We’re all elemental

Note: all photos are provided by Elizabeth Johnson

While practicing holistic healing work with animals for more than 35 years, Elizabeth Johnson learned we can help our furry friends be their best if we discover which of the five elements of Traditional Chinese medicine they are: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal or Water.

In her book published last September: “Know Your Dog’s True Nature: Understanding Canine Personality through the Five Elements (Findhorn/Inner Traditions), Johnson distills what she has learned through her years of experience with the Five Element personalities.

She said she’s “humbled and grateful” by the success of her first book that is “traveling around the world,” and has found appeal among its readers. Besides her animal practice here on Whidbey Island, Johnson is a former veterinary technician, wildlife biologist, TEDx speaker, the current vice president of Global Wildlife Resources, and partner of two rescue dogs, Wilbur and Pretzel.

“After reading it, you may take a deep sigh of relief, and say to yourself, ‘That is why my dog is doing that!’” writes Dr. Allen Schoen DVM in the book’s forward. A pioneer in integrated veterinary medicine, Schoen is also a professor, author, and founder of the Conscious Animal Lovers Movement or C.A.L.M. He is also Johnson’s mentor and friend. “Her simple solutions will help provide needed balance and harmony to your lives together. This cooperative healing message can change our world in so many ways.”

The five element theory dates back more than 5,000 years and is commonly used in acupuncture and acupressure practice. Five Element Medicine is based on the understanding of the cyclical flow, movement, change and balance of life energy, or Qi. It also houses the “fun” piece – the archetypal personality traits which helps us understand “why they do what they do.”

Johnson found that once clients learn their animal’s element, they often tell her they observe similar archetypal traits in their family members, co-workers, and friends. This has helped foster understanding with others and soften relationships.

“I would often share with a client the elemental archetype that I believed their animal was, and how that related to our treatment protocol, the animal’s healing, and their needs, wants and support,” Johnson explained. “On the next visit they’d often say, ‘Now, I understand my husband, or sister, or coworker – he’s a Wood (Fire, Earth, Metal, or Water) like my dog or horse,” Johnson recalled.

Seeing the pattern repeat itself among her clients, Johnson finally wrote a book seeking to help humans improve their relationships with their dogs, and hopefully each other. Each element’s traits – both dog and human – are described in separate chapters, including how best to deal with our animal when they are stressed or acting in a way we do not understand. The book contains quizzes on how to determine a dog’s primary and secondary element types, along with balancing acupressure points and tips for caring for rescue dogs and aging dogs.

What characteristics define a Wood dog, for instance?

“Movement is a Wood Dog’s medicine,” Johnson writes in Chapter 3 of her book. “These dogs thrive on competition and are athletic and powerful. In the human world, we often relate the Wood element archetype to being like an army sergeant or a world class competitor. They often become police dogs, military dogs, or protection dogs.”

Like trees in nature, Johnson writes, Wood dog types are “…grounded and focused, alive with determination and potential, and offer the fruits of benevolence to those who listen. They make excellent working dogs and athletes…truly devoted to their caregiver or working partner.”

How does this knowledge help us have better relationships with our pets, and, as a result each other?

“Learning the ancient art of the five elements is like having x-ray vision into your dog’s personality,” Johnson writes in the introduction of her book. “All animals, especially our dogs, are wisdom keepers. Dogs can help us see and feel things we might not otherwise be aware of. They act as our teachers and guides.”

By identifying, for instance, that your pet is a Wood dog, owners can observe when he is stressed or bored because of his human’s inconsistent rules or lack of movement, learning and stimulation. He may act frustrated, impatient or angry. Stress balancers for a Wood dog, Johnson notes, include exercise, providing consistent boundaries, clear leadership, challenging and varied work, gentle kindness and soft praise.

In the flurry of podcasts, book launch parties, radio interviews, expo talks and social media buzz surrounding her book’s publication last September, Johnson mused on the new world she has entered.

“For a person that has done healing work on animals for many years and is not from the generation of social media athletes, this new way of being seen and heard in the world was all new to me.” Johnson wrote in a December email. “The many interviews were fun. I quickly learned to dial in the scope of information I provided to work with the time frame I had, sometimes only 20 minutes, which was challenging. My excitement and energy grew as did my gratitude for the many cheerleaders that helped guide and boost me when I needed them.”

Meanwhile, Johnson is already three-quarters into writing her second book, one based on a TEDx talk she gave in 2020 sponsored by Sno-Isle Libraries, entitled: “4 Life lessons from our old dogs.”

While living in Montana in 2016 and treating animals, Johnson met many clients who also cared for their aging family members, as senior living care homes were few and far between.

“I worked for a vet doing rehab, mostly for older dogs,” Johnson recalled. “I’d hear people’s stories about their old dogs, how they lovingly and tenderly cared for them as they age. I’d also hear how challenging it was to care for their older human relatives, how impatient and frustrated they often felt while providing daily care. That’s where the aha moment started. I thought, why can’t we cross-pollinate the caring nature we have for our dogs to the way we care for our human relatives?”

Johnson observed over her years of working with animals that our aging dogs present similar conditions to aging humans, sometimes the only difference is that dogs have a shorter lifespan. One of her wise old beloved canines – Louie who lived to be 17 – gave her the idea of using an acronym, PACK, when caregiving for dog and human elders. Johnson is a seasoned “animal listener” and one day she heard Louie make a squeaky noise like a clap which sounded like PACK.

“I suddenly realized that was my TEDx acronym,” Johnson said, still amazed that her dog had gifted her this idea. “I realized I was already writing about the tenets of Patience, Acceptance, Compassion and Kindness for how to work with aging dogs, I just had to move the letters around for PACK,” Johnson noted. “My next thought was how do we cross-pollinate that to our elder humans? How do we build that bridge?”

A year later a bridge was created linking dog and human aging. This can be found at the Dog Aging Project, which collects data from dog owners, and is used as research for better understanding humans in their last quarter of life.

“Studying aging in humans is challenging and expensive, but dogs truly are science’s best friends,” the Dog Aging Project website notes. “Even though they age more rapidly than humans, they experience the same diseases of aging, they are genetically diverse, and they share our environment. By studying aging in dogs, we can more quickly expand our knowledge of the aging process not just in dogs but in humans too!”

Daniel Promislow, a University of Washington professor, is co-director of the Dog Aging Project, which collects data from more than 50,000 volunteers on their dog’s health, genetics, environment, lifestyle and cognition. Through its data collection and research on dogs, the project identifies risk factors that also affect the human lifespan.

In The Dog Aging Project, was found the support needed for her talk, which flushed out the emotional side “…validating the commonality in what I’ve been observing in my practice for many years with animals and their humans,” Johnson notes in the TEDx talk. “With a mother or father, we can feel trapped in role reversal. Emotions run amok: fear, frustration, sadness. With old dogs we’re a whole lot kinder in dealing with their needs and wants. Why is that?”

In the TEDx talk, Johnson reports that millions of humans have dementia worldwide, and dogs get dementia as well. She mentioned her mom who had dementia and how when taking walks together, her mother would comment on what she saw as if it were new each time. At first feeling impatient with her mom’s repetitiveness, Johnson remembered an elder dog she had that reveled in its same daily routines. She was able to shift her focus from impatience to one of realizing each day was like “Groundhog Day,” the 1993 film with Bill Murray, where each day repeated itself over and over.

Though she’s writing a second book, Johnson continues her practice working with animals on Whidbey Island. She also enjoys the company of her rescue dogs, Wilbur from a Texas rescue, and Pretzel, who was taken in by the Red Waggin’ Rescue nonprofit which fosters and adopts abandoned animals throughout Washington State. Elizabeth and her husband Mark adopted Pretzel when she was about four months old. She’s now two and half.

“She’s so very smart and incredibly communicative” Johnson said. “Each evening, she asks me to play my flute and sings and tries to match my notes. She’ll look at Mark and I and have a whole conversation with us. She’s hilarious.”

Like Elizabeth Johnson, Pretzel is a Water element dog.

For more information visit Elizabeth Johnson’s website at ElizabethAnneJohnson.com

Her book is available in paperback, eBook, and audiobook online at booksellers around the world, and at Moonraker Bookstore in Langley, and Kingfisher Bookstore in Coupeville.