07/05/2024
🔹Another story in the series about the power of Conditioned Relaxation – this one is about Marty McFly.🔹
You can learn how to use this with your dog – we can teach you in our upcoming class:
https://www.trainingbetweentheears.com/Conditioned-Relaxation-Course
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A picture is worth a thousand words but in this case, a thousand words doesn’t begin to tell the story of Marty McFly. Marty had always been a challenging dog for his humans – while small in stature, he was a committed resource guarder who would force his humans out of the kitchen when they dropped food. He was generally reactive to everything outside of his home and had quirky triggers for his aggression towards his owners – he seemed to like his crate and would go in on his own to hang out but if asked to go in he would spin around and attack the crate door. Because of his size, even though he was very intense in his reactivity it was very easy for his owners to laugh off his behavior. It became a much more important and critical issue to address when his humans welcomed a new baby.
It soon became clear to Marty’s family that the situation with Marty and the baby was life or death. Marty would attack the baby or the mom whenever she would move the baby. He also developed some odd emotional reactions to things related to the baby such as the diaper bin or some of the baby’s personal items.
Through the use of a variety of TBTE techniques including quite a bit of Conditioned Relaxation, we were able to help Marty learn how to relax in the face of life’s challenges and change his perception of the world inside of his home. Conditioned Relaxation helped to teach him how to enjoy and feel comfortable with the new addition to the family.
Another natural byproduct of relaxation changing Marty’s feelings about the baby and life with her was that it also resolved the other issues such as resource guarding, and reactivity to things outside such as gardeners and neighbors. Marty clearly loved his humans but he was never a snuggler or terribly affectionate. With the incorporation of therapeutic touch (CR) into his training, Marty was able to enjoy being touched not only by his owners but by strangers.
For a dog who faced either being re-homed (not likely when you are a 10 year old aggressive dog) or being euthanized, these changes were monumental.
But what sums up the changes that occurred for Marty and his family the most was this sweet picture we received from his humans…
