Tuesday, June 30, 2009

TTouch in Santa Fe - Dogs Part II


Hi folks, it will take a while for me to get some more info about the Santa Fe training with Kathy Cascade (http://spiritdog.com) online, but here is my second installment about some of the dogs (and their people) who were there.

Here we have LH with Josey. LH is very generous with her knowledge, and she I especially connected because we both work a lot with cats, and she had some wonderful tips to share with me. I look forward to continuing to keep in touch with her, particularly about our work with cats who have had a rough time of it and who are fearful with people and/or other animals.

Josey and I also became friends in the course of the training. She went through a dramatic change in behavior over the course of the training. The first day she came in, it was hard for her to stop spinning and barking. I think it was hard for her initially to be around so many unfamiliar dogs and people all in one place. Josey was the first dog that was worked on during the first day of the training. Thanks to Kathy's very focused work with her and further work by her mom LH, as well as others who worked with Josey, by the end of the trainiing, Josey was able to settle comfortably even with all the people and other animals around. I found that Josey responded to TTouch and the leash work more and more quickly as time went on, so when she started to get into a ramped-up state, it grew easier and easier for her to settle. She is a dear little soul and it was a pleasure to work with and learn from both her and her mom, LH.


Rudy is owned by Peggy, a very interesting woman who lives in South Dakota. Rudy has a hard time being away from Peggy, and, though this still concerns him, he did shift and it was easier for him as time went on. He is a very gentle, sweet dog and I enjoyed the opportunity to do some body work on him intermittently during the training. The body wraps were very comforting to him. Here he is with Peggy and Kathy, as Kathy demonstrated several ways to do leg circles with dogs. I found in one of my earlier case studies that the leg circles were very calming to the little dachshund Petey, who can get pretty revved up. I think the leg circles can also be very grounding and help a dog to feel more in balance.




Luna is owned by Patty, who lives in Colorado, and I had some lovely exchanges with them both. Patty and her dear dog Luna are extremely bonded, which is always a delight to see. I also had a strong connection with Luna, and enjoyed working with her very much. She was a little shy to have TTouch done on her initially but she grew more and more receptive to it. By the end, every time I walked by her, Luna looked up at me longingly as you see in the bottom picture, wondering perhaps if she can get her ears stroked :)
Luna can get very over-excited sometimes, and also can get into a freeze mode when Patty or others are walking her on a leash. One of the times I was working with her with one of the other women in the training, and we noticed that Luna was getting frozen when we were walking her in the labyrinth. However, when we took her outside of the confidence course space and were just walking her around, she was a much happier camper and kept on walking.
Thanks to all of you, I enjoyed you all and learned so much. I will post more about the training soon!

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