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: Hello and welcome Isla.
I.
Forgot to ask you whether I'm butchering your name.
Uh, you know, I actually also forgot to ask the same thing.
So my name's
Isla: Ala.
It's
Anke: Ala.
Oh, that's funny.
I've been in Spain for too long then.
Isla: Yeah, its that, that's, uh, I'm used to it.
I'm used to, many, many people are like, either mispronounced my name or
asking like, how do you say your name?
So, and likewise.
Is it
Anke: Anca That's It's Anca.
Yeah, that's German.
And everybody gets it wrong too.
A that's funny.
Like, you know, because I'm seeing Eli like, oh, that's island in Spanish.
So.
I didn't even have doubts, that's why I didn't ask.
But then I thought, well, maybe I'm butchering it.
So anyway, I
Isla: don't mind at all.
I have um, I have some friends in Latin America and they always
call me ista, which I love.
Oh, so
Anke: I don't mind.
There you go.
Yeah.
Makes perfect sense to me.
So welcome, lovely to have you here.
So tell people where you are based and what's your business
Isla: with dogs.
Oh, thank you so much for that offering invitation.
So I'm based in northeast England.
Very, very close to Scotland, about 45 minutes south of Scotland, the
Scottish borders, and a beautiful county called Northumberland.
Very ancient and sacred and holy.
I have been on a long walk with dogs starting off, uh, way, way, way, way
back when I was doing my PhD and even before then, I was doing a degree
in zoology and always wanted to be a wolf conservation biologist and.
Life Spirit Universe took me on a different path of, I managed
to work with captive walls for a few years, but as I was working
with captive walls, I started to.
Have a deeper awareness of the disconnect that animal guardians were having with
the canine friends that they live with.
Even though they were coming to visit, you know, a beautiful wild
animal that was in captivity that they were already talking about.
Very majestically and almost like falling in love with them.
But yet there was this.
Different connection that they were having with their animal friends.
And so I went on a journey to get people to understand their dog as an ecosystem.
'cause that was my training in, um, in my PhD as a conservation biologist.
But I always have had, um, a spiritual path as well.
Um, and so now I do everything from a canine wellness intuitive, getting
people to understand their dog as an ecosystem, first and foremost of the
foundations of a dog as a physical, biological sensing being, but also our
animal friends as souls and what they offer as soul medicine for our own soul
evolution and growth from life all the way into our animal friends transition.
Anke: I love that there's so much in there.
Like the first thing that jumped out for me was the.
You mentioned a couple of times, you know, like looking at your dog as an ecosystem,
so can you unpack that a little bit?
Yeah.
I mean, obviously people might know what, okay, what's an ecosystem, but
like what, almost like what does it mean when you, how does your relationship
to your dog change when you see them as an ecosystem versus when you don't?
Isla: Yes.
Oh, beautiful.
Thank you for asking.
So, I mean, yeah, an ecosystem in its entirety as well.
I wanna break it down of that.
I'm seeing everything as an individual ecosystem.
So what is, what works for one dog as an, as an individual ecosystem doesn't mean
to say it's gonna work for another dog.
So this is one thing that I do try and unpack for animal Guardians of just
because the dog book says this doesn't mean to say it's true because it's
not even being written by dogs, right?
And like, it's almost like all the dogs get together and go like.
Dave, have you seen what the humans have been writing?
Now?
Apparently we're supposed to do this.
Uh, and it does always make me laugh, so I'm like, okay.
Of course, from a very, very, very well educated guess, but it's still
a very, very well educated guess or a belief or, yes, an understanding of
when a dog does this, it means this.
Whereas for me, I'm like, well, why don't we just ask the.
The dog as an individual because we can do through that psychic
telepathic, um, animal communication ability, which we can all do.
And I really love getting people to be in that space of soul
consciousness and soul consciousness, uh, conversations with their animal.
But as I say, if we kind of like backtrack a bit and go, but.
But also what it helps to understand is our dogs, yes, are
in a physical body right now.
Uh, they're a biological being.
They're a scenting being.
How we can understand them as that ecosystem and as an
ecosystem, it's really about that.
There is no separation.
Separation itself is just an illusion.
There's a, a beautiful statement, it was taught to me around a teacher of mine,
but around kind of thought of synthesis actually, where they shared that the
distance between the sun and the plant.
Is just an illusion.
There is no distance whatsoever.
That that is just, yeah, is just an illusion.
And it's kind of the same thing that we see our animal friends as separate to
us or what they're doing is it's them or it's us, or therefore, collectively the
dog's doing a similar thing in terms of how, what it means to how a dog should be.
But I kind of here to just unpack all of that to say no.
Your dog's an individual, so let's just forget what anybody, uh, what
anybody else's dogs are doing, what your other dogs in the household are doing.
We're now looking at this dog's an individual, but also how it's
interconnected to the bigger ecosystem of the earth and the cosmos and the galaxy,
as well as the ecosystem that we are.
But when we start to look at our dogs as an individual ecosystem, it's
kind of looking at how stable they are, uh, in all these different ways.
So emotionally, mentally, physically, spiritually, the sense of peace that
they receive, um, how connected they are with nature, uh, again, in terms
of how we allow them to be connected to their environment, to nature.
And then looking at our dog as, um, having energy gateways.
So they have all these different gateways, these pathways that influence
and, um, enhance or almost sabotage how robust and how stable the ecosystem is.
So it's not just about training, it's not just about behavior.
It's not just about communication.
It's not just about teaching.
It's not just about diet.
It's not just about their physiological health.
It, it's, it's about everything is entirety.
What is being fed?
Into the dog as an individual ecosystem and how that creates stability or how
that can create nuances within it.
And it kind of.
It kind of came about because of my background in learning about ecosystems.
But it was also around when I was doing my zoology degree, we were learning
about the um, ger germ theory hypothesis and the terrain theory hypothesis.
And it was just so happened that the germ theory hypothesis kind of just everybody
went, oh, yeah, that makes sense.
We like it where it was kind of like germs are everywhere.
Germs are everywhere.
So that's why we get diseases.
And of course, I mean.
Germs are everywhere, which is the whole point of how robust our
ecosystem is, how stable it is, means that we are more or less likely to
allow these diseases into our body, into our being, into our ecosystem.
And so.
For me, what makes much more sense is the terrain theory hypothesis, which is how
healthy an individual ecosystem is, not just health in terms of physical health,
but physically and mentally, emotionally, spiritually, actually gives an indication
of how strong and robust they are, which then allows them to prevent.
Nuances.
So disease, which we kind of know is a distress, a disease, a perturbation
within the ecosystem of the individual and kind of exploring, not from a place of
desperation or obsession, because that in in essence, affects the ecosystem as well.
Just from a place of curiosity of, okay, what can I learn here?
How can I understand Maybe.
I maybe shouldn't be vaccinating my dog.
Maybe I should, looking at my dog's diet, maybe I should be looking at my
own emotional state, my own spiritual health, my own personal work where I'm
exercising my dog, how I'm exercising my dog, the movement that my animal
needs, um, how my animal is moving out, my animal friends, functional character.
I mean, it's all broken down into these energy gateways.
And then the.
Really the healing that we can offer ourselves and also our animal friends.
Mm-hmm.
Anke: Yeah, I love that because there is so much, and I think looking
at the dog in front of you, you know, like that really speaks to me
because while I've had, you know.
Four of them.
Not never, never.
All of them.
Always between two or three basically.
But, um, never all of them together, but they, they, they are really different.
I got like, I think when you have one dog, you can't even picture that.
Like you cannot, even, like when I had my first dog, I could not even
imagine how different they would be, you know, from one individual, even
if they live in the house in the same house and grow up in theory, like the
same way, a bit like siblings, I guess.
They're still individual, individual people, and, and I found.
Trying to get advice and information was kind of often more, like, more
confusion and help, you know, like, just like, oh no, you have to do it this way.
But then, yeah, my dog didn't respond the way they yes, should
and, and things like that.
So to really take this more inwards and, and, and come so w.
If somebody goes, well, that makes sense and that makes more sense
than, Hey, you know, like, the dog does this and this is what it means.
And, you know, let's just try a different way.
What, what do you think is a good place to start?
Because there feels, it feels to me like there's a lot, there's a lot of
moving pieces, there's a lot of to take into account if I'm now thinking
like, okay, let's make a robust.
Ecosystem or like, you know, if I think of like an immune system, you
know, I'm thinking like if I want to strengthen, if I wanna make sure my dog.
Yes, there'll be, and I remember actually now that you're saying this, there, there
was somebody who did, uh, I think agility or something like that, and there was
this discussion between all the, you know, the handlers what, uh, like flea stuff to
use, because in the sand it was all like, and all these dogs were full of fleas.
And she says, my dogs don't get any.
Ever.
And I don't give any medication at all because she says my dog's immune system is
strong enough to not be invested by that.
You know?
And that made a lot of sense to me.
So if I'm now saying like, oh, I want my my doctor to be like that, right?
Yeah.
To not needing to kind of just not be receptable to all this kind of stuff that.
Other dogs kind of get, get, get hit with like, where would I start?
Isla: Yeah.
And it is such a great question because as a dog guardian, we
kind of just go, oh, I'm getting a dog and I'm just getting a dog.
It, we don't really expect to then have to learn the wealth of information
that's out there now of like, you know, wanting the best for animal friends.
And I kind of wanna start with, um.
We are already, just by bringing an animal friend into our life, we're
already doing the best for them.
And also our animals are perfect as they are already.
They already know that they're perfect.
They already come being this beautiful, perfect being.
And they also do not live from thinking, which I absolutely love.
We as an animal, ourselves, as human.
We also should live from a place of feeling like our animal friends do.
So rather than thinking we should feel, and when we drop in this place
of feeling, we actually realize that there's actually no questions.
We can just enjoy this experience with our animal friend as they're equally as souls
coming into our life to give us a learning experience because they are already, it's
almost like they are already a higher level of consciousness than what we are,
because they're not, they don't live from worry, from doubt, from judgment,
from blame, from ego, from excuses.
They're just like.
Yeah.
Okay.
I'm love.
Yeah.
Okay.
And I'm love.
Oh, yes.
Okay.
I love myself.
They, they don't attach to anything I always say, you know, um, a dog's not
walking the street going, oh, I, I wish I was, that black Labrador over there
isn't gonna slim our waist that I do.
Yeah, exactly.
Looks so, so much that they're not.
And this is, you know, as, as a animal guardian, we often put our
own conversations, our own narrative into our dogs of what they're
thinking, what they're saying, and.
It kind of creates, we give ourselves a hard time.
We beat ourselves up, and so for me, a really good place to start is
actually What conversations are you telling yourself about your dog?
And go to the feeling of that and what your animal is in your life for.
I really feel like when we are our animal friends are in our lives
for our own healing journey, our own access to sole evolution, and
when we can start to consider, oh.
Actually, I think this about my animal friend, or when my animal
friend does this, I'm telling it.
I'm telling my animal friend that they're wrong or I believe that
they're wrong, or they're right when they do this, or they're wrong
when they do that, or they're good when they do this and they're bad.
When they do that, even in those moments in the spaces, they're
already asking us to like, no, no, no.
Let's just annihilate all those things.
That's not even true.
It's a belief system that's being placed into us.
Let's just drop into the moment where our animal friends are living from anyway.
Of how is my animal friend?
How are they in this moment?
What are they sharing?
What are they emitting or reflecting back to me about how their behavior
or how they are physically, mentally, emotionally, how it's making me feel.
And actually, for me, that's a really powerful place to begin
because in order to be in this space.
That our animal friends are, which is unconditional love.
They love us unconditionally, love themselves unconditionally,
and actually that's what they're asking us to do for ourselves.
If I loved myself unconditionally, I wouldn't be, and like, oh,
is my animal friend okay?
Oh, how can I be improving this?
Oh my goodness, are they, are they really angry with me?
Oh, they're doing something wrong.
It's just like, oh, okay.
We're just having an experience right now.
We're just having a moment.
And so if we go back to the feeling, which again is what our animal friends
are admitting or emitting all the time, and what I love so much about dogs is dogs
have the largest heart master body ratio.
Mm-hmm.
Which many people don't know, but they literally are heart beings.
They're inviting us to be back in the heart, which is where
we should be living from.
And this is what even blows my mind even more, that is humans.
When we are developing as a fetus, our heart is the first organ of perception
that comes online at four weeks old.
So when we're four week old fetus, our heart comes online.
Our head doesn't come online until the third trimester.
So we're already having a heart experience at four week old fetus and making these
heart connections with our animal friends.
And that's really where they're inviting us to return to, to come back into
unconditional love, come back into the moment, come back into the heart where
we're feeling, and as we start to feel.
Really, truly, and fully, we start to heal and then we can start to see actually my
animal friend is really good as they are because I am also really good as I am.
And then we can start to have an awareness of just where we maybe.
Projecting or our own fears or ego or concerns or judgments, we're placing
onto our animal friends, and that's kind of what they in our life for,
plus many, many of the things for their own soul journey experience as well.
But I always find that, oh my goodness, I, I've got, where the heck do I begin?
Do I learn about this?
Do I learn about that?
Do.
Let's just default to reset.
Reset back into the heart, because when we're in the mind worrying, worrying
where we're gonna be all over the place.
So in this moment, although there's a wealth of things to understand,
let's reset back into the heart, go to our feeling, see our dog.
As unconditional love the invitation asking us to unconditional, to have
unconditional love for ourselves and start there around the questions
that start to percolate, but from the heart, from the feeling.
Um, I always find this a really, really great place to start.
Mm, I love that.
Anke: I love that.
I mean it, what I'm, what I'm hearing, like the first thing that jumps to
mind is like, oh, be, you know, like how often he was like, be more dog.
Yes.
You, that's kind of the objective.
Right?
And also to.
To see them more as a teacher rather than a being to be controlled and to be clean.
Oh my goodness.
Yeah.
And to be like, it's almost like what is it that they are trying to communicate?
Oh, thank you.
Oh, I'm gonna take some lunch here.
Isla: So, nice look.
Be more dog and have some lunch.
Amazing.
Anke: Yeah, so, so it's that, it's that sense of like looking and
as, as an invitation to try and understand what they're communicating.
Isla: Yes, yes.
You know, it's such an invitation, you know, one of the things that I said
to, to, to my clients is that they may be coming to me for X, y, and Z
reasons about my dog, my dog, my dog.
And I'm like, actually, let's just park all of that.
We, let's explore if we need to.
My first question is, what is your animal friend presenting to you?
I don't care that it's, it's just a belief system.
If it's good or bad or right or wrong, or it's doing something, it
shouldn't, it's behaving, it doesn't know it's in that moment for the dog.
It's, it's good and it's right and it's true because that's what they're doing.
They don't know whether it's right or wrong or good or bad, and in
fact it's just perfect because all they're doing is behaving.
Um, but when we go to that question of what is your animal friend
presenting to you, it's, I want.
Due to go to the feeling of how it makes you feel?
Well, it makes me feel awkward.
It makes me feel uncomfortable.
It makes me feel embarrassed.
It makes me feel frustrated.
Okay, well this is all useful information because in that moment, your animal
friend is bringing forward a charge within your body that is not being integrated.
So it's being brought forward for us to look at your animal friends that
you're going, can you look at this now?
And again, most of the time we rebound it back onto the dog.
You know, it's the dog's fault.
The dog's in.
The dog's in the wrong, and it's nothing that at all.
It's like we.
Go to that feeling.
And then the question can be, so where in your life was the first time
you were made to feel embarrassed?
Where in your life were the first time you were told that you were wrong?
And it's not true.
So we often.
Project onto our dogs.
What, what we were put into when we were, when we were young children.
So the quality of our life experience, I often find is what our animal friends
are kind of so beautifully in our life for, to go, Hey, don't worry about it.
Just I'm on this journey with you.
I'm here to support you, to teach you of how you can see these unintegrated.
Charges that are just asking to be loved now, that are just asking
to be welcome and just asking you, do you know what, sweetheart?
You also didn't do anything wrong, but you're at the moment putting
that onto me because again, it's a belief system that we've been
conditioned to to live our lives from, and they're the complete opposite.
They're living their life from like.
Oh my goodness.
Isn't life amazing?
Oh my goodness, I'm so full of joy and happiness.
Oh my goodness.
Uh, this is what's happening in this moment really being led from the heart.
So I really feel like there absolutely are our teachers.
When we can look at it from that perspective, what my animal, how
is my animal friend making me feel?
And what are they here to teach me?
Whilst at the same time, what can I learn to support their ecosystem and
to really give them the best life?
But if that is our intention, anyway.
Then that is also what they're receiving, which I know, you know, animal gardens,
we, we don't want anything other than our dogs to have their best life.
So even just holding that intention, even though they may have a disease
or they may have itchy skin, or they may have fleas, or they may be having
some serious conditions like cancer or, you know, to towards the end of their
life, those things are inevitable.
We can't, you know, here to play God.
We can't stop a transition from happening when it's supposed to happen.
But that powerful intention of going, okay, yeah, how do I.
Relax and say all pressure, like all bets are off, all pressure is off.
I'm here having an experience with my animal friend.
How do I make it a really wonderful, truly beautiful experience?
Um, but being from that place of the heart and how my animal friend makes me feel, I.
Anke: Yeah, that makes so much sense.
Reminds me of this book by Kevin Beehan.
Uh, your Dog is Your Mirror.
Isla: Yeah.
Yes.
Oh, so true.
It is so true.
And you know, there's another one that I recommend that's actually
got nothing to do with dogs, but it's actually to do with children.
But if you cross child out in many of the chapters and put
always the same, isn't it?
It is almost the same.
And it's called, um, the book You Wish your Parents had Read.
And your child would be glad that you did.
And it's so honestly, if you replace the word child with dog in so many of those
chapters, I'm like, this is, we do exactly the same to our children as that we do
to our dogs, or we do exactly the same to our dogs that we do to our children,
because that's kind of what happened.
I.
To us as children, the quality of our life experiences kind
of is massively explained.
It's, it's not the only factor, but it can hugely explain actually
how we, how we are with our animal friends and the belief systems that
we impose onto them when they are not living from a belief system at all.
So when we go back to that, like actually.
As a child growing up, my parents, my grandparents, my, my role models,
my elders in my society that were not terribly wise, were basically
saying, um, here, can you also unconsciously carry my wounds?
'cause I don't know what to do with them.
And so we carry them through those role models.
We carry them in ourselves, but then we carry them over and put
them into our dogs unconsciously.
So, and still, until we start to realize that's what we're doing.
And with absolute purity of unconditional loaf, that's why our animal friends.
Uh, one of the reasons why they're with us to go, yeah, I'm gonna help you do this.
I'm gonna help you to see.
And also, it's okay.
Don't blame yourself.
Don't think that I hate you.
Forgive yourself.
Don't, don't put this pressure on yourself of like you're doing something wrong.
'cause the reality is we're not doing anything wrong.
It was just put into us from a very, very, very early age.
Anke: Yeah.
And it's that moment of, of becoming aware of it.
And I think that's where they saw such beautiful teachers.
'cause you've got them right in front of you, you know?
Yes.
So if you can come at it from curiosity rather than how can I, you
know, like I, I, every time I, uh.
Host like a, you know, invite an expert to do a class.
I always ask people when they register, what are you most curious to learn about?
Right?
Yeah.
And they, and I think what warms my heart is that the one quest, or the one
thing that comes up most of the time is.
To understand my dog better.
Right?
So it's that, you know, but there is a lot of like, how can I, and especially
when the class is about a specific topic, there is a lot like, how can I make them
stop doing this and stop doing that?
Right?
So, but the overarching intention is to understand what's going on.
And I think it's almost inevitable the more we understand about the dogs.
It's like we become better per better people in the process, right?
Because we're learning all this stuff.
Absolutely.
Isla: Absolutely.
Yeah.
I mean, we, they, the way that I see our animal friends is yes, the,
the truth is they're a biological animal in a physical body.
I want to know how to support them so that they are enjoying their life and
their transition, but also they're in expression of spirit that's manifest into
a physical form, clearly disguised as dog.
'cause I'm gonna fall in love with my dog and.
That expression of spirit is going, can you look at this now?
Can you see this?
Now we are coming to give you this spiritual message.
So absolutely our animal friends do make us better people because they
are here to enhance and shift our into our soul evolution, which is kind of
also what we're here to do as humans.
And so I really love this space when.
It becomes rather than a question yes of how do I stop, how do I get, how do I
make sure that they don't all those words, because they're just words that, again,
we've been conditioned to have a, whatever the belief system attached to, they all
kind of get dissolved or we're just like, okay, we don't ma, those things don't
matter anymore, but how can I enhance my relationship with my animal friend?
How can I have.
A conversation with their consciousness.
So I understand for my animal as an individual, who they are, how
it is for them, how they feel, what they're here to teach me.
And that absolutely enhances, um, our relationship.
Yeah.
Rather than the, you can't do this or you can redo it there,
or I'm telling you to do this.
And it's such an old, old, old system that, for me has never made sense
and it, and it isn't working and it doesn't work because they, they're
so much more than the physical body.
And, and that's also what they know.
They're not afraid.
Afraid to announce who they are.
They, they're not afraid to show who they are, not just in their
physical form, but, but beyond that.
And that's kind of the reason why we love them so much, because partly we
wish that we could be that authentic.
We wish that we could be like, I don't care what anybody thinks
about me, I'm gonna be in my truth.
And many of us don't feel like we can.
And so it's why, kind of like we love them so much, but at the same time we're
trying to stop them being so honest and innocent and raw and authentic.
But they can't not, they can't, they can't hide it.
Anke: Yeah.
It's, it's so, it's so true.
And I think we also play quite a bit of a role.
'cause I've really seen it with, with Mayan as, as the more we can,
we can be calm and you know, and.
Not worried and not up in our head and not kind of straight outta mind because
they, they soaked that up, right?
Oh, totally.
And I remember like little Beck High, he was like, you know, very sort of nervous.
Like he had like a lousy experience, like right when he was like super tiny
and he was always a little bit on edge, like super sensitive as I got to learn.
And he used to be.
You know, like walking with him was like, Jesus, you know, he would
drag me along and it was like, and sometimes it was worse than other times.
Right.
And I would, I would learn to say, to realize that because I, I think,
you know, I mean obviously you read stuff and so there was all of a sudden
when he was kind of pulling more than usual, I'd be like, wait, how?
How?
Like, how am I, yes, yes.
And the first, it was always funny because the first was, I'm fine.
Nothing to do with me.
It's not me.
Right?
Yeah.
So don't nothing about me.
And, and then when I'm sort of literally talk some, okay, let's just
breathe, let's just touch that tree that I really like and, and like the
moment, like literally I came, like I make a conscious effort to just, yes.
Let go.
All of a sudden he would settle too, because he was incredibly in tune.
Isla: Yeah.
Anke: You know, with kind of anything in, in his environment,
but probably specifically with me.
And so it was really noticeable how.
His behavior was an expression of my Yeah, absolutely.
You know, my, my state of mind in the moment, you know, and it
also, it was literally like bing bang, like your notification
bell, you know, calm down bitch.
Like, you know, the going nuts.
And also the more we moved away and moved to quieter space where there wasn't the.
Constant information overload.
He was the chillest dog.
And I then, you know, when, like where, where, where I live now,
I, you know, you could walk with him and he would not pull it all.
And I never taught him anything.
Yes.
I never did any loose leash walking, any exercises, any treats.
No, nothing.
It was just, we were both in a calmer space and we just go for a walk, you know?
Yes, yes.
And that really showed how, it's not about commands or about, you know.
It's kind of a deeper thing that that actually has that lasting impact and
that lasting that connection that gets created and yeah, it's just, um, I.
It's remarkable to experience, to be honest.
Isla: It's, you know, it's really re it's such, it is such a beautiful experience
and again, it, it is that great example of like, just come back into the heart.
So, because the heart doesn't think, the heart doesn't question,
the heart doesn't need to know, the heart has no expectations.
The heart just is.
And so again, as.
As humans, we didn't start off as this, but we kind of get told and conditioned
and as adults we're so, we're so busy worrying, thinking, overthinking, planning
de and the, our head is so noisy that our animal friends are like, oh my goodness.
Like even when we think we're calm, we're not calm at all.
'cause our head's still like babababa.
And of course, I mean our animal friends as we are, we are.
Moving emotions.
They're a big, beautiful ball of emotions, their own emotions, but yes, they
can't not absorb ours and then again, reflect what our emotional state is.
So often, again, I will kind of say to someone, what were you thinking?
Immediately before your animal did that behavior, because sometimes it is the
animal as an individual, but often it is, you know, your animal's presenting
X, Y, Z, and then it gets worse.
It gets exacerbated in these conditions.
So I'm just curious to ask, what were you doing?
What were you thinking immediately before?
And then again, the guy, well, nothing.
Oh, actually this, that, or the other night, and.
Can you see how then that changes the e, the, the movement, the vibration,
the sense for the animal friend and also in that space, you know, with
my two dogs, uh, Manitou, Lilu.
That again, going back to em as individuals, they're brother
and sister and yes we've got a different in gender, but they are so
different based on who they are as soul and then who they are as dog.
But um, they were, when they were first kind of pups and we were walking them,
everything was really great 'cause there were little pups and then it
was starting to be, there were again adolescence, they want harnesses.
We were walking them and they were starting to pull.
'cause being on the lead was very new experience and I was really curious.
Because I'm in that space now, I'm able to kind of catch my own feelings
and I was really curious because I'm like, ha, when they pull, that
actually brings up anger for me.
I feel anger.
Now, if I wasn't aware of that, which is fine because we're all on our own journey,
I would've put it onto my dog's, right?
Yeah.
Stop.
But I'm angry because you are bullying.
That's what we tend to, again, be conditioned to do.
But because I was aware of the feeling, I'm like, this is so.
Peculiar for me, because I would kind of like to say I'm, I'm a
person that doesn't have anger.
I'm not an angry person, but yet he has anger rising in me when they're pulling.
And I was like.
I need to look at this.
So I would spend moments when I'd get home just in quiet space, to
be like, what is this anger about?
And I'd thank them because like, wow, thank you.
Because in that moment when you're pulling and it's bringing forward
this anger, what it's bringing forward is the frustrated parts of myself.
But when, when I was little, the, the.
The little girl for straight I, and I'm like, why is no one listening to me?
I have important things to say.
I have feelings too, and they matter.
So it was like these little parts of myself that needed to be integrated.
But when I sat with that further, I'm like, do you know this?
Anger's also not mine.
It's collective.
It's my mother's and my grandmother's and it's the anger
that I'm carrying for my, um.
The women in my family that have kind of been oppressed in that way and just
therefore have carried that anger.
So through my dogs, you know, I could just say I get angry at them
because they're pulling on the leads.
So how do I get them not to pull, but I'm going to the feeling.
Mm-hmm.
And as I'm in that space of like, actually you're just sniffing,
or you go like, it's fine.
The, the pulling then stops anyways.
So it's a really beautiful space of looking at ourselves,
of like, yeah, where are we at?
And how these things can change in our animal friends in those moments,
because energy follows consciousness.
If we're having thoughts of something, and again, this is
kind of where I invite people to.
Try as best as we can to be conscious of the words that we
speak and the thoughts that we have.
Because they become things, they become physical, they become manifest.
So even the words that we say about our dogs, but certainly when we're walking
them, like, where are our thoughts?
What words are we even thinking?
Because that is still creating an emotional response that
our Alamo friends are feeling.
And we'll be like, oh, okay.
I need to respond towards this.
So I need to just, I need to diffuse it or I need to get out of my system.
Um, so it's a really yeah.
Really beautiful example that you brought forward.
Mm-hmm.
Anke: It's, I mean, there's.
That invitation, you know, to have a, have a closer look.
That's beautiful.
So where can people, you know, find out about, you know, what,
how they can work with you?
What about your books, you know about all your work?
Where can people go find out more?
Isla: Thank you so much for asking.
So my website is called kachina canine.com,
and then I'm on Instagram and YouTube and Facebook.
Yeah.
And so I have.
I have like a variety of different offerings because there's so many
ways that we can get into support our animal friends having at their
best lives, including ourselves, having our best life as well.
So I do everything from courses that look at canine wellness to.
End of life when your animal friend is ready to transition, but how we can make
a sacred space for that and a ceremony and our healing journey around the grief
and holding an offering around that.
Uh, I do have two books out.
One is, uh, 'cause I also channel, I channel the Animal, the Co,
the Soul Consciousness or Spirit Consciousness of Animals, as well
as spirit consciousness itself.
And so I have a book out that's called T'S Teachings, which is the
channel consciousness of one of my wolf dogs called Tonko Sealer.
Uh, just again, messages medicine for how we should be living, uh, healing wisdom.
And I have a medicine story out that's called How the canine
people help the Humans Remember.
Which is all about returning to ceremony, which is what our animal friends are like.
Come on.
Like just return to ceremony, return to ceremony, return to ceremony, which is
all about, again, returning to our heart, returning to unconditional love, and
just being in that space of, um, yeah, journey and experience, uh, a relationship
with our animal friends, a coexistence, seeing them as as, as equal in that way.
Anke: I love that.
I love that.
Thank you so much.
Obviously I'm gonna pop the books below as well and all the links and make it
really easy for people to find you.
So, because I think this is the kind of stuff we all need to hear
and and lean into, so thank you.
Isla: Thank you so much for having me.
It was beautiful to speak with you.
Thank you.
Thanks so much for listening.
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That's A N k E at Soul touched by dogs.com.