Dogs and Humans are Connected If We Allow It

Yesterday I had a session with my life coach, Annabeth with Lifeworks.  She talked about inner and outer looping.  Inner looping is when we pay attention to our body sensations and what our body is telling us.  Outer looping is when we pay attention to what other people are communicating to us through their body language.  A great communicator connects the loops and does both inner and outer looping at the same time.

 

Today, I realized, after a doing a session with my client and their dog, the importance for our dogs to inner and outer loop as well. I see many people who walk their dogs that are totally inner looping or outer looping to their outside environment.  Very rarely do I see the dogs outer looping by connecting to their owners.  It is important for  dogs to pay attention to their owners and wonder what their owner might be communicating to them.

Also aggressive dogs are excellent inner loopers.  They are paying attention to their body and their emotions.  They are not paying attention to what their owner and their environment is communicating to them.  This is especially noticeable when the owner and the environment is communicating safety and the dog is still reacting.  Outer looping is important for aggressive dogs to learn.

As I am learning to inner and outer loop at the same time.  I realize it takes practice.,  I am naturally good at inner looping.

Dogs also must be taught to outer loop with their owner.  When the dog is connected with his owner during a walk, he checks in with his owner by occasionally looking at his owner.  He switches back and forth between outer looping with his owner and the environment.  He also allows inner loops within himself.  If you teach your dog to do this he will then walk loosely on his leash and be responsive to commands.

Basically train your dog during leash walks.  Train him to walk on a nice loose leash and request him to perform commands.  This teaches him to outer loop with you.  Make sure he still has time to inner loop with himself and outer loop with his environment.  A dog that only outer loops only with his owner is out of balance as well.

It takes practice.  As your dog becomes more balanced you will feel it.  Just last night I did outer and inner looping at m y friend’s.  He said I was more balanced.  Balance feels loving and peaceful.  Create that with your dog and your relationships and watch it transform your life!

-Johanna Teresi Profession Dog Trainer and Owner of Four Legged Scholars LLC

It’s More Than Just Dog Training

Hmmmm…where do I begin? I am taking a wonderful course called ALC (Accelerated Learning Community).   This course is instructed by Annabeth Christie, Megan Sillito and Mary Tebbs.  Megan and  Annabeth are both life coaches for Life Works.  They teach amazing classes on Tuesday nights called Life Skills.  I am attending Life Skills as well.  I want to begin by sharing with you some amazing information I have learned through these classes from these wonderful people.

Awhile I ago I also began Life Coaching with Marinna Siri.  She and I worked together and we established an amazing relationship that shifted me in my life more than I can even describe in words.  I came to her with the intention of growing my dog training business.  I realized that there is so much more to this than just marketing.

What I learned and I am still learning:

Be present.  The past and the future are totally outside of our control.

Be authentic.  Express how you feel..verbally, through body language, through a dance, etc..  Give yourself full permission to feel what you are feeling.

When you are in a relationship with anyone a client, a lover, a friend take full responsibility.  Blame does no good.  Claiming responsibility without blame allows you to claim your power.  For example: “I am responsible for creating a fun and loving relationship with every single client I have.”  I have control over the way I interact with them and I value this lesson very much.

Keep your commitments, change the commitments that you didn’t really want to make anyways and recommit.  Double check in your body if this is something that you really want to do in the first place.

Commit to joy in your life.  When you move away from joy recommit.

Breath through your belly.  This helps your entire body to shift into a more resourceful state of mind.

Move your body.  Dance.  When you do this you give yourself permission to be creative and to formulate ideas.  A stiff body is much harder to create solutions from.

Know your stories.  It can be beneficial to know the stories that you have in your subconscious mind.  Realize that they are the past and commit to being fully within yourself in the present moment.  You are you and you are not your stories.

Here is a personal experience.  I had a story in my subconscious mind that stated “I fear people are judging me.”  This morning I formulated this story strongly in my head.  Then I became in-tune to every body sensation that I had (stagnant breath, tight belly, pain in my right ear, tension in my shoulders, etc.).  I became aware of what emotions were tied to each of these sensations.  They were anger, sadness and fear.  I fully allowed myself to feel every single one of these emotions.  I exaggerated each one.  As I did this, I allowed the emotions to shift.

Then I went farther and look at when this story was first created which was in kindergarten.  A girl named Lisa came over to me and claimed that this was her kitchen during play time.  I felted judged and that I must be quiet and allow myself to be controlled.  I also asked who in my life did I allow myself to formulate this story from.  The answer was my dad.  I truly know and believe that my dad is very loving. He did have a temper and would criticize me frequently.  

I allowed myself to put these stories in the past and recommitted to  being fully authentic in every relationship I have especially in groups of people (my fear seems greater when I am in groups of people).

As I write more and more and I realize that I write what I am inspired to write. I realize that some people may not understand what this has to do with owning a business or with training your personal dog.  I will keep it this answer simple.  

The more authentic and present we are with ourselves, the more love we can create in any relationship with ourselves, with other people, or with our dogs.  The more love we create in these relationships the closer we become and the easier our relationships become.  As a dog trainer it is important for my clients to understand that training our dogs is small part of a bigger picture.  If we practice the above exercises training is easy.  It is no longer stressful or controlling.

God Bless all of You!

-Johanna Teresi, Professional Dog  Trainer and Owner of Four Legged Scholars LLC