"The Art of Living with Your Dog" and Making New Friends
Seminar held at New Skete July 12-14, 2013
Written by Brother Christopher
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| Group shot last day of seminar. |
Over the years many friends and dog
lovers have encouraged us to put together a dog seminar that would allow people
an opportunity to experience our community and learn from our many years of
working with dogs. For a variety of reasons we had never been able to pull it
off, but we’ve always had it in the back of our minds as something we’d like to
offer. Happily, over the weekend of July 12-14, we were able to finally realize
this goal and welcome forty participants to our first dog seminar, which we
titled, “The Art of Living with your Dog.” The event went so smoothly, and was
embraced so enthusiastically by the participants, that it left all of us
wondering, “Why has it taken so long for us to put one of these on?”
What comprised the event? Our hope
was to draw from the collective wisdom of the monastery to provide participants
both knowledge and inspiration to help them live more enjoyably with their
dogs. We also wanted to invite them into our world for a time, giving them a
taste of what life at New Skete is like. Toward this end, we had folks arrive
around midday on Friday. Brother Marc began the seminar by providing an
overview of the beginnings of New Skete and why we started out with German Shepherds.
This proved invaluable, as many of the participants had little idea of our
history or of how New Skete began. Brother Christopher then gave an overview of
our philosophy of living with dogs that established a general approach to the
weekend. There followed a tour of the puppy and training kennels, so that by
the time Vespers began the seminar was in full swing. Friday evening we had an
outdoor pizza dinner in Cambridge catered by Spoonful Catering that gave the participants and some of the
monks the opportunity to get to know each other in a relaxed and enjoyable way.
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| Daisy - 8 month old New Skete Shepherd |
Saturday proved to be a very full
day. Brother David started the morning sessions off with two enlightening
presentations on puppies: “What is it about a New Skete puppy?” and a detailed
examination of the importance of socialization and how we socialize our pups
here at the monastery. Julia Gates then addressed the subject of choosing a
puppy. In the afternoon session, Brother Christopher spoke on “The Art of
Living with Your Dog,” highlighting the importance of leadership in the
human/dog relationship and how to exercise that leadership in a kind and humane
way. This was followed by a series of roundtable discussions on the subject of
“Technology and Dogs” that applied to three general areas: breeding and
veterinary care, training, and dogs at home. Saturday evening concluded the day
with an elegant dinner prepared by our cook, Scott, in which the monks hosted
fifteen of the participants for a leisurely meal. Our only regret was that
because of space constraints we weren’t able to offer this experience to all of
the participants and had to limit it to the first fifteen registrants.
During the seminar, all of the
participants were welcome to attend any of the liturgical services, and many
did. On Sunday morning, several of them attended Divine Liturgy (and coffee
hour with the parish) before the seminar resumed for the concluding sessions.
Brother Christopher spoke on the spiritual dimension in the human/dog
relationship, and the seminar concluded with a general and wide-ranging Q&A
session with the attendees and all of the monks. When the seminar concluded,
the farewells were prolonged and heartfelt, and we had the sense that we had
made many new friendships. There is little doubt that all of us at New Skete
felt the seminar to be a real blessing, and we were grateful to have had such a
wonderful and gracious group of participants.
