Why More Exercise Is Making Your Dog Harder to Live With | Dog Enrichment

The Dog Who Asked For More ... (00:00) You're not doing too little with your dog. You just might be doing the wrong kind of enough. this is one of those conversations that might change how you see your dog completely. Because for a long time, I thought Fitz just needed more. More walks, more play, more stimulation. And the more I gave him, the worse it actually got. He didn't settle. He didn't relax. He just kept looking for something. And I know you might be living in that same loop right now. You're doing everything you've been told to do and your dog still feels like too much. But what if it's not about doing more? What if it's about doing something different? I'm ⁓ dog mom, former vet trainer, canine nutritionist. And this is the podcast for parents who love their dogs deeply, but still feel overwhelmed, confused, or like nothing is fully clicking. In this conversation, Megan from Swift Paws and I are talking about what happens when dogs don't have an outlet the things they were actually designed to do and how that starts to show up in ways that feel confusing, frustrating, and honestly exhausting. We talk about what fulfillment actually looks like, what changes when they finally get it, and how something as simple as the right kind of play can completely shift how your dog shows up in your home. Em (01:38) Megan, you have been in this space for a long time now, but before SwiftPaws became what it is, what were you noticing in dogs that made you feel like something was missing? Meghan - SwiftPaws (01:49) Ooh, ⁓ that's a really good question. I think it would only be my personal experience with my dog. I had gotten into dog sports, so I felt like what was missing for him. his name was Pretzel. He was a miniature pincher. And he did agility for me and for the food. Very food motivated dog. Didn't really like playing with toys or things like that. Didn't like other dogs. And so what was missing for him was something that he enjoyed just for him. And so I would do these things. We'd train and we'd do agility and he did a ton of tricks and he did it because he loved the food. So I was like, man, I wish that he had something that really truly satisfied like him in a deep way that doing agility with him made me happy. Em (02:32) tell me about some of the specific things that Pretzel did that you could tell that he wasn't getting his energy or his needs met, but maybe weren't like usual things that people see when their dog is acting up. Meghan - SwiftPaws (02:46) Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And somebody put it really well. I wish I remember who, because I would totally give them credit. Somebody said oftentimes, they're not giving you a hard time, they're having a hard time. And I don't know if that was like one of the many veterinarians that I know or who it was, but it's so true. So for Pretzel, he had certain behaviors that we might say were like naughty, right? If we were to put a label on them. But in reality, him wanting to chase squirrels in the backyard or him being extremely focused on finding a mouse when we went and stayed with a friend at their their home and he was like obsessively sniffing the walls and focused on this closet and I'm like a pretzel there's nothing there and he's like digging I mean I was so embarrassed right we put our own emotions on he's like digging at this cabinet friends of mine. And I was like, Pretzel, stop it, stop it, stop it. And then finally somebody opened the cabinet and sure enough, mice had been in there. And so he wasn't trying to be destructive. He wasn't giving us a hard time. He was having a hard time communicating that, my God, there's vermin here. I'm a miniature pincher. This is literally what I was bred to do. what it boils down to, whether it's your own pet or whether it's looking at somebody else struggling with their pet, for me, at least it was natural instincts that sometimes don't have a great outlet in our own lives. in day to day lives that we carry on with our pets, they don't always have a healthy outlet for their social behavior or their predatory drive. Anything that you might think of as species typical behavior. not actually have a great way of expressing itself unless we search out ways for them to do that. Em (04:32) No, I completely agree. Fitz is, being Fitz right now. And he's wanting to play even though we've already done 15 things this morning. So I relate to that so well, because this is one of those situations where I used go down that rabbit hole where I would be like, Oh, he needs more. Oh, he needs more. We're not doing still things that he needs to burn off. But when I learned that it was specific things that he needed not just more that it really really turned a light on for me because I Can't even tell you how many days I spent just being completely exhausted because this dog that won't wear down and what I didn't realize was that I was Making it worse because I was then over stimulating him and he would get those, those crazy eyes. So let's talk a little bit about what that looks like for people who don't know what that looks like and how to actually, change the day to day so that it stops looking like that. Meghan - SwiftPaws (05:22) Yes. Yeah, I love that we're talking about this because so many times when our dogs come up to us and they're like, I want something, the answer that we naturally go to is, they need to go for another walk. And instead, a little bit of troubleshooting can go a long way. And additionally, if you've ever seen an overtired kid, the same thing can happen. You can have a dog that becomes either overstimulated or has gone so high in their excitement level that then needs help down regulating as well. And it's really important for us to consider where they're at and meet them there. So by that, mean, if you've got a really energetic dog and it's the morning time and they're bouncing off the walls, yet they might actually need to go and burn off a little energy. Throwing the ball might be great or taking a walk or chasing swift paws or taking off the flirt pole, but as the same time, if that's happening, like my younger dog, Melon, she will have what I call the nighttime like crazies, where right before bed, like it'll be 9 or 10 p.m. and she gets into that mode, right? It's like, my god, I want to go do something. And it's important too, to then figure out, okay, what do we do after that? Because the answer isn't throw the ball and then throw the ball again and then four hours later you have an exhausted physically dog. that might mentally still be going 100 miles an hour. That's where we start to get over tiredness, over stimulation, sometimes some frustration that comes out too, when now they are physically worn out, but they still are searching for that thing. And I think a lot of people will connect with that. Like, yeah, they're still looking for something. They're still wanting something. And I just like, what do you want from me? And so that's where we need to dig into that toolbox, that enrichment toolbox and figure out exactly what that is that unlocks it for your dog and consciously think about what steps am I taking to also help them down regulate too. Because if we don't give them those outlets and then also those tools, they don't necessarily find it on their own, right? They might learn from other dogs, but we don't all have dogs that are friendly with other dogs. don't. all have the advantage of having an older dog to teach the younger dog. So sometimes it's left to us. And I think in that way, you've had a ton of experience. And I have too with Mellon, who's a dog that has some anxiety, is not always super happy to see other people or other dogs. And I have to find creative ways to take her on that journey. And we'll dive into like how I like to do it with the predatory cycle and helping them complete something, because there's a lot of satisfaction in. the completion of a cycle like that. But there's more than one way to approach it. Em (08:10) Yeah, let's start with that because people see a dog that they don't think will settle. And these dogs get labeled as high energy. That's what I've always referred to Fitz. He's high energy. He's high energy. He's high energy. But what I've learned over the last few years is that it's not that he's high energy. Yes, he has a lot of energy. It's that we are not satisfying the energy in the right way. So let's go through that predatory sequence. Let's talk about what that does and how that satisfies certain parts of their brain and their physicality so that we can find that level for them. But I do want to point out that every dog is different, the predatory sequence it goes in an order, but it doesn't have to go in that order for every dog. You might take step three, step five and step six. and that works for your dog and other dogs might have to go all the way from one to six So let's talk a little bit about that. Meghan - SwiftPaws (09:04) I can't wait to dive in. And it's a yes and, right? It fits as high energy and he requires these other things too. So it's definitely one of those types of conversations. predatory sequence, It typically starts with looking, Eyeing. So you'll have a predator, it's gonna be a dog or cat, type of predatory animal has this sequence sort of innately embedded into them. doesn't mean that every single one like you said is going to express every single step and it doesn't mean that they're going to enjoy every single step but going through this and exploring the steps is a great way to discover what your pet does like. So I encourage people to play different games and pull out different tools and really go through that discovery process to then figure it out. So we'll start goes out in the backyard starts looking around right they're eyeing they're orienting and then when they see something prey, a squirrel, a rabbit, they will lock in. That's the next step. Once they lock in, then they will stalk. After stalking comes chasing. After chasing, inevitably comes catching and look, let's face it, we house little predators in our homes. They eat stuff, they catch stuff, they kill stuff, whether it's a cat or a dog, no matter how much they love sleeping on your pillow. This is what their little instincts are telling them to do. So after they catch, they will perform some type of kill bite or shake or something to kill the prey. Then they start to dismember, they dissect. So they will either start chewing through fur or they will work their way to consumption where they're then actually consuming food. And after the consumption bit, that's where they will actually settle down and start chewing on. bones, tendons, things that would take them little bit longer to go through. So yeah, it's a little bit like a murder show, but I think it's so important that we talk about it and that we don't beat around the bush with it because if we understand that this is how they're wired and this is, many hundreds if not centuries of time that has led them to this is how we survive, we're going to have to meet them on their level there. So then after they've chewed, right, chewing we know scientifically releases endorphins. It helps with that down regulation. It causes them to go into a restful state. But anybody will tell you that if you've got that high energy labeled dog bouncing off the walls and you give them a chew, they are probably not ready to settle down. And that's because we skipped too many steps. Now your pet might not stalk. They might not point. They might not do a kill shake every time they get the toy. But It is also important that you walk them through the cycle, whatever stages and steps that they do like and enjoy, that you go through that in the order. Because if you try to start with chew and you have a bouncing off the walls puppy, they're probably going to chew it for two seconds and then go do something else. Because they're not ready. They're not at that stage yet. Em (11:56) Exactly. And in our previous episode, we actually talked about something that you and I both do, which is the enrichment stacking, which you have designed your toys so well to fit with that enrichment stacking because you can use the SwiftPaws for the first part of it, right? They can orient, they can chase, and they can even catch with the SwiftPaws. But then you also have your flirt pole. Meghan - SwiftPaws (12:18) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Em (12:21) which they can do totally different things with, right? They can still orient, they can still chase and they can stalk it. But when they catch it, they have a little bit more freedom to really kind of rip and tear at it and pull and all those things. And then when you released your destructibles, it was kind of the same thing. You gave them something to destroy on top of it. Your toys cover a lot of those things in that predatory sequence. Did you design them specifically to do that so that they would pair together or did that just kind of happen? Meghan - SwiftPaws (12:51) love to take credit for having that thought from the beginning. But I actually, because I've been working inside of this space for now going on like 14, almost 15 years, I would say that it evolved as my understanding evolved. I like to say that to do better for our pets, we have to better understand them. And that's been such a personal journey for me. And Pretzel wasn't the easiest dog. Piper, my now 10 year old pointer mix, is just heaven sent, she's an angel, she can do no wrong, She loves everybody, every dog, she's so easy. But it's not the easy dogs that teach us the most sometimes. And so now my younger dog, Melon, also another rescue, a very difficult dog again. And when I say difficult, I mean she has had a harder time of adapting to life inside of our home, adhering to rules that we like to set as humans, and... Also, I want to make sure that my pets are really comfortable and living a life that they're not like full of fear or anxiety. And so when you have a dog or cat that is hiding or is fearful or can be really, really challenging to take to the vet without it feeling like the world is ending for them, it pushes you on that learning journey. So for me, I started with the lure coursing equipment. because Pretzel, that need for him was chasing. my goodness, it was like that was what he was born to do. And so once I discovered it, I felt like a light switch had been turned on inside him. the way I describe it is he found his calling and that was it for him. That's not it for every dog. Sometimes that is agility. Sometimes that is something else, but for Pretzel, that was it. And so it started with the high intensity, that chase part and the eyeing and the orienting. and the catching, I did not discover the rest of those steps until years later, when I realized that we have certain extremely high drive dogs that after they're done chasing, do not down regulate on their own. And I started to have customers who would say, hey, they absolutely love it so much. But then once they get a hold of it, They don't want to let it go. And then we take it inside, we put it away and they want to go back in the yard and they want to see where it was. I, gosh, we have to hide it from them. And I'm thinking to myself, wow, I want this to be an extremely useful, healthy tool. I don't want this to be something that is almost a bandaid for our potential inability to have time to take them for a walk. Yes, it's a great outlet, but it should be one tool in your toolbox. It shouldn't replace everything else that you do with your pet. And so that is where I started to discover and go down that rabbit hole. So intentionally I have added other products on as we've continued, but I discovered that along the way. I didn't start out right after college going the predatory sequence and here's what we're going to do. That's been very much a learning journey for myself. Em (15:46) I honestly feel like that's how it goes for most people. we kind of have an idea in our head of what's we're going to do and then we kind of learn ourselves backwards into more solutions. So let's talk about somebody who's never used something like SwiftPaws. Tell them what they might notice over time that's different about their dog. Not necessarily how they would use it with their dog, but how their dog is gonna start to show up and maybe feel Meghan - SwiftPaws (15:54) Yes. Em (16:12) differently after they start having fun with something like SwiftPause. Meghan - SwiftPaws (16:16) thing love of going on this journey is that I've learned that any type of this type of behavior, we are talking predatory sequence. We are talking our little predators going out there and killing prey. But in reality, the outlets that we're providing, whether that's a tennis ball or a swift pause, is a toy. It's not real live game by any sense of the imagination. And they know that, So I like to say It's very play oriented. And so for our pets, we're taking that prey drive. We're kind of helping them convert it into a little bit of play drive. And we know that dogs and cats and a lot of other predators do this sort of play chase, play bite with each other in a very social way, this sort of practice hunting. And so it is very natural for them to engage in predatory sequence type behavior. But within aspect of play. So they approach it as, I know this isn't a real squirrel that's zipping around the swift paws, but I still want to chase it and I still enjoy it because I enjoy the game and I enjoy what it's fulfilling in me. And so I've also changed how I educate people on introducing their dogs to it and learning because human nature, right, we have a few things that's innate to us that can make it challenging for our dogs to truly enjoy something like Swift Puzz. So quick First things first, if you're gonna let your dog see it for the first time, you don't want them right on top of it. Because if it shoots out from under them or zips towards them and it's right up in their face, it could scare them. And so oftentimes we wanna get them right up to it and show it to them. It's better to let them see it from a distance, Just like they would see a squirrel in the yard. So we're always bringing it back to what's the most natural behavior. the squirrel's not going to run right up to them and say, hello, hopefully they're going to see it from a distance. And that's going to kind of peak their interest. And when they do start noticing it, moving it, Letting them see the movement because that's going to help them orient. And then we don't actually let them start to chase until they've seen it. Cause you don't want your dog just randomly walking in your backyard and all of sudden, goes zipping under their feet. scary they're gonna jump up in the air it might be hilarious for a second but then they're gonna try to go inside because that's a very scary experience so letting them see it from afar become interested really excited about it then you let them chase and here's the kicker you let them catch like almost right away you let them catch early you let them catch often and and the big thing is once they've caught it you celebrate the win it is so human nature as soon as they catch them the lure to go, no, no, no, no, no, drop it. And we're pulling it away from them and we're playing tug of war with our dog and there's a lot of friction. And they're like, why I just caught it? What do mean? I worked really hard. And the point is letting them have the satisfaction of having caught the prey. And then they get to discover maybe the first time they thought it was a real squirrel. So they're learning a bunch in this moment. my God, it doesn't have any scent to it. It's not a real live animal. wait, it's, okay, that's interesting. It's not moving anymore. And they will naturally, it might take 30 seconds to two minutes, But they will naturally go, okay, well, what else is there? This thing is dead, it's not moving, I caught it. And when they drop it, that's when you move it again. And something inside their brain goes, it's a toy and this is a game. And that's when it unlocks into becoming a tool that can be repeatable. things that will happen if we don't do this, we have a really high drive, high energy dog, and we zip it around, we don't let them catch it, and the moment they do catch it, we take them away. Well, they're really smart. They're going to start redirecting that onto, well, maybe I'll chew the string. Maybe I'll grab a pulley. And so when I have customers, and I've learned this the hard way, when you have a dog that's starting to do that, it's actually telling on us, we haven't let them caught enough. We haven't let them enjoy their win. Worst case scenario. They shred the flag, which by the way, our flags are made of cornstarch, if they accidentally ingest a piece, not like I'm recommending you to feed your dog corn, but at least it's a natural thing and it's plastic. And if they shred pieces in your yard, it will eventually break down. But they shred a whole flag. Okay, put a new one on. they chewed through the line? All right, tie it back together. And some dogs like to chew through the line because it has tension, and tension means it's alive. If you tug of war with somebody and they let go of their end of the rope, you don't tug very long because you're gonna just start going backwards. So if you have a dog that you recognize loves that tension, well you can release the line from a pulley, let it go slack and they'll drop it. And so what I've learned is over time your dog will develop a way to play the game where they know that they're in control and that's beautiful. They will also develop some really cool behaviors like some dogs they start to get a little tired, we recommend about two minutes, right? Two minutes is a session. Well, as they start to get a little tired, they might start to go to the middle and herd it, right? Instead of just all out chasing. And I love to see that development so we can watch their behavior and go, uh-oh, I'm seeing some frustration behavior. So we need to let them have more success, win more, catch the flag more, or I'm seeing them stop chasing it. and going to the middle and waiting and that can be a really fun game too but it also might be a signal that hey we should start to wrap this up because they're showing signs of starting to become a little tired and that's why chasing tennis ball a frisbee anything like that right a lure course is slightly different in that they don't catch it every time you throw a ball they're gonna have to go and catch it you can't make that ball move again until they've caught it. So there is an innate success built into games of fetch that we have to make sure go into a game of Swift Paws. Em (21:56) Honestly, I think that's the most fun part about the Swift pause is just watching your dog figure out how they want to play with it because Fitz plays with it very uniquely and it always cracks me up. He likes to play with it with a ball in his mouth and then he runs around after the lure and he doesn't just run though. He like hops and so it's this. Meghan - SwiftPaws (22:08) Mm-hmm. Yup. He's like, he loves the bunny. It's so cute. Em (22:23) It's so funny. I'll have to like share a clip of that somehow, either on Instagram or like weave it into this episode because he's just ridiculous. But he does the like the kill shake thing with his ball as he's chasing the lure. And then he'll occasionally grab it and he will grab it and then he'll try to run off with it. He'll pull the cord and try to go the other direction. So I love it because he has created his own little game out of it. Meghan - SwiftPaws (22:26) You Yeah. Em (22:52) And when that cord star starts to like melt his mouth, he's you know, his tongue's flying everywhere and he's like, and then he drops it, and then we start all over again. it's very, very fun. I definitely encourage people to, play around with it, see how your dog likes to play it. If you find that, they like to have it switch directions, make it switch directions, if they like to catch it, which was something you were like, Emily, you need to let him catch it because I didn't do it at Meghan - SwiftPaws (23:15) Let them win. Em (23:16) you have a dog that's insane all the time, you're like, keep away. This is great. just gonna run him out, but no, it changed the game when I let him catch it. And that's kind of where the ball got introduced then is he just started bringing the ball over. Meghan - SwiftPaws (23:19) Okay. And it's so cool, you can understand how complex his thinking is. Because here we have a dog that has gone several layers deep, He knows it's a game, so he knows it's not a live squirrel. He is now redirected onto a healthy object like a ball because he loves to shake, My younger dog, same thing, she loves to shake. My older dog, doesn't care. My older dog will catch the lure, but she drops it immediately. She doesn't even like shredding the lure, he has like, this is better for me if I can carry around a ball, because then I get to shake every time I feel that urge. And then by letting him win, you're giving him an opportunity, if he chooses it, to end the game, have a pause, pull on it, and then he can signal to you that he's ready for it to go again by letting it go. And it's so beautiful. It's so cool. Em (24:16) It really is a fun, fun thing and it truly has changed our relationship. we've had it for a year now and I hate that we can't have it in the winter when it's too cold here for that, but man, it really does change things up as soon as we can get it out in the spring. So we love it. And I highly encourage anyone who's, thinking, I don't know if my dog would like it. Your dog will like it. I promise they will like Meghan - SwiftPaws (24:32) Yeah. it's not a hundred percent of dogs that enjoy it. Some are nervous about it. So some are a little bit fearful. And to those, would say, let's work on becoming comfortable because play can't exist if we're afraid, if we're hungry, if we don't have basic needs met, play just gets extinguished, And think about it from your own perspective. You're not going to feel like laughing or joking around. if you're freezing cold or if there's another need that's of a higher order or if you don't feel comfortable in the space. So if you have a dog that's a little nervous or a little shy, let's make sure they're really comfortable before we add on because talk about over stimulation. Something like the lure zipping around can also be over stimulating and we don't ever want to put a dog through that. But also love sharing this anytime I get a chance to. You know our kits are not cheap. They're a lot of them are made here in the US that they are pricey I never want a pet owner to feel like they can't provide their pet with this type of an outlet if they can't afford a Several hundred dollar expensive kit. look, we've worked really hard to bring the price down, but they're they're complex there They've got a lot of electronics. We do a lot of it here in the US so if you have a dog or cat right and you want to explore this type of thing and maybe the kit's out of budget or you're just not ready to pull that trigger, I fully encourage people to DIY their own type of thing. You can even DIY a flirt pole. Look, we sell one. It's high quality, but you can make your own super easy, probably out of stuff that you already own. Want teasers are great for cats as well. Anything that's going to... get them to light up in that way of, I get to chase something. Another really good thing is frisbee. And if you've never introduced a dog to frisbee before, there's many, many great resources and videos on how to do that. But I'm a big believer in, we don't just fling the frisbee out into the air the first time, right? We engage with them. We do rollers on the ground. you don't ever have to progress to, some people think, my dog won't catch it. never, so we can't play. You can play with rollers and you never have to progress to catching it in the air. so many ways to do it really inexpensively. Tennis balls are great, throwing a stick is great, if your pet will do that. But if they go for that more like luring type thing, a floor pole is going to be the cheapest and most DIY friendly option. There's also ways where you could go and try out a lure course somewhere for a really low price, like couple bucks. And that's a great way to kind of see if they're interested. You can search for events near you or whatever. And then on top of that, it is just that one piece of the puzzle. So I like to tell people when we talk about enrichment stacking, Pick three things to try to stack. So one would be high intensity, like swift pause or like a flirt pole or like a tennis ball. And then after just a few minutes, we don't want to overdo the high intensity activity. Then we're going to regulate down. That could be a consumption or a foraging activity, Just scatter feeding might be the easiest or a snuffle mat or a puzzle toy. are Pawsler's US partner and they're modular puzzle toys. So you could step down from the high intensity to like a consumption or foraging activity, or you could step down and take a little walk, Just something to down regulate that next step, depending on where their brain is and what you think they'll most engage with. Going for a sniffari, way more valuable if they're not lunging at the end of their leash wanting to run. And then after that, you would do something that is going to be the longer lasting. Some pets, that's nose work type stuff, they just really get into it. It's great for their brain. Others could be chewing, And if you've got a big time chewer, that's where you give the longer lasting chew. But either way, now we're down regulating even farther. So I say pick two or three things. I like three, because I do high intensity, medium, and then low. mix it up. You can always try something different. you're like, that really worked or that didn't or today this worked yesterday, but it's not working today. So make yourself a map and go forth and hopefully have much happier pets and much happier people. Em (28:35) I completely agree with you. Try different things, be curious, get exploratory with your dog, and really take the opportunity to get to understand, who they are, and two, what they really like to do. Before we wrap up, I wanna pause for something we call Answering the Ask. This is a moment where we shift out of trying to fix things and into understanding what's actually going on. Because a lot of the time, the hardest part isn't doing more, it's realizing what we might be missing. Can you walk me through a moment where a dog you worked with or personally had was struggling and the shift didn't come from adding more, but actually understanding what they needed in that moment? Meghan - SwiftPaws (29:17) have a great personal experience and I think I hinted at it. But my younger dog, Melon, her name's actually Melanie, but we call her Melon. vet visits were challenging because we would go into the clinic and she'd be relatively okay. She's nervous in new places, so tail might be little tucked, but not full on freaking out. And then we would go into the room and the conflict happened. when somebody else would enter the room once we were already in. Then she starts barking, anal glands would go, she'd try to hide under my chair and just alarm barking at that point we've lost the plot, it's hard to come back from that level of insecurity and end freaking out. So actually I have a book here, oh I don't, I actually don't have it on my shelf. Actually I do, it's too low, you can't see it. It's by Dr. Zazie Todd. And it was one of the ones that kind of helped open my eyes to some of the things that we can try to do. The answer wasn't wear her out before the vet. The answer wasn't add drugs to sedate her for this experience. that wasn't gonna do it. Then she's just gonna be dopey and terrified. And that's not to say that sedation doesn't work. great for certain pets. It's stuff, pathways that I tried with my dog that did not work for her. So I am not bashing on any one type of solution. I'm just saying I tried a lot of different things. And the thing that did it for her that was the huge unlock was that we don't go in the room and have somebody else enter. That was the trigger. So instead, because once we're in that room, she's feeling a little bit kind of the open, right? Those clinical rooms are pretty bright. They don't have anywhere to hide except for under the chair that you're sitting in. And now it's a small confined space with an already nervous dog that somebody else is entering into. So the answer was literally you walk in and I would hand the leash over to the tech. They would walk with her to the back. They would go into the room. I could enter because she knows me and once we're all in the room together everything's fine. And so it wasn't an addition, it was a, we just don't go in the room first. Em (31:30) Which is such an incredible point, you tried lots of different things and you didn't quit until you figured out what worked for her. Now, other people again are going to have different experiences and might work or maybe the dog going straight to the back with the tech or for us, we cannot, we schedule appointments during down times with our vet because Fitz doesn't like other dogs. put a muzzle on him and then we just walk through the clinic and by the time we get into the room, he's like happy to see whoever's coming in and we just get it done. So it really does make things go much faster when you try to understand it from their perspective instead of trying to just push them through the Meghan - SwiftPaws (32:13) Absolutely, and trying to figure out what it is that's pushing them over the edge. Because I was like, okay, well, is it just this space? Is it the fact that we're at the vets? No, not really. so once you find that unlock, it makes you a believer even more in going on that journey with them. Because if you've had the negative experience, and then you've unlocked it, and you've had the better experience, you never want to go back. You're like, no, no, this is way better for everybody. Em (32:41) is way better for everybody. And you know what your vet and your techs will also thank you. I've been on that side of the door as well. And we appreciate it when people are proactive and get involved and try to make everything easier for everyone involved. if someone listening feels like they're doing everything they can, but their dog still seems restless, overwhelming or too hard to live with. What would you want them to sit with after this conversation? Meghan - SwiftPaws (33:09) Just a little bit of grace for yourself because sometimes we put it on ourselves to fix this for our dog. We should be doing something more weird not somehow not enough for them. And that can be a really difficult place to sit with, especially when maybe it's a dog that we had a lot of hope for that we had a lot of expectations for them. we wanted more for them. so for example, Melon, we did agility class for almost two years and she's such a talented agility dog, I recognized that this is not a dog who's ever going to enjoy going to an agility competition, getting crated next to other dogs in that big loud environment going into a strange ring that she's never been in before and being asked to perform. even if she knows how to do everything. And so I had to lay down my aspirations of maybe I can get back into the agility ring for the first time in a long time and instead go on that journey for her because she loved class and she loved going out there with the people and dogs that she knew and it wasn't a huge crowd. It's a quiet environment. She could get used to the area and she didn't have to go to new places. and that was enough for her. So sometimes I think that we put too much on ourselves. We ask too much of ourselves and we also want so desperately to fix it for them that we kind of beat ourselves up when we can't do it instantly. And so my advice would be A, you're not alone. We've all been there. If you've had enough dogs, you've been there with one or another. And B, give yourself a little bit of grace and just keep exploring, reading. to find maybe anecdotal stories from other people who have been in similar situations, because there will be that one key piece of advice that sticks and you go, okay, I'm going to try that. And then you try it and it works and those can be the unlocks. They can be so tiny and minor, but they can really make your life so much rounded with a pet that isn't just your outgoing gregarious easy type Em (35:13) what you said there about giving up your aspirations was really important because I think a lot of us do that, I wanted Fitz to be a service dog. I wanted him to do other things and be accessible and be able to participate in the world in a way that he just wasn't designed to. So a lot of that is understanding what's ours and what's theirs and really trying to filter that out so that everybody can have the best life possible. Meghan - SwiftPaws (35:40) But as a silver lining, having Mellon has led me down the cooperative care tunnel and so many other things that my world had not been open to before because I'm a bit of a nail-dremeling queen. I very much like to take care of my dogs and nail maintenance. And so I've always just had a really easy way of working with them. And I've had dogs that even if they don't love it at first, I'm just really patient. And then with Mellon, like nails obviously not an issue. I worked with them from the beginning, but then we had a little mild ear infection like so many people do, I realized that she didn't love her ears being messed with when she had an infection that I had to treat. And so down the rabbit hole I went, like okay, we're gonna jump into cooperative care because I don't want to be that person who has to hold you down and it hurts because her ear is infected. yes, I've had to maybe lay some aspirations aside, but it's opened up a whole new world of horizons that I'm not sure I would have ever had a chance to really explore or become aware of had I not been reaching for solutions. Em (36:39) I love it when people learn something from their dog, it takes us down a different path and it changes a perspective that we have, or it just lights up a different part of our light and our passions. So I love that she has taught you so many things. Tell everybody where they can find you how they can connect with you and where they can purchase a swift pause. Meghan - SwiftPaws (36:59) Yeah, it's super simple. You can look for SwiftPaws almost anywhere. The website is swiftpaws.com. We also have product on other channels as well if you're searching. And if you just want to connect with us or see a bunch of awesome videos of pets having fun, we're on almost all the socials. If you look for SwiftPaws, you will find us. The accounts are slightly different in different places, but we're not, we're not certainly not hiding. And also we love for people to share their experiences and their enrichment experiences with us. So you can connect with us, can message us, you can post any videos or anything like that. We have a SwiftPaws community group on Facebook where we love to see what people are doing with their pets. And it's a journey together. you can see the neon sign above me, but it says Play Well. And so what the journey has become, even more so than just the product, is this idea of conscientiously providing outlets for those instincts and playing not only purposefully, but playing well with our pets. And so that's the journey that I'm here for and we would love to connect with anybody who is doing the same. The Dog Who Asked For More ... (38:04) SwiftPause is one of the tools I use to give Fitz an outlet that actually fulfills him, not just tire him out. And you can check it out through the link in the show notes. so be kind, spread joy and remember, sometimes it's not about doing more for your dog, it's about finally doing what actually matters.