Know Your Dog’s True Nature - The Water Dog

      

By Elizabeth Anne Johnson

The magical force of the ocean is deep, full of intelligence, teaming with wisdom, unpredictable, and loaded with treasures. So is your Water element dog. When you are ready for one, they come to you, and you stand astonished at the complexity of this animal in your life. Water Dogs teach us to trust in very unconventional ways. We learn trust for them, for ourselves, and for our own inner wisdom. It may not be in the easiest way, but a journey awaits that will enrich, change, and sometimes baffle you. Water Dogs are often considered “spiritual teacher with four legs.” Water is the source of all life; it nourishes everything and everyone without judgement. It has the quiet, enduring power to transform things that are hard or need shaping. Water feeds Wood, calms Fire, moves Earth, and tempers and strengthens Metal. These qualities make our Water Dogs and Water humans vital to our growth. Through their gentle and often subtle teachings we can make pivotal changes in how we walk in the world. It is in Water’s stillness that they access connection to their ancestral wisdom. This nurturing wisdom helps Water Dogs find and ultimately guide their human soul partner to a better way of being. One way you know you have a Water Dog is that she will show you any of the five elements at any given time. Just as in nature, water can shapeshift from vapor to mist to rain, to ice, snow, and sleet— and so does your Water Dog. Each one of the five elements can suddenly appear in her personality and along with it, the element’s behaviors. So, know that when you see your dog shifting and changing, it’s just your Water Dog wearing one of her other elemental “masks.” Seasons can prompt a different element to show up for that specific time of year and Water Dogs will flow strongly with each seasonal change. Also, certain circumstances, both long-term and short-term, can prompt a Water Dog to imitate a particular element for safety, all the while carrying the deeply ingrained fear they feel underneath—their default emotion. And lastly, Water takes the shape of whatever contains it, so be honest and true to who you are. Water Dogs are emotional beings and extremely sensitive to our human emotions. They are pools of reflection for us. Do not expect to get away with acting differently than you actually feel around them; the Water Dog will know. They are the quintessential empaths. Accept this gift of reflection and utilize it to create a deeper connection with them and hopefully with your own self. On a higher level, your personal growth is their ultimate goal. If you truly listen, Water Dogs will help you find your own ancestral wisdom as well. Water Dogs learn best when they have a deep and intimate connection with their human. They are extremely smart and devoted. Their emotional reflex is fear, often deep, visceral fear. Just like water, they can be calm one moment and go into a full-blown overflowing torrent of panic the next. Water Dogs are sadly often passed around from owner to owner for odd behaviors that are not seemingly manageable or understandable to most humans. But they truly are amazing, loving, cuddly, and fun partners when you are ready for them. Stay the course with your Water Dog, they are worth it! Water elements, both animal and human, often come into this life with a traumatic beginning. It makes total sense that the karmic issues they are working through have to do with fear, trust, sharing their empathic wisdom, and being the authentic being that they truly are, no masks, no running, no hiding. In this life journey, Water elements can learn to manage fear by being still and honoring the situation instead of running like a frightened deer. This is a life-changing process. By accessing their ability for deep stillness, they access their own true power. They learn to trust others, trust themselves, and feel safe to be who they truly are as they gently reflect others’ emotions. Water elements can hear the voices of our ancestors who are asking all of us to honor and hone our vital sensitivities. The Story of Pretzel Pretzel, my now fourteen-month-old Water element dog, has gone through each element more times in her first year of life than I can count. Some days it is several in a day! She is predominantly Water (seen by her reactions to stress). She is secondly a Wood Dog—learning her athletic ability while pushing and testing boundaries. And as I am writing this, we are entering early summer—Fire element season—so she is displaying really kooky, fun behavior and also needs lots of deep, cuddly fire dog moments. Pretzel was a feral rescue pup, now young adult, who was born under a drug house with a starved no-milk mother, dying and dead siblings, and crazy chaos from the human world above and around her. I was told she resisted capture and I believe she had a very traumatic experience during that capture (as if her early puppy life wasn’t traumatic enough). At the time I was looking for a puppy partner for Wilbur, and Pretzel showed up in an online search. She looked exactly like the puppy photos of my last beloved Water Dog, Luna, who had passed away two years prior. The photos were uncanny—the same black puppy with white chest blaze shaped like a flying goose, speckled paws and white dots on the back of her hind feet, the same piercing amber eyes, the same mix-breed puppy body, and that same intense, precocious, intelligent look in her eyes that Luna wore as a young pup. I scooped her up as quickly as possible and then was told her sad early puppyhood history, similar to Luna who was dropped in a shelter night box as a puppy with her starved siblings. When we first met Pretzel, it took my husband Mark and me over an hour to be able to touch her, her fear of humans was so deep and visceral. There was no aggression, only fast, fearful avoidance techniques that were sharply honed. Mark and I have dedicated our lives to helping and healing animals, and between the two of us we have worked with thousands of animals in pain or distress. Our work has included street dogs internationally, urban captures of mistreated animals, disaster response, wildlife humane capture situations, and of course living with our working partners—dogs. The animals have been our teachers. Our heart reflexes are open, strong, patient, and wise, and the animals feel that. Our listening skills are “ways of being” with animals, that gently affect our ways of doing. When we listen with our open hearts, this creates a vibrational coherence that honors the animal’s personal safety zone and makes them feel more comfortable. Pretzel eventually felt this and allowed us in, but only for a tender moment where we saw her sweet potential and hesitant willingness. The door quickly shut but already our hearts had fallen in love with this tiny adorable, wounded Water being. Pretzel is still highly sensitive and after nine months of intermittent exposure to others, she still is extremely fearful of humans, except the small core people in her life—myself, my husband, our loving dog sitter Cheryle, and sometimes one or two neighbors. In her own environment and on our trail walks she is timidly curious about other humans. The fear is, and may always be, a visceral reflex for her, programmed deeply from her traumatic formative early months as that hungry, frightened, feral puppy. I take her everywhere with me but also honor her ever-shifting tolerance levels for even mild social stimulus. I always watch, support, and praise for the little improvements we make along the way. There is an old adage I learned years ago and now embrace deeply: the most important social relationship an animal can have is with their own human. At home, Pretzel is an entirely different being. Confident and precocious, full of herself, bossing Wilbur around during play, showing off her intelligence. She is fun and lovable, loves touch, and often demands it. She’s also incredibly verbal, even musical. Daily she includes herself in our human discussions, mirroring and intoning both our voices. She asks for anything she wants or needs—food, potty, or play—with high pitched squeaks, burbles, yips, long and loud yawns, and play growls. She also asks me at 8:50 p.m. every night to play my flute so she can sing. And sing she does! She tries to match all the notes, keys, and stair steps I make with my flute. After that she sleeps soundly through the night. The Water element sense is hearing, and she has translated that into her own musical and verbal prowess. She is one of the most overtly communicative and hilarious dogs I’ve ever had. At this early age I see Pretzel activating the natural intense stillness and focus of the Water element when she is “hunting” bunnies or robins. She rarely catches one but finds her fun spending an incredibly long time—up to 30 minutes—in one position watching them. Or she stalks them, moving her limbs Qi gong-like with intensive slowness—one leg in five minutes, the next leg in five minutes… It is fascinating to watch. Water elements take courage, time, and a good understanding partner. Water without a vessel to hold it cannot truly understand or heal its karmic lessons. Each day Pretzel becomes a little bit more of her true self. Each day, I become a better partner.   Author Bio: Elizabeth Anne Johnson has been working with the health and wellness of small, large, and exotic animals, and wildlife for 35 years as a veterinary technician, animal healer, and wildlife biologist and rehabilitator. She is the author of Know Your Dog’s True Nature and vice-president of Global Wildlife Resources, a TEDx Speaker, mentor, adventurer, and loving partner of Wilbur and Pretzel, rescues extraordinaire!               https://ElizabethAnneJohnson.com