Hello, would you like to learn how you can improve or expand your dog's possibilities despite having a serious problem you're dealing with? Hi, I am Mary Debono, and this is the Easier Movement, happier Dog's podcast. So, last episode, we talked about a dog who had degenerative myelopathy or DM, as they call it. And this dog, despite that serious problem,
we were able to help her improve her quality of life for a period of time. It was quite nice, actually. She actually improved for a while. And I've seen this with quite a number of DM dogs that I've worked with, dogs with degenerative myelopathy. And I'll tell you the story of another dog. And, and there's a reason for this 'cause we're gonna go into how you can create new possibilities despite problems.
Okay? So this other dog was a boxer who is diagnosed with dm. And you know, that dog, you know, she was starting to lose the ability to, to use her hind end very well, but she still had some use. It was early stages, and it was really interesting because we know that's a progressive disease, okay? So we're not,
we're not not bearing our heads in the sand and thinking, oh, we can, you know, kind of work our way out of this. However, while the dog has some good quality of life left, it's wonderful to actually promote that. In other words, to expand that. So in the case with the boxer, the dog, you know,
she wasn't getting around. Well, she could no longer jump on the bed or on the couch and things like that. So I gave her a session, you know, a hands-on session. I worked with her and it was amazing. So despite this prognosis that day after the session, she started jumping on the bed and jumping on the couch. And her person was thrilled.
You know, and again, we know what reality is as far as dogs that truly have dm, but you just realize that there are some things you can do to comfort your dog. My understanding is DM is not a painful condition, although there can be tremors and different things that can be very uncomfortable for the dog and for you watching that. But there are things you can do to improve the dog's quality of life.
Okay? So now I wanna tell you another story about a, a German Shepherd who the vet thought had dm, but the story has kind of a surprising ending. So this young woman brought her dog to me, German Shepherd male, German Shepherd, real big guy, really nice dog. And he had been diagnosed with dm. Now, my understanding,
DM is a diagnosis of exclusion. So basically you rule out other things. So the vet will rule out other things and then think, yeah, probably has dm. Now, when I saw this German Shepherd, the young lady could not really afford all, you know, MRIs and, and all kinds of other diagnostics. And she also, they, they did also didn't do a genetic test.
And because there is a gene that will tell you whether the dog is more at risk for dm, and I don't believe they did that. But in any event, the, in any event, the vet thought that the dog had DM and the dog was, was showing symptoms that would be consistent with that. First of all, being a German Shepherd,
okay? That's a breed that we know is at risk for DM some of the dogs. The dog started losing, you know, power in the hind end really progressively. And this was not an older dog, like a middle-aged dog. And so sh the, the, the young lady, the owner was thinking, okay, this is DM and this is what's gonna happen.
But she had heard that maybe I could help the, improve the dog's quality of life. So I started working with her and the dog teaching her, 'cause this is the most important thing to me, is to teach you how to help your own dog. Okay? 'cause I can't be everywhere, right? So, and, and that's better, right?
Than you are helping your own dog. So I was show, I was working with the dog myself and showing her things to do. Now I happened to have a large doggy wheelchair because a client had given it to me when her large dog no longer needed it. So I said to this woman, you know, this might be something you wanna try.
And she was, oh yeah, that would be great. So I said, you could have, you could have this one. So she didn't even have to pay, you know, pay an expense for it. So what we did, so instead of, because I'm not a veterinarian, I, I don't do medical procedures, anything like that. But instead what I do is I look for where the possibilities are.
I look to expand the field of possibilities for you and your dog. So when looking at this young woman and her lovely dog, I thought, okay, how can I help them here? And so a couple of things, you know, the, the wheelchair that could help the dog get around better. But even more than that, what I started to do was when we put the dog in the wheelchair,
thought, okay, the wheelchair itself could actually help him relearn how to move. So it wasn't just, oh, he has to just drag his hind legs from now on. 'cause to be honest, we weren't a hundred percent sure he had dm, right? So, and even if he did, well, maybe there was a longer period of time that he could have more power in his hind end.
'cause I have seen that. Again, I wanna be clear that we're not talking about reversing DM permanently, but I have worked with dogs that have improved for a period of time. Okay? So we put him in the wheelchair and then I started working with him while he had the support of the wheelchair. Now this was really cool. And then the other thing we did is,
okay, so you'll have to picture this. So you've probably seen it in person or, or, or certainly a photo of a little child dancing with daddy, right? And what does the little child do is the little child puts their feet on top of daddy's feet, right? You've probably seen that. So, and then the dad dances around and the child is just,
you know, basically being carried by the, the feet. So we did something very similar with this dog, this German shepherd in the wheelchair. What what we did was I would put the dog's feet on top of my feet and I'd get real close up to the dog in the wheelchair. And then she would lead the dog, you know, around this little area we had.
Okay? So I would move. And so by doing that, I was actually, you know, passively moving the dog in that gate sequence of walking. So I was, I was serving as the legs for the dog's hind legs, okay? And what this ended up doing was really, really cool. Oh, and I should back up a little bit.
I also did something similar while the dog was laying, lying down. So without the wheelchair, and there's a whole strategy I did where I kind of simulated standing and walking while the dog was lying down. Okay? I think I talked about this in a previous episode. I certainly talk about it in my book, grow Young with Your Dog. That whole idea of simulating,
walking, standing, and walking while the dog is lying down. That's, by the way, I have to say, that's a really, really great strategy. I didn't come up with it. Moshe Feldenkrais, the creator of the Feldenkrais method is, is where I learned that from. And what it does is you are not, the dog isn't dealing with all the challenges of gravity and having to balance and all those things,
but you can start to stimulate the nervous system in a similar way that as, as the dog would if he was standing and walking. So, okay, so we took that foundation where I had already done this with the dog lying down. Now we took it to, to actual standing, but the dog had the support of the wheelchair. You can also do this,
by the way, with different kinds of harnesses or other ways of supporting the dog. I've done it with my, with my own hands, you know, helping the dog be supported. So the dogs hind feet are on my feet and we start walking. And again, I taught her how to do it very specifically because I was really doing it in a well timed way.
And so she would practice. So she would then, 'cause she had the wheelchair, she would, when she went, would go home every day, couple of times a day, two, three times a day, they would practice this. And I don't know what that dog ended up having, okay? I'm gonna tell you that because the crazy thing is that dog made a full recovery.
So I'm pretty convinced that dog did not have degenerative myelopathy despite what the vet suspected. I also suspect that if the vet was able to do more tests, they would've come to that same conclusion that the dog didn't have it. But in any event, we, we don't, and it, we don't know what, what the dog had. 'cause you know,
there are so many different reasons why a dog can start losing, you know, strength in the hind end and start dragging the hind end. And there's usually a lot of diagnostics involved. This young lady wasn't able to spend the money on the diagnostics. So, but whatever, whatever the reason was, it resolved itself. It was so crazy. And it was such a good example of how something like that,
like taking what we did when the dog was lying down, that was important because that set the foundation for the dog then to feel better and more confident and standing up with the support of the wheelchair and then with the support of our feet, okay? Whether it was me or the owner, we started doing that. And I wanna add, and also that there were other things we did too.
So while the dog was standing in the wheelchair, we all, I also used my hands to move the dog very gently in different ways to help the dog feel better in, in his body. And then taught the owner how to do that as well. So this is why I wanna say, so, so my point in sharing that story is I want you to differentiate between focusing on a problem and expanding the field of possibilities for you and your dog,
okay? Thinking about what new possibilities can come out of this. Because when we started this, this dog's owner and I, we had no idea where the ending was going to go, right? We didn't know. Neither of us knew. And again, I'm not a veterinarian, so I don't focus on fixing a problem. I focus on how can I expand a sense of possibility for the human and their dog or other animal,
by the way, work with a lot with horses and also cats and other animals. So, and I think this is a, an important thing because a lot of times we get so fixated on a problem that we don't see any other opportunities. I often say that helpful hands and an open mind do much to improve a dog's future. Okay? Like,
in other words, having an open mind and you know, being open to the sense that, you know, there something unexpected. Like, so, you know, pleasantly unexpected might come out of this. And so, but instead, if you just focus on a problem, you are just kind of reinforcing that problem. So again, I'm not saying to ignore problems,
okay? You, you know, you work with your veterinarian, you address things appropriately, you do your own research, you do all those things. However, I have found it really beneficial to expand my view of that and to think about how else I can approach something to help an animal. So like, for example, if a dog has hip dysplasia,
so I've worked with lots of dogs with hip dysplasia over my career, which was well over 30 years. And some of them I was able to intervene at a young age. Some, I didn't get to work with a dog till they were much older. But in any case, I did not focus on the hip dysplasia. Now, that was always in the back of my mind.
I like to see the x-rays, you know, the radiographs. I like to know, you know, things about how the dog feels and, and different things that may cause problems to the dog. But again, I'm not a vet, but I think about, okay, how can I help this dog have more possibilities in life? There's a, a,
a chapter in my book, the book again, grow Young with Your Dog, where I talk about a border collie who was diagnosed with severe hip dysplasia at a very, you know, at a young age. And I was able to work with a dog as a young, she was a young dog. She was less than a year old. And the,
the, the, the owners also were amazing. And they did all the diet things. They also did laser acupuncture. So I'm not sure which one did the most, or maybe all three of them did the helped. But in any case, that dog basically reversed her hip dysplasia. And I have the radiographs in the book. I have three sets of radiographs before I started working with the dog and two after.
And yeah, she even got a, a, a rating of good from the OFA on her hips, the dog. So that was a sense where again, I thought about, okay, how can I help this dog improve her movement? And by doing so, and again, I go in more detail in the book, but in doing so, how can I potentially help the dog despite that diagnosis of hip dysplasia?
But what ended up happening, and of course I had a clue that this was gonna happen or it could happen, I should say, is that as I helped that dog improve her movement, her the stimulation of the hip joint in the, in the in the socket changed, okay? Because I was changing how the dog was using her hind legs. And that apparently,
or maybe it was one of the factors in helping the dog as she grew and developed, have a, a healthier shape in her hip sockets, have health, healthier hip joints, in other words. So it was pretty cool. And now if we're talking about older dogs that I've worked with, with hip dysplasia, it's not so much that maybe you're still at that real malleable stage with the hip joints.
However, there are things you can do to help them help the hip joints sit a little differently in the, in the sockets and the dog be more comfortable. Also, and this is a really big one, we know that when the hip is uncomfortable, hip or hips, oftentimes it's bilateral both sides, that there's compensations in other parts of the body,
okay? And say one hip is more affected than the other, the dog might be offloading a lot and then constrained the other hip, or could injure the, the knee ligament, whether, you know, the CCL on the other side, things like that can happen. So we wanna make sure that we're helping the dog be as healthy and balanced as possible to avoid those kinds of compensatory injuries.
Okay? So again, to me, that's expanding the field of possibility. It's not focusing on, this dog has a, has hip dysplasia, and I need to fix that, okay? Because I don't fix things. I help dogs and their people feel better in body and mind, okay? And I expand their sense of what's possible. That's the key thing.
How can you expand your, your dog's sense of what's possible and your sense of what's possible. So it's really, really important. So, and this is like, to me, it's like a whole way of life. It's not just about particular issues, you know? And, and it's, by the way, this is a, a, a hard,
hard one lesson for me because I, you know, I kind of grew up focusing on fixing problems, okay? That was kind of like my thing. And I always, you know, thought about things that way. Like, oh, this is wrong, how are we going to fix it? But through the work that I learned and through the work I've developed over the years and all the experiences I've had,
I realized the incredible power of focusing on what's working and expanding that, and then really having this sense that, hmm, I don't know what's gonna happen. Maybe something really good will happen. Oh, and I, I have to tell you this because I heard a real, I saw a really good quote recently. It was like a little meme that this author John AOV had.
And I, I might blow, might not say it exactly as he said it, but he said something like, he, I guess he suffered from a lot of anxiety, which many of us do. And he said he started to apply his imagination to his creativity instead of to his anxiety. And I thought that was really good. So in other words,
we can be really imaginative about all the things that can go wrong, all the ways that things can go south, right? Like, we're really good at that. I'm raising my hand because I can be really good at that. But when you apply your creativity, or excuse me, your imagination to being creative, to apply your imagination to new possibilities,
how awesome is that? To think of all these incredible ways that things can go well and things can expand. Okay? So what does this mean for you and your dog? I'm gonna say it again about helpful hands and an open mind can do much to change, to improve a dog's future. Okay? So there's that, and there's ways you can,
you can learn how to do what I'm talking about. You know, again, I talk about it a lot in my book, grow Young With Your Dog. And that book comes with some online video demos and things like that. And I'll have a link in the, in the description of where, how you can purchase that digital version of the book.
It's also on Amazon. Another thing though, is to, I'm gonna send you another link. So it's mary Debono dot com slash love dog, all one word, all lowercase. And again, it'll, the link will be in the description that gives you a free video training without buying anything. It's totally free about how you can get some of the basics of learning the work I'm talking about in this podcast,
the Debono Moves work. And so that's, that's two things. But then I'm gonna give you another thing, okay? This doesn't involve any links, it just involves you thinking about how you can start changing up things in your life, okay? And you might apply this specifically to things you do with your dog, but you can also apply this to other things because we start to expand our sense of what's possible when we start expanding our,
our rut. If getting out of our rut, if you will, having non habitual sensations, non habitual experiences, novelty, adding novelty. They say variety is a spice of life. Variety is also really good for your nervous system because it gets your attention of the nervous system. And as long as it's a pleasant, safe stimulus, your nervous system will be pleased at the novelty,
okay? And again, it'll get the attention of the nervous system in a healthy way that improves the way you learn. And this is very, very applicable to your dog. So with your dog, you know, you could think about, oh, you know, maybe I'll will take a walk in a different direction today. We'll, we'll, we'll try a new trail.
We'll go to a new park, we'll do something different. Or, you know, I'll have my dog walk on the other side than what I usually have my dog walk on. Or, you know, you start changing things up. We'll learn a new game. We'll, you know, do new things, you know, and again, you're, you start to train your brain to look as you know,
for new possibilities. You realize they're fun, they're exciting, but in a good way, you know, it's not scary, you know, and this is really, really good. And you can do this. Just doesn't matter how old your dog is, whether you have a very elderly dog, whether you have a young dog, you can start to bring in new and sense of new possibilities for your dog.
And I love that. And, and another thing that I teach a lot, and again, it's in my book, but I talk about something called connected breathing. And that's something that you can do with your dog, even if your dog is at the very, very end of life. And to me, it's another way of kind of breaking outta your rut.
You can think of it as a, as kind of a mutual meditation that you're doing with your dog. I found it's a great way to reset. I have some amazing stories from people that, what they've told me, how their dog's improved after they've done connected breathing. But it's a great way to, again, just bring a sense of newness. I love how it's like a reboot or a reset for you and your dog.
And these are all great ways of saying, okay, we can, we can expand our lives from here on in. We don't have to stay in this narrow, narrow lane that we're in or this rut. And again, whether you're dealing with a very serious issue with your dog, or you just want your, the best for your dog, or maybe you have a temporary,
the dog is dealing with a temporary injury, I would really encourage you to expand your sense of what's possible for you and your dog and really play with that. And then let me know how it goes for you. Let me know if you want to expand your sense of what's possible even more. Like maybe there's something that you think, I wish I could do that with my dog,
or I wish my dog could do that, or whatever it is, let me know. So feel free to reach out to me, Mary at mary Debono dot com. Again, I'll put the, my email in the description as well. So I hope that was helpful for you. Again, just, just to wrap up, remember at least this is my,
my suggestion, you know, is to focus more on new possibilities rather than old problems. Okay? So think of, you know, the difference between when you're having narrow focus on a problem or when you have a sense of expanded possibilities. Think of just how much lighter you feel when you think of those new possibilities and how much joy you bring to that.
And your dog will feel that your dog Will resonate with that. Your dog will respond to that. Okay? So, and remember that despite a serious issue, there are often ways that you can improve the situation, prove the connection between you and your dog, improve those little bits of quality of life, or make them big bits of quality of life.
But there's so many things that we can do together to help our dogs. So thank you so much for being here. Again, check out Mary Debono dot com slash love dog, that's the free training, and let me know how I can help you, okay? Thank you so much for being here. I love sharing this work with you and your dog,
and I can't wait to talk to you again soon. Bye for now.