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I've seen this (kind of) twice, recently.
I met with a trainer from the rescue group to work on Tom's reactivity. After he saw another dog and started barking/lunging, and the other dog went out of site, we asked him for a sit, and he did, but he was visibly very tense, stiff-legged, ears tense, staring at where the other dog went around the corner.
The trainer massaged his back after he sat (I found out later there's a pressure point) and he did become more relaxed.
A girl I work with is taking dog training classes, I have no idea how legit they are or anything about it. We have a pit bull at day care who runs around, uber excited, with a tennis ball in his mouth, for SEVEN hours straight. He *may* lie down for 5-10 minutes once if every other dog is lying and down and you don't look at him, but otherwise he's trotting around manically looking for someone to play tug with him.
The girl came in, asked him to sit, and massaged the same point. It took a while, but Brady did relax slightly. She then got him to lie down, somehow got the ball out of his mouth, and held him down while she placed the ball a few inches away. He started to get up but she held him there, but she was massaging him/praising him calmly the whole time. It was kind of a forced down, but not like I've seen it done before. Eventually she threw the ball, he tried to jump up, but she held him there praising him and rubbing him. Eventually, he DID relax, I've never seen him loose-bodied before. I could even see his face relaxing. She did that for probably 5-10 minutes.
When she finished, Brady got up and played ball again, but he did so a little more calmly and after we finished, he lied down for about 45 minutes, got up and wrestled with another dog (without a tennis ball), and then came and laid down in my lap. He was like an entirely different dog for the next 2-3 hours until he went home. It seemed to me like a combination of T-touch and a forced down, if that makes sense...
Good idea? Bad idea? Anyone have any articles on stuff like this?
I met with a trainer from the rescue group to work on Tom's reactivity. After he saw another dog and started barking/lunging, and the other dog went out of site, we asked him for a sit, and he did, but he was visibly very tense, stiff-legged, ears tense, staring at where the other dog went around the corner.
The trainer massaged his back after he sat (I found out later there's a pressure point) and he did become more relaxed.
A girl I work with is taking dog training classes, I have no idea how legit they are or anything about it. We have a pit bull at day care who runs around, uber excited, with a tennis ball in his mouth, for SEVEN hours straight. He *may* lie down for 5-10 minutes once if every other dog is lying and down and you don't look at him, but otherwise he's trotting around manically looking for someone to play tug with him.
The girl came in, asked him to sit, and massaged the same point. It took a while, but Brady did relax slightly. She then got him to lie down, somehow got the ball out of his mouth, and held him down while she placed the ball a few inches away. He started to get up but she held him there, but she was massaging him/praising him calmly the whole time. It was kind of a forced down, but not like I've seen it done before. Eventually she threw the ball, he tried to jump up, but she held him there praising him and rubbing him. Eventually, he DID relax, I've never seen him loose-bodied before. I could even see his face relaxing. She did that for probably 5-10 minutes.
When she finished, Brady got up and played ball again, but he did so a little more calmly and after we finished, he lied down for about 45 minutes, got up and wrestled with another dog (without a tennis ball), and then came and laid down in my lap. He was like an entirely different dog for the next 2-3 hours until he went home. It seemed to me like a combination of T-touch and a forced down, if that makes sense...
Good idea? Bad idea? Anyone have any articles on stuff like this?
