\”How\’s he been since his first WEBB session last week?\” I asked. I\’d been called in because of behavioural issues – he had been unpredictable, snapping at other dogs on the lead, and occasionally snapping at people who gave him too much eye contact as well – though he\’d never actually bitten anyone, or the other dogs. He\’d been fine when I worked with him the week before, though he had a LOT of pain in his body, and I certainly didn\’t trust him fully. He had a way of fixing his gaze on me and staring with hard eyes that put me very much on my guard.
\”Well – we had that huge storm last week, and he got in a terrible, terrible state with that – I came home late, at about 11:00, and he seemed really stressed, to the point where I though he might snap at me if I didn\’t take care in approaching him. He was really wide eyed, scared out of his wits. He hasn\’t been as good since then, as after the session – he seemed softer for a couple of days after that – do you think the storm episode could have set him back?\” she asked.
\”Maybe,\”I said. \”Being in a really high arousal state for a long time like that can have lasting effects, for sure.\”
\”I wondered about that – one funny thing – I gave him the flower essences you made up at about 3:00 in the morning, and his tummy started rumbling like anything, then he farted terribly for a while – why would that be?\”
\”I\’d say that would be beacuse the drops helped him relax and, and get out of sypathetic nervous system activation, or fright/flight, and into more parasympathetic nervous system activation- or rest and digest,\” I explained.
He was sitting on his bed, and staring at me very intensely. I got his mum to call him over into the middle of the kitchen- he rushed into my space, keeping that really over strong stare fixed on my eyes, so I turned sideways to him and broke that contact. I asked him to drop, and he flopped down legs towards me. I needed to get to his back, but as soon as I moved a hand to manouver him around, he snapped at my fingers. His face was tight and hard, pupils very dilated. Time to take extra caution. I worked at rtying to settle him for about 5 minutes, but he gave me several more warning snapsand simply wouldn\’t allow me to touch his back. At the same time he was almost desperately over friendly, wanting to be right on top of me and to be patted.
His mum was nervous, tense.
\”This is what I mean by him being unpredictable,\” she said.
\”Could you take a few deep breaths and relax as much as you possibly can for me?\” I asked. \”I\’m not frightented of him – these are warnings, for sure, and I\’m respecting them, but I\’m very, very good at not getting bitten.\”
She took a deep breath, and let go of a world of tension.
\”Now- could you get his lead, and a wooden spoon for me please?\”
She looked puzzled, but gathered what I asked for, then slipped the lead onto him.
I took the lead, and the wooden spoon, then explained… \”The wooden spoon is so I can touch him without being worried about losing a finger,\” I explained. \”And having him on the lead gives me a lot more control, as well as putting me in a leadership position with him.\”
I spent some time walking him around the room, getting him to sit, dong a bit of settng boundaries with him, and gently stroking him around the face, mouth, and all over his body with the wooden spoon.
\”Do you think he\’s behaving differently because my daughter\’s not her today, like last week?\” she asked.
\”It could well be,\” I said, thinking about it. \”She\’s the main authority figure in his world – so when she told him to lie down for me, maybe he was supressing this behaviour – and today I\’m seeing what he\’s really like. I suspect that you\’re actually a bit scared of him as well – would that be true?\”
\”Yes, I think you\’re right, I actually am, I really don\’t trust him.\”
I got the to point, inch by inch, where I had him standing, and I could get down on one knee (with a clear scape path if need be) and place a hand on his back. At the same time I had the lead with a little tension on it, and up beside his face on the same side as me, to act as a guard and barrier. He was still very tense – mutliple subtle warning signs – tight jaw, tight face, ears pinned, rigid body, eyes wide open and hard – which I pointed out and explained to his mum as I worked. I started with mostly running healing energy through my hands, very light touch. I tried this and that for about 5 minutes without any of the response I was looking for, then decided to show his mum the deep pressure technique that I find very helpful in anxious dogs – long slow strokes with firm pressure over the whole of my hand. As soon as I did this for the first time, there was a big shift in him, a softening- his eyes softened, got a bit sleepy looking, and he took a deep breath.
\”Did you see the difference?\” I asked his mum.
\”I did,\” she replied.
He had relaxed enough by now for me to get him to stand beside a chair so I could sit down in a more comfortable position. The amount of tension in his upper neck and cranium was staggering, and he was restless as soon as I went anywhere near these spots. I gently persisted, feeling a lot of fear, panic and terror come up and release while I worked with him. It took a long time, but the tension slowly dissolved out of his face, and his jaw softened enough for him to open his mouth and pant.
\”Are you sensitive to subtle energies?\” I asked
\”Yes, quite,\” his mum answered.
\”I\’d just like to open up the heart flow connection between you both – so just be aware of that for a little while.\”
There was a very strong opening and release while I held space for this, and a rush of tears came up for his mum.
\”That was powerful, wasn\’t it?\” I said.
\”Yes,\” she said, with a smile, \”It was. You know, I felt a big rush of energy up my neck and skull a bit before while you were working on his neck, too.\”
\”Yes, sometimes people feel energy shifting while I work with their pets,\” I said. \”You know, I think you need to really take up a leadership role with this fellow- he\’s a wonderful dog, super intelligent, and I like him. He\’s also very frightened, and I think has a lot of body pain going on that is tangled up in his behaviour as well. I think you need to do obedience work with him – a night a week for some time, so he comes to respect you more as a leader. can you do that?\”
\”I can,\” she said quietly.
I\’d finally come to a point of closure in the session he had relaxed more and more the longer the session went, and when I set him free and he went back to his bed, his whole demenour had softened so much, he looked more relaxed, happier…