Doggy Sandy overcoming fear and crossing a bridge! Freedom from fear! Neural retraining. Brains that change.

I wanted to share a story of my dog Sandy bursting past some programmed fears, and rewiring her brain for freedom! If she can do it, you can do it.

6 part series of YouTube Shorts of the Sandy Saga - crossing the bridge - will play in order if you press play below.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?feature=share&list=PLqgZtSbOlvDPnPl8vd--pbDS7ylkGpgrO

When I got Sandy, over 10 years ago, she was not a puppy, and she had experienced stuff nobody should have to experience, and she lived in a lot of fear.  So many associations. One odd association I’ll mention is when a CD or DVD popped out of a machine, she would whimper and needed to be comforted.  So of course, I did. Over and over again, I let little Sandy know she was with me now, and nothing was going to happen when the CD popped out of the machine, or other myriad of things.  It says perfect love casts our fear. I don’t believe that I love her perfectly, but love that she received casts out fear, since perfect love is actually love that’s received, and able to do what it came to accomplish.  Often, I held my girl up on my left shoulder, and let her know all was well.  Over time, as she learned the consistency of life with me, and that I was trustworthy, and loved her, things changed. Sandy needed fewer reminders of her safety.  When I first got her, I had a few male physical therapy clients at the time who would take off their jacket when they came in the house (I ran my clinic out of my house), and let her lay on their clothing to get used to their smell.  Over time, their kindness and patience with her helped her learn to trust men as well, and they were given the gift of her belly to rub.  So grateful for those kind and patient men (the women were great too, but Sandy was fine with them petting her right off the bat… not so with the men!).  She is a completely changed dog now.  I mostly forget about all the different fears or phobias she had.  But a few remained that just hadn’t come up much. One of those was crossing over bridges, or stairs that had slats, where you could stick a foot down in, or see below you.  Whenever this came up, she had always just been carried.

However, I realized this spring that she could overcome that fear, and have more freedom!  Often, in the mornings, we walk over a particular little bridge in the woods.  So I thought that would be our focus.

I remember thinking; she is doing so great, I’m going to document this in just a few videos, over a few weeks.  Well, she had other ideas.  I started encouraging her across, and she would make it across just one, or maybe a hand full of boards, and back up. Then one day she realized she could just go under the bridge instead of over, smart girl.  She was so proud of herself that she had found another way. I was quite proud too.  She made it to the other side, even if she got a wee bit muddy.  It was effective.  Well; once she figured that out, she didn’t see any reason to go over the bridge at all. She just got speedier at going under, and more and more confident.

Then I started encouraging her to try other bridges in other parts of the woods, and in other woods that we didn’t go to as much.  One of them, way up on a cliff, was fairly easy for her, even though it was leaning and intense for humans to cross. I realized that the slats of wood were very close together, basically touching, and I don’t think she could see below. It was exciting. Then she did another bridge when I was walking with a friend, and got cheered on by both of us.  That thrilled her!  That bridge was basically on the ground, and the wood slats were very close (its just a boggy area).  This made it easier, but it was good practice.  I started taking her there once a week when I could (it’s a farther walk).  Then I went back to our original practice bridge to try it out. However, her pattern of going under the bridge was pretty set.  So, she kept doing it.  Then one day after a lot of rain, earlier this fall, the little creek was raging. She paused and didn’t know what to do.  I encouraged her to try the bridge, and she did it, ever so carefully half way, and got carried the rest of the way.  And the next time we went, she made it!  I cheered her on both times of course! 

So exciting. She had conquered this fear!  For a couple weeks, she just got a little more confident on this bridge. Then the leaves completely covered it one day, and the creek was raging, and we decided being carried across was OK.  The leaves were just confusing.  And I didn’t have a lot of extra time that day to help her across with encouragement.  For a couple weeks, the rain was less, the leaves were thick, and she went under the bridge. But as soon as the leaves were mostly gone, she walked back across that bridge. Sandy is so proud when she does it.  She stops now when she gets to the other side and waits for her treat. Someday, we will probably convince her it is so normal that she doesn’t need a treat for crossing; but for now, it works great!  That bridge has pretty big gaps between the boards, she has small feet, and she does amazing.

I just thought it was a great story to share with others.  Don’t give up. It may take longer than you think.  You may need to practice on things that are similar but not the same (different bridges), you get to have encouragement from others, cheering you on. And it’s okay if there are setbacks, and you need to be helped across again. It’s not starting from ground zero, even when you are carried across. It’s just being aware of the time and space you have that day, and doing what you need to do with what’s available. Then you get back at it.  Perfect love really does cast out fear. Receive God’s love. It’s there for you. Sandy may not be a new creation who can follow the leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit, but she can receive love, and it still casts out fear!

If you want to work on knowing who you are, your identity, and receiving God's love, and being free of fear, join us for sessions throughout every week. free and affordable, including drop-in and memberships available. Subscribe HERE for schedule and zoom links, and just to be supported and encouraged, and have accountability to overcome fears and not give up!

If you didn't see the YouTube short series of this Sandy Saga, at the top, here is the playlist on YouTube - 6 part - enjoy.  And don’t give up!

YouTube Shorts videos of Sandy on the bridge - click me!