June 28, 2008

Here we go to the T-touch seminar. Baby is ready to take her trip. She’s the best back seat driver there is! If there is a squirrel, dog, cat, or any kind of varmint in the vicinity, she will let me know by barking. Sometimes, I get the full effect of it right in my ear if everything’s timed right. She’s a gem, I tell you. An absolute gem!

“We’re here! Let me out!” Baby is anxious to get started and see what’s going on in the midst of all this activity she’s seeing. “Is that a Pomeranian I see? Let me out!”

Here are the instructors, Karin and Deirdre. The stuffed dogs are their demonstration dogs. Karin is from the Netherlands and Deirdre is from England. They were both impressed with Baby’s all naturalness. Of course, Baby’s lovely personality and beautiful face were also awe inspiring (and “Ahhh” inspiring. She’s so cute!). 🙂

Baby wouldn’t hush up if I wasn’t petting her, but my arms got tired. I put both of my feet around her, and that seemed to keep her quiet. One of the T-Touch principles is that you have two points with which you put pressure on the dog and that makes them feel comfortable. Maybe they have something right with that idea!

Here is Baby wearing her back leg ankle bands. One is black and one is white. They didn’t have a matching set. These are supposed to make her feel her backside again being she has pretty bad arthritis, the musculature in her back end is wearing down, and she doesn’t feel it. The ankle bands are supposed to draw attention to her that she has those back legs and needs to start using them again. We also were visited, during a break, by a participant who is a canine physical therapist. She said Baby could use her help! The PT said she was a human PT first, then took some special classes that lets her practice at a vet’s office. Ain’t that something? There isn’t a specialized field of study to be “just” a PT for pets and be able to practice without being under a vet. You have to go into human PT first, then specialize to be a solo practitioner.

Baby is very good at getting treats and here she is doing just that. Alongside of that is a T-Touch massage. “Yes, that feels pretty good,” she says.

Here Baby is taking a photo break after getting a drink of water, and shaking off her ankle bracelets. She’s very excited to be here, and really wanted to go around and explain this to each and everyone except it wasn’t allowed. There were many other dogs with big social issues. Baby doesn’t have a social issue. She enjoys schmoozing with anyone and their pets. Though with pets, she gives them about a 3-5 second introduction of niceties, then she barks at their face to back them off her bad DoberDiva self. She’s a special gal!

These are the dogs to the right of us. Buster is the Beagle, and there is a Boston Terrier, and a Pomeranian whose name is Fontleroy. The woman with the MinPin is trying the T-Touch wrap to settle this dog down. The MinPin is supposedly a biter and doesn’t like people or other animals. And she was originally very uncomfortable in her wrap. She got wrapped before the rest of us, during a break, to help her calm down.

Baby is so cute! She may be 11 years old, but she looks like and has the curiosity of a puppy. I don’t know what she was looking for here, but maybe it was a lizard? Or an fairie? Whatever it was, Baby found it fascinating.

Here is Karin setting up a course that the dogs will walk through once they have their wraps on.

It looks like there’s some sheriff activity going on here. Nothing gets by Baby! She’s ready to tend to the task at hand, if possible, running down there to get some attention from those men! She’s a bit of a hussy, Baby is.

This is the snippy little MinPin again. She’s wearing a two-snap leash to make her feel more embraced and confident. Two touching points are the key. One on each side of her little body.

The Pom, Font, is very cute in his chair. His owner is sitting on the floor.

It’s about time to get wrapped up! This wrap is to give the dog consciousness of its whole body. Unlike people where we can see ourselves in the mirror and know we are more than a head, dogs aren’t always aware of the back end or the rest of their bodies. They think they’re just a head, according to this theory. The wrap gives them awareness of all of them. Luigi is one who crabs when he heels, and is also learning that he has to steer the back end in accordance with the front. I’ve seen numerous Dobies throughout the years who are expert crabbers. The T-Touch idea may help with this.

Baby is really not sure about all this stuff she’s wrapped in. The Pom seems to be taking it in stride. We were hoping to find some color coordinate wraps, but they only had one color at the drug store.

There was something called a snout wrap, too. That is an idea I might use on Little Big Pants. You can use a flexible head band and put a figure 8 around the dogs head and snout. Karin tried this on the brown and blue eyed Sheltie in the class. It worked, but not sure if it was because she stopped barking because of the wrap or because she was busy trying to paw it off her snoot. The concept on the snoot wrap is that the dog isn’t aware of its mouth. We also did a snout T-touch, and I am still wondering, “Raven isn’t aware of her mouth? That big boca? Hmmm. Maybe?” Well, the whole class settled down after the first break of three segments of the class. That was noticeable because the barking was very apparent for the first section. Many dogs barked.

The wrap doesn’t make a DoberDiva anymore nosy than she already is, but it does enhance her need to snoop. Before going outside, Baby needed to check out what was inside every one of Karin’s shopping bags. She even attempted a jump up with front paws to see what was inside some storage slots, but that was not to happen. Not with Baby’s arthritis, and I didn’t have the strength to lift her high enough to see. So we set our sails for the great outdoors for new adventures.

When we went outside, Baby sniffed a tree, and showed off her cute rear end all wrapped up. The wrap looks so much better when one has a flowing tail to drape through it. A stub amidst a wrap like this just wouldn’t look as elegant. Though Leissl and Luigi may have something to say about that!

This lady has a Vizsla whose tail doesn’t stand in the show ring. She is here to try to remedy that, so her dog will show better in conformation. She has put Baby’s ankle bracelets on the dog! Mon Dieu! Baby would not like to have those ankle bracelet back now, thank you very much. No way!

Here is the group going through some of the obstacle courses. What fun. And thank goodness there was some shade!

The owner of the Vizsla tweaked that bunchie on that tail. I’m not sure if it was working right, or not. But maybe come clicking and treating to get that tail up would help with the bunchie idea.

Meanwhile, Deirdre helped some of the class participants, while Baby and I were wrapping it up. The little Aussie in this picture is a youngster, and put her face in Baby’s for over 5 seconds a couple times. Her owner says she’s learning slowly. Yep. Baby is so bossy, too.

We went inside for any last minute questions. I asked about the tail touch, which evidently I missed as it was touched on outdoors. So Karin took Baby and T-touched her tail, showed us how to gently pull the tail and release, so it falls down on its own. She mentioned that Baby’s tail is tight. Poor thing.

Everyone got a certificate from the group that sponsored this event, Performance Pups, Inc., for finishing the class, and we had to be out of the facility promptly at 5 p.m. We were and headed home where Baby got sniffed and had to recuperate from her full day of activities at Sunview Park.

Even as I write this today, the day after, Baby is still recuperating. It was an intense 3-hour “workout” for a senior DoberDiva. I had feared I may have hurt her or overdid it, but she is slowly getting back to herself. Just like us mere humans, DoberDivas take longer to rebound as they mature. It’s a fact of life all over the spectrum of life. I’ve giving her some T-touches and ear rubs, and even stretched her tail. She had a bit of a sore shoulder going into this, as well, which needs rest more than anything. But tonight, she has started to look more like herself and acting like it, too. I will try the wrap again, 20 minute max every other day, once she is 100% back to herself. In the meantime, I need to find one of those haribands for a certain Tree Climber in the family. 🙂

For more information on T-Touch, click here!

Helen