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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