On an April day - in snow!

April 18, 2002

Dear Jan,

thank you for the fourfold woof from your 'ladies'! I greatly enjoyed

reading about your adventures with Funny; this also brought back

memories of a dog I once shared part of my life with. It is good that

you do not want to train your dog into a "circus performer". Though

most canines, and shepherds in particular, love to work and feel

useful, overambitious humans can sometimes do much harm to a dog's

well-being.

Today, I saw Monty Roberts (the original "horse-whisperer") being

interviewed on TV. Asked whether he believed that horses had a soul,

he replied, "If they had no soul and therefore could not ascend to

heaven, this would mean to me that there is really no heaven at all,

because I could never feel completely happy in a place without

animals."

You could see from the love in his eyes that he meant it.

Kindest regards,

Michael

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----Von: ecirada

[janb (AT) axarnet (DOT) com]Gesendet: Monday, April 15, 2002 03:15An:

Betreff: Re: On an

April day - in snow!On 4/14/02 at 11:27 PM MikeSuesserott (AT) t-online (DOT) de

wrote:

Dear Jan,

I am very glad to hear that the floods left you unharmed.

Thank you Michael.

Sri Ramana loved animals, too. A. Osborne wrote: "He [sri Ramana]

never referred to an animal in the normal Tamil style as 'it', but

always as 'he' or 'she'. 'Have the lads been given their food?' -

and it would be the ashram dogs he was referring to."

The same here: I refer to to the dogs on the finca as "the girls"and

the neighbors say "die Damen" as the 4 dogs are ladies.

As was the case when one of my sisters was at a "girls only" school,

the issues running are rather similar ;-)

What name have you given the dog? Training a malinut is not the

easiest thing in the world, but should prove very rewarding to both

of you because shepherd dogs love to learn! I had one - a mongrel,

more or less of the shepherd family, and we were together for many

years.

The dog received the name "Funny" as she has a sense of humor, and as

most kids are familiar with that word, it breaks the proverbial ice

immediately.

Whenever the beach and the boulevard are visited, something funny

happens. When the dog hardly knew me, and i would throw a stone away,

often

she, when tired, would only run half the distance, stop, seemingly

reflecting on "what am I doing?" and run back. Tourists having lunch

and seeing that

would nearly choke of laughter. At another occasion, when it was hot,

she ran to a shower in use by a child and made it clear, she was

thirsty.

Still another time, she saw a lady holding a bottle of water in the

"right" position and before the lady knew what was happening, Funny

was enjoying

a sip of mineral water. The lady quickly went through bewilderment,

then recognition and fed the dog like a baby!

They appreciate playfulness but also a certain friendly firmness they

definitely want from their human. Once you accept a shepherd dog as

your companion, the dog will also accept you as his or her pack

leader, and will both expect and give affection and loyalty to the

end of life. It's a responsibility similar to adopting a child, not

to be taken lightly.

That I noticed already, when the hunting dog (Dixie) seemingly wanted

to jump at me: Funny didn't like that at all!

Malinuts are a class apart: Intelligent "enough" to see the difference

between "serious issue" and "not important".

So when I enter an area "no dogs permitted", as long as I remain in

sight/smell, she will wait but the moment I vanish

from sight, she will follow me and as she doesn't need to say "I am a

strong, fast dog", only guards familiar with the issue

know how to handle the situation. This afternoon, Funny sneaked into a

supermarket and the cashier nearly died of

laughter when i told the owner of the shop, the dog can't read the

sign at the entrance :-)

There is an excellent dog training list at

dogbehaviorscience. Thanks again for the beautiful

photographs!

Thanks for the link - some work has to be done as it became clear,

Funny never got any attention from the previous

owner, than the leftovers from the restaurant! As she has an age

between 2 and 3 years, learning will be fairly easy.

On the other hand, I don't want to change any animal into a circus

performer, but instead, to behave in a playful way,

able to make judgments when that is required. And this already showed

results, like in the friendship with Dixie and

immunity to the behavior of children, freaking out on the sight of a "fearful monster".

The funniest issue always turns up with the owners of "pocket size"

dogs, fearing their dog to end up as a snack ;-)

Invariably, their little cutie shows intolerable behavior like

following Funny, ignoring their owner's plea to return.

A fourfold "Woof!" from the girls here! (The cat thinks that isn't very funny though)...

Jan

Kindest regards,

Michael

-----Urspr|ngliche Nachricht-----Von: ecirada

[janb (AT) axarnet (DOT) com]Gesendet: Saturday, April 13, 2002 00:53An:

Betreff: Re: On an

April day - in snow!

Dear Michael,

The floods have been severe and in Santa Cruz, seven people died because of it.

Where I am living it still is rural so the effect of a flood is far less severe.

This dog, a malinut, choose me as its "owner" so I decided to give it a try and

as she has a good sense of humor too, she may stay! Needless to say, the 'default'

advice given on 'malinut' sites is not to take a malinut as the first dog ;-)

One of first things she has been made aware of, was the conditioning to drop whatever,

in order to run after a thrown away stone or a ball...

Today I was at what was left of the snow and on 2 feet it was very slippery!

So I took a pic of the rascal having a lot of fun because of that...

Enjoy,

Jan/join

All paths go

somewhere. No path goes nowhere. Paths, places, sights, perceptions,

and indeed all experiences arise from and exist in and subside back

into the Space of Awareness. Like waves rising are not different than

the ocean, all things arising from Awareness are of the nature of

Awareness. Awareness does not come and go but is always Present. It

is Home. Home is where the Heart Is. Jnanis know the Heart to be the

Finality of Eternal Being. A true devotee relishes in the Truth of

Self-Knowledge, spontaneously arising from within into It Self.

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