T Touch

In our case, Theoretical Touch instead of Tellington Touch as our practitioner never got to touch the handsome boy! Took baby over to the Phinney Ridge area to meet Lori who came highly recommended for her T Touch work. It's hard to explain what T Touch is - better to send you to the website. I admit that the rational/scientific side of me questions some of this stuff. But when you are desperate and there's enough word of mouth praise from so many sources, you don't dismiss something outright. So I yielded to empiricism in this case. Kept this photo in my head to caaaalm myself at the thought that he might really lose it in a weird back yard in downtown Seattle:

Hard to see but yes, those are real elephants on a real African savannah. Ok, so I wasn't entirely calm then either as they like to charge (which is why they look like the size of a pin head) but viewed from the safety of my mind, very effective!

To skip right to the chase, I was pretty impressed when all was said and done. At first Baby would not even approach Lori's house. He panicked and ran for the car almost as soon as he was out which I expected. Having Lori "shepherd" him away from the car towards her house worked perfectly. In order to get away from her, he made a bee line for her back yard which is where we decided we would do our work. Once back there, she observed and watched him. It is such a relief for me to be around people who already know what needs to be done and how to carry oneself around a dog like him. Her lack of fear and her innate understanding of his behavior saves me trying to give a brief lesson in 5 minutes on how to act while assuring someone I won't let anything happen. And my lessons are still fumbling anyway as I am still learning all this.

That would be me in Jaipur, India failing to learn my lesson about a) sitting on the ground which isn't entirely sanitary and b) sitting that close to a cobra. Yes, Baby, I know how hard it is to learn sometimes when you're distracted by something else!

Once in the backyard, we went through the usual series of barks and growls. Lori gave me a great demonstration of counterconditioning and desensitizing. It sounds so easy when you read it in the books but to do it definitively and so there is no question in the animal's mind is an art form. As per his usual, Baby's natural curiosity won out and he quickly came closer and closer for treats thrown to him from Lori. By closer I mean within 15 feet!

The biggest lesson I learned out of this phase was how much I tend to coddle him though I have been misled (by my own wishful thinking!) into believing I have been neutral. Baby went from standing behind me, to leaning against me, to holding a paw up to me to finally, in all desperation, trying his "high 10" trick on my back to get me to lavish comfort and attention on him. Lori told me not to look at him, touch him or speak to him. She wanted absolute neutrality so no punishment (of course), verbal correction etc, but rather just ignoring that behavior completely. It is really hard to ignore your desperate, scared dog when they are begging for your attention by tugging on the folds of your skirt, so to speak. I had a hard time with this and I had no idea the extent to which I have been reinforcing his behavior. I have made him far more dependent on me in these situations than he was to start with, hence his new resource guarding of me.


Adrian, my erstwhile travelling companion, resource guarding his wine in a plastic cup. He looks happy and relaxed but don't take that wine away or he will become vicious!

Lori then had me put a long line on his collar. We tried the wand but as I predicted, the sight of that thing anywhere near his body sent his stress level into orbit. With line on, she worked with him through the line, slowly moving her hands down the line and back towards her in a constant motion as though she were pulling the line to her with both hands but not actually moving it. This is where I had to give in to the effectiveness of T Touch...he began walking towards her as though she really were pulling the line until he was standing next to her. That may sound laughable to those who have a dog like Hudson for example, who can't get close enough to people but it is a huge step for a dog like Baby, especially in that amount of time.

She continued tossing treats when he looked at her calmly and with no barking or growling. When he did bark and growl, treats went into the treat void and were lost to him momentarily. Once done with the line work, she showed me a basic wrap using an ace bandage that she'd like me to work with to increase his body awareness. She also showed me some basic T Touches for his ears, mouth and tail. More information to assimilate - I think I am full!

So far, he is having none of the ear touch. He does like his ears massaged but not in the specific way Lori would like me to do so we work on it for literally seconds at a time before we quit and give it a break. All in all, well worth the time and experimentation. And now I will go back to another of my calm, happy places :)


Dharamsala, the Tibetan capital in exile high in the Himalaya.