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I have been experimenting with energy relating to dogs for a long time. I have come to the conclusion that there are five different types. In this note I will share with you what I have learned. You can use this information when working with your dog and actually see, in some cases, its effects on your dog.
So what do I mean when I say energy? The energy that I am referring to here is simply the output of your emotions. So when you feel a certain way, you emit energy that other people and animals can feel and read. This energy can be output with words, body language, touch, and in some cases smell. Energy is not some magical and mystical force, it is real and we use it everyday. When you know your spouse is sad, you are feeling his/her energy. When you know your dog is happy, you are feeling his/her energy.
Another persons energy can even make you feel a certain way. Your level of compassion determines this, but lets say that your best friend’s parents have been involved in a terrible accident and have passed away. Your best friend is distraught. You know she is distraught because she is crying uncontrollably. You have just read her body language and her energy. Of course she is conveying a very sad energy, and it’s probably static (you’ll read what static energy is in a minute) but because she is your best friend and you have lots of compassion for her, you feel sad too. You may even begin to cry with her. Her energy is strong enough to make you feel the same way she does.
Even though it is not talked about very often, and some people are never told about it, energy is a very powerful and common force. It connects us to each other and our animals. Our level of compassion increases or decreases it’s effects, but nun-the-less, we all use and feel energy. We even learn to use it with out even knowing what it is.
Here are the five types of energy described as best as I can in words. These forms of energy apply to all living things, but this is really geared more towards the human and dog relationship. This is subject to change, as I am still researching this subject. However, these five types seem the most prudent in my line of work.
Static Energy: Think of a ball of electricity. Unstable, sparks flying everywhere, and very unorganized. This is how I picture static energy. I picture it as floating around and shocking whatever is in it’s path. It can make you feel mad, upset, frustrated, and angry. Some people may even feel like the Incredible Hulk when conveying this energy. People, and dogs, that convey this type of energy are very unbalanced, have short tempers, generally have little patience, and are often edgy. These are the people, or dogs, that you feel you must “walk on eggshells” around. Static energy is chaos, and only contributes to more chaos. Example: Two dogs get into a fight, to break them up you stomp your feet, scream at the top of your lungs, and panic. You are conveying static energy, and it will only make things worse.
Free Flowing Energy: I picture this kind of energy as a strong and steady stream. If you get in it’s path, it will not hurt you, but it is very persistent and pushes past you. Free Flowing Energy is stable, calm, peaceful, and firm. It is generally easy going and always patient. This strong form of energy is what I teach my clients to gain control of their dogs. It is totally opposite from static energy. Buddhist monks are known for displaying this kind of energy when teaching new students. Jesus conveyed this energy to his disciples. It takes self-discipline to completely master and maintain this form of energy. Free flowing energy dominates other forms energy. It stems from confidence and assertiveness. Example: Your dog barks at you because he is not getting his way. You calmly and firmly use your body to block and correct him until he submits. Once he has submitted, you let it go and walk away.
Avoidant Energy: This form of energy is conveyed through avoidance. It can be as unstable as static energy, but is never as stable as free flowing energy. Dogs and people who are constantly giving off this form of energy usually have poor social skills and are typically bullied. They are considered easy targets because they usually will not fight back or stand up for themselves. They would rather avoid confrontation all together and are easily offended, but generally keep it to themselves. Prey animals often display this type of energy to predators. When people or dogs who commonly convey this type of energy are forced to react, they usually do so with static energy. They loose control and snap, or go into a fear response. Example: You take your dog to the dog park for the first time, only to discover that she will not interact with the other dogs. She simply follows you around and ignores everything else. She is not aggressive, or fearful, she simply doesn’t care to interact. She is weary, but not scared. When another dog begins to mount her and she can’t ignore it, she snaps at the other dog and retreats.
Anxious Energy: This type of energy comes from worry. People, and dogs, who cannot relax because they are worried or even paranoid display this type of energy. Dogs with separation anxiety often display this type of energy just before their owner leaves. After the owner leaves, they display static energy. Anxious energy is very unstable and chaotic. It stems from, fear, worry, and paranoia.
Passive Energy: I consider this form of energy just as balanced as free flowing energy, but not as firm. This is the energy you should feel from your dog. It conveys submission. Dogs and people that convey this energy are not scared, anxious, weary, or overly excited. They are generally calm and easy going. They look for someone to lead them, guide them, and direct them. They may have trouble making decisions for themselves, and almost always look up to someone. When confronted, people and dogs with this kind of energy will simply submit and try to please. People and especially dogs that convey this type of energy are generally very happy. Example: Your dog is laying in your path as you are walking somewhere. When he sees you, he happily gets up and moves out of your way. As you walk by, he gives you that look that seems to happily and gently ask, “Is there anything else I can do for you?”
Understanding the different forms of energy can help you not only relate better to your dogs, it can help you in life. Or at least, it has for me. It is important to note that no one is locked into any one form of energy. It is changeable. You simply need to practice another form. It’s not easy, however, because everything about you will tell you to react with a certain kind of energy, or in a certain way. You consciously have to decide to react with the energy you wish to project. In other words, if you feel as though your main energy output is usually anxious and you like to project free flowing energy, it is totally possible. Although you will have to get over your instinct to be anxious. You must make your self interact with a calm and firm energy. Anxious energy and an avoidant energy will be more difficult to change than static and passive. But this does not mean you shouldn’t try. Rehabilitating dogs is doing just this. Changing the core energy output from static, avoidant, anxious, and even free flowing on occasion to passive. A passive dog, is a happy dog and makes for a happy owner.
Also, you should be aware that it is possible to emit other emotions while within these five different core energy forms. For example, you can be excited and static, or excited and passive, or excited and free flowing, etc. A dog that is excited and static will be bounding off the walls, running around, barking, possibly biting and nipping at others, etc. While a dog that is excited and passive will have a low wagging tail, prancing feet, maybe the occasional half jump, etc. A dog that is excited and free flowing will have a mid to high quick tail wag and will be watching your every move. It is a calmer form of excitement. The dog may be assertive if you ignore his cues to play, dropping the ball in your lap, the occasional bark, pawing at you, etc.
When it comes to this type of energy, it can get quite confusing. Just try to remember the basics.
Free Flowing energy: Patient, calm, assertive, balanced.
Static Energy: Unbalanced, chaotic, unorganized, emotional.
Avoidant Energy: Unbalanced, stand offish, lame.
Anxious Energy: Nervous, fearful, unbalanced, paranoid.
Passive Energy: Balanced, calm, submissive, happy-go-lucky.
Examples of the five different core energy types are below. I’ve tried to include an example of different forms of each core energy type as well. As you will see, the core energy types are neither bad or good, but what each of the characters make them. However different each character emits their form of core energy, you’ll notice some common denominators:
Free Flowing: Jesus Christ, Buddhist monks, Spock (Star Trek), Gandhi, Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs), Fonzie (Happy Days), Shadow (Homeward Bound), President Obama
Static: Han Solo (Star Wars), The Joker (Batman), Chance (Homeward Bound), Mel Gibson
Avoidant: Brick (The Middle), Max (Parenthood), Walt Kowalski (played by Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino), Sassy (Homeward Bound)
Anxious: Judas, Scooby Doo and Shaggy, Jesse Ventura, Dr. Samuel Loomis (Halloween)
Passive: Norman Bates (Psycho) (as himself, not as his mother), Frodo Baggins (Lord of the Rings), Lassie
Well, I suppose MSN got tired of messing with blogs. They have now transferred all their blogs to WordPress.com. However, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. WordPress.com seems to have a lot more features and a cleaner look. Although the blog has a new look, all of the same content is here. Trying to go to the old web address should redirect you to the new web address which is now… doggytimes.wordpress.com.
Their latest venture, however, has me very aggravated. MSN has done away with the "Statistics" feature for Spaces!!! THIS REALLY SUCKS! The statistic feature allowed us bloggers to keep track of how many visitors our space was getting and from which links those hits were coming from. Now… WE CAN’T! When I first started this blog, I remember being excited about checking to see how many space views I was getting. The information from that feature helped me promote this space! For business owners using a blog to help get a business off the ground, or to see which topics their customers engage in the most, this was a VERY important feature! Alas, it’s gone. No more tracking views. No more information about which topics get the most hits. How are we to blog if we don’t know what you, the readers want? Sure, they still allow comments, but the majority of readers don’t comment. Even if they enjoyed the blog entry.
MSN says that as they improve Spaces they have to trade off features from time to time. WHAT?!!?! What feature could be better or worth trading for statistics?! That was a very useful feature, if not the most useful! MSN, BRING IT BACK! We bloggers want to know how many people view our space and what blog entries they are viewing, more than we want to play music, or do some of these other silly things. Why didn’t you think to ask spaces bloggers before getting rid of this feature? More than likely, we would have voted against getting rid of it.
I have been blogging here for 5 years now. But I don’t think it’s worth blogging here any more, because I simply don’t know which topics are getting the most views. And why would I want to waste my time adding to this space, if I don’t even know if people are reading it? BIG MISTAKE MSN! Even Facebook offers statistics for it’s pages! And Webs.com offers statistics. Most blogging sites have statistics, why would you get rid of them?
Until MSN decides to give us back our statistics, I probably won’t be adding to this space anymore. I might do the occasional product review, but what’s the point of adding dog facts and information if I don’t know that you the reader are even reading it? If you need help with your pooch, you’re better off joining me on Facebook.
Ok, enough ranting. Leave me a comment if you read this review on MSN Spaces, because I won’t know you read it unless you do. 
Please make sure that pics are no more than 100kb in size. Pics will be added to the Reader’s Dogs photo gallery for all readers to see.
So what are you waiting for, send me those pics! (Funny pics, Professional pics, Cute pics, & Trick pics may be considered for future contests).
Dogs are simple creatures, yet their love of us is complex. Dogs have easy rules within their packs. The leader is the strongest and most confident dog. He is not elected to this position, he simply claims it. But he is not a tyrant, socialist, or communist. He simply claims what is rightfully his. The other pack members simply follow his lead, no questions asked. If there is a disagreement, then they fight for it. In the dog world, you have to prove yourself. You have to earn your right to lead. Any dog that is confident enough, skilled enough, and strong enough can lead. It’s not like our world. It is totally fair. We have to go to school to learn a trade for many years. Then graduate and start at the bottom of that particular field. Then as life throws crap at us, we have to fight to maintain our positions at work. Sometimes, our economy collapses and we have no choice but to start from scratch. Dogs don’t have to deal with any of this, they simply live and adapt to changing times.
I think dogs are magical to us for those reasons, but mostly because of their simplicity. We bred dogs to live in our world so we could teach them to work for us, keep us company, guide us around, and keep us safe. Yet it seems that they are teaching us. Slowly, and steadily, with tons of patience, a new way to look at life. They are teaching us how damaging stress really is, how to have never-ending patience, how to love unconditionally, how to stop and smell the roses (among other things). They also teach us not to take life for granted, to be excited about the little things, and that opening ourselves up to others is not always bad. If you don’t take a risk, how will you ever experience new things? How will you learn to trust? How will you meet new loves? How will you ever know if you could have become something more than what you are? A normal, healthy dog does not wait for a safety net to appear before him. He simply leaps and trusts that the net will be there. As should we.
The most magical thing about dogs has to be their resilience. Even if that net doesn’t appear and something bad does happen, dogs bounce back. The only reason, in my 20 years experience, that dogs do not get over a negative experience is because people hold on to it for them. People keep the memory, the fear, and the panic with in them. Dogs react to our feelings and emotions. When we learn to let go of it, they let go even faster. In their natural world, they simply learn from a negative experience and move on. How many depressed 3 legged dogs have you seen? How many discouraged blind or deaf dogs do you see? Dogs don’t care about their disadvantages, they only care about making you and I happy and exploring their world. They would rather sleep next to you in a dark wet ally than alone in a fancy doggy hotel. They don’t care about expensive dog toys, they’d rather play with your old socks. Yet, there are people out there that would abuse them, torture them, fight them, and neglect them.
We bred them to be what they are. We are the ones that decided that Pit Bulls, German Shepherds, and Rottweilers should exist. But what do we do with our creations? Some of us abuse and neglect them. Fight them to the death, and make them aggressive to children. We ban them. We bred these traits into them, and we can breed them out just as easily. Bulldogs nearly went extinct and were fierce dogs back in the bull baiting days, but we brought them back and bred it out of them. Boston Terriers were bred to fight to the death for sport, but we bred it out of them and now they are considered "The American Gentleman" of dogs. The point here is that dogs don’t choose what they are, where they are, or even who they are. Yet for the most part, they love us for what we are, where we are, and who we are. This in itself, is the magic that dogs share with us every single day.
"Dogs are not merely dogs to some. They are children with fur that just
happen to bark, drink from the toilet, and shred our slippers. But they
are also teachers of life, purity, and loyalty to many." ~ The Canine Guru
Thank You!!!
