How We Helped An Aggressive Dog With Canine Flow
Barney's Case Study...
Category:- Dog Behaviour
Can our techniques assist a dog who is ‘aggressive’/reactive to visitors and people leaving the house?
I am blessed to share this story with you all from one of my student's notebooks, who is now a qualified Practitioner.
Case Study 4: Barney the 7 year old German Shepherd
Barney wasn’t comfortable with visitors coming to the house, causing him to bark and vocalise. He reacted when they left again as well. His owner Cathy was terrified that he was going to bite someone eventually. There was also the added problem that she had to go away for a week and couldn't take Barney with her. Kennels weren't an option because he is a rescue dog and didn't do well in kennels when he was there. A friend of hers had offered to look after him but obviously couldn't unless we could get Barney over his issues.
Originally during the initial telephone consultation, Cathy was looking for the conventional training route. However, as we got talking and I started explaining about the Energy work and Barney’s Energy charge, Cathy became intrigued and agreed to give it a try. She had used conventional trainers before and not really liked their approach but wasn't aware of a different way.
I managed to squeeze in 7 visits with Barney, 6 in the 3 weeks before Cathy’s holiday. The first wasn't very long because I really just wanted to be able to see Barney’s behaviour for myself. Cathy had made him sound like the most aggressive dog in the world and I was a bit dubious about that, so thought I'd stop off and witness it for myself. I walked in and Barney barked at me a lot. He had quite a deep bark and I could see how people might be scared of him, but he wouldn't come close enough to bite me. He was more scared of me than I could be of him. I just ignored him and sat down to chat with Cathy about her expectations and what she could do to help Barney. We talked about how uptight she becomes when visitors arrive and how he will feed off of her fear as well. I discussed emotional balancing techniques with her and keeping herself calm.
While we were talking, Barney suddenly walked up and dropped a ball on my lap. It was as if he’d decided that I was ok and could be trusted. I played with him for a bit and then got up to leave. At this point, he started barking at me again and backing away. I got the impression that touching him wasn't going to be an option so I went home and prepared a Hypnotherapy script based around his issues.
On my second visit, I walked in and was greeted the same way as before. Again, I ignored him and went and sat down, but this time I sat on the floor. I could tell by the way Cathy was being that she felt more relaxed about me being there this time. She said that after seeing Barney play with me last time, she felt more confident letting him be around me. Once again Barney bought the ball to me to play and as soon as I had that attention from him I started the Hypnotherapy. He started to relax quite quickly and was twitching as I went through the session. When I’d finished he just laid there looking at me. As I got up to leave, he got up and followed me to the door without any barking.
On my third visit, I again was met with the normal barking and I repeated the Hypnotherapy as before. I still didn't want to push my luck and try touching Barney yet so I held off trying the Spiral Energy techniques. Again when I left, Barney followed me to the door and didn't bark.
On my fourth visit, I was again greeted with barking but it seemed to be a more excited bark than a scared one. I spoke to Cathy and she said that her mum had managed to come round the day before and she hadn't been barked-at. Cathy hadn't tried any other visitors yet and felt that Barney was so good with her mum because he knew her quite well. I again went in and sat down. This time Barney just came and laid by my leg without a ball. I decided to try my luck and started using the Spiral Energy technique in his aura. He was really receptive to this and after a short period he prodded me with his paw. I felt this was him telling me he was ok with me touching him, so I started working on his body. Barney allowed me to work all over his body and seemed to really enjoy it. He let out several huge sighs, and all his feet and both ears twitched at different times throughout. When I’d finished he got up, went and got his ball, and bought it to me to play. After a short play session, I got up to leave and again he followed me to the door.
On my fifth visit, I walked in and was greeted by a very quiet Barney. He was just wagging his tail like he was really pleased to see me. Cathy told me that her friend Scott, who was meant to be looking after Barney, had come round to see him and had been greeted with some barking but that it was nowhere near as bad as it used to be. Plus, when Scott left, Barney was silent! I repeated the techniques used on the fourth visit. Afterwards, Barney simply laid asleep, and as I got up to leave, he didn't follow me to the door. I felt that as we only had a week until Scott had to stay with Barney, it might be a good idea to have him there at the same time as me so I could see how Barney was.
So on the sixth visit, Scott arrived 10 minutes after me. I'd been met with a quiet Barney and a wagging tail. He then followed me to my normal position on the front room floor. When Scott arrived, Barney stood up and barked but didn't leave my side. As he was barking I started the spiral work with him and he stopped almost instantly, laying back down for me to work. Scott walked backwards and forwards through the house as I worked. Although Barney didn't fully relax, keeping his eye on Scott, Barney didn't move once. When I’d finished, Scott left and Barney quietly followed him to the door. Cathy was really happy with that result.
I wanted to make sure Barney was comfortable with being looked after by someone else so I did a Hypnotherapy session with him as well and based it around Cathy going away and Scott staying with him.
Cathy asked me if I would mind popping in and working with Barney while she was away and checking that everything was ok.
So my seventh visit was while Cathy was away. I walked in to find a happy, comfortable Barney with a ball in his mouth. And as I sat down, he didn't want to come over to me. Instead, Barney went straight over to Scott and dropped the ball as if to say he was more than happy with him. On this occasion, I didn't work with him because the result was better than myself or Cathy could have expected at the start.
I had 3 weeks between my first and my last visit and I honestly didn't expect to have Barney that relaxed and to have made such a huge shift in his behaviours in that time.
The techniques used by Becky Shuttleworth (then student, now practitioner) were part of the Canine Flow dog training techniques, including Professional Canine Hypnotherapy. They work by promoting the flow of Emotional Energy for dogs, creating a feeling of safety for the dog and reconnecting to balanced frequencies. All behaviours are simply an expression of Energy in motion - e’motion - wholly connected to the electromagnetic frequencies of the dog and the world around him.
Barney felt an emotional frequency, an electromagnetic pull, that attracted him towards the visitors or the unsettling movement of people entering into or leaving the environment he was in. Yet the feeling was also coupled with feeling fear. As he wasn’t able to ‘give’ his Energy to the visitors or leavers, he always ended up with an inability to ground the Emotion he felt as it built up inside him. What we would like is for Barney to either feel safe when people come and go – basically when his environmental energies change - or to be neutral about it happening.
Dogs live through the emotions they feel. The feelings are the driver of the behaviour, not a thought process. Emotions are the frequencies of the Heart, which the mind receives from the Heart - not the other way round. In fact, all cells of the body receive them from the Heart, but this would be too long a blog if discussing everything in one go!
Emotions are held at the cellular level. With many dog training methods, a new behaviour would be asked for or encouraged. This would allow for a wonderful management of the situation for the owner, and may ‘show’ the dog what the owner would prefer. However, it would leave the unresolved emotional Energy still in the dog. Sometimes the restriction or the expectation, at an energetic level, actually increases the amount of emotion the dog feels. This can add to, rather than resolve, the Flow of emotional Energy for the dog. The emotional Energy might come out as a different behaviour, it might show up as a skin disorder, or the dog’s ability to stay connected to the environment and so the energies around him may become numbed.
All management options cannot help but put resistance to the Flow of the dog’s emotions, which is what we are to avoid if we are to keep them truly happy, calm and support well-being. It's about finding the balance between the two approaches if they are both needed - which often times they are for the owner. Some Canine Flow practitioners blend both management options for the owner with Flow techniques. Many, just like Becky in this case study, simply use the Flow techniques. Both ways have had great results.
With the student's permission, I will share some more of the case studies with you in further blogs or emails. Be sure to look out for them!
Sharing Love and Sunshine!
Caroline