Pet Therapy
MY sister has a sticker in her kitchen which reads, ‘After The Dinner Rush I’m Having a Breakdown, I’ve Worked For It, I’ve Earned It and I Deserve It’. I thought I could adopt this ethos as my own. As a very busy working mum, I felt entitled to my own meltdown, if not a breakdown. However in our house the dog got in first. To add to the chaos of children, work, household chores, husband working long hours, we decided to get a dog. Not just any dog - but an overly lively, almost mental, Springer Spaniel, who has now been diagnosed with OCD, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
After the hectic term times, driving child hither and tither? cooking, cleaning, washing, working and more running around, this is something I just don’t need. I’m used to having to put the family first, but now even the dog is getting in on the act. The pet behaviourist suggested we wear her out by cycling four miles a day with the dog running alongside us. So once again, putting aside the fact that in my leisure time, if not having a breakdown, I’d like to read a book or watch a movie, I am instead donning bike clips and helmet in preparation for a gruelling cycle in a light drizzle.
The reason we had to call in an expert was to help with Coco the dog’s fairly constant barking. As a Springer Spaniel she’s prone to being a bit hyper and very territorial and the neighbours were understandably getting a bit fed up with her regular outbursts. Over th summer months, they were using their garden more than Coco was used to, and it was driving her, well… barking mad. Nothing we did, keeping her in, locking her out, distracting her with food or toys, would stop the incessant barking.
So we had to succumb to paying the fee and getting in an expert, a pet behaviourist. My husband, Vincent, initially scoffed at the idea. The only dog expert in his eyes is the vet and you only used them if the dog had to be put down. He grew up in Wexford and his family dog, Caesar, was left to come and go as he pleased with the other neighbourhood dogs. There was none of this ‘whose taking the dog for a walk?’ he walked himself. But things have changed for family pets over the years and now they are not only catered for by behaviourists and psychologists but there is also animal acupuncture, homeopathy and pet haute couture from a company in Co. Cavan. This is not just for Hollywood, but our own Emerald Isle.
Richard and Kay Keenan from County Carlow provide Magnetic Healing Therapy for pets. Richard says this is particularly effective for horses and dogs who benefit from they way he believes the magnets’ affect blood flow and supplement the body’s own healing energy. “It’s a bit like Catholicism,” says Richard, “a mystery but it seems to work. An animal can’t tell you if they are in pain, they can’t speak to you. But we have found dogs get on brilliantly with the magnetic collar, many pick up and are perkier than ever.”
Richard became interested in magnetic healing after his father read reports about how magnets were used in Canada to help with crop growing. Upon further investigation Richard found magnetic energy was also used for treating aches and pains due to the way it reacts to the bodies’ physiology. He says that our bodies are already influenced by the Earths energy field and utilising the magnets produces natural healing called bionorth magnetic energy.
“Of course I can’t prove it works”, says Richard, “but I have seen excellent results on pets and it worked wonders on our own Spaniel. People complain that their dogs are too full of energy after they have used the products. Some people will be sceptical but the fact is that people are committed to conventional drugs that often have side effects. This is a gentle form of treatment that has no side effects and is the kindest therapy you can give an animal.” Richard and Kay sell magnetic collars for €35 each, used for fighting infection and reducing pain. They also provide magnetic cushions, which he believes, can calm and stabilise your pet for €70.
Further to such holistic treatments, perhaps your pampered pouch could benefit from a course of Reiki. This ancient healing massage is said to benefit animals, according to Carolyn McKittrick who runs a busy clinic called Different Strokes in Portaferry, Co Down. “All living things need energy to survive and as living beings we all absorb energy all the time. This is true of animals too. Reiki is a form of energy that travels through the person giving it to replenish positive energy in the person receiving it. It is like a life force from a higher source.”
At this point I could find myself becoming somewhat cynical about the actual positive benefits to pets of such a treatment. I can imagine how soothing, and therefore beneficial, it might be for a human, but my mad dog? My mad barking dog? Carolyn listens to the problems we’ve been having with her and says she believes that Reiki can help and that an experienced practitioner doesn’t even need to be in the room to send healing. We agree a time when she and her husband Don will send Coco Reiki healing. At the specified time agreed, I observed nothing out of the ordinary, Coco lay on her mat, jumped up regularly for a good bark, although unusually she wondered over to me for a bit of affection. Then, nothing, which is what I expected. However half an hour after the Reiki, Coco is flat out on the mat, snoring loudly, with four legs up in the air. A more relaxed dog you can not imagine, it’s almost comical. Coincidence, maybe.
Carolyn says, “How do I know works? Feed back from clients who all say that their pets benefit, many come back again which is a good sign. Sometimes a pet will just be off colour, not her usual happy self, but if a vet can’t find something wrong, what can an owner do? I treated a cat who was depressed, the other family cat had just died and she became morose and was off her food. The vet found nothing wrong but the owner was worried so I went to see her. After an hour’s treatment, which costs £35, the cat went in to a deep sleep. The owner later contacted me to say she was her old self again. I really believe this works, you may start a sceptic, but after you’ve tried it you know something has happened.”
And what of Coco, the mad Springer, four months after the pet behaviourists visit, still barking mad? Well, she is able to sit in the car now without going ballistic as we followed the advice about regular, short trips to the park. She doesn’t bark as much at neighbours as we’ve given her tasks to do, like hunt-the-food. We were instructed to hide her dinner round the garden and let her explore to find it, it’s slightly more inconvenient then emptying a tin into a bowl, but it seems to help. If she starts her OCD behaviour, which is repetitively running up and down, then we distract her with training games. One of the most useful tips was to hide a bit of food in a ball and let her get it out. This keeps her busy for hours. And aside from that, the idea is to wear her out with as much exercise as possible. So there I am on a bike, off for a four mile ride, I’m not so sure it’s working for Coco, but I’m exhausted.
Even so I don’t see why it is that I’m cycling to and fro when it’s the dog who’s having the breakdown. And as we scatter the tinned over the back yard as instructed by the behaviourist, having got up an hour earlier than usual for the bike ride, I wonder if the dog is aware of the words of wisdom from Malcolm in the Middle, You’re not the boss of me now’. Or indeed is she?