The one thing that separates humans from all other animals is our awareness of self. This means you can think about, thinking about, how to think about your thoughts. You
can remember the emotions you felt at your sisters wedding and why you felt them, and you can remember thinking how great it would be to feel that way about someone in the future.

This ability to think about and feel emotions from the future and past is why so many of us struggle to find balance. We are constantly reliving decisions we have made that we can't change, or focused on things in the future that have yet to take place.

When you think about something from the past that has an emotional association your brain feels the emotion from that event. If you constantly relive an event with a negative emotion your personality or energy will start to permanently project that emotion. Anxiety can come from a desire to have control of the future that is driven by the fear of
losing control, so we try to anticipate every possible scenario. Depression can come from patterns of reliving past negative emotions leading to fears of what the future will bring.

The part of the brain that allows for this type of thinking is not present in your dog or young child and it's why they have an easy time living in the moment. When your dog or kid wakes up he is not thinking about tomorrow or yesterday, only right now. If the
time you spend with them is spent thinking about that big sale, or why you didn't make that last one, they will tell you by not following you. Dogs and kids want to be led and leadership means dealing with what's at hand right now.

I run my own business and I am currently expanding so I know we must think about the future and make plans to deal with what may happen, but we must be aware of how much time we spend in the future or past.

I have learned, through my dogs, how to live in the moment through these four steps:

1. Be aware of how you feel right now--are you calm, sad, angry, happy, etc. Don't judge how you feel, only recognize what the emotion is.

2. Close your eyes and take ten deep breaths. You should push your tummy out when you take a deep inhale. You don't want your shoulders to lift.

3. If possible go outside or open a window. Close your eyes, take calm steady breaths and put all your focus into each of your senses, one at a time. Listen to each sound and really listen to it. Listen to the birds and how many different songs they make. Listen to the planes, wind, frogs, cars and let the sense you are using really take over then move on to smell and touch. Do vision last.

4. Every time you feel your heart beat start to go up for any reason, you should begin step one.

These four simple steps will teach you how to use your senses which will bring you back to the moment. When you only focus on the sights, smells and sounds you are not thinking about the future or past.

Practice this exercise next time you take your dogs out and only walk a fraction of the distance you normally do. Spend the time using your senses and watch what your dogs do. Most dogs will smell when you smell, listen when you listen and focus on what you are watching...in the moment.

Initial Consultation:

• Lasts two hours.
  
• Uncovers the fundamental reasons for your dog's unwanted behaviors.
  
• Teaches you how eliminate or create behaviors with proper communication, exercise
  and structure. These are the fundamentals of leadership.
• Teaches you how to create rules and boundaries for everyday life.
  
• I will leave you with notes, a routine to follow and exercises to practice.

Follow-up visits last 75 minutes and are available on an as needed basis. Most clients solve their issues in 2-3 visits.

Pack Life offers private in-home consultations on a visit-by-visit basis to help you fix ANY of your dog's unwanted behaviors. If you have tried training and are still having issues, a consultation with me may be your answer.

I offer a unique perspective of the human-dog relationship and use that to peel away the layers to get to the source of any problem. A common call may start: “Can you help? Fido is trying to bite the neighbor's dog and he barks all day.” A few questions later and its revealed that Fido is a German Shepherd who only gets walked twice a week. All too often a dogs symptoms (barking, biting, destruction, aggression, etc.) are seen as the problem, when in reality there is a more primal element that needs to be addressed.

To help Fido I would start with a mental and physical exercise plan, followed by a set of basic rules designed to help his owners communicate Fido's role in the family. Followup would focus on the owner gaining Fido's trust through leadership - then we would calmly and consistently expose him to his issues to reprogram his old ways.

Dogs like Fido usually have a list of issues, as problems have a way of interconnecting in ways humans just can't see. Once Fido's owners understand what he needs and how to lead him, it becomes possible to eliminate all unwanted behaviors and create a deeper more meaningful relationship than most ever thought possible.

More than one dog?

One dog or ten dogs. I can help create peace in your pack no matter how many dogs you have or how poorly they get along. I will teach you the rules I live by on a daily basis with my pack. Every dog in my pack had severe issues including dog aggression and they now peacefully live with as many as ten other dogs.