Change your Energy, Change your dog

‘Change your Energy, Change your dog’ – Now before you do an eye roll and think ‘not that hippy stuff’ you should read on as it’s worth knowing there is scientific proof around how our energy affects our dogs and why.

We know this was the case for us and how we were with our two dogs. When Sunny and Grommie first met it was definitely not a match made in heaven and their size difference didn’t help either. I kid you not it felt like we were monitoring a battle zone of teenage siblings! They would fight and we were constantly on alert and anxious. Safe to say it was not a good time but there was no way either of us intended to give up our dogs.  

However if someone had said that some of the issue was down to me back then I probably would have told them where to go in all honesty! When it comes to our dogs as humans we don’t like the thought that our dogs behaviour could actually be a reflection of us but it’s time to face up to it and be open to the fact. So I bit the bullet, took it on the chin and owned up to the fact I was a big factor for how our dogs were behaving. And it certainly wasn’t positive or calm that’s for sure!

Of course there are always exceptions especially if your dog has come from an abusive past as they come to you with their past experience. But knowing this it is even more important you get off on the right foot/paw with your new family member.

Now we wouldn’t be where we are today if we didn’t invest in some good training advice and go down the positive reinforcement path. Add this with a large helping of patience, persistence and the odd large glass of wine when the shit really hit the fan!

All this made a huge difference in dealing with them but it wasn’t until we started to recognise a shift in our energy after incorporating some calming techniques including aromatherapy on ourselves first that the real magic began.

So you’re probably thinking okay all that’s great but why does this help my dog and more importantly how? Does energy really matter and how can us getting calm factor into this? 

The fact is energy does matter and it’s as plain and simple as the nose on your dog’s face – literally!

A dog’s nose is amazing! Our human nose has around 5 million scent receptors and unless we have lost our sense of smell we can detect a large variety of aromas and smells. They can even trigger childhood memories such as remembering things like grandma’s baking or the smell of the house.

However, a dog’s nose contains around 300 million scent receptors! They can detect smells in areas the size of a stadium. Their olfactory bulb where smells are processed is much larger than that of us humans.

But it goes way beyond a dog just smelling aromas. Their noses are like communicators. Going on a walk is like reading the daily newspaper for them.  A dogs nose has been used for many different things, from sniffing out drugs or explosives, finding missing people to detecting cancer. Some dogs can even tell if a woman is pregnant.

How? Well it’s all down to an amazing little second scent organ called the vomeronasal organ or Jacobson’s organ. This clever little organ located in the roof of the mouth near the nose can actually detect pheromones, a potential mate, friend or enemy and even our emotional state. Think of the phrase ‘smell the fear’ and this rings very true when it comes to the nose of a dog or any other animal.

So when you are feeling anxious, overwhelmed or frustrated your dog can detect it. Just as when we are feeling excited, happy and joyful. 

Do you have a dog that is super excited and pulls on a lead? Of course that’s going to create stress and anxiety at the best of times. But trying to work on the behaviours isn’t going to work unless you start from a calm place.  We knew we often responded to Sunny and Grommie with anxiety and frustration and this often escalated the situation. It made teaching them the right way much easier once we got on top of our own energy.

So where do you begin? Do you just become happy and your dog instantly behaves and you live happily ever after…umm no that’s just a fairy ‘tail’. It takes more than just that. As humans we aren’t robots and we get stressed at times. We still do even now but we also recognise when it’s happening so we can do something about it. We have found this simple little activity can be very helpful on your step towards a calmer canine and happier human.

So before responding to your dog in any given situation whether it is when you are about to take them for a walk and he’s over excited or you have just come home to a chewed mess always try and respond to them as much as possible with a calm energy.

I call it my ‘Stop Paws Go’ exercise and it’s so easy to do.

If it means walking out the room to do it then do it. (I tend to grab my favourite calming oil at this point and pop a drop on my hands to breathe in).

Breathe in and count to 5 and hold for 5 and breath out for 5 whilst asking yourself ‘How can I be calm for my dog? How can I teach my dog to be the best version of themselves?’ You might have another saying. Choose the words that fit for you.

Do this 3 times before responding to your dog and the situation using the teaching methods you have been shown. I love enrichment games and positive reinforcement strategies. Using fear and intimidation only gets quick fix results and the behaviour usually returns in other ways plus does not promote happy positive relationships with our dogs.

If you keep preserving with this technique you will start to notice a difference in your energy and stress levels and no doubt notice a difference with not just how you start to deal with your dog but how you deal with life in general. Which in today’s crazy world can be very helpful.