May

These Life-Changing Experiences Are for the Dogs

by Janine Boylan on May 20, 2013

Amanda Mouisset, providing life-changing experiences for dogs

Amanda Mouisset
© Amanda Mouisset

Amanda Mouisset Takes the Lead

Amanda Mouisset’s life is filled with one life-changing experience after another.

Changing the lives of dogs, that is.

Mouisset didn’t plan to change so many dogs’ lives. She says it all started when she had a “project” dog that needed dog behavior training.

That, she explains, is why she started volunteering at the local SPCA animal shelter. That led to a full-time postion as a pet behavior specialist. And that led to many life-changing experiences.

Janine Boylan Comments

Making a Difference

May

Crossing Cultures: To France with a Sheltie

by Sheron Long on May 16, 2013

A Sheltie in the markets of Provence prompts aha moments while crossing cultures

Chula the Sheltie loves the windy Wednesday market in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.
© Sheron Long

Aha Moments in the Markets of Provence

Our Sheltie, Chula Wula D’Augue, has never been inside a grocery store in her home state of California. She’s not allowed on the grounds that dogs and food do not mix.

But every year when we take her with us to France, the cultural differences work in her favor. Crossing cultures means she can stay in hotels, from simple to chic, and go with us to restaurants, where the kind waiters bring her water and sometimes an amuse-bouche.

And she can make her favorite foray into the big outdoor food markets where dogs and food DO mix. Here in villages across Provence amid the chatter of buying and selling and the tasting of everything from cheese to paella, is where Chula and I have one aha moment after another.

In fact, I’m pretty sure of this one revelation:

Everything I need to know about life I’ve learned from my dog in the markets of Provence .

After crossing cultures to France, a Sheltie steps out her gate and heads to the markets of Provence.

To market! To market!
© Sheron Long

Such as, you ask? Here are my top 6.

1. Follow Your Passion

In our village of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, we live only a short block from the market. From the time we step out of our gate, Chula strains at the leash, trotting left then right then left again to the sausage table by the centuries old church. She knows the way because, you see, sausage is her passion.

After crossing cultures to France, a Sheltie finds tasty morsels under the sausage table in the markets of Provence.

The deep dive under the sausage table nets Chula some satisfying morsels.
© Sheron Long

And Oh, I see too: Once you find your passion, go for it. The reward is immense.

2. Respect Everyone

Chula looked down her long Sheltie snout into the flat face of this Boxer and said, “Bonjour!” With his short fur, he must have wondered how Chula stood the heat of a Provençal summer. But they found common ground here by the flower stand and shared their secrets on which vendors give treats to canine friends.

After crossing cultures to France, an American Sheltie bridges cultural differences and makes friends with a French Boxer in the markets of Provence.

Sheltie meets Boxer by the flower stand.
© Sheron Long

Oh, I see. Bridging differences can enrich your life.

3. Sniff Out Opportunities

Not much gets by Chula. Like other dogs with long, wide snouts, she has about 225 million scent receptors. Compare that to the human who has 5 million, and you get a sense of her talented nose, which she uses to interpret her world.

This day, Chula sensed an opportunity and stuck her neck out. She didn’t get the roast chicken inside the sack, but she did get a great scratch and those welcome words joli chien (pretty dog). Befitting words, too, since her name Chula means “pretty” in Spanish.

After crossing cultures, a Sheltie sniffs out food in the markets of Provence and provides an aha moment.

Chula sniffing out opportunities at the big outdoor market in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
© Sheron Long

Oh, I see when you know your talents and put them to work, unexpected good comes your way.

4. Own Up to Your Mistakes

No matter how talented, every dog comes a-cropper from time to time. Chula’s downfall is tomatoes. She loves to steal them out of kitchen gardens, from market crates, off plates left unattended. When she lifted a tomato from this vendor and got caught, she looked up at him with soulful eyes and pledged a reparation. I handed over a euro, and knew she’d do it all over again.

After crossing cultures to France, a Sheltie steals a tomato in the markets of Provence and has an aha moment.

Chula lifts a tomato from a market crate and tries to say she’s sorry.
© Sheron Long

Oh, I see. It’s one thing to say you’re sorry and another to mean it.

5. Live Life with Friends

Chula knows the value of friendship. Good friends help each other put their best paw forward, they watch each other’s back, and they show each other the way. On this sunny market day, two dog friends savored the moment, trotting through the crowd on their way to the paella skillets.

After crossing cultures to France, a Sheltie strolls through the markets of Provence and has an aha moment.

Nothing beats padding through the big Provençal market with a friend.
© Sheron Long

Oh, I see. Time with friends puts a smile on your face.

6. Keep an Open Heart

Chula paused in front of the lovely linens on sale at every market in Provence, perhaps to show that she thinks about things other than food. I like to think she was making a statement about her love of France, her joie de vivre at living life in a different culture, the pleasure of the time away with us.

After crossing cultures to France, a Sheltie admires the linens in the markets of Provence.

Chula loves her life in two cultures–American and French.
© Sheron Long

Who can ever know for sure what a dog is thinking, whether at home or crossing cultures? But no one can doubt the shared love and adventures that transpire when you keep an open heart. Oh, I see!

Visit AngloINFO Provence for a schedule of market days in the different villages.

Sheron Long and Chula Wula D’Augue are authors of Dog Trots Globe—To Paris and Provence, a visual account of their adventures through France, including a chapter and video on the markets of Provence. Chula shares her dog’s-eye view of Provence in these postcards, which she offers to you as a free gift.

Sheron Long 4 Comments

Crossing Cultures/France/Secrets to Life

May

Achieving Success One Wave at a Time

by Janine Boylan on May 13, 2013

Girls achieving success through surfing with The Wahine Project

It’s a little easier when someone helps you balance.
Photo courtesy Dionne Ybarra, The Wahine Project

The Wahine Project Knows No Barriers

Surfboards used by girls achieving success in The Wahine Project

Dionne Ybarra + surfboards.
Photo courtesy of Dionne Ybarra, The Wahine Project

Early in the morning, a car with a rooftop rainbow of surfboards pulls into the beach parking lot. A group of sweatshirted girls shifts eagerly, and a little sleepily, from one bare foot to the other in the cold Monterey, California, sand.

Dionne Ybarra steps out of her car, and the girls’ faces light up as she greets them each by name.

These are the girls of The Wahine Project, and they are here to surf.

To prepare for their plunge into the sea, the Wahine (wa-hee-nee), or surfer girls, gather in a lopsided circle around Ybarra and, as they transition from one yoga pose to another, they listen intently to her.

Ybarra advises that they might face a challenge in the ocean today, but she encourages, “Remember the last time when you were afraid, and you did it!” Then she reminds the girls that, when they are at school and are feeling worried or unsure, they can draw on the lessons they learn here at the beach.

The pre-surfing circle
Photo courtesy Dionne Ybarra, The Wahine Project

Soon the girls break their circle, grab the boards, and head to the water. Some girls giggle on the water’s edge while others charge straight into the breaking waves. Adult mentors and the more experienced girls encourage the more cautious ones. Everyone is motivated to move at her own pace.

Girl achieving success through surfing with The Wahine Project

With a little encouragement, even the most hesitant eventually achieve success!
Photo courtesy Dionne Ybarra, The Wahine Project

The Beginning of a Great Idea

Ybarra was raised by her well-intentioned mother to be terrified of the water. She didn’t learn to swim until she was 30. And after a few years of swimming, she learned to surf.

In the meantime, in her job as a parent educator, she worked with women through their pregnancies and labor. Instead of just teaching them popular breathing techniques, she wanted to give these women tools they could use beyond labor. She says, “I was exploring ways to integrate things that would help them with birth, with a screaming baby, and with a teenager who wasn’t coming home.”

She thought a lot about how great it would be to empower girls before they grew up and became mothers.

And she thought about how sports help do that.

That is when the Oh, I See Moment struck: Ybarra realized she could provide girls with these life lessons through the sport she had learned to love—surfing.

And The Wahine Project was born.

Opportunities for All

The Wahine Project offers girls a no-barrier opportunity to experience the thrill of surfing.

Ybarra is always collecting donated girls’ and women’s wetsuits and foam-top surfboards. She has found sponsors, including the local surf shop, and recently got a $15,000 grant from the Foundation for Youth Investment.

While there is a monthly donation for participating, Ybarra never wants that to get in the way of a girl surfing. And she even has been known to pick girls up who can’t get a ride to the beach.

All of this is to ensure that these girls gain confidence in the water so that they can take that confidence out of the water. She explains, “Wahine is an action. It’s everything that you are and how you live. Once a Wahine, always a Wahine.”

Learning to love the water.
Photo courtesy Dionne Ybarra, The Wahine Project

Global Influence

Ybarra’s influence has spread beyond her small hometown and down the coast of California to San Diego, where a new Wahine group has formed.

In addition, every year, Ybarra’s Monterey group helps her collect donated swimsuits and other gear. Then, in the summer, she gathers the donations and her boards, and she drives down to her family’s hometown near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. When she arrives in the village, she goes door to door to announce that she has returned to surf with the girls, and she distributes the gifts she has brought.

Ybarra has even reached the young girl surfers in the Gaza Strip, where they wear special full-coverage wetsuits to maintain their cultural beliefs. Her California girls send clothing and letters of encouragement to their Middle Eastern sisters.

And this is only the beginning. She wants to make The Wahine Project synonymous with women’s surfing. She envisions its presence at every women’s surf competition.

Since she herself accepts no barriers, it’s inevitable that The Wahine Project will continue achieving success, one wave at a time.

To learn more about Dionne and her work, see her TEDtalk. You can also follow The Wahine Project on Facebook.

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