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Best Life Dog Services
เข้าร่วมเมื่อ 19 ก.พ. 2021
Gabrielle Johnson, CDBC, BS
Best Life Dog Services
Specializing in nervous system dysregulation (anxiety disorders, trauma, hyper- and hypo-arousal, chronic stress) and aggression
Working with clients worldwide 🌎💻🐶
Best Life Dog Services
Specializing in nervous system dysregulation (anxiety disorders, trauma, hyper- and hypo-arousal, chronic stress) and aggression
Working with clients worldwide 🌎💻🐶
Cyan in Photos
Cyan was born to a very young mama dog living on a chain. When my mother-in-law said the puppies had to leave at only four weeks old, Cyan was the last one without a place to go. So when I picked up Spock, and the puppies I had found homes for, I took Cyan, too.
Initially, I thought maybe he was deaf. Then I started crying when it became clear he was simply ignoring me. At four weeks old. Spock came running when I clapped my hands and made pup-pup-puppy sounds, but not Cyan. He was in his own world, enchanted by the smells and adventures of the living room.
I was 18 and thought he hated me. When Cyan and Spock started crying to get out of the crate in the mornings I would put them in bed with me, only half-awake, and go back to sleep. Cyan would crawl onto my face. His tiny puppy nails caught on the bar my fresh industrial piercing. It took months longer than it should have to lose the sore, sensitive, red bumps around the holes.
A couple of months later, I lost sight of the puppies. A whole party of people wouldn’t keep their hands off of him, I thought I could step inside for a burger. When I came out moments later my 4-month-old puppies were gone. We found them a quarter mile up the road nipping at the ankles of the neighbor’s cows. The cows were unbothered.
I didn’t know that all dogs weren’t free fed. Spock and Jolene ate until satiated; Cyan ate for the joy of it and was a bit chunky in his earlier years.
At a year and a half, Cyan slipped out of his harness on a hike at Petersburg Battlefield. We had pulled off to the side of the trail as a line of horses passed. Cyan fell in line behind them and started trotting.
We moved from Maryland to Virginia to Hawaii back to Maryland to Virginia.
I worked at Canine Adventure, hiking with dogs 5 days a week, often two times a day, filling the time in between with half hour midday walks. Cyan would come to work. He got along with everyone. He rock hopped on the James. He rode around the city, making friends everywhere he went.
We explored beaches, trails, mountain towns, the river, the sound.
He frustrated me. I didn’t understand why he didn’t just do what I wanted him to do, like Jolene, and Spock, and Amore. In the years we spent living with two groups of dogs, when Amore and Jolene couldn’t be together anymore, he would whine at the gate when he felt left out.
I was healing. I came to know and understand myself better, I came to understand behavior, unpacked notions of respect and entitlement, I changed my views on morality.
I learned to appreciate just how good Cyan was at being a dog. Instead of feeling frustrated, I started to revel in his selective hearing, his passion for following a scent or rolling in something dead or poopy or best - both.
Once he hopped out of the car at a Sniffspot, and without a moment’s hesitation, ran down to a swampy corner section, and disappeared into the muck only to return 30 seconds later holding a dead snapping turtle.
He taught me about following your bliss, about setting your own course, about how the best and most loving relationships make your life richer through mutual joy and collaboration, rather than trying to shrink one’s world or demand compliance. He taught me about loving life. He made me reassess my priorities.
We had our moments - but Cyan didn’t frustrate me anymore after that. Not like he used to. He was my baby and my teacher.
Cyan was a foster brother for dozens of shelter dogs. He was the first real friend for dozens of dog-selective or dog-aggressive dogs. He helped hundreds of dogs feel safe over the years.
After a second knee surgery around 8 years old, which revealed that the first one had been poorly executed, he found a new wellness in his body. Suddenly he was FASTER. He killed his first bunny in our backyard and from that moment on he became an avid hunter.
He took trips to West Virginia and Pennsylvania to hike in the mountains, North Carolina to play on the beach, Louisiana for Mardi Gras.
Cyan was persistent, passionate, creative, brilliant, and joy-oriented. He was only 8% plott hound, according to his Embark test, but I used to joke it was his whole personality.
We stayed at an Air BnB with a near-vertical mountain face on one side of the property. I watched Cyan scurry up and down, at 13 years old, as if part mountain goat.
Cyan would have been 15 in just 5 weeks. We were going to take a trip to the mountains to celebrate. Cyan was still putting down 3-5 miles a week on average, sometimes as many as 7 as recently as last month!
He played hard, he loved hard, he ate good food, he followed his nose and his heart. He was a very good boy, and he made me a better person. My heart is broken. But how lucky I am to have had something worth missing so very much.
I love you, Cyan, to the moon and back, always and forever.
Initially, I thought maybe he was deaf. Then I started crying when it became clear he was simply ignoring me. At four weeks old. Spock came running when I clapped my hands and made pup-pup-puppy sounds, but not Cyan. He was in his own world, enchanted by the smells and adventures of the living room.
I was 18 and thought he hated me. When Cyan and Spock started crying to get out of the crate in the mornings I would put them in bed with me, only half-awake, and go back to sleep. Cyan would crawl onto my face. His tiny puppy nails caught on the bar my fresh industrial piercing. It took months longer than it should have to lose the sore, sensitive, red bumps around the holes.
A couple of months later, I lost sight of the puppies. A whole party of people wouldn’t keep their hands off of him, I thought I could step inside for a burger. When I came out moments later my 4-month-old puppies were gone. We found them a quarter mile up the road nipping at the ankles of the neighbor’s cows. The cows were unbothered.
I didn’t know that all dogs weren’t free fed. Spock and Jolene ate until satiated; Cyan ate for the joy of it and was a bit chunky in his earlier years.
At a year and a half, Cyan slipped out of his harness on a hike at Petersburg Battlefield. We had pulled off to the side of the trail as a line of horses passed. Cyan fell in line behind them and started trotting.
We moved from Maryland to Virginia to Hawaii back to Maryland to Virginia.
I worked at Canine Adventure, hiking with dogs 5 days a week, often two times a day, filling the time in between with half hour midday walks. Cyan would come to work. He got along with everyone. He rock hopped on the James. He rode around the city, making friends everywhere he went.
We explored beaches, trails, mountain towns, the river, the sound.
He frustrated me. I didn’t understand why he didn’t just do what I wanted him to do, like Jolene, and Spock, and Amore. In the years we spent living with two groups of dogs, when Amore and Jolene couldn’t be together anymore, he would whine at the gate when he felt left out.
I was healing. I came to know and understand myself better, I came to understand behavior, unpacked notions of respect and entitlement, I changed my views on morality.
I learned to appreciate just how good Cyan was at being a dog. Instead of feeling frustrated, I started to revel in his selective hearing, his passion for following a scent or rolling in something dead or poopy or best - both.
Once he hopped out of the car at a Sniffspot, and without a moment’s hesitation, ran down to a swampy corner section, and disappeared into the muck only to return 30 seconds later holding a dead snapping turtle.
He taught me about following your bliss, about setting your own course, about how the best and most loving relationships make your life richer through mutual joy and collaboration, rather than trying to shrink one’s world or demand compliance. He taught me about loving life. He made me reassess my priorities.
We had our moments - but Cyan didn’t frustrate me anymore after that. Not like he used to. He was my baby and my teacher.
Cyan was a foster brother for dozens of shelter dogs. He was the first real friend for dozens of dog-selective or dog-aggressive dogs. He helped hundreds of dogs feel safe over the years.
After a second knee surgery around 8 years old, which revealed that the first one had been poorly executed, he found a new wellness in his body. Suddenly he was FASTER. He killed his first bunny in our backyard and from that moment on he became an avid hunter.
He took trips to West Virginia and Pennsylvania to hike in the mountains, North Carolina to play on the beach, Louisiana for Mardi Gras.
Cyan was persistent, passionate, creative, brilliant, and joy-oriented. He was only 8% plott hound, according to his Embark test, but I used to joke it was his whole personality.
We stayed at an Air BnB with a near-vertical mountain face on one side of the property. I watched Cyan scurry up and down, at 13 years old, as if part mountain goat.
Cyan would have been 15 in just 5 weeks. We were going to take a trip to the mountains to celebrate. Cyan was still putting down 3-5 miles a week on average, sometimes as many as 7 as recently as last month!
He played hard, he loved hard, he ate good food, he followed his nose and his heart. He was a very good boy, and he made me a better person. My heart is broken. But how lucky I am to have had something worth missing so very much.
I love you, Cyan, to the moon and back, always and forever.
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Very good information - thank you for sharing. Excellent explanations.
What a beautiful tribute. I hope you are finding peace.
Thanks for the explanation!! Definitely helped me understand what treat and retreat is supposed to look like/how it's supposed to go.
Such an insightful video! Understanding when to take control is crucial, and this content is really valuable. However, I noticed that despite the quality of information, the views and subscriber count seem quite low. There might be some SEO, visibility, or engagement issues affecting the reach. I’ve identified a few key areas that could improve this-let me know if you’d like to learn more.
Anyone facing BE should have their dogs thyroid levels checked. Medicine really helped my dog, though he could never be trusted. Recently it was suggested that thyroids can be removed to avoid thyroid storms then just use the pills to supplement This was never suggested to us, but it would have been an interesting option. Hypothyroidism and thyroid storms combined are exceedingly rare and doctors only read about it, if they've ever heard of it at all
It is odd Google suggested this video to me after my dog passed of old age and I was told yo BE him by many people. The guilt and stress of both choices. We had privilege to keep him till the end. He was a sweet soul. Thank you for this video at this time in my life.
My dog had a neurological attack when he was about 1.5 years old. For maybe 12 hours he seemed on the brink of death and then just suddenly was fine, accept he became aggressive to strangers, especially men. He bit several people. We were told to put him down. We spent thousands on training him and sent him to board with a trainer who trains police dogs, but it wasn't a training issue. He was perfect with us at home and was fine with 99 people out of a 100, but that 100th person... He wouldn't growl or do any warning signals. He would jump straight at throats. Pretty much the same thing with dogs. We were either fired by trainers, could see the trainers had no clue, or the trainer could never get him to act badly because he liked the trainers. He had to be muzzled to leave the house. We were living outside the US and all the yards have a 7ish ft tall wall around the house. So we could keep him home and feel pretty safe he wouldn't escape the yard. The people who were bit were people that relatives let in the yard without warning me. It created a ton of tension between us and family. We didn't have many visitors. It was stressful for everyone. We would take the dog on drives as it was just too stressful to walk him in our large city and country with stray dogs everywhere. We played ball with him all the time, but it was sad for him. He loved hiking. As he aged he started having more neurological events and recently passed. We are pretty sure he had hypothyroidism with thyroid storms. The first storm did something to change his brain and the last storm took him in his sleep. It was just nice to hear someone talk about how hard all the options are and all the guilt - also the privilege. I'm a SAHM in a country with concrete walls around my yard and people still got bit and no one reported him. If we had moved back to the US we probably would have had to put him down, which is part of why we never moved. We were very privelged. We could also have given those thousands of dollars to people living in real third world poverty and it felt wrong spending the money on the dog... Sigh... It was hard No one can say what is right or wrong, if they aren't living it. In the US especially i can imagine it being hard to afford the medical testing and training, plus the liability if someone was seriously injured and living with that guilt... Oof... I can't imagine. Scholarship funds to help families access these services would be wonderful.
Nice video
Thank you!
How great. I like your attitude.
I have a dog who is hyper attached to me and I do want him to be more independent. I do leave him with a neighbor who also has a similar size and breed dog, when I have to work at the office and that was working well to have him more independent. But then I went on a 18 day holiday and since coming home my dog is much more clingy to me. My neighbor said he was very depressed when I was gone and I shouldn’t do such a trip again without him. I thought he was becoming more independent but I seem to have made him regress a lot. While my neighbor loves my dog, I know she’s not as attentive or sensitive to when he tries to communicate with her or anticipating what his needs might be. Perhaps if I find other people who can read my dog like I can, he won’t be as dependent on me.
This depends wholly on the veterinarian. Some veterinarians will not perform behavioral no matter what, even with aggressive dogs. Others will depending on what is going on. One veterinarian would euthanize for any unprovoked bite on a child. Most want behavioral due to sanitary problems later… like they don’t want to crate, but they get annoyed about accidents in the house. For some reason a lot of people think it is more humane to euthanize than to adopt… it’s really weird. I do think taking to shelters need de-stigmatized. I hate that people view all shelters negatively.
@@lissakaye610 often on these cases we (we often being a behavior consultant and often a veterinary behaviorist) have been in communication with and working collaboratively with the primary care vet. These are often cases of risk or quality of life, not convenience. When the primary care vet will not euthanize it is often the case that we find another vet. Rescues and shelters are another issue entirely. The bar is a lot higher for dogs who do not already have a family invested in their care. Adopting out dangerous dogs or dogs who will require extreme resources to support them behaviorally is unethical and often means euthanasia is the kindest thing. To do otherwise is often to outsource the decision to BE to the family, which is often traumatic, and often comes after great emotional and physical harm has been done.
It's a shame that an opposing point of view can't be posted.
@@audaciousred what do you mean?
I disagree with this practice so I tried to comment twice (because I noticed the first one didn't post) and was Shadow banned. Typical yt bs, that's why I rarely comment anymore
@@audaciousred ... there's nothing about that which would be censored by youtube. maybe go outside, yea?
Make your own video then. 🤷♀️
@@voidsnail yt removes comments randomly, if you ever try to post anything long it disappears a lot
What is he being yrain for, so us people that dont know
@@donnagriffin-balfour7611 this dog has a dysregulated nervous system, specifically, she struggles with hyperarousal.
When i was about 1 and a half years old, my mom switched her focus to my new baby brother. Introducing the concept of resource guarding, jealousy, competition, envy, hatred, rivalry into our lives and family. We fought bitterly until he got bigger than me. Now as an adult i can see that my mom always has a big black dog that guards resources and dominates her other dogs. 4 different ones all in succession. She cultivates and encourages these spirits. I say that because she holds space for this bullying to happen at the expense of others, while denying that it's happening, and consciously preventing all attempts of remedies. There's always a deficit and deep seeded sense of lack and the very real toils of working towards a goal without ever seeing the harvest. Like anything of perceived value being snatched in spite. Not just in dogs. In the environment, in the people, in the unseen. I hate it.
Ooof. That’s heavy my friend. I think you bring up a really important point about how the way we as people perceive the world, think of ourselves, think of others, and how we hold our relationships is often reflected in how we engage with our dogs. I often see with my clients that engaging in behavior therapy with our dogs means unpacking a lot of our own conceptions and values. It can bring us a lot of freedom, if we are willing to do the work. ❤
Super cool! What should we do instead of asking for other behaviors? Is it more about teaching them what they are not supposed to be doing?
@@nicholasweller4818 great question! We answer this in the video posted next - check it out! It is not about teaching them what not to do - it’s about reducing stress, changing emotion, building resilience through positive experiences and building agency, and building self-regulating skills like taking space, and engaging in behaviors that lower stress physiologically like sniffing.
I'm happy Shadow has a safe human to guide him along on his own journey while still allowing him to explore freely on his own.❤
Fantastic video! I know this is anecdotal and every case will differ, but for my boy, there was a mix of pain, past trauma, vitamin deficiency, as well as exposure to allergens that were heavily contributing to his anxiety. Training him not to bark at everything was impossible without tackling the bulk of these underlying issues first and reassuring him that this new environment was safe. Our vet did prescribe trazodone for a time and it helped immensely with his separation anxiety and ability to exist outside without screaming, but it was tackling the underlying issues that allowed us to truly move forward.
Absolutely! The behaviors we view as problematic are symptoms of an underlying need that’s going unmet, whether that’s a sense of safety, underlying pain or medical issues, agency, under-satiated needs, etc. Thank you for sharing!
I love that you care so much! Wish more dog owners paid attention!❤
@@karenl6479 awww that’s very kind. I definitely have an advantage since this is what I do for work!
This is such a great video. I feel as if we (My Andy and I) have been practicing a great deal to establish some calm, balance, safety, and belonging since the beginning of our journey together, without any proper understanding of each other. Thank you for helping us along the way by providing clarity. I look forward to exploring your content further.
My dog was just prescribed adequan and I've never given him a shot before, so this is EXTREMELY helpful! Thank you so so much, we've already started practicing with the pen. It seemed like you had a verbal cue (touch?) for when you were about to poke them/in the process of poking them - is that right?
Guarantied whatever you point at as the first city actually isn't those are long buried and forgotten.
It’s just a trending sound, I think from something satirical.
I need to know more about space
I think there should be a way to help people instead of hurt them
If you stop punishment, then why should I care about laws and why would I be nice if I could get everything for free.
If you’re only being nice to avoid punishment I think that’s the thing to address.
@@bestlifedogservices5257 Nonetheless; people could just pretend to learn from their actions, what happens then they just keep doing it?
@@thegreenrabbit2737 The answer to your question is a big one - but a quick version that I give my dog training clients is that punishment *may* suppress behavior, but doesn’t address the underlying function of the behavior. And the fall out is significant - in dogs we see increased anxiety, aggression, apathy, learned helplessness, and aversion to associated stimuli. The questions we should be asking are - who is incarcerated (more likely to be Black, Brown, or Indigenous, poor or living in poverty, disabled)? Why are they incarcerated? (Most “crimes” are related to poverty and trauma). What is the outcome (recidivism rates are high - we know the justice system doesn’t heal, but in fact compounds trauma)? Who does this benefit? (The prison industrial complex is multi billion dollar industry). And what do people and their communities really need to heal? The resources I list in the video are a good place to introduce yourself to some of these concepts.
@@bestlifedogservices5257 You are misinterpreting what punishment means, while yes punishment does affect all negatively. It doesnt mean that the punishment itself is negative. If you are refusing to give your dog a treat because of any reason. That dog would interpret that as a punishment while you see it as reason. Punishment is the reason we don’t use drugs or stuff our faces because we will feel bad about it. When you were a kid, you probably cried or felt bad or had some kind negative response to being told you can’t do this or that. Even when you were older and told that you can’t go out. Now that doesn’t mean abuse either. Of course no one is for abuse, physical or mental. I will also give you this kind of situation where someone came and cut off your leg. Now they claimed that they had traumatic experiences where their leg is abused as well. Now while that explains why, that doesn’t mean that they can just run off. They need to be punished. Weather in a prison or a mental institution. (Also yes people that have been put in mental institutions against their will describe it as a prison most times, even willing people).
@@bestlifedogservices5257 also how do prisons make these billions of dollars if they are free to enter.
Cute 🐕 🐕 dog
u8jcjjdjxjxhxhnx not c just called you and I just left one day can nmcj
Ok. I’m convinced. Of all the trainers I have read books by, followed on social media, watched on TH-cam etc… your whole outlook and energy is by far the most impressive to me! Thank you for what you do. 🙏🏽
Whooohoooo!!!!
This is fantastic, thank you!! Great info and resource
Mariah is amazing! <3