When I first approached the director of Animals in Distress about conducting a Reiki class for the shelter volunteers, she was not familiar with Reiki. I explained what Reiki was and how it had affected my life and the potential it held for working with the animals housed at the shelter. Lois isn’t afraid to be out on the leading edge as the concept of a no-kill shelter was considered pretty far out 29 years ago when AID was founded. She said she would run the idea past the volunteers and we would see what interest there was.

As it turned out, the kennel manager had taken a Reiki Level 1 class some years ago and was quite familiar with Reiki. She is also very interested in alternative medicine and holistic living. Another kennel volunteer had had Reiki treatments for arthritis in her hands some time ago and had a good experience with it. A number of the other volunteers expressed interest in learning Reiki, as well. We decided to limit the size of the class to 6-8 people, primarily those who work directly with the animals every day, and had no trouble finding 7 people who were eager to take the class.

I decided before approaching Lois that I would donate the class time and manuals so the class would be free for the shelter volunteers. We adopted one of our dogs from AID and we have been supporting them ever since. They are not a typical shelter in many ways, and we are pleased to help them any way we can.

I donated 8 manuals and 8 multimedia programs to the shelter and these were loaned to the class participants. Those who wished to purchase their own copies were offered that opportunity. The manuals used were Reiki The Healing Touch Level 1 and 2 manuals by William Lee Rand. The multimedia programs were The Reiki Touch, also by Rand. The latter is billed as a toolkit for the Reiki practitioner and includes a DVD, meditation CDs, a workbook and cards showing the various hand positions. I decided to include it due to the time constraints of the class and because it is an excellent visual demonstration of basic Reiki techniques.

I also purchased 8 copies of the newly published Animal Reiki by Elizabeth Fulton and Kathleen Prasad and gave each class participant a copy as a gift from me. This new book is an excellent source of information on treating animals with Reiki and I was very pleased that it became available in time for the class.

We scheduled the class over two evenings, allotting two hours each evening. I felt this was sufficient time to get the class familiar with the basics of Reiki, attune them to Level 1 and have time for some practice. This worked out quite well. As it happened, we finished up within the two hours each night.

I had a bit of a personal issue that I needed to handle prior to the class. As I pulled on a pair of light cotton gloves with little colored circles all over them, I said to the class “I wish I could sit here and tell you that these are my Sacred Reiki Gloves, however, the truth is that I got into some poison ivy last week and I figured you’d rather be amused than grossed out!” Fortunately, they were amused and we enjoyed trading some remarks about how I needed some additional accessories to complete the outfit. The poison ivy also required that I wear long sleeved shirts both nights, contrary to the beautiful weather, but this was a minor inconvenience.

The first night we reviewed the agenda for the class sessions, what Reiki is, what Reiki isn’t, the brief history of Reiki, self-treatments, treating others, how treating animals differs from treating humans, and I gave them their Reiki Level 1 attunements. The students were very interested and asked many good questions. We reached a good breaking point at about 7:45PM and decided to spend the second session primarily working with shelter animals to get a feel for Reiki and how to work with the animals.

The second evening, we began with the Hatsurei Ho meditation and I gave Reiju to each student. After that, I opened things up for questions. The students were very eager to work with the animals to get some hands on experience, so to speak. The hospitality area of the main shelter building is quite large so we were able to spread out to minimize distraction for the animals. The volunteers brought out dogs and one cat. The volunteer working with the cat decided to take her “patient” into the break room where the cat could be free to roam around without the possibility of a chance encounter with a dog. The rest of us each worked with our respective dogs until the dogs indicated they had had enough Reiki, then we each got another dog to work with. My second dog was Max, a Scottie mix who is suffering from lymphosarcoma and heart problems. You’d never know it to watch him as he seems very happy and he’s very busy. I have been visiting Max each week for the past several weeks and giving him Reiki to help with his conditions and the side effects of the chemotherapy he has been receiving so he got a bonus session this week.

After I’d finished with Max, I circulated around the hospitality area to see how everyone was doing. The volunteers had questions about whether they were doing the Reiki correctly, and what they should be feeling or not feeling, and what to look for from the animals. All the questions were typical of interested students eager to apply their new knowledge correctly. One volunteer was concerned that she wasn’t feeling much energy flowing, and I assured her that even if she didn’t feel much, the dog did and to watch him to gauge the energy rather than relying on her own senses for now.. Some of the dogs chilled out and others, like Max, were quite busily engaged with their own agendas, but all the volunteers saw the Reiki affecting their respective animals in noticeable ways. This served to increase their eagerness to put Reiki to work in their interactions with the animals on a daily basis.

We finished up with a group discussion of the healing sessions, then I handed out certificates which they proudly displayed for a class picture. I’m looking forward to visiting AID regularly and seeing how the volunteers put their newfound skills to use. I expect there will be additional volunteers interested in learning Reiki once they see the results from this first group, and I’m excited about teaching another class there in the future.

About the Author: John Sawyer is a software engineer and Reiki Master who has been owned by 10 dogs over the past 17 years. Through those years, he and his wife, Donna, have dealt with a number of canine health crises which led them through the mainstream veterinary field to alternative health care modalities including acupuncture and Reiki. John took Reiki Level 1 in 1994 and experimented with applying the Reiki techniques to caring for his dogs, eventually taking Level 2 before becoming a Master in 2004. He is currently building his animal Reiki practice and offering Reiki training to local shelters and other animal workers in the Lehigh Valley area of Eastern PA. Please visit his website at www.critterreiki.com or you can contact him at john@critterreiki.com.