Zeke takes time to stop and smell the daffodils

Jennifer posting here.

Adele Leas, who wrote the book Jin Shin Jyutsu For Your Animal Companion, will be coming to Dickson, TN on May 17-18, 2014 for her first animal class in Tennessee. I recently had the pleasure of attending her class in Louisville, KY. Adele is a wonderful teacher, we were at a fabulous riding club in Louisville, and got to work with saddlebred horses. What more could you ask for?

Zeke recently had to go to the vet for his annual physical. At home, he is calm, sweet, and loves people. But he has been banned from the car ever since I stopped driving a truck in 2007. In the truck, he couldn’t get out of the front seat, and remained fairly quiet while riding. In a car he goes crazy, barking at on-coming traffic, leaping to the very back of the car to chase them as they pass, and generally being out of control. Remember, this has been going on for six years.

Needless to say, I was dreading taking him to the vet. He gets overly excited at the very idea of going for a car ride. So I sat him down before going out of the house and did the centering flow with him for a couple of minutes until he calmed down. Then I got his leash out and he acted out big time, so we did more centering flow. Out to the car, where we went through it again. Then I opened the car door and made him sit outside the car and get centered again. Then we got in the car and did it again. Then I started the car and repeated the flow before pulling off. I stopped four times before I got to the state highway (about 1 mile and I could stop in the road) and helped him get centered. Each time took just one to two minutes.

By the time we made it to the state highway, Zeke was one calm and grounded boy. He sat quietly and looked at cars coming toward us. No barking, no leaping around, just good behavior. When we arrived at the vet and I got his leash out, he got excited again, so we spent a few more minutes doing JSJ before going in the office.

As soon as we went in the door I saw a large male dog already in the waiting room, Zeke’s biggest behavior trigger. Zeke stood there without pulling and wagged his tail at the other dog, who replied in kind. The other dog’s people said that he was also usually a little aggressive and that visiting the vet was a problem for them too. Both dogs continued to behave well while waiting, giving the people a chance to talk.

The peaceful and uneventful trip was well worth the extra half hour! As a bonus, Zeke was much more mellow for several days.