Did you know that you can help your four-legged friends find balance with neurofeedback training? NeurOptimal® has been used to help pets manage stress to reduce fear, anger and nervousness.
A few years ago, we adopted a precious six-year-old Border Collie, Sadie, who we soon discovered was terrified of thunder, loud noises and car rides.
Whenever we watched TV, Sadie would hide due to the bass sounds and vibrations coming through our speaker system. During storms, she would go to a corner, shake like a leaf, drool and become catatonic – totally non-responsive. In Texas, thunderstorms are a regular occurrence, and they often last for hours. I hated to see Sadie like that. I had seen some Facebook posts from a fellow NeurOptimal® trainer in Missouri who was helping nervous and fearful shelter dogs with neurofeedback, and I thought, “what the heck; it can’t hurt to try it.”
I brought a system home from work one weekend and set it up by Sadie’s bed using speakers instead of earbuds. I cut a small piece of bacon into tiny crumbs (we never give Sadie table scraps, so this was a rare treat). I gave Sadie a bacon crumb for each sensor she allowed me to place on her. Once they were all on, I started the session. I sat with Sadie prepared to placate her with lots of pets and bacon crumbs. I was hoping to keep her still and keep the sensors on for just a little while in order to get some benefit from the training. It was so much easier than I expected and, like many people do, Sadie drifted off during the session. She easily completed a whole session and seemed to really enjoy it!
A few days after her session, we had a small thunderstorm. While she still retreated to her corner, she was not shaking or catatonic and did not drool at all. She was responsive and even rolled over, inviting me to rub her belly. Her session was in February; by June, we had just about finished our thunderstorm season, and Sadie held up like a champ. While she still doesn’t care for storms, she weathers them much better. What an amazing difference after just one session!
If you are interested in NeurOptimal® training for your own nervous or fearful pet, contact us about purchasing or renting a NeurOptimal® system (we do not offer in office sessions for animals at this time).
