Happy Christmas - Paying It Forward

Some of you may know that Treasure is the official spokes-dog for Fluffy's Blankets.  Fluffy's is an organization that was started when a wonderful woman gifted a woman and her dog in need with a warm blanket and a care package.  It's tradition continues.  Volunteers make and gift warm blankets and care packages for animals and their people in need.  The blankets may be given to an animal battling chronic illness, to animals in rescues or shelters, to animals and their people facing major surgeries, or wherever there is a need. 

 

Recently, the organization also began giving Rainbow Bags to area veterinarians.  If you have ever had to euthanize a pet, you know the heartbreak of leaving the office afterwards.  Rainbow Bags provide a small bit of healing to people as they leave the veterinarian's office. 

 

And, sometimes, the spirit of Fluffy's branches out to include those without an animal of their own.  Treasure has been known to gift a warm Fluffy's Blanket to a special resident at the assisted living facility where she does therapy visits.  One recipient told me that she was sleeping better than she had in years when she was wrapped in Treasure's blanket.

 

And, so, this year, Treasure continues to pay the spirit of Christmas forward.  We are far from our friends this holiday season, but making and gifting Fluffy's Blankets has helped us to keep them close in our hearts. 

 

 

As is her practice, Treasure closely supervised the making of each blanket that we made here, and she blessed each one before it was gifted.  This year, we gave 12 blankets and two beds to the humane society where I am volunteering.  The dogs and cats loved their new blankets and beds and wasted no time in breaking them in! 

 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all our blog friends!!  I hope you each had the chance to make this season a little brighter for someone else!  Pay it forward!! 

Ways to keep your b/d dog (or any dog!) happy when it’s too cold to go outside!

This week has been bitter cold, well below the freezing mark, and the dogs and I do not want to be outside. But that means only quick trips outside to potty, and not a lot of walking or running exercise. We are all going a bit stir crazy! What to do? Here are some of the things we’ve been doing this week to burn off some energy and keep the dogs content.

Will work for food – when I feed the dogs out of bowls, they are finished eating in about a minute, and then they wander around smelling all the other bowls and looking for more food! If I feed them more food, they will gain weight, which is not healthy for them, and I don’t think they are really still hungry. But they are looking for something exciting to do, and eating is an exciting part of their day. 

So, my dogs work for their food. Actually, it’s more like playing for their food! They have a great time and they get even more excited to play with their food than to eat it from bowls. Making eating into a game means that it takes longer for the dog to eat the same amount of food that they normally eat, plus, they get to move their bodies around and use their brains - all things that are important for their health and our sanity!

We’ve posted about the muffin tin game before. I love this one! Use an old muffin tin (you can find them at thrift stores) and sprinkle your dog’s food among the muffin cups. Then take your dog’s toys and place them on top of each cup to hide the food. I like to use different sized toys, so some can be bumped off easily, while others will roll inside the cup and my dog has to lick the food from around the edges. Then, let your dog figure out how to get all his food from the pan. With some more exuberant dogs, you may need to hold the edge of the pan so she doesn’t just flip it over and then gobble up all the food from the floor! 

 

 

With a b/d dog especially, you can create trails with her meal. Lay the food pieces out in a trail along the floor, using turns and circles to make it interesting. Start her at one end of the trail, and let her follow her nose! This can be played on a kitchen floor so it’s easy to clean up the floor afterwards. If you want to challenge your dog even further, you can lay the trail across different surfaces or under a chair. Just be sure whatever you use will be safe for your dog and she won’t get hurt or scared.

Food toys and puzzles are the best! There are so many different kinds out there now. I have many different types and I rotate them, so my dogs rarely get the same one in the same week. These are good for feeding your dog her meals, but you can also put a little snack inside in the middle of the day to keep your dog occupied for a bit. Sometimes I use just the regular food, but sometimes I toss in an extra special goodie.  

 

 

Keeping food toys already stuffed and in the freezer can be a great indoor day saver! When your dog is getting stir crazy, grab a frozen Kong or other toy from the freezer to keep her content and allow you to get things done. I mix my dog’s regular dog food with some canned food to make it mushy. Then I stuff the Kongs full of the mixture (I recommend doing this step in the sink!) and pack it in tightly. Wrap the Kongs in a plastic bag and place in the freezer.  

Freezing the Kongs means the dogs need to work even harder and longer to get all the food out. They stay busy chewing and licking for a long time. Usually, dogs will sleep after having a good long chew, so when they are finished, they are usually content to relax quietly for the rest of the afternoon.  

Learning new tricks is always fun for me and the dogs. Treasure is learning some new tricks that not only make her think in new ways, but also require her to use her body in new ways. So she is building muscle and getting in shape while we have fun together!  

After you’ve exercised your dog’s mind for a bit, it’s time to curl up and spend some quiet time together! After all, what good is a nice warm puppy on a cold day, unless you are snuggled up together? Soft petting, massage, Healing Touch for Animals®, and TTouch® can all be wonderful ways to connect with your dog and promote relaxation and health, for both you and your dog.

And, with any luck, it will be sunny and warm enough tomorrow to go out and enjoy the walking and running exercise that is so important to us and our dogs! Happy Winter! Woof!

 

 

Have We Listened Well Enough?

Another gem from my TTouch notes:  If we get to "stop" on the feedback scale, we haven't listened well enough! 

How does a dog tell you to "stop?"  There are the more obvious, hard to miss signals such as a snap, a growl, or a bite.  But what about all the signals way before that?  Do we pay attention to them?  By the time a dog gets to a snap, a growl, or a bite, things have gotten way out of hand.  Someone is likely to get hurt, and it is almost certain that the dog will be blamed for the situation going bad.

Why do we wait for the dog to YELL at us to stop before we listen?  Dogs that live in human society often put up with our human-like behaviors that make no sense to them, and that they do not like.  Many dogs don't like to be hugged and kissed and patted.  Yet we enjoy doing those things, so we do them anyway.  Some dogs tolerate them anyway, just because they are exceptionally tolerant dogs.  But that doesn't mean they like it.  And it doesn't mean they aren't trying to tell us to stop.

A slight stiffening or moving away when we reach for them means, please don't touch me right now.  But do we notice?  A dog turning his head away is saying, I'm unsure, please don't do that right now.  But we may think they are just looking at something over there, and so we continue doing what we're doing.  A dog photographed with his tongue sticking out is cute to us, but most likely it was the dog's way of saying, hey that camera looks a little scary - I'm not sure I like this idea. 

No matter what our dog is telling us, there is always a softer, more subtle signal that we haven't noticed yet.  If we wait until our dog is telling us clearly to stop, we've missed a chance to observe some softer signals.  We've waited too long.  We haven't listened well enough. 

With the dogs that we live with every day, we often notice subtle signals.  If my dog wrinkles her eye brow just a certain way, I know she's noticed something that she has cause to stop and think about.  That isn't quite her "stop" signal, but it means that likely she will be making a decision shortly as to whether she likes something or not.  By paying attention to her subtle signal, I can make sure I scan the situation to make sure there is nothing happening that will cause her to get to "stop." 

Living in a multi-dog household, I can often see this subtle communication better when watching the dogs interacting with each other than when I'm actually participating in the situation.  Just a slight movement of an ear or an eye is enough to get the message across to one of the other dogs to "stop."  There is no drama, no argument, no yelling.  Just simple communication. 

Now, if the other dogs had not listened to the first dog's warning, things would have escalated into more obvious signs ... a lifted lip, a harder stare, moving her weight forward towards the other dogs, and then it would progress even further still until it resulted in a growl, a snap, or even a bite.  But no one likes all that drama, including my dogs. 

To keep the peace, listen well enough so your dog doesn't have to YELL "stop!"  Respect her softer signals.  Let her know that you understand. 

 



Food Toys

 

 

There are many types of food toys and puzzles made for dogs these days!  Here are just a few of the ones in our toybox.  Food toys are great for any dog, but are especially good for blind/deaf dogs.  Many b/d dogs don't play with other types of toys because they can't see or hear the toys, so there is nothing to grab their interest.  With food toys, they can smell the food, so they have something to keep their interest and encourage them to interact with the toy. 

 

Dogs like food and by hiding the food in different toys and puzzles, we can give them something challenging to work for.  Food toys teach problem solving skills, as the dog has to try different methods to get the food to come out.  Giving a dog the mental exercise of a food toy is good exercise.  Mental exercise often will tire a dog more than physical exercise. 

 

Dogs that gulp their food too fast will have to eat slower when eating their meals from a food toy.  This can aid in digestion and prevent vomiting caused by swallowing too much food too quickly. 

 

 

 

Some food toys are easier than others, and it's best to start with easier toys until your dog gets the idea.  For some of my foster dogs that have not had toys before, I even start with a plastic cup or yogurt container placed on its side with a tasty treat inside.  Even with the treat so accessible, some dogs find it difficult at first to figure out how to stick their nose inside to get the treat. 

 

Then I would use a Kong toy and put some loose treats or kibble inside so it fell out easily when the Kong was bumped.  Then progress to sticking the treats inside with something sticky like peanut butter, and so on.  Some food toys have levels of difficulty that can be set on the toy itself so you can control how easily the food falls out. 

 

By having different types of food toys, I can rotate which dog gets which one and give them some variety.  Each toy and puzzle has a different strategy to get the food out.  Sometimes it gets too easy if the dog always gets the same puzzle or toy over and over again - they know just what to do to get the food to come tumbling out!  By mixing it up, they have to really think about it and experiment.

 

Treasure sure does love her food puzzles and toys!  Treasure's favorite food toy?   Why, the one with the tastiest treats in it, of course! 

 

 

 

I prefer rubber or plastic food toys which are easy to keep clean.  The rubber ones just go in the top rack of the dishwasher or can be washed in hot soapy water, as can the plastic ones.  Depending on your dog, some of these food toys should not be left with it unsupervised.  The rubber food toys that I have are safe for me to leave with my own dogs unsupervised, but make sure you supervise your dog the first few times it uses them.  The plastic ones I won't leave with my dogs unsupervised, since plastic is less durable and more easily chewed! 

 



Remember Your Perfection!

What a perfect word - PERFECT!  How often do you hear it in your daily life?  How often do you use it to describe others?

In my TTouch notes, I have written and underlined:  "Remember Your Perfection!!"  What a wonderful image that creates for me, not only for remembering my own perfection, but in remembering that each of us and everything is indeed, perfect at being ourselves.  Below is a cartoon I found online ...

Read that quote below the cartoon again ...

 

If we look at others and expect them to be just like us, we are missing their perfection.  That fish may not be able to climb a tree very easily, but it is absolutely perfect at being a fish.  Look at the fish with new eyes.  See its beauty.  See how it can do all the things that it needs to do to live as a fish.  Marvel at its intelligence.  See its perfection!! 

 

Look at your dog with new eyes.  Does she have to be like everyone else's dog?  No, of course not.  How boring would that be if every dog was the same?  Take a moment to see her beauty, her intelligence, her creativity ...  Take a moment to remember her perfection.  See how in every moment, she is perfectly herself. 

 

Does that  mean that you always like her behavior or her little quirks?  No, of course not.  But behavior can be changed.  Who she is in all her perfectness cannot be changed.  It is who she is on the inside. 

 

Take a look at yourself now with new eyes.  See your perfection!  Remember your perfection!  Remember that part of you that is who you really are.  Take a moment every day to ...

 

Remember your perfection!  



Move the Molecules

When a dear friend's dog refused to walk toward the car, we tried every technique we could think of to get him to move forward.  We tried the best treats, we tried waiting him out, we tried cheerleading and acting silly - all to entice him to go to the car.  He didn't mind riding in the car once he go there. He was just in the habit of stopping dead in his tracks and not taking another step. 

On this particular day, as we were leaving TTouch training in the evening, we tried bringing him out a different door so he was approaching the car from a different direction.  He trotted happily along the parking lot until he got close enough to the car to know where he was going, and then - he stopped dead in his tracks. 

On a whim, I decided to try a new leading technique we had learned that day - moving the molecules.  To our amazement, after taking a moment to think about it, her dog walked all the way to the car.  Wow.  What a break through!  This had been an ongoing struggle for my friend and her dog for a long time.  What happened?  Why did this work?

Many times we get in a hurry and we just want the end result as soon as possible.  We all do it.  It's human nature.  When I focused on moving the molecules instead of the dog, the entire energy of the situation changed.  I was now focused on clearing the way to allow the dog to walk forward, instead of trying to make him walk forward.  I put respect back in the equation by giving him the option to respond or not.  I opened up in my mind and in our space the possibility that he would walk happily to the car.  And he did.

So often in my own life, I try so hard to make things happen the way I want them to happen.  Often they work out the way I hope they do, but sometimes I get frustrated when I just can't seem to get things to happen.  I need to remember the lesson I learned that day from a very special dog - clear the way to open up the possibility of something wonderful happening.

Move the Molecules!

 

 

 

Treasure's Newest Project

Treasure celebrated her birthday in style.  She had a spa day so she is looking as beautiful as ever.  The weather was gorgeous Saturday, so we spent some time outside and she likes to lounge on the wooden deck where it is warm from the sun.  She had special food and goodies and we had extra snuggle time and treats! 

 

 

 

Treasure's actual birthday was last Tuesday and we celebrated by going to a new rally obedience class.  Actually, the class started two weeks prior, but due to some unfortunate situations, we hadn't been able to make it.  So, we are half way through and have been to two classes now.

 

Because the idea of rally is that the dog is next to you throughout the exercises, I'm using the solid leash for the courses.  I realized last week that while we do some heel practice with the solid leash, I really don't do any type of distance walking with it.  If Treasure and I are going for a walk, I use the regular leash and let her follow behind me.  If we are going a distance, we use the stroller.  So, last week was awkward for both of us.  Me trying to handle the solid leash for a longer distance while also trying to cue the other exercises in between, and Treasure trying to figure out why we were walking with it differently than usual.

 

So, this past week we took longer walks - thank goodness we had some nice weather - using the solid leash.  My goal is still to teach Treasure to target her shoulder to my leg, so she can take her cues from my moving leg.  But this has been a work in progress for a while and I haven't found a way to teach it to her that makes sense to her yet.  We are making very slow progress with it, but progress none the less.  But, I think I may have come up with a way to do it better. 

 

So, I am getting more short targeting of her shoulder to my leg and I am always rewarding there in position.  If I can, I am helping her into position at my leg before feeding.  And the marker signal helps at this time as well, if I have enough hands to be able to do it with good timing! 

 

Tonight at class, she was walking much straighter and a bit faster than last week, which was a huge improvement, and my handling of the leash, treats and touch signals was much smoother.  It all felt like it was coming together. 

 

I'm unsure about whether we'll be able to do any rally competitions in the future, but we are having fun and learning something new together!  That's the main reason we do any of these activities.  Maybe we'll get to the point that we can do a few competitions in the future.  Right now, the organization is not sure just how to handle our inquiry about accommodations for Treasure's special abilities.  It will take time for us to practice and to see just what works best for us as far as tools and techniques.  Then I can approach the organization again and see if we can work out specifics. Stay tuned for more about our rally adventures!