Soul Touched by Dogs

Welcome to the Soul Touched by Dogs
Podcast, the show for dog lovers who

see dogs not as toys or tools, but
wise souls worth our respect and care.

I'm an Herrmann, and I'm your host.

I talk to poor some humans, people who
do great work for dogs and their people.

So come and join us for
today's conversation.

Anke: welcome Jeff.

I'm super excited to have you

Jeff: here.

Thank you Anke.

I really, really appreciate being
here and I'm also super excited to

play with you, get to play with you.

Awesome.

Anke: Awesome.

So before we start playing, uh, why don't
you give us like the two minute overview?

Where are you based?

You know,

Jeff: what's your business?

What do you do?

I am a U.

S.

based Connecticut, about an
hour outside New York City,

uh, based veterinarian and I...

Don't do private practice.

I do an online or what we're...

Based in as an online community,
um, trying to transfer information

about molecular biology,
individuality, and happiness in pets.

So, instead of focusing on individual
diseases, symptoms, and diagnoses, we

focus on quality of life and happiness
and, uh, the community that, that we're

going to talk a bit about based on
which is a marker for quality of life.

Love

Anke: it.

So, I would imagine, so you're a
veterinarian, so you went to med

school, you know, you did your degree.

What sparked the focus on

Jeff: the work you're doing now?

Great question.

Um, I got my degree first
in molecular biology.

Penn Veterinary Medicine, and what
sparked what I'm doing now is me.

Because I have a chronic degenerative
brain disease and found that...

By focusing on the symptoms, as we do
in medicine, I wasn't doing as well as

focusing on things like getting out in
nature, and feeling our joy, being happy,

you know, like, uh, there's a gentleman
named Norman Cousins, that wrote a book

called Anatomy of an Illness, which is all
about how he had this incurable, painful

illness, that he basically left away.

And it's now being shown in research and
science that laughter and happiness and

awe and gratitude are all things that
make us better physiologically, but our

heads and our cognitive dissonance and our
uncertainty about the future and the past

and get in the way, but not with them.

So it's a joy to be
doing this for years now.

Super successfully with animals
because there are very few animals

that get in the way as much as we
can get in the way of the animals.

That's

Anke: all.

I just love that.

I mean, that whole sort of a more

Jeff: holistic approach, you know, I think

Anke: it's kind of, it feels the
only thing that really makes sense.

Right, to just get away from the kind of
little band aid and just kind of really.

So how would you recognize,
measure, like, happy and like, so

how would I know whether my dog's

Jeff: happy?

Awesome.

Thank you for that question.

B.

E.

A.

M.

is an acronym for behavior,
energy, appetite, and mood.

And each one of those
factors combined to give a B.

E.

A.

M.

score.

B.

E.

A.

M.

score above 8 or above
is the hot dog or a cat.

Or person, because I know people that
are now using this for themselves,

um, means that they're in balance
internally, and aligned, and connected,

and happy, and having a good life.

Stubby behavior.

What does your dog or cat do
when you come to the door?

Does they want to be with you?

Do they want to be off by themselves?

Would they rather not engage?

So that can lower or increase the
beam, the Behavior, part of that score,

energy, do they get up all the time,
do they go to the door, do they want

to go on their walks, do they tire
quickly on their walks, do they like

five ball throws, or will they go?

Sorry, my own dog, uh, thinks we're
going out to play ball right now.

Archie, Archie, Archie.

But he's a great example of focusing
on that approach because he's had a

bunch named diseases that if we just
monitor the diseases but focus on being

the disease symptoms tend to go away.

You know the easiest part of
being to measure is the appetite

because you can measure how long
you don't have the anxious to eat.

We ate whatever you offered,
they finished their bowl, so we

quantitate as much as we can.

But at the same time, we measure and
quantitate internal things like kidney

values, or liver values, or other
tests, because the body manifests

its balance both externally, by
being, and internally, by eating.

By measured symptom.

Anke: Hmm, that makes,
that makes so much sense.

So, I remember when my dog Leo, like he
crossed the bridge like two years ago,

when he was like 10 years old, like
quite a few years ago now, he all of

a sudden like couldn't get up, right?

And I felt that I took him
to the vet and they go, well,

we've never seen this before.

We have no idea what we're doing here.

And what occurred to me was Reiki.

I don't know.

I had no idea what I did is I bought
a book on animal Reiki, you know?

And I mean, you know, it wasn't
that I didn't know how to feel

the, you know, I'd done yoga,
Tai Chi, Qigong, all that stuff.

So I kind of knew what it felt like.

And I thought, well, okay,
what's different about And so

anyway, I got this book and then
I just kind of did what I like.

Well, I'm happy to report that this
dog recovered despite vet's prognosis.

And he lived another
almost seven years happily.

So yeah, there is so much.

There's so much there that isn't.

Conventional

Jeff: knowledge.

Is that?

Yeah, and you brought up a really,
really, really important point.

There's individuality, there's happiness,
there's nature therapy, but Reiki and

the energy, the body works by energy.

When you're alive, you have energy.

You're not alive, you don't.

The car, the gas tank is empty if
you don't have the energy, so what

Reiki does is harness that universal
energy that we know is all around

us, thanks to Einstein, you know,
talking about the E equals MC squared.

And all the studies since then, um,
Harnessing that energy is a way to address

symptoms that can otherwise be addressed.

And that energy is also the most
sustainable and beautiful and

easy to re employ energy, because
that energy is also seen in love.

Love is energy, and we often talk
about love as the most sustainable

form of energy, and our unconditional
love with our animals is gonna

heal them, and it does heal them,
like, like your dog's story.

Anke: So...

You were talking about Holistic
Actions, and obviously the link's

gonna be below here, wherever, you
know, if you're listening, it's in

the show notes, if you're on the,
on the blog page, it's right here.

Um, how can people get

Jeff: involved in that?

Well, the easiest way is
go to holisticactions.

com and sign up for the
free one on one course.

That gives you the basis for...

You know, the method
that we just spoke about.

If you want even more, then
you can sign up as a community

member to help their sponsorship.

Digital resources, we have weekly
webinars, uh, there's a 24 7 Q& A forum,

so if you have any questions you can ask
on the forum, and myself and the other

Vets and other community members will
chime in, and I apologize for my voice,

but My brain and my respiratory muscles
don't, they're not connected real well.

So, what's one thing

Anke: you would want to leave
people with, if there was one thing

you wish people understood, what

Jeff: would that be?

One thing is that there is...

Always another.

There's more that you can do
that there is no one right answer

to get outside to see nature.

The beauty of nature, which basically
is all that our pets need to heal, is

to get out and sniff and engage and,
you know, be happy, happy, happy, happy.

Love that.

Anke: Love that.

There's nothing more to add.

Thank you so much.

And I can't wait to have
you back, to be honest.

I think there's so much more we
need to talk about, so I really

look forward to having you back.

Jeff: Thank you.

Thanks so much.

Thanks for having me.

Thanks so much for listening.

If you enjoyed the episode, don't forget
to subscribe, and leave a review so

other dog lovers can find the show.

If you haven't already, head
over to soul touched by dogs.

com and sign up for weekly doggy cuteness
tips, recommendations, and personal

stories to warm your dog loving heart.

And if you know a pawsome human
you think I should interview,

I'd love an introduction.

Email me at Anke.

That's A N k E at Soul
touched by dogs.com.