That First Day!

So you picked up that puppy? Congratualtions!

The breeder will have provided all the information you asked for and for a registered pedigree the KC registration, pedigree lines document, microchip info and some food.

Yesterday we collected Ronnie. It was a long drive so we were prepared with food and drink , toys and a travel crate. I sat with him and it was a brilliant chance for some bonding.

Early experiences in cars set the puppy up for life. Ronnie is going to love travel!

With Lola waiting at home we planned their meeting carefully. In the garden so there was space he could explore where we were encouraging a pee place and we could relax after the jouney ourselves. There was also space for Lola to engage or remove herself. It was going to be a shock for her too! 

Lola was indeed surprised but took to Ronnie well. He loved the garden to explore, he made the most of the new toys and practiced his name.

The evening was tricky. Lola was not at all sure abou the squirt invading her home. she barked and growled a little. I watched their body language carefully, stepping in only when either one of them seemed to be stressed. On the whole they both resilently sorted themselves out with some great communication. Understanding Canine Body Language is so very useful here!

We sorted out the feeding schedules and he had his evening milk before bed and then we settled.

He has a crate and bed available and a pen to keep him safe when needed. Ideally, for a while, we would like him to use the Pen and either a bed or crate for when he is napping or as a safe restful space when he is not supervised. 

TTerrible TTeens !

So TTeens are a thing -  sometimes calm TTJD -Tibetan Terrier  Juvenile Delinquents.

In truth every dog ( and child) goes through the same process. It is a right of passage, a physical, mental and emotional upheaval.

We see so many new behaviours as they grow from puppyhood to adulthood. In dogs it happens quickly and goes on for up to a year.

This includes (not exhaustively) :

• coat changes,
  
• seasons and all the sulking, misery and grumpiness which goes with hormones
• humping, anything and everything (sometimes)
  
• being fearful or seemingly invincible (think Scrappy Doo!)
• reactive behaviours  or sensitivities developing
  
• pushing boundaries and relationships , "trying it on"
  
• forgetting anything an everything  they ever knew
• not listening
• attention seeking, frustrations,  demanding behaviours

Does this sound familiar (for human teens too?)

This usually happens around 8months to around 16months. Though it is not a magical start  and finish time!

So why do we see these aggravating behaviours?

Coat changes and emotional changes such as grumpiness or a return of nipping etc and sometimes humping (boys and girls) this can be hormone driven, but not always, get a vet check if yu are worried, medical needs can cause these behaviours too.

The reason most people get so frustrated with their pups at this time is becuase they seem to  lose all their learning and seem to be making up their own rules!!  (they ARE) Their beautiful cute pupppy schooll obedient puppy is an embarressing  monster.

These behaviours occur biologically (neurobiologically) as  their brain is literally filing and sorting out what is important in their adult life (from their experience)  and growing the behaviours and experiences that are effective and useful for them  and ditching that which seems nonsensical or boring. It is a really important stage, not be underestimated, and one that needs kind and patient support.

There is a biological purpose to this; this is the time they are striving out for independence from the nest (you and your family) and testing their attachments to their people, especially the ones that they have the closest attachment to. A well balanced dog (or human) has a secure attachment to one or more of their adult caregivers . This is the family member who they trust to "be there for them" who they will check in with for support and return to when worried. (There is science from John Bowlby and Ainsworth for humans for the science geeks)

It coincides ( nature plans this) with the second fear or sensitive period. This is a time when they can find life a little worrying,  they can become worried overnight. suddenly sounds bother them or the cat next door, or a scooter... support from their humans can reassure and help them through this.

Sadly this is also the time often recommended ( wrongly ) that neutering will “fix” all this natural behaviour. It won’t, in some cases it will secure the very behaviours we are trying to "fix". They need the develpment of these hormonal changes to secure physical and emotional health and also to have the wherewithall to manage their behaviours.

Testing boundaries helps to sort out how safe they are. How reliable their caregivers are.

They are not trying to be boss or dominate you. Quite the opposite actually. The behaviour is to ensure YOU are a reliable guide. So any rough harsh treatment can harm that relationship and cause fears. I read so often " he is dominating you , be the alpha" apart from there being no such domineering role - and showing the advisors total ignorance  of how we should support our dogs, nothing could be further from the truth. Your dog is feeling confused and wants family guidance and support, yes boundaries are vital, but with kindness and guidance, not force or fear (for a dog, even a harsh NO can be devastating for their trusting relationship with you). 

It is at this time that the neurobiology of the teen dog is at its busiest. Like humans, young dogs have super neuroplasicity to their brains. Every single thing they come cross is filed, it is why they need so much rest time, and why on a busy day without enough calm processing time they literally lose their minds in zoomies!

Every bit of learning builds a pathway. Every time the pathway of that learning is used it strengthens and is more likely to get selected again. Pathways that are not used (rehearsed) become dormant. It is why positive learnng is so effective, every positive connection to the learing pathway makes it much more likely to be selected. Training with our puppies aims to positively buld wanted pathways and leave the not wanted ones dormant.

In the Teen brain filing they review every pathway, positive or not, used or not, and decide how useful it will be as an adult (obviously not quite like us going through our old paperwork!). Even the ones that are underused. if that seems appealing or may get what they want effectively (remember the attention seeking?) then they try it out, and the more it is worthwhile the more it grows.

We need to work with them , ask ourselves what are they aiming to achieve with this behaviour - the demanding attention seeking sure is NOT  that they want to dominate you or take over your world.... how will they get fed, get water, go out in the world to have fun, have a safe place to sleep, we provide and  control  EVERY  one of their basic needs , they wont risk that by taking our usefulness away!

So often the main complaint of teen dogs is that they fail to listen, dont come back, are too interested in playing (remember the connection with human teens, sound familiar?)The recall disappearing is the need to test independence. They don’t know it’s important to stay close they have no idea of the dangers or of the rudeness of approaching others uninvited.

So we need to work even harder now to make coming back and staying close way way more important than the independence.We need to go back to the puppy learning and long lines are recommended . We need to make coming back (in fact ALL listening and engaging with us and others)  fun, safe and essential FOR THEM. It is up to us to really work on this now or they WILL lose it, they will keep the "run and have fun", and they will ditch the come back (listen and "obey)  and be bored. Adult Dogs with poor recall have usually lost it at this age becuase coming back was not worthwhile.

In fact ALL  the learning you want in place needs revisiting now and secured over the next 8m to a year, consistently, patiently and working with what motivates YOUR dog.

Dogs that are unmotivated or bored or feel unsafe become attention seeking and as that works, because we give them attention, negative attention works as well as positive attention at building the pathway the dog is seeking, but it is not the one we want, they will rehearse and repeat! This is often where the humping behaviour becomes really effective, it gets rid of the anxiety of not knowing expectations clearly, it deals with the resulting rising hormones fed by anxiety and it builds pathways that make them feel good. It is  the same for biting, brattish demanding behaviours. We need to look at what they are saying , and how we can build the pathways we DO want at the same time as guiding them safely.

Training is actually more important for them now than it was as a puppy. It needs to be fun, short sessions and worthwhile. They need to engage and buy in to it, look forward to it and respond positively to our positivity.  The brain will then be able to enable them to write the pathways we DO want, the pathways that make them polite and engaging fun attentive calm adults. Pathways are built with lots of use and practice. Whether we want it or not. So practice what you WANT to grow it LOTS but also dont let them practice those we want to file away. if they dont use it they wil lose it, good or bad!

We should make sure , like puppies, we provide calm and chill time for all the new learning/filing to be processed. It is more effective with play, and quality sleep and rest.

Often Teens get into trouble because they become super inventive to keep themselves learning and busy.So we need to provide that too. Lots of enrichment and fun games can make all the difference... but that is a different Blog entirely !

.

Pets, Stress and Us - International Summit

On Saturday 20th July I was privileged to tune into a virtual summit from international speakers on how stress impacts our pets and us. It was specifically targeted at the impact of Covid on our own stress and how we feel and behave follows through to our animals and what we can do to support both species.

It was fascinating, and mentally engaging.

 I engaged in sessions by Ian Billinghurst (the father of whole model raw feeding) and Dr Judy Morgan a wholistic nutritionist - Nutrition and Stress.

Behavioural Health - Isla Fishburn (Kachina Wellness -animals as energetic beings) and Malena di Martini(Separation Issues) .

Herbs and adaptogens for stress -Sue Armstrong and Jean Hofve

Shamanic Wisdom Ceromony - Isla Fishburn.

The overall message is that we have a degree of control over the stress we take on and how we deal with it, both mindfully, as well as with a range of supportive approaches, and these approaches apply to our support for the animals we share our lives with.

When considering nurtrition and stress there wasa an agreement that the quality of an overal diet is very important. That it should be fresh, for animals preferably whole and raw, this was recognised as being difficult for many pet guardians and so over time , the best that can be managed was advocated.
An interesting view bearing in mind was the impact behaviourally, emotionally and physically of uneccessary carbs in the diet, particularly rice and potatoes. These (and gluten based foods) increase inflammations in the whole body and can contribute not only to skin and gastric allergies, but also behaviourally through the gut brain axis. This up and coming science was a continuing theme throughout. Healthy ingredients enhance the better hormones , the positive feelgood ones. consider the impact of the microbiome and the health of gut bacteria, poor guts create poor emotional health. the place to begin stress management in humans and animals is through diet . 95% of our seratonin is produced in the gut, so to ensure we can access this and transmit it throught the body, the gut should function appropriately. The gut drives mood.

There was an agreement that in the past 4 months the humans  have become fearful and this has caused a general stressed energy within individuals, homes districts and globally. This is something I have been talking about since March, and the potential for a rise in allergy, immune, emotional damage ongoing for us and pets.

The panel recommended regualar check-ins with our animals, to identify any changes in health and behaviour. this could be a general stress response to our rising negative energy, however careful we are.

Emotions are very much Gut related and indeed driven (think comfort eating!) Be aware of the way the raised levels of adrenaline and cortisol are creating health issues for us and that this creates stagnant energy - particularly the liver energy (from a TCM perspective - green leafy veg help with this). Take time to "ground" physically with the earth, the earth connections was a thread throughout the day. Move the energy around to dissapate the negative. Stress shunts nutrition away from the gut, when we are in fearful state digestion is unimportant. Consider the impact of exciteorary foods and htose which are calming, to reduce inflammation and stressful responses.

The panelists are clear that cleaning our toxins are vital, and that we need to be very aware for ourselves and the animals how all the antibacterial chemicals are toxifying our systems, consider liver detox including perhaps the use of milk thistle alongside a clean diet.  cleaning the lymphatic system is vital to reverse toxic stress. dandelion, nettle , and juniper are helpful too, We were reminded to wash off the toxic chemicals regulalry from pets paws and our own bodies.

Isla spoke of the energetic state at cell level. that we are connected energetically each living thing with another , within and without, across the globe and beyond. The immune system is deeply impacted from stress, the sympathetic nervous system kicks in to keep the body that is in danger safe. This puts it into overdrive and hence infalmmation and allergic responses.

How you feel inside impacts how you are expressing outside.

The energy spreads and that incldudes to and from our animals. even the words we use can impact the energy flow. The DNA has been shown to hold consciousness beyond physical bodies. our own energies imprint on the living beings around us and they upon us.

How do we begin to reverse this stress vibrational energy?

Begin with nurtrition, physical wellness, heal the gut to change the energy flow. connect hearts and minds, positively. work with our own energies and mindset. Fresh food contains a higher vibrational energy.

Breatthing techniques can significantly help, breathing in activates the sympathetic nervous system (fight and flight)  , breathing out activates the parasympathetic system (calm, rest digest). Keeping the out breathe longer and pausing the energy can make a huge difference quickly.  Use mindfulness, meditation or just time to connect with nature will raise the energy and vibrational resonance.. Considering movement in the energetic spaces between us and others including pets can lower stress and boost seratonin and higher positives energies. Using a Fig 8 infinity symbol can calm. Stabilising cellular health will stabilise and nurture energies wtihin and without.

Using the energy and vibrational imprints of botanicals can support a calming health state.

Isla suggests using vetiver, nutmeg essential oils and linden blossom hydrosol. Flower essences can really help.

In considering herbal support there was much agreement with nutrition and energetic states as a srong foundation. to patch up when things get out of balance there were recommendations of

Rhodiola, motherwort, passsionflower,  as calming, nurtruing, opening the heart. Ashwaganda and Astralgus, as well as Tulsi (Holy Basil) were considered great options. Teas from the herbs for humans and animals were considered a really great cleansing option. A 2015 study on Tumeric showed  that the impact upon the gut also impacted the brain and mood significantly, consider its use more often.

Movement however is the best mover of cortisol and positive energy booster. This is a good reminder for our fearful animals.

A closing ceremony from Isla was deeply moving and a reminder to connect with the earth through mindulness, meditation and physically to stabilise energies.

It was an inspirng set of sessions. All are currently available on the

Adored Beast FB page

https://www.facebook.com/pg/Adoredbeast/videos/?ref=page_internal

Introducing Ronnie the TIbetan Terrier

Choosing a puppy is a huge responsibility. It’s not a decision to be made on a whim!
Long before you bring a puppy home you need to do a lot of research.
Think about your lifestyle and your expectations for having a dog. Find the breed/mix/rescue type  that works for you. Do the research into the breed or the mixes. What are their strengths and challenges as a breed? Have you had one like this before or know someone with this kind of dog?

We have had Tibetan Terriers for almost 10 years this was to be our 4th.  We know a lot about their amazing personalities, quirks, challenges and the delights of their special ways. TT are not an easy dog choice, but loyal and clever and fun.  They suit us well.

So once we decided to add back to our furry family we needed to find a puppy from a good breeder who is commited to healthy pups with great temperaments.   It’s a big responsibility. Understanding a little about the breeds hip scores, eye tests and other inherited conditions is important. Expect the breeder to discuss this.

So here he is. About to join us and Lola.

This blog is about how Ronnie settles in and gets used to this, his forever family and learns from big “sister” Lola,. A warts and all account, with tips and guidance as well as hopefully some fun!