Director Matthew Thomas Chapman has a love and passion for dogs and has worked on the unscripted web series ‘Growing Up Guide Pup’. This review focuses on the episode 46 ‘Emotion Code 2.0’. Matthew started filming this series as a love letter to his Shetland sheepdog named Bingo who saved him from nearly drowning at two years old.
Matthew’s passion for filmmaking and love for dogs allowed him to create stories about service dogs. The main focus is to educate and bring awareness to viewers who may be interested in knowing more about how service dogs work and highlight the community work that supports their service dog initiatives.
In this episode of ‘Growing Up Guide Pup’ series, Carolyn Wing Greenlee is a service dog owner of a dog named Patrick. Carolyn talks about how Patrick has trapped energy and emotions that is passed on from generations. Patrick is a service dog in training who needs the right form of communication to better understand himself as a service dog and his purpose to those that use him.
Carolyn is a certified practitioner in energy medicine who references Dr. Bradley Nelson’s published book called ‘The Emotion Code’ as a way of applying some of the principles of perceptions that may cause Patrick to feel demotivated in being a service dog. The stories are shared how he is put in situations where he trains as a service dog, and when finished, he is put in a kennel. Situations like this would cause confusion to himself about the lack of attention, anxiety, and neglect he gets, which triggers past memories of the same feelings.
Applied kinesiology is used to treat parts of Patrick’s body as referenced from the emotion code chart with a magnet to help reduce feelings of anxiety and neglect. What’s intriguing about this episode is that Carolyn has published a series of books relating to taking good care of service dogs, adding credibility to her giving proper attention to Patrick.
The style of this webisode uses Matt’s narrative to set the tone of the episode’s theme. The interview with Carolyn is completely unscripted and a lot of trust is placed on what Carolyn has to offer on the advice of treating Patrick the proper attention he deserves.
From an educational point of view, it provides a unique perspective on the idea that even though Patrick may have past trauma that carries with him in his dog life, giving him the role of a service dog helps give him a purpose in his life. This is important as it helps slowly move on from the past issues and to also allow Patrick to feel like he is doing something great for others who suffer other devastations like someone who is blind to connect with Patrick who understands the struggles in life.
The webisode is roughly 10 minutes in length, and is one of many created within the ‘Growing Up Guide Pup’ series. Footage taken is often candid with a simple one camera and microphone set up, providing the necessities to create a series. The video edits are simple with some background music added during narratives to reduce the monotony as the viewers watch the show and keep things upbeat.
It is very clear that Matthew has a great interest in learning about service dogs in this episode. Being able to create a series and focusing on various topics about service dogs provides a wonderful opportunity to create some exposure to the community who share the same passion about understanding how service dog’s work. While there are educational resources out there to teach service dogs on the internet, this approach feels more at heart in connecting with the people and dogs that deserve the recognition of what they do for the community.
In a way, this is an art form Matthew uses to give back to dogs what he received in his life saving moment at two years old. Dogs are amazing, and it is even more incredible knowing how smart and capable the dogs can be if the proper form of communication connects with the humans taking care of them. This breaks the barriers of just seeing them as a service dog, and more of what the dog also needs from the owner to exchange the right form of energy in taking care of each other. The goal of his love for dogs and filmmaking shows that two passions can be combined with the right drive and the right filmmaker.
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