If an animal is holding
habitual tension in certain parts of the body it will affect their ease of movement and
physical balance. When out of physical balance, confidence and the ability to cope in a
range of situations can be seriously compromised. Many things can affect physical balance
and the nervous system can quickly form the habit of holding the body in an awkward
posture.
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Puppies
grow quickly and can often start to move awkwardly as their body grows at different rates,
affecting physical balance. The also go through 'fear periods' during development. This
emotional response can encourage them to hold tension patterns which affect posture and go
full circle to further affect emotional response. This encourages erratic, fast movement
where the puppy starts bumping and banging into things and people. Emotional tension goes
to the jaw area and the puppy often starts to mouth again as a coping mechanism to release
this tension. This is often seen as naughty behaviour, in truth the puppy can't help it as
it does not have the experience to move in any other way. A dog's normal pace of movement
is faster than a human's walking pace. Puppies need to learn how to co-ordinate their body
and walk slowly in order to be able to walk on a loose lead. Greet people calmly. Use
their body language to communicate well with other dogs. |
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An
example of how normal growth and development can can affect a pup's physical and emotional
balance. Note how Trance's hind end is higher than the front throwing her weight forward.
There was nothing physically 'wrong' it was just the way she was growing but it affected
her ability to communicate well when meeting strange dogs at a critical time in her
emotional development. Some perceived a threat because her movement was fast, erratic and
forward tilting so they challenged, which in turn affected her confidence with strange
dogs. She started to bark and lunge forward 'just in case' they were going to attack her.
The groundwork exercises helped her to move in balance, more slowly, without the forward
tilt. This significantly improved her interactions with other dogs and avoided the
development of a difficult behaviour problem. |
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The physical effects
of a medical condition or physical injury can make animals adopt an out of balance posture
to 'guard' the area which was painful. This affects performance and emotional response to
different situations. Often they need a little help to learn how to move in physical
balance again.
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Note the pressure put on
Jake's neck, shoulders, front legs and head as his posture has adjusted to accomodate his
disability. He still manages to have a wonderful time playing at 'catch the water from the
hosepipe' and still gets into all sorts of mischief to keep us on our toes!! |
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Jake has a progressive back condition
which seriously compromises his mobility. He could not have an operation to help because
there were too many vertabrae involved. As they wear away at the base, nerves get pinched
and damaged and he has lost a lot of sensation in his hind legs and tail. He is a very
large and energetic dog, standing 28" at the withers. When he was xrayed 3yrs ago and
we saw the extent of the damage, his potential to continue to enjoy life looked very
bleak. Hollycroft Vet Centre
look after Jake's primary care and medication, he receives accupuncture to aid pain relief
on referal to Acorn Vets. Swimming at Corley K9 Pool helps to make him feel good in the
non-weight bearing freedom of the water and maintain as much muscle tone as possible in
his hind legs ... so where does TTouch come in?
The gentle groundwork exercises help him to adjust
mentally and adapt physically so that he is still mobile. The daily body TTouches help to
comfort and relax those poor overworked shoulder, neck and leg muscles and give him a
sense of well being. The result? A dog who has managed to adjust to his disability over
the last 3yrs and still keep his amazing enjoyment of and zest for life |
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Over excitement or
fear can encourage animals to hold tension in certain parts of the body. This affects
the ability to move in physical balance which in turn feeds the emotional state,
locking them into a cycle of boistrous or reactive behaviour.
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This beautiful young
labrador is very boistrous and 'pulled' on the lead. In reality she
leaned into the lead to enable her to stay upright because she did not know how to move at
the much slower human walking pace and still keep her balance.
Notice how the pressure
of a single connection on her collar/lead causes her body to twist away at the
front, away from the handler's leg. This caused alot of discomfort to her owner's shoulder
and back while they are walking.
Using a harness and flat
collar with a double clipped lead helped us to teach her how to keep her weight over her
legs and move slowly, without having to lean into the lead |
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This
lively little Jack Russell was very noisy and reactive to other dogs while on the lead.
Note how he leans into the lead, even with the double connection of harness and collar. He
cannot keep his balance even when there are no other dogs around.
His lack of confidence
physically causes him to be reactive when there is another dog around and he is restricted
by the lead.
He needs the additional
help of 'Homing Pigeon' (see below) so that he can learn to be more aware of his movement
and balance and so improve his confidence in a variety of situations. |
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The Journey
of the Homing Pigeon, with a handler either side leading helps the dog to centre itself as
it learns to use the non-habitual movements required to negotiate the Confidence Course. Confidence Course helps to teach co-ordination
and balance. We use objects on the ground to encourage the dog to make non-habitual
movements and teach them how to move their body slowly and remain in physical balance. It
is very easy for most dogs to rush blindly around these objects but when we ask them to
move slowly, with awareness and halt frequently they can find it difficult and worrying to
start with. |
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Fluffy is
demonstrating how the 'step-over' is used to teach dogs how to use their legs mindfully
and independantly. The soft poles can be set at different distances, heights and angles. A
wand is being used to help her focus on the direction we are moving. A soft rope harness
is being used to help her to balance as she learns to lift each leg independantly while
moving slowly. |
 
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These soft
poles can be adjusted to different shapes and angles to help Fluffy to learn to
co-ordinate and shift her weight over her legs as she turns. Notice how hard she is having
to concentrate. Again
the wand is being used as an additional cue to the foward movement.
Sometimes a dog will freeze and just
not know which leg to move next. The legs and body can be gently stroked with the wand to
encourage the nervous sytem to make a connection and move forward. It avoids having to
crowd or lean over the dog. |
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The
Teeter-Totter helps her to move up a slight incline, halt and re-balance. Move forward a
pace, halt and re-balance as the board tips forward sightly so that she can walk calmly
and slowly off the other side. |
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The
labyrinth also teaches a dog to change direction and remain in balance. Notice how Fluffy
is out of balance as she comes to a halt after turning the corner. The direction signal of
the wand helps her to lower her head and move forward in balance to take the final turn. We have found that reactive dogs can often be
more easlily de-sensitised to the presence of other dogs outside the labyrinth while they
are inside it. We can then progress to them following other dogs through it. |
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The hoops
provide another variation of equipment to step over and through. Confidence course
exercises can be varied by using different textures of surface, hard-standing, grass,
rubber matting, canvas. The
Low Walk Over just inches from the ground (not shown here) is also an really useful piece
of equipment to teach a dog how to negotiate ramps and steps with confidence. |
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Marie
Miller Tellington TTouch Practitioner 3 Telephone: 024 76 366090 Mobile:
07774 220049 |
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