Marge and Lola

Above you see my friend Marge and her dog Lola. I took this photo when we went through a training in October with Debby Potts. Marge and I have been through four wonderful TTouch trainings together: two with Edie Jane Eaton, one with Debby Potts, and one with Linda Tellington-Jones (I also did a training with Kathy Cascade this summer in Santa Fe, so I have been through five trainings). I haven't driven in many years so Marge was our chauffeur for the two trainings we did in New Jersey (thank you for making those possible, Marge!). Marge is a lovely, kind woman who has a very gentle, natural way with animals.

On the last day of the recent training with Debby, Marge decided to bring her dog Lola. Lola is a gorgeous German Shepherd who is perfectly comfortable with people but can have trouble when she comes in contact with other dogs. First of all, going in the car with Marge driving was a new experience for Lola and I was a new person sitting in the back seat with her. She was a little nervous about all the new stimuli at first, especially when we went under bridges and into tunnels. But I did some TTouch on her and after a while, she settled and you could really feel a calm energy in the car. When we got to the training, everyone was very respectful of Lola's space and we had made a little area enclosed by tables where Lola and Marge could sit. Again, Lola was nervous at first but calmed down after a while and some great directon by Debby and work by Debby, Marge and others in the training, including Mary and Peggy of Tavi and Friends, who were assisting the training and took Lola outside for a while and really calmed her down. We all think Lola did a good job! She was very sweet on the way back in the car, putting her head on my lap at times and putting her paws on top of my hands. AWWWW! She is a very special dog. Marge is doing a really great job with Lola and is using a balance plus leash setup on her which is very helpful for keeping Lola from pulling too much on the leash (more on the balance plus setup at another time).

So a few days ago I had the pleasure of visiting Marge and Lola at their home. Lola was a great hostess, showing me around her beautiful apartment and garden. Marge really has a nice flair and has fixed up her apartment so it is lovely and cheery. The way she has painted it and decorated it, there is something very magical about the atmosphere there. Below you see Lola in her cozy cabana.


Marge, Lola and I had a great visit. Marge had prepared a really nice lunch (of course Lola had lunch with us too). Below you see Lola on her bed with one of her favorite toys, her little raccoon (I think the name is Racky). I got in some zigzag touches on Lola, which she seemed to enjoy.

Marge told me about the interesting happenings in her case studies, and was kind enough to give me a bunch of cat food that a friend had given her, which I was able to bring to Social Tees shelter later. As Marge and I talked with each other, Lola got very sleepy and below you see her settling in for a nap. Thanks Lola and Marge! I look forward to more TTouch adventures with you both.

TTouch Training in Dayton NJ - visit to SAVE shelter

On the fourth day of the TTouch training with Debby Potts, we went to SAVE shelter in Princeton (http://www.save-animals.org/index.htm). The shelter was clean and from what I saw, well-laid out. The cats were in two different rooms, where some were in closed cages and some had their cages open so they were allowed to roam. First, Debby did a brief cat TTouch demo. Below you will see two pictures of her as she picked up a cat by wrapping it in a blanket, and then contained the cat within the blanket or "cat tent", as she called it.

Debby could contain the cat under the blanket and do TTouches on it either on top of or underneath the blanket. Again, the success of use of the blanket depends on the cat, as some cats feel very comfortable with this but others do not like to be wrapped in anything.

After the demo, we were set loose to work on either cats or dogs. I spent nearly the whole time with the cats. The cats have different-colored signs depending on their behavior and so I chose to work with three of the most challenging cats.

The cat below is named "Moo Kitty". This kitty had some type of digestive ailment and the sign on his cage said not to let him loose. As I wanted to make sure he didn't escape, I did TTouch o him through the bars of the cage. When I first approached him, he was curled up on his blanket. I took the wand and wrapped just a bit of ACE bandage on the end ("corn dog") so it would fit through the bars of the cage. I began to do gentle circles with the bandage end on his head. The cat soon woke up and came right to the front of the cage, where I continued to do TTouch on his head and as much of his body as I could reach either with my hand or with the wand and corn dog. I spent a good amount of time doing ear strokes on him, as these can help with digestion. I would have liked to try belly lifts but was not able to fit my hand far enough through the bars to do this. He responded very strongly to all the touches I was doing on him and each time I paused to see if he had had enough, he nuzzled against me, seeming to ask for more, so I spent quite a bit of time with him. You can see him below looking right at me with his beautiful eyes.

Another cat I worked on was Tabitha. She is a lovely little tabby, and is extremely skittish and afraid of people. When I first put my opened her cage, she kept trying to move away from me, so I decided to try the wand and corn dog on her so she would be able to remain a distance from me and still have contact. I would do a few circles, then pause, etc. Little by little her movement slowed down, she seemed to grow somewhat more comfortable, and I was able to do circles both on her head and on her body. She actually got out of her cage at one point (she was fast!), so I thought she might be stressed once I got her back in the cage but after I gave her a break and worked on another cat I looked over and here she was, watching me and sitting right in the front of her cage.

Then I worked on Snickers, a lovely smoky grey cat. Snickers was hanging out outside of his cage. He is extremely skittish and when I first reached towards him he ran away. After a while I saw that he had gone back inside of his cage, so I decided to try to carefully approach him there.

At this point the other people were outside of the room so it was nice and quiet. I turned my back nearly completely to him, sitting outside of his cage and very quietly approached him, only looking at him out of the corner of my eye as I kept my back to him so he would not feel threatened, yet I could see enough to watch his signals in case he decided to swat, etc. I was able to do some gentle strokes with the back of my hand along the side of his body. He then sat down, still in his cage but closer to me. I did some chimp touches on his head and his neck, which helped him relax and he seemed to really enjoy. I continued this for a few minutes and after it seemed to be enough, I took my hand back out of the cage again. After a bit he came out of his cage again and I started to touch him again, but he batted me with his paw (not claws) to tell me he had enough.

At this point we were getting ready to wind it up so I spent a little time with one of the dogs, Honey Bee, outside. Honey Bee is a chow mix who is small, but EXTREMELY strong, and it was a challenge to keep her from pulling on the leash. Debby had made a makeshift halter-like thingie using the leash, so that provided some more control but still, I had to be patient, going a few steps, stopping to do some TTouch (which the dog responded very much to), then walking a few more steps. I still need a lot of practice when it comes to "pully" dogs!

All in all, we had a really great visit at the shelter and my fellow TTouchers had lovely stories to tell about their experiences with the animals there. Sending good thoughts for these animals to be adopted to nice people very soon.

It's a (TTouch) Wrap!

At the recent TTouch training in Dayton, NJ, Debby Potts (http://integratedanimal.com) taught us quite a lot about TTouch wraps. These wraps are done using ACE bandages (or similar materials) and are gently wrapped around the animal in a variety of ways. When an animal is stressed or uncomfortable in some physical or emotional way, it can be very disconnected from its body. The wraps can help bring the animal back into its body, and can feel as though it is being gently held and cuddled, which can be very comforting.

In the two pictures below you see Debby demonstrating a couple of ways to do head wraps on Naomi, a lovely German shepherd owned by Gerlinde (you see her in the second picture on the left). A head wrap, in addition to being calming, can also be great preparation for getting a dog ready to have a head collar put on. A head collar was a good idea for Naomi because of her proportions and because she tends to be very forward with her head, so Debby showed Gerlinde a leash configuration with three points of contact which included one point connected to the head collar and then two points connected to a harness and leash, or to two different points on the harness (the "superbalance leash" which is connected to the back center clip of a step-in harness, looped through the front of the harness and then connected to the side clip of the harness. See one of the TTouch for dogs books for a full description before trying this!).

Next, below you see Marsha W (www.ecsca.org/rescuehome.html) and her dachshund Gracie, great to get to know both of them! Marsha also brought a lovely black Cocker Spaniel with her named Bella, unfortunately I did not get a good pic of her. Anyway, Gracie has a lot of difficulty walking, as her back legs are not working too well, and so we thought a wrap was a great idea for her, especially a "full wrap", which goes around the back end of the dog.

Pictured below is Gracie in the full wrap. This will give her a lot more awareness of her back end. Later, Marsha and I cut an Ace bandage in half so it was a thin strip, cut this into two shorter strips, and wrapped these around Gracie's back legs. This seemed to help her to be even more aware of her back legs and although she seemed a bit confused by the leg wrap at first, I think this could be really helpful for her. She is a sweet dog! and was very cooperative while we were wrapping all these contraptions around her.

I was also very pleased that my friend and Feldenkrais practitioner Kathy Yates was at this training with her dog Mia. Mia is a great dog! She was also extremely cooperative with having a wrap put on her and so below you see her in another kind of wrap, I believe this is what we called the racing stripe wrap. Mia is an older dog and has arthritis so it is helpful for her to have increased body awareness going to the back part of her body as well.

Mia is a terrific dog but she is extremely attached to her mom and can get very jealous when Mom pays attention to someone else. Kathy (below right) was sitting with Gracie on one side and Mia on the other side, and Mia decided that was just too much for her and she wanted attention, so she moved away from Kathy and right into the middle of the circle, where everyone would see her. This is pictured below, and gave us all quite a chuckle!

If you are trying a wrap on your dog, be sure not to wrap it too tight and just leave it on for a few minutes at first, so it is not too overwhelming experience. I have found so far that cats really do not like to be wrapped but a few people have found otherwise. We had an expression in the training "DOD" which means "depends on the dog" and in the case of cats, it is "DOC" as to whether a cat will enjoy a wrap, that's for sure.

TTouch Training in Dayton with Debby Potts: Dusty

Last week I did my fifth TTouch training in Dayton, New Jersey with Debby Potts (http://integratedanimal.com/), who is a fabulous instructor. Each TTouch teacher I have had has been wonderful, and each one has their own specialties of knowledge, adding another dimension to what I know about TTouch. Debby has such a huge amount of knowledge to share and also has a great sense of humor, which is always appreciated!

Above is a picture of Jude and her dog Dusty. You can see from the picture how bonded they are. Jude was in my last training in Dayton with her three dogs, and this time she focused on Dusty. Dusty has come a long way since the last training, and made great strides during this training. Both Dusty and Jude taught me a tremendous amount this training. I am so thankful for this.

Dusty is reactive to other dogs and to people, so we all made sure to be very conscious and considerate, not staring at him or approaching him head-on. When we touched him and worked with him, Jude had a muzzle on him to make sure everyone kept safe.

The second day, Debby showed us one way to get a dog accustomed to having someone other than their owner touch them. First, Jude began to do TTouch on Dusty.

Then Debby joined Jude and they both began to do TTouch on Dusty together. This really was a magical moment. Both Debby and Jude were SO in the moment with Dusty, and in synch with each other as well.

Dusty grew more and more relaxed as they both worked on him, and was very responsive to TTouch in general. He went from a sitting position to lying down as they worked.

Later in the training, we went outside to do leash work with the dogs. Dusty was extremely cooperative and a setup with two points of contact worked like a charm for him. I had the opportunity of walking Dusty on a leash a couple of times, and felt I only needed to hold the leash very lightly, as he was responsive to very light signals vocally and with the leash. Before long, I felt completely in synch with Dusty, as though were were completely connected. I walked him in various directions around orange cones and stopped intermittently, doing some TTouch on him, to which he was very responsive. I did slow zigzag touches down his body and down his legs, as well as abalone touches on his body and ear touches.

After the second time walking Dusty came a very big learning moment, which fortunately turned out OK. Jude, Grace Ann (one of our wonderful teaching assistants) and I were talking and I was holding Dusty very lightly on the leash. All of a sudden, I felt Dusty jerk and pull with incredible strength and before I knew it, I was on the ground and Dusty had broken free from me and he and one of the other dogs, Chanhiya (who is also a reactive dog), were entangled in a dog fight where the two dogs looked like one dog and there was a lot of growling and noise. Fortunately Grace Ann stepped right in and helped break up the fight and luckily both dogs were all right. I was a little black and blue as I had ended up face down on the ground but I was more concerned to see if the dogs and people were all right, which fortunately they were, other than being shaken up. Jude gave us (including Dusty) Rescue Remedy, which was much needed and appreciated.

This was a huge lesson to us all to keep aware and in the moment at all times, and to keep our peripheral vision active, particularly when we are dealing with reactive dogs. I will certainly never forget it! I apologized profusely, as I really felt bad that I had not been as vigilant as I should have been.


Below, you see Jude and Marge walking Dusty in the graveyard which is adjacent to the training area a while after the scuffle. Fortunately, Dusty seemed to be calming down at this point.

There is a very special type of connection with an animal that happens through TTouch. With all the animals I do TTouch on, I feel that there is a part of them that touches my heart in a unique and profound way and stays with me forever. I certainly know this is true with Dusty.


Thank you Jude and Dusty, I really appreciated working with you and learning from you!