Thursday, November 29, 2012

Controlled Touch

Cody loves touch. He craves it, seeks it out, and even if you sit there and do nothing he will move his body (and your hands!) so that he will get physical contact with you. He will even move away from food to come get love!
Coming in for a neck scratch.
While Cody has kept his love-bug nature despite what humans did to him the first several years of his life, his history has made him very sensitive to touch. Prolonged touch, firm touch, or touch on certain areas of his body can make him very nervous. He will let you know about this by turning his ears back and growling. He faces away while he growls and never stares directly at you. He isn't a boy trying to intimidate and he had no desire to bite - instead he is frozen, unsure how to move away, and growling in hopes that the touch will stop so he can move again.
That's the spot!
As much as I would love to rub Cody all over and even cuddle with him, I deliberately move slow. I even move slower than Cody would like because I want give myself room to work with him under his threshold. He has told me (through growls and a couple warning snaps) what touch he likes and what touch concerns him. Fingertips can be highly stimulating since it is 3-4 small points on the dog, so by using the back of the hand, or the arm, it creates a smoother surface that doesn't create specific points of contact where the touch is more stimulating. I keep the touch brief to ensure that he has time to settle himself between touches rather than getting overwhelmed by the prolonged contact. Finally I keep my touch moving slowly the entire time. Letting my touch linger in one spot can create too strong of a sensation and moving too fast can provoke a fearful reaction. 
Taking a break between touches.
Sometimes I do use my fingertips, linger in one area, or move faster, but those are done far less than the other contacts. Doing so creates a touch that may start to over-stimulate him but the touch is kept short enough that he experiences a slight rise in stimulation without it becoming aversive. Over time this will increase his threshold level and he'll be able to experience and enjoy more stimulating touch without it being a scary or uncomfortable experience.
Another way to take a break - dinner time!
Below is the video from Tuesday night - our first night. You'll see how when I touch him with my fingertips on his hind end he gets nervous and growls.
Here is the video from last night. You'll see how he engages me for touch. I focus on using soft touches with the back of my hands and arms. Occasionally I do touch him with my finger tips either because I forget (bad trainer moment!) or because I am intentially doing that touch to give him slightly more stimulation for a short period.

Watch for the first time he growls. You'll see that right before that growl happens he is facing out of the bathroom. His ears are  turned to the side. I pull my hand back and pause because this is a signal that he is experiencing ambivalence. When his ears stayed the same I decided to do a small experiment and touched him again, which immediately provokes a growl. I withdraw my hand and wait for him to settle back down before engaging him again. Each dog is a little different and some are able to "snap out" of their ambivalence with gentle touch, and some dogs, like Cody, will instead be pushed closer to threshold by the touch. Experiments are the only way to figure out which is which, and Cody is so good at telling me exactly how he feels!
Come back, I want more controlled touch!

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