Spoiling and THREE walks

Three walking musketeers called Jeni, David and Bruno have prepared THREE great walks for you.
Jeni has the impression there are only a few walking friends reading this blog. If that were true it is a real miracle that these few walking readers talk to many other friends, because each Sunday morning we are a walking group of almost 30 dogs with only 2 legs and even more dogs with 4 legs.
While talking (amongst other things)about people who SPOIL their dogs, Jeni took me by the hand and showed me the way to the Oxford Dictionary. As a former Latin teacher I do remember the verb "spoliare" and it means: to plunder. The "spolium" was what the Roman soldiers were allowed to steal in the conquered territories. Sounds great doesn't it?
What is the contemporary meaning of "to spoil"?
I quote from page 1239 in my beloved copy of the Oxford Dictionary:
"1. Plunder, deprive by force or stealth; 2. Impair the qualities of; 3. Injure character of...by indulgence; 4. Maim or kill; 5. Decay, go bad;" (end of quote)

Do the many "nice" dog loving persons who write me and talk to me about how they are spoiling their dogs have any idea what they are really doing?
When I tell them or when I write to them about the negative energy this spoiling generates for their dogs, they often say I KNOOOOOW!!!(Just like John Cleese's wife in Fawlty Towers)By exclaiming I KNOOOOOW they show me clearly how they have trouble dealing with their own issues.

It is my opinion that spoiling a dog (or a child for that matter)is nothing else but cruel.
No animal mother in nature will ever spoil her children.
We do.
So, why is it cruel?
Because if we spoil a dog, it means that we are not offering stability, harmony, leadership, guidance, clear communication and calm assertive energy. To our spoiling the dog can only respond as a dog, meaning that (s)he will get our message and take charge of the human pack (=family). When there is no human leader of the pack, the dog will automatically take the position of the leader. When that happens, the "nice" dog loving persons will start calling their dog a BAD dog or a PROBLEM dog.
The hardest thing for me is to explain to these "nice" dog loving people what they are really doing with their pets.
I am not alone there.
A very famous colleague has the same experience.
Cesar Millan writes on page 84 of his book "Cesar's Way":
"When we humanize dogs, we create a disconnect for them. By humanizing them, we're going to be able to love them the way we would love a human, but we're never going to achieve a deep communion with them. We're never really going to learn to love them for who and what they truly are."
On page 92 of the same book he writes:
"....I understand that people have the best intentions in mind when giving a dog affection first.....But we must...remember that by doing so, we're fulfilling our own need for affection, not the dog's."

Let's go back to what I was asking myself about how a "nice" person spoiling her/his dog is nothing else but cruel for the dog? Because millions of times spoiling a dog leads to what the carers call a BAD dog and bad dogs are being put to sleep.
That's why.

Again I walk back to my beloved and well thumbed Oxford Dictionary and read on page 812 about the origin of the word "nice". Like so many words in English (and in all the other Romance languages like Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese) the word "nice" goes back to the Latin word "nescius". Nescius is related to the Latin verb "nescire" and that verb literally means ne-scrire or NOT-KNOWING, or IGNORING.
Exactly.
Millions of "nice" people are spoiling their dogs to death because they do NOT KNOW what and who a dog really is. In many cases they refuse to accept that a dog is not a human being. I am also sure they do not know a lot about their real true self, neither about how they are abusing their pets for the fulfillment of their own needy love and affection, for soothing their own feelings of lack, for calming their own nerves, for mitigating their own fears, for softening the sense of being disconnected from nature and the universe.
The dogs, unfortunately for themselves, are willing to provide all that for their human carers but the result is that they SUFFER from instability, disharmony, nervousness and stress.
But you know, all that suffering of pets and their ignorant carers can be changed if the humans are willing to learn.

Sometimes I have the privelege of working with dog carers who really want to learn. While teaching them how to behave correctly with their pets, I witness how they discover what calm assertive energy is. How much more confident they start feeling when offering clear guidance to their dogs and how the richness of a more balanced and harmonious life is revealed to them by means of a natural relationship. Not just with their dogs, but also with themselves, their husbands and wives, their friends, neighbours, children and grand children.
It sounds incredible doesn't it?
But it is NOT. It is real.
I have witnessed it many times in people who are willing to learn.

Now the news about the THREE walks.

1. On Sunday 03.04.2011 we will walk in LLIBER, where we will start from the Centre de Salud at 10.00.
2. On Sunday 10.04.2011 we will walk in CAMPELL where I want to show you a new track without tarmac. If you do not know where Campell is we will wait for you till 10.00 at the Trinquet in Murla and drive together to the starting point in Campell.
3. On Sunday 17.04.2011 we will walk again in FONT SALADA, where Jeni will wait for us on the parking lot of Oliva Nova Golf till 10.00 (see information on former blog about Font Salada).
After the walk we will have lunch together. As you can see ladies, we are listening to your requests.
There are 2 lunch possibilities to choose from: meat or no meat.
If you want to walk and eat with us I invite you to get in touch with Jeni who is coordinating everything. Her phone number is 680 781 889.

Un saludo cordial de

Brunothedoglistener
who listens to dogs
who learns from dogs and
who leads dogs and
who teaches dog carers who want to learn.