--- In cheal@yahoogroups.com, "Jill Terry \(UK\)" <jill@b...> wrote:
> Hi
>
> I'm new to all this - would love more details. Do you mean (hopefully!)
> Cambridge in the UK? What are these exercises?
>
> Regards
> Jill
> ---------------------------------
> Jill & Ian Terry
> Babrees Canaan Dogs - http://www.babrees.co.uk
> British Canaan Dog Society - http://www.thecanaandog.co.uk


Hi again Jill,

I missed answering your question about exercises. I was referring
specifically to directions (and practice, at the workshop I attended)
in "autogenic breathing" which is ridiculously simple and yet very,
very relaxing. I had learned this in my dance training earlier on,
but forget to apply these things in the press of life. But, it is
really great.

I got interested in these sorts of things as I worked teaching other
trainers. I started to see people, who were technically excellent,
fail miserably in encounters with animals - yet I could usually go in
and defuse the situation in seconds. I worked hard to empower these
new trainers to be successful - so I was really befuddled on what was
happening. As I started observing myself more, I realized that I took
time to center myself before encountering an animal - particularly a
challenging animal, like one that tends to be hyperarroused or
hypersensitive, or dolphins or monkeys (ay-yi-yi on both the latter).
So, I started teaching trainers to do exactly that - we started
little mini meditations before going before the animals. I saw
definite improvement. Since then, I have canvassed other trainers and
it turns out that we usually do not talk of these things, fearing
making other people uncomfortable, but we virtually all work in these
ways. In fact, Suzanne Clothier's book "If Dog's Prayers were
Answered, Bones Would Rain from the Sky", she talks a lot about the
intangibles of relationship and interaction. It is a subject that can
make a trainer wax poetic! ;>

Anyway, Mike Meredith covered the autogenic breathing at a workshop
that I asked him to do during the seminar I presented at Wood Green
Animal Shelters. It got a good response (numbers of people so relaxed
they were lying on the carpet) and I saw that, compared to how
seminars often go, the people seemed a bit rejuvenated and more ready
to go on, after both the breathing exercise (after lunch) and after
the longer seminar (end of day when I was dragging a bit).

Anyway, if you are able to go, let us know how it goes.

Best,
Kayce