Recently I worked with an 11 year old Collie X Saluki, perhaps more Saluki in personality, called Sam.
His human, May, told me that Sam had been in a terrible state when first rescued 6 years before, and that although there had been a lot of improvements, he still had serious ongoing problems.
The main issues were that Sam would refuse to walk past parked cars, he chased jeeps and, when they went out in the car, was terrified that May would drive off without him. In the car, he would bark incessantly, and she no longer felt able to take him out on shopping trips or elsewhere, at all. He had gelled with the family Yorkie, but seemed constantly paranoid the little dog would be taken away from him.
May employed her lifetime experience of living with dogs to build confidence, trust and rapport with Sam, and the positive changes in him since being rescued were significant. However the anxiety-based residual problems, including his abject fear of cars, the jeep chasing, incessant barking and acute anxiety at any ‘leave taking’ moments were still a major problem.
I told May that because of their close relationship, Sam's severe level of anxiety and the sheer number of environmental triggers involved, I couldn’t be sure of being able to make a significant difference and that her best course of action would be a professional behavioural trainer who could work with them both together. May, however, refused to take no for an answer and was quite determined that I could help. So I agreed to a one hour session in which I would see what was going on, deal with any immediate underlying issues I could, and give her an idea of what else might be done to help to improve Sam's life.
Nowadays most of my sessions happen distantly, so now here I was, talking to Sam by focusing on his photo and seeing what he wanted to tell me, and finding out how I could help him feel better.
Sam's warm, intelligent and loving personality meant that he was acutely aware of how much May had helped him over the years. He was a thinker, a listener and very attentive to May's conversations with him. When I asked him about the barking in the car, he said he saw his job as being to stop everybody else from coming into his space and also an interesting way to distract himself. It was an “I’m in the car, so this is what I do” kind of feeling.
He also gave me a lot of information about the family he’d lived with, their unpredictable, inconsistent energy, the threats of abandonment, and being continually told “he was lucky to have a roof over his head”. But what I really wanted to deal with, at least initially, was his abject fear of walking past parked cars, which I intuitively felt was connected with this all. So, using a combination of communication and muscle testing, I began to create a picture of the scene he was starting to relate.
Sam related a scene where he was walking along a pavement on the left hand side of the road alongside a beach promenade, and there was a wall between the right hand side of the road and the view of the sea. He was filled with fear and dread, connected with a previous threat of “being got rid of”.
He was made to get into the boot of what looked like a dark green 4x4 Discovery-type vehicle. There was a small child’s tricycle that had been dropped or left on the road behind the car, and the car reversed over it and Sam heard the crunch. There were small children in the 4x4 crying and the man was driving away, sounding angry and impatient.
These were Sam's last memories with this family. The man drove him out of this town to a rural road not far away, where Sam was dumped out of the car and stood there watching in bewilderment as the 4x4 drive off.
At this point, on a 1-10 scale where 10 was the worst and 0 or 1 were relaxed, Sam's feelings rated at 10/10. So I did EFT on some of the feelings and thoughts that came up with these images, including loss, betrayal, loss of trust, confusion, pain, bewilderment, hopelessness, helplessness.
After this, those feelings had subsided to 3/10, which felt more like anxiety in the pit of his stomach and abdominal area. I asked him to give me a colour and shape for that feeling – he described a black and grey spiky ball. So I asked him to imagine the spiky black and grey ball revolving and coming up through his stomach, chest and out through his mouth, so he could see it revolving in front of him.
Then I asked him to describe what the opposite of that colour and shape would be for him – the most relaxing, safe and calm colour and shape. He told me a light green and blue soft ball, so we changed the shape and colour, and then got it to rotate in the opposite direction, and then brought it back into the body, all the way back to where it was before, but this time so he was feeling relaxed, safe and calm.
At this point I was still picking up some residual anxiety from him, associated with (1) the image of the 4x4 driving away and (2) the sound of the child in the back seat crying. So I did EMDR (trauma processing) and EFT on these until we got them down to a calmer level. I then reassured him that he was safe now, that he would always be safe, and that he could let go of all those memories now.
Sam then willingly worked with me to create an NLP visualisation in which we replaced a negative ‘Before’ photo (seeing the 4x4 drive away) with a positive ‘After’ photo (running free along a beach chasing a ball). Using this technique, we completely replaced and destroyed the negative image with the positive image, so that the ‘After’ picture was the only one he could experience.
I suggested we practiced with the cars before we ended. I got him to sit in the car, give a couple of barks just for good measure (for fun and to release any excess energy) and then sit quietly, realising how much more he could see and notice when he was quiet. I did some visualisation and EFT on this, just to get him to try to feel more relaxed in the car, suggesting that the moment he felt like barking in the car, he could suddenly feel quite sleepy and want to relax, and to release any anxiety and tension.
After the session, I recommended that May persisted with the training she had tried before, reckoning that it would be a bit easier now that a few issues had been dealt with. I also suggested some visualisation techniques she could use herself to send to Sam when she wanted him to feel calm and relaxed.
Since this session, May has confirmed that he is considerably better in the car. He gives a few barks (as we had visualised) and then settles down.
I have also had another session with Sam to work with his abject fear of fireworks. I hope to add a fuller 'before and after' testimonial from May confirming exactly how he has responded to AIT, but, for now, in a recent letter following the 'fireworks' session May wrote:
“Sam has been much better, but doesn’t like the first bang of the evening, but after that he is much happier. Thank you so much for all you have done for Sam, I take him out in the car or shopping trips now, which I never did before.”
Having had a number of cases recently working with severe anxiety in dogs, I think the potential for AIT to help them is huge, as long as it is embarked on with realistic expectations and continuing professional behavioural advice. At the very least, AIT can process and resolve the trauma underlying the anxiety, as well as helping to create a positive mental blueprint of desirable behaviour in specific situations, and boosting confidence and self-esteem.
Many clients report how confident and loving their animals seem after therapy. For me it is much more about the animal showing their gratitude that somebody has listened, and something inside them has changed.
Love to you and your animals,
Brige
Brigid Reilly, D.Hyp MBSCH
Animal Intuitive Therapist
