Following Sang's advice to 'just be' I decided to give Logan his well-earned rest from the need to perform. Then I started to worry about what I should be doing with Jack and Archie to keep making progress. Stop! as my dogs are my mirror, it was my pressure to perform that needed to be relaxed. So I did ….sort of.
I decided to just 'hang out' with all 3 dogs down in the field over the next few days and just enjoy them, no expectation.
The first day was great, very relaxing and I started to get a little more confident. Usually I am obsessive about doing the 'right thing' but I had decided to 'go with the flow'.
Logan spent a lot of time sniffing and running around on his own, but he didn't bolt and things were generally OK. I spent some time doing this a few days in succession.
I was starting to feel more relaxed with it all. On the last occasion Logan was racing around the field, nose down. Archie was charging about and checking in with me every so often before chasing off again, Jack had his nose down and had started cantering down the field in pursuit of something interesting, well out of my reach (and my calls). I started to panic, remembering that there was a gap in the fence at the other end so I started to run after him. Archie started running with me excitedly and Logan, who was at the river bank on the other side of the fence, also picked up on the excitement. Unfortunately, as Logan jumped back over the fence, he caught himself on the barbed wire. I rounded them all up and we headed straight for the vets where he was taken in that evening for surgery.
Logan always jumps fences, often ones with barbed wire on them and quite often higher than this one. He jumps this fence most days without coming to grief. What had happened this time?
Then I realised. As I was panicking about catching up with Jack, Logan, who is highly reactive anyway, would have picked up on that energy, causing him to miscalculate the fence height and resulting, I am certain, in the accident. It was pretty obvious really once I made the link I share, a little red-faced, because maybe someone else will benefit from it.
We were taught on my Bi-Aura course that our thoughts and feelings are very powerful and we learn to keep in the right frame of mind when providing treatments. This was an unfortunate example of how they can impact others in our environment.
Fortunately the vet practice have been able to do a really good job on Logan's injuries and they are healing nicely. I am happy to report he can still pee straight but this experience is reminded me even more of the importance of bein aware of my emotions and feelings.