Re: Relaxation Aids I’m afraid I am not at all convinced about the powers of TTouch. Many dogs enjoy massage, and I have no doubt that some dogs find it relaxing. But I find the Tellington Touch website very unsettling with it's vague claims Activate how? What potential? And this? This is the nearest I can find on the Tellington Touch website to an explanation of what is happening. And for me, it smacks of quackery. What I do find fascinating is the story of Emily Rosa. Emily designed such a neat little experiment to test Therapeutic Touch, that it was published in the Journal Of the American Medical Association. This made history because Emily was just nine years old. You can read about her experiment here I feel I should point out my position on this because unfortunately, in the first print run of my book Total Recall, the publisher, without my permission, put the Tellington T Touch book in the recommended reading section at the back. Needless to say, I had this removed from future copies, but I would hate anyone to think that I was personally recommending it.
Re: Relaxation Aids [quote author=editor link=topic=4805.msg60407#msg60407 date=1394641807] But I find the Tellington Touch website very unsettling with it's vague claims Activate how? What potential? And this? [/quote] That's put me off - agree, sounds very suspect. Although, I did look up simple doggy massages for Charlie, and it was successful, it was just a time filler at first but he got quite "into" it and now comes and asks for his back massage, which make him go all relaxed, and floppy and froggie legged (not that he is uptight, anyway, but I think it helped his back and leg when he was limping a bit - at least, unlikely it did any harm, and he enjoyed it). I was thinking the TTouch thing was a more advanced form of massage and have had it on my "things to look into" list for a while now. Won't bother now.
Re: Relaxation Aids Personally I wouldn't be put off, as far as I am aware what harm can massaging do? ??? I practised a couple of the massages on Charlie who was too stressed to let anyone/vet look in his ears and he had to be sedated to have debris removed, now he lets me clean them and regularly inspect them, so no harm done, just helping him relax, so a good outcome and less costly than sedation I have experienced far more negative and nasty practises with gundog trainers than doing a little TTouch :'( I can understand Pippa if the publisher muscled in on your book which is not good practise.
Re: Relaxation Aids To be honest , I didnt actually follow the T Touch proceedure to the letter, just took the principal that massage is a good relaxation for humans , so why not dogs ? I think that if you have an anxious dog , as I did at the time , you will try anything that is non invasive, non toxic or dangerous in any way , it worked for Lily , making a huge difference to her x To add that what the T Touch team did re your book was 100% out of order Pippa
Re: Relaxation Aids Big fan of massage here - I watched a few vids and checked I wasn't going to do any harm with the physio lady, and had a go. But not because I have a nervous dog, I don't. Charlie's back got a bit achy when he was limping, and it was super cute the way he'd come and stretch out, waiting for his back massage. Mind, he also demands tummy, chest, chin and thigh rubs on a regular basis so maybe he just likes the cuddle. : The physio did think I'd managed to ease Charlie's back - but maybe it would have got better anyway. Whatever, we both enjoyed it. Looking at the TTouch website though, it does make a lot of claims. And charges pretty prices for books, DVDs and courses. It claims to help with just about every undesirable behaviour in dogs. If it does, well, great. There are also "I can walk!" stories of dogs being carried in on blankets and running round like puppies after 15 minutes. If this is true, wonderful and amazing. If not, it's the kind of presentation that can part people from their money when they are feeling the most vulnerable. It's back on my things to look into list.
Re: Relaxation Aids I only parted with about £5 for the book. I wasn't too convinced about all the other claims either, but I can only say that Charlie benefitted from the ear and paw massages and defitintely still enjoys them very much and anything that saves money at the vet …..
Re: Relaxation Aids [quote author=editor link=topic=4805.msg60407#msg60407 date=1394641807] What I do find fascinating is the story of Emily Rosa. Emily designed such a neat little experiment to test Therapeutic Touch, that it was published in the Journal Of the American Medical Association. This made history because Emily was just nine years old. You can read about her experiment here [/quote] Having had 3 children spend time in the US school system, I have to say that I loved school Science Fairs. Clare
Re: Relaxation Aids One of my dog trainers recommended I look into TTouch as a way to help with Penny's anxiety and tension around other dogs and her hips. I always pegged it for some airy fairy nonsense to be quite honest but that's just based on what I've seen - people in the cattery at the kennels I worked in stroking cats with feathers on sticks.... Wanting to look at canine massage though but still waiting for our referral to the physio.
Re: Relaxation Aids [quote author=JulieT link=topic=4805.msg60435#msg60435 date=1394653595] Looking at the TTouch website though, it does make a lot of claims. And charges pretty prices for books, DVDs and courses. It claims to help with just about every undesirable behaviour in dogs. If it does, well, great. There are also "I can walk!" stories of dogs being carried in on blankets and running round like puppies after 15 minutes. If this is true, wonderful and amazing. If not, it's the kind of presentation that can part people from their money when they are feeling the most vulnerable. [/quote] Interesting. Was at the hydro place today, and they'd had a problem with the pool heating (we were on the treadmill, so it didn't matter for us) and they were cancelling some clients. Anyway, of course a few still turned up, and rather than just turn them away they were offering physio and massage sessions instead. Super interesting. I got talking to them about T/Touch, and they were big fans. They said the descriptions on the web site about how it works are all nonsense, and they were describing it more like a mix of traditional massage and acupuncture (they have a vet there who specialises in acupuncture) but more than that, about foccussing the handler to be very calm with the dog. These are not airy, fairy, trot-out-any-old-gobbledegook-rubbish people, most of them are vets armed with gait analysis machines to measure their results with hard data. They mostly use T/Touch with very stressed dogs, who are just too tense to allow them to start working on the injuries. Some of the dogs they treat are in pain, and very stressed and aggressive. Anyway, I peaked through the window to see one dog, described as so stressed it had sores in its mouth from aggressive barking, and had to be muzzled as it would literally go for people's throats, stretched out, and absolutely blissed out, on a mat. It was one happy pup, for sure. They sort of got me interested enough to pick up a leaflet for a day's course in the autumn....I'll have a hard nonsense detection nose on and report back!
Re: Relaxation Aids Interesting so the TTouch method has kind of stumbled on something that works and they've made up some bumpf to try and explain it? Looking forward to your feedback
Re: Relaxation Aids [quote author=bbrown link=topic=4805.msg71855#msg71855 date=1398772041] Interesting so the TTouch method has kind of stumbled on something that works and they've made up some bumpf to try and explain it? [/quote] Possibly - or, I suppose, there might not be anything to explain (not much for a marketing company to work with!) and it's just massage, which done well has a very positive effect on some dogs. Anyway, I think I'll look into it - Charlie loves his massages, but I'm a bit of an amateur.
Re: Relaxation Aids I like your style Julie. [quote author=JulieT] They sort of got me interested enough to pick up a leaflet for a day's course in the autumn....I'll have a hard nonsense detection nose on and report back! [/quote] This is how I got "into" acupuncture. And come to think of it, also meditation....... Really interested to hear if you do go.
