[1] Use a bit of firm massage around your dog’s neck as a reward after clicking sometimes, combined with praise.

[2] To promote overall well-being, give your dog a good massage every week. This will help with his general level of relaxation, and we learn better when relaxed.

[3] When you are watching TV with your dog, go down on the floor with him (or invite him up onto the sofa with you, if that’s your preference) and casually rub him, in the direction his fur grows for the most part.

[4] Teach your dog to accept toenail clipping more gracefully by massaging his paws.

Naturally, do be alert to your dog’s signals to you that he isn’t comfortable with something you are doing. In that case, back off to something he does like for the time being.

I recently watched a lovely DVD called Bodywork for Dogs, which I reviewed here:
http://training-dogs.com/dogtrainingdvds/bodyworkfordogsdvd.html

I liked it enough to think it’s worth watching multiple times, one of my criteria for a DVD I’ll buy.

[tags]dog massage, dogmassage[/tags]

Using Dog Massage with Dog Training is a post from: Training Dogs Blog

Anyway, I am always telling people about the TTouch and showing them how to do a basic bit of it. Recently I ran into a man I know who usually has his elderly collie with him. But the dog wasn’t there. When I asked, the guy said that the dog was at home, as it had been feeling a little off lately.

Well, that was my cue! “Have you heard about the Tellington TTouch?” I asked.

To my surprise, he said, “Oh yes! I met Linda over ten years ago and I’ve been using it ever since!” They had met at a horse event and he’d used it with horses and dogs ever since. He proceeded to describe the various touches he uses, with lots of detail which I might have been hard pressed to come up with myself. But I recognized its accuracy. He had stayed home from a party the other night because he and the dog had gotten into such a peaceful space together as he did the ttouches that time had passed without his being aware of it.

Besides admiring his memory, I was happy to hear his ttouch story!

A Tellington Touch Dog Story is a post from: Training Dogs Blog

I’ve been doing a lot of Tellington Touch (known also as the Tellington TTouch) lately, in the process of socializing our new and already very large puppy. Lola is 8 months old and both LarryDog, shown above, and our cat Misty, shown in the picture below, were quite dubious at first about her presence.

One of the things I did to ease everyone’s stress was the most basic of the Tellington Touches. It had a very good effect! Larry would become relaxed, like he is in the picture. Lola got used to the touches quickly, though for some time she was not so sure she liked it when I worked around her hindquarters. She would look at me as I did it, and sometimes lick me. I would stop for a bit and later I’d be able go further with less concern from her.
I knew about this process because my husband and I had worked with Linda Tellington-Jones to create two videos, which are now DVDs, about using the Tellington Touch with dogs and with cats.
Here’s a link to a page on another of my websites, about Linda Tellington-Jones and the ttouch, including a simple ttouch you can try. I’m sorry I can’t really just describe the circles on this page. They aren’t hard to learn but it’s better done visually or in person.

Misty is still growling a lot at Lola, but is not giving up her favorite spot on our bed:

Using the Tellington Touch for Socializing Dogs and Cats is a post from: Training Dogs Blog

EFT is short for Emotional Freedom Technique and it is quite an amazingly effective method of working on physical and emotional problems of all sorts. I’ve been using it for several years, chiefly for myself and other humans.

You can get lots of information about it online at www.emofree.com, a site which is a real labor of love of Gary Craig, as well as at a number of other sites. In a nutshell, you release blocked energy by tapping on different acupuncture points, mostly on your face. It’s hard to believe how effective this can be but it is. Gary Craig has hundreds of accounts of its benefits on his site.

For myself, the most dramatic change I’ve experienced was last year. My husband Kelly fell off a roof and we didn’t know for a while how badly he was injured. I did really well while the ambulance was coming and we were going to the emergency clinic, but once the crisis was past, I fell apart. (Kelly ended up with a broken rib and has completely recovered.) I did some EFT for both of us around that time, but what really got me over my stress was a session I did with someone else helping me.

I’ve used it a little with animals but it really should be something I draw on more. Here’s my favorite story: Kelly and I had acquired Misty, a young cat, in Mexico. She had turned up in a friend’s patio after being chased by another cat. She took up residence there but our friend was allergic and we took her. Her favorite place in our house was under the bed. We knew nothing of her history but the life of a street cat can be imagined.

We left Misty there, our landlord taking care of her while we went back to the US for a while. When we came back to Mexico, we ended up buying a house in another area (Lake Chapala), where we are living now. We brought Misty, bed, and other stuff to our present house. Misty continued to favor under the bed as her hangout, perhaps even more than before as now she had to contend with our LarryDog in the house with her.

After a couple of weeks, I decided to do some EFT in surrogation for her. So I said “I am Misty and even though I feel safe under the bed, I also like lying on the bed.” I said this three times while doing what’s called the karate chop (details on Gary Craig’s site) and then I went on to tap on the meridian points, first while saying “only safe under the bed” then moving on to “I’m safe on top of the bed.”

After doing this briefly, I had a subjective sense of a shift. But would anything really change?

It sure did. That very day, Misty spent hours on the bed, up in the pillows as far away from the edges as she could get. When LarryDog (who has lived with cats for years) went over to give her a friendly greeting, she hissed and he backed off. Within a week, she was Queen of the Bed. She still is.

If you’ve had experiences with EFT and dogs or other animals, do add your comments!

EFT with Dogs and Cats is a post from: Training Dogs Blog