Homework undone but inspiration abounds!- Training Deenah/ Part 1

Okay, okay I know I haven't done my homework yet - to write about my impressions of each lecture that I attended at Clicker Expo - I will!  They were so interesting but in the meantime, pressing things have risen to the top of my list:

I have several gallery proposals being considered for my art work and new work in process ... and I have been working in small steps on some really important things I learned/ brought home from Clicker expo ... and Deenah is about to start a new healing regime and that is what this post is about!

 

Deenah:  she has not been feeling well - it's subtle but I know it.  She has been with me 6 years now and I can read her like a book.  One glance tells me she isn't herself.  Lately, I've been thinking it's due to advanced age and cold weather, her inability to gain weight and her perpetual itchiness.  I have been giving her an ulcer herbal supplement and treating the skin sores when they appear, giving her extra hay and lots of attention.

But on a hunch I decided to contact Marijke at Riva's Remedies.  They are equine practitioners (not vets though) specializing in herbal and homeopathic remedies and they can do intuitive or energy testing based on a write-up and photos.  It's not clear to me how it works but what I DO know is that traditional veterinary medicine has not been able to help Deenah.  So I decided to reach out and see if there might be something
else to try - at the very least to relieve Dee's itchiness which must be driving her mad.

The main thing that Marijke suggested was that Deenah is most probably low in vitamin B12.  This makes so much sense to me based on several year's worth of blood panels which show that Dee is borderline anaemic with a very low red blood cell (RBC) count.   Internal malfunctions often manifest in the skin which is an organ, so a poor immune system can show itself in many forms.

Today I started Deenah on a regime that includes some herbs, lemon juice to address acidity and vitamin B12.  These can be added to soaked beet pulp and soybean hull - no problem

Next week we will begin a few homeopathic remedies that are both in tiny pill form and in a spray compound.
I like homeopathy as its credo is "do no harm." If it's not the correct remedy, nothing bad will happen.  But  these will be hard to administer as homeopathy must interact with the mucosa and must not be given with food.  Deenah is very guarded about her mouth having lost a tooth early on - she hates her mouth being handled.

So I have less than a week to teach her to accept pills and spray.  Deenah needs to allow me to pull her bottom lip forward and tip some tiny pills between her lip and her gum.  For the spray, I'll need to open her mouth and pump 5 doses on her gums and she has to hold still.

Tonight I began to figure out how to teach this - I started by standing at her side, asking her to touch my open hand with the bridge of her nose - click/ treat/ repeat.  Then I put my other hand under her jaw as I did the above - she didn't like that but if/ when she held her head still - click/ treat/ repeat.

I realized that I wasn't in a position to administer pills, standing beside her, so I moved in front of her.
Then I asked her to target my open hand, held slightly above her eyes, so she had to lift her chin a bit to hold the bridge of her nose against my hand.  I figure that this will be a better position to administer her remedies.

We will work on this every day, and hopefully I will refine what I am doing so that she is in the optimum position to receive pills and spray next week!  Clicker training will really help Deenah to relax and allow me to treat her.