Season of The Social Butterfly
By Elizabeth Anne Johnson.
A warm welcome to the dog days of summer in the northern hemisphere! As we just celebrated our Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, we began celebrating the season of the Fire Dog, our charismatic social butterfly that everyone adores. Warmth, pleasure, and fun is in the air!
These Fire spirits often carry the colors of fire within their coats, a shiny sparkly red that spans the orange to red spectrum and glows with a magnetism that you just must touch. Some Fire dogs are coated in this fiery essence of the flame and some have just a few tendrils that sparkle when the light hits them just right. They all carry a special “charismatic magnetism” within every fiber of their being. People love them, other dogs love them, even some cats love them! We are subconsciously drawn to these Fire beings like a moth to a flame. That warm flame touches people’s hearts so deeply that these dogs have legacies of love they leave behind as they travel to their next encounter.
Fire Dogs prefer to take walkies in towns or neighborhoods where they can gather attention, pets, and adoration. A friend had a Fire dog that she walked daily in the forest, The dog was a chronic leash puller that several talented trainers had given up on. After reading my book she decided to walk her pup in the neighborhood and in town and amazingly the leash pulling stopped – for good. It’s awesome when your dog finally feels that their needs are understood and being met, and these difficult behaviors change!!
Fire dogs are the pups that catch your eye as you are walking down the street. You look once…and can’t help but look at them again and when you do, they wiggle and waggle like they’ve know you forever. And suddenly you feel the same way! As their tail wags a clear “Hi! Come meet me!”, you find yourself zombie-like drawn to this adorable being. You politely greet their human on the other end of the leash, but you truly just want to touch, wiggle, and wag along with your new best friend. You walk away feeling loved and with a huge smile in your heart.
One of the key organs associated with the Fire Dog is the heart. The heart in Chinese medicine is called the emperor and houses the Shen. The Shen is a combination of the spirit and the mind. The healthy interconnectedness of the spirit and mind creates a balanced Shen. When imbalances occur – perhaps too much fun, heat, or lack of social contact – the Shen becomes imbalanced, and these wonderful warm-hearted creatures get what we call a “disturbance of the Shen”.
This is akin to a panic attack. Our sweet little Fire Dog suddenly gets stressed, ungrounded, and unable to cope with life around them. Our job is to first calm ourselves with a few deep breaths, feel our feet on the ground, and then step into calming your sweet Fire being with soft, quiet words and calming touch.
If you forget to calm yourself, you will be like two helium balloons floating in the wind as both your Shen’s escape the comfy emperor’s home of the heart and levitate up into the mind – where the Shen does not want to live.
In my book I recommend an acupressure point – very simple to find and easy to use – called Yin Tang. Yin Tang calms the heat and moves the Shen back down into the heart where it belongs. It is found on the center line of the head right between the eyebrows or the upper eyelids of the dog. (Photo and directions in my book – see below)
If you rub up and down slowly and gently you will see the Fire dog quickly start to give you calming signals like lowering the head, softening the eyes, licking, yawning, and reconnecting with you and the world again. This is the Shen going back home where it belongs.
Fire dogs are often the dogs that get separation anxiety. They are gregarious creatures and need social time and do not like being left alone or left behind. They need touch and connection. Overstimulation is another Shen disturbing factor – too much fun! – can send them into a tizzy.
They also do not do well in heat – even though summer is their season – when a fire is exposed to more heat, it gets bigger and out of control – creating a Shen imbalance. So cool places to hang out, rest, and play in the summer months are vital for these Fire dogs.
Lastly cool foods are also important as we calm the heat of the fire from the inside out. Chicken and beef are hot foods, not good for a Fire Dog. They can cause inflammation responses such as allergies, itchiness, and joint inflammation. Fire dogs need cool foods such as rabbit, whitefish, and turkey, cooling herbs and veggies. Same for the yummy treats.
My recipe for a Fire dog – Touch them often, adore them, take them everywhere, teach them fun things – they are fast learners! – and love them back with all the love they give you and the world around them. They are like shining stars that fill our days and nights with light, love, and doggy laughter.
Dog Partner! Stay tuned, next month let’s discover what element you are! If you can’t wait, check out the human quizzes in my awesome book – Know Your Dog’s True Nature.
Elizabeth Anne Johnson, Author, Animal Empath and Healer, TEDx Speaker. Discover more about your dog’s personality, their wants and needs, and what makes them a happy, healthy dog! Check out “Know Your Dog’s True Nature” At bookstores around the world. Available in paperback, eBook, and audio.
https://ElizabethAnneJohnson.com
