How are you?

How are you?

How many people ask this question of us, and how many actually want to know exactly how we feel – so we have the all encompassing comments

“Oh, I’m fine”

Illness, pain, discomfort- either emotional or physical is often embarrassing inconvenient or we really don’t feel it’s appropriate to unload.

Our dogs, and horses are different, they have nothing to hide from us, but we can put a different reading on behaviour which highlights pain.

It’s easy to believe there is a solution that does not involve long term attention on our part-this is not always due to wanting a quick solution, it could be due to time issues, very few people have lots of time to sit down and think about the history of what they see in front of them. And then there is social media, it is easy to fire off a quick question into a favourite group and take the easiest way out.

Some groups are fabulous-I have read comments to posts and have no desire to add anything because the members have been so knowledgeable

But when I am looking at a horse or dog and see pain issues I wonder if I can actually explain what I am seeing.

I often see discomfort, people looking away, people looking slightly angry or I encounter comments like

“Nobody has ever mentioned this before” (My thoughts as this is spoken are-they should have)

“He was running around only this morning” - ( dogs are notoriously bad at not joining in a run with their friends or running after a ball – they are addicted to joy-it is only when they get home that things become uncomfortable after the adrenaline has dropped to normal and the pain makes itself known)

Or with horses-but he competed last weekend-he won his class-he was fine.

I am a trained observer amongst everything else I do. I watch, a lot.

I am sometimes disinclined to tell the entire story unless people are really invested in putting things right for their dogs/ horses.

Training is not a substitute for the truth. Pain can be covered up—it’s the “I’m fine” equivalent but it won’t stick. Things will unravel at some point because pain is like that it is impatient, persistant and it escalates if it is ignored

I am a bodyworker, support behaviour issues in dogs and coach horses and their people-I don’t see dead people ( I probably shouldn’t use that quote as I have never seen that film) but I do see pain.

Please observe your dog or horse when things change and then get someone who understands movement, emotion and behaviour to watch alongside you.

This is who I am. Do you have a horse or dog and need help? Give me a call - or use the contact form.