Rory is a board & train dog who is here to work on anxiety, reactivity, mindset and recourse guarding.

Rory is an anxious dog and has a hard time settling herself. This is how I work through the anxious moments after owners leave and start getting her into a calmer headspace.

As I start working with Rory, I am only talking to her as much as I need to. I rely more on body language and leash pressure to help guide her and show her what I am looking for. When Rory slows down a little bit, that’s when I start introducing the massage work to help calm her. Massage work is a deeper pressure with the goal to relax the stiffness in your dog and calm the nervous system.

I go back and forth between massage work and movement. Once Rory settles in, I start to do some leash work again to gauge where her mindset is at. It’s great that she is able to settle, but I want her to remain settled even when moving. The first few times we start moving Rory gets heightened very quickly. As the session goes on, her leash work gets better and behavior gets less sporadic and you can see her settle in.

It’s not perfect and absolutely still has work to go, but it is a great start to creating a calm mindset!