What Does it Mean to be Trauma Informed? with Laura Donaldson

Why Becoming Trauma-Informed Will Change Everything You Do as a Behavior Professional and Human Companion to Dogs
An online seminar by Dr. Laura Donaldson, PhD, CDBC, KPACTP & Certified Trauma Professional

In this online seminar, I will be offering a deep dive into why and how becoming trauma-informed will not only profoundly transform your relationship with dogs, but also your practice as a dog behavior professional. Consider the following scenario involving a large breed dog ambushed by another, smaller dog at a local dog park. After this attack, the dog just mentioned became acutely fearful and the post reported that he “went after” his canine housemate. I encountered this all-too-common story through a post on a major dog training listserv whose heading (written by a professional dog trainer) was “Psycho Dog!” It is not just that slapping labels like “psycho” on dogs often has life-threatening consequences. Dogs who are “psycho” much more frequently encounter euthanasia rather than understanding and empathy. It is also that such labels lead to the creation of toxic stories about dog behavior that closely parallel stories told about traumatized children acting out their emotional struggles: “People find it difficult to bring empathy to understanding the devastating impacts of these children’s trauma. They are ungrateful. They push us away. They are argumentative. They do not listen. They try to control everyone around them. They are manipulative. They will never learn. They are unlovable (Tucci et.al., 2018).” * A much better response to these children as well as “psycho” dogs would be to become traumainformed and develop compassion for their devastating struggles. The “Psycho Dog” represents a particularly egregious example of a larger ignorance in the dog training community about trauma, what it is and how to address it. By enrolling in this webinar, you will learn:
1. That trauma is vastly under-recognized in dogs and that we will make the world a better place for ourselves AND our dogs by understanding what trauma is and how it works.
2. That the autonomic nervous system activates adaptive survival responses (such as with the “psycho” dog) frequently misrepresented and subjected to negative interpretations.
3. That learning how trauma works in dogs requires moving beyond the behaviorist paradigm.
4. That trauma “is not just an event that took place sometime in the past; it is also the imprint left by that experience on mind, brain and body” (Bessel van der Kolk, MD).
5. That there are no stubborn or psycho dogs—only confused, scared, stressed out and/or traumatized ones.
6. That after you (whether “you” are a human or a dog) have been traumatized, you live in a different universe.

*Tucci, J., et al. (2018). Realizing “Deep” Safety for Children Who Have Experienced Abuse: Application of Polyvagal Theory in Therapeutic Work with Traumatized Children and Young People. Clinical applications of the polyvagal theory: the emergence of polyvagal-informed therapies. S. Porges and D. Dana, Eds. New York, W.W. Norton & Company