"The Art of Living with Your Dog" and Making New Friends

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Seminar held at New Skete July 12-14, 2013
Written by Brother Christopher

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?”

             The truth is that we had a good deal of help in planning this event: from our friend, Marc Goldberg, who planted the idea and provided a concrete plan for making it happen; to our staff here at the monastery, especially Ida Williams, our Marketing and Communications Director; to the friends and parishioners who volunteered their time and talents in behind-the-scenes work. All of this made the event run smoothly and without a hitch, affording the participants a rich experience.

            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.
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.

           

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