Personal Development for Smart Pet Lovers -- Become the Person Your Pet Thinks You Are
The sentiment expressed in the Cafe Press Plaque 
above, "Lord, Please help me to be the kind of person my dog thinks I am", resonates with many pet owners.
At Super Cool Pets this is our mission--to connect to our pets as the beings they are, not the beings we may want them to be; to fulfill their needs as animals as much as to have them fill our needs as people; and to help improve their lot in the world.
Consciously working on our own personal development is one, if not the only, path to becoming the person our pets think we are. We can buy all the pet products in the world and read all the pet articles on the web, but our relationship with our pets depends on our actual interaction with them.
We step away from the pet books aisle for a moment and wander over to the personal growth section to recommend a fascinating book released this October, Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth, by author Steve Pavlina. Steve is well-known to many blog readers as the author of the [arguably] most successful personal development blog on the web with over 700 free, easy-to-read articles.
You can improve your relationships with your pets, and all your relationships for that matter, by internalizing and applying the three primary principles established in this book that underly successful growth: truth, love and power, along with the secondary principles of oneness [truth + love], authority [truth + power], courage [love + power] and and finally intelligence [love + truth + power].
The principles are universal and can be applied to any and every area of our life. How do they apply to our relationships with our pets?
Truth --Seeing our pets as they are. "You can't take shortcuts through the land of make-believe". Our pets are members of our family, yes, but they are indisputably animals, not surrogate human toddlers--a dog is a dog, a cat, a cat--a fact often overlooked by the best of us. We are talking fundamentals here, such as healthy pet-appropriate food, plenty of clean water, breed-appropriate exercise, calm, assertive discipline and plenty of affection, not matters of personal taste such as pet apparel, style of dog bed or pet carrier.
Love--Connect with our animal companions. Learn their body language and communicate with them so we understand them and they understand us. Aside from a few words, they don't understand our remarks in English, Spanish, etc. Educate ourselves in their needs and wants. What are they trying to tell us? Are we listening to them, or just want them to listen to us?
Power--Empower ourselves and our pets, not overpower. Is our relationship about "control" or "training/behavior modification"? We all want our pets to "behave"--cut down on the yipping, the nipping, the incessant barking, chewing, to calm down, stop jumping up, and so on. We can empower ourselves to take responsibility for our pets: focus on the behavior we want, determine how we will train our pets and then put in the effort this will require.
Steve Palina's Personal Development for Smart People offers in-depth information on the seven fundamental principles of development as well as their practical application in our lives. After reading this genuinely ground-breaking book, you will be on the path to becoming "the person your pet thinks you are."
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Posted by Molly & Jessie at October 16, 2008 6:08 AM
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