Welcome to our new 3-H newsletter! The 3-Hs represent the type of information and stories you will receive – hopeful, helpful, and healing!
Topics
Different Breed, Different Approach
Life With Rune
The Life with Rune Facebook group recently celebrated its 3rd anniversary. In April 2020, the group consisted of a few people who were looking for ideas on how to socialize a puppy in times of social distancing. Today it is a group of almost 3,000 members representing countries all around the world!
Life with Rune Filled a Need
In 2020, there was an extreme need for online resources for people to follow since classes were unavailable due to lockdowns. My initial intention for the group was to provide information on how to train and socialize a puppy during the first year.
Here we are three years later! In an attempt to keep the focus of the group on puppies in their first year, I’ve started to give a 1-hour online presentation to dog clubs called A Team Approach to Puppy Training.
My latest presentation was to the members of the Mile-Hi Golden Retriever Club in Colorado. We focused on some of the challenges that new puppy parents face such as
- Lack of time
- Lack of good training resources
- Cost
My objective is to address the above challenges by giving simple ways to train the concept of impulse control with things you are already doing.
- Letting a puppy out of the crate becomes a training session.
- Mealtime becomes a training session.
- Going out the door becomes a training session.
Because lack of impulse control is often the cause of most dog behavior we don’t like, I start teaching impulse control as soon as the puppy comes home.
These photos were taken 2 weeks apart.
Left Photo: Ripple when he first came home and had to be shown how to wait to be released for his meal.
Right photo: is just 2 weeks later being able to wait for his meal on his own.
The first year goes by fast. Putting the time in when they are young teaches a puppy to learn to work with you and will be your next Best Dog Ever!
A Team Approach to Puppy Training is a wonderful learning opportunity for your club members. For more information please contact susanlynch27@gmail.com.
Buffalo and Grief
When I was new to grief, I wanted two things
- To know if healing after my loss was even possible
- For somebody to give me directions on how to get through my grief faster
Six years after my son Kevin, died of an accidental overdose, I wrote my memoir with the hope it would help someone else. Life After Kevin is the story of what happened, what grief taught me, and the answer to the question that haunted me Was the rest of my life just going to be something to endure?
Memoirs are always about the hard stuff we experience in life but from our tragedies, we can experience what’s called post-traumatic growth.
Today, I offer people hope to people in grief by sharing my story, along with practical and spiritual ways of healing after loss. In my presentation Healing After Loss, I give takeaways from the book’s themes
- The stigma of overdose and how it impacts our grief
- The healing role of our dogs and what they can teach us
- Signs from deceased loved ones and how we stay connected to them
In my presentation, I give examples of practical and spiritual ways of healing that helped me tremendously. The first (and most beneficial) tip is to set some time aside to privately give your grief attention.
David Kessler is one of the world’s experts on grief and is the author of, Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief. One of my favorite quotes from him is what we run from pursues us, and what we face, transforms us. That is an empowering statement. It tells us we CAN do things to help us heal.
In his book, he tells us the story of what a herd of buffalo can teach us about grief.
When a storm is coming, most animals will run in the opposite direction to try and outrun it, but the buffalo run toward the storm. By running into the storm they shorten the amount of time they’re in it.
Because grief isn’t just about sadness, I spent private time in Kevin’s room engaging with additional feelings of shame, anger, and guilt to name a few.
By intentionally spending some time to cry, question, and explore the feelings, judgments, and beliefs I had, I was able to do something powerful to facilitate my healing.
I am not suggesting that we get to a place where we are healed. I believe healing is a verb. It is a way of being in the world.
Different Breed, Different Approach
I seem to be my father’s daughter when it comes to choosing dog breeds. My dad had a beagle right before I was born, then years later, he chose a Golden Retriever to come into our family.
Dad and “Willie” in 1965
Dad and Barney 1979
I have had Golden Retrievers my whole life but for the past decade, I’ve wanted to add a Beagle. I never did because they had a reputation for being “runners” and pretty much “untrainable”.
But lately, I have been trusting my gut more and more. I’ve been checking in with my intuition instead of saying “no” right away, I’ll ask myself, How about yes? I don’t always feel the answer is a yes, but on June 19, 2022 (Father’s Day), it was.
Ripple @11 weeks. June 2022
I was determined to figure out what motivated him versus labeling him as “stubborn”.
When I made kissing sounds and he looked at me like I was a weirdo and promtly trotted away I thought That always works with my Golden puppies…
That would be the first of many times I’d say that during Ripple’s puppyhood!
We have lots of wildlife, including rabbits, scampering through our yard. Each time I took him outside to potty, I held the leash white-knuckled fearing he would take off.
I had to change my approach and do something he would find interesting and exciting to want to come to me.
He loved to chase all of his toys so I put a leash around his stuffed toy and started dragging the toy toward me. He’d be on my lap trying to get the toy and I’d initiate a gentle game of tug while he was on my lap.
This worked like a charm. That was when he started to pay attention to me a bit more because he started thinking I was a bit more fun.
fun! nce he was coming to me to play in the house, I started teaching him a few tricks.
Ripple learning to get in his chair for a “time out”
One year later, he is my shadow and makes me laugh every day!
He’s never met a cushion he doesn’t like
Beagle Style Recalls
Recalls can save a dog’s life and save you money on veterinary bills. When Ripple is outside in our fenced-in patio area I practice off-leash recalls with him. He is now 14 months old and his recall is, well, not directly as the crow flies.
It looks like this:
He’s in the fenced-in area and I’m standing at the slider door.
I say “Ripple come!”
He stops what he’s doing to look at me for a second
He turns in the opposite direction and proceeds to run a victory lap around the perimeter of the enclosure at full speed, jumps off a couple of steps for added drama, and runs directly into the house.
Makes me laugh every time!
While it’s true beagles are genetically predisposed to be “runners” because they were bred to chase rabbits. He will probably never be reliable off-leash in the woods but that doesn’t mean they are “untrainable”! It means I need to practice often for the time when someone invariably leaves the gate open.
Recall Beagle-style whoop whoop!
Something to Ponder
