Meet Iris

You know how you get that feeling and those nagging thoughts that you should know how to do something or be good at something, but you're not? Well meet Iris, she struggles with being a dog.

Seriously. Iris has the dog version of OCD. She takes meds. Without meds you can see her brain really doesn't work very well - she has no self-regulation abilities, no ability to listen, she's just always in reaction, disconnected from everything except her arousal. So there's that. But even beyond that, Iris doesn't speak dog. She really doesn't get the language of play, of stay away, of this is my toy right now. At all. She goes to doggie day care and paces along the fences and interacts with people. She can go into overstimulation meltdown - and it's not good. It drove Hermes (our very dog dog) nuts. Iris did not understand sniffing on walks until after we did some scent work with her during the pandemic to help stimulate her while being at home all the time. It created some kind of connection in her brain and taught her to sniff. She still hasn't learned to talk dog, she still gets overstimulated, but she loves sniffing when we go on walks. Because of meds and training she now is able to listen (most of the time), ask for and enjoy pets (ask me about her morning massage) and act more like a dog. Who knew that all dogs are not great at being dogs on their own? That dogs can need so much support?

So the next time you think you should be good at something or know something, ask yourself if that's really true. It probably isn't. We all need support and help (and yes, maybe meds sometimes) and that's ok. Iris agrees.

xo

Trina

PS If you want to learn about a horse who isn't so good at doing horse things check out #Boomer at Skydog Sanctuary