My goal is for you to have a strong, heart-centered connection with your dog.  And that’s actually relatively simple to accomplish, once you get your thoughts, judgments, and expectations out of the way – and focus on what’s happening in the moment.  The problem is, even when you are successful at getting out of your own way, what do you actually DO to fill the void?  If you’re not analyzing the situation and forming opinions about it, if you’re not having “reactions” to what’s going on around you, then what do you do to stay powerfully present – in your life, and with your dog?  The answer is quite simple, and it’s the subject of Marci Shimoff’s latest book – Love for No Reason.

What is Love for No Reason?

You can find Love for No Reason by getting in touch with the love that is within you – boundless, unconditional, love – that’s there no matter what’s happening in your environment.  As Marci Shimoff writes in her first chapter:

This is higher Love, an inner state of pure love that doesn’t depend on other people, external conditions, or circumstances. It’s a love we experience from the inside out. When you’re in a state of Love for No Reason you experience freedom, peace, joy, openness, and deep fulfillment. When you “Love for No Reason” – you don’t need a reason – you love just because.

When you love for no reason, you BRING love to your outer experiences rather than trying to extract love from them.

Sounds pretty nice, doesn’t it?  And the beauty of it is that you can actually learn to experience Love for No Reason rather easily – following simple steps that Marci outlines in her book.  Along with giving you plenty of examples and real-life stories of people (both normal “everyday” people like you and me, and the Nelson Mandelas of the world) who have learned to experience Love for No Reason, her book is meant to be a “How-to” manual for strengthening your ability to experience this Love for No Reason all the time.

In writing this book, Marci Shimoff interviewed over 150 “Love Luminaries” (from Baba Ram Dass, to the Dalai Lama, to Melissa Etheridge, to…) and synthesized their advice about experiencing Love for No Reason into the plan that she describes in the book.  The exercises are all easy to put into practice – and because they often come from other sources (which are all credited) you are likely to discover many new resources to help you on your path.   It seems that Marci (and her co-author Carol Kline) gave a lot of thought to ensuring that the book gave quality and actionable information – without becoming overwhelming.  Until you start reading through the additional resources at the back of the book, that is!

The Science of Unconditional Love

In Love for No Reason, Marci Shimoff also includes quite a bit of information about the science of unconditional love – and there are MANY interesting facts.  For instance – according to the Institute of HeartMath (which has teamed up with Stanford University et al. to study the physiology of love), it’s not simply important that your heart is beating.  It’s also important HOW your heart beats – with positive states of emotion (e.g. Love for No Reason) producing “Heart Rhythm Coherence” – while negative emotional states produce “chaotic heart rhythms” that are actually hard on your body.

To top it off, when your heart beats in a coherent pattern, it produces an electromagnetic field strong enough to be sensed three feet away from your body!  So when we talk about your dog actually being able to FEEL what you feel – there’s science to back that up.  The coherence of your own heart rhythm can have a positive effect on the “hearts” (and beings) around you.

The heart also has its own neurons and neurotransmitters, and can function autonomously as a “brain.”  As Marci writes, “New research shows that, surprisingly, more information seems to flow from the heart to the brain than from the brain to the heart.”   I’m only scratching the surface here – the chapter (Chapter 7 – Living with an Open Heart) is fascinating.

Love for No Reason and Your Dog

In that chapter, Marci Shimoff also talks about a subject close to my heart: how our pets are perfect examples of giving “Love for No Reason”.  She mentions how being around animals can actually help you practice receiving love – because it is vitally important to be open in both directions.

From that perspective, I think that there’s so much more to add to the discussion of how animals (and, specifically, our dogs) can have an impact on our ability to experience Love for No Reason.  For inasmuch as the experience of unconditional love can help you with your dog (particularly as you work to overcome any challenges that you’re facing), the techniques that I teach for how to work, play, and relate with your dog can also become their own gateway to Love for No Reason.

As Shimoff writes in Love for No Reason, fear and love are essentially mutually exclusive.  In Natural Dog Training, the approach to working with your dog is completely heart-centered, as you learn how to work with your dog’s emotional experience of the world.  Once you tap into your dog’s emotional center, you stop fearing what your dog “might” do (run off, attack another dog, chew your slippers, etc.).

When that fear vanishes, you’re instead filled up with an appreciation, a love, for what your dog does do.  Even when it’s not exactly what you want, you start to see it for what it is – a beautiful expression of how nature works. And feeling that love empowers you to work WITH what is – and to shape it into what you want it to be.

This is just one example of how your relationship with your dog can create coherence in the way that you experience love in all other aspects of your life. The presence and appreciation for what’s happening, in the moment, echoes out into the rest of your experience.

C’mon, Marci!  Are you really going to teach me all that?!?!

I have to admit that when I first started reading Love for No Reason, I felt a little skeptical. How on earth is Marci Shimoff going to teach me how to experience blissful states of unconditional love in a mere 300 pages?  However, very quickly the experience of reading the book shows you just how easy it can be, just how close to you “pure love” actually is.   For not only are the exercises, the plan for strengthening the “love body,” effective and simple – but the reading of the book itself – especially through its anecdotes – creates a palpable opening within you.  You just can’t help but be affected by the stories that you read – enough to be convinced, by the end of the book, that you can be a Love Warrior.

You learn:

• How to be present
• How to experience greater vitality
• How to love yourself unconditionally
• How to open your heart to loving others (for no reason), and receiving love
• How to communicate compassionately – even when there are uncomfortable things that need to be expressed
• How to see beauty in all that surrounds you
• How to feel a sense of wholeness and unity
• Plus additional resources to explore all of these areas in greater depth

Profound stuff.

Love is…

Love is, after all, what you are. You just have to open yourself up, and get out of the way. And make choices that serve to increase the amount of love in your life – the love you give and feel for yourself, others, and the rest of your existence.  With or without your dog, Love for No Reason is an excellent way for you to experience boundless, unconditional love in everything that you do.

For more information about Marci Shimoff, and Love for No Reason, please visit: http://www.theLoveBook.com

And to discuss this article as well as other articles here on the Natural Dog Blog, please visit the NaturalDogBlog forum.  Namaste!

For most of Nola’s life, she’s been a kibble dog.  Now I’ve always tried to do right by her, in a dry dog food sort of way, by feeding her what I presumed to be the best available products on the market.  Organic food.  No additives.  No fillers.  Just pure, unadulterated kibble.  And, for the most part, Nola has done just fine.

But that didn’t stop me from tinkering.  I had heard about feeding dogs raw (aka the BARF diet), and so I did that with Nola, for a stretch.  She seemed to thrive, and I enjoyed the little white pooplets she produced (essentially pieces of digested bone passing through the system) because they were a little easier to deal with in an urban environment.  In the end, as far as raw was concerned, I didn’t notice enough of a difference in Nola’s health and energy to merit sticking with it, so it was back to the top-shelf (and very convenient) kibble for us.

Time for a change

However, somewhat recently Nola became noticeably less interested in eating her kibble.  I tried changing to different flavors, different brands – but to no avail.  Then I tried going back to a raw diet – figuring that ultimately fresh was best – but, again, Nola didn’t seem all that interested.  After the obligatory vet check to make sure everything was ok (it was), I decided to try a cooked diet for Nola.  A friend of mine had mentioned to me that his dogs had gone through a similar pattern of rejecting previously-loved foods (raw and kibble), but that they had loved a cooked diet.

And that reminded me of Dr. Harvey’s.

As I mentioned in my review of the Dr. Harvey’s Freeze-dried Tripe Power Patties (aka my secret weapon), they had sent me some samples of their products to try out.  And I remembered that one of those things was a pre-mix called “Canine Health” that you could use with either a raw or a cooked diet.  The premise of Canine Health is simple – it helps you balance out the protein portion of your dog’s diet with healthy grains, vegetables, and herbs.  And preparation is simple – you add boiling water, wait 8 minutes, add your protein, add some healthy oil (flax, borage, fish, etc.), mix it up, and serve to your dog.

It’s easy to cook meals for your dog (or to add some healthy goodness to a raw diet)

Whenever I had thought about a “cooked diet” for my dog before, I wondered how I could possibly fit that into my schedule.  As it turns out, with a small amount of planning, it’s really quite simple to prepare these gourmet meals for Nola.  And it does seem gourmet – especially when you read the ingredients:  peas, broccoli, beets, organic oats, organic spelt,  peppermint, spirulina, etc.  As you can see, I also get plenty of help in preparing the food – mealtime is a team effort in the Sattin household.

Honestly there have been a few times where I add water and think “that smells good enough to eat”.  Dr. Harvey’s does use human-consumption-grade ingredients – so I suppose that I could indulge one of these days.  FYI – I frequently macerate the mix in my blender before adding water, just to aid in the digestibility.

For protein, I usually add some ground-up chicken necks and backs (which have organ meat mixed in as well), although I also use other sources of protein (eggs, cow kidneys, chicken breasts).  Although I am cooking the food, I cook it lightly – as I don’t want any of the ground-in bone content to become brittle and hazardous to Nola’s health.  The heat clearly makes a difference, though, in her desire to eat the food.

Nola loves it!

And desire it she does.  Nola has been wolfing the food down with abandon.  So she loves it.  Also, she seems much more energetic than she had been for the past year or so.  I had attributed it to her simply slowing down (she is, as of this writing, nearly fourteen years old!), but clearly the right diet has had a positive impact on her energy levels.

Her coat has also gotten shinier and healthier, and we’ve noticed much less dander and shedding.  I have just started adding the Dr. Harvey’s Health and Shine supplement as well – and will report back on that after I’ve been able to use it for a couple of months.

At this point Nola has been enjoying this cooked diet for over 2 months, and we have no plans to go back.  If we went by enjoyment alone, we’ve found a sure winner – and when you couple that with her improved health and energy levels, then it cements the deal.  I recognize that she’s definitely in her senior years, and so far feeding her this way seems like the best way to ensure they’ll be as pleasurable for her as possible.

What about training?

When you feed something other than kibble, the question of how to use food in training becomes more prominent.  There’s nothing quite as easy as grabbing a bagful of kibble and heading out to do your training.  That being said, once you choose to transition your dog to a diet that’s more healthy, nutritious, and vibrant than kibble, what’s the best way to use your food?  If you feed raw, for instance, you’re going to have a tough time if you’re pushing with your dog for chicken necks.

There are actually many people who use the techniques of Natural Dog Training with a raw diet for their dogs.  Generally I see them choosing to use cut-up pieces of raw steak or chicken just as they would use kibble – doling out generously-portioned morsels as you work with your dog.  But if you want the nutritional balance of a pre-mix, is that something you can also work into your training?

I have a few suggestions for you.

1. If you’re feeding raw, then I would suggest keeping some of your protein aside – say, two-thirds of it – for training.  Use the balance with the Dr. Harvey’s Canine Health pre-mix.
2. You can do the same if you’re feeding cooked.
3. Another option is to use something really tasty (like the aforementioned freeze-dried tripe) for training.  Do your training BEFORE you feed meals, so your dog will still be hungry enough.
4. Best for last – make a meatloaf.  I still need to experiment with this idea (my vet, Kate Steinhacker, came up with it) – but this seems like it could be really good for you if you’re cooking meals.  I think the easiest way to do it would be to prepare a few days’ worth of food ahead of time, mix in some egg (extra protein, ultra-digestible), and then bake the whole thing in loaf pans in the oven.  The meatloaf will keep just fine in the fridge, and you can take it out with you in your pouch just as you would kibble.  As soon as I have a good meatloaf recipe, I’ll share it with you.

Dr. Harvey’s is a new Natural Dog Blog sponsor

You might have also noticed that there’s a new “badge” in the sidebar on this website.  I’m pleased to announce that Dr. Harvey’s has also become the first official sponsor of the Naturaldogblog.  I want you to know that this sponsorship is something that I thought a lot about – because I take our relationship (you and me) seriously.  I have turned down MANY requests by other people for promotion, sponsorship, or advertising space here on the Natural Dog Blog.

I am happy to promote Dr. Harvey’s because I believe strongly that they not only care sincerely about the health of our dogs, but that they also back up this caring with products that clearly demonstrate that care.  I’ve spoken with Dr. Harvey himself, at great length, and he has answered a multitude of questions about canine diets, wellness, and nutrition.  Plus, the proof is in the pudding (or meatloaf), as Nola is thriving on their Canine Health pre-mix as part of her new cooked diet.

I encourage you to give their Power Patties and Canine Health pre-mix a try.  Your dog will wonder if you have been secretly taking night classes at the local culinary institute.  And you’ll love the extra spring in their step.