An Empowering Podcast

Hogan’s Hope on Stories That Empower

I received wonderful news that my podcast interview with the wonderful Sean Fargadi is now available for listening. Here are his message and blog -

Hello Connie, great news!  Your podcast interview is ready to be enjoyed and shared with your friends.  Here's the link https://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/id/8760077.  If you'd like to download it to your favorite podcast platform, you may do so on Mon Feb 25 at https://storiesthatempower.com/.  Thank you for your patience, your service and teaching us that we are worthy of unconditional love and acceptance.  I'm so happy that we connected.  It's an honor to have had the opportunity to hear your story.  Please let me know how I may be of service to you.  Warm regards, Sean.

Sean’s blog:

Connie’s mother taught her that all living beings and creatures are worthy of unconditional love and acceptance. Rescuing a deaf and malnourished dog, Hogan, and nursing him back to health, taught her how to hope through suffering, which leads to perseverance and develops great character and confidence. Connie shares the message of hope with others. She imparts these nuggets of life wisdom:

– you are worthy of unconditional love and acceptance
– open your heart fully
– life offers hope to overcome any challenge
– once we choose hope, anything is possible
– choose to persevere
– see your life as a journey
– use your faith to center you
– refocus and recenter on your purpose
– reach out to someone in need of hope

Connie Bombaci, a first-time author and retired educator, is resolute in her love for animals, belief in the worthiness of all God’s creations, and desire to provide encouragement no matter what the challenge. Connie is an optimist and compassionate person whose Christian faith guides her to believe in the extreme goodness and immeasurable importance of every being. Her love for animals began in childhood and developed from her desire to be kind. She has enjoyed many adopted pets throughout her lifetime, especially ones that have needed help, rescuing domestic and wild orphaned, injured, or abandoned animals. Her desire for others to believe in the value of themselves led her to become an educator where she worked fervently to increase young peoples’ confidence and belief in themselves, despite any difficulty. She offered hope where frustration and failure seemed inevitable. While serving as a teacher and associate principal in a Connecticut public school system, she took great pleasure working within its community, finding it especially fulfilling to encourage and support her students and coworkers.
Connie grew up in a suburban neighborhold outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and now lives in Connecticut with her husband, Jim, and their two rescued pups in the rustic, puppy-friendly home that Jim built on their five-acre “piece of Heaven.” She is also surrounded by the love of four children, son-in-law, ten grandchildren, and five great grandchildren.
Hogan’s life is a story of success despite the odds. In her book Connie shares his story and the message that hope can be found in the kind and generous hearts of gracious people and that everyone is worthy of love and acceptance.

http://conniebombaci.com/ 
http://www.deafdogs.com/ 
https://www.facebook.com/ConnieBombaci/ 
https://twitter.com/conniebombaci 
https://www.instagram.com/conniebombaci/ 

About

Stories That Empower and its founder, Sean Fargadi

Hi, I’m Sean.  I am the host of the Stories that Empower Podcast.  Here’s the ‘story’ behind  my podcast.  I took my dad to a pub, where nearby clients were immediately drawn to and fascinated by his life stories and experiences.  As the evening wore on, people were saddened that he was departing and therefore no longer able to enjoy his stories.  I had the following awareness.

First, each of us has a story.  Throughout our lives, from childhood to adulthood, we are drawn to stories.  It’s what connects us.  As Terry Laszlo-Gopadze reminds us in her book, “stories link lives”.

Second, we’ve all experienced setbacks and challenges.  Loss of a job, loss of identity, loss of a loved one, etc …  I want people to know they are not alone and that there is hope/light.  It brings me so much joy, if/when I’m able to ‘lift up’ someone or empower them.  My goal is to provide a service that brings inspiration, hope and empowerment through the power of stories.

Sean / Host / Stories that Empower / Podcast

Visit from Dr. Nicholas H. Dodman

The following article “Ask Dr. Dodman" by Dr. Nicholas H. Dodman was digitally published by the Center for Canine Behavior Studies,  Inc.  

Dr. Dodman continues to offer his incredible knowledge, insight, and expertise in order to help us take better care of our animals. Because of Dr. Dodman’s devoted and diligent determination to help, he has given permission for this information to be used in our blog. His amazing ability to work with our deaf dog, Hogan, created the perfection prescription for our pup to become calmer, less anxious during separation, and more successful in sharing the message of hope. From this success, the book, Hogan’s Hope, was written.

As Dr. Dodman wrote about Hogan’s Hope: A Deaf Hero’s Inspirational Quest for Love Acceptance—”Sit, Read, Enjoy!”

QUESTION:

My German shepherd dog is quite an anxious girl, do you recommend any natural calming products in particular that could take the edge off so she can focus more on the training. I am trying to do to help her? Thank you. I’m in the UK.

ANSWER:

Many German shepherds do have an anxious trait.  I have reported that several times in various books I have written. To lessen this anxiousness, it is best to ensure that she gets tons of off-leash exercise on a daily basis, a lowish protein diet (not a performance ration!) and that you teach her to trust you and respond to certain action words or phrases. “Sit” or “Down” will keep her from getting into trouble by focusing her mind on obeying you rather than worrying. “Wait,” “Leave it,” or “Come Here” are also useful commands. Being a German shepherd, she should have her thyroid hormone level checked as hypothyroidism is relatively common in the breed. Even low-normal thyroid levels can increase anxiety. Hormone replacement therapy can reduce anxiety in such cases (check with your vet). Natural calming products – like certain amino acids (tryptophan, L-theanine) or herbal products (chamomile) may help. I don’t know the legal situation regarding CBD in the UK but if that was available, it, too, may help. It is advisable to check with your vet before giving such medications because you will need help with the dosing – not to mention possible drug interactions - and it may be a legal requirement anyway. 

-Dr Nicholas H. Dodman

QUESTION: Does your dog make noises when sleeping and look like they are running in their sleep?

ANSWER:  

1465 dog owners responded to this question with a yes or a no answer. The yes answers (n=1169 or 80% of dogs) of were often accompanied by a description of their dog’s antics while sleeping. Most of these answers were along the lines of “he makes noises while sleeping [whimper/whine/bark] but does not run in his sleep.” Some dogs twitched their facial muscles while others twitched their feet. One or two owners noticed changes in breathing pattern, as I have seen in my own dog Rusty. One observant owner noticed that her dog appears to be running and exhibiting rapid eye movement with his eyes closed during periods of his sleep. Here’s the scoop. We and our dogs dream during rapid eye movement sleep (REM sleep). During this time – the sleep of the body (with brain activity surging; consolidating memories) – the large anti-gravity muscles of the body are temporarily paralyzed. So, unless we (or our dogs) have a sleep disorder, like REM sleep disorder or REM behavior disorder (RBD), we are not going anywhere. However, fine control muscles, such as one that control eyeball movement facial muscles, digits, and voice are not paralyzed and can still move – demonstrating the essence of the dream. A dog dreaming of chasing a squirrel may make barky, whimpery sounds, may show jerky movements of his feet, and may or may not twitch or wrinkle up his nose. But as our fun questions shows, not many dogs have this level of expression during sleep. In most, it seems, the paralyzing mechanism works well. Only in those dogs who can fight through the paralysis to make abbreviated intention movements do we see running. The vocal mechanisms however, appear less sensitive to the paralysis allowing a decent percentage of dogs to whimper or whine during sleep even if they do not demonstrate any obvious movements.