Wow. Another great conversation in the group. Thank you to Wendy for gifting us such a wonderful hour of your time and sharing your knowledge and insight with us.
Wendy talked us through some of the many overlaps between progressive child education and development and supporting and raising dogs. She kindly offered some slides to support the detail, and I especially liked the ‘hands quadrant’ - us dog pro’s do love a quadrant !
We discussed topics including attachment and attachment styles, sensory integration, self-regulation and co-regulation and examined why reinforcement might not always be very positive for some situations and some children/dogs.
Wendy’s new book, which I highly recommend, can be brought on Amazon in most territories :
www.amazon.com/Tender-Paws-Sc...
For UK : www.amazon.co.uk/Tender-Paws....
When we open our home and heart to a dog, they become like a family member. Science agrees that the human-dog relationship has many similarities to the parent-child relationship, and this deep connection can offer rich opportunities for supporting dogs in our care.
Award-winning journalist and author Wendy Lyons Sunshine struggled to raise a difficult rescue puppy until she turned to her work with child development experts for help. To her surprise, she discovered that many of the same evidence-informed parenting practices that benefit struggling, at-risk children also benefit struggling dogs. These “HEARTS” parenting best practices honour early life development, attachment, feelings of fear and safety, trauma, play, and sensory issues.
Most importantly, a therapeutic parenting mindset helps us tap into compassion and shift our focus from “naughty” to needy. The discussion will also explore the role of parenting style and personal history, why the word “balance” doesn’t have to be fraught with danger, and how HEARTS can help us cultivate attunement to meet puppies and dogs where they are.
BIO
Wendy Lyons Sunshine is author of TENDER PAWS: How Science-Based Parenting Can Transform Our Relationship with Dogs and co-author of two parenting books: THE CONNECTED CHILD: Bring Hope and Healing to Your Adoptive Family, a best-selling classic that has been translated into multiple languages, and RAISING THE CHALLENGING CHILD: How to Minimize Meltdowns, Reduce Conflict, and Increase Cooperation. Her articles have appeared in scores of publications, including The New York Times, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth Weekly, D Magazine, and Inside Your Dog’s Mind. Wendy writes about the human-dog connection for PsychologyToday.com and assists behind the scenes at Victoria Stilwell’s Positively.com