Liz and I attended the above event with Rossi and Ella. Rossi and I were the participants with Liz and Ella being spectators.
The primary reason for attending the workshop in respect of the training aspect was to reduce Rossi’s excitability and excessive vocalising.
The first moment the dogs were separated there was excessive barking from both the dogs, Ella wanting attention and Rossi to explore. After all Rossi is only just a year old.
Janet the instructor asked for participants in the touch techniques and we thought it would be good for Rossi to participate – the youngest dog there. By this time he had calmed down a little.
The touch approach technique uses the pads of the fingers repeated over the body in a one and a quarter circle – Rossi was calmed by this technique until from the corner of his eye he saw some large toy dogs – intrigued by these he stared at them and was somewhat confused when they did not move – they were realistic. In order to stop Rossi barking and ‘squaring up’, Janet had to turn the toy dogs to face the wall and out of Rossi’s eye line, also adopting the touch technique.
All participants and spectators enjoyed the event and I can certainly recommend the technique to help with problems a dog may have such as handling, excessive vocalising and excitability.
The venue and lunch were excellent. Many thanks.