Dog Behavior Blog

Tales of Two Species

Eventually it was bound to happen. I’m writing a blog entry that is probably going to sound like an advertisement. In my defense, I can’t help it. There’s a new book out that I just adore called Tales of Two Species: Essays on Loving and Living with Dogs, and I want everyone to experience the joy I have had in reading it.

 

The author is Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist Patricia B. McConnell, PhD. McConnell is well known as a canine behaviorist, dog trainer, award-winning author, seminar speaker, and as the host of the radio show Calling All Pets. In the interest of full disclosure, she is the mentor who trained me to do what I do working with dogs and people, we’ve written several booklets together, and I consider her my friend as well. That said, I am perfectly capable of being objective about her new book, and it’s fantastic!

 

The essays in this book originally appeared in McConnell’s “Both Ends of the Leash” column in The BARk Magazine, and even though I always read her column, it was delightful to read a selection of her finest essays. It was a treat upon finishing an essay to be able to go directly to another one rather than waiting until the next issue arrives to read more. The columns are organized by topic, so the collection is very cohesive. My favorite section is the one on communication, which covers scent, sound, vision, and touch, including the differences between human and canine senses and how that can cause confusion between our two species. My favorite essay in the entire collection is in the section on new dogs called “Once in a Lifetime” in which she expresses her gratitude at having the opportunity to have a dog in a million, in her case, a now deceased Border Collie named Cool Hand Luke. Whenever I meet a person who has a similar especially close connection with a dog, I think, “Oh, how lovely! That dog is her ‘Luke’!” This is the easiest way for me to understand this particular special and rare sort of love.

 

Goodness knows there are piles of books about dogs out there, but this one stands out in so many ways. First of all, it is beautifully written, and that sort of literary accomplishment is not as common among dog books as I wish it were. Secondly, it has the perfect balance of great scientific information, personal experience, and practical information. Third, and perhaps most important, McConnell’s love and understanding of the animals of both species that she write about comes through. This leaves the impression that while the author is a scientist who conducts her research thoroughly, she’s also a dog lover like any one of us who handles a bad day and a good day at work the same way—by heading home to greet her four-legged friends and bury herself in the great loving furriness of dogdom.

 

--Karen London

 

TTouch And Canine Massage

My dog met a visiting practitioner of canine massage and other therapeutic body work when she came by our office to give the staff some lessons.

 

Due to some scheduling confusion, we were not expecting her that day, and since I lived the closest to the office, it was I who got to go get my dog to be used for the demo. My dog Bugsy liked to be scratched behind the ears, and accepted most sorts of petting affably enough, but he was not demanding about it, and in many ways, it seemed to me like he could take it or leave it after several seconds of brief petting.

 

Massage, however, it turned out, was something he could never get enough of. Under the skilled hands of a professional, he relaxed and was more peaceful than I had ever seen him. She demonstrated a number of techniques on him, especially those from Tellington Touch, or TTouch as it is more commonly called. TTouch is a method of touching an animal’s body all over in circular motions. It combines touching the body, lifting parts of the body and movement to benefit the animal, and is most commonly performed on dogs, cats, and horses, though it has been used on guinea pigs, birds, goats, mice, and just about every other animal that spends time with people. TTouch has been reported to help animals and humans develop a closer relationship with greater trust and a better rapport as well as to improve an animal’s health, self-confidence and overall behavior.

 

Using what I had learned from the demonstration at the office, I did some TTouch work on Bugsy, too. It seemed so obvious that he liked it, and over the next few weeks, I did what I could to replicate his experience at work. He responded to me well, but though he was relaxed and seemingly content, I could not shake the feeling that that I was far from matching the glorious success that I had witnessed at the office.

 

This thought was confirmed the next time the professional came back and my dog saw her. He became ecstatic—friendly, happy, and wagging from the shoulders back, he whined and lay down in front of her in massage position. When she started to massage him, I swear he moaned, sighed, and released every bit of tension in his body within moments of when she first touched him. My dog, though generally friendly, has never greeted anyone else like that, before or since.

 

Motivated by the belief that the better I became at TTouch, the more I would be able to help my dog, I began to practice the technique regularly and to study how to perform it. I eventually achieved a level of skill that allowed me to reap considerable benefits from using TTouch—especially the ability to work more effectively with dogs who were fearful and anxious. Using TTouch often seemed to help dogs feel comfortable enough around me that I could train them more easily and quickly.

 

Most importantly, I am so glad that I was able to make my own dog’s final years happier with what I knew of TTouch and canine massage. He had been hard on his body over the years—perhaps not realizing that he was only going to get one body and that it should be treated with care. I feel confident that TTouch helped make him feel better and be more active as an older dog.

 

--Karen London