Buddy, a Shetland sheepdog, is a natural-born herder but lives in a Joliet neighborhood where the sheep population on most days hovers right around zero. In frustration, he adopted the habit of lunging at passing cars, even when he’s on his leash.
But that may change now that 1-year-old Buddy has had a taste of real sheep-herding on Kathy Kawalec’s Manhattan farm.
“Hopefully we’ll see he has less of a need to charge [cars] outside of herding,” said Buddy’s owner, Sherry Lindstrom. “Now that I’m understanding what this is, I need to learn to control it.”
Kawalec, who runs Dancing Hearts Holistic Training and Wellbeing for Animals on her 7-acre farm, helps dogs and other pets with behavior problems and with services such as illness recovery. Her methods are not mainstream, but she says they’re effective.
Kawalec’s training methods include TTouch, a system of circular movements of the fingers and hands all over the body to help animals with aggression, separation anxiety, stress and fear. She also uses Reiki, an ancient art intended to restore physical and mental balance through the transfer of energy from the practitioner to a human or animal subject. Kawalec sometimes uses flower essence therapy, which she said helps create a sense of well-being in the animal.
Kawalec may ask a frightened pet if it wants to talk about its fears. She might ask its owner to make a list of the dog’s possible anxieties, to bring the owner into the communication and training process. Then she might use TTouch or Reiki and have the dog do confidence exercises, such as running through a simple obstacle course, to help focus its thinking and ability to pay attention.
Kawalec says she gradually introduces a dog to a threatening situation while using soothing speech, a calm demeanor and treats or toys for rewards.
She doesn’t use choke collars to train but says she guides the dog into proper behavior. Kawalec doesn’t use the word “obedience,” believing it to signify a slave/master relationship. She prefers “proper socialization,” “manners” or “learning coping skills for living in a human-based society.”
Four training sessions for dogs, including a consultation, evaluation, program setup and follow-up training, cost $145 at Dancing Hearts.
For more information, call Kawalec at 815-478-9896.
