TTouch in Badajoz

At the beginning of February we spent a wonderful two days exploring TTouch at the Valle de Mira (www.valledemira.com). With participants from the north, centre and south-east of the country and a wide variety of dogs, ranging from a tiny Yorkshire terrier to a golden retriever, there was plenty of opportunity to practise different TTouch techniques. The sun shone brightly on the first day but, as the photo shows, the second day was bright but with a chill wind.

"All Wrapped Up" now available in Spanish too!

At last the Spanish translation of "All Wrapped Up" is available on www.tteam-ttouch.ca. This is the book which explains how to use TTouch body wraps for companion animals - dogs, cats, rabbits, birds, reptiles etc.  A really useful book to own.

Buenos Aires Workshops

Once again Buenos Aires proved to be an exciting and inspiring place to work. We had a   great  group of people from different countries - Venezuela, Brasil, Spain as well as the majority of local Argentinians - with a motley crew of dogs whic, as usual, were our best allies and teachers over the weekend, presenting us with opportunities to learn and progress. Some people who attended the one day seminar held in March joined the group for the second day of this two day seminar. This gave me the chance to catch up on their experiences so far. The group was receptive and participative and it has been encouraging to see how many people have been keen to continue to the work  after the seminars. This has allowed them to see the results of their efforts when their dogs were able to deal in a more balanced way with the fireworks at New Year. The best gift for me would be for them to continue to use the work into the future. I am sure many of them will!  

Once again the success of this venture is due in large measure to the dedication and organisational expertise of Claudia and Marcelo with the support of their three sons "Los Africa". A big thank you to them!

Laying Horses Down

I have just added a new article on the Articles Page on "Laying Horses Down" or forcing a horse to the d¡ground and sitting on it until it stops struggling - similar to the alpha roll. Although it deals with horses, the same is true for dogs and other animals, so I urge you all to read it.

Advanced Training with Linda Tellington-Jones

 Linda Tellington-Jones in the centre wearing a yellow jacket. Behind in black is Sarah Fisher, who runs Tilley Farm in Farmborough, near Bath.

Just back from a full three days at Tilley Farm.  Linda Tellington-Jones, the founder of the Tellington TTouch Method, was giving an advanced training for TTouch practitioners so that was quite a thing. It is not often that she visits the UK, so Sarah pulled off quite a feat there! The group was a mixed equine and companion animal group which was very interesting and provided plenty of "cross-fertilisation" as far as different approaches go. As always, the dogs and horses were our best teachers. The day with the horses was wonderful.  With equine practitioner, Erica Donnison, I worked with Elska, a lovely, gentle Icelandic mare.

TTouch in the Canary islands

On September 22 & 23 we will be holding a two day TTouch workshop in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria at Albergue Rural Brancosole. At this workshop we will be covering the basic concepts and practices of TTouch in all three fields: bodywork, wraps and groundwork.  For further information please go to the Events Diary on this blog.

Wraps enhance Proprioception and Calm Nociception

 Another extract from Robin Bernhard's article.  There are other translations of articles by Kathy Cascade in earlier blog posts.

"Kathy Cascade, a physical therapist and Tellington TTouch instructor, has described how the wraps stimulate the skin and proprioceptive system in such a way that the enhanced information can be used by the brain to make improvements in balance, coordination and movement.  Kathy was talking about the ability to know where our bodies are located in space based upon the feedback system coming from the skin, joints, ligaments and tendons. This feedback system allows the person wearing wraps to instlantly know where the wrapped part of the body is located in space and brings awareness to the relationship between this part of the body and the rest of the body during movement.

Some of the proprioceptive receptors in the skin adapt to sensation quickly and others adapt slowly. Rapidly adapting receptors allow for minute distinctions in the experience of pressure and vibration on the skin. The hair follicles, Meissner's and Pacinian corpuscles all respond to light brushing, light touch and gentle vibration, respectively, by sending immediate brief signals to the brain at the start and stop of each stimulation. This fast on-off information switch allows the body to respond quickly and freshly to each stimulus to the skin so that differentiation of slight changes in skin pressure and vibration can be detected. These fast adapting receptors happen to be associated with the release of oxytocin when stimulated by light touch.

The thermorepcetors in the skin detect warm and cold sensations. (...) There are no  receptors for very hot temperatures in the skin. In fact, the receptors that detect cold temperatures actually fire along with warm receptors when something is hot to create the sensation of extreme heat. This combination of warm and cold receptors firing at the same time is what causes the paradoxical hot/cold "Vick's Vapor Rub" feeling that Jessica described in her legs.

Pain reception also involves both quick acting and slow acting neurons. The quick acting neurons tend to detect sharp, shooting pain and the slow acting neurons tend to detect deep, throbbing or aching pain. (...)

It may be that soothing skin stimulation competes with the pain pathway or the memory of pain. It is reported in the TENS literature that gentle electrical stimulation actually blocks chronic pain receptors. Chronic pain perception is activated by the slow acting neurons. Because the fast adapting neurons bring the gentle stimulation of the TENS to the brain through a different route, it blocks the awareness of chronic pain. The wraps may be generating a similar type of gentle input that competes with and distracts someone from chronic pain.

As mentioned in the brain's rules for change, perhaps the gentle stimulation is new information that contradicts the circumstances under which the pain memory was created and instantly changes the memory. Could the gentle stimulation of the wraps cause a release of a chemical messenger, like oxytocin, that signals safety and suggests to the body that the pain is over? Maybe it is the interest generated from a different kind of stimulation that triggers an orienting response and then permits the completion of the orienting  response and the engagement of the calming ventral vagal system.

There is scientific evidence to support the hypothesis that the engagement of the polyvagal system is part of reducing the perception of pain. In fact, where the vagus nerve meets the heart is one place where pain is modulated. When the heart is pumping in a calm and rhythmic cycle it causes the vagus nerve to suppress pain perception in the spinothalamic tract which brings information about pain to the brain. With the spinothalamic tract suppressed the experience of pain coming from both the spine and from the skin will be reduced."