I think I mentioned that we went to Hearts, Hands and Hounds III. It was basically about how amazing the brain is. I've been thinking about what to share about the seminar, but there was SO much.. I have to sit down with my book and jot a few things down. There was a lot of info about receptor based therapy. If you stimulate parts of the body in certain ways, it'll stimulate different centers in the brain. This is why I'm often accused of thinking that chiropractic fixes so much... but it does.. you get those joints aligned, your nerves work better and your BRAIN works better so your body works better.. pretty amazing actually. But I digress. We covered all the different lobes of the brain and what they are for etc etc.. and how to stimulate them .. and what results you can expect... For example. The Parietal Lobe: It lets your body know where it is in space. It transforms balance, vision, touch etc into motor intentions and actual movements... It's how you can walk through a room without walking into a wall. It's how you make something part of your "schema". Think of a ball player.. that bat becomes part of his arm.. and extension of his body.. part of his schema. So.. you have an older dog.. who is unsteady and walking into things, but his vision is fine.. and his hearing is fine.. (You know this because he can still hear the crinkle of a potato chip bag from across the house.. but he may not hear "Rover, time to go out".) Most of the time you'd say,well Rover is just old.. but there are FUN exercises you can do to help Rover's Brain function like it should. Things like:

• Make a small obstacle course for Rover to slowly walk through.
• Help Rover find his feel by massaging them or stimulating them with a reflexology ball.
• Give him different surfaces to walk on. Gravel, dirt, bumpy things, smooth things, rough things.. stimulate those feet!
• For obedience people, you know the tight fast sit. Do that.
• Teach your dog to wave or give you five.
• Or make him work for that stuffed Kong.. he's got to use his front feet to dig it out from under the couch!

Interesting enough, these are very similar things that Linda Tellington Jones recommends for the Playground of Higher Learning in her TTouch work. I was reminded of her work many times during this workshop. These are also things we did for ParmaQay when she came home as a puppy and couldn't walk. Now she's an agility dog! Not sure if you folks know, but Shel has a PhD is psychobiology.. so the brain is really her thing.. She's been asked to present next years workshop.. She's going to cover the limbic system. I'm going to point and wave like Vanna White. We are going to open with this..