The gift of a grey muzzle

[snowbunny]

Well, "gray", but I can't bring myself to use the American spelling

Had anyone seen this? Tawzer Dog | The Gift of a Gray Muzzle: Active Care For Senior Dogs

I listened to a podcast with Lori Stevens on my morning run and she mentioned this collaborations she'd done with Kathy Sdao, focussing on caring for senior dogs. It's not cheap ($45 to rent or $90 to buy VOD), but it's about 11 hours of video, so that's not bad when you think about it.

There are a lot of concepts that I have on "my list" for exploring, such as massage, T-Touch, specific proprioception and conditioning work etc, so I think this might fit in nicely. I don't have any "senior" dogs just yet, but they will be part of my journey and I'd like to be prepared for ways I can help them as we move towards that.

 

[Beanwood]

Really interesting podcast, thank you for sharing!

There are a lot of concepts that I have on "my list" for exploring, such as massage, T-Touch, specific proprioception and conditioning work etc, so I think this might fit in nicely. I don't have any "senior" dogs just yet, but they will be part of my journey and I'd like to be prepared for ways I can help them as we move towards that.

This is very much the approach we are taking with Casper, with the help of Tamsin, a pretty amazing vet who believes that is it not acceptable to write off a dog's stiffness and foibles as just "old age". I just love her pro-active approach, and in the short time working with Casper, the results are actually visible. Proprioception is something I have always thought important in keeping joints flexible and supple, plus helping dogs develop really good spatial awareness. Important when you have multiple dogs running around like loons!

T-Touch is something I admit to largely dismissing as a fad. Mainly because I just can't get my head around body wraps and how they really help an anxious dog. I am having a bit of rethink, after seeing the effect on Bramble. She started to get anxious, after getting a few things "wrong" on a task recently at a working test. It wasn't her fault of course! However, the impact was the same. She got stressed and I was unhappy with her. One of the judges (who I knew well and who knows Bramble..) came over and said poor love, do you want to give me a few minutes with her? Using T-Touch she was able to really calm Bramble, and the result was she flew through the last exercise, complete with waggy tail!

 

[snowbunny]

T-Touch is something I admit to largely dismissing as a fad.

I'm the same, but the number of people who are talking about it - people who I don't think would be swayed unless they had seen the results for themselves - appears to be growing. So I think I'm wrong to dismiss it without investigating it for myself. I don't know yet if I'll be disappointed or happily surprised, but it's worth taking a look in any event. The podcast I listened to mentioned that the origins of T-Touch came from Feldenkrais in humans - something that appears to be pretty controversial in itself. However, having seen an osteopath recently who used a different method which sounded like complete bull to me, yet had real and long-lasting results, I'm feeling I should be less quick to dismiss these things

 

[SwampDonkey]

Do some hair slides and watch their faces. Even if it's pants which I find it's not, they love it. Even if it just gives them pleasure it worth a go.

 

[kateincornwall]

Can only speak from my own experience re T-Touch . When my Labrador Tess died , it left us with Lily who was a sufferer of epilepsy . She became very stressed without her pal , afraid of her own shadow . A local lady Shona Moon , introduced me to T-Touch , I decided I had nothing to lose , it worked like magic , for Lily . I also employed their methods when a dog has had major surgery ( Sam) who always reacted badly to GA and again , it helped him , a lot .

 

[Aitch]

I also use T-Touch when any of my dogs get stressed. I have used it on Bear (my senior citizen) and it works beautifully.

 

[Charlie]

I have used T-Touch on Charlie. I did his ears, paws all over massaging which really helped him relax, it really helped him and at the vets too. I wouldn't knock it til I tried it. Nothing to lose! xx