Anyone got experience with the Tellington Touch?

If so - what do you think?

One of my friends did a course on dog training and she uses it all the time (it wasn't a Tellington course, just they taught them how to do it).

My own dog seems to be very jumpy around touch - just about tolerates it, and didn't like the ear thing my TT friend tried on her. But I've started reading up on it as it looks interesting - I think I might look further into it and find something she can tolerate.

I'd love to hear people's actual experiences and thoughts.

This is not something I have studied in detail, although I have seen a few TV programmes (helps if your husband is a celebrity) and read some articles about it.

Most human socialised dogs greatly enjoy physical contact and it has long be used to as a reward in training and to affect the dog's emotions e.g. encouraging, calming, reassuring, exciting the dog etc, depending on the time, intensity, quality and manner of the contact.
Many of the T touches are massage techniques, rubs, strokes and petting people were doing with their pets anyway, they have just put it together and marketed it imo.
I have seen cat show judges calm cats with ear massages for over 25 years, way before T Touch was devised

I am not convinced about the precisely x1.25 clockwise circles though!

One of our past dogs was helped he had to wear a specially designed t.shirt and it really helped him gain confidence. Another one was calmed down dramatically with massage. Sadly lady who taught it died or we would still be going to see her.

It doesn't work for all dogs but for those it does help it can be quite dramatic change.

Hi mollipops! Yes, I was just looking at those body wraps and T shirts online - think they might help my nervy little pensioner. Apparently they can calm some down enough to then accept the touches.

Nearly 10 years ago when I was showing my Havana he was in a pen next door to a double Surpeme winner. As well as finding out what nice people his slaves were, I discovered that the man had a huge talent - cats simply chilled for him. He didn't rub their ears, but when he held them they relaxed and chilled. I found out when I asked him to hold Errol for me so I could clip his front claws. He simply had something that cats loved. I also got to hold the double Supeme winner as a steward at another show, and the cat was wonderfully calm and convinced how beautiful he was.

(it's usual to clip the sharp points of the front claws for showing, it's only a tiny bit that gets removed and it's back in a couple of days or so)

Havanas are nice
What breed was the supreme winner?

Some people have that "calm/trust" gift. I once knew a vet nurse who was like that with cats, but she didn't have the same gift with dogs, she wasn't bad with dogs, just not outstanding like she was with cats.

Havanas are more than nice, they are fantastic.

Mine was a specialist at catching birds, and also into eating, sleeping, being cuddled and unfortunately fighting. Dogs didn't upset him, his breeder had one and he knew that a bunch of claws round the nose (getting his retaliation in first) usually did the trick.

I have two Oriental Blacks at present, but an desparate for another Havana in the future.

The double winner was another Oriental, a neuter, at the time neutered kittens went in a 'catch-all' class at the end of the neuter section. Now they go with entires in the kitten classes.

Sorry can't remember the exact colour the other cat was, his wins were in the late 1990s.

Ok, sorry
I have a very soft spot for siamese type cats, whether pointed or solids, particularly foreign whites or are they called Oriental whites these days? I haven't been involved in cat showing for quite a while.
Orientals have such fantastic, big, interactive personalities But are not always keen on other cats, as some of my cat-owning friends can testify

Still Foreign Whites, but putting them in the Oriental section is bizarre as they are a Siamese cat in white, hence the blue eyes, and they can only have Siamese and FWs in their pedigree in the past so many generations (e.g. no Orientals) to be eligible to show under GCCF rules.

My Havana got on beautifully with my own cats, that he first met when he was a kitten, but when I moved to this house he waged war on a neighbour's cat, and vice versa. It was that particular cat - there were other cats round my previous house that didn't seem to warrent the same treatment.

I don;t know much about cats but used to live close to an RSPCA rescue centre. And when we looked round or there were open days - it always stunned me how many pedigree cats were up for rehoming. Esp the longhaired like Persians. I don't know how much a pedigree cat costs but how on earth do they end up in rescue, when they represent a considerable investment of money like a pedigree dog but - unlike a pedigree dog - don't require a lot of day-to-day care?

Well... Grooming a Persian can take a lot of time. Some of them knot horribly easily, and unless groomed the right way with the right kit every day rapidly get into a state where they need sedating and shaving to sort it all out. Some people get Siamese and Orientals with no idea of how active and vocal they can be, (Burmese and Asians are just as active but not so vocal) and bored cats can be destructive.

And as with many other things once brought people forget how much they cost and they end up in rescues for all the same reasons non-pedigree cats do. There is also a horrible tendancy to describe (for example) any blue (grey) shorthair cat that comes along as a 'British Blue' when it's often obviously nothing of the sort.