Reiki with Jinx: August 28

I went to do Reiki with my friend Jordyn Thiessen's (http://dancingminddesign.com) cat Jinx today - last night was when Hurricane Irene came through, definitely not with as much force as was expected, that's for sure! but storms can have an effect on the animals, big or small. Jinx has been having mobility problems - his back legs don't seem to have much sensation in them, so he can't use them quite properly (either a disk problem or tumor).

Jinx actually seemed to be in relaxed condition when I got there, he was resting in a crate that he enjoys. I sat outside the crate and began to offer him Reiki from a short distance away, maybe 6-8 inches. Initially, the front part of his body was nearest my hands, but he soon shifted his position so that my hands were sending the energy to his back legs and lower back, which is something he has done before. Sometimes animals prefer to have you send the energy to a part of the body other than the one having the most trouble, as it can be too sensitive there, but Jinx regularly has usually shown me by shifting his position that he wants me to send the energy right there. He really stretched out and relaxed, taking a little Reiki nap.

One of Jordyn's dogs, Petey, who can often be very active and "in your face" for attention, calmly fell asleep right behind me as I did this :)

After a time, he shifted again, so that one hand was sending energy towards his abdomen and the other, more towards his head and towards where the heart chakra is on the front part of the body. His eyes relaxed and he got very cozy there for a time.

He shifted position a couple of more times, and I had thought he was done but then for a few minutes I felt more energy coming out of my hands towards his heart chakra again, so I stayed there briefly and his eyes relaxed.

After we were done, he got up and walked slowly towards the apartment door. One of the activities he really enjoys is walking out in the hallway, and I was happy to see that he wanted to do this, - that even though he walks rather gingerly, he still is motivated to do the things he enjoys.

Noodles and Petey get in Balance

Hi folks, this past week I was working with my friend Jordyn (http://myspace.com/dancingminddesign) and her dear dogs Petey and Noodles. Can you tell I love these dogs?

We set them up with step-in harness and double-end leashes, which we like to use in TTouch as these tools give us various options for configuring the setup to have two points of contact. This is useful especially for dogs who pull on the leash.

Petey is a long-haired mini-dachshund and Noodles is a mixture of beagle and other lovely types of dogs (seems like there must be some dachshund in there too). Both dogs are low to the ground, so the setup that works best for them is to clip the leash to the two side clips on the harness. This setup is also good for very small dogs, as we saw in the Santa Fe training with the little

Chihuahua Mr. Brown. You can see this setup most easily in the picture of Petey below. One can stroke one side of the leash and then the other if the dog starts to pull, or sometimes spreading the arms further apart can work as well.

Jordyn and I each walked one dog at first, walking side by side, and then switched, so each would get used to being with me. Both of these dogs can be pullers, and Noodles can decide he doesn't want to move sometimes, but I have to say that they were both quite cooperative on our walk. When Noodles did try to stop, I gently pulled the leash and called to him, and after a minute he did come along. Below you see a picture of me with both dogs. The leash we used for Noodles may be a little wide for him so we are going to try a thinner leather leash, and we need to tighten his harness a bit for next time, but both dogs responded very positively to having this leash setup. Below you see me with both dogs. Don't worry, my right hand does not have the leash wrapped around, that is a scrunchy around my wrist! I am actually holding the leash with a light touch.
Good job, Noodles and Petey!