094- Holistic Pet Care with Gillian Edwards
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Summary:
On today’s episode, Gillian Edwards, owner of Four Paws Holistic Therapy, joins us to talk all about holistic pet care. Gillian shares how pet sitters are a part of the pets care team, and how we can learn more about massage, animal communication, and the role reiki plays in their long term care.
Topics on this episode:
Definition of holistic care
Purpose of massages
Better communication with the pets in our care
What is animal reiki?
Techniques for anxious animals
Recommended resources
Main take away? From gentle massages, to specific acupressure points and reiki, there is a whole other world of things we can do or refer clients to for better care.
About our guest:
Gillian Edwards is a Canine Massage & Conditioning Instructor, Practitioner & Speaker
A Colorado-based certified animal communicator, Karuna / Reiki Master, canine massage / conditioning practitioner and an instructor at the Rocky Mountain School of Animal Acupressure and Massage, Gillian provides long term big-picture holistic healing solutions for pets to activate their natural ability to balance and heal their physical, emotional and mental well-being. With the belief that holistic therapy is centered on love, empathy and respect, Gillian uses her knowledge and skills to help improve an animal’s health and happiness, which can strengthen and deepen their connections to their human companions.
After a long, successful, 25 year executive career in corporate America, she began her dream career in 2014 practicing Reiki on human clients before realizing that animals needed her gifts more so. She graduated in 2017 from a top veterinary board accredited school for Animal
Acupressure and Massage where she went through a rigorous animal massage certification program that included a year of classroom learning in anatomy, pathology, neurology and kinesiology, followed by months of clinical case studies.
In 2017, she started her own animal practice Four Paws Holistic Therapy and is now fully focused on helping pets achieve a longer quality of life by spreading the knowledge of collaborative pet health benefits through educational seminars and pop-up clinics.
Links:
Check out Gillian’s website
Rocky Mountain School of Acupressure and Massage
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
dog, massage, pet, pet sitters, animal, energy, communication, people, parent, behaviors, techniques, pressure, teach, work, big, puppies, head, learn, injury, muscles
SPEAKERS
Collin, Gillian
I'm Collin and I'm Meghan. And this is petsitter. confessional, an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter brought to you by time to pet.
Collin
Well, hello, everybody and welcome back to another episode. Today we're talking all about holistic pet care and the role that pet sitters play in that team. Today we have Jillian Edwards on to talk about the three core tenets that she includes in the holistic pet care that she provides canine massage, animal communication and Reiki energy healing. A word that I had
to learn how to pronounce in this interview
Collin
is a fascinating topic and one that we haven't discussed yet and so I know you're going to get a lot out of This. Let's get started.
Gillian
Thank you, Collin. And Hello, everyone. Thanks. I'm Julian Edwards, and I'm an animal communicator, or you'll hear it called pet psychic or dog whisperer. I'm an intuitive energy healer. And I also do massage and conditioning as an instructor and practitioner. And yes, I'm the founder of the football says,
Collin
What is your business? And what kind of services do you provide to your clients?
Gillian
It's more of a holistic approach. And for me, it's quality of life. Our pets aren't with us long enough as it is. So what can we do as their health advocates to keep them with us for longer as possible? ability health, and when I say health, I'm looking at all the corners. It's emotional, mental, spiritual, physical. So that's my my goal. And for me, I do that on different approaches, whether it's nutrition environments, the physicality of the massage and conditioning and conditioning, you can think of it as physical therapy and the animal communication helps with that stronger bond to understand the whys and then the energy healing part of it is especially is removed but sometimes with massage, we can't massage if there's cancer or open wound or surgical something like that. So then I'll switch to the energy side of things to sit down we'll still have a chance to heal itself.
Collin
How did you get started in all of this? It sounds fascinating and I'd love to know where where this came from.
Gillian
Well, that's a story do you want the short version or the long?
Collin
Yeah.
Yeah, so well, how
Gillian
I've been doing people energy work for quite a long time. And through that came the gift of animal communication. So I was working with with a human and I could hear this almost like this. Hello. Hello. Hello. And I looked over in the corner was the dog in its bed curled up just watching and i think my child I kept working with the human. And I also couldn't stop hearing this sort of Hello, I look back over the dog and in my mind like, you're talking to me and the dogs like Well, hello. I realized I had either a gift or a curse. And what did I do that I did some research and there's plenty of communication courses and certifications and stuff. And from there, I learned it's not just me you see doctor doodles or things like that, but there's actually ethics and morals around it. It's just a relationship that you and I would have is very similar to me and the animal kind of thing. So that's how the communication started. And then I knew it was time to leave corporate America. And I knew I didn't want to stay in corporate America. So me being the bottom line person that I am, and, you know, one page fashion test, and it came up with animals well, so I'm like, Okay, so that's kind of how I got into it. So okay, so it's animals. So I started doing the research and obviously when you think of animals you think of bats and bat tax and the surgical side of things. And around about this time I was recovering from back surgery. And the doctor did the excellent job, but it was the physical therapists that got me walking and talking again. And, yeah, so kinda like the vets do the surgery, they do an excellent job, but then what's the aftercare but so made me think wonder about you know, who just do that for animals and frankly, there's not very many of us to do so. A little bit more research, I found a top notch accredited school for massage acupressure, and happened to be an hour away. So I called them up had lots of questions, you know, is this a real thing? And is there is there is it viable and having long conversations and very patient with me? And I decided I needed about a year's worth of time and money to get through all the courses and case studies and clinical trials and stuff like that. Two days later, I get a year severance from work. I'm like, Okay. The school and the school said We have an opening next week and I'm like, Alright, this is the path I'm on. Yeah, that's how I got there. Wow. Yeah. Sometimes things fall in your lap and you're like, Don't resist.
Yeah, you talk about doors opening for you. And just at each each step going, Okay, well, this is this is the next next path. I go, this is the next step that I go through.
Gillian
second guessing, are you thinking that one he was like, yep.
Collin
Yeah. You mentioned that whenever you you went to that school. You had some questions for them as far as like, Is this real? What does this do for you? What was that education as far as learning about those procedures like for you? And do you feel like you have to still educate a lot of people about what you do?
Gillian
Yes. And when I tell people I massage a dog, the chances are I get the IRA. Well, I massage my dog all the time. Well, you pet your dog. Yeah, right. It's different. I use different intents. Techniques pressures, you know, it's almost like human massage. You go there and do you want a sports massage? Do you want to pop stone massage, you know, Shiatsu massage. I mean, there's different things for to treat different things and it's not like you're a massage therapist is petting you. They're working out the knots and the kinks and the stretching the ligaments and things like that. So, right so yes, you pet your dog and I heal your dog. That's the difference. So the school is is fairly accredited. They check the curriculum, exams and stuff like that. Because what they teach us is the bigger picture. I'm not just learning muscles, ligaments and tendons. I mean, that's obviously in the core of it. There's the acupressure points, there's How is everything connected? How did it How are the organs connected to those muscles? What is the fascia? there? What's this skeletal bone structure? So we're learning cryptology, neurology, kinesiology, so it's a little bit more than massage, you know, and how it all works and how it's all connected. Because if, if I'm looking for a cause being presented a symptom. And if I stick my thumb on this particular trigger point, what's twitching somewhere else? Because it's all connected? Right? So I just got to be very cognizant of where I am what I'm doing and what's the impact?
Collin
Yeah, you mentioned this all it is all connected. And that's part of what you do the holistic care aspect. How did you How would you define holistic care for pets?
Gillian
So yeah, I mean, it's the big picture is that encompassing physical, mental, emotional and spiritual balance and well being. So I know, from a massage perspective, I'm not just looking at the dogs gauge and how they walk, sit, run Trump stuff. I'm asking the parent, where do you want your loved one to be in five years? You know, so what nutritional supplements should they be taken to get ahead of the game? We know certain breeds have certain health tendencies. So what is their exercise and play program? You're the environment with the house and family? How are they feeling? Are they sad? Are they happy? Are they healthy? So to me, it's, I mean, I hate to use it takes a village but it does. Take a team just as it does with us humans. So building that stronger understanding and bones, the first step is between the parent the parent. The second step is the education letting the parent know that there are options out there. So who else on the team? So obviously the vet because we need the diagnostics So, do you need a chiropractor? Do you need a homeopath you need somebody like me for the physicality of stuff, so let's face it so when a parent wanders into a store and says I have a puppy or a senior What should I feed them? The odds are they're going to walk down an aisle and say you've got this this and this, nobody really explains to them the percentage of carbs the protein in that food, you know, if you know asks about what allergies does the pet have or if the dogs know within that what type of breed is it? So now I'm looking at Yes, puppies need certain foods to help them make sure their ligaments and cartilage etc are forming strongly. But to me, I'm like, Well, how do you make sure this thing happy and healthy mocha for as long as possible? So we should already be looking at supplements all the time. No, this is a whether it's glucosamine or you know some Joint Staff or whatever it is just to say we want to get ahead of the game don't don't wait something to happen and let's we know something will happen because they're dogs. So let's mitigate as much as we can and get them strong enough so you know, God forbid something does happen they'll bounce back quicker.
Collin
Right? Yeah, well, it's that it is that view for meeting the current needs and the long term needs of the of the pet and and making sure those are imbalanced and building that team. Like you said, the first step that you you said in that process was building and strengthening that relationship between the pet and the parent. What does that step involve? In what role do you play in that so
Gillian
from my experience, there's different levels of parenting in go from anywhere from I felt the dog gave the dog a bag and a roof over his head. I'm good, too. I got a dog or a cat because my kid wanted one, you know, and then you go all the way down the other end to develop And they know every wall lump. I'm calling the vet every week they know everything that's going on. So yeah, I'm dealing with different levels. So yeah, it's always educational, you have to also be understanding of, you know, where's where does the pet fit in? Is it? Oh, yeah, the dog, you know, or, you know, is the dog, the child and then we had a child and now the dogs further down the totem pole. And so it's the education part of it. It's, you know, have you noticed the dog mean, we're all we want to make sure everybody's going to the doctor. everybody's done their homework, you know, clothes, clean, all that kind of stuff. But sometimes we forget the dog until it's limping, and you're like, Oh, that's in my face. I can't not see that. But to me, by the time the dog is limping, it's down the road because it's hidden it for a while. I like to get in when they're puppies and start the education. right then and there is like this is like your child. You want your child to grow up, go out into the world with as much knowledge Safety is possible. Well, it's the same place the pets are so dependent on us. And it's, you know, some people have done the research and so they need this kind of pet because this kind of lifestyle, some people are just, you know, taking their kid to the rescue picked up a dog and now they're like, Oh, I need to leash the dog. bed. And so to me, it's part of that. Okay, now you've got one, are you thinking of getting one? These are the things to think about. So that everybody's safe and healthy and happy and gave the most enjoyment out of it.
Collin
Yeah, yeah, cuz it really does. Yeah, I love that comparison. Like, some people are planning to puppy parents and some people are unplanned puppy parents, but they still have the self to be meeting the needs for the dogs that are in their care.
Gillian
Yeah, cuz if you go to a breeder or to the shelter's philosophy, a bunch of questions about you know, are you a sensible, reliable parents, but they don't teach you how to be a parent, which I guess is kind of the same the human Well, if you don't buy the Dr. Seuss book, it kind of winging it.
Yes.
Gillian
I guess even with the book, you winging it, but no. People like me, we're doing the research all the time, because things are changing so fast don't have time for that. So it's up to us to say, Hey, this is a new thing. It's out there, or I've seen this and it works, or have you considered something like that? or so? I mean, it's like, when you're you go to a high end champion, and chili dog or something like that, and they're learning, they're about to retire. But you want them just to hang out in the garden? Or do you want to switch and start teaching them those works. I mean, it's things like that, but I can help to say, let's keep the brain acts like a muscle. So let's physically they can't run around, but maybe mentally, we can still keep going. You know, it's that type of education to let this fun game between, you know, kids, parents and dogs to nosework and it's becoming a big thing. They're gonna have leagues and competitions with it. So
Collin
oh, where can people go to find more information about that if they haven't heard about it or want to find learn more
Gillian
Yeah, that's a Facebook group is a national organization on a website, like after Google, but you can look up your local area, some dog trainers and now teaching it, you can do classes on it and stuff. So yeah, I mean, we're used to nosework being you go to the airport, and you see the sniffer dogs. Yeah, you see them on TV looking for bombs and things like that. This is more for us. So they're looking for their favorite toy, strawberry, you know, treats, things like that. So it's hidden. It's like Hide and Seek kind of thing, or it's under boxes with a focus in training something. So
Collin
now that's really that's really cool. And I like that idea, again, of at each stage of the dog's life, there is variation in the care to meet their needs and the role that we can play in that.
Gillian
Yeah, they have purposely one purpose so give them a job, right.
Collin
I did want to touch back a little bit on the the massages that you give and what that process looks like for you. You compare it a little bit to sports medicine. versus a more relaxing massage? What What does that look like in giving a dog those kinds of massages? And what kind of varieties are there? Yes, but at the
Gillian
school, we do different levels, anything from therapeutic, active to senior, if you know all the different techniques, basically, when you come across a dog, you can tailor what you're doing for that specific dog. So let's go and start with that with, you know, everything kind of thing. It's kind of like when you see a dog, if you're going to program with a dog, once weekly, monthly or whatever, if it's on a wellness scene, but things change week to week, you know, so I can come in and the dogs, I know, got some arthritis, so I'll be working to relieve some of the tension around the joints so that they can move. Then the following week I come and it's going to be a different part of the body because they did something they jumped down awkwardly from the from the bed or something else happened. So I'm still working on the Arthritis joint but now I've got an injury. So changes all the time. It could be serious Season Two, it's like, here in America are about pitching the force. So there's lots of fireworks. It's, you know, where I'm living right now this is kind of monsoon, you get the hot day and then you get the thunderstorm. So depending on what time of day I'm arriving, sometimes dogs just need to be calm. So then I'm doing that more therapeutic soothing type techniques. If I go to a senior dog, they're probably not very active, they're lying around the house all day, either from being old or they've got, they're losing the use of their limbs. So then the massage becomes more of a passive exercise because now I've got to keep those muscles working, even though they're lying around, you know, so it's moving those fluids and toxins and stuff like that. So it's just, it really depends on what you're working with. With puppies, the therapeutic one is pretty good because they're just out of their body hyper all over the place. So you want to sort of calm them down. So they can start listening to some of those training words in signals. You know, with athletic dogs, it could be, you know, if you're doing a show dog or you're doing actual competitive dog, it could be a warm up and cool down type exercise before and after, in essence, depends on what you're dealing with, with how you're how you're working with the animal.
Collin
Sure. For pet sitters and other pet care providers, are these kind of massage techniques, something that we could apply without going into training or going to school for them. Are there some basic techniques that we can use or look into?
Gillian
Yes, I'm kind of hesitant because you got to be certified. And yeah, so I mean, one of the classes at the school we do teach is just you and your pet. It's a very short course and you can learn things because if you don't know what you're doing, you could cause harm because you don't know where some of the main arteries are. And if you put too much pressure kind of stuff to scare people with a massage. Some of the techniques are the same. You just use them differently. So for instance, if I break my fingers slowly Slowly down the ribcage. It's very soothing. If I raise my fingers a little faster up, the ribcage is very stimulating because I'm working with the diaphragm muscles. Yeah, I think the easiest and safest thing is doing like mini circles. So using your fingertips, I wouldn't do like middle of the power behind many circles, and just move along the code and do little circles next to each other. that stimulates some of the nerve endings. Because their skin is like the biggest organ and is bringing in all the information from the outside world. And that can be quite soothing for the pets. That's something that you can easily do. There's no pressure involved. You can almost do an absent mindedly just doing little circles. It's all assuming for yourself. You could be watching TV the next day and you just do it in circles. So it would be that'd be an easy one.
Collin
Yeah. And what I was trying to get out there was that it is much more than just petting your dog and you can do actual harm with that. If you don't know what you're doing, so to really seek out good advice, proper training for these kind of things to learn those techniques, so you can so you can give the most help, because there is special training required for this. When would you recommend that a pet sitter or a client seek out massage specifically for their for their pet? Is there some cases where it's at, you know, an absolute need or it's just more quality of life overall kind of thing? Sure. And
Gillian
I just want to backtrack a little bit. No pressure is better than any pressure whenever you're touching the dogs and I know sometimes when we even were petting a dog, I'm just going to use this as an example not pointing fingers. Like Uncle Grandpa will come over and like, snap it. Oh, hey, is it good boy, you know? Yeah, we don't do that. Because that's especially on older dogs, you can really do some harm. So right whenever you approach a dog, you always start with hardly any pressure, and then work your way up. Now the same mass diff can take more than the next and kind of thing, but Yeah, but yeah, so I just want to point that out to what will competitors look for. And to be honest, anytime is a good time for a massage because it's really about conditioning. Yeah. Like, say even athletes, they have regular massages to stay fit and healthy. And like I said before we're going for that longer quality of life. Well, people circumstances are different to I understand that, you know, financially and especially this year is kind of a strange here, too. I understand that. But obviously, if you see an animal limping, okay, that's a big clue. If they're constantly looking for a leg, if they're slow to get up from sitting if they have a lack of interest in things if they seem sad. So any of those slight changes in behavior, so sticky notes, know that dog or cat very well. Yeah, that's kind of like, oh, something's going on. And then, you know, depending on your circumstances, but you watch it, it's like, did something trigger this isn't just a moment in time, or has this been going on for a week. And then obviously certain things you go to the backboard to it's like, Okay, this poor now it's roaring. Right. So yeah, so you want to catch things early. And that's kind of why I like to work with puppies because as I say, it's still forming and growing. And they just don't know what they're doing and they're over exerting themselves because play is so exciting. They want to please you. So, you know, it's like, we got to sort of help them out early on, because, I mean, for my personal story, I got my little girl and came running down the stairs hit the floor, wiped out. And, you know, you get the high pitch wind disguise everybody and started limping. So then she was only a few months old. So you know, puppies have injuries, and then they bounce back quicker because they're young. But if you don't get it sorted out, you could have displace your elbows or something later on, because that joins us now growing differently. Right. Don't ignore the puppy because it's above Be
Collin
Right, right. And you mentioned at kind of the beginning of that was just paying attention is the biggest thing, right? And being in tune with that. And as pet sitters, we interact with people's pets, sometimes more than they do. And so that's a great time to have that conversation of this is going on. And you know, have you thought about taking a massage for the dog and it's going down, going down that road? And just just having that conversation? Right is is really, really helps.
Gillian
Yeah, I mean, that's the key because I mean, you don't want anything to happen on your watch. So you're super diligent as to what's going on and you are more observant, you're not necessarily heart connected. So you know, you can have that step, take a step back and be pragmatic about, okay. I don't think this is good, you know, or something like that. And you can have that relationship with that parent and say, Hey, have you noticed, you know, and Let's plant that seed in their mind so that they start paying attention because, and also, from a parent's perspective, we see our animals day in day out, we don't notice things, right? Whereas if you're a pet sitter and you're coming in, you know, a couple of times a week or monthly or on vacation, you notice that there's been a change, because you haven't seen that constantly, you know, so right. So definitely, you'll feel the first line of defense in some cases as pet sitters, because you do see the thing that gets missed in the key part
Collin
of that is just communication and starting to have that conversation with them. Yeah. And on that, you've mentioned it at the beginning of pre you provide animal communication to help with bonding with the pet and its owner. Could you tell us a little bit more about what that process is like and why that is something that you you offer.
Gillian
So to me, it's the understanding of the why, especially if you've got rescues, and if it's an older rescue, you didn't get it straight in from a letter or something like that. There'll be behaviors. So if you're gonna roll the dough, you're inheriting something and you don't know why you don't know why they don't want to go out the door, you don't know why they don't like cars, you don't know why. So sometimes the communication helps you understand your past traumas, or you're giving them the wrong food. They don't like the fish, they want the chicken, you know, something like that. I mean, I mean, you could be surprised. I mean, part of it is, is having a better understanding, better bonding, and then the animal also realizes that you care enough to ask, you know, that that makes them because they're communicating with us all the time. We're just not listening. So that sort of gives them some relief to Yeah, it's just that you've taken on the commitment and the responsibility to be a parent. So go all in, ask them questions, find out what they want, what makes them happy? Are they happy, you know, are they in pain? You know, are they ready to crossover? I mean, it's just all these types of questions that come up. I mean, you wouldn't have a child and just feed it. You know, you're asking how did you There you go. Similar with the pact is like we bought a Did you enjoy the walk was the walk too far was that you know, I think it's once you understand why a pet is doing a certain something you can change, it changes everything.
Collin
Because I think one of the common phrases that I hear of will dealing with a pet is like dealing with a kid that doesn't talk. And you just don't know why. But there are ways to communicate with them that can help you cut through that that can help you pinpoint some of these behaviors and actions that you might not fully understand. And that's what that's where you're coming from in that of going hey, let's let's work together on this. And in just ask.
Gillian
Yeah, so I mean, it's I mean, you can learn behaviors you can do you go to like Coursera or someone like nowadays online universities now teach you dog cognition. So I mean, that's sort of level one of communications. The dogs cocking its head or it's looking at you or it's got its paint on your leg, you know, it's because those those types of communication I just take to the next level and say, okay, so you've got your head on my knee. Does that mean you just want to be petted? Are you hungry? Is it time to go out? It's like, you just love me. Yeah. So yeah, so I'm sort of taking it to that to that next step. And it's the say just creates that stronger bond. And for me personally, it's, I use it. If I'm coming into a situation and something's happened to the dog, and course nobody ever sees it, nobody knows how, how long it's been going on? Well, I can tap in and when the communication side and say So what happened? Yeah, I use that as part of my toolkit as to what I'm working with.
Collin
And you said, it's not just learning the behaviors of it aspect it is it is being connected with them, at least at this other level, that allows you to really, to really help them provide the care that you're that you want to provide.
Gillian
Yeah, cuz if you see a dog trainer, you know, they'll teach you certain behaviors as to you know, Typically, this is what dogs do, or this is in their DNA from when they were wild, or this is the idea that there are certain things is a physical behavior, you know, the dog will greet you at the door with a toy in his mouth, that's part of the DNA of the dog, you know, it's stuff like that. Whereas I'm asking the hard questions
Collin
as pet sitters, what are some ways that we can get better connected with the pets in our care and communicate with them at that, at that deeper level trainings, we can take in educational resources out there?
Gillian
So yeah, if you're not doing the actual show on telepathic communication, is observe that behavior. They say they're always talking to us and telling us things sometimes, incessantly in our listening. So yeah, so if you could determine, you know, what the head tilt means or if he if they do want you to follow you somewhere or say that cognition behavior communication, and that's something you can definitely read up on and if you Want to try actual communications you can get down down to the level on the floor and just look into their eyes and don't touch them or anything, just try and say hello or say their name. And see if you get that eye contact, and then relax and feel about working. What do you sense? You know, do you feel a connection? If you do, try asking something simple, like, what's your favorite treat? You know? If you're doing this, like 1015 minutes regularly, you know, you might find your answer. Yeah, it's sort of letting go of the left brain and just staring. Practice, you know, especially on that sort of telepathic side, it's, you know, because because when you first like me when I first heard that dog, similar to me, is second guessing. It's like, Oh, my God, I'm crazy, you know? Like that. So, but yeah, Doctor wise, you gotta you gotta trust it and you'd be surprised. We all have the capability. We just have to exercise that muscle when you say and don't overlay or set yourself on to it. don't interpret what they're saying. It's their voice not yours
Collin
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Collin
If you are looking for new petsitting software for your business, give time to pet a try. As listener of pet sitter confessional, you'll get 50% off your first three months when you sign up at type two pet.com slash confessional. Yeah, and that's, that's fascinating to me. And I love how you phrased that of it's their voice not yours and that should really speak to how we try to care for them at all levels. It's it's their life, right? It's it It's what their needs. And that's that where we should be trying to come. It's not how we necessarily want or demand that they respond or act in certain ways. Like they treating them as individuals. And this, taking it to a little bit different level of now allowing them to speak for themselves to
Gillian
Yeah, they teach us and they teach us a lot, if we're open for it. And it's and then there's different categories of thought. I mean, some people say it's just a dog, you're going to train it, it's going to do you know, it's going to go bird hunting, and it's going to say, it's just a dog, you know. And then you've got people like me, on the other end of the spectrum, there's like, no, it's got a soul and a heart. Thanks. And it depends on your thought patterns and your belief systems. For me. I mean, not that I want to Overlay and make my dog or child still a dog at the end of the day.
Collin
But it has its own brain and just viewing them in that light and didn't if that's true, what what role, what care can we provide and how can we get connected at a different level?
Gillian
Yeah, this is it and I look at it like me, it's like, I'm on two legs with a collarbone. They're on four legs without a collarbone. So it hurts to me. What is it doing for them? And that's how I relate to them. It's like, they're not just a dog, but they have aches and pains, like I do. And, you know, if you've got a, you know, four to six year old dog, they're in their 30s and 40s. Well, how did my body feel when it hits? 30s? And 40s? You know? Yeah, now I'm thinking of, Okay, I should probably stretch more, I should probably go to the gym, I should probably. What are you doing for your dog, you know, you know, and as they get older, he's still throwing the ball the same way as when they were two. She can't do that anymore. You know, their body is not there. They now in their 60s and 70s essentially so yeah. That's that's the sort of things to be cognizant of. They love to play ball. They always love to play ball. Well, now you have to adapt and change that because grandpa used to love hiking up the mountain. Well, he can't anymore. driving up the mountain so we need to still enjoy the mountain it's just you're doing it differently
Collin
right the heart may still be there the desire may still be there but you need to for their safety and for their health do it differently. Sure.
Gillian
Fun feel financial health because it gets expensive if you don't do surgery. Yes.
Collin
The third wheel of what you've presented here is holistic care if we've talked about the kind of the physical, the massage, we talked about the psychic and the communication, and then there's this energy aspect that the care that that you provide, how would you describe that and the role that it plays in providing better care?
Gillian
energies energy is this a lot of people understand or have heard of Reiki? Reiki is kind of what most of us start with. But I mean, this is the universe as a whole galaxy. I mean, it's just energy is energy. So yeah, I don't necessarily like to label it, but I call it Reiki because that's what people can make. They've heard of it. Sure. So basically, as a practitioner, I'm a conduit, if you will, I'm passing a higher frequency energy into the animals, whether it's remotely what we call distant healing, or it's in person. So during a session, the healing energy is channeled through mostly my hands, either directly or indirectly, to the animal to system with eating themselves. So basically, I have to get myself out of the way and let the universal stuff just come through. Because I don't want to give my crap if you help my own energy issues, but to clear that out of the way, and let the purity of it come through. And because we aren't very enmeshed with our animals, even if you've got a horse account, and they were very in mesh with our energy, so we have to be very careful when I'm doing energy work, but it's, it's at its purest, there's no ego in whatever involved and so is it sort of flowing into the Physical and energy bodies, it's clearing and repairing areas that are blocked or damage leaking, if you will, and it's stabilizing any mental physical and emotional imbalances that can lead to illness or bad behavior. So it's not invasive, because obviously it's sort of either just touching or just covering, too, so it's gentle, but it can heal and energize on all those different levels. So just allows you to have a more natural state of well being present attuned to the energies, I don't necessarily, I can switch them off if I want to. But basically, when I'm doing a massage, the energy is flowing anyway, because I am using my hands I'm using some intent. Because of the way massage works. I'm basically moving every fluid in the body all over. So if for instance, I'm presented with a cancer patient, I can't massage because it could be spreading the cancer. So then I would switch to the energy work to help the animal's body deal with that cancer and no, trying more naturally heal itself. Now and obviously They've got contracts and purposes, if they're destined to die of cancer, there's not a lot I can do, I can just make it more comfortable and easier for them. Right? So yeah, so that's kind of how the energy works. I don't necessarily talk a lot about it, because not everybody is quite there yet with the woowoo of energy. So whether it's communication, or how did you work, I need permission to do it. So if I don't have the parents permission, I always get the animals permission anyway. So sometimes I'm doing a massage, I feel like it needs like a little zapple and laser focus of energy, the dog and I know about it, and we just get on with it kind of thing not to be rude to the parent, but my job is the dog or the cat, or the rabbit. So that's my area of focus. And then as they get to know me, then I say, oh, by the way, you're getting a bonus. Yes, it's not that I'm necessarily withholding
Collin
My job is to make sure that dog is healthy. And again that that view being the client, in your view, there is the dog, because that's who you're caring for. And so that's who needs you need to be meeting and then we can we can discuss with what's going on with the owners.
Gillian
In my business, my ideal client is aware of energy work. Sure. So it's not necessarily, you know, a conversation. It's like, Oh, yes. Or they read on the website anyway, he or she does this, but it's not that I'm hiding. It's just that certain people, they just don't understand it. And I don't have years worth of time to teach them. I mean it nicely but in any case, it is you know, that to those parents and those parents and you. You don't I mean, it's like grandma says, You don't talk politics. You don't talk religion. You don't talk. Sometimes in my world. You know, I relate to that, too. It's like, okay, the dog and I have an agreement but getting on with it,
Collin
a phrase many people might think of when thinking of Reiki, and one of the things we've been discussing here as being, quote unquote, out of balance is what are some common reasons that a dog may be out of balance? And in? How can pet sitters and people like yourself? How do you go about getting them back in balance?
Gillian
I mean, this balance and this balance is the physical balance because the energy side of balance things too. And so from a physical aspect, you know, to see the limping or the guard injury, so they're overcompensating somewhere else in the body, they're leaning more to the left, because the injuries on the right or something like that. So there's the that's when the massages stuff comes in, because we've got to recenter them because we don't want them to get stuck in a bad habit of not putting as much weight on one leg versus the other. So that's the physicality balance, if you will, sure. Especially if you've got like a, an active or ngvd dog or something like that, where you've got money involved. They gotta be thoughtful. And functioning and from an energetic side of things. They can have blockages and just like something I don't know, everybody's pretty much heard of chakras at this point, you know, there's the higher chakras, the lower chakras. Most people think of the major seven, the lower chakras are kind of like your roots, your foundation, it's financial. You've got backache? Well, it's because you're stressing about something, and so on and so forth. With the animal world, they're shocked to have had the basic same same chakra system as us, but like for wild animal, their chakras are going to be more up front. Because it's survival mode, you know, you've got to be very wary and hold peripheral and stuff like that domestics probably more in the center because they're very loving and unconditional and more heart centered. So if they're stressed, or there's a change in the environment, you know, it's like us, we're in protection mode. So we kind of shrink into ourselves, you know, and then you get things getting stuck. If there's an injury, sometimes injury can actually block off some of that energy flow and Yeah, you can call it Chi, you know, because that's what acupressure is working on acupuncture is working on. I mean all those types of there's different types of blockages. But with the energy work, it's sort of relaxes all that cellular level DNA type molecules of the of the world World Energy at the end of the day, and we physically see ourselves as a person or a table, but it's all energy. So the energy work is kind of sort of untangling that, if you will, and just letting it flow easily from a physical aspect if I'm massaging a dog, and basically relaxing the muscles, opening up the blood vessels, so that the blood and the oxygen can flow. And as I well that relaxes, that now means the joints can move more freely. So it's very similar on the energy side, I'm, you know, relaxing something over here, which will flow down to the next level, in size, and pretty much with us, a lot of the work on the energy side is really at the emotional level. Right, because we're frightened or upset or something has happened to us. Well, that's gonna manifest physically somewhere in our body. So like, like for me stress and stuff, I tend to bottle up and then a few months later, I've got an injury. I'm like, Oh, yeah, that's okay. I had appendicitis. Well, guess what? Because I kept all that fear and anger and everything inside of me and it just had to go somewhere. So went to my appendix. So I mean, it's that kind of, you know, if you work at the emotional level, a lot of animals because it is showing up somewhere in the body.
Collin
It is this physical manifestation of these energies of these emotions that are off balance or maybe hadn't a trauma to them in your past and now trying to unwind that and he, your phrase earlier, I loved it says when we get a dog we, we get, we inherit something more than just the dog we inherit its past we inherit its behaviors we inherit these traumas. Whether spoken or unspoken, known or unknown, and now, using these techniques, you start teasing them apart and start addressing them directly.
Gillian
Yeah, I mean, I mean, as much as pet undercover therapy therapist for us, yeah, some degree with therapists for them to we're helping them work through their issues and challenges and fears and stuff.
Collin
Sure. Yeah. We got to help the helper sometimes to
Gillian
put the oxygen mask on yourself first.
Collin
Exactly right. Looks like right now. Nobody's lying, right?
To start changing our metaphor, metaphor,
Gillian
a cup of tea, fill up the cup first. There you go.
Collin
One of the things that you mentioned that can throw a dog out of balance in all three of those, those big areas that you mentioned, was changing environment or, or big changes in them and that's pretty common in pet care. being dropped off at somebody's home or a kennel, or meeting somebody new to go on a walk. So what are some ways that we can help those dogs in those scenarios to help them calm down or be less anxious over time as a pet sitter,
Gillian
and environmental changes could be anything from, you know, the kids went to college, the kids came back from college, grandma moved and you know, we've moved we've gone from an apartment or house or vice versa, or you know, somebody's Job Change. We've moved out of state and now the whole smells are different and things so yeah, we take it in Australia, we pack a box, we float on the van and go but it does very traumatic for a dog or a cat. And so you talk about anxiety. So really, I mean, there's many types of anxiety that we could be talking, you know, especially with pet sitters, and so it could be separation anxiety. Like I mentioned earlier, with thunderstorms and fireworks as noise anxiety, this thing, pain, anxiety. There's the age They're very old dog, they have anxiety, as well as that environmental thing that we started about. So, China understand what type of anxiety they're going through this, again, is being observed and noticing how, how are they reacting? Are they aggressive? Are they working on the urinating? Are they looking pacing? I mean, there's all sorts of again, the communication, they're telling us, something's upsetting them, you know, so, find, you know, finding out how they're reacting also teaches you, you know, what you're dealing with? So, learn the triggers, and what is what is the anxiety, you know, can you get a clue as to what you're dealing with? Because once you once you know, the goal is to avoid it, you know? It's like, if they don't like walking past a certain house, why don't you walk in the other direction, you know, it's just trying to find out what to do so knowing their body language, I would also say, as pet sitters. Safety is very important your safety so knowing your limitations as to what you can do. Treat deal with Tell the parents about whatever be your safety should always be top of mind. Because the sweetest dog in the world if it's in pain or friend, it could still nip at you. But just you know, because I mean, sometimes our instinct is to cuddle him or you know, it's like, oh, everything's gonna be fine. There's no, they know you're lying. You know, everything will be fine is different than saying, Oh, it's okay. It's okay. It's not okay. Because they're in fear mode or whatever. Right? So, so basics would be in anything like a positive reinforcement, redirection, play, playing music, you know, foster parent is does a parent know that there's an anxiety problem? And what are they doing with it? They've seen a dog trainer is the trainer taught himself some techniques that you also should be doing to be consistent and reinforce, you know, so. So yeah, again, it's communication and observation. Pretty much everything. I can give you some tips, basically what to do, if that would help.
Collin
Yeah, Yeah, that'd be great. Because I think that's one of the first things that come to many people's minds of you know, maybe they they're, they're not educated about energies or Reiki just yet and they want to do something physically with the dog, how, what are some ways that they can can help with anxieties now?
Gillian
Yeah, so this, this is messaggio pressure points that relax the pets. I'll talk about human, they all work but it's also one of their favorites. So if you're if you know that the pet you're working with is a head, pet or a chest line, or let's have its belly rub Don't you know, they will have a certain favorite. I mean, some dogs are super sensitive around their paws. Which is a shame cuz that's one of your pressure points. So if they don't like the post being touched, then try different ones. So So when you're working with the head, if they like, you know, most dogs like having their ears done or something like that. So when we pet an animal, we normally just do one long stroke, you know, front to back, front, back to seal a good dog, a dog. For the head, what you do is using your fingertips again, we're not talking pressure. You do a Chris Cross the skull from basically from the eyebrows to the top of the ear. So from that bony eyebrow Ridge to the bony back of the skull, and you're going front to back side to side, and it's a crisscross and what you're doing there if you're stimulating the neurons in the brain. So this is the single stroke of the petting, but the criss cross is doing something different, a different technique, and it's stimulating different things for the ears, assuming ears haven't been clipped. And there's an acupressure point on the very tip. If you wrote the tip of the ear between the thumb and the forefinger, you know, maybe one year at a time until they get used to it then you can do both at the same time. And so for us humans, when we rub our ears, it's like a headache and migraine, nauseous time acupressure points for animals is very calming. Okay, aren't any pressure just rubbing your thumb and forefinger together to the ears. If they're not head dogs. You can do it on the chest. What you're doing with the chest is you're tapping your full hands. You're scooping slowly upwards from the armpit to the cola. And depending on the size of the dog, it could be anything from a wonderful breath count you're going nice and slow back. It's a fat hands, what you're doing is you're, you're working on the heart wall to with the chest, you're trying to slow down a heartbeat. So that's why it's a nice slow scoop and you go upwards on the ribs using a flat hand and is slowly going down the ribs because now you're working on the diaphragm because you want to relax the diaphragm so that they can get a bigger breath. Again, that's calming too. And so against it depends if they're a head, chest or if they like the ribs. Now if they are or dog and you don't, they don't mind you touching the ball on the Foley on the front, so you've got the, the big men have carpal pad on what would basically be the heel of our palm. And then further up the front leg, you've got a little knobby pad. It's just about the gym. claw in between that little pad and the big medicago pad is an acupressure point and you can rub that. So again, depending on the size of the dog, you might just use your thumb if it's like a little Pomeranian. Or if you got a big guy, girl, you can use 234 fingers and you're going to rub. And you can think of it like if you had carpal tunnel and you sort of rubbing that wrist area, it takes some of the pressure and the pain and so that's kind of soothing for the toes. It's kind of like having foot rub, but it's only on the front is where the pressure point is. So when you think about when dogs jumped down those front legs or shock absorbers, those boards and everything attaining taking a lot going on all the time. Yeah. So having a little Robin there, don't force it if you if you've got a tensor board or tries to tie one or the other. So they all work. So it's just your preferences. If you're sitting various dogs, try it. You know what they like and then you go to the next next token I don't like that you'll see that because that their eyes start to go half close. Yeah. No kidding. But it's with intent that you're doing a certain technique for a certain outcome.
Collin
Right? It's a little bit it's more focused than petting. And it's for a particular outcome, like he said that you're trying you're trying to get in. And because we set multiple dogs, we care for multiple dogs throughout the day or, you know, those dogs will experience different things, we may have the opportunities to try out those those simple techniques on a wide variety of dogs across a wide variety of situations.
Gillian
Yeah, I mean, you got the ideal audience there, but they'll tell you what they like and they don't like to I mean, some of them are very good at communicating. do an experiment, try it. And that way, you know, God forbid you're caught in a situation, you automatically know what to do, because you practice because it's muscle memory for you to
Right, the dogs already used to you doing it so they're not frightened that your hands suddenly coming up their head you know maybe starting out on some dogs that you know really well do you have a long history with before diving right into you know not yeah yeah
Collin
yeah not the not the brand new untested no background history kind of dog especially if you're if you're new to this sir yeah cuz again, your safety is important. So the dogs got to know what you're doing and get used to what you're doing before you need to do it. People who are listening to this that want to find out more they've they've they are they're interested in the topics that you've discussed. What are some resources that you recommend that people can dive into and start learning or start being being certified and going to classes for maybe uncle Google
Gillian
communication and Google animal communications or pet psychics and find classes. There's plenty of books on the subject these days. You can go to your local metaphysical store See if they offer classes. And if you find one, book one, no talk to me or something like that. See what it feels like on the receiving end, you know, and see how it works with a lot of us have different techniques and how we do it. So, see if that's something you resonate with. Yeah, definitely take take, take a look into Google, with the communication. So it's really practice, practice, practice. I mean, some of us are more empathic than others. So you might, you might have a natural tendency to, to just go out to the garden and talk with the squirrel or whatever it is. I find with the younger generations, they have less baggage the most older generations. I mean, that's why because I'm
younger generation.
Gillian
So they have less noise in their head and they may be more open to that type thing. And same thing for any if you do energy work. You know, Google if there's a Reiki Master Teacher out there that's doing classes and stuff like that. And because with with the energy work you need to be a to know something you do need to find somebody that can do it for you. It's not something you're gonna read a book and say, Oh, yeah, well, the book says, I put my hand here. Well, yeah, but you actually need now to energy part of it, you know. So, yeah, yeah. So So again, just sort of began the metaphysical store, Google. We're not doing fairs anymore. But yeah, that's the places that you'd find those, you know, it's not just Reiki me, there's a lot of different energy. There's the healing touch, you know, there's different forms different types of energy. It's just the Reiki some more popular one and easily to be found. And then if you want to do the massage and the Accu pressure, well recommend the Rocky Mountain School of animal acupressure massage. They have online courses as well as classrooms. If you're doing the online course. You're sending in videos and things of your massage, clone stuff that you're working on but but we have people fly in from Canada and all over the country to take courses and The school is now open. It's it's a trade school. It's not under the same regulations as children's schools at the moment. So, and there is also one on the east coast. So yeah, so if you want to go full blown in that, I mean, certainly if you want to do the online, my pet massage class, that's an easy one to do. Then take a look at some of these online universities. There's there's a Barclay cycling school out in California, if you want to go down the whole, you know, energy road and the Coursera. Online, they do Duke University and things like that. If you want to learn more about dogs, I would certainly recommend as pet sitters doing canine CPR and first aid again, you can google your area. I mean, for me, it's a EMT group to come around and they also teach us animals as well as people. I think the Red Cross officer course as well, but you really need that in person CPR aspect of it. Yeah, that's something I would recommend is pet sitter to definitely have in your arsenal of we got you. We don't use it, but it's good to know because it's coming along. The dogs are getting blown out and stuff like that. Because people are buying these raised dog feeders and things which is not necessarily good for certain breeds so so you need to have some first aid awareness if you're out walking the dog and they cut themselves, they get stoned, they have allergies, you know. So that's definitely something I would start with. Yeah. and
Collin
go from there the services you offer and in the way you view this, it's Yeah, we have to be meeting these physical needs as well as these energy and these communication needs. So all those are open for exploration as pet sitters and should be pursued if there's an interest and see how that can impact you maybe the business or the services that we offer or just helping us provide better services at the end of the day.
Gillian
Hopefully on the fridge door somewhere is the ER hospital you're at or whatever it is, and stuff like that. So yeah, this I mean, I'm not event I'm talking about certain things, but at the end of the day, sometimes you need to go to the back,
right yeah.
Gillian
By going to the bet you're not coming to me, you know. So you know that's, you know that in your speed dial, whatever it is. So,
Collin
yeah, that's it. You're right. That is just part of it too. Sometimes you're going to the heart that just is unavoidable. Because Yeah, dogs are
dogs. Yep.
Collin
Well, Julian, thank you so much for coming on today. This has been a fascinating conversation around a very interesting topic that I don't think a lot of people really think about when they think of dogs dogs here. So yeah. I know, I've learned so much and we've only really scratched the surface of this. There's so much more so if people are interested in want to get in touch with you and see what kind of work that you do and follow along. How can they best do that?
Gillian
Yes. So it's full artistic therapy. You can go to my website, I'm offering free 20 minute consultations at the moment. So if you have questions, behaviors and things like that, Facebook, it's my name slash Julian Edwards. I'm on Instagram, I'm on LinkedIn. So you can find me different ways. You can text me, very mind, I'm in Mountain Time.
Collin
That's 303396529, or an email, Julian at mystic therapy.com. Very good. And I'll have links to all that in the show notes, people can easily click on those and get get in touch with you. So again, it's been a real pleasure, Julian, thank you so much for coming on.
Gillian
Thank you. Appreciate it.
Collin
The world of pet care is a big one. But there are small things that we can do every single day to make their lives better from simple massages during the time that we have with them to diving deep into Reiki energy, if that's something that you're interested in, are all things that we can do to help improve not only our services and the care that we give, but the quality of life for the pets around us. We do want to thank time to pet for making this show possible. And if you're interested in supporting the show directly, you can head on over to our Patreon to find ways there. There'll be a link for that in our show notes. Megan, I want to thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to listen to us and share episodes in all the wonderful things that you do. Thank you
