UA-12921627-3 Jump to content

Sophie Is Breaking My Heart


Fee

Recommended Posts

Done properly positive reinforcement isn't softly softly, nor is it all treats, I rarely use treats. I have taken on very nervous and aggressive dogs, all responded well to positive reinforcement but if I had taken the softly softly approach, they wouldn't have made an progress.

 

TTouch isn't softly softly, the person doing the TTouch keep working on the animal no matter what the animal wants, depending on how bad he is it could be a feather, brush, hand etc. The animal eventually learns that he enjoys this touching.

 

I took Missy to a TTouch workshop with Marie Miller who worked with her briefly, before saying it would be better if I worked with her as she was obviously not enjoying what Marie was doing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 32
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

I took Missy to a TTouch workshop with Marie Miller who worked with her briefly, before saying it would be better if I worked with her as she was obviously not enjoying what Marie was doing.

 

You were told to work with her and not stop, it was easier on Missy if you worked on her than if Marie had. Marie is incredible at reading dogs, and she listens to them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So sad to read this Fee, she was brilliant at the camping weekend considering she is a nervous dog - it is horrible seeing your dog afraid of everyday things let alone you! As you know Roly is afraid of just about everything and I hate seeing him cower when I have visitors or he sees new things/situations. I don't know much about T Touch but think the only thing that has worked with Roly is persistance. I really hope she can get her confidence and trust back, it must be so upsetting for all of you Group_Hug_Emoticon.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

:GroupHug: Sorry to read this Fee. My original thought was similar to Victoria's, along with food, toy or something that she might show signs of interest in. As you appear to have already thought of / tried this I don't really have any suggestions. Hope the ttouch may provide an answer though your "little breakthrough" sounds positive / promising to me. Good luck :flowers:
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry to read you have had such a terrible time with Sophie, it must be very distressing for you :GroupHug:

 

I am a TTouch Practitioner, from what you have said I feel you may be better taking Sophie for a one-to-one session. You could do a one to one first and then attend the workshop afterwards. The workshops are great at teaching you how to use TTouch yourself and there may be some work done by the practitioner with the dogs there. However if Sophie is so hand shy and sensitive to being touched it may be she needs to start with some of the other TTouch tools. :flowers: TTouch can help Sophie move forward from this. If you have a one to one session you will be shown how to do some of the TTouches felt by the practitioner to be most beneficial for Sophie. :)

 

I hope that helps. If you want to ask anything else about TTouch please do :flowers:

 

Rachel Jackson xx

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Having seen Rachel working with Joe, she turned my panicking dog into a totally relaxed dog, so relaxed he fell asleep. Joe always has panic attacks when seeing strange dogs, these often develop into seizures later in the day. I had taken him into a TTouch workshop where is started to panic, Joe has been so much better since Rachel worked on him, he still has panic attacks but they are not as bad.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks so much for all the advice and support, certainly some ideas I can try, and I'm also waiting to hear back from Tilley Farm with their advice about how best to proceed with TTouch. As Sophie isn't very relaxed around strange dogs I think that's another reason why a n individual session might be a better option for her.

 

I don't want to give the impression she's spending her life cringing and cowering, she's quite bouncy, wags her tail if I look at her or speak to her, wants to be close to a point but hovers around just out of reach. I'm hoping that a long Christmas break will give me a bit more time to work on her, too, and perhaps take her out for some one-to-one walks as a bit of a bonding thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As she had quite a big op within the last three months, I would have her checked over. If she is sore for any reason it would explain her shying away from being touched.

 

It does sound as though she is starting to come round (you said she allowed stroking recently, albeit briefly) so she may just need a little more time. On saying that, play can be a great ally. If she is toy orientated (particularly playing fetch) a gentle, brief stroke before re-throwing the toy and gradually building up her confidence that way can work wonders.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As she had quite a big op within the last three months, I would have her checked over. If she is sore for any reason it would explain her shying away from being touched.

 

It does sound as though she is starting to come round (you said she allowed stroking recently, albeit briefly) so she may just need a little more time. On saying that, play can be a great ally. If she is toy orientated (particularly playing fetch) a gentle, brief stroke before re-throwing the toy and gradually building up her confidence that way can work wonders.

 

As she had quite a big op within the last three months, I would have her checked over. If she is sore for any reason it would explain her shying away from being touched.

 

It does sound as though she is starting to come round (you said she allowed stroking recently, albeit briefly) so she may just need a little more time. On saying that, play can be a great ally. If she is toy orientated (particularly playing fetch) a gentle, brief stroke before re-throwing the toy and gradually building up her confidence that way can work wonders.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I discussed it with my vet a few weeks ago and he put her on Metacam for a week to see if that gave us any clues whether it might be pain-related, but it made no difference.

 

I'm sure she was very sore after the op, it was quite a big wound, so I think she's reacting to remembered pain rather than actual pain, but she's due to have her boosters next week (I chickened out the other night) so she'll get a good look over then.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I just wanted to update on this, and say a huge thank you to everybody who offered advice flowers.gif

 

We are moving forward with Sophie - and in fact re-reading my first post has made me realise we have actually come along way in the last few weeks. She is now tolerating most normal day-to-day handling (albeit very carefully and gently) and even better she has started to enjoy strokes and cuddles again.

 

I took the advice to be more proactive rather than waiting for her to come round, and also to create some 'boundaries' so she could predict what was going to happen and when. I started approaching her frequently and stroking her lightly down her head and body 3-4 times, then leaving her alone. At first she was rigid and obviously not happy about it, but when she started to understand that was all that was going to happen she became more relaxed and in time started pushing against my hand for the strokes, and then to start approaching me for strokes, and we've moved on gradually from there.

 

She isn't yet back to where she used to be, I still feel a bit as though I'm walking on eggshells with her and a wrong move could send her flying, but she is now much more responsive and even getting silly and wriggly and flipping over for tummy tickles sometimes wub.gif

 

Still a way to go, but I feel as though she's my Sophie again, not some little feral creature hovering around poised to run at the first move towards her, and I'm much more confident now that she will continue to improve.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


×
×
  • Create New...