🐼❤️ I’ve decided to share my fearful rescue dog’s story a little more widely, after a few people told me that our experience might help others too. This is Panda. She came to me from a rescue in Ukraine, frightened of a world she was somehow supposed to learn was safe. Our journey hasn’t looked like the rescue story I imagined. Progress has sometimes been incredibly small, and I’ve had to learn to see achievements that other people might not even notice. I started writing about our experience mainly to make sense of what we were going through. But somewhere along the way, I realised that while I was trying to help Panda heal, the experience was changing me too. I know there are people in this group living with fearful and traumatised rescue dogs, and that’s one of the reasons I wanted to share our story here. Sometimes it helps simply to know that somebody else is going through something similar. But I also hope our story can help people understand these dogs a little better. When you live with a deeply fearful dog, you quickly realise how easily their behaviour can be misunderstood — why they can’t “just” do the things other dogs do, or why something that looks so simple from the outside can be enormous for them. I think there’s value in talking about that too. ❤️ We’re still very much in the middle of our journey — I’m writing it as we live it. 🐾 Parts 1 and 2 of Panda’s Healing Journey are now published on Substack, and you can read them both here: 👉 https://substack.com/@rimapanda I’d love to hear from anyone whose rescue journey has looked nothing like they expected. ❤️

Have you ever had one of those evenings where your dog seems to have completely lost the plot? They're zooming around the house, barking at everything, pestering everyone, can't settle and apparently have forgotten everything they've ever learned. It's easy to look at that dog and think they need MORE. Another walk, a game, some training, something to burn off all that energy. But what if the little scallywag is actually overtired? That's exactly what we've been exploring in Naughty or Sleepy? — and this is where I'd love to hear about your dog. Maybe you've started noticing how deeply they actually sleep during the day, what tends to interrupt them or whether they have a particular time when they turn into a tiny gremlin. 😂 Maybe you've started the 7-Day Sleep Experiment and spotted something you hadn't noticed before. Or perhaps you've finished the whole thing and now have a question. 💤 How well does your dog actually sleep? 😈 Do they have a particular time of day when they tend to go a little feral? 👀 Have you noticed any connection between their sleep and their behaviour? 📝 If you're doing the Sleep Experiment, has anything surprised you so far? And if there's something you're struggling with when it comes to sleep — your dog's sleep, not yours personally; I'm definitely not qualified for that! 😂 — pop it in the comments too. Share what you're noticing, ask questions as you go, or come back after you've finished the Sleep Experiment and tell us how you went. 💤

Hi everyone! 😊 Hope you’re all well. I’m struggling to decide on one calming supplement that’s affordable long term and actually makes a noticeable difference with stress, fear and general anxiety. We’ve tried quite a few things over time, including alpha-casozepine (milk protein), L-theanine-based calming treats, and a calming probiotic, but because we’ve tried different things at different times, I’m finding it really difficult to know what actually helps and what isn’t worth the ongoing expense. I’d really like to simplify things and stick to one supplement long term, alongside her prescribed medication and behaviour work as agreed with the vet. For those of you with particularly fearful/anxious dogs, have you found a supplement that genuinely made a noticeable difference? And if so, which active ingredient did you find most effective? Thank you! 😄

We'd love to hear what your plan looks like. What's the first thing you're going to focus on over the next week?

💬 What was your biggest takeaway from this lesson? Did anything make you look at your dog's behaviour differently? We'd love to hear your thoughts or answer any questions.