Positive Intentions

After a long week I spent the afternoon in town gathering groceries and with some extra time on my hands I paid a visit to a dear friend who also happens to run the local feed store that I love.  My friend shared with me that a customer sang my praises and how I'd fixed her daughters' dog.  What a lovely thing to hear!  I remember the dog well, a sweet Lab mix that was worried, high strung and pulled on the lead like a budding Iditarod champion.  He and his loving, petite owner had 3 wonderful sessions last summer, and what pleases me the most is that this lovely dog is continuing to do well 8 months later.  This, I love about TTouch. 

Kat's "little dogs",  Nestle & Jazz

The TTouch dogs I get to deal with the most are my own.  They have their amazing moments.  Jazz was slated to have a complete hip replacement at 1 year old.  There were many things that brought me to TTouch, and this reality was one of them for sure.   Here we are, coming upon 4 years down the road and she still has the hip God gave her, excellent range of motion and easily bursts about the yard with unbridled speed, turns, leaps, jumps and general rocket-boosted energy.    Her only claim to this success is a grain free diet, careful weight management and TTouch.  

I'm tickled to share with you that I'm going to be adding acupressure and massage therapy to my areas of study in companion animal alternative healing.  Whoopie!!  

Nestle & Jazz updates

It simply excites me how a few minor changes in how I do TTouch can bring about positive feedback and results I've noticed from my own fur-friends:

Jazz has her degenerating right hip which at her tender age of 4.5 years, I want to continue her comfort and avoid a hip replacement for as long as possible, hopefully forever. It's her spirit that brought me to TTouch and so she is my most special "client". Her behavioral issues aren't much to speak of other than being a but unsocialized. My main objective with her has been to increase her comfort and willingness to swim. Swimming is so highly beneficial for joint issues as it places no stress while gently moving the body. And we have swimming available to us 24/7 during the warmer months.

Jazz's previous reaction to the invitation to swim was to cower by the back door in her swim suit (life vest), shivering with fear. If the invite was made for her to swim, she'd avoid coming down to the dock at all. Since returning from my TTouch session with Linda, Jazz has made remarkable strides in her swimming:

Day 1, she accepted her swim suit with joy and came down to the dock with us. It took quite a bit of encouragement but she would eventually make her way over to me, where I perched on the swim ladder, and after receiving more TTouches, would relax and allow me to lift her into the lake and the waiting swim float - allowing her to stand comfortably in the deep water. I would join her and do TTouches. Her relaxation was remarkable! Then, she would swim (with my support) to the shore and climb out. ..... The amazing part is... she would come BACK around to the dock to do it again! She made 3 assisted entries into the lake.

Day 2, I took Jazz & Nestle to work with me which is located by a public landing.... which means shallow water entry! So, I took their swim suits and we enjoyed a break in all things musical to go for a swim. Jazz really needed me "in" the water to encourage her, she entered the water on her own and swam to and from where she could reach the bottom many times..... with a smile! Very little TTouches were needed for her. She was in fine form!

Day 3, This was at home where we live on deep water (no shallows for anyone under 5' tall). To my utter SHOCK, Jazz took very little encouragement to come over to me at the swim ladder for lowering into the swim float waiting for her! She was smiling and her eyes were bright. She would brace a bit in anticipation of being lowered into the water, but this too was much reduced over the previous session and some TTouches help reassure her. .... She spent much longer in the float before deciding to swim ashore. She volunteered for these "assisted leaps" off the dock twice before calling it a day.

All in all, her swimming skills are growing steadily thanks to the security of her swim suit (flotation) and TTouches. Her confidence is amazing and has sky rocketed during these few swim sessions. In previous summers I have tried tirelessly to encourage her to swim - to no avail. TTouch has played a key role in her new found wet enjoyment!

Jazz at the Rockville, Maryland TTouch training

Nestle has always had issues with barking. He barks at everything. He barks at everyone. He barks to express himself. He barks alarms, both imagined and real. He is a barky boy! With regular TTouch time, his barking is reducing gradually and steadily. His greatest moment was with a client who entered our music store yesterday and was greeted with the typical behavior of two little dogs barking at his ankles. The fellow is a regular client, so he was not phased and held his ground, calmly. Jazz got the "okay" right away and went back to her bed. Nestle, however, continued his barking and I could see the tension in his croup, so I happily gave him a couple gentle TTouches and he was instantly calmed. His barking stopped (Yes, it was that instantaneous). He smiled and stayed to "check out" the client with a calm, happy demeanor. He did not bother the client the rest of the visit.

For Nestle, this is huge. He has "paused" his barking in the past only to continue as soon as the client moved about the store. And would occasionally go over and give them a few more barks for added measure. "I" didn't appreciate this barking behavior and I'll assume the clients didn't appreciate it either. What a gift to have a happy, quiet dog!

Nestle "Diving" from our shoreline

Remember Your Stillness

Oh my goodness, Session 3 is now under my belt and I'm officially "half way" to being a P1 Practitioner for companion animals! My dearly-beloved husband is encouraging me to consider taking my 4th training earlier than November... even if I have to fly to the location. There's Oakland, CA in August... that's out near family and with an instructor I have yet to experience. Incentive!

We had a great group of people at this training! Sadly we lost 2 fine ladies to "life" calling them away early on, but I want you to know that they are both doing well. I hope to see them again in the future.

We were blessed with dogs that really needed help. Here's how their week went:

Pandora
A lovely mix who began the week as a busy, nervous dog who could not be still. She also resisted mouth and tail TTouches (stores of emotion). ~ By weeks' end, Pandora was a whole new dog. She had come to like mouth and tail TTouches and had relaxed considerably into a calm, centered, balanced dog who could lie down and be content.

Izabella Izzy is a 1 1/2 year old Vizsla who has experienced a couple of really stressful experiences and now has serious fear issues in which she shuts down completely and becomes unresponsive. I've known Miss Izzy since my 1st training session (which was hers as well). At our first TTouch training session, I hardly saw Izzy. She rarely left her crate. ~ At this session she would shut down upon hearing the tractor trailer rigs outside the building and it would take her nearly an hour to recover. By weeks end, her (tractor trailer) recover time was TEN MINUTES! No joke, Izabella experienced HUGE advances in her fear issues much to her Mommy's relief. She also let us know that she prefers to be addressed by her full name, Izabella.

JoeyThis lovely little dog and his person, Kandi came all the way from Utah to seek out Linda's help with Joey's serious barking issue which the husband can not deal with, stressing the issue more, right? Joey began his week shaking violently all over and barking endlessly at every little noise. His trembles may be in part to the possibility of having lime disease. ~ By weeks' end, Joeys' barking was dramatically reduced to just a brief alert (and not at every little noise) and his shaking was all but history. Here he is pictured wearing a Halti as a comfort band to help reduce stress as the face/mouth region is a storehouse of emotion.

Nestle Nestle is also a reactive barker who didn't know he could stop himself. He began his week with the usual "bark, bark, bark!" at everything and everyone. Linda (pictured with Nestle) and I worked a lot on TTouches with his ears, tail, and mouth area (He LOVES his "Auntie Linda").
~ By weeks' end Nestle was a much more contented dog. Still a bit reactive, but much less so with much more ability to "collect himself". As I left my family's home (where I stayed) he did not react at all to the utility workers in their yard. This was huge!

On our last day Linda took us on a mental/visual journey. This proved quite powerful for many folk and it was quite a tear fest afterwards! My own journey is what I've named this entry. A doe (deer) came up to me and putting her nose to mine, breathed into me the words, "Remember your stillness". Now when I'm working on anything (especially TTouch), when I recall her words within me, a stillness comes and a shift occurs both within myself and the one I'm working on.

Magical.

Since September

Since my training session last September, I have been administering regular doses of Ttouch on my own dogs. Even brief contact is done in a mindful way as well as snuggle time. I also do actual sessions just as I would do on a client. Even my own dogs teach me a lot and they seem to really dig it. Here's Jazz's example:
Jazz requests her Ttouch sessions on a weekly basis. This is displayed in a subtle manner of canine body language screamed at me from the bed, her favorite place to be worked on. Her sessions last on the order of 30 to 40 minutes. So, to date I have worked on her a total of 3 hours, roughly guessing. Have I noticed any changes?

Behaviorally, Jazz has ceased barking at passing boats, birds and cars. She acknowledges passing cars with nothing more than a brief glance , where she had been an avid chaser. Fishing boats coasting by our dock are still fair game, and that I find quite reasonable, but the large cruiser way out in the channel is now free to pass in the world according to Jazz. Birds flying by used to cause quite a fury of barking .... that I don't miss. Barking at clients or delivery personnel entering our little store is an increasing thing of the past. Fears are greatly reduced, confidence is much increased.

Physically Jazz shows improvement in her range of motion and balanced use of both back legs. Jazz's right hip suffers from genetic degeneration. Symptoms cropped up at 18 months of age and were severe enough to warrant surgery. Adequan injections improved mobility so dramatically that a full hip replacement was postponed indefinitely. She would still carry her leg down stairs and would play cautiously. She also slept crooked. ..... You're probably expecting me to say that all those symptoms are gone, just like the excessive barking and car chasing. That now she runs, bolts & jumps again with reckless abandon, soars down stairs with no favoring of her hip, and she now sleeps with relaxed, straighter legs.

Yes.

This is an odd angle but Jazz's left leg is clearly visible in what appears to be propped on Nestle's face. Actually her leg isn't touching his face, that's how far the lower leg would stick up in the air when she's laying on her side. She received Ttouch on her hips during the Chapel Hill training session and I have focused two session on her hips. While still quite cow-hocked, this uncomfortable looking sleeping position is much reduced.

(As soon as I have a picture of her new sleeping position, I'll post it)

Peace, love & Light,
Kat