Guest guest Posted October 25, 2002 Report Share Posted October 25, 2002 In a message dated 10/25/2002 10:33:05 AM Pacific Daylight Time, victoria_dragon writes: < I forgot to mention that there are different types of aggression. It seems like the first thing we think of with aggression is an excess Yang situation ... a Hot Liver situation. <<Can you go into more detail on this? List the different types and characteristics of them? Thanks. Anger/Liver related aggression in a dog: General signs of Heat like a red tongue, fast pulse, excess thirst and appetite, eating peculiar objects etc. My dog has the tendency towards a pale wet tongue and slow pulse. His skin tends towards red. itchy and inflamed. Lots of " allergy " related symptoms. The tongue body reflects the true nature of the disease Thus my dog tends towards Cold and Damp (especially with the slow pulse addition) << I would have thought fear-agression related to Water since the Kidneys are so vulnerable to fear. The Kidneys are vulnerable to fear when Deficient (I assume in either Yin or Yang?). My dog is not Deficient. He's young, energetic, good steady appetite, soft shiny coat, no dry skin, good sleep and elimination patterns, tolerates cold and heat well but prefers cold weather (he is more active and lively in the cold ... he can stay out in the cold without shivering for extended periods of time). He tends towards lack of thirst ... which would be Excess Damp in his case since he didn't display signs of Deficient Yang. One can always tell fear based aggression in a dog by observing the mouth when they growl. A dominant (non fear based) aggression will show in the dogs mouth forming an O ... you will not see the gums. A fearful dog will pull the " lips " (for lack of a better word) back when they growl ... you will see the gums. A fearful dog will also seem nervous, anxious, jumpy etc. A dominant dog is very sure of himself. Tail and ear positions are helpful for determining this as well. A fearful dog will have the tail down and ears back ... dominant will have ears up or pointing forward ... tail up .... possibly with a slow swish. Some dogs seem to be fearful possessive! Like the ones who become aggressive on leash to protect the owner and bark like crazy. All signs would need to be viewed in relation to eachother. Lifestyle and improper training can play a major role as well as diet. It's the same as with people ... mind and body work as a team. My dogs mouth formed a distinct O when he growled. Clearly dominance related. Thus I could rule out both fear and Liver Heat. In Ayurveda the Kapha Dosha corresponds with the Water and Earth Elements. His constitution is predominantly Kapha. He is much more Water like in temperament than Earth like. When the Kapha Dosha is aggravated ... one can become greedy and possessive. My dogs aggression was only directed towards me. He was in a power struggle for rank. There are ritualistic times of the day where a dog will try to reorganize the hierarchy. Mealtime is a big one. My dog would growl at me after he ate. He would stand by his bowl and not let me near it. This was his possession. At times when it was really bad ... he snarled viciously. He still does from time to time and that's my cue that he's getting a little too Yin! He's a hoot. He has tried everything in an attempt to intimidate me ... from hiding around a corner and charging me when I go to get the bowl .... to jumping up off the ground and biting the back of my thigh. I follow the Taoist view towards dog training. " Training a dog is not about mastery of the dog ... it is about mastery of oneself " . Thus ... he doesn't exist when he acts like this. He is mearely seeing if he can intimidate me. He has never been aggressive towards anyone other than myself. At times when it got really bad I would calmly pick him up without saying anything and seclude him for 3 minutes. Anyway ... training did not work alone. Diet did not work alone. It was the combination of both that worked. But ... I see clear differences in the in the way he acts according to what he is fed. I didn't see improvement until I added lentils to his bill of fare. I do not embrace the " dog in the wild " theory of feeding. What worked was two fold. Incorporating legumes and using dry grain instead of cooked. I took the recommendations for a balanced diet for people of: 20% protein and 40% each grain and vegetables and switched it to 20% meat/fish, 20% legume (total 40% protein foods) with 40% grain equivalent (1/2 the amount of cooked grain in a dry form) and 20% cooked veggie, creating a slightly acidic diet. In real life (since the grain is dry) it looks like equal amount of meat, legume, dry grain, veggie. Then ... foods are matched acccording to constitution and states of imbalance. All dogs will not do well on legumes. All dogs will not do well on dry grain. My dog does lousy on cooked grain and too much meat or too much veggie. He also does lousy on raw foods of any kind. Lynn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 25, 2002 Report Share Posted October 25, 2002 > I forgot to mention that there are different types of aggression. It seems > like the first thing we think of with aggression is an excess Yang situation > ... a Hot Liver situation. Can you go into more detail on this? List the different types and characteristics of them? Thanks. > Anger is associated with the Liver. Aggression can be due to anger ... but > it isn't always due to anger. Liver-related. Wood. > My dogs aggression was not related to anger. > There is aggression based on greed ... aggression based on fear ... as well > as aggression based on anger. My dogs aggression was based on greed. I would have thought fear-agression related to Water since the Kidneys are so vulnerable to fear. > By continuing to study the 5 Element theory I was able to help my dog. > Utilizing cooling foods and attempting to subdue the Liver, only made the > problem worse. It took me a very long time to see and understand this ... I > found it so perplexing. For those new to TCM, this is the way TCM healers think. There is no pounding a square peg into a round hole. Instead, one gets a bigger board (paradigm) that has a square slot for the square peg. If something isn't working and even making the situation worse, one asks why? and keeps analyzing. > It wasn't until I looked past the aggression and looked towards what was > motivating him ...along with viewing it in relation to his constitutional > predominance ... that I was able to begin to resolve the issue. We have a greedy dog like this. He likes people but mostly he gets dry dog food. (Sorry, old joke.) We have another dog. She used to let him get away with it, but now she stands up to him if it's something she wants. He backs down in those cases. I call him " greedy gut " because he's the way he is about food. He'll eat something even if he doesn't want it to keep another animal from getting it. It's not like we're starving them. They can have all they want. Evidently we haven't been giving him the types of food he needs. > I find working with animals very helpful. Yes ... they are put together > differently ... yet they are also made up of the same " 5 elements " that we > are. My dog responds to food .... in accordance with the principles. The > only difference that I have found thus far is that his diet needs to contain > a higher amount of protein ... and a lesser amount of vegetable. IE his diet > needs to be more acidic than mine. Dogs are not the same as cats .... cats > need even more protein. I suspect rats and mice and pigs and horses ... all > have their unique differences ... but .... > > We all share the same common bond of the elements. For those new to TCM, there is such a thing as vetenary TCM. Victoria Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 26, 2002 Report Share Posted October 26, 2002 - " victoria_dragon " <victoria_dragon <Chinese Traditional Medicine > Friday, October 25, 2002 2:46 PM [Chinese Traditional Medicine] Elements (Re: nightshades) > > Not all TCM schools teach 5 Elements, but I recommend learning it. A > 5 Elements approach can be invaluable when trying to work > with " knotty " (complex) cases. Hi Victoria How can this be? How can you have TCM without 5 elements? I'm a TCM student in Portugal and I don't have much contact with different views of TCM other than the one I'm taught at school. And my surprise comes from the fact that 5 element theory is exactly where we started at. The first notions to TCM diagnosis came from 5 element theory. All the best, Nuno Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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