We're all screwed up (and that's OK)

We're all screwed up (and that's OK)

By Dawn WaltonHealth & FitnessMental Health
Download on the App Store

We're all screwed up (and that's OK) episodes

  • Therapy Tails 68 - It's a good dog but...

    Dawn Walton, a human therapist, and Jess Probst, a dog behaviourist are joined by Jessie Montague (story_of_Atlas on instagram) to discuss the current process where owners are attending a 6 day residential with their reactive dog. What is so different about Jess's approach (hint: it's not just how well she understands dogs - it's a team effort)

    2 months down the line, Jessie is able to share some of the things she has learned from the journey. It is quite the journey for a dog and the human!

    We talk about the social contract with our pet dogs, and what happens when they break it.

    (please note these episodes are recorded chats in Starbucks so may have more background noise than a usual podcast)

    49 min
  • Therapy Tails 67 - Energy can't be stopped, only transformed

    In this episode Dawn Walton, a human behaviourist, and Jess Probst, a dog behaviourist decide to refer to themselves as Dr. Dawn and Dr. Jess.

    Why? Because we talk about the problems with taking a solely academic approach and end up talking about physics. What is it that makes us think that a dog or a person has bad energy? How do we convert energy that appears chaotic into something useful?

    Maybe the problem with energy is not so much the nature of energy itself, but when it's blocked.

    This episode is taken from a zoom call so not so much background noise - yay!

    58 min
  • Therapy Tail 66 - The need for love

    Dawn Walton, a human therapist, and Jess Probst, a dog behaviourist discuss the reason we get a dog, and why owners struggle so much when their dog develops behaviour problems. Hint: It's nothing to do with the dog! What is critical for survival in each species? In a herd animal like a horse it's being able to stand up and run asap. In a predator like a dog it's not attacking when they are not big enough so a puppy will keep close to its mother. A human baby can't even sit up for 8 months! So in humans the bond with your mother is critical for survival. This means we are programmed to make sure we are loved. This can cause huge issues if you get a dog for unconditional love and then it stops listening to you - or worse, bites you!
    (please note these episodes are recorded chats in Starbucks so may have more background noise than a usual podcast)

    57 min
  • Therapy Tails 65 - Be a better manager
    Dawn Walton, a human therapist, and Jess Probst, a dog behaviourist are joined by a 16 year old called Gracie who has been on work experience with Jess all week. This included a trip to a University, a prison and various walks and classes. It's interesting to hear her take on dogs and owners.
    Jess and Dawn discuss the difference between telling and showing when training dogs. This leads in to a discussion on how you should be a good manager for your dog - which is a theme that has been coming out of our walks for the past few weeks.
    (please note these episodes are recorded chats in Starbucks so may have more background noise than a usual podcast)
    52 min
  • Therapy Tails 64 - From a cottage in Cullen

    Jess, a dog behaviourist, and Dawn, a human therapist, were up in Cullen to do workshops. It was a beautiful cottage down by the sea, so this episode is recorded in front of a roaring fire in a cottage in Cullen, instead of the hubbub of Starbucks.

    In this episode they talk more about how therapy works, and some of the hurdles that make it hard to spot change. What they do is only a very small part of the process.


    57 min
  • Therapy Tails 63 - Therapy deep dive with Dawn

    Dawn Walton, a human therapist, and Jess Probst, a dog behaviourist take a deeper look at therapy with Dawn. Exactly how does brain reprogramming work? Dawn gives some personal examples to explain it all.


    (please note these episodes are recorded chats in Starbucks so may have more background noise than a usual podcast)

    51 min
  • Therapy Tails 62 - Prison Puppies

    Dawn Walton, a human therapist, and Jess Probst, a dog behaviourist talk about the remarkable change in Jessie after her therapy, showing us how important it is to work on the owner just as much as the dog. We kind of knew that already but this really showed how powerful our partnership is.

    Jess has new therapy puppies in training - this time they are golden retrievers - and they are visiting lots of places, including our local women's prison. Remarkable things happen when puppies are in the mix!

    (please note these episodes are recorded chats in Starbucks so may have more background noise than a usual podcast)



    59 min
  • Therapy Tails - 61 - Aggressive Dog Trainers with guest Jessie and Atlas

    (please note these episodes are recorded chats in Starbucks so may have more background noise than a usual podcast)


    Dawn Walton, a human therapist, and Jess Probst, a dog behaviourist talk with Jessie Montague, the owner of Atlas the Vizla (story_of_atlas on Instagram)

    She has been on quite the journey over the last 3 weeks to get Atlas to the point where they can take him home again and enjoy their pet dog - rather than be scared of him.

    This journey has required that Jessie and her husband both work with Dawn on their personal anxieties, whilst at the same time Jess and Jessie have worked on helping Atlas make better choices (almost like we linked up with our last podcast). The change in Jessie and Atlas is remarkable, and it really shows the power of a combined approach. Human owners helped by Dawn, and dogs helped by Jess. It's a unique approach and never has it been better demonstrated to be effective than with Atlas. He's a lucky dog!

    Atlas is a 'famous' dog on Instagram with thousands of followers. This means that Jessie has a constant daily barrage of trolls that think they know best and can offer their opinion as fact. The worst of these are the dog trainers (aggressive dogs, or aggressive trainers??) who not only offer their opinion, but criticise those doing their best to work on the team, ignoring the clear evidence showing improvement. Some of these people even go on to report Jessie and Jess to the police for animal abuse. It takes a thick skin to live your life so publicly, and when you have unresolved issues with your mental health it is almost impossible. This is another area where the work that Jessie has done with Dawn has helped. It hasn't made her bulletproof - nothing would. But it does make it easier to see that it's not about her.

    Atlas's journey has helped many other owners, and will continue to do so. This podcast does a deep dive into some of the steps that have been taken, and why Jess took them.

    *There is a webinar referenced for Tuesday. This webinar is on dog aggression and although it will be completed at the time of this podcast, there will be others. Please sign up to Jess's Patreon at ā https://patreon.com/DundeeDogTrainingā  to be kept informed about all events

    59 min
  • Therapy Tails - 60 - Training children vs dogs


    (please note these episodes are recorded chats in Starbucks so may have more background noise than a usual podcast)


    Dawn Walton, a human therapist, and Jess Probst, a dog behaviourist continue to talk about choices from the last episode of the podcast.

    They discuss the difference in addressing an issue with a child that hits and bites, and a dog that does the same! They deep dive into just how Dawn approaches finding out what is causing someone an issue and once more get quite up close and personal with something that caused Jess a problem in the past.


    The case study of Atlas and his owners - Jessie and Sean - also features a lot in this episode


    1 hr 18 min
  • Therapy Tails - 59 - Trainers weekend download

    (please note these episodes are recorded chats in Starbucks so may have more background noise than a usual podcast)


    Dawn Walton, a human therapist, and Jess Probst, a dog behaviourist do a download after running the first workshop to level up dog trainers over the weekend.

    There is lots of conversation about the challenges of working with rehab dogs - how it's about so much more than the dog. As ever we discuss the psychology of humans, and in this episode we are looking at the difference between male and female dog owners, and the scale of impact that people can expect after therapy sessions with Dawn.


    The case study of Atlas and his owners - Jessie and Sean - also features a lot in this episode

    1 hr

About We're all screwed up (and that's OK)

From the publisher's feed

This podcast is run by Dawn Walton, a trauma therapist exploring the things that make us human, especially our flaws and screw ups. This is not your polished podcast, so if that's what you are looking for, move along. Nothing to see here šŸ˜„