Open to the Unplanned

After much thought, and some info digging, I decided to go a different direction with Sydney this week and we skipped the confidence course. My plan was to help her find her back end. I don't think she knows her body extends beyond her shoulders! My feeling is that part of her wanting to lay down is that she may have pain in the back end and in her legs.



There have been attempts to clicker train Sydney before but she had trouble focusing on the process and lost interest.

We did the body wrap and even put scrunchies on her feet.




So we did lots of touches and leg work.



One of the Practitioners I spoke with recommended I use some clicker training in conjunction with the TTouch and click 'n treat for movement forward. I liked that idea and decided I wanted to take it a little further and also teach "Touch" so that when Sydney is focused on something she may want to move toward that she can be redirected with the request to "Touch".

Sydney is a very quick study!

We even used the Balance Leash Plus in the living room to see how that worked with her - and she responded quite a bit better.


Today Sydney was completely focused on me!


I found out today that there ARE side effects to TTouch! Cairo, the Bengal cat, had been watching me work with Sydney and was quite interested in the whole process.


Here is some background on the dynamics surrounding the animal members of this family. Cairo is 7 1/2 years old and was given to Terri being a handful more than her current home was capable of dealing with. He was very outgoing and quite the people person. Then along came Sydney last December. When Sydney joined the family Cairo became a recluse and when he did come out he would be chased by Sydney. Sydney meant no harm but that is not how Cairo explained things.

So today we had Cairo benefiting from the touches Sydney received and the general peace and calm in the room. Sydney was not interested in the least that Cairo had joined us.

I even think they are starting to gang up on me!

It wasn't long before Cairo learned that a "click" resulted in a duck heart for Sydney. Having never worked with Cats before I thought it would be fun to see if Cairo could learn to Touch.

He picked it up so very fast!

We weren't through yet. Terri had one more surprise! A Guinea Pig named Princes Pigless that tends to "nip"! Well I've not worked with Guinea Pigs either....and certainly not one who nips. But heck, we were on a roll so in came Princess!

What to do with a Guinea Pig? Well I did tiny light touches of all kinds, hair slides and ear work. Even did the bridge of her nose and some mouth work. Never once did she try to nip me. I did get some soft sweet kisses though.

It soon became a family affair - something that has never happened before. Terri commented on several firsts today. What a wonderful family to work with


And the final seal of approval came with Peace being shared by all.

Session #2 with Sydney

This past week I've given a lot of thought to the lessons learned from my first session with Sydney. Cynde reviewed my photos gave me some great "Mentorly" advise. One of her many pearls of wisdom I held on to was when she told me not to try to force Sydney to do anything she doesn't want to do.

Why is it that one of the things I love the most about TTouch is the hardest to remember when I get into a jam? I've given that some thought too and the only thing I can think of is that every other training modality I know of is all about getting the dog to do what you tell them to do WHEN you tell them to do it. So, I kept this in mind today.

Terri and I decided to meet earlier to avoid the heat and I got there 1/2 hour earlier than they did so I could set up the confidence course and have everything ready when my guests of honor showed up.



Today was a beautiful foggy day and I counted on coolness to help what I considered to be a major issue with our session last week.

I think things went a lot better this week. I saw the leash looser than it was last time.

When Sydney decided she wasn't going to go I used those opportunities to do touches on her.



Terri shared some things with me that she noticed that I may not since I don't know Sydney very well.

• During one pass through the labyrinth Terri commented that Sydney was really paying attention to me and thinking. This is not something she normally does.
  
  
  

• She also commented that Sydney was standing still for me longer than she ever has! It is very typical behavior for Sydney to lay down if she isn't moving. We had a lot of standing up time.
  
  
  

I have experience more of Sydney stopping, laying down and refusing to budge than actually pulling on the lead. That got me thinking.......WHY does she lay down and not go? She is a big girl and I wonder if her legs are stressed? Tired? Could she have growing pains since she has gone from a tiny puppy to a very big girl in just a year? I did some Python Lifts on her and also did them on Terri's arms so she could see the benefit and also how to do them.

We also put 1/4 wrap on her and I'll bring more wraps next time so we can hook them together to do either a 1/2 or full wrap. Maybe bringing awareness to the back with help with that.

Today I realized we need to overcome the laying down and not budging before we get too concerned with the ground work.

We had one unexpected training opportunity today. Sydney LOVES people! If there is someone to greet she is just the gal to do it. A toddler and his mom came to the park and Sydney started to lunge and bark happily to go see the baby. I suggested that rather than repeatedly tell Sydney to stay could I try something. I asked her to sit (something she is very good at) and then in a happy voice asked her to come with me. We walked her to the opposite side of the park and situated her with her back toward the child. I explained how to use diversionary tactics with her and to remove her from the situation that is causing her stress, good or bad stress. It worked perfectly.

It was obvious that Sydney was tired and I didn't want to try to make her do any more so we gave kisses and called it a day.

Driving home I thought of our session and what went right (much more than last week) and what we'll try different next week. One thing I'll try next week is scrunchies on her feet.

Sydney - Client Case Study - A pulling dog

Meet Sydney!


Isn't she beautiful? She just turned 1 year old and weighs 142 (shhhh, don't tell her I told her weight).

The only issue with Sydney is she pulls and lunges on her lead.....Or she lays down and refuses to budge. Her poor Momma has scarred up knees like you wouldn't believe.

Here Sydney is resting in the shade and not one bit interested in walking through the star with me.

Turns out I need serious work on my leashing and ground work. Sounds like a match made in Heaven.

So today, in record breaking heat, I head to meet Terri and Sydney for the first session of my new Case Study. I arrive with tools in hand, full of hope & optimism....and a bunch of notes on what I should and should not do.

There are things like:

• Don't look at the dog....look forward and move forward
  
  
  
  
• Leave the leash loose and hanging in a "J" (Kinda hard to do with a tall dog)
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Stroke the lead if they won't go
  
  
  Seem to be having some trouble stroking the lead
  
  
  I even resorted to begging...
  
  
  
• And above all, don't get into a pulling match
  
  
  
  

Well, all I can say is I tried. Thankfully Terri took a bunch of pictures because I really though things went quite a bit better than they actually did.

But we were NOT without our glimmers of hope.

I think I see the start of a "J"

And this is a little better too.

But the best part was I made a new friend today and the rest will come in time.



She even told me she wants me to come back next Saturday and try again.

The Confidence Course

The time has come! The most challenging facet of TTouch for me is the Confidence Course. Now, I've made the rope labyrinth but the only time I tried to use it with someone it was all tangled in a knot and I couldn't get it laid out right. It looked like something..but I'm not really sure what.

So this weekend I bought my PVC, Connectors and some pretty Red Electrical Tape! I started off making the Labyrinth in 4' sections so it would fit nicely in the trunk of my car. The "Star" needed 5' poles so those will have to ride shotgun when I go see a client.

Summer is not the time to work with French Bulldogs outside. This morning I was excited to put the finished pipes together and give it a shot. It was already heating up when we began.

Pierre volunteered to be first. I suited him up and off we went. You know, the good thing about pictures is they don't lie. Turns out Pierre's harness is too tight across his belly and I'm too tight on the lead.

Pierre did pretty well in spite of my leash work and a too tight harness.


Now it was Marley's turn...to be honest, Marley will need a bit more work. He really did not see the point of walking through the Labyrinth nor navigating the star. But he loves his momma and did it anyway....with a bit of coaxing.




Then there is Sammi. Typically Sam avoids anything that even resembles "work". Once Sammi realized he was not going for a walk he really started to have fun.



The great thing with me doing photos and videos of my work is I can send them to my Mentor, Cynde and get feedback right away. Things I wouldn't notice..Like Pierre's harness cutting him in half :-)

Now here is the million dollar question. Do you think my working with 30 pound French Bulldogs will help me prepare for working with a 142# English Mastiff that is a serious puller on the leash? I have a session scheduled with Sydney!