This Week's Doga Dish!

Barking Buddha Doga has aquired an executive assistant named Elizabeth. Elizabeth has two dogs...Jack and Lottie. Lottie is pictured above in her Mountain Pose in Montana where Elizabeth has been on vacashe.

Me signing a book for little Josie at my book signing last night. I love teaching kids about dogs. I'm hoping lots of kids come to the library events I'm doing next month!

Signing a book for Ruby. What do you think of my glasses? New red frames for summer.

The book signing went swimmingly. I talked about the benefits of doga and the book, answered lots of questions then attempted a couple of poses in my 4 inch heels. Like I said...swimmingly.

Tomorrow the dogs, Brad and I head down to Portland to do a signing and class at Dogs Dig It. Then it's over to the Pacific City, Oregon for Yappy Days for more signings and classes on the beach. Yay!

Barking Buddha Doga Book Signing

Wednesday May 27th 7-9 pm
Third Place Books, Lake Forest
Bring your dog!
17171 Bothell Way NE

Barking Buddha Doga Tip of the Week

Puppy Child's Pose.
This pose brings your heart close to your dog, both physically and metaphorically. Take a few deep breathes in Puppy Child's pose and open up to the healing qualities of the relationship between you and your dogi. Notice your dog's breathing, energy and beating heart. Focus on the beautiful simplicity of these things and relax.

Barking Buddha Doga....Absolutely!

Here I am at my booth selling my wares at The Oregon Humane Society event. I had to get up really early, note all of the coffee cups littering the table.

I've been doing some interviews lately because of my book release. Here's a link to one from Pet life radio http://www.petliferadio.com/.

Please don't get annoyed that I kept saying the word "absolutely" like a zillion times. It's like my brain developed an unnatural and uncontrollable love for the word "absolutely" and I had no power over it. Why does that happen? I've noticed other people do the same thing during interviews and I'm always thinking "why can't they use another word to describe that, why do they keep using the same word?" Now I know. It's not in their control, I call it S.T.O.O.W. syndrome, or Stuck On One Word Syndrome. Anyway...Have an ABSOLUTELY fabulous day!

xo,

B.

It's All About the Love

Yesterday I happened to be home during the Oprah Show...not always the case my schedule gets crazy some days. Anyway the subject was the human animal bond.

They started the show with a story about prisoners who are part of a service dog training program. This segment was a real tear jerker. These big tough guys were talking about raising and training puppies to be service dogs for veterans. Most of them became emotional and were crying as they talked about how the dogs helped them discover love and compassion, emotions and feelings they had buried so deeply they thought they would never feel them again. It was incredible, and poignant and so right on!

This is the underlying theme of my doga philosophy. The possibility of the relationship with our dogs opening us up to deeper feelings of love, connection and compassion. Even if we are capable of feeling these things already, our dogs can help us expand these feelings to a deeper level of connection to everything around us. Our dogs also bring us so much joy and happiness, and I always say if we are truly happy and joyful we are in the most spiritual place we can be.

Yoga stills the fluctuations of the mind, Doga starts the fluctuations of the tail

(i'm gonna put this on my next t-shirt order, what do you think?)

XOXO,

Brenda, Gus and Honey

Doga at The Oregon Humane Society Doggie Dash

She's a big girl, but I lift with my legs. And check out those adorable armpit wrinkles (on her, not me.)

Gus takes his turn at Super Dog Stretch.

I would not let Gus borrow my sunglasses, so he had to squint into the crowd.

"Hello Portland! Are you ready to rock!"

Pictures by the very talented photog. Julie Melfi. Check out her website: http://www.juliemelfiphotography.com/

I returned from Portland Oregon on Saturday evening after a full day of Doggie Dash. The Doggie Dash supports The Oregon Humane Society so I was happy to be involved.

The pictures above are from my Barking Buddha Doga Demo. Working with dogs has taught me to go with the flow, so when I realized I had to maneuver the poses while holding a microphone, I just approached it with no stress or trepidation. How has your dogi taught you to go with the flow?

Honey and Gus seem to accept most situations I put them into, and they make the best of it. Like the one pictured above...they weren't nervous at all about being in front of a crowd, they were super excited to roll in the green grass that made up the stage. They only paused in their grass enjoyment briefly to let me demonstrate the poses.

We can learn a lot from the way our dogs go with the flow and make the best of a situation, either by presenting us with a new perspective or the way they're just fully present with the joy of the moment. Let's all challenge ourselves to go with the flow of life and enjoy it the way our dogs do... instead of struggling with a microphone in front of a large group of people, a simple roll in the grass will do just fine!

Barney Does Doga

My friend Chantale emailed me this photo of her friend's dog, Barney joining in the home Yoga class. No mat required.

Pics from Doga last night. The class theme was gratitude. A nice class with a wide variety of dogis, from lil' Sophie pictured on the right to Streaker the Greyhound, pictured with the glowing eyes. Streaker's eyes don't glow in real life, that would be kinda cool, and maybe a little scary. Streaker has a quiet strength and a soft personality that matches his dainty doe-like features.

I grow so attached to the dogis!

Also pictured with a single glowing eye and a lot of fur is new dogi, Otto. Otto seemed to take to doga right away and really enjoyed upward facing belly pose.

Yogi Peggy's dogi, Bogey (say that five times fast), my sweet little footstool of a Cairn Terrier, was also in attendance. I love that little guy! Little Lottie was there working the cute like nobody's business. Anyway can't wait for the next class, our theme will be "Letting Go".
P.S. Thanks to Lottie's human Elizabeth for taking pictures!

Doga Class Tonight!

...At The Seattle Humane Society. Starts at 7:00. Come join the fun!

Barking Buddha Doga Tip O' The Week

Go outside and play! Discover a new park, a patch of grass, a different neighborhood. Enrich your dogi's life by taking her/him somewhere they've never been. It's good for our dogs to experience stimulation to the senses and intellect and it's easy to do this simply by taking them to a new place. It's also good for us to break out of routine and to mix it up a little. That's your tip...let me know what you discover.