A graduate of the TFT Boot Camp shares how past traumas severely limited the life of her female border collie:
Client B is a 6 year old female Border Collie. She is a rescue and has been with my family for 2 years.
Her condition: massive anxiety.
The reason: In her past home she was low dog on the totem pole. The couple had 5 Border Collies total and they were all working dogs. Client B had been attacked by one dog and then the rest had piled on (pack mentality). She had to go to the vet after each one of these attacks ( I believe there were 3) and have stitches. After the last attack she was on crate rest for 6 months, severe damage had been done to the tendons and ligaments in her left shoulder.When I heard about her plight I agreed to take her. She was terrified of all dogs including our gentle older Border Collie. She learned over the past 2 years that there are some dogs that are ok but she took a long time to accept each of them (neighbor’s dogs). She was both drawn to and afraid of our children. She wanted to be close and cuddle but was petrified to be held still and would nip if they tried it. Thinking of this now I realize she probably needs to be treated for claustrophobia too.
Client B has never rolled onto her back-understandably. Occasionally she would lie on her side if you stroked her softly and talked to her but that was unusual. I decided to try the Simple Anxiety Algorithm (now I know I should have treated the trauma first).
She was lying on my bed when I started the Algorithm. I put my hand on her and did the tapping on myself. Just before I got to the Floor to Ceiling Eye Roll she looked me in the eye and slowly rolled over on her back, back legs splayed open. I was shocked. Nearly in tears I said, “Ohhhh, look at you!” and her tail came up between her back legs and wagged furiously. She allowed me to pet her belly, wagging all the while.
A few days later I treated her with, and you’ll probably get a laugh out of this, all 4 Trauma Algorithms in order. Being a dog, I didn’t know which one to use. (Note: these are available for free on TFT Foundation’s Trauma Relief site: www.TFTTraumaRelief.wordpress.com)
Simple Trauma, Complex Trauma, Complex Trauma with Anger (I thought maybe. I know I’D be angry!), and Complex Trauma with Guilt–my reason for using this was because she takes everything personally. If you stub your toe and yell, she cowers. She often has a “Did I do wrong?” look about her. I’ve been amidst only a few dog fights in my life and they are so scary with the humans yelling and trying to get it to stop. I wondered if Trauma with Guilt might be a better fit. This time during the 9 Gamut she groaned several times long and low and then relaxed her body, laying her head on my leg.
Both of these were amazing outcomes for this little dog. I’ll be interested in using TFT on dogs in the future! Think of the wonderful turn around that could happen with rescued dogs!
And, I might add, imagine what a difference this could make for Search and Rescue, Military Support or Police Canine units.
Excerpted from Callahan “News on Tapping”, May13, 2013