The Telllington Touch
Anyone knows about this method?
It claims to be a massage technique for reducing tension and changing behavior in dogs.
It claims to be a massage technique for reducing tension and changing behavior in dogs.
Comments
There are specific touches that you do, named after different animals, on different parts of the body to effect changes in their feelings or stimulate the nerve endings in their skin in certain areas. It's not muscle massage (they are firm about this) its only skin deep, its just about nerves and skin, not pressure) Some are gentle (raccoon touches) others are more clawlike (tiger touch) theres an abalone touch which uses your palm and is more soothing and secure because of the greater contact of your whole hand vs the tiny fingertip touches of the raccoon. There's a python one you do by gently sqeezing and lifting the skin on the legs. None of this made any major difference to either of my dogs, and I felt the whole weekend was kind of a lesson on how to pat your dog.
I find that if you have awareness of your dog and connected relationship, and you are a reasonably intuitive patter of your dog then you are doing just as well. If you are sort of an arm's distance buddy of your dog and usually just pat him on the head or back, then you might benefit from TTouch spelling it out for you specifically. Here at the Brindle pack, dog patting is a whole body thing- belly rubs, mane scruffs, ear flaps, legs, toes, tails, chinny chin chin, Reilly likes me to gently pet her closed eyes and the bridge of her nose & she rumbles and pushes in to my hand- and I see what they like or whether we're having relax time or tickle-wrestle time and touch them accordingly. It's like teaching someone how to kiss. You just tune in, feel it and go with it, you dont need lessons with techniques.
I think TTouch can make you as the dog owner pay attention to the effects of what you do- if the dog is chilling and you come in and vigorously scrub his mane up, then you arent really in respectful harmony with him- you dont recognize he's relaxing or you dont care. Everyone should know that most dogs hate being petted on the head, and that it makes a nervous dog feel a little better to be petted on the chest or under their belly. Its not going to make him get up and face his fears, but it will tell him you understand. Which must be followed by you ACTING like you understand: "We wont go any closer to those skateboards we'll just sit together and watch them from here." There is truth to the matter of rumpled fur- I always smooth my guys out if I mess up their coat with a hearty scratch on the hip.
I dont think its complete bunk, although the presenter I worked with told me some crazy stuff like that I should have her do a communication session with Sage because " sometimes you can have a different animal in a dog's body, and that's where you need ME." she also suggested I have his colors done for Color Therapy so he can wear the right teeshirt to overcome his anxiety. I didnt take her up on this, but I do still pat Sage with different touches. This morning we sat together on the front yard watching calmly, and I did some pythons on his legs. It's not going to prevent him from bolting up if/when he sees the hated cat go by, but it made watching the squirrells a pleasant together thing.
I guess we'll just resort back to the intuitive petting and massages.