0:00

Welcome to the Soul Touched by

0:02

Dogs Podcast, the show for

0:05

dog lovers who see dogs not

0:07

as toys or tools, but wise

0:09

souls worth our respect and

0:11

care. I'm an Herrmann, and

0:13

I'm your host. I talk to poor

0:16

some humans, people who

0:18

do great work for dogs and their people.

0:21

So come and join us for today's conversation.

0:25

Hello and welcome, Katie. I'm very

0:27

excited to have you here.

0:29

Hi, thanks very much for having me. It's a great opportunity.

0:32

Thank you.

0:33

Well, as we always do,

0:35

let's go and start

0:37

out with giving people

0:39

like the two minutes bird's eye overview.

0:41

So where in this lovely world are you based and

0:45

what's your business

0:45

for dogs? So,

0:48

uh, yeah, so I am based in the UK,

0:50

in the Midlands, just outside of Nottingham, and

0:53

I am a canine massage therapist,

0:55

something not everybody's heard of, but, uh,

0:58

yeah, it's a great job to have. I

1:00

love

1:01

it, I love it. I mean, to be

1:03

honest, I had not heard of it

1:05

either. Before, um,

1:07

I came across an ad, actually

1:10

Facebook ad of like, Edward, Dr.

1:12

Ed, you know, and so I

1:14

was like, Oh my God, what is this? So when

1:16

then, when we got in touch and I realized like,

1:18

Oh, so you've trained with him. It's like, Ooh,

1:21

really interesting now. And so anybody

1:23

listening, if you were on the Panic

1:25

Turkey Summit, Dr. Ed was on there. So here

1:28

you've got somebody who actually. Uh,

1:30

trained with him. So I'm curious about

1:33

how did you get started with

1:35

that? And then how, you know, what

1:37

happened for you to say, well, actually, I'm going to turn

1:39

that into, into my,

1:41

into my work? Yeah.

1:47

So, um, obviously

1:49

I have a dog like a lot of people. Most of the people actually

1:53

all got into it because of their dog. Um,

1:55

my dog was aged four when she was

1:58

diagnosed with hip dysplasia and arthritis.

2:00

I was like, this, this can't be happening. This isn't, you know,

2:02

it's not the plan for my life or for hers, quite

2:05

frankly. You know, one minute we're doing agility

2:07

and running around doing long walks and then the vet's saying,

2:09

well, that's it. Can it? You're not going to happen.

2:12

Um, so I started looking around to see what I could

2:14

do to help her as she kind of grew old.

2:16

This can be quick. Oops. Um,

2:19

And I started looking at individual courses and

2:21

I came across Canine Massage and it

2:24

was just, I remember kind of, it's

2:26

almost like being in a Lion, Witch

2:28

and the Wardrobe movie and going through the back of the wardrobe

2:30

and there's this whole world out there of dogs and it's like,

2:32

I didn't know it existed. Up

2:35

until that point I thought, you know, if the dog

2:37

has a problem, you go to a vet. I

2:42

realized that there's a whole load more out there. Um,

2:45

so initially I studied with

2:47

a. uh, organisation

2:49

in the south of England, called Galen Therapy Centre.

2:52

That is a very

2:54

clinical based massage. It's

2:56

all around anatomy and physiology and learning

2:59

all about the different body systems, and how all

3:01

the muscles and the bones operate and work

3:03

together. Um, and

3:07

uh, yeah, so I, uh, I studied for two years for that.

3:09

Um, and then it was last year,

3:12

I saw the advert for Whole

3:14

Energy Body Balance by Dr. Edward Bassing Dwight.

3:16

I'm a healing vet, as he's known. Um,

3:19

and I thought, well, you know what? I've done my massage qualification,

3:22

but this really fits with who I am as a person.

3:24

It's very holistic. Um,

3:26

it's, uh, the physical, the emotional

3:29

and everything all rolled in together. Um,

3:31

and I just felt that that gave me

3:33

my business and kind of decided

3:36

then on the direction that I was going to go. So,

3:41

until, uh, kind of end

3:43

of last year, um, I'd been doing

3:45

this part time for a couple of years,

3:47

running it alongside my marketing career. Um,

3:50

and to be honest, you know, I treated friends dogs and

3:52

family dogs and the odd dog here and there, but

3:55

nothing really much had happened. Um,

3:58

and I decided I lost

4:00

my marketing job again. It's the joys

4:02

of being in marketing, you're always first out when there's cost

4:06

cutting exercises. Um,

4:10

and I thought, you know what, I'm going to turn this business.

4:13

Into, you know, full time. And

4:15

I have to say it's one of the best decisions I've ever done.

4:18

Um, just being able to work with dogs

4:20

every day is brilliant. And it's been,

4:22

what was it, November was I started, so

4:25

about five months now. And it's really

4:27

growing. So

4:31

what did you do differently from, you

4:33

know, it's a side hustle. When you decided,

4:35

okay, this is going to be my main gig, what

4:37

did you start doing differently?

4:40

I put all my energy into it. I

4:42

think that was the biggest thing because I was, um,

4:45

trying to still have my marketing

4:47

career on the side. Um, and

4:49

that was taking up an awful lot of my energy.

4:51

It was very stressful. Um,

4:54

was taking up a lot of my, not just my time, but of

4:56

my, my, myself. And I found

4:58

that when I came to my two or three days

5:01

with the dogs, I was just exhausted. Um,

5:04

and so having that time then to just put all

5:06

my energy into. into doing

5:09

the marketing, which is something I kind of know a little

5:11

bit about having had a career in it. Um,

5:15

yeah, it gave me, it gave me that motivation.

5:18

And I think before that I was holding myself

5:20

back. I was like, Oh,

5:22

it's fine. It'll just take off by itself.

5:24

And I actually had to step out of my comfort zone

5:27

and go, right. Yeah, I'm going to do it.

5:30

I love

5:31

that. So, so are

5:34

there, I mean, you know, you're

5:36

the first one to know it's like, okay,

5:38

If you go out and say, well, I can help

5:41

any dog with anything, that's probably going to be hard,

5:43

right? So is there something that you

5:47

focus on, you know, to a particular

5:49

kind of dog, a particular kind of issue?

5:51

What do people come

5:52

to you for? So I

5:54

have a variety of different, uh, dogs that

5:56

I see. Um, I see a lot of,

5:58

uh, dogs with arthritis, dogs that

6:00

are just old age, slowing down generally. Um,

6:03

and it can really help them just

6:05

to put a bit of spring back in their step. Um,

6:08

particularly if they're kind of middle aged, it helps them keep going

6:10

a bit longer without the veterinary meds. And

6:13

for the older dogs, it just brings a bit more comfort in

6:15

their old age. But in addition

6:18

to that, it's, you know, dogs with injuries. I

6:20

had a dog in the other week that had just been

6:23

bashed by a pair of skis on a train platform,

6:25

unfortunately, and it was like, ouch. And

6:27

it just took one session and, you know, young pup,

6:29

and off she went again. There's

6:32

dogs like, uh, my dog that have

6:35

orthopedic conditions like hip dysplasia,

6:37

spondylosis, uh, elbow dysplasia,

6:39

things like that. So I see a lot of those dogs.

6:41

Um, and that's very much kind

6:43

of on the clinical side. It's all these conditions,

6:46

orthopedic conditions, and then the

6:48

whole energy body balance brings, as you know, brings

6:51

in the other side of it, which is then

6:53

working with the reactive and the anxious dogs.

6:56

So you get dogs that are really, really hyper

6:58

and can't switch off, um,

7:01

and the whole energy body balance massage

7:03

really helps to, um, kind

7:05

of get the dog's parasympathetic nervous system

7:07

to kick in. And they then start to learn

7:10

how to self regulate their emotions so they can calm

7:12

themselves down. So for dogs that's

7:14

anxious or reactive, they then

7:16

start, yes, they might still react to this dog or

7:18

this person crossing their path, but

7:20

they calm down so much quicker afterwards.

7:25

That's

7:25

powerful. Yeah, no,

7:27

that is that, that's powerful

7:29

stuff because people always kind of like, oh, how

7:31

can I, you know, distract my dog

7:34

and whatever. So it's like, if they

7:36

can self regulate, that's, that's

7:38

powerful. I think, you know, going too,

7:40

too much, much closer to the source of it or to

7:42

the

7:43

Yeah, it's much better than just kind of putting a sticking

7:46

plaster on it to actually get to the source of the problem

7:48

and help that dog. And hopefully

7:50

they're then living a happier life. Yeah.

7:53

And, you know, and probably your owners will be, you

7:55

know, more relaxed too, like less on edge

7:57

when it, you know, when you're, you know, I, my

8:00

first dog, he got bitten by, you

8:02

know, a dog and then he was always like wary

8:04

of other male dogs in confined

8:06

spaces. He's fine on the beach or any space,

8:09

but, but so, and that was like as a,

8:11

as somebody, me going

8:14

with him, that wasn't always fun. Like if I

8:16

knew there was going to be like, Oh, then

8:18

you're on edge already. Right. So, you

8:20

know, if I know that he can handle

8:22

the situation, everything, you know, everybody

8:25

benefits.

8:27

And that's, I think one of the biggest problems is. is

8:30

as humans, you know, we have

8:32

to put ourselves in that calm position because

8:34

if you know, your dog just picks up on everything.

8:37

Um, they can't help themselves. That's, that's what they do.

8:39

Yeah. And that's what

8:41

we love them for, but you know, you also, you

8:43

can't trick your dog. I would say you can't trick your dog.

8:45

Right. Do you find

8:48

that, you know, when it comes

8:50

to I don't know. I think

8:52

anybody who's ever experienced a massage,

8:54

like, you know, will

8:57

appreciate, you know, how that calms

8:59

you down and how great that feels.

9:02

Do you find that dogs,

9:06

do you ever have, have you ever had a dog who didn't like

9:08

a massage or are they just like melting

9:11

under

9:11

your hands? It varies. Some

9:13

dogs come in and they just collapse and go,

9:15

yep, you do whatever you like. That's

9:18

fine. Other dogs are like, what

9:20

do you think you're doing? You're touching me. I didn't give

9:22

you permission. And

9:24

it's like, okay, this is going to be okay. I

9:30

don't get much hands on work in the first session. I

9:32

spend a lot of time in that first session

9:35

talking with the owners, trying to

9:37

understand a bit about the history, the lifestyle,

9:39

talking through kind of some tips they can do at home and

9:41

things like that, in the hope that the dog is

9:43

then kind of acclimatising to the situation.

9:46

Um, and it's quite often you start

9:49

off very gentle, just with hands on, not

9:51

really doing much work, but just getting them used

9:53

to your touch. Because that intentional

9:56

touch is something very different for the dog. To

9:58

just a stroke and a there, there,

10:00

nice dog pat on the head. Um,

10:02

the dogs sense that there's something different about

10:05

it. And they don't always accept it straight

10:07

away. Um, but generally,

10:09

um, I've never had a dog that didn't settle at all.

10:12

And when they do settle, they tend to settle into

10:14

a much deeper sense of relaxation. So

10:17

there might be, um, you know, appearing kind

10:19

of calm on the outside. But

10:21

once you actually give them a massage, then you can kind of see

10:23

that, you know, the eyes drop, and the head drops,

10:25

and the kind of, the breathing slows, and

10:28

they just collapse then, quite often. And,

10:30

um, most dogs, particularly after their

10:32

first appointment, they go home and they sleep the rest of the day.

10:36

So that's it, they're just exhausted. Oh,

10:38

that's, that's, yeah, that's

10:41

awesome. Like, it feels like after sauna,

10:43

you know, like it's kind of like, oh, and then you just pass

10:45

out for the rest of the day. Is that, is

10:47

that something, I mean, do you send owners

10:49

home with like, okay, you do

10:51

this while you're there before you're coming

10:53

back?

10:55

Yeah, so, um, very

10:57

much it depends on the dog. I send owners home with

10:59

different things depending on the dog. Um,

11:02

there's a calming relaxation

11:04

technique I show people, which

11:06

I show to most people, to be honest, because that

11:08

would help every dog. Regardless

11:10

of whether they're reactive or not, and it's

11:13

also really good for your bond. So

11:15

I show most people that, some people I might show

11:18

a couple of other different techniques depending on their dog

11:20

and what they're presenting. I've sent

11:23

some people home with exercises, just

11:25

to kind of keep their dog flexible and moving,

11:28

or exercise for proprioception.

11:30

So it very much depends on the person, and

11:32

it's trying to read that situation as well and to understand

11:36

What level that owner is going to go to, how much

11:38

time do they have, what is their setup

11:40

like, um, and to kind

11:42

of suggest something that's appropriate.

11:46

Yeah, I

11:46

can imagine. So I mean, is there something,

11:49

um, like common myths you

11:51

find you need to bust all the time or assumptions

11:54

that people have or things that they

11:56

think this is but it isn't or, you

11:58

know, do you do some myth busting?

12:01

Yeah,

12:02

um, I'm

12:04

not sure if it's myth busting, but a lot of

12:06

things that people just don't realize. Um,

12:10

like jumping in and out of a car. For

12:13

dogs, so many dogs do that all day, you

12:15

know, not all day, but, you know, do it frequently.

12:18

And then people just don't realize the impact

12:20

on the dog, um, and

12:22

how, you know, yes, they can jump

12:24

and yes, they're doing it, but it doesn't mean that they should

12:26

be. And actually the pressure on

12:29

those joints as they land, the pressure

12:31

that goes up through the front feet and into the shoulders,

12:34

um, and when they're jumping into this enclosed quite

12:36

often without warming up, um,

12:39

You know, it can cause huge

12:41

issues, um, and I have had dogs that

12:43

came to me and we worked out that the problem

12:46

really was just the fact they were jumping in and out of the car,

12:48

and once we stopped that, the pain disappeared. That's

12:53

a big one. Yeah, I think that's

12:55

one of the common ones, that and, um, ball throwing,

12:58

um, the good old tennis ball, particularly

13:01

the ones that have the, the chucker. Oh,

13:03

okay. The dogs running at full

13:05

speed, quite often they jump up

13:07

in the air and catch the ball and they twist and they turn

13:09

and they land. And they're doing all that

13:11

at speed, so if you think about, if you slow it down and

13:13

actually watch a video of a dog doing it, you can kind of

13:16

see the, uh, the impact reverberate

13:18

up the arms, um, or if they

13:20

jump it, catching it to the legs, sometimes in

13:22

the air, sometimes they land on their back legs, um,

13:25

catching it, and that, um, yeah, huge

13:28

amount of pressure through the joints. It's also teaching

13:30

a kind of an obsessive compulsive behavior,

13:33

um, for a dog that has that tendency

13:35

to be anxious or reactive, it

13:38

can make them worse. That

13:41

makes sense

13:42

and I can totally see because I get, I hear

13:44

this a lot where people go, Oh, you know, they're

13:47

nervous. So they need more exercise and

13:49

people will be more likely to do more

13:51

of that, to sort of wear the dog out because

13:53

you know, there's like, Oh, a good dog, a tired dog

13:56

is a good dog. And I don't think that's not my

13:58

experience. Like that

13:59

doesn't. I mean, a tired dog

14:02

is generally a much better behaved dog,

14:04

but it's better to tire them out using

14:06

their brain. I'd

14:09

be throwing a tennis ball. them

14:12

because they're physically exhausted but they're wired.

14:14

They're in that chase, that hunt, they're in their

14:16

prey mode. I know dogs aren't designed

14:19

to do that continually, you

14:21

know, keep throwing the ball, throwing the ball, throwing the ball.

14:23

In the wild, dog will go out on the chase, they kill

14:26

the, kill the prey and that'll be the hunt done

14:28

and they then rest and eat. Um,

14:31

so you're much better if you want to calm your dog down to find

14:33

some brain games. Do some scent work,

14:35

something like that.

14:37

Yeah, that makes, that makes sense. There's

14:40

the um, uh,

14:42

what's it called now? Sarah

14:44

Fisher's, uh,

14:47

I don't recognize

14:47

that name. Blanking on it now, for God's sake. Um,

14:50

you know, which basically sets up the um,

14:55

I don't know, something work and I totally blank

14:57

on it now. Oh, that's funny. But anyway,

14:59

so there's basically this, it sets up

15:02

a space where there's like a snuffle mat

15:04

and different surfaces and different, um, Textures

15:07

and you just kind of let the dog

15:10

free work. That's it. Free work. Yeah.

15:12

So it's like you just kind of let them

15:14

do on their own. And that's what

15:16

she's saying. Like, you know, there's like, yeah, that wears

15:18

them out. Like, like a five mile

15:21

line, you know?

15:23

Yeah. That'd be much better for them than running, chasing a

15:25

ball or, you know, running a marathon. It's getting

15:28

them where there's the Lots

15:30

to investigate, hidden places, different

15:33

surfaces, um, things to crawl

15:35

in, you know, tunnels and things like that. So,

15:37

uh, yeah, that'd be a great way to calm

15:39

a dog down and just, it gets them to

15:41

just start regulating their own emotions

15:43

as well then, as opposed to just

15:45

kind of in prey mode the whole time.

15:47

Yeah, that makes, that makes so much sense. So,

15:51

you work with, like, you work hands

15:53

on with docs, docs locally. Do

15:55

you also offer, like, online consultations,

15:58

or could somebody book a call with you and say, hey, what

16:00

can I do, or how do

16:02

you operate? Yeah, I, I've done a couple. Um, mostly

16:04

it is, uh, on, uh, In

16:07

person consultations. Um, but

16:09

I'm growing my business. Um, it's going

16:11

in all sorts of different directions at

16:13

the moment. Um, certainly I've done a

16:15

couple of online consults. I've had people contact

16:17

me 'cause their parents have sent them an invite

16:19

for an event I'm doing locally and they're like, oh, I did, is

16:22

there something like this around me? Um, you

16:24

know, I might do an online consult and they send me videos

16:26

of their dog's gait and their photos of their posture

16:29

and we do a little assessment. Um,

16:31

and based on that I can give them some advice on,

16:33

um, you know, exercises they can do.

16:35

I can kind of talk 'em through a couple of different. Um,

16:40

so yeah, there's options for online consults

16:42

as well. Um, I'm also going out

16:44

doing workshops as well. Um,

16:46

in the local area, so there's a lot of local stuff

16:48

going on. Um, and, uh, yeah,

16:50

I'm hoping to do some kind of digital downloads as well

16:52

later on in the year. Okay, that

16:55

sounds,

16:55

sounds fabulous. So where

16:57

can people go and find out more about

16:59

you, get in

17:00

touch with you? Yeah,

17:02

so I have a website, www.

17:05

timeforpooch. com. And

17:08

I have a Facebook page, also Time for Pooch,

17:11

um, and I will be starting up a newsletter

17:13

as well, um, in the next month. Um,

17:16

so if people want to drop me a message on my

17:18

Facebook page or, uh, on the

17:21

contact form through the website, then

17:23

I'll add you to my distribution list and, uh, you'll get

17:25

updates from me as to find out where I've been up to.

17:28

Awesome. And so the link's going to be obviously, like,

17:30

below if you're listening through the

17:33

podcast. It's going to be in the show notes. You'll

17:36

listen to it or watch it on the, from the

17:38

newsletter. So it's just going to be right below here.

17:40

And by the time it comes out, your newsletter

17:42

might be up. So we put the links underneath

17:45

and, um, get in touch with,

17:47

with Katie because your dog will appreciate

17:49

this. Absolutely. Don't let your dog

17:51

suffer in silence.

17:57

Thanks so much for listening. If you enjoyed

17:59

the episode, don't forget to subscribe,

18:02

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18:04

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18:22

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18:24

at Anke. That's A

18:26

N k E at Soul touched

18:29

by dogs.com.