As loving, caring, pet owners, we need to find a way to take care of our dogs while we go out on trails with our other family members. We could take turns dog sitting with family, friends, other campers with dogs. One thing we need to do is make sure we are good responsible pet owners. Check ahead before you go camping with man's best friend.

Here are some pre-camping tips:

Try to take your dog for a pre-camping visit for possible needed shots, and a Rabies shot tag for his collar.

Look at a possible Lyme disease vaccine.

Take with you a current copy of his records and his vet's phone number.

Pick up a proper dog license & ID tags for your dog with their name, your name, ect.

Microchips, tattoos and pet registries can be used.

Bring medications and a copy of prescriptions.

Try to get a site with some shade for your dog.

Supervise your dog closely around children, other visitors and other dogs.

Keep your dog quiet. Frequent and continued barking disturbs wildlife and other campers.

Let your dog have time to adjust to his new surroundings. Give him time to rest

Try to use ziplock bags to pick up after him and properly dispose of it in appropriate trash containers.

Keep an eye on how weather conditions effect your dog, heat, cold, rain etc.

Consider use of a crate for travel and short term restraint, while you are near. Your pet could be stolen if not watched carefully.

You should be aware that your dog will have increased exposure to ticks and fleas. Take proper tick/flea collars, repellants or use Frontline applications. Other diseases can also be transmitted by wild animals and insects.

In order to love and cherish your children in way they need to be loved and cherished, you need to love and cherish yourself. The greatest gift you can give your children this Valentine’s Day and every day is to embrace a daily process of healing your own core shame, a process such as Inner Bonding. (For a free Inner Bonding course, see www.innerbonding.com).

Core shame comes from two different sources:

If you were shamed as a child for who you are, you may have absorbed these false beliefs about yourself and continue to act as if they are true.

If you were not loved in way you needed to be loved, you might have decided at a young age that it was your fault that you were not being loved – that you were flawed, inadequate, unworthy, and so on. Core shame is often connected with a need to have control over getting love, so a child may decide, “If it’s my fault that I’m not being loved because there is something wrong with me, then there is something I can do about it. I can try to become “right” way and then people will love me.” Sometimes we stay attached to belief in our core shame to maintain illusion that we can actually control how others feel about us and treat us.

If you commit to a daily Inner Bonding process of loving yourself and letting go of trying to get love from others, you will find that your core shame gradually resolves. Core shame resolves when we let go of believing that we cause others to feel and behave way they do. As you heal your core shame, you can love your children from your true Self, your own individual expression of Spirit within. When your children experience your love for them from your true Self rather than from your wounded self that carries your core shame, they will feel your heart and know that they are truly lovable and worthy of being loved.

As Valentine’s Day approaches - this day of sharing love – why not commit to learning to love yourself so that you can deeply share love with your children? There is nothing more profound than sharing of love that comes from an open heart. Your children need and deserve to have this sacred experience with you. Because children often project their experience of their parents onto God, their ability to stay spiritually connected as adults is greatly facilitated by your own heart connection with them.