Your Dogs Behavior & TTouch

What is the limbic system and how does this relate to animals and TTouch?

I'm so glad you asked!  

The limbic system is the innermost part of the brain, located just below the thalamus on both sides of the brain and is comprised of a set of complex brain structures.   These structures are responsible for emotion (fear, anger, pleasure, happiness, etc.), some of the structure is also involved with memory.

Emotions are constantly being processed by the body ~ the brain and the body are exquisitely intertwined and constantly interacting with the surrounding environment.  Because the senses are also involved with this system (sight, smell, taste, sound, touch), the more senses that are involved in an experience, the more the brain remembers it and the deeper the imprint.  

Here's my analogy...

My dearly departed Border Collie, Mac, was a talented obedience and agility dog.  He was also deathly afraid of thunder.   His show career came to a screeching halt not long after getting in the AKC ring .... it was something like his second or third show, ever.  We were in Alabama.  The obedience rings were inside a large open building with huge doors that could open all around it's perimeter.  It was late spring, I think, when we were there.  Warm and nice, but not hot.  It was early afternoon and my class was in the ring, Mac and I waiting our turn ringside.  Then he began to shake.  He never did that...unless....a storm was coming.   

By the time we were "on deck" for our turn in the ring, you could clearly hear the thunder and the sky was black as ink.  All the outside doors were lowered.  I had a withering pile of pure fear shaking in my lap.  Our turn came and like an absolute idiot, I obligated myself to carry on and in we went.  It didn't go well.  The poor boy couldn't even heel on lead.  We were in and excused in just under a minute or so.  We exited the ring and I found my seat, Mac leapt into my lap and came apart while the storm rolled over.  I wasn't able to compete with him again, taking him in the ring had imprinted that terror with that setting.  I tried and tried conditioning with group training, matches, etc., but nothing would help his body recover from the trauma he experienced in that show ring in Alabama.  He did great with agility, hiking, pet therapy, all that, just no obedience in a show setting.  

What I didn't know back then was that there was a way to help.  I didn't need to "retire" him.  I just didn't know about TTouch.  Had I used it on him, he would have had a far better potential to come back around and go on to compete in obedience trials without issue.  Because, TTouch speaks kindly to the limbic system through physical touch and engaging new experiences.  It's simply powerful stuff.  

The mouth carries the closest connection to the limbic system.  Mouth work stimulates the salivary glands which triggers the relax-promoting parasympathetic nervous system.  That quiets the sympathetic nervous system down (fight or flight response) which means relaxation and less reactivity happens.  The animal learns to respond rather than to react.  Mouth work is a part of what TTouch does and I've seen remarkable improvement in behavior and performance.

And now you know the rest of the story.

***

Thanks for stopping by!  

If you like this article, subscribe to my blog and get more fun news like this.

Interested in TTouch?  Sign up for a session with me!  Just head over to the "TTouch Shop" tabs and scroll down; or hit the "contact me" and shoot me an email.