Blog — Your Dog Is Your Mirror
Regulating the Human First
If you feel your nervous system needs a reset, try one or more of the following: 1. Slow down. Gentle, mindful, and deliberate movements signal safety to your nervous system and the nervous systems around you. 2. Check in with your internal state, are you feeling flighty and stimulated, shut down and dissociated, or grounded and calm? Bringing awareness to your state can also bring compassion and understanding. 3. Give yourself a squeeze for containment, right hand under the left armpit, and left hand on the right shoulder. 4. Hum or sing your favorite song to self-soothe. 5....
The Importance of DEEP SLEEP
The Sleep/Stress Cycle The often overlooked issue of getting enough quality sleep could be the missing key to regulating your dog's nervous system. As many of us have experienced at some point in our lives, it's difficult to get the proper quality and quantity of sleep when we are chronically stressed. And so we sometimes get "trapped" in a cycle where stress keeps us from sleeping, and then lack of sleep keeps us in a state of stress. This is why it is so important to focus on our dog's and our own healthy sleep habits. Getting into a state...
When the Student is Ready, the Teacher Appears
When the Student is Ready, the Teacher Appears Does your dog push your buttons? Do you ever feel an exaggerated reaction to your dog's behavior? Downright triggered? Your most uncomfortable emotions can be activated and mirrored by your dog. Your shadow self might be unconsciously projected into your dog. Your unhealed inner child. Your refusal to accept the truth or the reality of your current situation. One of the simplest practices (not necessarily easy, but straightforward) is to write your dog a letter of gratitude. This can help you process the emotions coming up around your dog's behavior. This...
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...
Personal Play and Play Fighting: Co-Regulating with Your Dog
The polyvagal theory implies that more attention needs to be paid to the development of interventions that either promote activation of the social vagus or dampen sympathetic tone. One major implication is the need to pay closer attention the therapeutic use of play, rough and tumble behaviors that serve as preliminary exercises to develop adaptive defensive and aggressive behaviors, as a means of shifting people [and dogs] out of fight-or-flight reactions into loving and mutually engaged mobilization. --Bessel A. van der Kolk, in the foreword to: The Polyvagal Theory by Dr. Stephen W. Porges Mirroring your dog during play...