Author’s Comment
My motivation was simple. I wanted to give my dogs the best life possible. So, for years I read all the books on raising and training dogs I could. However, I never came across the book that had the answers I was searching for. And I read many - with nearly all of them bifurcated into two distinct categories.
In the first category, were the books that taught, How to be your dog’s leader or top dog. In the second category, were the books that taught, How to use positive reinforcement to teach and reinforce new behaviors.
Along the way, I learned valuable techniques and strategies from reading both perspectives. I also gained a great deal of insight into how canines see the world. In fact, I learned so much that after only a few years of studying and reading, I felt I knew more than enough about the process to begin helping other people with their dogs. So, I did just that.
However, deep within, I knew that there was something missing. None of the books or trainers I studied seemed to be addressing what I considered to be the larger, more important questions I had circulating in my mind. Missing was what I saw as the heart of it all - the deeper, timeless questions of, Why?
Why do dogs incarnate with us in the first place? Why are we so drawn to take care of them as our own? What are the lessons that await us when we bring home a dog?
For me this book is about uncovering the deepest reasons human beings align their paths with dogs and the true gift that’s in store for us when we are awake during the process.
As a person who shares a deep and significant emotional relationship with my dogs, I knew dogs could not have been incarnated with human beings simply for companionship. Nor did I feel they came into our lives simply so we can teach them basic behaviors that would make our lives easier such as, how to walk nicely on a leash or how to come running to us from across a field. I knew there was something much more profound and infinitely more rewarding at work - and I was determined to find out what it was. Unbeknownst to me, it was being revealed to me, one day at a time.
For nearly 10 years, after every single walk with my dogs, I documented my discoveries. I began to write about each new distinction and insight that came to me during the walk. Without realizing it, I was using this human-animal relationship to learn, unlearn and re-learn everything about who I was. This daily process made me look intimately at the deepest part of my soul and had me come face-to-face with the person from my past. This journey also allowed me to glimpse the person I was growing into in the future.
Out of my own very special relationship with my dogs, I discovered not only who I was at the core of my being but the man I was committed to becoming in the future.
After years of blame and anger towards my father, I actually gained a level of compassion and empathy for him that I never thought I would feel. I actually came to understand how overwhelmed and frustrated he must have been with his life to be able to take a belt across my twin brother’s back and mine so effortlessly.
I learned from experiential knowledge how dear of a price we pay in life for even minor displays of aggression towards each other as when my pit bulls, Brian and Louis, became dog aggressive dogs as adults.
I also discovered how colossal of a mistake we make when we choose separation over harmony in any of our paths, no matter how small or seemingly meaningless, as in the case of my other pit bull, Scottie, and his resource guarding issues that cost him so much.
I learned how much effort we waste in resisting what is and how sweet it is to finally accept the things we cannot change. I learned how the goals we want in our lives our never worth actually obtaining if we have to compromise the process we go about in getting them. I learned how to communicate with others in a way where both people feel totally loved and connected to each other and how to create that level of intimacy on a consistent basis. I learned how to surrender everything including my own wants and desires over to the Universe and not spend too much time looking back. I learned, I learned, I learned!
EVERYTHING became a lesson. Every aspect of my life - from walking, feeding, sleeping, and breathing DOGS, twenty-four hours a day, became fodder for spiritual growth. Consciously raising my dogs seemed to align my life with the highest spiritual truths and what manifested organically for me was a true maturation of my soul. I slowly learned how to integrate these teachings into my own life and I began to help others do the same.
Not surprisingly, these timeless truths were always there, waiting for me to discover them. I just needed a journey to find them. But it was only when I was ready, that I was able to clearly recognize them.
I now understand that when we are indeed ready, we not only learn to begin to solve many of our own problems but we may also begin to solve the problems of the world.
Jeffrey Brian Liebowitz
August 31st, 2010
Click here to read Dedication
My motivation was simple. I wanted to give my dogs the best life possible. So, for years I read all the books on raising and training dogs I could. However, I never came across the book that had the answers I was searching for. And I read many - with nearly all of them bifurcated into two distinct categories.
In the first category, were the books that taught, How to be your dog’s leader or top dog. In the second category, were the books that taught, How to use positive reinforcement to teach and reinforce new behaviors.
Along the way, I learned valuable techniques and strategies from reading both perspectives. I also gained a great deal of insight into how canines see the world. In fact, I learned so much that after only a few years of studying and reading, I felt I knew more than enough about the process to begin helping other people with their dogs. So, I did just that.
However, deep within, I knew that there was something missing. None of the books or trainers I studied seemed to be addressing what I considered to be the larger, more important questions I had circulating in my mind. Missing was what I saw as the heart of it all - the deeper, timeless questions of, Why?
Why do dogs incarnate with us in the first place? Why are we so drawn to take care of them as our own? What are the lessons that await us when we bring home a dog?
For me this book is about uncovering the deepest reasons human beings align their paths with dogs and the true gift that’s in store for us when we are awake during the process.
As a person who shares a deep and significant emotional relationship with my dogs, I knew dogs could not have been incarnated with human beings simply for companionship. Nor did I feel they came into our lives simply so we can teach them basic behaviors that would make our lives easier such as, how to walk nicely on a leash or how to come running to us from across a field. I knew there was something much more profound and infinitely more rewarding at work - and I was determined to find out what it was. Unbeknownst to me, it was being revealed to me, one day at a time.
For nearly 10 years, after every single walk with my dogs, I documented my discoveries. I began to write about each new distinction and insight that came to me during the walk. Without realizing it, I was using this human-animal relationship to learn, unlearn and re-learn everything about who I was. This daily process made me look intimately at the deepest part of my soul and had me come face-to-face with the person from my past. This journey also allowed me to glimpse the person I was growing into in the future.
Out of my own very special relationship with my dogs, I discovered not only who I was at the core of my being but the man I was committed to becoming in the future.
After years of blame and anger towards my father, I actually gained a level of compassion and empathy for him that I never thought I would feel. I actually came to understand how overwhelmed and frustrated he must have been with his life to be able to take a belt across my twin brother’s back and mine so effortlessly.
I learned from experiential knowledge how dear of a price we pay in life for even minor displays of aggression towards each other as when my pit bulls, Brian and Louis, became dog aggressive dogs as adults.
I also discovered how colossal of a mistake we make when we choose separation over harmony in any of our paths, no matter how small or seemingly meaningless, as in the case of my other pit bull, Scottie, and his resource guarding issues that cost him so much.
I learned how much effort we waste in resisting what is and how sweet it is to finally accept the things we cannot change. I learned how the goals we want in our lives our never worth actually obtaining if we have to compromise the process we go about in getting them. I learned how to communicate with others in a way where both people feel totally loved and connected to each other and how to create that level of intimacy on a consistent basis. I learned how to surrender everything including my own wants and desires over to the Universe and not spend too much time looking back. I learned, I learned, I learned!
EVERYTHING became a lesson. Every aspect of my life - from walking, feeding, sleeping, and breathing DOGS, twenty-four hours a day, became fodder for spiritual growth. Consciously raising my dogs seemed to align my life with the highest spiritual truths and what manifested organically for me was a true maturation of my soul. I slowly learned how to integrate these teachings into my own life and I began to help others do the same.
Not surprisingly, these timeless truths were always there, waiting for me to discover them. I just needed a journey to find them. But it was only when I was ready, that I was able to clearly recognize them.
I now understand that when we are indeed ready, we not only learn to begin to solve many of our own problems but we may also begin to solve the problems of the world.
Jeffrey Brian Liebowitz
August 31st, 2010
Click here to read Dedication