pet psychic again-honestly

[Alaska]

Kim, your story is one of my favorite ones to follow on these boards. I love hearing about all the successes you've had with Shep, how much you respect and appreciate him, and how much you've learned from your time with him. Once in a while you post when there's a setback, but then you also tell us all kinds of things that have improved since the last post. It's really an inspirational story of growth for everyone, no matter where it ends (and all our stories do end somewhere).

 

It sounds to me like you're handling a lot of situations that can be problematic for Shep through "management", for instance putting him out of harm's way when children visit. I would like to suggest some other management options you might not have considered. Although there are some things that can only be done by a vet in a clinical setting, other things you mentioned are things you can do. You can learn to give shots yourself. If you have a willing vet and the confidence to try, you may be able to learn to draw blood yourself for the CBC. You may also be able to find a farm vet willing to see Shep outside a clinical setting. Also, if Shep really needs a physical exam, couldn't he be completely knocked out? We wildlife biologists do it with grizzly bears, so it must be possible with an Aussie

 

A basket muzzle is another form of management. If you want to continue to share your life with Shep, you'll find others, I'm sure. You're taking some calculated risks by honoring your commitment to him, but we all make decisions about our comfort level with various risks every day. We're all free to reevaluate those decisions too. But it doesn't sound to me like you're unhappy with your decision right now, just looking for more ideas to help you make it work.

 

I would also like to respond to your question about the pet psychic. I am a PhD biologist, so I'm not likely to think that pet psychics can actually read the minds of animals. But Shep doesn't need the psychic, you do, and what psychics do is sense what a person wants to hear and tell it to them. I'm sure there are bad psychics and good psychics, and the better ones would be the ones who are most tuned into people and can sense what they should say to make the person feel the session was a success. In your case, it doesn't really matter if the psychic is a quack in the scientific sense, as long is what the psychic says satifies the urge that brought you to them.

 

Of course, if the pyschic says that what Shep really wants are daily alpha rolls, I hope you will send the %^$! imposter packing without so much as a penny for their time

[Anda]

Well said, Alaska! I totally agree with everything you said.

[muddy bob]

Alpha rolls-a baked item for dogs? Sorry.

 

muddy

[nancy in AZ]

Just one totally O/T note about psychics. I have some dear friends, an older couple who live up the street from me. He's a retired police captain of a Chicago (coincidentally, my home town as well) suburb. It was during his tenure that his detectives investigated and arrested John Wayne Gacy, one of the worst mass murderers this country has ever seen. My friend had become very close to the family of Gacy's final victim, a teenage boy, who had disappeared, but whose body hadn't been found. Desperate to help the family, he agreed to allow a psychic to be brought in on the case to try to help locate the body. She gave a very explicit and detailed description of the physical surroundings where the boy's body could be found, but without pinpointing the actual location on a map. The boy's body was discovered the following spring after the river thawed and the characteristics of the surrounding area exactly matched the description the psychic had given.

[Beth G]

I have to chime in and say that spending your money on a real pet communicator is NEVER a waste. There ARE good ones out there. So please stop bashing them.

 

Also I have been able to communicate with my animals that way and I'm not quack or fake either. I just had to relax enough and believe.

 

But as everyone is entitled to their opinion that's fine to say if you don't believe in it, but please stop saying they are a waste of time and that they are all fakes.

[Eileen Stein]

>

 

Um, I don't believe in it, therefore I believe that engaging one is a waste of time and money. That is my opinion, to which you say I am entitled. Why exactly then am I not allowed to say so?

 

I refrained from posting on the previous psychic thread, even though I think there could be no better illustration of Alaska's point ("what psychics do is sense what a person wants to hear and tell it to them") than your account of what your psychic told you:

 

My last dog, God rest her soul, told me that I was a beautiful soul, and that I needed to get out of my abusive siuation and not believe the put downs that my family was always saying.That they were a very messed up bunch. (And fyi animals are not one to be big on badmouthing people).

And that she thought that if I would just slow down in life and meditate more and find some quiet time I would not be so sick and that the reason that we get sick is that our energy is blocked or that we are surrounded by too much negative energy in our enviroment. . . ."

 

But it does concern me that if only those who believe in pet psychics post, readers will get the false impression that nearly everyone believes in them, which might tend to legitimize them. And since I'm uneasy about referrals to pet psychics being given here, I feel the need to say this much at least. But I will not be saying any more than this, because IMO the subject is not worthy of serious discussion.

[KJ]

Hi

Eileen,

Thanks for the link for the muzzle. He has been muzzled in the past. He has a cloth one. I've been working on desensitizing him to that. Again if you approach like you are going to do something, he gets growly and snappy. This issue of a muzzle confuses me. Dr. Overall isn't into them b/c they can still *practice* the behaviour. His anxiety still exists and peaks, he just can't do anything about it. He's still biting, just not being successful. THAT being said, my vet would've not been bit and he wouldn't have been reported to Animal Control. Muzzleless, he still *practiced*...successfully. I am buying that muzzle today, thanks.

 

spend the rest on a nice bottle of wine, so you can sit back, put your feet up, sip a glass and reflect on the progress you've made with this dog.

This of course is also the kind of advice I need to hear. I take things so seriously. I don't mean to. Don't know if it's the artist in me ro the Sicilian that sees things so intensely.

 

So... I'm into the whites these days now that we've hit summer. Particularly like unoaked Chardonnays and staring off into the Bay.

 

Alaska

Kim, your story is one of my favorite ones to follow on these boards. I love hearing about all the successes you've had with Shep, how much you respect and appreciate him, and how much you've learned from your time with him.

What a nice thing to hear. I lurk so much and when I post I feel like such a whining rookie. Thanks for saying that.

You can learn to give shots yourself.

Wow. Ummm, it's been suggested and I have to really think on this one. It makes perfect sense. This last visit was done outside entirely. Perhaps I should try a farm vet. Thanks for the suggestions for my Grizzly/Aussie.

 

In regards to the psychic. I called one on Beth's suggestion before I posted. She didn't do a reading, but gave me some advice. She said if you listen hard enough, Shep is saying things. I know Shep wants to know, "Are you going to keep me?" There would be one big part...I have never known this answer.

 

I'm not ruling out psychics, ghosts, or anything else...bring it all on. I need my scientist/researcher friends too, though. We'll all sit under the stars and sip unoaked Chardonay!!

 

Muddy-How brilliant are you!!! Alpha Rolls! I can see them now, in Petsmarts all over the world! Mind if I steal this idea and become a millionaire?

 

Thanks everyone. All these responses mean more than you know.

Kim

[Beth G]

You're right you are entitiled to your own opinion. But what I'm saying is that not all people are fakes.

 

Animals communicate without words. There are other ways of communicating without being verbal.

 

What is it about being able to communicate psychically that scares so many people? Or makes them scoff? Is it too freaky to believe that?

[KJ]

Plot thickens of course.

Shep and Curly were supposed to have been boarded this week for a night. I am leaving for 8 days for a show in Iowa and Pete was going visit relatives. He had to cancel his plans b/c the facility won't take him w/ out his bordatella.

 

Not only that, what I thought was a great situation-a kennel he's been to about a dozen times, that understands Sheps needs and that has been without incident 95% of the time- has decided that the kennel is built for "social dogs" and that they have to handle him on a case by case basis. This means, we have vacation plans in August...Curly is going with us, but Shep cannot b/c there will be children there and he has never met a child. So as much as it was going to bum us out, he was going to stay there. He does love to play with other dogs. So, they could decide, that they can't take him and then...we'd have to cancel our vacation which means, of course, loosing all our money as well.

[Jen C]

Man - not an easy couple days for you, huh...

 

I am so sorry to hear about what happened at the vet - our Wesley has aggression issues, and I know how every incident takes on a life of its own and becomes so big that it feels like you have made no progress at all... I also know that you have made progress, it sounds like a tremendous amount of progress, and that you are doing a wonderful thing by Shep - you have not failed, you are your dog's champion and hero. Shep would have nothing without you.

 

I am also sorry to hear this latest news about your vacation... I was about to cancel a vacation in March because Wesley couln't be left in a regular Kennel, he had been repeatedly aggressive towards people coming into the house when we weren't there (so that left out a petsitter) and he is too difficult to be left with my in-laws or any of our friends (this vacation was to attend a family event and not going was not really an option). We ended up finding a solution that was the best thing to happen to Wesley. We found a trainer, with experience with aggressive dogs, who does private training and boards dogs on the side. We only found him about a month before we went away, and he came to work with Wes probably 2 times beforehand and then took Wesley to his house when we went away. Since, he has continued to work with us and Wesley is steadily improving. Wesely stays with him and his family (including his wife, 2 small children and 3 large dogs) and goes everywhere with them and their dogs (all closely supervised). If you had told me that Wesley was going to go stay with a family with kids and was going to go with them all over the place, to beaches and soccer games and to friends' houses, I would have called you crazy - Wesley is a difficult dog... But, this trainer and he have connected, he is helping Wesley and I connect, and he has given us some of our life back (because we can leave for the weekend or on vacation knowing that Wesely is in fantastic care). I know that we may have simply gotten lucky... But, in my research, I found several facilities that were willing to work with us and take Wesley when we were gone (facilities with special expertise with aggressive dogs). I ended up going with this trainer because the facility that recommended him is well known and repected in this area - but any one of them could have been a great solution... Maybe you could do a search in your area (start with google and go from there)?