Full class on Saturday!
It's good to be the king! King Charles Spaniel fest on Saturdays lately.
You spin me right round baby round round like a record baby….
Dead or Alive dance hit from the ’80′s going through my head while I washed doga mats at the laundry mat in the huge washers and dryers. You’d think I’d have a hired minion to take care of these tasks for me but, nope it’s all me baby!
Wash cycle
Dry cycle. I thought it was cool how my image was mirrored in the dryer door.Maybe I was just hypnotized by the huge lazy circles of the dryer going around and around and around...
This is a great way to wash your yoga/doga mats. I did them by hand for a long time and what a time consuming pain in the arse that was!
If you are washing more than one, I would suggest a laundry mat, since the big industrial machines can handle the weight of the wet mats. And, don’t wash and dry on hot or high since I think they would get a little melty.
Chloe in the foreground, Emma in the background(Gus has a crush on Chloe)
Yogis and Dogis, I’m so excited about the upcoming Barking Buddha Doga Teacher Training in March! I love teaching this seminar to future 2-legged and 4-legged teachers. We always have so much fun.
Teacher Training 2010 was almost filled to capacity, and I’m expecting a good crowd for 2011. In the meantime, class will be held tomorrow at the studio at 10:30 am. Sorry about cancelling last week. I needed some time to grieve the loss of my beloved Honey, who was the original Barking Buddha and will continue to be with us in spirit and memory.
Coming in Feburary: First Tuesday of every month: Senior Dog Massage and Meditation. I created this class to teach with Honey, but Gus and I will continue the class together.
Feb. 19 Kid Doga! Teaching kids ahimsa through doga.
Coming in March: Barking Buddha Doga Teacher Training
March 12, Dog First Aid seminar 12:30-6:30
Every Thursday dog play group bevvies for the peeps, treats for the pups.
First Sunday of the month: dog play group.
TBA: Dog nutrition seminar with Julie Forbes from The Dog Talk Show.
O.K. I just got all excited and threw out a bunch of information with out a lot of details…Sorry. If you would like any more deets regarding any of the above activities, check our website www.westsideyogadoga.com or email me, I’d love to hear from you.
All the best,
Brenda, Gus, Nelson
My baby girl Honey passed away last Thursday night Jan.20. It seemed to happen so suddenly. Honey appeared to be uncomfortable her last fews days of life, which means she was probably in pain. Although we took her to the vet, had pain medication, and did everything we could to make her comfortable… she passed away and we are grateful that she is no longer suffering.
Honey was 13 and some months old. She was my doga inspiration. She was dog yoga. I could not have developed Barking Buddha without her.
Gus, Nelson and I will continue to teach and live dog yoga without our Honey but she will be missed every second of the day.
Even in death she continues to teach me unconditional love, gratitude and being as present as possible with my loved ones as I move forward with and through heart break and grief. She will never be far from me as I will hold a place for her in my heart forever.
http://www.king5.com/video?id=114207714&sec=549122
Here’s the link to the story with Gus and me at Westside Yoga and Doga!
King 5 spent the morning at Westside Yoga and Doga! That’s reporter Christy Johnson and her dog Mocha Bean doing Wooofing Warrior 1 with Gus and me. I’ll post links later this afternoon. Christy, Mocha and crew Jim and Chester were so much fun to have in the studio! What a great way to spend the morning!
Honey and I in Reverse Fire Hydrant Pose. This photo is from a photo shoot with Bev Sparks.
The photo above was used in an article on us on Cesar Millan’s website.
I woke up early this morning, before 6:00 am. Not because I wanted to…but because Honey had peed the bed. I’ve been getting up in the middle of the night to let her out, but I didn’t last night. I’m not sure if she just didn’t get up or if I slept through her waking up to be let outside. I’m a pretty light sleeper so I think she just did not get up to go out.
If you read my previous post, you know that we are trying to make Honey’s old age as comfortable as possible. I’m not sure what to do about the incontinence part of the “Honey gets old” plan. The ironic thing is that she seems more energetic, I even took her on a little walk yesterday. I’ve started making her food so I can sneak vitamins in it and so that she will eat. Breakfast is oatmeal with apples and shredded carrot, homemade food seems to make her more energetic. Anyway, about the peeing thing…I’m not kicking her off the bed…what to do? A towel under her at night? A diaper? No water after a certain time in the evening? Set my alarm for like 3:00 am to get up and let her out? I’m not sure what to do yet. I do know that as I was attending to Honey and cleaning the bedding, all I could think about was taking her to the beach today.
Honey loves the beach and I feel desperate to get her there if she’s up for it. Since we can’t realistically drive to where it would be legal to have her off leash on a beach today, I’ll have to try to sneak her onto one of the local beaches and hope we don’t get caught. At the moment this feels more important to me than preventing the bedwetting. It’s the moment, the moment with her has become precious. I’ll deal with the peeing later, but for now it’s the beach.
My dog Honey is 13 and has been slowing down, to the point where I’m asking myself “Is this it? Is this the begininng of the end?” It feels like it has come on so suddenly. But I suppose she has been taking the stairs more slowly over the past few months, not walking as fast, sometimes doesn’t hear me when I come home or call her name…or what I thought was the really telling moment of old age….not running to the kitchen when she heard me slicing cheese, a task that usually brings all three dogs running to sit at my feet.
Yesterday she had one of what our vet calls a “bad old lady day.” These b.o.l.d.s ( yeah, nice acronym) seem to be happening on a more and more frequent basis. On one recent b.o.l.d. Honey got stuck on the stairs coming down from our bedroom, I was at my computer at the kitchen table and heard her stuggling, so I had to carry all 50 pounds of her down the stairs. That was the day we decided to move our bedroom to the first floor.
You see I had a “when Honey becomes an old lady” plan that my husband and I had talked about, it was a little surreal that now was the time we had to put it into place. That plan including moving the bedroom downstairs to my yoga room/office. This room has a door that goes right out to the patio so if we have to let Honey out several times a night, the outside is just a few feet from the the bed. She is allowed to “go” on the patio (the other dogs are not) which we will just clean up everyday, then she doesn’t have to negotiate any stairs.
Although we ‘ve done these things to make her more comfortable, there have been things that have come up that I didn’t consider, like loss of appetite. Some days she doesn’t want to eat, not even her favorite things, like chicken or cheese. So I’ve made a couple of amendments to the “When Honey becomes an old lady” plan; she gets to eat whatever she wants. If mac and cheese or cat food is what she will eat, that’s what she gets. This of course drives the other dogs crazy, because they are stuck with their normal food. But there will come a time when we have a “When Gus or Nelson becomes an old man” plan and they will get the special treatment. In the meantime, we will do our best to show Honey the most love and comfort possible, whether she is with us for a few more years, weeks, months or days.
I wanted to also share with you something I wrote in July of 2009, this was before we had Nelson. It’s from my original dog yoga blog:
Love Now.
I think dogs make us consider the impermanence of life and relationships more than having children or being married or being in long term relationships of any kind. It’s because their lives are so short. When we get a dog we know this, when we decide to marry or have kids, the brevity of the relationship isn’t as obvious.
My dog Honey is almost twelve, old for a dog, young and hopeful for a human. Sometimes when I’m with my family which includes my husband, Brad and my dogs, Honey and Gus, I’m overwhelmed by the reality that in 5 or 6 years or less my family could be completely different.
Sometimes I hug Honey and I say to her “don’t ever leave me, I love you too much”. I know this is an unrealistic request, even unfair, because dogs come into the world as healing beings ready to help humanity in their simple and profound way. Most of them settle into that purpose quickly because of their limited time on earth.
I really wouldn’t want Honey to stay past her purpose or natural comfortable lifespan for me, even though the thought of losing her is devastating. But the lessons I can learn from the impermanence of having a temporary family that includes animals is to appreciate and love fully at every moment, not only my dogs and my husband but everyone that comprises my life.