How to Give Your Pet a Holistic Attitude Adjustment

One of the areas of animal care that holistic health care practices are becoming known for is behavioral problems, particularly aberrations of temperament in dogs who have previously been well balanced and stable.

The concept of holistic medicine is simple and dates back, in the Occidental mind, at least to Socrates, who warned that treating one part of the body without respect to the whole of a person would not produce good results. The concept is far older in the Eastern traditions. India and China, for example, have adhered to the belief that healing is a result of harmony between all facets of a being, body, mind and spirit and that disease is a result of disharmony that allows outside forces to compromise the body's own healing abilities.

More and more people are turning to these concepts to treat their pets as well as themselves, becoming faithful and vocal advocates of the precepts and reporting nearly unbelievable results. Practitioners of holistic and alternative veterinary medicine are becoming more accessible even in non-metropolitan areas and are even getting referrals from more traditional veterinarians.

There are different levels of holistic treatments requiring differing levels of training. Many holistic practitioners also hold degrees in traditional veterinary medicine, but therapies can run the gamut from complex treatments requiring intensive and specific training to the holistic equivalent of over the counter treatments.

One of the most popular and easily used therapies are the Bach's Flower Remedies, specifically Rescue Remedy. The Flower Remedies are easy to administer; a few drops in your pet's water, no poking pills down the throat, or disguising them in treats only to find them behind the couch later, peanut butter or cheese costume long gone with the actual treatment spat out. Rescue Remedy is used to relieve stress, as a calmative, and even to help prepare for invasive medical procedures and to assist in alleviating the trauma, a valuable tool in the healing process. Rescue Remedy is given to dogs who go into full blown panic at the first crack of thunder, or fireworks, to those for whom travel instills fear, for separation anxieties -- nearly any stresses your dog, or any pet, encounters.

Other flower essences are recommended for behavioral problems; everything from fear and aggression issues to obsessive grooming. They're a relatively inexpensive, easily researched tool that the average pet owner can turn to on their own.

Another holistic treatment tool a pet owner can learn to administer on their own is known as “TTouch” or “Tellington TTouch.” It is named for it's founder, an internationally known expert in animal behavior, Linda Tellington-Jones. It is most readily described as a system of massage and physical manipulation therapy consisting mainly of circular movements of the fingers on pressure points and receptive areas of the animal's body that fully activate cellular functions and each cell's basic “intelligence,” in essence, as Linda Tellington describes it, “turning on the electric lights of the body.”

TTouch is used for calming, to enable an animal to absorb training and behavioral directions, releasing tensions and allowing the animal to have a sense of well being and safety and to learn to interact with their environment and the people in it without fear and anxiety. It can even be helpful for simple, everyday problems like carsickness, excessive chewing and grooming, leash pulling, even easing the ordinary discomforts of aging.

Reiki is a gentle, non-invasive holistic treatment useful for calming and even “physical” healing. It requires training and a dedicated mind set on the part of a practitioner. Simply put, reiki is a practice that opens healing, calming energies, making them available for the animal's use. It has been a staple of holistic treatment of humans and often allows access to a feeling of self assurance and calm well being which seems to translate well to animals experiencing a reiki treatment.

Holistic treatment is a definite consideration for behavioral problems, and there are no side effects as there can be with pharmaceutical treatments -- or finding yourself working with the wrong trainer.

This article was provided by Beatrice Anderson of www.pet-super-store.com; where you can find great deals on Dog Beds and Dog Steps.