Christine Kowal Animal Family

Thank you Marie Forleo And Your Team for Bschool. And All of Your Help And  Lots of Love to Kuma.

The Craven Rd. Fence Project

These are my paintings on the Craven Rd. Fence, part of Toronto’s Beautification project for the city.

One afternoon Zalman and I were down at the barn doing some work with the sheep. I came out of the barn to see what Zalman was yelling about and there running about in a few of the sheep fields were a group of Hounds. He was trying to round them up. “They must have escaped from the Hound rescue,” he said.

Now he managed to get them into one area but he couldn’t get near them. “Wait down here with them, I’ll go up to the house and call the Hound rescue,” (prior to cell phones).

So he went up to the house to make the call. And I got down closer to the ground and started to talk to them. I was telling them not to be scared and everything was going to be okay. They had come to the right place in getting lost. Rose and Zalman loved Animals and we would soon have them safe and sound and back home. They had been very upset when they first arrived and were still somewhat anxious.

But as I spoke they became calmer and as I continued to talk to them with  understanding and love and respect. They could hear me speak to them with absolute truth. I was speaking to them in the way I would want to be spoken to and treated if I was afraid, anxious and upset and lost, and they all began to calm down.

They came to me one by one and by the time Zalman had made his call and gotten back from the house. I was kneeling on the ground holding all of them by their collars in both my hands and everyone was quiet.

And I want it to be clear that Zalman and Rose were incredible with the Animals and I learned so much about love and caring for the Animals from them and about respecting myself.

But what I had done with the hounds is treated them exactly the way I would have wanted to be treated with Love and Respect.

With all of the wonderful people I have worked with over the years. As soon as they add the respect part, everything starts to work and make sense. Because honestly all of the people I have worked with love their Animals. Love and Respect = Unconditional Love.

The Question: How to train a dog to not go to the bathroom in the house and also how to use a pee pad in the house.

Now the dog in this painting is Tripod. I did this painting many years ago, I had just finished school and moved back to Toronto. Tripod’s dad was a photographer and Tripod was a three legged dog. He lost his leg in a car accident when he was a puppy. Tripod always liked to make a statement, thus peeing just outside of the dog run.

How to train a dog to not go to the bathroom in the house

Always start with the talk. So when you want your Animal to do something understand that their bottom line is always love so if you explain exactly what you want and why you want it, with love and respect and understanding you are going to get a lot further with what you are needing from them.

Lets start with something very basic. If you are able to the best thing you can do for your dog to start them out in terms of bathroom training is to take them for walks outside.

Now you can transition this through to pee pad training, or having a special blanket or area in the house that they can go to the bathroom but if you can start by walking them it will be easier and faster.

As a dog walks his/her body naturally is processing everything inside and it is working it’s way out. (Just like with people) And if you start every morning with a  15 to 20 minute walk they will get into the habit and feel the good feeling of peeing outside. Now I would suggest you do this three to four times a day. First thing in the morning before he has time to think about peeing inside. Then again around lunch  and again before bed, if you can fit one in around dinner all the better. I suggest the first walk in the morning and the walk around dinner be the longer ones. The other two can be 10 to 15 minutes . You will start to see that they enjoy going outside. It is also very good to get your dog out after breakfast, but if you have walked earlier than a little time in the backyard should be fine, or what I call a quicky, under or 10 minute walk.

Do this for about two weeks. Now what they are doing is they are starting to enjoy having a specific place/outside to pee and maybe even poop. And try to keep the same route. They will establish regular areas. These areas will be places where other dogs have also peed. That is all good, just remarking and claiming territory. Sometimes poop takes a little longer to get into, but two weeks should work for both.

After the two weeks of walking you introduce the pee pad or blanket. And again first thing you do is sit down with them and have the talk. Explain how much you love them and what you are doing and why you want them to do this. The why is key. When you respect them enough to explain, it makes a difference.

Now you pick your pee pad, or blanket or whatever surface you would like them to use and you put it in a particular place. You can have a couple places if you like The key being pick that place or two places and that is always where the pee pad or blanket goes each and every time. You are establishing their territorial marking space, and it needs to be the same place.

And I am going to add if possible it is always good to take your dog for a walk. But if that is not possible than it is not.

Now the way you establish this as the peeing and pooing place is with complete and absolute diligence. So each and every time you see them peeing somewhere else you go to them say their name first, then say they No, Name you are not allowed to pee/poo here,  and then take them to the designated pee/poo place. And if it is poo then you take a tissue pick the poo up and take it with you over to the place that is the designated area, put it down tell them this is the good place to poo and how good they will be when they poo here.

This is where they are to go to the bathroom. Do not rub their nose in it and do not lift them while they are pooing. You do not want to cause elimination problems due to fear of being moved around or punished. Wait until they are finished then take them to the correct place. But you have to do it each and every time you see them.

Our animals are Very smart and they would like to do things there way so they will try and break you down. So diligence, each and every time is the key here. If they see you seeing them and you do nothing about it, (and just like us they have eyes in the back of their heads.) I.E. They can feel it. That is like 3 steps back wards. And if you come home to it. Do the same thing you do as when you are there. Except first you will take them over to the pee or poo, say their name tell them it is bad to pee/ or poo there and then take them to the designated area, same thing.

Step One – The Talk

Step Two – Walking outside for two weeks, three to four times a day.

Step Three – Set up the area in your house pee pad or blanket and become diligent about every time they go to the bathroom, they go in that area.

And if you cannot walk them then you go from Step 1 to Step 3. However it will take less time if you can walk them and continue to walk them.

 

Let us make Art of that which we Love. Let it be forever and let it be worth everything. The Highest expression of life is Love.

Commission A Portrait

An Animal Family Portrait Makes a Wonderful Gift

 

This story begins long ago. I was one of those kids that used to put milk out for the neighborhood strays in hopes that one would decide to stay.

My brother used to bring home stray baby birds that he would then nurse back to health. And my sister who loved animals was severely allergic so our Animal Family were feathered.

Through the years I have run into quite a few people who as children used to put milk or other things out for the cats or other animals that they loved that lived near to where they lived.

I begin with this because most kids speak to and understand the animals. It is in growing up, going through adolescence, our rights of passage to the next phase of human life that people sometimes forget how to communicate with the natural world.

This is why I begin my story of explanation with a spider. Many humans fear the spider who eats mosquitoes, and other insects that humans find bothersome. The Native Americans would say that Spider is powerful medicine, I would agree.

And the majority of spiders in Ontario where I grew up and have spent most of my life are not poisonous and do not hurt people so there is no reason for me to be afraid of spiders.

However many years ago I found myself with the opportunity of my dreams. Zalman Yanovsky, former guitarist for The Loving Spoonful and his wife Rose Richardson, who is also in spirit offered me an apartment to live in attached to their house in the country with my own studio out in the forest. It was a hobby farm with cats and dogs, peacocks, guinea fowl, sheep chickens/roosters and did I say out in the country And a barn where the big Spiders lived.

I was invited over for dinner where we proceeded to have a wonderful dinner, the animals sat with us and got to lick the plates which made me feel like I had found some of my people. And then Zalman said okay we ‘re going to go down to the barn and I’m going to tell you about the sheep.

I am going to assume they had encountered the spider fear before, because Zalman explained to me how to feed and water and let the sheep in and out . We would be taking turns I would be responsible two days a week for giving them breakfast, water, letting them out and then bringing them back into the barn before night time. And if they went away I was in charge. So how joyful, I think I may have seen a big spider, a big hairy spider and I asked about them.

And Zalman said there are spiders in the barn, they don’t really bother you but in the morning if you come down before the sun has shone down onto their webs in the barn they will be dangling down, so if it is rainy they might be dangling longer than usual. “ We just put a jacket over our head and get to it. Once you start moving around they will disappear. “ARE YOU KIDDING ME’

And Zalman said listen if you really want to do this and live out here you will have to get used to the spiders, you need to go home and think about it. It is a commitment and you will have to get used to the spiders, they do live in the barn.

Actually I was kind of hoping he’d say “ If you see a big spider just come and get me and I’ll get rid of it for you”

Yeah thinking about it, some help I’d be taking care of the animals if every time I saw a spider I had to run and get someone for help, that was most definitely a city girl thought.

Okay this was my dream come true, a Studio out in the country with animals to live amongst and paint. I new Tyrone, my cat was going to love this but I would have to commit to loosing my fear of spiders because I couldn’t live in fear of the barn, that is where the wonderful sheep were and I loved the sheep.

I remember going home that night, and Rose and Zalman insisted I take a few days to think it over, I had until Thursday.

I new I was going to do it, but I remember going home, and pacing, being so excited about a dream come true and also thinking about one of my greatest fears, the spider, I was going to have to learn to deal. I remember thinking if Rose and Zalman can do it I can do it to. That has always been one of my great thoughts: “ If someone else can do it, that means it is doable and I can do it to, my Mother taught me that.

So I paced and thought about the spiders and I thought about all of the other animals and the Beautiful studio out in the country, it’s own separate building in the middle of the forest with a little dirt path and skylight windows that ran down half the wall, a huge space, that would be all mine to paint in, my own studio just to paint in and all of the animals running about and I thought who cares about the spiders.

And Rose and Zalman had a system in place. If it was a rainy day or they came down early they would use the side entrance to the barn a normal door. As soon as you opened the door there was a coat hook and there was a big jacket hanging on one of the pegs that you could then put over your head and go through the other entrance or go through the barn and give the sheep breakfast and let them out.

The three years I lived at the farm changed my life in such a beautiful and incredible way, thank you wise spider.

By the time I left the farm I respected the spiders.

The importance of Spider, although he is an arachnid technically and not called an Animal is that in order to live the life I’d  always dreamed of I had to learn something new. I had to be willing to learn about someone new, and their world and how they felt and who they were. I had to open my heart.

The Animals teach us how to open our hearts

That’s how we start to understand what they are actually saying to us and not overpowering them with our own ideas, thoughts and feelings.

And then the Animals start teaching us how to love and respect ourselves. As we hear them we learn how to hear ourselves and our hearts open.

And here is our Baby Caleb from Feel The Love Wednesday

Now if you notice in the front are bunny tracks with  Maxy’s tracks following, in pursuit. Maxy was a big beautiful, white black and burnt orange, very strong and very agile dog.

I woke on that incredibly beautiful morning and I was sitting having my coffee  and right in front of my window I see a bunny go by and Maxy hot on her trail. I was mortified. I ran next door where Rose and Zalman were also having their morning coffee. “We have to go out and get Maxy, she’s chasing a bunny.”

They both looked at me, then at each other and I could see it pass between them. How do we tell her?

“Umm that’s what Maxy does. She chases bunnies, sometimes, she catches them and sometimes they get a way. There’s really nothing we can do about it, it’s part of living out here.”

Rose and Zalman had a 75 acre hobby farm. And a good portion of it was forest and bush. The dogs usually stayed by the house and they didn’t go to the road which was quite a ways away. But sometimes they went off to play in the field or forest.

They were trying to explain it to me gently. I was listening but at the same time my city mind was going I love Rose and Zalman but you’ve got to be kidding me, there is No Way, WE HAVE TO SAVE THE BUNNY.

So I went back to my apartment Ready to take action. I thought about what Zalman had said. “You’re welcome to go after them but they’re long gone by now, by the time you get out there you’ll never find them.” As I got dressed in winter gear and stepped outside.

I looked around it was still and beautiful and white. All that was left of Maxy and bunny were their prints on the trail infront of my window.

I came back inside and asked God. I always talk to God, It makes my life a lot easier and better. I said God what do I do and I got nothing. As in, do nothing. I was flummoxed. I thought I was going to get a plan or steps to take. Those bread crumbs our inner knowing or God inside of us gives us. And instead I got do nothing.

The reason I am telling you this story is that to truly talk to and understand your animals you have to learn to connect with your higher power within. That is your all knowing place. And to do as it tells you, or how it feels. Ignore what the outside world tells you.

That is where the Animals live. And that is how and where we connect with them. From our higher power within.

Ignore what the outside world is saying and listen to your inner world. And Love + Respect = Unconditional Love.

I had to respect both Maxy and the bunny’s life style. Living out in the country, and realize that there are places that are not mine to go.

We have to love and respect the animals for their knowing for who they are and not just what we want or expect from them, or what we want things to look like for everyone else.

Love and Light Christine And The Animals