How can you create emotional sustainability in your life with your dog?

This week’s episode is completely focused on YOU as the dog parent. ESPECIALLY if you’re the parent of a reactive or challenging pup like Lucky.

My guest today is Jess Adam of Handlers and Humans! Handlers and Humans is all about bringing mental health to the dog world, and Jess is the perfect person to do this! As a licensed psychotherapist, she is also the dog mama to a beautiful 10 yr-old lab-pit mix named Dio, who has experienced his fair share of challenges with anxiety and reactivity, as well as being a lovable, silly, perfect boy. Through Handlers and Humans, Jess brings her skills and experience from the mental health and coaching worlds, to help other dog parents navigate the highs, lows, and various challenges that come with having a dog who struggles a bit with some aspects of the world. She also helps dog trainers know how to better support their human clients.

This is such an important conversation to have. When we have a reactive dog, or a dog with other complex feelings and behaviours, it can be tempting to keep the focus on our dog’s behaviours, their needs, and keeping them under threshold, but I know firsthand, as I’m sure many of you do, too, when we have reactive encounters when we are out with our dogs, we, too, experience the fear, shame, embarrassment, and even trauma associated with those encounters. And this can send us over OUR threshold. Speaking for myself, I know that my nervous system can become just as dysregulated as Lucky’s due to an off-lead dog running up to him, or just because I have to be constantly vigilant, looking out for potential triggers that we need to avoid. It’s exhausting, and it can feel really isolating, so I’m thrilled that Jess is having this conversation today to highlight the need to care for our own mental health, and recognise our own thresholds. She also shares some really great tips for how to do just that.

Jess and I cover a lot of ground: from allowing ourselves to feel the grief that comes when our expectations of having a dog don’t match our experience, to acknowledging the emotional impact of having a reactive dog on us, and finally, to getting to the point where we can see the gifts that lie within life with a complex dog.

I know you are going to get so much out of this episode, and it’s my hope that you leave this feeling seen, as well as having some practical things that you can do today to support yourself on your journey with your dog.

And Don’t forget, I’m holding a giveaway to win a free animal communication session! If you’d like to be considered for the opportunity to win this free animal communication session with me for your pet, all you have to do is rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, take a screenshot of your review, and send it to me on Instagram @mysticdogmama. I’ll draw one lucky name and announce the winner in our special 6-month anniversary episode that airs Saturday, June 8th 2024. To be considered for this, please make sure to send me your screenshot no later than Friday, May 24th, 2024.

https://instagram.com/mysticdogmama

https://www.handlersandhumans.com/

https://www.instagram.com/handlersandhumans

DISCLAIMER: This is not a substitute for medical advice or other relevant professional advice.

TIME STAMPS:

00:22 INTRO

05:37 MEETING JESS ADAM OF HANDLERS AND HUMANS & HER REACTIVE DOG, DIO

14:00 YOU DIDN’T CAUSE YOUR DOG’S REACTIVITY

21:00 WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU ARE OVER THRESHOLD - USEFUL APPROACHES AND TOOLS

38:25 NOBODY NEEDS FIXING, INCLUDING YOUR REACTIVE DOG

43:30 GRIEVING THE LIFE YOU ENVISIONED WITH YOUR DOG

50:00 GUIDING AND STEWARDING OUR DOGS TO LEARN HOW TO LIVE WELL WITH US

1:01:00 WHAT DIO HAS TAUGHT JESS ABOUT WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN

1:06:00 OUTRO + MY 3 TAKEAWAYS

"This is how we stitch the world together."

I hope you’ve got a cup of tea with you, because you’re going to want to settle in for this BEAUTIFUL conversation.

Have you ever experienced a deep longing to connect more deeply to your dog, to the natural world, to the cosmos? Well, you are going to LOVE this episode.

My guest today is Dr Saskia von Diest. Saskia earned a PhD in plant pathology, and has a background in postdoctoral research on how intuitive interspecies communication is used in agriculture. Since then, Saskia has pursued her passion for supporting others in having their experience of communicating with non-human Nature, and develop that both for their own benefit, and for the collective benefit. She has been communicating with various forms of Nature for 11 years, and with 15 years’ experience in teaching and facilitating in various countries, Saskia loves creating opportunities for individuals and groups to connect and communicate with Nature’s healing power and practical wisdom. She’s also trained in Family Constellations and in the Way of the Warrior Healer. Saskia founded Ecofluency in 2021, to consult, teach, and facilitate Nature communication experiences, for individuals, groups and organisations, and to promote other voices in this field.

In this conversation today, Saskia and I talk about how Ecofluency developed, and we do a deep dive into what it means to connect and communicate with all of life, all of consciousness, and why this is so needed in today’s world.

Spoiler alert: Not only can YOU communicate directly with nature, but you are ALREADY doing it!!

Saskia shares her own story of how entering into Nature communication helped her heal a deep sense of loneliness. She also talks about a communication session where a client’s dog who was crossing the rainbow bridge helped to reframe and shed more light on the spiritual roles that humans and dogs are playing for one another. Saskia also shares a surprising message from the land to a client who wanted to protect it. And she provides us with some really easy tips for starting your own nature communication journey today with your own dog.

This is one of those conversations that will remind you of just how important your personal thread is to this whole tapestry of life, and leave you changed.

If you would like to work with Saskia, starting May 6th 2024, she is running a 6-week online course that is designed for all experience levels. For more information, visit Saskia’s website, https://ecofluency.org, where you can find out more about her offerings, including this course and a Summer Solstice workshop she will be holding in the UK.

If you’d like to enter to be considered for the opportunity to win a free animal communication session with me for your pet, all you have to do is rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, take a screenshot of your review, and send it to me on Instagram @mysticdogmama. I’ll draw one lucky name and announce the winner in our special 6-month anniversary episode that airs Saturday, June 8th 2024. To be considered for this, please make sure to send me your screenshot no later than Friday, May 24th.

DISCLAIMER: This is not a substitute for medical advice or other relevant professional advice.

TIME STAMPS:

00:22 INTRO

06:50 Meet Dr Saskia von Diest of Ecofluency: from PhD in agriculture to Nature communication

24:00 What is Ecofluency? Finding our way back home

31:31 Communicating with electrons and comets - it’s all possible!

43:11 Show yourself love and compassion to heal the Earth

50:40 How Nature communication and having a dog are catalysts to spiritual awakening

54:25 A beautiful lesson from a dog crossing the rainbow bridge

1:00:00 Easy tips to start exploring Nature communication today + Saskia’s upcoming courses

1:11:00 What Nature has taught Saskia about what it means to be human

1:12:15 OUTRO + Details on animal communication giveaway!

Today we are talking all things predation. What is that, you might ask?? Well, predation is a natural sequence of behaviours that your dog loves to do, and some of it, you might not be so thrilled about. It includes things like sniffing and stalking, as well as behaviours like chasing and eating things they find on the walk. In fact, most of your dog’s favourite hobbies are actually linked to predatory behaviour. I mean, did you see that reel I shared of Lucky hunting for socks?? Straight out of a wildlife documentary film! My guest today is Simone Mueller, a certified dog trainer and dog behaviour consultant from Germany who specialises in force-free anti-predation training, and she joins me to share some really easy ways you can turn your dog’s natural predilections for predation into training gold! Her training, workshops, and books, all focus on Predation Substitute Training, which involves creating fun activities that serve as safe alternatives for your dog to express their need and desires to engage in predation.

So, if your dog is reactive, tends to chase things like squirrels while you’re screaming at her to come back, or scavenges everything he finds on the ground, you’ll learn some helpful tips and tricks you can apply today. From creating games that match your dog’s passions, to talking to your dog as a practice, Simone answers listener questions, and shares some really practical ways you can help your dog be more dog in a safe and fun way.

Simone Mueller, MA is a certified dog trainer and dog behaviour consultant (ATN) from Germany who specialises in force-free anti-predation training and is the author of the three books of the Predation Substitute Training series and is proud to be an Associate Trainer at the Scotland-based Lothlorien Dog Training Club (AT-LDTC) and a member of The Initiative of Force-Free Dog Training, the Pet Professional Guild (PPG), and the Pet Dog Trainers of Europe (PDTE).

Follow Simone’s work on Facebook and Instagram: #predationsubstitutetraining

Learn more: http://www.predation-substitute-training.com

To purchase Simone’s books, please consider using the following affiliate links. When you use these links, the podcast may receive a commission at no extra cost to you, and this helps to keep the podcast running.

“Hunting Together: Harnessing Predatory Chasing in Family Dogs through Motivation-Based Training (Predation Substitute Training)”

Amazon USA: https://amzn.to/3VlDyoi

Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3TCZeei

This episode was sponsored by Aspirationery, which, in full transparency, is another project of mine where we create books, notebooks, and stationery to help you become all you aspire to be. You can check out our shadow work and moon magic journals and workbooks, as well as our popular “My First Period Tracker” for young girls and tweens on Instagram @aspirationery.

TIME STAMPS

00:22 INTRO

04:05 Introducing Simone Mueller and her dog, Malinka, who led her to dog training

06:58 What is predation, and what is predation substitute training?

14:00 The hormonal cycle that is part of predation

18:00 Markers of predatory behavior in your dog

20:15 Introducing predatory substitute training activities to your dog

30:40 Domestic dogs are more determined than wild canines

33:45 Simone answers listener questions

57:30 What dogs have taught Simone about being human

59:20 OUTRO

DISCLAIMER: This is not a substitute for medical advice or other relevant professional advice.