There are often many causes

One of the things I am more sure of now than ever, is that when we or our animals don't feel well, there usually isn't just one cause.  I believe we have a far better chance of feeling better if we look at all the possibilities . . . not just the medical causes, but the potential nutritional causes, the potential emotional causes and the potential environmental causes.  I have learned that if we just look in one place, without exploring the other potential causes, we often never get all the way to feeling well.  Often the solution lies in understanding how interconnected all the potential causes are and how they play off each other.

An example of this that I experienced myself was several years ago when I was having ongoing stomach problems.  I saw a medical doctor that wanted me to take a prescription medication to feel better,  I saw a nutritionist who wanted me to make changes to my diet and take supplements, and another alternative practitioner who thought the problem was caused by stress.  After a long period of trial and error, my stomach problems were finally resolved.  

I am not much of a pill taker, so I opted to skip the prescription that was offered and tried the nutritional approach.  That helped some, but not completely, so I decided to address the circumstances that were causing me so much stress, ultimately learning to give myself permission to walk away from things that didn't bring me joy anymore.  In the end, I realized that because of the stress I was under, I developed a sensitivity to certain foods, so I needed to address the nutrition aspect as much as the emotional aspect.  Once the emotional aspect had finally been addressed, I was no longer sensitive to those foods and was able to reintroduce them into my diet. 

I share this story about myself because I often see the same thing occurring in animals that I am working with.  I have seen animals with stomach problems, skin allergies, behavioral issues, etc that don't get "all the way better" because we're not always looking at all the contributing factors and seeing the interconnections between those factors.  To me, the emotional piece is often the most important.  It is often the root cause that creates all the "symptoms" that we see and if we are just treating the symptoms, we often end up treating them forever, never getting to "all the way better."  

I worked with one animal recently that had an upset stomach and frequently threw up.  When I spoke to the animal, I found out what was upsetting him so much and we worked with him on an emotional level, helping to put his fears and concerns to rest.  His stomach instantly felt better and he hasn't thrown up in months.   

I worked with another animal who had stopped eating for nearly a week. Fearing the worst, the guardian was ready to pay for thousands of dollars worth of tests to find out what was going on. After talking to him for a while, I discovered that he and his wife had been fighting a lot and the day his dog stopped eating was the same day that his wife had threatened to walk out on their marriage.  Once he understood this, he explained to his dog that he and his wife had just been having a rough go of it lately and that they had been taking their stress out on each other instead of pulling together to help each other through it.  He assured the dog that he was going to do his part to get his marriage back on track and also assured him that he would always be loved by both of them. The dog ate that night for the first time in six days.  

Then there is the animal I worked with that suddenly started to do strange things like going to the bathroom in the middle of the family room when he could have gone to the yard through the backdoor that was wide opened, or pulling things off the table, like the woman's purse and ripping apart the contents, or jumping up on the table and eating the food she had just prepared for herself.  She was beside herself when she contacted me, because in the previous five years, her dog had never done ANY of these things.  We discovered that her dog was just desperate for her attention.  

She had recently started working outside her home and the dog wasn't used to being alone that much.  He was letting her know how he felt about being alone, and also letting her know how much he needed and wanted her attention.  She said, "What can I do - I can't quit my job!! I don't want to lock him in the backyard or lock up my purse when I come home!!" We started by acknowledging her dogs feelings, letting him know we understood what a big and difficult change this must have been for him. We explained how important it was for her to work and how she needed to do that so they could continue to live in their house together.  She told him that she would make sure she spent time with him every night, focused time where she wasn't trying to do anything else, and she also reassured him that they would have a lot of time together on the weekends.  Within a week, things were considerably better.  No more purposely peeing in the house to get her attention, no more pulling things off the table or rooting through her purse.  She did sense he was still lonely though, so she decided to find a dog walker who could come by mid day and take him out for a walk.  

Another animal I worked with was having terrible skin allergies.  After some conversation with the dog and her guardian, we identified a potential root cause.  The guardian's boyfriend had said repeatedly that when he moved in with the girlfriend, he wanted to get a dog of his own. The dog was stressed about the idea of her life changing that much . . . a new "dad", another dog in the house, less time with her "mom," etc.  There was also some worry that the boyfriend wanted to get "his own dog" because he didn't like the girlfriend's dog very much.  Long story short, the boyfriend agreed to take it one step at a time, moving in first and getting settled before making any other changes to their household.  After he was moved in, he began to develop more of a relationship with the girlfriend's dog and even began to refer to her as "his dog."  Amazingly, the dogs skin allergies started to improve and within a couple months, her skin was 75% better. Eventually, they went to see a holistic vet to see what else they could do and by switching her to a different food and adding more oils to her diet, her skin improved that last 25%.

By sharing these stories, I am NOT trying to make you feel bad about how much your personal relationships can affect the health of your animals . . . only so that you can be more aware of the impact that your animal's emotions can have on his or her health.   If we only treat issues from a pure medical standpoint or a pure training standpoint, we can miss out on an important root cause.  I am not suggesting that you stop seeing your veterinarian or your trainer.  I just want to point out that there can often be other contributing factors to what may seem to be a medical issue or a behavioral issue. 

There is a saying that goes something like . . . "if all you have is a hammer, everything is going to look like a nail."  I guess that's what I am trying to point out here.  If we only take one approach to helping our animals, we may miss out on key pieces of information or they may not end up being "all the way better."  And I think we all deserve to feel "all the way better!"

Pay attention to what you say

Even though I know that animals understand everything we say around them and even though I am continually telling this to my clients, I had an experience last week that reminded me that I even I can slip up.  

As Lucky's back legs have gotten weaker in recent weeks and her back has tightened up, she has had trouble changing positions when she is sleeping.  If she is laying on her left side and wants to turn around and lay on her right side, she often gets stuck and needs assistance getting herself up and turned around.  Sound sleep is something that has been evading me lately, as some nights, Lucky wants to change positions frequently, which means through out the night, I would wake to the sound of her struggling to move. I would lean over the side of the bed, slip an arm under her torso and lift up her back end so she could reposition herself.  Sometimes, I couldn't get enough leverage while hanging over the side of the bed, so I would have to get out of bed so I could use two arms to help lift her. Once she was settled in a comfortable position, I would crawl back into bed and attempt to fall asleep . . . until the next time she wanted to change positions.  

It doesn't bother me that she needs the help, and it's certainly not a problem for me to hang over the side of the bed and lend a hand (or an arm) to assist her or even to get out of bed to help, but recently, we had a couple rough nights where she seemed to be struggling to change positions every 45 minutes.  That meant that I was sleeping in only 30-45 minute intervals.  I knew it was because her back was bothering her, so in the daytime I would do everything I could to massage her back, help her stretch, etc to help loosen up the tight muscles.  It was taking it's toll on me though - several nights in a row of only sleeping for a maximum of 45 minutes at a time.  I was feeling sleep deprived and run down.  

When someone asked me how I was doing, I explained (whined?) about how tired I was because of the frequency that Lucky was needing my help during the night.  I didn't think about the fact that Lucky was sitting right there listening and I went on and on about how much I just wanted to get some solid sleep and how I knew my coping skills would increase if I could get more sleep. 

Last week, I noticed something odd.  I would hear Lucky trying to get up in the middle of the night and when I would lean over the bed to lend a hand, she'd immediately lay back down and pretend she wasn't trying to move.  She'd put her head down between her paws and close her eyes.  Each time it happened, it struck me as odd but I'll confess I didn't give it too much thought, as I was relieved to be able to lay back down and fall asleep before I woke up too much.  Yet, after several nights of this, I couldn't ignore it anymore.  I knew there was some reason she was laying back down and pretending she wasn't really trying to change positions and I knew I needed to figure out why.  Something just wasn't right about it.

I sat down on the floor with her, closed my eyes and pictured her pretending she wasn't trying to move, hoping to get some insight into what was going on.  The answer immediately popped into my head.  I could see myself whining to my friend about how sleep deprived I was feeling . . . and I could see Lucky sitting right there with us, listening to me whine about it.  I felt so bad.  

I realized she was doing everything she could to help me get more sleep, regardless of how uncomfortable she was.  I apologized to her, explained that I would do anything for her and that I would always be there to help her in any way she needed.  I told her that I didn't mean to make her feel bad when she overheard me talking the week before, explaining that I was just feeling run down that day.  I assured her that her comfort was of the utmost importance to me and that I didn't ever want her to feel bad about waking me up.  I asked her to please let me help her when she needed the help.  I told her that while I was very touched that she was trying to help ME, I asked her to not take responsibility for the amount of sleep I got.  I told her I would be responsible for that.

That night, I woke to the sound of her struggling to change positions.  I leaned over the side of the bed and she looked at me for a minute . . . I reminded her that I was more than happy to help her and then she allowed me to hang over the side of the bed and slip my arm under her torso to help her turn around.  Since that night, she had allowed me to help her, every time she wants to change positions. She isn't laying back down and pretending she wasn't really trying to move, so I know our conversation was an important one.  Her back has been less tight, so I'm getting to sleep two hours at a time most nights, sometimes even for three solid hours.  

It was an important reminder for me.  I know she hears everything I say, so I need to make sure I am not saying anything that will make her worry.  I know I need to make sure that what I say to her is consistent with what I say to other people.  She is hearing it all and taking it all in. 

And she isn't the only one.  All of our animals are listening to us and hearing what we say, so I encourage you to pay more attention to what you say when your animals are present.  

Hotel for Dogs

When I was a little girl, I used to play a game with my two childhood friends, Dawn and Emma.  It was a game we made up where we ran a hotel (a Hilton hotel) for people who wanted to travel with their pets.  My dad gave us an old phone to use, (that we would pretend to answer), and we would take reservations.  Each reservation was written down on recipe cards and stored in a recipe file box that my mom had given us to use.  We would write down the dates the people would be coming and the names of the cats and dogs that would be traveling with them. That was the whole game, just taking the reservations of these imaginary people who wanted to travel with their pets.  Well, that and suggesting people call a different hotel when they called, wanting to stay at our hotel but didn't have any pets.  

While it might not sound like a very exciting game to most people, to me it was the best game we ever played.  I slept well at night knowing these imaginary people would be able to travel with their imaginary pets.  

As I got older and was doing a lot of traveling of my own (and worrying about who would care for Lucky when I was out of town), I would often think about that game of ours and wish our game had been a reality so I could take Lucky on my business trips with me.   I am pleased that so many hotels are now allowing people to bring their pets along and do hope the trend continues. 

When I first heard about the movie that was being created called "Hotel for Dogs," I was equally intrigued and tickled at the thought that maybe someone else had been thinking the same thing my friends and I were thinking when we were little.  I emailed both Dawn and Emma to see if they remembered the game and sure enough, they both held the same fond memories that I did. Dawn said she planned to bring her boys to see the movie but she lives in New Jersey so I couldn't go with them.  :-)  None of my friends were particularly interested in seeing the movie, but I wasn't going to let that deter me from seeing the movie.  I decided to borrow my friend's daughters so that I wouldn't have to go alone.  

Just this afternoon, we went to see Hotel For Dogs and I enjoyed it so much, I felt like I was a little girl again.  While their hotel was different because it was just for dogs, it still brought back wonderful memories of the dreams I had had as a child.  I knew from a very early age that animals deserved better treatment and more respect than I had seen them receiving and I was determined to somehow, someday positively impact the lives of animals.  It confirms my belief that what we know when we are children is vitally important.  It may have taken me forty years but finally I am doing what I knew I wanted to do as a child.  Even though I don't own a Hilton Hotel for dogs, I believe the work I am doing with animals is still part of my childhood dream. 

So, if you have children, pay attention to what they say is important to them.  I believe we have a better idea at a young age of what we are meant to do than we ever will.  

For tonight, I am happy to have seen a movie that brought back wonderful memories of my childhood and happy to have been able to share the experience with the two precious girls I saw it with.  I think it was even better to see the movie with a 10 year old and a 12 year old, than it would have been if I saw it with someone my own age.  When the scene of the shelter and the mean animal control workers upset us all, we all held hands. We laughed at the same parts and all looked at each other and smiled when we saw a German Shepherd on the screen.  And towards the end, when all the dogs ran back "home" to the hotel and I started to tear up as my heart swelled over the concept that I believe so deeply . . . that all animals deserve to have a home, my precious little friends reached over and held my hand.  There was no criticism or teasing from my little companions over the tears I shed, whether they were happy or sad tears and when we got back to my house, they were as anxious as I was to tell Lucky all about the movie.  I would say it was a very wonderful day.

And if you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend "Hotel For Dogs!"