When Lizzie was rescued as a pup, she had very bad mange over 50% of her body. Her skin looked scalded and burned. She was bathed and scraped every other day for several weeks. When she came to Tonya at 12 weeks old, she was high strung. It is possible that Lizzie is still reactive from stored body memories.
Tonya wants to learn tools to help their partnership, to increase Lizzie’s confidence, tolerance of people and children, ability to do agility in public, walk through a crowd, easily go for walks, and for Lizzie to feel comfortable and secure in her own fur.
Tonya brought in Lizzie, now 4 years old, to see how TTouch might help decrease Lizzie’s reactive behaviors. She described Lizzie as very reactive, aloof, shy and fearful, difficult to trim toe nails, does not like being touched or brushed. She gets frantic meeting people in public, and wants to flee with strange noises and thunderstorms. In public while doing agility/rally her eyes become glassy and she seems unable to think/focus. She can do agility/rally at home comfortably and loves it though. She is anxious and sometimes unable to eat treats in public. Lizzie barks into a frenetic state even with people and dogs she knows and pulls on the leash when going for walks.
As I began to talk with Tonya at the beginning of the session I faced away from them while sitting in a chair. As soon as I spoke however, Lizzie began to bark frantically and lunged at me.
Instead of trying to do the TTouches on Lizzie myself, I demonstrated on a stuffed dog and walked Tonya through using TTouches. I had her stroke along Lizzie’s muzzle, use Ear Strokes and long slow firm strokes along her body known as “Noah’s March.â€Â Lizzie began to settle.
Then I demonstrated how to use a Half Wrap with a 2†wide ace bandage. The stretchy fabric wrapped across the chest, crossed over the shoulders, crossed under the belly and then brought over and tied along the back helps dogs feel safer, more secure and aware of their body. They can also help calm nervousness, hyper excitability and ease fear of strangers.
After continuing to use Noah’s March along the length of her body, along her back, tail, down her legs all the way to her paws, she continued to quiet and was less frantic. Increasingly, she paused, sat and then felt safe enough to lie down. Her respiration and panting slowly began to ease. This took about 10 minutes.
Initially she did not want her paws touched, but by the end of the session, Tonya was able to easily and quietly stroke and do TTouches along her legs and paws. Tonya was amazed and cried with relief at the changes. She exclaimed several times difficult it has been to trim her toenails and how Lizzie has not been able to relax or settle herself in public.
We used a Calming Wrap across her forehead to help her relax and focus.  We alternated this with sliding the wrap down across her muzzle to bring awareness of her barking and mouth movements. Both were key tools in helping her behavior to calm and settle. After she had the forehead and muzzle wrap there were a number of times when she began to bark at my moving and talking, but she began stopping herself. Half way through the session she was also able to change her focus easily and discontinue barking when Tonya quietly called to her or asked her to walk or change her position. Each of these changes marked dramatic improvements from her previous reactive behaviors.
Tonya was able to learn a variety of TTouches while seeing the immediate results even though I was not the person applying TTouch. This is a wonderful and empowering aspect of the work. She told me she has been trying for years to help her dog but didn’t know what else to do. One Vet had suggested Prozac, but she did not want to do this.
Within 24 hours after Lizzie’s first session, I received this email from Tonya; “The person next door to us was outside and usually that means that Lizzie barks and barks and barks and getting her to come back is a project. But yesterday was so so so different. Yes she did bark but I kneeled down on the ground and said Lizzie here—and yes she did return. She didn’t want me to catch her right away—but she returned. This is huge. Normally she wouldn’t even here me call her name. And when I did touch her—-I tried rubbing her and she didn’t want that—so I did the gum rub (mouth TTouches) and boy………. she seemed to forget the person was there. I was thrilled!!!!!!â€
Find the Magic through TTouch, Animal Communication, Energy Healing Medicine and Essential Oils. Contact Sandy Rakowitz to set up a private session to help you and your animals learn new tools to resolve conflict, assist in communication, deal with fears, aid with health issues and deepen the bond with your animals.
Leave a Reply