How to Work with Animals

I’ve been thinking about dogs.

Rather - dogs and Alexander’s Discovery.

Recently I visited friends in Cornwall and met young Lilly - who’s convinced she is human. She tries to sit at the table, eat from a plate and bark when she wants seconds. The bitch is spoiled rotten, and we all love her. 50% Staffy and the rest mongrel.

Giving her a lesson was a different experience from Mason, an old Labradoodle I wrote about previously…

https://atsuccess.com/blog/2022/03/lessons-mason.html

Lilly won’t stay still for very long.

Unless, of course, I can catch her attention by way of my Alexander touch. She responds slightly differently from Mason but follows a similar pattern. When I succeed, you can see her starting to think…

“Whoa ho - what’s going on here?!”

There’s this inwardly looking focus in her attention, and her head starts moving towards the ground. I wasn’t sure if I should scold her for feeling too much, or praise the fact that she listened! Eventually - like Mason - she lies down to insist on tablework. She manages to skip chairwork altogether, although later on the doggy beach she did take to it…

While her beady eyes relentlessly sought out other dogs - I worked on her head-spinal complex - clearly managing to suggest changes that enhanced her visual interrogations. It was my first “activity lesson” and it worked because the reckless darling was on a lease. I have it on video.

Why work on animals?

Obviously, because you love them. 

And then because they can train you.

How does that work?

Well, the animals that I have taught usually won’t tolerate any inappropriate tension. During my training in Highgate, my Director Betty was quick to toss off a trainees hand with a face like you had just brushed a turd on her silk blouse.

“Erk, that won’t do!”

It was nerve-wracking. 

Dogs can be worse. Really. Touch their head/spine with any residual of localized tightening and they quickly brush you off. Your real achievement is being permitted to touch them at all. Try it.

Teachers with a fascination of the processes of communicating-by-touch will enjoy the insights they gain from working with animals.

At my workshop in Berlin - I will also show a short video of my lessons with young Lilly.

https://now2022.de/events/how-to-work-with-animals/