What Is TTouch & How Can It Help My Dog?

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Join us this Saturday for a one-session class where you can learn the basics of TTouch. Fearful & reactive dogs are welcome! (You and your dog can be behind a privacy screen so they aren’t overwhelmed or distracted.)

TTouch involves gentle body work, movement exercises, and body wraps. Through these techniques you can relax the mind of an anxious, fearful, or reactive dog and ease the aches and pains of a senior dog.  (These techniques also work for your feline friends!)

While there are TTouch practicioners that you can hire to work on your animal — much like we humans go to a massage therapist to loosen up! — coming to a TTouch class allows you to learn the techniques yourself so you can work with your dog anytime.

One of the neat things about TTouch is that it helps the dog’s mind come back to center and focus in the moment. Want a practical example of TTouch’s effects? It’s especially useful for dogs who get car sick. The non-driving human sits with the dog and uses TTouch to keep the dog focused on the touches, rather than the nauseating motion of the vehicle. Pretty cool, right?

Here’s a video from Tellington TTouch with an overview of TTouch:

Sign up for Saturday’s class while there’s still room!

Got a Pet Peeve About Your Dog’s Behavior?

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“He’s a great dog 95% of the time. There’s just this one thing… and it drives me crazy!”

Sound familiar?

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Dog Improv is for you!

If you’ve already got the basics down, but you’d like to work on some specific skills that your dog lacks, Dog Improv is your class!

In Dog Improv, you will let our instructor know what you’d like to learn and she will design exercises specifically for you and your dog.

You could work on:

  • Firming up the basics (sit, down, wait, stay, etc.)
  • Loose-leash walking
  • Drop it / Leave it
  • Ending counter-surfing and/or garbage picking
  • Control and focus
  • Tricks (sit pretty, roll over, etc.)
  • …or anything else you want to learn!

Dog Improv will take place on Thursdays from 10:30 am – 11:30 am starting on November 14. If you’d like to request a different day or time for Dog Improv, please let us know on our Contact page and we’ll make a note of your request for future scheduling.

How Do I Keep My Dog From Barking At Things Outside?

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Our new section of Reactive Dog Class started this Wednesday and one of the topics Michelle and her coaches discussed in the overview of the course was quick fixes to help manage your dog’s reactivity. What can you do today to make life a little less stressful for your dog (and a lot quieter for yourself)?

(FYI, there are still 3 spots in December’s Reactive Dog Class if you want to sign up!)

Dog TV: View from the Picture Window

There are some dogs that enjoy lazily watching the world go by from their perch on the couch or by the sliding door. If you’re reading this article, your dog is probably not one of them.

Your dog sits, ears perked, tail stiff, eyebrows furrowed, waiting for the next target.

For a dog-reactive dog, that’s whatever dog dares take a walk down HIS street, right in front of HIS favorite potty spot.

For a people-reactive (or people-fearful) dog, that’s any human that comes into his field of vision.

The barking begins.

Why? Because barking works.

barking

The image above is pretty darn close to how your dog thinks.

Something I dislike is too close for comfort + I bark and growl and lunge at it = It goes away.

If Dr. Phil were to ask your dog, “How’s that workin’ for ya?”, your dog would say, “Pretty darn well!”

A Quick & Beautiful Fix

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The easiest way to prevent your dog from practicing reactive behavior at the window is to take away his view.  You can buy decorative window film at your local Home Depot (in the blinds department), or pick some up on Amazon. It comes in many different designs, some that look like stained glass and others very subtle like frosted glass. The light still comes in and you and your dog can enjoy some privacy, peace, and quiet.

Application is easy: measure your pane of glass, cut the decal to fit, wash the glass with a little water & dish soap, and stick the decal into place. Press any air bubbles out with a credit card and you’re good to go! Since there’s no adhesive, removing it is quick and easy.

Does It Work?

The photo above is the living room of one of our students. She lives on a busy street near a bus stop, so there is lots of foot traffic just outside that window.

Before getting the window clings, her fearful dog would flip out every time someone walked by. Now she relaxes on the couch and only barks if someone is making a lot of noise.

Join Us For Class!

If you have a dog that barks and lunges at other dogs, we have 3 spots in December’s Reactive Dog Class. Our next section of Fearful Dog Class starts on October 12. Finally, for dogs who just need a tiny boost in their confidence, Confidence Building class begins in early November.

Agility Students Earn New Titles: Congrats Whisper & Titania

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agilityribbonsYour Dog’s Friend offers many agility classes and while the majority of our students play for fun, we have a few students who have challenged themselves to enter local trials and compete.

Congratulations to Whisper the Border Collie and Titania the Cocker Spaniel, who both earned their CL1-S titles in Canine Performance Events agility this past weekend. (Those are the big white ribbons!) To earn the CL1-S Title, Titania and Whisper each had to earn qualifying scores in the strategy games Jackpot and Snooker. Congrats, girls!


But that’s not all!

Did we mention Whisper is deaf? That’s right, she can’t hear a single command her mom says! Whisper has attending classes at Your Dog’s Friend since Basic 1, where her mom used a keychain flashlight instead of a clicker. She’s living proof that deaf dogs are just as trainable as hearing ones!

And Titania is a fearful dog.  YDF trainer Michelle remembers Titania’s first appearance in Basic Manners 1 two years ago: she spent most of it cowering behind her mom’s legs! Positive training has greatly increased her confidence and when you see her zooming around the agility course, you wouldn’t think she was anything other than a normal, happy dog.

Our Agility Classes

  • Agility Games: Body awareness exercises (“I have back paws too?”), learning jumps, tunnels, and dog walk, basic agility handling skills.
  • Agility 1: For graduates of Agility Games, this class continues to build up the bond between dog and handler while working on short courses.
  • Agility 2: More advanced handling skills, teeter, obstacle discrimination, and longer courses.
  • Agility 3: All of the above, plus crosses, distance handling, and more!

Due to the popularity of our agility classes, you may have to sign up for our waiting list. When a new section of the class opens up, you’ll receive an email letting you know to register.

Titania’s Wildcard Run

A Wildcard course is a numbered course that has three forks in the path. The dog and handler must choose two obstacles labeled “A” and one labeled “B” in order to successfully complete the course.

Whisper’s Snooker Run

Snooker is a strategy game in which dog and handler must collect points the following order: red jump, any obstacle, different red jump, any obstacle, a third red jump, any obstacle. Then the course is done from obstacle 2 through 7, ending at the table.

Thanks!

Whisper & Titania would like to thank their teacher, Michelle, for all her help and support!