TTouch with Mr. Prince

Mr. Prince is a sweet little Maltese dog who I met, along with his human mom, Mary, when I did a TTouch demonstration for a Maltese meetup group. He is a dear little soul, and gets along great with Mary and with his dog sisters, but he is a very nervous little guy in general. A couple of the ways the nervousness manifests itself is in barking and urinating in the house. He was a rescue and previously wasn't taken out for walks, so he also had gotten used to peeing in the house. When I worked with him at the Maltese meetup, Mary could see that the TTouches were extremely calming for Mr. Prince. He is usually a bit wary with a stranger, yet he was leaning into me as I did TTouches with him. So it was wonderful to hear from Mary's friend Leslie, who wanted to give a gift of a TTouch session to Mary and Mr. Prince. Leslie was also present at the sesson, and it was great to have questions and feedback from both Mary and Leslie as the session progressed. When I arrived at Mary's place, I got such friendly greetings from the whole gang. It was clear that Mr. Prince was quite hyper, though, and was easily triggered to start barking. First of all, I put a TTouch half-wrap on him, which is done using an ace bandage (see link for demo: http://www.youtube.com/sarahsuricat#p/u/23/N83oXBZy0KM) This started to bring down his stress level right away. With the wrap on, I began to demonstrate some of the various TTouches so that Mary will be able to do them on Mr. Prince. Connected abalone TTouches going down each side of his body were especially soothing to him. I could feel the tension in his body melting away and the expression on his face relaxing. As we went along, we kept noticing how much calmer Mr. Prince's energy was. Leslie commented that his expression on his face was as though he almost wasn't sure what to do now that he actually was calm. It seemed to be an unfamiliar state to him. I also demonstrated how to do the beginnings of a face wrap. This wrap is especially good for dogs who tend to bark a lot, as it reminds them of the mouth area, and can help them to relax there, and to feel less like barking. A complete face wrap seemed to be too overwhelming for Mr. Prince, so I simply folded the wrap and draped it a bit over his snout, then later tried draping it over his head. I just left it there for a matter of a minute or so, then took it off. Just these simple actions appeared to give him some awareness in this area. I also showed her how to do TTouches around the mouth area, while we were on that subject. Following that, I showed her more of the TTouches, strokes and lifts. I had also brought a Thundershirt, but to my surprise, it was actually a bit too small for Mr. Prince. But we were able to see how effective it would be for him by just draping it around him. I told Mary I would bring her the next size up for him. Then I had Mary show me a few TTouches to make sure that she was clear on how to do them, and showed her the wrap again. By this time, Mr. Prince's stress level had dropped SO substantially since I had entered the apartment. It really was a dramatic shift. I felt like the atmosphere of the whole apartment felt quieter and more calm. I left Mary with a Bach Flower remedy to give Mr. Prince which would be helpful for his issues in addition to the TTouch. We met another time so that I could show her how to put on the Thundershirt. The design of these shirts is wonderful. It is a very fitted shirt, and is made so that you don't have to put it over the head or put legs through. They are meant to be put on so that they hug the body, but are not tight. It wraps around the body, using velcro to secure it in several places. Again, we saw such a dramatic shift with Mr. Prince once the Thundershirt was on him, and felt his energy to be more focused and at peace. He had been running around barking just monents ago, and suddenly he just became very calm and laid down on the couch. I also did some TTouches on him with the Thundershirt on, and I had him get up from the couch a couple of times to walk around, to make sure he didn't feel "frozen", as sometimes the Thundershirts or wraps cause such an unfamiliar feeling that the dog will freeze and seem to feel he can't move. As with the wraps, the purpose of the Thundershirt is to bring the animal back into its body, and to give it a new sensation. For that reason, they are not meant to be left on all the time, just put on for periods of time to remind the dog that his energy can be calm and focused. The wraps are never to be left on an animal unsupervised, as the animal can become tangled up in it if he tries to take it off. Above and below are photos of Mr. Prince in his Thundershirt. He is quite a photogenic little guy! Thank you so much one and all. Mr. Prince did a great job, and Mary is continuing to make wonderful progress with him as she continues with the TTouch work with him.

TTouch Demo with Maltese Meetup Group

Hi folks, I had the wonderful experience on Sunday of sharing TTouch with the members of a Maltese meetup group (oh yeah, there was also a Bichon who managed to sneak in as well). It was a lovely group of dogs and people, as you can see from the pictures. Many of the dogs were festively dressed and everyone got on well together.

As people were arriving, I introduced myself to some of the dogs and people, and did a few TTouches on some of the dogs. One was an older dog, with quite long fur. I showed the owner how to do hair slides, as well as a few other TTouches. The owner had had some exposure to TTouch so has been using some of the touches on her dog. This dog has arthritis, and TTouch can be very beneficial for dogs with this condition.

I shared about some of the touches, strokes and lifts used in TTouch, as well as about leash configurations, TTouch wraps and the use of a Thundershirt. Mr. Prince, who you see me with above, acted as one of my demo dogs. He is quite high-strung, and generally a pretty shy guy. His owner, Mary, started bringing him to the meetups as this was a friendly, non-threatening atmosphere in order for him to meet new dogs and become comfortable socializing with them. He generally not fond of being far from his owner so he was a little hesitant at first but as I worked on him, I felt his stress level start to come down and I felt his body start to relax against mine as he sat down next to me. I did clouded leopard touches, ear strokes, a little mouth work, and belly lifts on him. What a brave little guy. His owner sat near to where we were so that he would feel more secure. I really did feel an energy shift with him and felt his stress level drop down as we worked. I think these touches will all be very helpful for him, and the belly lift will be helpful for his stress issues as well as digestive issues, as the belly lifts help digestion as well as opening up the breath. I think use of a Thundershirt or wrap on him would be helpful as well in lowering his stress level and giving him more self-confidence.

Chaka, pictured above, belongs to Yumi, who organizes the meetup and is the one who asked me to speak. I worked with Chaka for a short time as well. She appears to be very relaxed around other dogs but her energy level in general is extremely high, as is common for these little dogs, and I felt her really relax into the touches and within just a few minutes felt her energy level shift. It is interesting how short a time it really can take to feel a change.

Above you will see all of us who were there Sunday, what a sweet group. Thanks so much for asking me to speak to you all!

Tiffany

Tiffany is an extremely fearful Chihuahua mix (larger than a Chihuahua, and as you can see, her legs are quite long) who recently arrived at Social Tees shelter. She appears to have been abused by a man or men, as she is particularly fearful of and reactive to men. From what I have observed, she isn't reactive to other dogs, just will run away and hide from them if she is scared. I have worked with her several times for an extended period, very slowly, and never approaching her directly, letting her come to me as she is comfortable. Other times, if I am in a room working with another dog or she happens to come up to me, I say hello to her in a gentle, friendly voice and do not look at her directly. A few times, when I have been working on another dog, she has been hanging out near by, and she has been comfortable with me getting closer and closer to where she is while I am working on another dog, which usually ends up with a couple of other dogs hanging out near me as well, so this is a big step for her, having me and several dogs in close proximity to her and she feels safe enough not to walk away.

The first time I worked with her in a more concentrated way, she and I were alone out in the backyard of the shelter. She was standing in a corner, and I was pretty much at the opposite end of the yard from her. I began to speak to her very softly, telling her what a wonderful, sweet dog she is, and telling her that she was safe. I began to feel energy going from my hands to her body, and was picturing that contact sending warm light into her body. After a short time, I could see her start to breathe more fully. I was crouched on the floor, facing pretty much sideways. I was feeling from her that she had not been relaxed in a LONG time and that she was finally relaxing. She laid down and put her head down for a nap. I was continuing to feel Reiki flowing from my hands. I turned nearly with my back to her, kept speaking occasionally to her in a soft voice, and was able to slowly back towards where she was. I got within about a foot of her and just stayed there for a while. She appeared to still be comfortable, was still lying down, relaxing. One of the other wonderful volunteers, Estee, came out at that point and I signaled to her to move slowly and speak quietly, and she did, and the dog continued to be comfortable. This felt like a big step for Tiffany.

The second time I worked with her was a couple of days ago. There was only one other person with me in the shelter and so it was quieter than usual. Tiffany was following me around for a lot of the day. She is still very frightened and did not have her tail up but yet she seemed to want to be near me. I would say hi to her from time to time but didn't want to startle her and make her run away so I didn't say too much, just let her come around with me. At one point when I was done with what I had to do, I kneeled down sideways to her and began to speak to her. She came closer and closer and laid right down next to me. I kept picturing Reiki flowing from me to her, filling her with light. We stayed there for some time, she was very relaxed.

It is going to take this girl a long time to be ok around people, but fortunately I am working at a no-kill shelter, so we can work with her slowly and patiently.

Buddy

Recently this adorable dachshund mix arrived at our shelter, apparently with very little use of his back legs. The xray which had been done showed nothing broken, but a disk problem of some kind. My friend Jordyn Theissen (http://www.myspace.com/dancingminddesign) came to see the dog and they connected immediately, so she is now fostering him and doing an amazing job with him.

I went to see Jordyn and Buddy (and the rest of her gang, Petey, Noodles, Dura and Jinx, two dogs and two cats) a couple of days ago. Within four days, she has made amazing progress with Buddy. She walks him with a leash slung around the lower part of his body and a leash attached to a harness, which works very well. He also has little booties on his back feet to keep them from slipping too much. Buddy is still learning how to use us feet and sometimes they flop over on the top side of the foot, but he is learning fast.

I showed Jordyn how to do a variety of Ttouches on Buddy which will help him bring more awareness to the back half of his body and his feet: zigzag touches going all the way down the body and down the legs, connected abalone touches going down the body, python lifts on the legs, and raccoon touches all around the paws and pads of the paws. Buddy is an enthusiastic learner and responded to everything we did. We also put a half-wrap on him for about five minutes. I would like to try a full wrap but didn't want to overwhelm him with too much information in one session.

I demonstrated the TTouches not only on Buddy but did them on Jordyn's arm as well so she could feel the very light pressure which I was using. As we don't have many details about Buddy's condition, I did not want to use a heavy pressure with any of the touches.

I also had him simply stand on all four feet briefly (supporting his back end when he needed it) a couple of times and subtly adjusted his body and feet til he was more in balance.

Two nights later I spoke to Jordyn and she said Buddy was able to walk without the leash around his hind end. He's still learning how to do this but she said he is learning amazingly fast and is increasing in mobility by leaps and bounds. I look forward to working with them more, and congratulate Jordyn and Buddy on so much progress. I'm sure all the love she gives him doesn't hurt either :)

Rosa Gets Adopted!

I am happy to report that Rosa just got adopted!


And before she got adopted, I was happy that I was able to work with her enough so that she was comfortable with me doing TTouch on her, and I also worked up to picking her up and putting her on my lap. I did this by following suggestions which I saw on a DVD set I have been watching recently, Feline Feral to Feline Friendly, by Dr. Rosalez-Ruiz and Angela Rentfro, which is a great seminar and very interesting approach to helping fearful and feral cats. Further along in the dvd, they acclimate the cat to being picked up by chunking the motion down -- starting out with just putting your hands on either side of the middle of the body, then gently lifting slightly off the ground, etc, then working up to lifting off the ground. This worked quite well with Rosa. I wanted to do this gradually because she can easily be startled and frightened by sudden motions. I was surprised at how quickly I was able to work up to this, and once I got her in my lap, she settled right in, as though this was something she was very comfortable with. I did TTouch on her in my lap, and she was very relaxed.


Then I got to the next question -- I wasn't sure how she preferred to get down or be let down from my lap. I was sitting on a stepladder with my feet on the ground, so was not far from the ground. I gradually bent my knees so that they were approaching the floor, and she actually hopped right off :)

So on to talking about her adopter. He is a very kind young man who has had Chihuahuas before, and when I showed him how to best introduce himself to and approach Rosa, he totally understood, and she seemed to take to him right away. Even in the midst of a very hectic day at the shelter, I could feel that he had a very calm energy with her. Unfortunately, we discovered when we put a leash on her that she was very sensitive about the contact with her neck area (she probably had an owner previously who pulled and dragged her around, who knows?), so I suggested that when it seemed comfortable and appropriate to try a harness, that would be a good idea. I know he will take good care of her and I wish them well!!

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.

Meet Trudy

Hi folks, remember a while back this little doggie who was brought in to Social Tees http://socialtees.com out of the rain? This was what she looked like when she arrived


She was taken to the vet to be checked out and her fur was quite matted so she was given quite a makeover. She is back in Social Tees now and up for adoption. This is what she looks like now. Este, who is a very nice woman who comes in to volunteer, thought her name should be Trudy (Gertrude, and Trudy for short) and I think it fits her perfectly



She loves to smile and will become your best friend, especially if you give her a treat. I gave her a yummy Wellness treat today and she followed me around the rest of my time there. I gave her a few more treats as well as some TTouch, which she was more than happy to receive and there was no growling like she did when she first arrived. She is looking for a new person or persons to be her friend(s) for a forever home. If you come by, look for me and I will show you what her favorite treats and TTouches are.

This Week at Social Tees

Hi folks. Above is one of the feral cats which is loose at Social Tees (http://socialtees.com), it is a very charming being!
And below is a big grey fellow who is very dear, and constantly wants attention. He is soft, gorgeous and friendly and asking to be adopted - he can't wait to cuddle with someone. I do TTouch on him each day and he is always impatient for me to touch him.


Below is a new little tabby who was scared in the back of his cage when I began to work on him. He was not aggressive at all, just scared. So I started out with touches with the back of the hand - llama touch and chimp touch, and Noah's march with the back of my hand. Before too long, he was rubbing his body against my hand and asking for more, and I was able also to do some ear strokes and touches on his head. The more I worked on him, the more confident he became, coming more towards the front of the cage. Maybe because I always have a special place in my heart for tabby cats, they usually seem particularly drawn to me. This little charmer will find a place in someone's heart and a new home soon, I'm sure.

The lovely striped cat below is one that I have worked on for about a month or so now. Sorry about the out-of-focus on some of these pictures, but this is actually more like I see them when they are in my head later on. She is very sweet, she is just scared when you first start to touch her and then she gets more comfortable. When I was there today it seemed she had a good chance of being adopted so I am crossing fingers for her and imagining the best for her tonight.
These cats have been staying with me and now often inhabit my dreams. There was one who has had a cold that was in my head all last night, and I kept sending him good thoughts and light. I was very glad when I saw him today to see that he is feeling better.

The little dog below with the stuffed cat has the dearest personality. He has mange but is definitely well on the road to recovery. He always follows me around and watches me when I am working on the cats.

There are two black kittens and two black and white kittens who are in the same cage, and were all initially quite timid. It was about a week ago that I first met them, and I am happy to say that the most timid of all of them, the black and white one on the left in the picture directly below, finally seemed to turn a corner today and was actually purring a bit today and started to lick me with his tiny little tongue. He is still shy but he started to come towards my hand and ask for TTouch, which is quite different for him. The rest of the kittens in this cage settle quite quickly once I start to do TTouch on them. The touches that this little bunch responds to are chimp touches and abalone touches on the body, raccoon touches on the head and around the ears, and ear strokes using a very light touch. xoxox to this whole darling gang!

Saturday at FIDO with Tavi & Friends

Among my many activities, I am a volunteer for Tavi & Friends (http://www.taviandfriends.org/) (as are my friend Marge and some of my other TTouch pals from previous training sessions), and Saturday I was with Mary Bruce, one of the founders of Tavi, at an adoption event sponsored by FIDO of Prospect Park (http://www.fidobrooklyn.org/). Tavi & Friends is an APO (Alliance Participating Organization) and Alliance Supporter of the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals, who provide the microchipping for these events, and Tavi & Friends partners with them to provide the TTouch (or other therapy such as Reiki) for the pre- and post-insertion, as well as any pet owner or "up for adoption" animals at the event.

The first dog who found us was Fanny, who is owned by a man who was there with the folks from FIDO. He has two dogs, Fanny and Jupiter, and Fanny is a therapy dog for him and also goes with him to be a therapy dog in hospitals etc. He had esophageal cancer, and said that Fanny was who kept him alive. I believe this, because this animal just radiates love. Fanny came right up to Mary as if to ask for TTouch, and during the afternoon kept coming to either Mary or me for more TTouch. Here she is pictured below with Mary.





And below is Mary with his pal Jupiter. Jupiter was also a fan of TTouch, and laid right down on the ground when I started working on him, and when he realized he enjoyed it, he also kept coming back to me and to Mary for more.




Below you see me with Sugar (the golden retriever who also has Irish setter in her to give her the gorgeous color) and Bentley. Bentley had just been microchipped so the poor guy was a little stressed, but I gave him some gentle llama touches and little raccoon touches under his chin. Sugar was hanging out at the event with her dad with the FIDO folks, and she was happy to receive some TTouch, I did some nice hair slides on her long fur.


I also worked on a large pit bull named Mama. She is very muscular, which could be intimidating but she is such a sweet dog and found clouded leopard touches on her body to be soothing, as well as some raccoon touches on her head. Here you see her with her owner walking happily into the lovely day in Prospect Park in Brooklyn. It was a warm, pleasant day and I was reminded of how beautiful Prospect Park is, I had not been there in a long time.



Barbara, the events coordinator from the Mayor's Alliance, was there helping do the microchipping and had with her three pit bull pups, named Pugsly, Moose and Marv, who she is presently fostering. Here you see Mary doing some TTouch on one of them. Could he be any cuter?

And here I am with Gigi, an adorable Shitzu. She was a bit stressed from the microchipping, but I was happy to give her a more pleasant experience on a table by doing some TTouch on her. Mary put a wrap on her while I was doing some hair slides and clouded leopard touches on her back and some ear strokes. She was standing up when I started and little by little she relaxed until she was lying down and quite relaxed. When we watched her walk away with her owner, she looked so confident and jolly, it was a pleasure to see.

Below you see little Treasure, who is a baby Schnauzer. She truly lives up to her name, AWW. She came to me after having been microchipped and I did some very gentle TTouch on her body and on her ears, as she is a very tiny dog and a light touch was called for. In the picture below you see her after the TTcouh, she is walking with a lot of confidence.

These two guys below just stopped by briefly to check out the literature. They were very striking as each of them had one blue eye and one gold eye, and one had the right blue eye and left gold eye and the other one had the reverse, very interesting. I did a little TTouch on their heads and they walked off into the day with their owner. It was a lovely day and Mary and I enjoyed sharing TTouch as well as more info about what Tavi & Friends is up to. We also were very happy to see dogs and cats being adopted out of the vans at a steady rate. Hooray!

Noodles and Petey get in Balance

Hi folks, this past week I was working with my friend Jordyn (http://myspace.com/dancingminddesign) and her dear dogs Petey and Noodles. Can you tell I love these dogs?

We set them up with step-in harness and double-end leashes, which we like to use in TTouch as these tools give us various options for configuring the setup to have two points of contact. This is useful especially for dogs who pull on the leash.

Petey is a long-haired mini-dachshund and Noodles is a mixture of beagle and other lovely types of dogs (seems like there must be some dachshund in there too). Both dogs are low to the ground, so the setup that works best for them is to clip the leash to the two side clips on the harness. This setup is also good for very small dogs, as we saw in the Santa Fe training with the little

Chihuahua Mr. Brown. You can see this setup most easily in the picture of Petey below. One can stroke one side of the leash and then the other if the dog starts to pull, or sometimes spreading the arms further apart can work as well.

Jordyn and I each walked one dog at first, walking side by side, and then switched, so each would get used to being with me. Both of these dogs can be pullers, and Noodles can decide he doesn't want to move sometimes, but I have to say that they were both quite cooperative on our walk. When Noodles did try to stop, I gently pulled the leash and called to him, and after a minute he did come along. Below you see a picture of me with both dogs. The leash we used for Noodles may be a little wide for him so we are going to try a thinner leather leash, and we need to tighten his harness a bit for next time, but both dogs responded very positively to having this leash setup. Below you see me with both dogs. Don't worry, my right hand does not have the leash wrapped around, that is a scrunchy around my wrist! I am actually holding the leash with a light touch.
Good job, Noodles and Petey!

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!

Kathy Cascade and the TTouch Transformation of Alf, a Michael Vick Dog

Hi everyone, today was the last day of the Santa Fe training with Kathy Cascade, wow! It will take a few days to get my thoughts and pictures together to communicate some more of what happened there.

Anyway, no pictures with this entry, just a link where you will see an amazing and heartbreakingly beautiful story from Kathy Cascade about the TTouch transformation of one of the Michael Vick dogs, Alf. She showed this to us in class today and there was not a dry eye in the house. Thanks to Kathy (and others who assisted her), this dog's story has a very happy ending.

Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bxdg2RPdgQ

Please check it out!

also check out Kathy's website:
http://spiritdog.com/

Thank you so much for sharing this with us, Kathy!!