During the workshop we covered:
1) Bodywork - gentle, non-invasive and non-habitual pressure touch
2) Equipment and Tools - these bring awareness and change to animals
3) Movement work - this builds confidence, improves focus, and encourages balance (mental, physical and emotional)
I spoke about bodywork on Monday's post & for equiment and tools, there was a lot of good discussion around harnesses vs. collars as well as two point vs. one point of contact leashes. We did some demo work with each with the two point vs. one point of contact leash & it was pretty suprising how different each felt on me as much larger person than most dogs.
Basically what I took away from this workshop is that dogs (regardless of size) should be in a harnesses - here's a great video by Turid Rugaas as to why http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPuf_nhUmE0 Ideally dogs will be walked on a 2 point of contact leash. Prior to this workshop I've had Catty walking on a 2 point of contact leash and her reactivity to seeing dogs has been drastically reduced. My experince has been that I personally feel more conected to the dog on a 2 point of contact leash, I have more ablitly to manuver with the dog on this leash and it truely feels better for the dog. I really struggled with using this new leash but, once I figured it out, it's now super easy. I've been walking Dandy & Catty together, each of them on a 2 point of contact leash & all three of us have a pretty great walking experience. There's a lot more that was talked about during this workshop, this is just a broad brush overview.
If anyone is interested in learning more about TTouch or Walking in Balance with your dog the TTouch way - I strongly recommend the DVD's by Lori Stevens http://www.tawzerdog.com/product/info/992/Tellington-TTouch-%C2%AE-for-Dogs---Lori-Stevens.php and http://www.tawzerdog.com/product/info/1135/Tellington-TTouch-%C2%AE-Techniques%3A-Walking-in-Balance-With-Your-Dog---Lori-Stevens.php
If you don't want to purchase these video's but would like to watch them, Tawzerdog has a rental membership which is pretty cool: http://www.tawzerdog.com/infoPages/show_page/howworks.php
The location of the workshop was beautiful as well as peaceful. After all the class work, we headed out for movement work. As you can see the set up was awesome. Just when I think Dandy can't impress me he does! The bulk of this equiment was new to Dandy and there were lots of people and dogs in the covered arena. I thought well, lets just see how it goes and if nothing else, this is just good exposure for Dandy. As you can see, he was a rock star!
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| Dandy and Sappho checking out all the equipment |
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| This narrow elevated step/platform was totally new for Dandy |
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| Tada! |
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| Walking over beams - with movement work you want to go slow, so the dog feels the movement - slowing down is easier said than done for the human. |
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| Dandy use to just jump over things, here he walked over - look at that bent leg |
Here's Dandy doing a portion of the coursework (thank you Blair for taping this) - these were lots of different textures, I was stunned he did all of them without hesiation. I thought for sure the black tarp at the end would bother him but, again he was totally fine with it. I'm moving way to fast in this video - again slowing down is hard!
DANDY'S VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PShiiRcxlEY&feature=youtu.be
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| Sappho & Dandy sacked out after all the movement work |
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| Sweet Sappho - I was really happy to share this experince with Blair & Sappho! |
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