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I prepared by watching a video of him and talking with Kathy who worked on Alf, who had similar fear issues as Iggy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bxdg2RPdgQ
I double dog dare ya to watch this video with dry eyes. Kathy is a hero in every sense of the word and I'm blessed that she was my first TTouch Instructor in Portland, Or (March, 2009). What an inspiration her work with Alf is to me. Not only is it an inspiration but she is such a valuable resource for me as I move forward with Iggy.
Back to Iggy......
Knowing he is VERY fearful I armed myself with a ton of tuna fudge, loaded my TTouch suit case with my typical stuff all the while not expecting to use any of it....and my new client folder. My plan was to ignore Iggy and talk with his foster Mom who runs a Pit Bull rescue in San Diego called "just a dog".
We agreed to have Iggy in the back yard where he is most comfortable and able to have lots a room to be as far away from me as he wanted. Nicole and I sat on towels on the grass and reviewed all the info in the folder. Iggy would come close to me an look. I'd ignore him and continue talking with Nicole and toss a treat his direction without looking at him. Within 2-3 minutes he came and sat by me but I still didn't look. He was taking treats from my hand and then would run away.
It wasn't long before I could look at him with soft eyes, offer calming signals and talk to him a little. He would run away and sit under a tree and gather his wits enough to come back. Never making a big deal of him either leaving or joining me. LOTS of treats.
Eventually I decided to teach him "Touch". If he touched my left hand with his nose he got treats out of my right. He thought this was a fun game. During this time Nicole and I talked about my background, her background...her visit to Virginia to help with the Vick dogs...best friends...You name it and we talked about it. Treating Iggy from time to time and him getting braver and braver with me.
Nicole also runs a Pit Bull socialization class and she was asking how to dogs off a prong collar. So we talked about the options for that and decided my next visit I'll demo how I would approach that with the participation and permission of one of her other Pits. We will let Iggy watch and see nothing bad happens. Maybe it will have a positive impact on him.
Eventually Iggy allowed me to do TTouch on his face, ears, head and slowly over his body using the back of my hand. I wondered if he was standing still cuz he liked it or because he was afraid and thought he couldn't leave. So I stopped and talked to Nicole more. Iggy moved in closer to me. I did more touches letting him process from time to time. I was able to do Python Lifts on his legs and little Raccoons on his foot and the bottom of his foot. With that I ended the session with some fun and light Zig Zag touches on his body....I left him while he still wanted more.
Nicole is totally excited about my reaching him and we will get together again next Friday. I have the day off so I'll go over early in the morning so we can take as long as we want and work with all her dogs.
I was amazed that she was as excited about the session as I was and just as excited to be working with me as I was her.
Nope, I didn't get any pictures of him. It wasn't the right thing to do since he is so fearful. It will be a happy day when I can post a few pictures of him because that means he isn't terrified of a camera! Iggy is so fearful that he ran and hid when when Nicole went outside and had a pen in her hand....it was different and different terrifies him. It would have been totally disrespectful to whip out my camera and start shooting pictures.
We will get there.....we will take it very slow and let him watch while we do more advance things with some of his doggie buddies.
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