the program and “fixed” with a disclaimer that the bulldog was not “cured” in the new episode. The dog on the new TV episode will probably always be scarred but at least they are managing his biting now. There were a few stitches in faces shown on this new episode. It just doesn’t have to be that way.

[If you saw this new episode, you saw one of our SitStay Service and Therapy Dog Vests being used for the series, the vest is on backwards but that's not the part you should notice. Cesar had a warning embroidered on the vest that said don't touch or look at this dog. That did help warn people to stay away so the dog would not bite them.]

There was so much hate mail about the service dog controversy article that I have removed it. I wasn’t the target of the hate mail, my skin isn’t that thick so I thank you all for that. The hate mail was targeted from readers to readers and at the person who asked the first questions which were the inspiration for the article.

After reading all of the mail, yes, I suffered through every one, I learned something. It’s not that people hate each other necessarily, although there were a few that said they did, it’s because each person has their own idea of what a Service Dog is and I have to face it, some people just don’t like dogs.

The thing I learned is that none of the people who sent hate mail were ready to give any ground on their own beliefs. They are set solidly in their ways and would not open the conversation and take the time to hear what anyone else had to say. Is that because they have pain and suffering of their own, too close to the issue to see any other opinion, or that they like to stand their ground to keep a fight going? Maybe all.

The most poignant of the replies were written by family members of those who have served in the military and who need Service Dogs. These replies were the hardest for me because many said they didn’t read the entire article, they couldn’t get past the negative comments that were listed about service dogs. There was so much pain in those letters, I wound up crying while I was reading them. Part of the reason I was crying was because the post wasn’t about why people shouldn’t have service dogs, it was about why they should.

The only way for all of us to learn anything about each other is to listen and talk.

There were a lot of people saying that they didn’t like dogs at all and don’t want to share their public lives with dogs, no matter the reason. I had to shake my head at those letters. Why are they reading my blog? It’s all about dogs!

The biggest complaint and the most hateful words, very strong language, were that “People are faking, pretending that their dog is a service dog so they can have it in public with them. That’s not fair to people who really need service dogs.” These comments were from both people who need Service Dogs and those who don’t need them. Some were from trainers who train service dogs.

I chose several emails and replied to them. My question was, “What difference does it make for you whether a person is with a Service Dog or  pet dog? If the dog is well behaved, how does that hurt you that it’s in public?” The answer I got from most was, “Because those people are lying. They put a vest on the dog making it look like the dog is a Service Dog but it’s not.” So my next question was, “If the dog is naked with no vest, or wearing a vest labeled ‘Pet Dog’, would that be okay with you? Then person would not be lying about the dog.” The replies were mostly, “No. If someone sees a dog with a vest on, they automatically think it’s a Service Dog when it’s not so no, that is not right. They are lying and I won’t accept that in my public life. A naked dog without a vest is a pet dog and should not be allowed in public shopping areas.”

Now for the other side of the controversy. People with pet dogs, not Service Dogs, replied to my question, “What would you like to see happen with the question of dogs, pet or Service Dogs, in public areas?” The replies were almost unanimous. “All well behaved dogs should be allowed in public areas, not just Service Dogs.”

I did get some extremely well written and well thought out letters from people with Service Dogs. Their problem with pet dogs being allowed in public were mostly about a specific incident that caused them a problem. One woman wrote that  a pet dog had “made a mess” in a grocery store and the manager said that no dogs would ever be allowed in again. It caused her a lot of grief and time to educate him about the rights of people who have Service Dogs. She says that manager now allows service dogs into the store but he doesn’t like it and treats her differently than he used to because she has a dog. The manager, in her words, “Looks like he’s just sucked on a lemon when we come into his store. He used to be very nice to us and even asked if he could pet my dog on occasion. He doesn’t do that any more.” My suggestion to her was to talk to the manager again, tell him her concerns and that if he continues down this road, she will speak to the owner of the business. If that does not remedy the manager’s attitude, don’t do business there any more. Manager’s are often ruled by their own attitudes. Owners like to see profits and often have ways of changing manager’s attitudes or changing managers. If anyone at my store ever treated you or anyone badly, I would have a heart to heart with them to find out what I could do to change their attitude. If it could not be changed for the better, that person would be looking for a new job.

Some of the letters likened pet dogs to people with guns. A “loose cannon” as some referred to it. I agree that dogs who are not well behaved in public and people who hurt other people should not get to share public space. I don’t think there is one person who would think that a dog pooping, tearing up displays, jumping on everyone, licking whatever they want, or people with guns or who toss obscenities around are welcome in our public life. But that’s already on the law books, it’s already a regulation. People get arrested for shooting people and disturbing the peace. Dogs who are acting badly are asked to leave. It’s nothing new.

So what really is the argument? Is it more that people don’t want other people “lying and faking” or is that we are stuck in our ways?

A Service Dog helping a person in public is by description, a well behaved dog trained to help a person to make their quality of life better. A well behaved pet dog along with it’s person whether it is trained to do something or not is also making the person’s quality of life better. That is one thing that almost everyone agreed with, “Dogs make our lives better.” What is the difference then? The disability?

I would like to see all dogs have a job to make our life of better quality. Although I don’t need a Service Dog, yet anyway, my Dancer was trained to help me. She took clothes out of the dryer, could pick up and bring anything to me, including a dropped credit card which I call her ‘card trick’, and she often calmed me when I was hurting. Was she considered a Service Dog? Maybe according to the regulations, she was. But because she didn’t work for a person with a disability, she would not have been accepted as a working Service Dog. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all hone our dog’s skills in public in case we ever become disabled? The only way to do that is to train them and get them out in public working with us.

Are there places we shouldn’t take our pet dogs? Yes, I think so. There are some places where there is only room for people and Service Dogs. There just isn’t enough room for everybody and their dogs so those of us who don’t have Service Dogs should respect that. For instance, there is a little coffee shop that I really like when I occasionally go for a cup. There isn’t enough room in there for everyone to take a dog along. It makes sense to me to use common sense and courtesy not to take up space from those who do need their Service Dog with them.

I don’t want to forget to mention all the wonderful email that came in for this article, too. There were many beautiful, thoughtful and caring comments from people who understood what the article was about, for both sides of the issue. I liked that so much.

All future comments to The Dish will be posted without further comment from me unless it comes to Ask Darcie. I’ll allow them as comments as they are written. Except for those that threaten to kill someone or their dogs or if I have to edit too many curse words, those I will delete, again without comment from me. Thanks. Darcie

Dear Darcie, I made a mistake and I just threw a shock collar into the trash. They didn’t call it a “shock collar”, they called it a “remote collar” and they gave me training tips and told me how to use it. I’ve read your blog for a long time, I know you don’t like mixing batteries with dogs. (I missed your fence jumping article, that would have been so much better than this, I read that today.) I feel so bad. My dog will not come to me any more. When I call her, she crouches down and keeps her legs rigid at four corners of her body. She cowers and shivers and shakes and pants. She won’t eat. The shock wasn’t that bad I didn’t think, I used it on myself, it was more like a vibration. The reason I used it was because she was jumping the fence. “They” said that one or two pushes of the button and she’d never do it again and “they” said she would not know it was me doing it to her. Well, they were right about her not wanting to jump the fence any more, she won’t even go into the back yard. How will I fix her now? I’m not the type of guy who cries very often but this did it for me. She’s broken and wants to sleep all the time. (Name withheld)

I know “They” and who they are and I still don’t know why they think they know so much. You might start telling everyone you know not to do what “They” say.

You and I talked for quite a while this morning. It’s been five days and she’s still the same. And yes, I know you are not the type of guy who would hurt a dog. Lots of people are easily lured into a “quick fix” with shock collars. You did a good thing by throwing the collar away and not passing it on to hurt another dog. You’re beating yourself up pretty bad right now, you don’t need me or anyone else to make it any worse for you. Your experience may help a lot of dogs. Thank you for bringing this story into the light of day and not hiding it. I promised I won’t post your name and I won’t.

Your girl is going to need some help to overcome her fear of the back yard, of her daily life, and you. Find your inner quiet place and forgive yourself. Find someone local to you who can help her. Only positive training and only someone who does not get frustrated or angry. Your girl is going to need all the good care and strength she can get. I’ve given you my short list, they will be good to you. You’re too far away for me to come and help but I know they’ll be able to help. It won’t be free.

You can start the process by yourself as if she was brand new to you. If I’d just adopted her, I would take her on a leash out walking for at least an hour and a half a couple of times a day, every day. Walk as if you’re in Heaven, walk as if you have no worries, walk as if you have no where to go but lots of energy to get there. This kind of walking is relaxed, it will not add to her anxiety. Walking will help her readjust her mind. When you come home, come into the backyard, then to the house. You’re giving her a different view of the house. You don’t have to do that every time but I think you’ll find that coming in from a different way may help her learn that the yard isn’t scary any more.

Read this and make your yard a fun place. You might get lucky and she’ll come out of it quickly. Some dogs never recover completely, it’s why I’m so against these types of collars. There are experts who ruin dogs with them. Those of us who aren’t experts can’t assume that we’ll do any better. Here’s the article I wrote some time ago Yard dogs, barking, jumping fence. I hope you find some help in here.

I would strongly recommend clicker training now. Go to www.sitstay.com and search for ‘clicker’. The Getting Started Clicking Kit is great. It’s the fastest way I know to help dogs get over their fears. A long time ago, a dog show judge in Houston, Texas scared the daylights out of our then young Tilli. The judge thought that Tilli was too big and wanted to measure her with a wicket. The judge called for her wicket and marched toward Tilli, the wicket held high over her head. For days, Tilli was terrified of women who looked like that judge and of anything over her head. It was a long few days for the rest of the show. I should have used my clicker at the show. I think I was so mad at the judge, me and everyone else who saw it happen, that my good judgement went out the window. I didn’t know then that a clicker could solve fear troubles. When I got home, I pulled out my clicker and in about seven minutes, Tilli was crawling under kitchen chairs and even let a woman hold an umbrella over her head. Fears can be resolved with positive training. Oh, by the way, that judge was known as “The Wicket Witch”.

Forgive yourself completely right now, right this minute. Share with other dog lovers, every one who will listen. You beating yourself up is not going to help your dog and might make things worse for her. It’s a new day. You can’t do anything about yesterday or even a minute ago. Then move forward believing that everything is going to be better. And then work to make it better. Darcie

I’ll be adding some really fun training tips to the SitStay.com Easy Training Tips Newsletter. So far and for the past fourteen years, people and their dogs have been doing really good with my tips. I try to make them easy and step by step so no one feels like they have to go to training school to get results.

When Bruno and Dancer were still living, they and Tilli loved to show off our training to anyone who wanted to watch. It was great fun for me, too. I’d ask the dogs to sit side by side at one end of the warehouse. I’d put a lovely, beautiful smelling pile of treats about halfway down the warehouse floor and point at it and say, “Mine”. Then I would go to the other end of the warehouse. I’d call the dogs one by one by name. Each would come in their turn to me and sit having made a wide berth around the pile of treats. They got pretty dramatic with avoiding the treats sometimes and our audience and I would wind up laughing. Sometimes I think the dogs did that just to get more giggles, they did like to show off. Then I would release only one dog to go back to eat the goodies. Applause all around. I sure do miss those days! It was quite a picture with three gorgeous Belgian Tervuren lined up side by side.

One of Dancer’s best tricks was “Come closer”. I’d call her to me and she’d come. Then I would say, “Come closer” and she’d move her body a little closer to me. Then in a softer voice I’d say, “Come closer” and she’d move even closer. I’d get down beside her, me on my knees. We’d keep it up until finally I’d be whispering very softly, “Come closer” and she would have her body pressed up as tight as she could to me with her face on mine. Another crowd pleaser.

Sign up here for the Newsletters and Training Tips if you haven’t yet! Click this link Sign Me UP and sign up for the Newsletters!

[Please share SitStay.com with everyone you know. The more sales we make this holiday season, the more we can donate to rescue!  There are a ton of dogs in the rescue system, they could sure use the extra help. Thanks, Everybody! Darcie]

If you worry, if you think, think, think that things will go wrong, they will. If you lie in bed at night and your brain won’t stop, you will continue to have worries, you’re feeding that worrying energy.

If you worry that you have no money, you will have no money. If you worry that you’ll lose your house, you will lose your house. If you think that you will lose your job, you will lose your job. If you worry that your dog won’t eat, your dog won’t eat. If you worry that your dog will bite, your dog will bite. If you think and worry about an illness, you will continue to be sick because you are comforting and giving energy to that illness. Be jealous of someone else and their good fortune and you will never have good fortune because you’re telling yourself that it’s a bad thing to have.

Think on good things and you will have good things happen in your life because you give energy to good and it will grow around and inside of you. Think that you have all you need and you do. Be happy for someone else’s good fortune and you open your own life to good fortune.

If you are feeling down, go help someone. If you are hungry, go help someone else find something to eat. If you are cold, find someone a sweater. If you are feeling low, give someone a lift, even if it’s only with a smile.

The Bible says so, people who practice this say so, miracle workers say so, I say so, and heck, even Cesar Millan says so.

Every single human being has it in them to make miracles. I know it’s true.

Think on a miracle by saying out loud, “I have everything I need.” Then don’t worry any more. Go and help someone else. It will not only bring you joy, it will help you change your thinking. Think on good things and they will happen. Believe it.

The miracles that we receive aren’t always what we thought they would be. Peace, Everybody.

My Dad was ill so Dancer, my sister, and I traveled to California from Nebraska. Dancer was about three years old, a very well behaved and beautiful girl.

The travel was long, the winter days were cold, and the roads were nasty most of the time to say the least. Dancer loved to travel with me and had been as good as she could be for days and days, in and out of motels, up and down mountains, rest stops here and there. My dog was petted and oohed and awwed over by everyone and she was great with everybody.

We’d been in a northern California town near Mt Shasta for several days watching over Dad and hoping that he was going to get better. Instead of getting a motel room, we parked outside the hospital and took turns sleeping in the van. Lots of blankets and a mattress on the floor made it better than winter camping.

One morning in the wee early hours before dawn, Dancer and I woke at the same time to the sound of what I thought at first was a light rain on the roof. Dance was in the sleeping bag with me, I was spooning with my arms around her for the most warmth and we were comfortable. The “rain” sounded as if it was coming in waves, starting at the hood to the back end of the van roof and then back again. Light sounds, soothing sounds. We lifted our heads together and listened. Our heads moved in sync as we listened to the sound of the “rain” moving from front to back and back to front again. Our eyes followed the sound like watching a quiet tennis match. Over and over. It was almost hypnotizing. The sun was coming up and dawn showed yellow and lovely.

When we realized what we’d been listening to, Dancer turned her head back to look at me. We were quiet for a moment, listening some more, and then I laughed out loud. She licked my face. It wasn’t rain at all. It was a cat. It’s footsteps soft and padding. The cat was starting at the hood, jumping up onto the top of the van, walking to the end of the van, turning around, walking to the windshield and sliding down the window to the hood again.

I’ll never forget the look on Dancer’s face just before I hugged her closer. She didn’t bark or move. She lifted an eyebrow and put her head back down beside mine. She gave the cat one ear which moved back and forth as the cat continued it’s game of walk and slide. As simple as that. The cat eventually jumped off and Dancer and I went back to sleep. Darcie

[Dancer is pictured on About Darcie. I miss her very, very much.]

Things will be quiet in my blog for a while starting next week. I’ve been called for jury duty…again. Darcie

A new friend and I were talking this morning about vaccinating dogs or should we? She’s just changed her dog over to a raw food diet, her dog loves it, and she’s looking forward to that “thank you” from the dog that always comes. I can’t wait to hear how Sydney thanks her. All dogs are different in their thankfulness but every one finds a way to do it.

Do you vaccinate your dogs, your children or yourself? Let’s share some info about the dogs. Any reactions? How often do you vaccinate? How healthy is your dog based on coat, breath and teeth, weight, age, and the odor of the poop? When you post your answer, please also tell us what food you feed to your dog.

I promised to share this information with you. I will be attending. A seminar is coming to Lincoln, Nebraska, November 13 and 14, 2009.

“Learn why the H1N1 Swine Flu vaccine will be the mot dangerous experiment on humans in 30 years.”

Dr. Tim O’Shea is a Natural Health Practitioner and Educator, author of The Sanctity of Human Blood.

To reserve your seat: Call 408 298 1800 or e-mail: doc@thedoctorwithin.com