Puppy terrified of another dog in class

[Zeldacorgi]

I love massage to relax and calm a dog, but there's a right and wrong way. I've never heard of anyone using deep tissue on a dog. I bet your dog was squirming! Poor thing. Soft, GENTLE circle motions on a dog's chest, behind the ears, on the neck or back should be plenty relaxing for a dog. No need to go all shiatzu master on the poor creature.

[Mattie]

TTouch is very good for calming dogs, it is very gentle and relaxing.

I was in a TTouch workshop with Joe who freaked out when he saw strange dogs, there were 10 of them in the hall, Marie the lady doing the workshop had her back to us talking to someone, she turned round quickly and asked what was wrong with Joe. I have known Marie for quite a few years, just said "It is Joe", she asked Rachel to work with Joe.

Rachel put a body wrap on him first then started to work on Joe, she started at the top of his neck and gradually worked her way down his body, then would start again at the top. Within 10 minutes Joe was fast asleep on the floor, later he was working in and out of the other dogs while we were using the equipment with no signs of stress.

Since this happened, I will often use TTouch if my dogs are stressed or tense, I find it very good in a vet's waiting room, Merlin was terrible but would relax if I done TTouch on him.

[VSfan]

Thanks for the advice on the massage. I know he likes to be rubbed gently. I get deep tissue massage, but even knowing what to expect, it is sometimes very uncomfortable! I will check into the TTouch massage.

Thanks!!

[Sabrina]

My puppy loves loves l-o-v-e-s ttouch . I started doing two short (5-10min) sessions with him every day after his last frightening experience with another dog, and this in combination with lots of advice from this forum is really helping him to de-stress. Like Zeldacorgi said, Gentle is the key!

You can read some of the "Getting in TTouch with your Dog" book on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Getting-TTouch-Yo ... 884&sr=8-2 The first pages are a lot of theory, but the pages you can preview (free) include the "basic" instructions for how to do TTouch.

Also, here are the two best sites I've found for TTouch:

http://www.lindatellingtonjones.com/exa ... ouch.shtml

http://www.ttouchtteam.co.uk/

[Sabrina]

Forgot to mention - your puppy is one lucky dog to have somebody like you looking out for him!

[VSfan]

Sabrina,

Thank you so much!! You are very kind. I will definitely check out those links!!