Rehabilitation an art form?

Method or application. My grandfather did the most gorgeous calligraphy and painting. It was precise, measured and I found myself wanting to try it myself. Of course, I was mid-teens and was trying 101 different activities. Violin, lapidary (cutting semi-precious stones), wildlife rescue, not yet into dog sports as Kala was in her twilight years. As you can imagine though what I produced was noticeably less refined than my grandfathers work. Let’s just say that there is no evidence of my attempts because it was not something anyone wanted to keep. I didn’t put the time or effort into improving and quickly lost interest.

I was reminded of this as I played paint by numbers ON MY PHONE overnight. It requires absolutely no skill. It is clunky, there is lag and my pinky has become quite angry due to the way I hold my hand to support my phone.

Both methods created an image with colours and if you look at it from a distance they are pretty. But one has detail, and you can see the lines the brush has made, the intention of each stroke. And then I was thinking about the fact that when I said that the method of art creation my grandfather used was impossible and wouldn’t work from me he said that I needed to put in time and effort to reach success. I clearly didn’t and gave up pretty quickly- I think within a week or so!

It reminds me a LOT of people saying that they have tried rehab and it didn’t work. Or they have tried positive training methods and their dog woudnt work unless they held a treat in their hand. They may have been using the ‘method’ of doing a specific exercise or using positive training but the application of the method was faulty. Now in my case there was absolutely no damage done other than some recycled paper being traumatised. My own frustration and probably a little of my grandfather’s peace and patience used up.

But when it comes to our pets who cannot advocate for themselves people saying that a method is faulty can cause significant fall out. It can do damage when rehab uses high impact activities during recovery causing additional damage. It can cause damage when a dog is punished for growling so stops giving warning signs of its discomfort. Keeping an open mind when we say that X method has failed, particularly when we are asking help allows others to examine our application of the method. This means timing, the environment, and our mechanics. Potentially the tools we are using and even the level of difficulty we are attempting. Throwing our expectations and learning the method from the smallest step, spending time learning the intricacies and expanding and layering upon our knowledge can allow us to build our skills and apply the method that had in the past failed up.

I am still on my journey of learning about rehabilitation because every animal has slightly different needs. I strive to improve my application of positive training techniques to communicate more clearly with my human and animal patients. It brings me so much joy and I think it is as beautiful as my grandfather’s art when I hear an owner telling me that their previously unmotivated dog is hunting for treats around the areas that they do their exercise therapy hoping that there will be a morsel left (and thus doing their exercises by themselves!) or seeing them stepping confidently over a pole that had been impossible for them to even look at a few weeks earlier.

Just because something is hard don’t blame the method. Acknowledge that your just on the journey of skill and knowledge that will allow you to apply the method precisely and know what to expect. Being messy at the beginning is ok, normal and natural in fact. And you have to go through the messy stage and stick with it to find the beauty when you have developed proficiency. Ultimately it is worth it since we know