Tilley Farm Companion Animal Cases and Feedback

TARA

Tara

Tara - 11 year old Collie Cross
By Shona Hill

Imagine if you will, a little blonde collie cross sweet as honey with the temperament to match; soft and golden. Ever since I adopted her from a shelter as a puppy Tara has been a slightly nervous dog.

As the years have gone on she has grown in confidence and with some careful care and training has developed into one of the loveliest little dogs you could ever meet. With those she knows, she is outgoing, clever and easily trained, but still has a hint of nervousness around strangers, both human and canine.

Fireworks remain Tara's biggest fear. Her extreme reactions have ranged from shaking uncontrollably, panting heavily, 'digging' carpets and sofas, hiding in the divan drawer under our bed and once even climbing into the washing machine in an attempt to flee the terror that surrounds her. The stress Tara endured was heart breaking and very upsetting to myself and my husband John.

As September turned to October I was already starting to feel the dread of not only 5th November but the weeks

leading up to it as fireworks are no longer only restricted to Bonfire Night. This is what prompted me to contact The One Show which was airing on BBC1. I'd seen Sarah Fisher do wonderful things with animals on the show and also wanted to know if other owners were experiencing the same problems.

I was surprised to learn that not only was this a very common problem but there were other dogs with even more extreme reactions, and was delighted to hear that Sarah was going to join us to give us some help.

Our day with Sarah was fantastic. Sarah instantly recognised some signs in Tara that she commonly finds in noise sensitive dogs; signs I had noticed but didn't realise were connected to her concerns. Tara has never liked her paws being touched nor had she liked being stroked on her hind quarters.

Sarah explained that I should allow Tara to 'den' in her chosen place (provided it was safe) which in her case was under my bed. I needed to make her den comfortable and allow her to find sanctuary there if she needed. I had been trying to coax her out every time she shot under the bed because it upset me to see her under there but this was probably reinforcing her concerns.

Everything we talked about during our session with Tara has helped, but, by far the way most effective way of easing Tara's stress is the TTouch technique that Sarah taught me. This gentle method of using body work TTouches visibly reduces her symptoms, and has also helped me to stay calm as it gives us both something to think about rather than merely focusing on the fireworks. Sarah had also introduced Tara to the body wrap and it certainly worked and she also showed me a doggy T-Shirt as another alternative to the wrap.

There were already positive changes on the first evening following Sarah's visit. A large rocket went off over head and Tara, who was wearing her wrap, came over to me and sat beside me on the sofa instead of diving under the bed in the other room. I did Ear Slides and she settled.

Tara and I are continuing to use TTouch very successfully and enjoying every minute of it. We never leave home without Tara's T-Shirt and it is a quick and easy method of reducing the stress level in Tara. I also keep up with the TTouch body work. We have managed to get through various scary times, like Christmas, New Year and noisy football games using this approach. It even helped when we realised the crackers on the Christmas table were causing stress.

Huge thanks go to Sarah for providing me with an effective remedy to Tara's problems.

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