Book Review – Getting in TTouch With Your Dog by Linda Tellington-Jones
First published, 2001
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TTouch is not a spelling error. It is a technique developed by the author over many years studying horses, people, dogs and other animals. It is a form of positive touch, not as deep as massage, but very therapeutic to our animal friends.
As the book says, “TTouch is a non-verbal language that deepens your connection with your dog. Just a few minutes of TTouch a day can create amazing positive results in your dog’s confidence, attitude, personality and behaviour – and support his health.”
p31, The Tellington TTouch, Getting In TTouch With Your Dog by Linda Tellington-Jones
The techniques outlined in this book can aid in your dog’s concentration, learning, ability to deal with stress, and also shock. It’s about centring the dog and soothing the nerves and neural pathways to strengthen the connection between the dog and its body, as well as the dog as its person (a much better word than ‘owner’, kudos to the author for that one).
Fun fact of the day, I actually trained as a massage therapist a few years back and, although the methods used in this book are not technically massage per se, they share a lot of the aims of therapeutic massage, such as centring, relaxation, and connection.
There are a couple of minor errors which I found a little distracting (‘Whey’ for ‘When’, that sort of thing), but I am now confident in my ability to apply Abalone, Lying Leopard, Clouded Leopard, Racoon, Bear, Tiger, Triad, Inchworm and all the rest as and when my dogs require. The names relate to the shape of the hand, with the movement set in a clockwise movement in small one and a quarter circles.
Although most of us stroke and give attention to our dogs in a very instinctive way, it’s rather nice to have names for what we’re doing and to know what benefits these strokes and slides will have on our four-legged friends before we start.
Recommended.
Petrina Binney - Author 