Living Smart SA

The Living Smart program started in Western Australia and has been well loved and well endorsed. It has made a difference to how people perceive sustainability and the environment. It has managed to allow people to see that working together as a community preserves an environment for the future as well as allowing an opportunity to live in a healthier more welcoming environment. There is a disconnect between the people who just want to make their money and run and those who want to be part of a growth mindset which enables us to live healthily and well on this planet for generations to come. The short term , quick reward approach is hard to counter since people find it very hard to resist riches and money. It is also really hard when working conditions make it so hard for you to relax and have free time. You just want to survive and follow the path of least resistance which largely means ignoring your footprint on the earth. Living Smart has allowed people to take a step back and get rid of the fear and procrastination and just do: find out that networking and being with others is how you manage some of it, if not all of it. We now have this course in South Australia at McLaren Vale, Unley and Glenelg. I have been lucky enough to be in the McLaren Vale course and already I can see I am in a room full of people with ideas, experience, a nice way of being and that invaluable attribute of enthusiasm. It’s that enthusiasm which forges a positive road forward in terms of sustainability and the environment. It’s not an alternative. It is. It is, because you can see and implement the options and find a way of doing that so that others can do it. I grew up in an Australia which cared about the land and knew so much about natural environments. We were then submerged in suburbs but that connection with the land is unstoppable. It is now burgeoning as ecoburbia.

Snow’s step-through harness

We’ve moved on. My badly abused dog from the RSPCA 2012 is now in a step-through harness and it is working well. In the video she is out in front of me but when I first used the harness she took to walking right next to me without even thinking. We have been through the Thundershirt  which my vet recommended and that was so worth it. It took me nearly a year to get her totally settled in her walking and the Thundershirt certainly contributed in a big way to that. She used to jump, be very nervous and launch herself at cars and trucks which is why I had the chain leash to start with. I did not want her slipping out of her collar at all. The harness matches her leash and there is a good video here about how to put them on. I confess she jumped around like a Mexican jumping bean and I had to coax and talk to her a lot to get it on. She is fearful and suspicious of anything new and she knows now I don’t hurt her or allow her to be hurt. It’s just that she hasn’t had a proper life and so doesn’t know what to do when something new happens other than to be highly nervous ,worried and ridiculously wiggly. We have got through it , though. Each day is easier because walking is high on her list of priorities.

So now, with the step-through harness which she seems to really love, we have really good walks and she is totally happy to have it You can see she is relaxed. Now, in this second year with me I am working on the notion we can just have a nice walk and not have to worry about cars, trucks or anything else. As a by the by, you can see how dry our state is. This is South Australia and it isn’t really into the full swing of summer. We are already dried up and dusty, so we do a mix of pavement and off road walking because those grass seeds can be quite nasty in their paws and coats. She did well to sit while I took the photos!