How Bella Got Her Groove Back

Bella is my 6 year old English Cocker Spaniel. As a pup she was a very gregarious, confident girl with great social skills around other dogs. She went out with a dog walker from 12 weeks onwards where she mixed with all kinds of dogs and soon picked up the social etiquette needed - calming signals, how to be polite and how to play.

At 16 weeks, Bella was attacked by a very powerful adult dog and although she was terrified at the time and had severe trauma to her chest, she appeared to still keep her confidence, and happily went back to playing with other dogs she came across. Unfortunately over the next 7 or 8 months she experienced 3 more attacks by bull breeds whose owners were either nowhere to be seen or simply didn't think their dogs were causing any problems. One of these attacks was whilst she was on lead.

The onlead attack led to Bella going from being a dog who walked well to heel and had been quite happy to pass other dogs in the street, to one who became so anxious when she spotted another dog that she would literally go into a spin, barking and snapping and really in a terrible state. I managed to work through this with Bella with clickerwork and a few months later things settled down again.

However offlead, Bella had stopped wanting to play with other dogs (she was now a year old) and was starting to airsnap at some of them if they rushed up to her. Gradually this behaviour escalated to the point that any dog who came within 5 feet of her got snapped at. Bella would first of all go into freeze and then lunge at the dog before running away. Living in London, the parks are full of dogs on and off the lead so it is almost impossible to avoid meeting them. She also recognised bull breeds but rather than avoiding them would go charging up to try and have a go at them before they had a go at her - not good!

I tried clickerwork to no avail, positive reinforcement, avoidance, you name it. Nothing seemed to work long term and I was beginning to resign myself to having to always keep a really close eye on her on our walks and avoid other dogs where possible.

Then I remembered that I'd brought a book by Linda Tellington-Jones on T Touch for your dog. I decided to try a bit on Bella as I figured it couldn't do any harm.

"A very little key will open a heavy door"

Charles Dickens

Bella loved the gentle work on her body and started actively requesting that I did the honours whenever possible. There was no immediate change in her behaviour but I perservered and enjoyed the calming effect that the work had not only Bella but also on me. One weekend a few weeks later, Bella started behaving a bit differently in the park. She said hello to two or three of the dogs we met on our walk and seemed really relaxed. With a couple of other dogs she looked worried as usual but it was a big turning point for her to want to say hello to any dog at all. Gradually she started saying hello politely to more and more dogs and hardly being worried by any at all. Convinced that the cause of this positive change in Bella was the T Touch, I decided to find out more about it and went to a one day workshop run by Toni Shelbourne, followed by another at Battersea Dogs Home with Sarah Fisher. I was hooked, and not long after that decided to train as a Practitioner myself.

Bella continues to be so much better with other dogs and has re-learned her calming signals. She has learned to relax enough to be able to respond rather than reacting to dogs she encounters, and although she doesn't like every single dog she meets (and let's face it, do any of us like every single person we meet?!), I no longer have to worry about how she's going to respond and our walks are now a pleasure. Bella still has regular T Touch sessions with me and absolutely loves them!

- Claire Pearson, October 2008