January 31st 2010

The weather is glorious. Almost too hot in fact but we have plenty of shade in Carmen’s garden so can escape the confines of the large marquee and cover the ground work exercises without worrying that the dogs and their owners might expire half way round the labyrinth.  As a horse owner I found it easy to understand the concept of ground work for dogs when I first discovered this work but for some owners it can seem a little strange.   Everyone has a good skill level already and I am thrilled with progress everyone is making.  The dogs are all coming along well and the combination of leading exercises and body work TTouches are settling even the bounciest hounds.  We have a wonderful German Shepherd dog named Oscar here who is attending with his owner who is on her fifth clinic of TTouch Training.  He is a nervous, defensive dog that cannot tolerate people approaching him and he is a wonderful demo dog for showing how we start the steps to introducing a second person to him at a very safe distance.  All too often dogs like this are labelled as dominant and some owners are encouraged to escalate their own behaviour in order to push the dog into submissive behaviours but this is so dangerous and wholly unfair as the dog will either shut down, giving the appearance that he is coping when he is not, or escalate his own behaviour as he becomes more panicked and afraid.  His owner Adi, is wonderful with him and I have every faith that he will progress well through the week.

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