Channeling Edward

Dog psychic Rita Sandler listens to what a dog has to say

By Sam Bennett

The Lake Oswego Review, Dec 13, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (4 Reader comments)

Sam Bennett / Lake Oswego Review

Rita Sandler, a dog “channeler,” holds Edward, a Prince Charles spaniel. Sandler does dog readings once a month. Edward is owned by Lake Oswego Review city reporter Sam Bennett.

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Ever wonder what’s on your dog’s mind?

Rita Sandler is listening.

Sandler, a self-described “channeler,” can hear what your dog has to say.

And if she’s right, it’s information that every dog owner should have.

Sandler does consultations once a month at Bone-Jour GourMutt Bakery at 5656 Hood St., West Linn. She also has a cable program on Channel 11 called “Wise Woman Way,” which airs at 6 p.m. every Friday and re-airs on Channel 21 at 7 p.m. Tuesday, 9 a.m. Wednesday and 11 a.m. Thursday.

Sandler began giving dog readings at Bone-Jour in October, and the reviews have been positive.

Cindy Clunes-Noack, owner of Bone-Jour, said dog owners are often amazed when Sandler does a reading for their dogs.

“They say she makes them feel better,” she said. “I’ve watched people leave here obviously quite emotional.”

The readings last 10 minutes and are $15. Her next visit to Bone-Jour will be in January, though an exact date had not been set.

“We’ve had people lined up to meet her,” said Clunes-Noack.

Many of her clients at Bone-Jour have rescued dogs, and are curious about what happened with their dog’s previous owners.

Watching Sandler at work, Clunes-Noack said she’s “very right-on” in terms of accurately diagnosing any imbalance in the dogs’ lives.

Emily Stuart, a veterinarian at Groves Lake Oswego Veterinary Clinic, said she is a skeptic, though she sees dog reading as harmless.

“I have a hard time, as someone with a scientific background, truly believing in the psychic stuff,” Stuart said. “I think the folks who do it are relatively interpretive in reading how you word things or your body language, and they make open-ended statements that you can read into.”

But Clunes-Noack said she has no reservations about Sandler’s accuracy. It was when Sandler read Clunes-Noack’s wire fox terrier that she became a true believer.

Sandler accurately told Clunes-Noack that the her dog is named Duffy. She went on to say that Duffy, a rescued dog, had been abused by his first owner. (This can often be the case with rescued dogs). The original owner had small children and, Sandler said, Duffy still missed the children and worries about them.

Clunes-Noack said that explains why she often finds Duffy sitting by the front door of her home, as if he is waiting for someone.

Sandler, who recently moved from West Linn to Beaverton, said she mainly works with people as an intuitive life coach, and the dog readings came about in July 2007, when Sandler agreed to do readings in West Linn during Pooch-In-the-Park. That caught the attention of Clunes-Noack, who invited her to do readings once a month at Bone-Jour.

An awakening

Sandler said one of her first experiences reading a dog was with her dog, Punim, a Boston terrier. Punim was 16 and seemingly healthy, when one day he declared to Sandler that he was going to die soon.

Having recently come from a check-up with the vet, Punim did not seem to show any signs of being near death. But, after he told Sandler he was going to leave, Sandler took Punim back to the vet. The vet suspected water was accumulating near Punim’s heart and suggested that he do an invasive, exploratory procedure on Punim.

But the terrier told Sandler he just wanted to go home.

She decided to grant Punim’s final wishes — taking him repeatedly to the beach at Galveston, Texas, and letting him eat as much as he liked. Punim told exactly when he would die, and she threw a party for him on his last night.

After everyone left, around midnight, she lay on the bed with Punim and they agreed it was time.

“He looked at me, coughed once and he was gone,” she said.

When she channels, Sandler said she can hear the dog’s voice (a term she uses loosely), and it is always a distinct sound.

“It’s an energy that comes through me,” she said. “It’s not my job to edit or to think about whether it is true or not.”

During a reading at Bone-Jour, Sandler said a little girl and her mom wanted to know what their dog was thinking. The dog, she said, was aware that the girl had just started in school and worried about him while she was in school.

“It might not mean anything to me, but people get it,” Sandler said.

Reading Edward

When it came time for Sandler to read my dog, a 6-year-old Prince Charles spaniel named Edward, I was curious what she could bring to the surface from this high-strung, 15-pound breed to the English royals.

Sandler immediately put me at ease, when she said I reminded her of someone and that I had a “good energy.”

We placed Edward on a chair in front of her, she closed her eyes and put her hands on him.

The only information I gave her was that Edward spends his days with my parents.

“He’s very happy, but he gets confused about his living situation,” she said. I knew she was on to something.

Edward lives with me at my home in Johns Landing, but in the morning I take him to my parent’s home in Riverdale. This gives him a warm home during the day and my parents enjoy his company while I work.

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