Blog — Holistic Healing
Polyvagal Exercises for Dogs: Co-Regulating with a Canine Companion
Expressing Sympathetic Arousal with Resistance Feeding and Tug-of-War “In the intensity of sympathetic mobilization your clients are looking for an organized way to use and safely discharge their energy. “ --Deb Dana, Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and Connection Resistance Feeding: Allows the dog to express the “surge” of energy resulting from sympathetic arousal Dog pushes into the handler to discharge sympathetic energy of fight/flight/hunt Constructive way to channel fear, reactivity, fight drive, and even hunting instincts Tug-of-War: Uses the dog’s natural instinct to bite in a playful way that regulates the dog and...
Re-Wiring Your Dog's Brain by Triggering a Reaction
The only way to truly re-wire your dog's brain involves activating old memories and then re-configuring them. This means that if you shelter your dog in a bubble of "safety" and always DISTRACT them from triggers, you may be successful at keeping them under threshold... but the underlying emotions and reactivity programs in your dogs brain are not changing. Of course, it does help to initially interrupt the rehearsal of reactive and aggressive behaviors. But eventually, you must TRIGGER the dog and then re-pattern their behavior with careful titration and training. When old memories are activated, you have...
As Your Dog's World Shrinks, So Does His Brain
Enrichment has been trending in the dog training for quite some time now, but do you know WHY it's actually so important? It's not just about providing your dog with puzzles and distractions to drain their energy. Environmental enrichment that provides breed-specific biological fulfillment actually changes your dog's brain! It makes your dog's brain more flexible and open to learning. This is ESPECIALLY important for behavior modification because we need your dog's brain to grow new neural pathways so they can learn and actively choose new behaviors. So while it may make sense for a short time to...
Resolving the Past
In Peter Levine's "Trauma and Memory" he explains that successful renegotiation of traumatic memories is accomplished by navigating the stressful experiences that trigger those memories. This leads to a feeling of triumph and mastery, and thus resolution of the past. In this way, we can move forward in life with vibrant energy, no longer stuck in the old patterns that our autonomic nervous system keeps replaying (fight/flight/freeze & appease).So with a dog who is reactive, we have to create the same possibility of successful renegotiation. This is different from counter-conditioning. This takes the original triggering experience, allows the dog to...
What is Dog Training?
Dog "training" is not a 6 week class and then you are done "training" your dog. Dog "training" is not a quick fix for a behavioral problem. Dog "training" is not: How do I get my dog to be obedient to me and 100% listen to his commands no matter what? Dog training is a lifelong study in RELATIONSHIP. So what can I call myself? I am not a dog trainer. I am a student of dogs. I am a student of energy, life, and the natural order of the universe. I am on a quest to become the most...