GENERAL
HEALTH
The
Healing Power of Tellington TTouch
by Nancy Mulford
Rescue dogs bring special joys and, sometimes, unique challenges. My three dogs, all rescues, have their own
special needs. Linus, my Shepherd mix, was diagnosed with severe hip dysplasia at eight months and had a total hip
replacement on his left hip when he was five years old. He still has dysplasia and arthritic deposits on his right hip joint.
Sassy, my cocker spaniel, is terrified of other dogs, the result of having been attacked by another dog at a nearby park.
And then there’s Sassy’s daughter, Bandit. Nicknamed “Jaws” or “The Maniac,” Bandit’s favorite hobby is stealing socks and
other clothing awaiting the washing machine, and shredding them to bits. She does not like to have her mouth touched and is
somewhat shy around children.
A friend suggested that I try Tellington TTouch ™ with my dogs. The TTouch practitioner uses her
hands to gently touch an animal with a series of circular movements. TTouch helps develop a dog’s self-confidence, enhance
learning, and improve human-canine relationships. It can often help in cases of excessive barking and
chewing, leash pulling, jumping up, aggressive behavior, extreme fear and shyness, excitability and nervousness, car sickness,
and problems associated with aging.
Many rescue dogs are uncomfortable with having their mouth, paws, or ears handled. TTouch enables
pets to become familiar with their owner’s touch, resulting in fewer battles over ear cleaning and nail trimming, and allows the
owner to check for cysts, warts, or other unusual growths.
A healing touch for
animals
Tellington TTouch (or TTouch) was developed by Linda Tellington-Jones, an accomplished horsewoman who
has competed in a variety of riding styles since she was eleven. She also trained and bred horses since the early 1960s,
ran a residential riding school for instructors, and taught mentally impaired adults how to ride. In her book
The Tellington TTouch, she describes how she became interested in healing body movements and alternative ways of
onnecting with animals. Her curiosity was piqued by several events. First, while traveling in Europe in 1974, she visited
a zoo in Switzerland. One captive animal haunted her: a lonely gorilla who was biting her nails, bored in her small cage.
Tellington-Jones was concerned about the gorilla’s despair and wanted to develop a way of communicating with animals
that were in distress.
Second, she learned about the work of Moshe Feldenkrais, a scientist who developed a therapeutic
series of movements to awaken the nervous system’s ability to heal itself. Feldenkrais had been hit by a bus while
crossing a street and his legs had been damaged. He taught his legs how to move again using alternative neural pathways.
Tellington-Jones studied with Feldenkrais for several years and became a Feldenkrais practitioner. She began to apply her
knowledge of this method to horses with behavioral problems.
Her final conception of Tellington TTouch occurred after she read Man On His Nature, a book by Sir Charles
Sherrington, a physician who had studied the nervous system and hypothesized that each cell has an intelligence of its own.
In a normal state, cells know what their role is and how they connect to the rest of the body.
Tellington-Jones was fascinated by his work and wanted to develop a method of touch that would quickly reawaken each cell
to its original purpose in the body, thus clearing out any physical or emotional trauma.
After these events, Tellington-Jones developed TTEAM (Tellington-Jones Equine Awareness Method) and
Tellington TTouch. According to her website, the purpose of TTouch is to “activate the function of the cells and awaken
cellular intelligence - a little like ‘turning on the electrical lights of the body.’ ”
Tellington TTouch in Action
To learn how to practice TTouch on my dogs, I attended a workshop led
by Cindy Fischer, a pet care consultant who performs energy balancing for
pets. Fischer, who is also certified in Tellington TTouch, has used TTouch on
many shelter animals to ease their distress. She taught the workshop (for humans
only) at the Wayland Especially For Pets pet supply store.
The following indented paragraphs are reprinted with permission from Linda
Tellington-Jones's website.
"The Clouded Leopard: The basic Tellington TTouch is the
Clouded Leopard, named after a Clouded Leopard in the Los Angeles Zoo. The "cloud"
part of the name describes the lightness with which the whole hand contacts
the body, and the "leopard" stands for the range of pressure of the fingers.
A leopard can be very light on his feet as in the light TTouch of a one, two,
or three, or very strong, as in the eight to ten pressure scale. The stronger
Leopard TTouch is appropriate for the more heavily muscled or blocked animal.
This TTouch is used all over the body with the intention of increasing awareness
and confidence.
How To: The weight of the hand rests lightly on the body with fingers
lightly curved like a leopard's paw. The pads of your fingers push the skin in
one and a quarter circles. The middle finger leads. Feel the connection
between your forefinger and thumb, which are held several inches apart. Keep
your wrist soft. Breathing in rhythm with the circles helps maintain a
softness in fingers, hand, arm and shoulder. Move the skin in a circle rather
than rubbing over the hair. Watch your animal’s reaction. If he or she seems
uncomfortable, lighten the pressure or change the TTouch.
The Raccoon: This TTouch is named after the tiny,
delicate movements of a raccoon washing its food. Special uses: for small
animals and delicate work; for working the area around wounds; to speed up
healing; and to increase circulation and activate neural impulses in the lower
legs. This TTouch is also used to reduce swelling without causing pain.
How To: Contact with the lightest possible pressure, using the tips of the fingers
just behind the nails.
The Python Lift:The Python Lift is used to relieve and release tension and spasm. It is effective on the shoulder, legs, neck and back of animals,
and also feels great on human backs, arms, legs and shoulders. The Python Lift relaxes nervous animals and improves balance and gait.
It also helps to bring your animal into a state of mental and emotional stability.
How To: The whole hand is placed on the body or around the leg with just enough
pressure to gently lift the skin and muscle. ift, pause for several seconds,
and then slowly return the skin to the starting point. Remember to breathe
with the movement. If you lift too much, it causes the animal to tense or
move away."
The circular touches (Clouded Leopard and Raccoon Touches) are often done in a clockwise motion. Imagine the hands of the clock
and start the motion at 6 o’clock. Move your hand in a circular motion until you have gone past 6 o’clock once and reach 8 o’clock.
The night after the workshop, I worked with Bandit on touching her mouth. Although Bandit is not
aggressive, she doesn’t like her mouth touched and will shy away if I put my hand near her mouth. I’m concerned about this,
since I want to begin brushing her teeth. Although she receives an annual “dental exam” from the vet’s every
year, her teeth are not in great shape. I gently did Raccoon Touches around her nose, down her flews, and under her chin.
Then I lifted up her flews, slid my fingers on her gums and began rubbing her gums with the Raccoon Touch.
Bandit sighed and sprawled out on her back. She relaxed and began to enjoy the gentle touches.
I’ve been doing Raccoon Touches on Bandit every night. She now allows me to touch her mouth
without jerking her head away. Using other touches on her has yielded interesting results. For example, one night I began doing Clouded Leopard
touches on her body after I had worked on her mouth. When I reached her hips, she jerked her head towards me. I wondered whether she had hurt
her hip and gently did more touches in that area. She relaxed and allowed me to continue to touch her hip.
Another measure of success: I accidentally left a laundry basket, filled with dirty clothes, the
kind that Bandit delights in shredding, within reach of her. None of the clothes had been touched. I plan on continuing the touches so
that I can begin to brush her teeth
I’m also going to use the Python Lifts on Linus and the Clouded Leopard on Sassy. In addition, I plan
on attending a more comprehensive TTouch workshop with one of my dogs so I can continue my training on this healing way to connect with animals.
Before doing the Tellington TTouch on your own dog, I recommend that you attend a workshop or
watch a video. It’s difficult to describe exactly how to do the touches without seeing them done on your pet, or feeling them done on your back.
Also, keep in mind that the first step in dealing with any type of behavioral problem is
determining whether it has a physical basis. For example, a dog that urinates in
the house might have a urinary tract infection. A spaniel who snaps when someone
pats her ears may have a yeast or bacterial infection. If your dog has
behavioral problems, first bring her in for a check-up with the veterinarian to
rule out any physical cause for the behavior.
For more information
Linda Tellington-Jones’s website: www.lindatellingtonjones.com
or call 1-800-854-8326. Information on how to
perform each TTouch was excerpted with permission from her website © Linda
Tellington-Jones. I also recommend reading The Tellington TTouch by
Linda Tellington-Jones with Sybil Taylor.
Harmondsworth:Penguin
Books, 1993.
Cindy Fischer does phone consultations to balance your pet’s energy and offers
workshops on both TellingtonTouch and clearing emotional toxins in pets. For
more information: call 978-251-0130.
To learn more about Moshe Feldenkrais’s work, visit his
website: www.feldenkrais.com
Especially for Pets offers a variety of free or inexpensive seminars on your pet’s health and
training. Stores are located in Acton, Newton, Sudbury, and Wayland, Massachusetts.
www.especiallyforpets.com
