Page 14 - Summer 15

Terrified ?
– by Edward de Beukelaer, UK
Demi is a seven-year-old rescued small mixed bitch. I see her because she is terrified, she was terrified, when she was vaccinated.
‘At home she growls at us, when we move and she is close to us, she does not really bite. When she sits on your lap and you want to move her she curls her lip. She is different. There is lots of wild barking, when she hears something or sees somebody, she does not know. She does not defend the house, her barking is an alarm call.
Everything is about having to do something she does not like rather than being frightened. If we hold her, she does air shots at us but she does not really make contact (bite). (In the consult room she sits trembling in a corner and menaces, when I approach. At other times she sits trembling on the owner’s lap).
She is her own person; you don’t know what goes on in her head. She was rescued from Gibraltar. A friend brought her back and we had her for a while but she did not settle with the housekeeper, who looks after the dogs for us during the week. Her husband did not like her furious barking. She went to a home for a while but came back, because they could not keep her anymore. We think, she was frightened with the housekeeper, who is normally very good with all the animals. (I know the housekeeper, who is a very animal oriented person. There were about four dogs living in the house and probably chickens too.)
Since the housekeeper is gone, she is better, she is with us now. My husband adores her, she is a character. (When the housekeeper visited us many months later, she did not acknowledge her at all, all the other dogs adore her). She is very much her own person. She is rather like a cat. That is, why I think, my husband likes her: he likes cats. She is a nightmare on walks, she is off and you never know, when she will be back, although I am sure, she always knows, where we are. In the car she wants to be on our laps with her feet on the wheel, if that would be possible, she does not want to be in the back with the other dogs. She does not like being with the other dogs. She is good with dogs outside and interested in them, she is not anti social, she is scared. She does not really want to share with the other dogs. She would rather be the only dog.
She is frightfully enthusiastic about doing things. She prefers to stay with the lady that lives in the house but then at night, she comes and taps at our door to come in our bedroom. She loved the Russian
lady that stayed for a while, who was frightened of her. She used to creep up to her and now the lady is not terrified anymore.
If you want to remove a tick of her, you have to sneak up, because she is off like a shot. She is the cleanest dog, I have ever known. The two other dogs come back plastered from a walk and she is spotless. We cannot dry her off, when she is wet, she does not mind the towel but she will be gone as soon as she can and 3 minutes later, she has dried herself.
She is not frightened of much in general, noises and thunder and things like that. She goes hurtling after foxes. She is a mixture between being confident and having no confidence. She does not know, what might happen.
She does not really care about me, it is all cupboard love. It would be nice, if she were 100% secure with us. She curls the lips above her front teeth.’
Solution
I repertories using the following (two combined rubrics):
a Mind cleanness
a Gen uncleaniness agg
b Mind, handled, aversion to be b Mind, touched, aversion to
This repertorisation threw up the following remedies:
Ars, Carc, Chin, Lac-f, Sil, Sulph, Ign-al, heroin
I prescribed lac fel 200 twice.
The themes I found in French publications on this remedy are the following:
• Does not want to be touched
• Precocity, pride and need for independence, which he/she can put
aside, when required (can override his need for independence and
pride.).
• They want to see for themselves, they don’t want to be in the
dark, otherwise they may be ‘stung’ (needle, snake bite). Lac fel would like everything to be revealed to clear to him without the need to examine (and be in the dark).
This points to quite a complicated situation of fears, individuality, wanting to know and see everything for themselves. With this in mind read through the case again and discover, how many fascinating aspects there are to this case.
At the end of the consultation, when I had made my repertorisation, the owner added:
‘If she were a cat, there would have been nothing peculiar about her’...
Result
There is a big change that has not disappeared for more than two years now. She will roll on her back now to be stroked, she does not growl at us anymore. She is not nearly as scared, as she used to be in the vets and can be examined now.
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