BH225 Achieving Zen: Building Confidence and Calm for Anxious Animals

Is the animal you live with struggling with confidence? Do they have a tough time relaxing? If so, this class may be just what you need! It focuses on helping animals learn to relax and feel more confident here, there, and everywhere.

Course Details

This course will cover everything from overarching ideas about supporting animal well-being to specific techniques you can use to help the animals you live with feel both calmer and more confident.

Calmer, more confident animals are able to think more clearly. Clear thinking leads to better choices. Better choices lead to more appropriate (to the situation) behavior. Put all of that together, and you wind up with an animal who is happier and easier to live with.

Sounds great, right? Join me so we can get started on making it happen!

Teaching Approach

Lectures will generally be posted at the beginning of the week. Each week's lectures will include practical tasks for students to work on. Most lectures will be provided as both video presentations (for those who prefer watching a video) and in a text format (for those who prefer to read lectures). Replies to student posts will include observations, tips, and (when applicable) suggestions for things to add or adjust.

NOTE: Gold students get highly personalized recommendations that sometimes include material that is not in the lectures. All students are encouraged to read all the Gold threads.

Syllabus

*Note that most of the topics listed here will be addressed several times during the course in different ways. This will both help you internalize what you learn and deepen your understanding of each of the topics.

Theory (the geeky stuff), including

Confidence
Relaxation
Excitement
Stress
Anxiety
Off-switches (what they are and what they aren't)

Application (the practical stuff)

Training exercises to build confidence
Routines that support confidence
Training exercises that help animals relax more easily and even on cue
Routines to support greater calm and relaxation
Canine body language

NOTE: If you’re planning to work with a different species of animal, grab a Gold spot so you can get your body language questions answered!

Additional considerations (the finicky stuff)

Management
Preparation
Planning
Troubleshooting

Quick course overview

In Week One, Gold students will share their goals and we will create a general plan for how to work towards those goals.

In Weeks Two through Five, Gold teams will start making a variety of changes, which will probably include training, management, and more. The rest of us will be celebrating and supporting their progress.

In Week Six, we will review where we are and how we got to this point. We will also focus on next steps both for those who have achieved their goals and those whose training needs a little more time to reach fruition.

Prerequisites & Supplies

There are no formal prerequisites for the course – not even having a dog! I’m happy to have you work through the course tasks with your cat, horse, parrot, etc.! With that said, I strongly encourage everyone to do a vet check for their animal before starting this or any other training.NOTE: Gold students are expected to share both video clips and insights about their training plan. There will likely be hiccups for some, if not all, of the students. Also, not all students will achieve their goals within the six weeks of the course. That’s OK! Every dog is an individual, some goals are harder than others, and some objectives take more than six weeks to reach. It is recommended that Silver students also come up with a goal. I also hope Silver students will opt to participate actively in the class forums by posting general questions and encouragement for other students, in addition to posting their two questions about their own situation. Bronze students don’t have to pick a goal, but are encouraged to do so while “following along at home” with the Gold and Silver students.

Sample Lecture

Defining Calm and Confidence and why does it matter?

NOTE: Want to watch a video of this lecture instead of reading it? Click on the video above!

Hi, I'm Irith Bloom, and this is Fenzi Dog Sports Academy BH 225: Achieving Zen: Building Confidence and Calm for Anxious Animals.

Calm

Let's get started by thinking about the term "calm." What exactly does "calm" mean? Most words have more than one possible definition, and certainly words like this that relate to behavior and emotional state can potentially have a lot of different definitions.

That means what I'm about to say is not some absolute definition of the word "calm," but a way of trying to reach a definition of "calm" that we will all agree on for the purposes of this course. So, with that said, what is "calm"?

Our Shared Definition of "Calm" for This Class

For the purposes of this course, "calm" means that the animal is in a state where they are able to stop and think, where they are able to thoughtfully respond to what's going on around them. They're not so excited or so agitated that they're having difficulty making thoughtful decisions.

They might be happy and calm. They might feel neutral and calm. If they're unhappy, then they're probably in distress, which would mean that they're actually not calm.

So "calm" is going to be a happy to neutral state where the animal feels relaxed, and they are capable of making thoughtful decisions.

Confident

So how about the term "confident"?

"Confident" is a much more difficult term to define. It can mean a lot of different things for a lot of different people.

Our Shared Definition of "Confident" for This Class

For the purposes of the animals that we'll be working with in this course, let's define "confident" as feeling empowered and feeling safe. In other words, the animal knows that they are in a context in which it is safe to make a decision, and they also feel that they have the power to make that decision.

So that's what we're going to call "confident," feeling safe and feeling empowered to make choices that hopefully, because they are calm, they are making thoughtfully.

Why Do Calmness and Confidence Matter?

You may be thinking to yourself, "Great. We defined 'calm.' We defined 'confident.' So what does that have to do with anything?"

Calmness and confidence matter, because when an animal is calm and confident, they're going to tend to make more appropriate choices for the situation that they are in.

What that means to us when we're living with non-human animals is that they're generally going to make choices that are easier for us to deal with.

As you know, this class is focused on helping the non-human animals in your home become more calm and more confident. The reason that we're doing all of that, everything that we're going to be talking about in future weeks, is to help the animals we live with have the wherewithal to make better decisions and the confidence to actually take action based on those decisions.

Do I know what's going on in any animal's mind? No. But I do know that when an animal is calm and confident, they tend to do things that we humans find a little easier to live with.

Key Takeaways

Here are some key takeaways from today's lecture:

The word "calm" has more than one possible meaning.
So does the word "confident."
For the purposes of this course, when I refer to an animal as being calm, what I mean is that that animal is in a state where they are able to make thoughtful decisions. Not overreact, not react based on instinct, but make thoughtful decisions.
Confident means that the animal feels safe and empowered enough to make those decisions and then act on them.
Another key point is that calmness and confidence help animals make better choices overall.

Next Steps

Everyone

Post in the discussion forums!
The chat forum is a great place to discuss things, ask questions amongst yourselves, trade ideas, and so on.
The positive reinforcement forum is a great place to acknowledge others' efforts and give each other praise, support and reinforcement.

Gold and Silver Students

Think about about where you are seeing calmness and confidence, or the lack of calmness and confidence in the animal you are choosing as your class partner. When is the animal calm? When are they not calm? When are they confident? When are they not confident? Notice any trends? Any particular places where this creates a lot of problems? Think about all of that.
Post your observations.
Post questions and videos. You can include videos of where and when you're observing the calmness, confidence, or lack of either or both, but please avoid setting up bad situations for the purpose of capturing video. I don't want anyone to be at risk and we do not want to be stressing your class partner animals.

Bronze Students

Follow along.
Post in the chat and positive reinforcement forums.

With that, I'm going to sign off for today. I look forward to seeing you next time!

Instructors

Irith Trietsch Bloom

Irith Bloom (she/her) finds joy in helping people teach with kindness while developing choice-rich environments for their companion animals. ...

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