Chrissy 0:00
Welcome to The Dogs of our lives. Podcast with me. Chrissy Messick, this is where traditional training transforms into true connection and understanding with our dogs. As a certified dog trainer, behavior consultant and interspecies communicator with a background in high level sports medicine, I bring a unique functional approach to understanding our dogs by integrating body, mind, heart and soul, join us for insights, stories and practical wisdom that will help you prevent problems before they start and build a deeper bond with your animal companion. Before we get into today's episode, let me ask you a question, how well do you actually know your dog? Why not take my quiz to find out? You can find the link in the show notes. Now let's dig in. Today, I'm talking with Alexia Miller, who is a canine nutritionist. She integrates an evidence based nutrition spiritual wisdom and holistic approach to dog wellness. We had such a fun time talking about how nutrition affects behavior and what we can look for to make sure our dog's gastrointestinal tracts are healthy. Stay tuned to the very end, because we shake things up a bit, and talk about animal communication and how bringing science and woo together can create the best lives for us and our dogs. All right. Well, hello, Alexia, and thank you so much for being here. I'm really excited to talk with you about a few things, and I know we could talk forever. So I actually found you through your podcast, Mystic dog mama. And I was like, Oh, that's interesting. Because, you know, now that I have a podcast, I listen to everybody else's talk, yeah. And so I was like, Oh, she's fascinating. So I'm so glad that you were able to be on and just talk about some fun stuff.
Alexia 1:42
Oh, thanks, Chrissy, thanks so much for having me. I'm so excited too, and I always I love it when there is a fellow dog nerd that's in the podcasting space, but then another mystic dog nerd makes it even better. So I'm excited.
Chrissy 1:56
I know it's like a double whammy. I know it's good. Okay, so can you just tell us a little bit about yourself, where you live, what you do, and just any current dogs in your life? Yeah, well, I'm currently
Alexia 2:06
a bit of a digital nomad, which is kind of fun, and that plays into how my little dog, Lucky came into my life. So I I have been an artist. I've had a varied career background, but I was in participatory art and design and working at a university where I was helping people to connect with complex issues like climate change, using participatory art and design as a kind of way of thinking creatively and imagining different possibilities. And I was then approached by a company to use those same kind of processes with them as they were setting up their company. It was a company that was focused on sustainability, so I did a postdoc with them, and kind of came to the end of it. And I should say, too, I went into art a little bit later in life. I went back to art school at 30. I'd always wanted to do art, but it was like the thing you're not allowed to do, like, how are you going to make money? You're just gonna be a starving artist, that whole kind of conversation. And so I did somewhat more of the traditional thing, and then was like, I really need to live my life on my own terms. And I was looking at, what would I regret most in my life? And it was not taking that risk of going to art school. So I did that, and that's kind of what propelled me, but I thought like, oh, so I finally found the one thing I'm going to be doing. Like, here we go. I can tick that box right. Like, we're good to go. And I get to the end of this post doc that was so unbelievably traumatic to me. It was such a toxic work environment. And I just felt like, oh my god, this can't be, this can't be what I'm going to be doing. And I was at that kind of crisis point in my life that I've experienced several times, that I refer to as the Dark Knight of the soul. I've been someone who's been on the spiritual path since being very young. And so I was aware of this kind of concept, and I recognized, okay, I'm being redirected. It's not very comfortable. I don't know what I'm being redirected to. And I just sort of said, All right, universe, I give up. And my mom was spending some time in Mexico, and she said, Well, why don't you come and spend some time with me and take, like, a long Christmas break, essentially, and you can go and do a little bit of traveling around this sort of regroup before you make your next decision about what's what to do next. And so that was December of 2019 I went to Mexico, and was like, Oh my gosh. Like, you know when you kind of give yourself that time and space, when you're in a really stressful situation, and your body kind of catches up with it, and it's like the tears are just flowing and, like, I was just, oh my god. Like, what about during my life? And I I just felt like I need something to shift, and I ended up going to a local couden Daro. And for those who aren't familiar with with coenderos, that's like the Mexican folk healer, and in many places in Mexico, that's still the first port of call when you need anything from like help with a sprained ankle. To like the flu to you might have demons, you know, it's like, it's like, kind of the all encompassing approach to like, it really is holistic health. And I set up an appointment with him, and I went to him and said, he was like, well, remind me why you're here. And I said, I just feel like I need my chakras unblocking, or something like that. And he laughed at me, and he was like, you don't need your chakras unblocking. You're an energy worker. But he said, You need to learn to work with your energy. You are, you are taking on everyone else's energy and not getting rid of it. And he said, and you need to start working in that way. That needs to become the prominent thing in how you're working in the world. And he said, and by the way, please pay attention to dogs and cats that cross your path at this time, because they're healers for you. A couple days later, so we're now heading into because I extended my stay around Christmas, COVID was announced, and my my mom and I kind of had the decision of, like, what, what should I do? Should I go back to the UK? Should I stay here? The What should we do? And so we decided to stay together through this. The next thing we knew when they it was like the day they announced hard lockdown. We got a knock at the door, somebody's standing there with this gorgeous little chihuahua puppy mix. And it's like, any chance you could take this puppy and foster him. I was like, universe. I mean, come right, like you can't make this stuff up. And his name, he was named lucky already. I didn't name it was named by somebody who doesn't speak any English. And I was like, here we go again. Yet another sign. And I just decided, all right, this is part of my path of having to just open up to different possibilities without knowing where it's going. And can I trust that this is unfolding in a way, and this is serving a bigger purpose. I don't think I was remotely aware of how that one knock at the door, like literally opportunity knocking at the door would 180 change my life, where I did a massive career pivot into canine nutrition and well being and using my energy working practices for dogs. And it all came about through my experience with lucky and the various behavioral issues that he had, from being a pandemic pup and health challenges that he faced. And I had to figure this stuff out on my own, and I need to learn all about this and do it in a way that I can then turn around and offer that kind of support that I was looking for, and it didn't exist. That little monkey just showing up. I refer to him as monkey pantalonis, Spanglish monkey pants. That little monkey pantalonas. He just showed up and changed everything so, so my whole life now has literally gone to the dogs, and I've repurposed my research skills and everything towards everything canine nutrition and holistic health for dogs.
Chrissy 7:43
That's awesome. So you went from PhD in art to Canine nutrition, yeah. I mean, who knew and where do you live right now?
Alexia 7:52
I'm doing the digital nomad thing, so I'm kind of traveling around. I am in Mexico at the moment.
Chrissy 7:57
You're in Mexico right now. Okay, so tell us just a little bit about where you went and got your canine nutrition degree from, and just a little bit about that
Alexia 8:06
Sure. So canine nutrition is an unregulated field, which is something that I still find a little bit problematic. And actually part of my studies was intentionally with organizations that are looking to change that. So anyone can kind of say that they're a canine nutritionist, which is, in my mind, not a helpful thing, because you want to make sure, when you're working with somebody, that they've actually done the studies. So I started off on a course purely just to learn for myself, like, what are the basics? Because I think for me, and I think a lot of pet parents, when you start to look at, what do I feed my dog, what's the best food for my dog? It's kind of like I wanted to know what's the food pyramid, even though that's a problematic kind of kind of idea. But, you know, we're used to that, that sort of concept of, like, what are the basic components of what a dog actually needs? Because I didn't feel confident enough in being able to meet Lucky's needs. At the time, I always knew that I wanted to move away from a processed food, because I knew that it's bad for us. How can it possibly be good for them? And that's the only thing that they eat for their entire lives. And when lucky actually had his health issues, I started Topping his kibble with a bunch of different fresh foods, and we got to the point where That's where all he would eat, he would absolutely refuse the kibble. So I was forced into having to make this shift, but I wanted to do it in an informed way. And if you've gone online, there's so much conflicting information and it feels really overwhelming. So I decided that taking a course would be the most helpful. So I did it initially for me with the British College of canine studies, from that, I realized I just love this like I'm, I'm a nerd at heart. I love diving into this stuff. And I'm, actually, I know that one of my skills from being a researcher too is how to read the studies, how to understand what's actually going on with all of that. And. To make informed decisions, but also then to simplify that and talk to people in a way that they can become advocates for their own dogs and make decisions that feel good for them. So I decided to then go a step further, and in the UK, we have an organization called offqual, which is a government organization that reviews courses to make sure that they are up to par, that they're meeting all the standards. So I did the only internationally recognized course that is off call recognized. I did that, and my mentor was Caroline Griffith. She is just absolutely fantastic. She's been working in the pet food industry for like, 25 years. And she and another fantastic mentor of mine, Katie McCall, that who was a former vet nurse and then got into canine nutrition, they decided that we need to have some sort of regulation with this, and we need to make fresh food feeding. So when I say fresh food, I'm meaning both raw and gently cooked foods. We need to make that an approachable thing, so that vets understand the benefits of it, that when we are formulating diets for pets, that we know that the people who are doing it know what they're doing. Because I've seen a lot of really not balanced at all recipes coming out of supposed nutritionists. And so they were putting together this organization that included a mentoring program and kind of guiding you in real case studies through doing this. And so I did that with them and a founding member of that organization, which is really exciting. And then our job now as the founding members, is to help support other members who are coming through, to be to be cognizant of what it means to be a nutritionist and that somebody is putting their trust and their babies, their fur babies, lives in your hands and making sure that you know how to properly, not only meet the minimum guidelines of what a dog needs, but to help them thrive through optimal health. And so that was kind of my, my course of action. And then there's constant, you know, continuing professional development in the field as well that I stick with it's an ongoing learning process. Oh,
Chrissy 12:02
I know it is, and it's interesting, because, in regard to me working with dogs and behavior issues, you know, what they eat and their nutrition completely affects their behavior, you know, just like us as humans, like kids, you know, and adults, what we eat really affects our emotional state. And we'll talk about this more later. Yeah, I know Dr Amber, Amber Batson is coming out. She's sharing a lot of her research with how physiologically the you know, the microbiome, affects the brain and emotions, and so it's really fascinating to me. So tell us a little bit about lucky. What medical issues did he have that you found that nutrition would help with him?
Alexia 12:44
So he started with some pretty severe gastrointestinal problems, and he was having extreme diarrhea and vomiting, and so that led to concerns around dehydration as well, and I couldn't get him to keep anything down. He also started as a result of that food refusal. So a lot of dogs too, we know that. You'll know this from the behavior side of things too, that a lot of like behavioral problems are actually at the root of it, pain and discomfort. So for him, he was just in a lot of pain, and that also then led to, like, snapping, a bit of aggression, that kind of thing, because he was so uncomfortable, I ended up trying every different kibble, because, like I said, I was afraid of taking him off what I thought was the complete and balanced thing, right? And I was just adding different toppers. And eventually it got to the point where he then developed kidney issues. I had to look at kidney disease is it's a complex disease, and one of the first things that we want to consider with kidney disease is hydration. And kibble is naturally dehydrating. Water is the number one nutrient. When we talk about nutrition, I think we often fail to mention like the first thing you need to look at is water moisture content. And dogs and cats in particular, they derive most of their hydration from their food. So even if you've got a water bowl, and they're drinking from the water bowl that isn't replenishing the body, as well as them able to extract the moisture that's in the food. So I knew that I needed to switch to a fresh diet to support his kidneys, and I knew that I would have to alter the way that we were thinking about it, to support the kidneys, meaning, like I would have to do different amounts of protein, it became more of a complex thing. So that's where my vet said to me, you are going to have to make his food. But I'm so sorry I can't guide you in this. I don't know enough about it, and that's true of most vets. Most vets do not get a lot of nutrition training.
Chrissy 14:40
I appreciate your vet saying that, instead of just saying, let's, let's put you on the Science Diet. You know, instead of reacting, you're being proactive, totally,
Alexia 14:50
totally. I am so grateful for her and recognizing where she excels and where her limitations are, and working with me, I mean, she's very much a traditional. That a conventional vet and I have opted for a much more holistic way of working with lucky, and it was his issues that prompted this, that opened my eyes to this. So even things when we're talking about nutrition and behavior and like, how do we best support with food? It's not just a conversation about, like, what foods to add in or not add in. You also want to look at things like, what chemicals are you using in the home, and questioning whether or not you really need to be using flea, tick and heartworm stuff, and especially all year round, like, what? What are the other factors that are contributing and especially for a dog with kidney disease, because the kidney has to filter all that out. Do you have scented candles on in the environment? The kidneys have to filter all of that stuff out. So I became hyper aware of all of these different puzzle pieces, and food was just one part of it. And so I had to take take a really holistic approach. And as a result of that, having having to talk to her and say, Look, I'm not doing the the pesticides anymore. We need to be careful with any drugs. I'm not just going to randomly give him antibiotics that are going to destroy his gut microbiome unless it's a targeted thing. We had to take a different approach with him, and I think that's actually opened her eyes as well to different ways of engaging with clients. So that's been a nice relationship. But I agree, I'm really grateful and fortunate that she's been so supportive, because I know a lot of people who choose to go the holistic path get a lot of pushback from their vets. It was his GI and then ultimately the kidney stuff, where I was like, I have to do something different, that pushed me into into going into the canine nutrition route.
Chrissy 16:33
So how long has this process been and how is he doing now? He's doing
Alexia 16:38
fantastic. I've got his numbers, like he's in normal range for everything. We both do animal communication. And this is some stuff that I've practiced with Lucky I do Reiki practices. I do other energy practices with him to keep everything kind of flowing, and also to monitor my own tendency to worry about him, making sure I'm not projecting that onto him. And again, I feel it's like the collision of all those things sort of coming together that have supported him, that I envision him in full health. I envision him running around and having a great time. And he does. He's really great. I've learned to not try to problematize. And what I mean by that is like when, when I first got the diagnosis of kidney disease, and any of your listeners who have had a diagnosis like that, it is like a gut punch to the stomach. It is so terrifying. It's so upsetting. You feel like you have no control. So something I'd like to say is you do have control. There are many things that you can do to help your dog and to help them live really long lives where kidney disease isn't even the thing that ends up killing them in the end, right? Like, there's a lot of hope around this stuff. When you get that kind of diagnosis and you just feel so overwhelmed by it all, you start looking for any little problems. That's how it was for me. I was like, Oh, my God, he's doing this. Does that mean this? Like, you know, you get into that kind of state. And I recognize I was really glad that I did. I was robbing myself of the joy of being with him in any state he was in. I was projecting energy of negativity and fear and worry and disease onto him, because that's what I was living in. And so it's kind of like taking all of that into account that I think has really helped with with his health journey, along with the fact that he's on a completely fresh diet, so he's getting species appropriate food. The moisture content of fresh food is like upwards of 76% so he's constantly hydrated. You know, I'm taking care of the kidneys in a number of different ways, including with food energetics, which I can talk to you a little bit about as well with how that works. Yeah, but yeah, he's doing great. Yeah.
Chrissy 18:42
We'll dive into that in a minute. Real quick. How long has the journey been from the knock on the door to, you know, him being in solid, good numbers? Would you say he came
Alexia 18:53
to me in March of 2020 and started with the issues a few months later, and so I was battling with that from 2020 until 2022 really, getting it under control. And so, yeah, he's, he's been, he's been good since, though, yeah, he's been good since, well, I
Chrissy 19:13
mean, his poor little body, like he's had so much trauma, he it, yeah, takes a long time to kind of reverse that and heal that? Yeah, it's not. It does at
Alexia 19:22
all. It's not. It's not. And you know, to add to it, when he was two, two weeks old, his mom was hit by a car and killed. So he then didn't have the socialization. He also didn't have the mother's milk. He wasn't properly fed as a result of that. And so our microbiomes start to build the moment that we're born, and even whether or not the dogs or the humans are born vaginally versus through cesarean, will impact the way that the microbiome actually starts to form. So it's almost been like I've been in a catch up state from the get go of trying to help build it up. But you can. You can build it back up. So that's not to say just because your dog has had a rough start that your their microbiome is is doomed. It just means that we have to be a little bit more COVID of it, and especially with like the work that you're doing, where you then are bringing the behavioral element into it as well, having a sense of understanding, and I think, applying that lens of how the microbiome could be to the behavior you're seeing that behavior is information. It's telling you that there's something going on with the dog, and it might be that it's in the gut, and not just a traumatic experience or a fear of a particular thing. It could very well be that it's in the gut, and we can do something about that.
Chrissy 20:38
Yeah, yeah. It breaks my heart when their behavior issues are a result of a GI problem, and it breaks my heart when people just want to fix the behavior and not address the root of the behavior. That's what I would like to change.
Alexia 20:53
Yeah, I have a client who came to me as one of my case studies. That's a really great example of that, where the dog was actually put forward as a candidate for behavioral euthanasia. He also had horrific, bloody colitis. So obvious gut issues going on, right? And so his mom came to me for help. I was like, Is there anything that we can do? And I said, Yeah, but we again, we have to look at all the pieces of the puzzle together, and we have to work on all of it at the same time, he was a rescue dog that actually came from Mexico, was shipped up to Canada, so you've got trauma there. You're going to have microbiome disruption from that. He was kind of bounced around fosters up in Canada before he landed in his forever home. The way that I approach nutrition, I should say, I call it the new approach. I've sort of branded it as an acronym, as an easy way to put together the pieces, and stands for nutrition. So with that, I'm specifically looking at what are the nutrients that the dog needs, and in what form, because we can talk about species appropriate and bio available forms of nutrients in a second. But then I look at energetics. This comes from a traditional Chinese medicine lens, which proposes that every level living being is born with an energetic profile to kind of simply think of it. It's like you are more linked to one of the five elements of like fire, earth, water, air, metal, and you tend to run either a little bit more to the warm side or a little bit more to the cold side, and a little bit more damp or a little bit more dry, we all kind of fit in that. So if you can think of the people that like, regardless of how hot it is, they're always freezing cold, right? They've always got a sweater on, or the opposite, like, it doesn't matter how cool it is, they're like, I'm boiling hot. It's, it's that kind of understanding of energetics. But the foods that we all eat have those same kind of energetic profiles. So you can work with balancing the body's energetics with the foods being a little bit more tailored towards the energetics of the of the animal. Then we have w in the new approach, which is for well being. And this is where I incorporate everything that takes in that bigger context. So that would be, animal communication comes under that. The energy healing modalities that I use, muscle testing, comes under that. But it also comes under like, are you providing enrichment for your dog? Are you paying attention to the individual needs of the dog? Are you providing carpets instead of slippy tiled floors, all of that kind of stuff, for me, fits under well being. So again, it's it's taking a wider perspective, because that's what's needed to support the dog to have optimal health. And so back to this particular case study. When I went through the documentation that was given to me about what was actually going on with the dog from the vet's perspective, the vet behaviorist, prior nutritionist all of this, I was like, my god, this dog has been through the absolute ringer. We need to work on healing the gut, but let's see what else is going on. And so in terms of the way that actually behavior can give me a clue, as a nutritionist, as to something that might be going on with the bot, with the dog's body. I ask clients to make a note, like, one is your dog sitting in a funny position? Do they tend to sit with their like splayed or favor one side or the other, because that can give an indication of something like a hip issue or GI discomfort. But also, more interestingly, are they nibbling in areas of their body? Are they sensitive in particular parts of their body? And with this particular dog, he was constantly nibbling, when you track it with Chinese medicine, the liver and gallbladder meridians on his forearms and on his side. He also presented dysregulated behavior at 11 o'clock at night, every single night, at 11 o'clock, he couldn't settle. He was barky. He was anxious. He was sensitive to touch. So when I look at the time again, with Chinese medicine, they have a circadian day, essentially, where you look at it's based upon looking at how energy flows through the body according to times of day, and that often corresponds to. What needs to happen in the body at particular times of the day. So 11 o'clock is the beginning of the window for the liver and gallbladder. So he's showing dysregulation through his behavior, and he's nibbling on these things. And I said to the owner, I'm going to experiment with adding in foods that are balancing to the liver, foods and herbs, and also he's showing me he's seeking out the sun all the time. He's a cool dog. And when we when a cool dog becomes cold, that's when disease state is is prevalent, and so things can become problematic. So we need to warm him up, and we need to balance the liver. So I specifically looked at proteins and vegetables and herbs to support question.
Chrissy 25:43
Quick question for you, did she also has it have his numbers as well? Like a blood panel? Blood work? Yeah, blood panel.
Alexia 25:50
She didn't have a blood panel at this time. No, no. So we were just basing off, like, what, what is the first kind of port of call? And so with a dog like that, it is basically he was also having food refusal because he was so uncomfortable. So the first thing is like, how do we even get something into him? Right? The issue number one, and how do we start the gut healing stuff? But as I'm starting to think about it, she's showing these issues with liver. And I should say to you, with Chinese medicine, when we say that there's a liver imbalance, that doesn't necessarily mean that the organ, the physical organ, is out of balance. It's that the liver governs a system in in Chinese medicine. So it's not necessarily he's got liver disease or anything. It's just that something in the way that the energy is flowing through this system is in balance. So I thought, well, we've got nothing to lose. Let's try adding in things that are going to be supportive. He is totally calm at night. He's a much calmer dog. He doesn't do the nibbling. His coat has improved. He used to have eye discharge. The eye is linked to the liver system in Chinese medicine. He doesn't have any eye discharge anymore. She's like, he's a different dog. He's a totally different dog. So the behavior, the problem behavior, was not so much about needing to work with it to a degree. For sure, we need to work through a training perspective, but it's the training plus looking at what what is that behavior telling us that there's an imbalance? He's not comfortable in his body, and now we've got him comfortable in his body, so he's receptive to training. Yeah,
Chrissy 27:19
exactly, which is incredible. Yeah. You know, it's just not about fixing the behavior. We need to go deeper and look at what's going on underneath. So let's go back in time a little bit. Is there a time that you remember in your childhood, when you were growing up, that really stuck with you, that kind of set your values and, you know, beliefs and your mindset toward animals?
Alexia 27:42
Well, I'm a Virgo with a Virgo sun with a Pisces moon, so I am like, naturally, oh, I've always been drawn to animals. I've always found them really special and more of like, a kinship kind of relationship with them. I did have some pets growing up, but my dad was highly allergic, and I actually, I actually asked my mom, could we just trade him in and keep the pets? Yeah, yeah. I was pretty precocious, but I was like, Is that an option? Can we her
Chrissy 28:16
dad's like, wait, what? Yeah,
Alexia 28:20
exactly, but I've always just felt like such a connection. I don't think there was any particular one moment I'm just like, that person that's naturally drawn to to the animals. And like, even going over to friends houses and stuff as a kid, if they had pets, I was like, Oh my God, you know. And like, just going over and preferring to play with the animals, even the kids. I think it's just been an ongoing thing. And I always told myself, because I've lived such a nomadic life. My family is from the UK, and came over from my dad, came over to the US for my dad's work, and we moved around the US every few years and so and I've kind of continued that as an adult, and I always had it for me as like a sign of not so much success, but like having achieved what I wanted to achieve, like when I was settled enough to have a dog. And the irony is, the dog showed up at the most unsettled time
Chrissy 29:12
of my life. And I think that's part of
Alexia 29:14
the lesson, though, like I had said, it can only happen now, and the universe is like, really, let's try this.
Chrissy 29:23
I love it. I know you talked about personally, how lucky really influenced how you work with dogs. Are there any professional examples about the nutrition work, or any professional challenges that you have found working with dogs?
Alexia 29:37
First of all, there is no one right way to feed your dog like I'm very much a proponent of you feed the dog in front of you, but we need to have standards that say this is kind of how things like AFCO and PDF and the NRC, which are these organizations that set out guidelines, and they are just guidelines, and actually they're for like. The minimum guidelines of what are the nutritional needs of a dog, and it's based upon dogs that are fed kibble. Studies have not been done on dogs that are fed fresh foods. Fresh foods are so much more bioavailable. So in reality, you don't necessarily need as much zinc. For example, that AFCO is saying, because the zinc that's actually in hibble is a much less bioavailable version than the zinc that's in beef liver. You know, that kind of a thing. So I think professionally, I take issue with I understand the need for these guidelines, but I also think that they can become problematic and people get really hung up on needing to meet these guidelines without understanding what the guidelines are for. But that being said in terms of, when you decide that you're going to be a professional nutritionist, Nutrition Consultant, whatever you want to call yourself, you need to know that you actually know what you're talking about, you know, and that, especially because most people come to see somebody like me when there's a problem, we're generally not the first port of call. They've been to the vets, they've been to the behaviors. They've tried all the different they've tried all these other things. So we're generally dealing with a dog that's in a fairly sick condition. I just believe like it's it's an ethical mandate to know what it is that you're doing, and to also have a team of colleagues that know what they're doing, and that was why I went the route that I did, because I also wanted to have that group of people. And I do this now, like, Hey, I've got this difficult case. I'm thinking this. I want to run it by you. What are you do you see something that I don't see, for example, and how would you approach it? Or, you know, you, I know you were dealing with this dog that had a similar issue. What did you find worked and having that team of people to really support you in delivering the absolute best advice that you can to the dog's parents? So that's why I specifically went the route that is looking for regulating this, not with the idea of needing to control it in a negative way, but actually to say, like, we need to make sure that there are standards, yeah, and that people really know what they're doing. Yeah,
Chrissy 32:05
that's what it's like in the dog training world. It's not regulated, and so there's just people doing stuff that shouldn't be done whatsoever. It's heartbreaking. So it's not regulated, and it there needs to be a standard of care. You know, you said behavior is a symptom. Well, I think I said that, but there's a reason for behavior, but it's a matter of knowing what you're doing and looking, you know, going and looking for that, not just punishing a behavior or not just shocking a dog or all these terrible things. So yeah, there needs to be a standard of care and dog training as well. And I think that's shifting, but it's but it's painful.
Alexia 32:45
It is. It's interesting that you bring it up in this way, because I think from a nutrition perspective, in terms of an industry, we have seen a lot of the problems that you guys have faced within the training and behavioral industry as well. And that's part of what's kind of, especially pushing the group that I'm in, of really wanting some sort of conversation around a standard of care, and also, how do we bring these disciplines together so that the behaviorist and the trainer is talking with the nutritionist? Because there are ways that we can work together. The clients that I work with, like I said, they're mostly dogs with severe issues, they've got gut issues, they've got different health issues, they've got behavioral issues, they've got it all. And they're going to all of these different professionals. Every single one of my clients has said to me, you're the first person that's linking all this together, and that's asking me about these other things. And it's like, because it's it's all linked. But I think that's an industry problem that we are not actually saying, hey, we need to look at all of this as as being connected and working more as a team when we're when we're working with dogs. Because you, if you're working with a particular dog from the behavior and training perspective, you're going to see things through a different lens. That you can say something to me that I'm like, Ah, great. And I might say something to you know what? I think this is going on with the dog. I think we've got some malabsorption going on, so this is going to be triggering these other problems that you might be seeing in a behavioral context. Why don't we collaborate on this and see when we approach it from both of our different perspectives, the dog wins.
Chrissy 34:20
Yeah, yeah. You know, the dog wins. The stress off, the human is just like the frustration and the stress is taken off. And I remember when I first got into training, dog training, I was like, Oh, my God, I need to know about nutrition. I need to know about pain and injury. I need to know how can I learn all this stuff. So now focusing on behavior and training, and then having a team that specializes in their own area, and everyone talking and working together. I mean, I could get my degree in nutrition, I you know, I could do all this stuff, but then I would be learning and never doing anything.
Alexia 34:55
Yeah, yeah. But again, it is having that team. It's like. Even within nutrition, there are those of us that specialize in nutrition for behavior, there are those of us that specialize in nutrition for chronic disease, nutrition for puppies, nutrition for seniors and cognitive, cognitive issues. And it's it's like you were saying about the microbiome. Each one of these areas, there is so much research that's being done and coming out, it's changing by the minute. There's so so even if you specialize within one thing in your one field, it's like, this is there's so much. But for a research nerd like me, I'm like, That's amazing, but I also have to, like, challenge that idea that I should know everything or that i We can't know everything, and you're dealing with what you know and what's being presented at the time, and you do the best you can with that,
Chrissy 35:43
yeah, and just trying to stay up to date. And my audience doesn't want, like, a nutrition degree, but can you give us an overview of a couple things that can nutrition wise, can cause behavior issues, like, say you talked about malabsorption or gut imbalance. Can you just talk about that briefly? Sure,
Alexia 36:03
gut imbalance is probably the most common thing that we come across. I think every single dog that I have worked with has had some degree of that. We as humans have varying degrees of that as well. So it's common. And I think people should know as well that we share our microbiomes with our dogs, vice versa. They transfer back and forth. So when we're not in good health, that's going to transfer over to our our dogs. So that's also why I'm a proponent of caring for yourself as much as you're caring for your dog as well, and because it is going to impact your dog. If we're we're going to focus this on the gut brain axis. I imagine most people have probably heard of that, but if you've not heard about it, it's that there is this link where the gut and the brain are sending messages impacting one another. It's a two way conversation constantly. And so when we're applying this to behavior through a kind of nutritional lens, we're looking at things like neurotransmitters. You've probably heard of the happy chemicals in the body, like the serotonin, the dopamine, all of that kind of stuff. 90% of the dog's serotonin is produced in the gut. So when you've got a gut issue going on, you're already not producing enough of the happy stuff that's and that's going to impact mood. But what happens when we're talking about it's referred to as dysbiosis, gut imbalance. That is when the gut microbiome is completely out of whack. And the knock on effect of that is, we need microbes in our guts. Our dogs need microbes in our guts. They help break down the food, and they even help to synthesize nutrients for the body to uptake it. So from a very basic level, if we've not got the right I'm seeing this with a dog right now, they don't have the right colonies of bacteria in their gut to even start breaking down the food, so the food's going in and right out the other end without the nutrients being taken up. So that's one part of the problem. The other part of the problem is that when dysbiosis occurs, your gut lining is made up of what we call tight junctions. And if you imagine it sort of like Legos that are kind of put together right with dysbiosis, those those junctions that should be really tightly touching one another start to move apart. They create a gap. And that means that things from the gut, so not fully processed foods, pathogens, toxins, etc, that should remain in the gut and pass through to where they're supposed to pass through. They're passing through the gut lining into the bloodstream. That's where we start to see inflammation in the body. So joint pain can come from that it starts to affect that sort of thing, we you get inflammation throughout the body. You can develop food intolerances, which causes a whole heap of other problems as well, including pain and discomfort, including anal gland problems. Of all of those things can come from the gut, not being in in good shape. So when you think about even something like dehydration, I'm going to speak about like in this instance, process feeds like kebble, put your dog in a chronic state of low dehydration. That's just what they do. When you as a human or your dog as as a dog is in a chronic state of of low dehydration that impacts the organs. That's one of the contributors to kidney disease. It also affects mood. You can get headaches. The studies have shown that dehydration is linked to emotions like fear and worry, those kinds of things, so that has a direct impact on how you're seeing your dog's behavior. That doesn't have anything to do specifically with the microbiome in that respect, but in terms of how the gut is actually processing things. It does have that impact. The other thing that we want to think about when we are feeding something like a processed food is all of the additives and the preservatives that are put in there. Those are essentially toxins to your dog's system that create all kinds of problems in the gut and around the body. We know that there. Are links to cancer, obesity, diabetes, etc, from processed foods. We see it in humans. It's exact same thing in dogs. So being aware, I would say, the number one thing that you can do for your dog in order to help improve their mindset, their overall health is switch to fresh food. Get rid of any processed food, that includes processed treats, and especially if you're doing treat training, being conscious of how many different chemicals are you adding into the dog's body. And there are easy ways to to start that switch to fresh, if we even if it's just what we call kibble topping, where you're starting to add things in. So if you're trying to add fresh in, the things you want to think about is like, what is in kibble and what's not in kibble, what's not in kibble is high quality proteins. They are the lowest quality proteins, so top up with fresh fresh meats, they are also lacking in Omegas, even if it tells you that on the packet that they've added in Omegas, those omegas are not surviving. The whole sitting in a bag, the processing to begin with, and then the sitting in the bag fats go rancid really quickly. Feeding like sardines, adding a sardine or an egg to your dog's bowl is going to have a huge impact. Adding fresh veggies in the form of antioxidants, so or to provide antioxidants, that's going to be really helpful for the gut and for your overall health. So if you're chopping up some broccoli for you and your family, adding a bit to your dog's bowl, think of low glycemic foods. And what I mean by low glycemic is low sugar. If you're you're not sure which fruits and vegetables are low glycemic or high glycemic. There's tons of charts online that can give you this information, but basically, kibble is 60% carbs. Dogs are facultative carnivores. Their first ports of call, when it comes to where they're gathering their nutrients from is fat and protein. They don't have the same ability to digest carbs in the same way that we do, especially not refined carbs that you're going to find in the kibble, which turns to sugar, and what happens when we put our kids on a bunch of sugar, in terms of behavior, same thing happens with your dog, right as well as the inflammation and all that kind of stuff. So the first thing I would say is switch to fresh food. Other things you can start looking at are adding things like bone broth to your dog's diet. Bone broth is huge for helping repair any kind of gut issues that your dog has. We we often think of it like when they've got a tummy upset, you might want to give them some bone broth. But actually, I give it to dogs daily. It's a daily, daily part of their diet. It's really good for helping to rebuild the the gut lining. So again, those tight junctions. It helps make them tight. Again, the amino acids that are in bone broth are what help to feed the microbiome as well. So it's we start to think about like, how, not only how do we feed our dog, but how do we feed the dog's microbiome to help improve that bone broth is a really simple way. Just make sure you don't use anything from the onion family. So no chives, no leeks, no onions. Garlic is safe for dogs. And if anyone has questions on want some guidance on how to do that, I'm more than happy to answer that it's based off of the weight of the dog. So those are all options to help. Like, immediately start if you're topping, if you're already doing fresh food, and you're looking at, but how do I improve this? This is where I also look towards the energetics component of the new approach. So I have seen a lot of dogs being fed fresh food, but kind of fresh done badly, meaning not not applying all the things that they need, or done inappropriately for the energetic of the dog, and that will create behavior problems. So understanding your dog's energetics and one way you can start to do this, it's, it's not like, it's not like you get a blood test done to figure out what your dog's energetics are, or anything like that. You start observing your dog, and you just notice things like, Do they like to be warm? Do they tend to find the warm, warm spots and snuggle, or do they prefer the cold floors? And you always want to ask the question, like, in relation to what? So an example I'll use with with Lucky. Lucky is a cool dog. He's a little white, cool dog. White dogs can tend to be cooler. So that can be an indicator too. Is the color of your dog. When we talk about warm dogs, they're the dogs that are, from a behavioral perspective. They tend to be like, all up in your face. They've got a lot of energy, sort of extroverted kind of dogs panting a lot. They kind of have quick bursts of energy when they're out playing. They might poop out halfway into the walk, and they're like, Yeah, I'm done. You know, just a short kind of walk. You know, those tend to be warmer dogs. But again, we want to say, in relation to what because in the the heat of the summer, Lucky will show all of those characteristics. He can be kind of hyper. He can poop out on the walk and just like, lay down, be like, I'm done. He can be really panting. But we get him back home and we get him fed and watered, and what does he choose to do, despite the fact that it's like 100 degrees outside. Side, even if it's for a few minutes, he goes out and sunbathes. That's an indicator of a cool dog. Yeah, right. So those little idiosyncrasies that you think like, oh my gosh, my dog's so weird, or whatever it's like, actually, those things can be pointing to you about their energetics. So then when it comes to feeding them, I'm going to feed a cool dog more warming proteins, more warming vegetables, for example, more warming herbs. I don't feed him completely warming. You do a balance. It's all about finding that balance. And I also look towards the season. So actually, in the summer, I'm feeding him more cooling proteins than I normally do, because his body has to battle the fact that it's 100 degrees outside right. And then in the winter, I switched to with the warming proteins outweighing the cooling proteins for him. So it could be that if your dog's got behavioral issues and you're already feeding fresh take a look at their energetics. Just start to watch them do they tend to be more warm, more cool, and then try playing around with the proteins that you're offering and the different vegetables or herbs that you're offering, and see if that actually brings them into more of a balance. And then, of course, the well being stuff for all of them, it's not just about what you're putting in the bowl, but if you've got your dog in a really stressed out state, doesn't matter how great the food is that you've got in the bowl, they're not going to process it well, because they're in a state of fight or flight. So we need to take those things into consideration as well to make sure, because stress we know affects the microbiome, we know that high levels of cortisol cause problems for the microbiome. So again, you can be giving them all the great supplements, all the good stuff, and it's not necessarily going to help,
Chrissy 46:40
right? Yeah, yeah. That's people are like, what I have to, like, figure out the energy of the well, it's something that is not even heard of or talked about, but I know what you're saying, and it makes sense. And if you know what to look for, if you start to have awareness of this, you're like, oh, yeah, that kind of makes sense,
Alexia 47:01
yeah, yeah. And I would say, like, that's next level. Like, if you're just starting right, put your dog in fresh food, just put them on fresh food and then see how they do. And again, even with Chinese medicine perspectives, you still want to feed the dog in front of you. So this is where I am not necessarily a proponent of the recipes where you can just go and download a recipe, they're not going to work for every dog. They're just not there's going to be some things in there. So going back to the the warming and cooling thing, one of the things that is promoted a lot for helping with something like joint pain for dogs. So if you're again, if you're looking at, how do I help their behavior, they're showing issues around behavior as a result of pain. We know it's joint pain. How do we help the joint pain? Turmeric is something that's prescribed for or recommended for a lot of dogs, but again, when you look at an energetic perspective, from an energetic perspective, turmeric, when you have something like turmeric or ginger, you can feel it makes you hot. Those spices make you physically hot. That's what it's doing to your dog too. So if you give something like turmeric to a dog that's already on the warm to hot end of things, you're actually pushing them into disease state. You're pushing them into an extreme so we then want to look at what is a comparable thing that we can be giving them, or an alternative that's more cooling, even something like bone broth would be more helpful. That's got a lot of not only gut supporting benefits to it, but also joint benefits as well. So energetics doesn't have to be the first thing by any means that you consider, but it can be the next level thing. So if you're like, but I'm not, I've made these changes to fresh but I'm still having issues. This is the next thing that you can look at, you know? So it's another tool in your toolbox to start deconstructing what's going on.
Chrissy 48:47
Yeah, with our boxers. And then our current dog, our boxers, they had just the worst gas. We'd be sitting there. And then all of a sudden we were like, oh, Bill, you know, that kind of thing. I ended up switching them to ra. The gas completely went away. There. They had nice, firm, small poops just once a day, same with our, our current dog now ginger. She's on a gently cooked and she lost weight. Just that was the only thing we changed. She lost weight, and then her poop is gorgeous. You know, she has dark brown and firm and small, and she does it once a day. And I know it's kind of weird talking about poop, but poop is a huge indicator of your dog's gut health, 100%
Alexia 49:36
and it's usually not until you switch to fresh that you realize how bad your dog's poops were, yeah, ahead of time, because we've normalized the gross, stinky kind of wet dog poo in in our culture, and that's not normal. That's a sign of an inflamed gut, yeah? That's an unhappy gut, yeah?
Chrissy 49:53
And so I think a lot of question people might have is like, Well, my dog's allergic to chicken, or my my dog's allergic. Are allergic to proteins? The question is, it's like, are they really allergic to it? Are they not processing it like, what's really going on? You know what
Alexia 50:09
I mean that that is such an important question, because actually there, the difference between an allergy and an intolerance is huge. Allergy is an actual physical response where the immune system launches an attack to something. So when you think of like, if you've got a peanut allergy, for example, it's usually like, immediate and huge the immune system is completely overreacting to this. Most dogs don't have allergies to proteins. It's not to say that some don't. Some do. But mostly what's happening is that they have an intolerance, and the intolerance generally comes from leaky gut. It's generally that, as I was saying before, with the tight junctions aren't fully tight when they've got a gap. Undigested protein has passed through into the bloodstream, directly into the bloodstream, and the body's like, this is a foreign object. This shouldn't be here. And intolerances usually take a bit of time to build up. If they're not that immediate inflamed response, it's a little bit of time that starts to happen that your body is repeatedly exposed to it and then forms this warfare. And so one way to figure out if it actually is an intolerance, is to start to do an elimination diet. But I always recommend doing an elimination diet with guidance. You need somebody who knows what they're doing to help support that. And for those who aren't familiar with what an elimination diet is, is basically you put the dog on a single protein, and generally what we call a novel protein, so something they've not been exposed to before, so you can kind of guarantee that's not the trigger, right? And you put them on it for a period of time, depending on the dog. That can be like, I mean, four to 12 weeks, depending on what's going on with the dog, which is why you want someone to help guide you with that. You take them off of any other kind of potential triggers, get their gut cleaned up a bit, and then you start reintroducing things one at a time, so you can identify what the trigger is. And then, you know, to keep that thing out of the diet. But I had an issue with Lucky being intolerant to chicken. He was having extreme, I didn't know it. He was having extreme anal gland problems. And he was, like, really aggressive, like, if you went to touch him anywhere near his like lower half of his back, he'd turn around and snap at you, right? And I happened sort of like in that, that way that the Universe works with, like putting something random in front of you in my YouTube algorithm one day, for some random reason, a video by Vivian bierly, who I interviewed on the mystic dog mama podcast, because of, because of this experience, she's a reflexologist and a dog reflexologist based in Denmark, and she had a video up showing the acupressure point for a dog's anal glands. And it happened to be exactly where I saw lucky nibbling on his legs, on his heel. He would be, like, obsessively, like, chewing at his heel. And I didn't I was like, why is he doing that? So after seeing this video, I was like, that's the anal gland point. So I went to my vet, and I said, Is there any chance that he's got a problem with his anal glands? And she said, Well, let's check. And so she expressed them, and they were completely blocked. So he, on some level, was naturally trying to soothe that, to help express it, but I wasn't sure what was at this point, he was on a fresh diet, and he was having quite a bit of chicken in his diet. Chicken's a warming protein, and because of him being a cooling dog, you would think that would be a benefit, beneficial thing, but he had all those microbiome issues. He had this BIOSIS, and we were still working on it. He obviously had an issue with it. And it wasn't until I went to a homeopath, I was looking for some silica, which is helpful for for relieving anal gland gland problems. But he asked me, this was in Mexico as well, and I go to go to the homeopath. I was like, Is there any chance I could buy some silica? He was like, Well, can you explain to me what you want it for? And I was like, Oh, my God. How do I say anal glands in Spanish? And then I'm having to explain this whole thing like, I never thought I'd have to know, like, how to say anal glands? I was like, Well, I'm doing this for my dog, but he did so again, bringing the kind of woo stuff in. And again, what has been like confirming for me about the way that the energetic approaches can help give other information. He asked me to sit on his table, and he did muscle testing with me, so he had what he was doing. You can do muscle testing in a variety of ways, but he was holding his heel, my heels in his hands, and he was sort of balancing. And he was talking to himself like mutter. I couldn't hear exactly what he was saying, but he was trying to get yes, no answers from my body, using me as a proxy for lucky, right? And and he identified that lucky had a chicken intolerance, and so I pulled chicken from his diet, and lo and behold, the anal gland problems went
Chrissy 54:56
away. Yeah, it's all it's fascinating. There's it's so interesting. Interesting. It's so much to think about.
Alexia 55:03
It is, but I would get again, say it can be as complex or as simple as you want to make it. And I would say the first thing is, remove the processed stuff, get your dog on fresh if you want to know how to make your own food. I'm a big proponent of DIY. You can certainly buy commercially pre made raws and gently cooked foods, and they're especially in the States, there's quite a few good ones on the market. But I'm a proponent of doing it yourself, because you can then control everything that goes in. And so if you have a dog with problems, that makes it a lot easier to figure out, oh, I added this one thing in, he or she had a reaction. That's the thing that needs to come out. Instead of months of trying to figure out what the potential issue is. But if you want help with that, I've got a guide on my website that you can go and take a look at that kind of walks you through exactly how to put together your dog's diet. Really simply, really simply.
Chrissy 55:55
Yeah. So let's switch gears for a second. Let's just talk about how we incorporate like energy work and animal communication. You know, a lot of people are like, okay, here comes the woo, woo. But you know, science is catching up with this, and it's just learning to trust our intuition and then validating it certain ways. How would you explain how energy work works and animal communication works, and then how you integrate it. I
Alexia 56:24
love this topic, and I love that you do it too. So I want to hear your thoughts on this as much as me telling you mine. So you're right that science is starting to prove what metaphysics has proposed for essentially eternity, right? One of the big premises of metaphysics is that everything is connected. Everything is connected. And so we even know, from a physics standpoint, through the law of entanglement, we can do some manipulations and experiments on an atom here that is connected to an atom on the other side of the universe, and they will respond in the same exact way. So we've proven that that entanglement exists. So then, when you're putting it into practical terms, in terms of what is going on with energy healing, I'm of the belief that the kind of position with what energy healing actually is is first and foremost, it's a self healing practice. We have to work on ourselves first before we are able to help support and what's happening in the support. I'm going to use Reiki as an example, because I think a lot of people are familiar with Reiki. When Reiki came over to the west, I should say I was taught under the Western principles of it, the Western kind of approach to Reiki. In the Western version, we tend to have this idea of, like, sending Reiki. We're sending healing. So that sort of implies that I as the practitioner, am connected to something, or have something that I'm then giving to you as the client. And that's not true. Reiki just means universal life force energy. Everything is universal life force energy. How Reiki works? When you look at the practice from Japan. It is a self healing practice, and it's based upon that premise, that we are all connected as I bring myself. And Reiki is a daily practice too. It's not that when you have a client, you're doing Reiki, it's that you're working on yourself every single day. You're bringing yourself into that state of calm, into that connection, that conscious connection with the universal life force, energy. And similar to how drugs don't actually heal the body, when you take a medication, it's not actually healing the body. It's providing the right context for the body to then heal itself, right? It's the same thing with energy work, I as a practitioner, am coming into a state of calm and resonance that you as as the client coming to see me, on either a conscious or unconscious level, at an energetic level, you start to become into coherence with my field. And it's not that I'm healing you, it's that I'm providing that kind of context for your body to come into that coherence, into that calm state, similar like when you sleep at night, that's when the body does most of its healing. Yeah, you come into that calm state, and your body starts to heal. Whether that's a physical issue, that's a mental or an emotional issue, or even a spiritual issue, is that we're creating that kind of that context for it. When I'm applying that to the animals, animals are even more in tune with it. They don't have the blocks that we do. They're so energetically sensitive to it. You don't have to touch the animal you. I mean, you can do distance. I do distance sessions with clients like I don't have to be anywhere near them. Same with the animal communication. I'm at a distance. I do it remotely, and all it is is that I'm opening myself up and I'm setting the intention. I think that's the other important part of it. Is with energy work and with animal communication, you're directing focus. I'm setting the intention for what it is that I want to do, whether that's I'm trying to connect to the animal to better understand what's going on with them, or I'm setting the intention for healing, whatever he. Looks like to the animal, and allowing the Reiki to or the life force energy, because you don't have to be trained in Reiki to do this with your dogs. You're allowing that energy that we are all connected to to flow and find balance again, which is why I really resonate with things like Chinese medicine, because that's a philosophy. It's not so much a medicine in the way that we think about it in the West, like this allopathic thing, if there's a problem I want to fix it. It's a way of living. It's a way of being in the world that is all about striking balance at any one moment, trusting that balance. Balance is shifting all the time, and it asks us to shift with it. And when you approach energy, work in that same kind of way and support that person or that animal to find the healing that is right for them at that time, whatever they're open to and comfortable with. It's just a it's a beautiful thing. But at the core, to answer your question, it's because we're all connected. We're all connected,
Chrissy 1:00:58
yeah, energy, the word energy is such a trigger for some people, you know, like, there's some negative connotations with it. So I kind of see it as, yeah, like, tuning in to a frequency. Yeah. Like, it's kind of like you tune in to a radio station. It's like, tuning into a frequency, and a huge part of it is letting it come to you like, there's no force involved. And I think that's what you know we have a hard time with, is we, in our mind, we want this to happen, and so we're trying to force this to happen. Yeah, and, and I think, like intuition and energy work. It's, it's more about tuning in intention, like you said, but not forcing intention. It's it's also really learning how to run our own energy and our own awareness and our own intuition. And when we do that, when we are very connected with ourselves, like everything changes about how we connect with everything else. You know, for me, with dogs, people come to me, like, can you fix my dog? And I'm like, Sure, let's look and see what we can do. And so, like, most of the work is actually working with the human, and, you know, helping them with their awareness and understanding. Once they see that, like it changed their relate, changes their relationship with the dog, and the whole dynamic changes. So not only are we helping the human, but we're helping the dog as well. 100% Yeah, I do some healing, but I haven't done the Reiki healing and that kind of stuff. It's, it's healing a little differently. It's like a clearing and healing. But when I connect, you know, tune in, I get information, just like a knowing images and hearing, you know, something just comes to me, like Word or something, but that's kind of how I do my animal communication stuff. And I think that there's like a big shift happening towards this. The Institute of Noetic Sciences is doing a lot of research, and I'm actually going to talk to one of the senior experiential people next month. So cool, because it's the science is catching up with what we're talking about right now. It's combining knowledge with inner wisdom, you know? So it's pretty cool.
Alexia 1:03:18
Yeah, it is. I kind of feel like it's almost this marriage between East and West, and getting back to all of our Indigenous ways of knowing, because we all come from an indigenous background, I just think that in the West, we have become so removed from it and don't trust it. And I think that's a big part of what you were just saying, like we have to become trusting. We've talked about this previously kind of offline, that when you start your animal communication process, and the thing is, anyone and everyone can communicate with their animals, with any animal you already are, you're just not aware that you're doing it right. So this is a process of you being conscious of doing it. But you'll start to get things that pop into your head, or whatever. There are different players. So you might see things you might hear, things you might taste, things you might feel, things you might know, things all of its past. You could have a combination of all of it, but somehow something will come to you, and the first thing you're going to think is like, I made it up. Yeah, exactly like the self doubt. And part of learning how to be an animal communicator is actually that self work, that inner work of saying it despite your doubts. And eventually you do it and often enough and you're right, often enough that you're like, I just I have to trust this. I have to be willing to be wrong. I don't have to be afraid of being wrong. And especially because the the owner might in terms of working with animals, they might say to you, no, that doesn't make any sense. Might not make sense to them right then. But can I tell you how many people have come back to me a day later, a month later, whatever, and be like, Oh my god, now I get it. Yeah, that's right. So it's it's trusting that even if they say no, it doesn't mean that you're wrong, and your job is just to relay. And I think. The more you put yourself in that position, you remind yourself of your job description, which is just to relay whatever is coming through, the more open you become, yeah, to receive it and then, and then share that information in a way that's helpful, yeah?
Chrissy 1:05:13
And it's a skill that's developed. It takes practice, practice, practice, and some people are naturally more able to do it than others, but everyone can do it. It's not some magical thing that you have to figure out. And when I first started, I was I'm so skeptical, and I had to get out of my head. It took so many times of validation for me to be like, Okay. And then I would get information. I'd be like, that's silly. And I'm like, Okay, I'll just tell the person. And they're like, Oh yeah, that makes sense. I'm like, Oh my God, that didn't make sense to me, but I'm glad it makes sense to you. And, yeah, it's just so interesting and fascinating to me.
Alexia 1:05:52
Yeah, well, and I think too, to see where you're already doing this, either with your dog or with people, it's like, how many times have you had that experience where you're thinking about somebody and they call you, or they send you an email, or whatever, you're like, oh my god, I was just thinking about you, yeah, right. Or you can sense that somebody's watching you, or something. That's all the same senses that you're drawing upon. You're just connecting. So then when you you choose to do it in the form of animal communication, it's just that you're consciously directing where you're tuning into like you said, I want to focus on this dog, this dog's frequency, and have a conversation with this dog. That's all it is. You announce that, right? And then you just tune in, and it's like, what comes through? Yeah, yeah,
Chrissy 1:06:34
I love it. So do you have any nuggets of wisdom or something that's weighing on your heart and mind that you want to share with our audience something that you just want to leave people with
Alexia 1:06:45
trust yourself. I think that applies to everything, whether it is behavioral issues you have with your dog, food issues with your dog, decisions in your life doesn't matter. I think we're in an era where we're having to learn to really trust ourselves, our true selves, like you said with the animal communication one, when we do that, and we do it more intentionally and more frequently, it is amazing how your life changes. It's just amazing. So I would say, Yeah, trust like, really trust yourself.
Chrissy 1:07:15
Yeah, I love that, because I think dogs are here to to remind us how to get back to ourselves, like to our inner self. They are really good at teaching us that. And we've gone so far away from that, like with all the social media and all the tech stuff, and we just need to learn to get back to our inner self and being honest, honest with Yeah, and
Alexia 1:07:37
I think even beyond, like, the the tech stuff that has connected us in a different way. I think the conditioning, the fear based, conditioning that we have been exposed to and grown up in that really makes us question ourselves and question our worthiness and our value and all of that. Feel like we're at a time where our biggest challenge, our biggest question is, can I make a decision from love, or am I going to make a decision from fear? Yeah, that choice point and dogs for me, are teaching us how to make decisions from love.
Chrissy 1:08:09
Yeah, definitely. So how can people get a hold of you, if they want to connect with you, what's the best
Alexia 1:08:16
way? Oh, there are two great ways to connect with me. You can come to my website, which is mystic dog mama.com and I've got loads of information on there, and I've got my new approach to feeding ebook, if you want to download that and and learn how to make your dog's food, that gives you information on what a dog actually needs, some information on the energetics. So if you're curious about that, want to try applying that and then some well being practices. Super, super simple. So that's one way. But I'm also really active on Instagram at Mystic dog mama, so you can come over and start some conversations with me there. And that's what links as well to the mystic dog mama podcast, and where I ask people, if you give me suggestions on things you want to know more about, what are some issues that you've got with your dog, and then I do episodes based off of that. So it's very much a community that I'm building around the sick dog, Mama. So come join me there. Awesome.
Chrissy 1:09:08
I love it. Well, thank you so much for being on and sharing your knowledge and wisdom, and it was so fun to talk to you. Oh, I could talk
Alexia 1:09:15
to you all day. Chrissy, I'm so excited that you're coming on my sick dog, Mama, and we can continue the conversation. Yay. We'll just keep on talking. I love it. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really grateful thank you for this. Okay, thank you.
Chrissy 1:09:27
Thank you for joining us today. I hope you discovered a valuable nugget you can implement right away with your dog. If you enjoyed the episode, please follow, rate and share with fellow dog lovers who might benefit. Don't forget to take our How well do you know your dog quiz? You'll find the link in the show notes until next week. Happy tales. You.
