The Magic of Touch...

The Tellington Ttouch is a wonderful tool to use with all animals, including birds. I have used the Ttouch to calm nervous or fearful birds, to teach birds to enjoy being handled and to change aggressive behavior.

What is Ttouch? The Tellington Ttouch is a type of bodywork developed by Linda Tellington Jones. Linda grew up in Edmunton, Canada surrounded by animals. Nurtured by her family and environment, her love of horses soon grew into a career. She grew dissatisfied with conventional training methods, followed her intuition and found that it was much easier to work with the horses, instead of forcing them to perform. She continued to train and teach while refining her technique. As luck would have it, she discovered the Humanistic Psychology Institute, while living in Europe, and decided to attend a four year summer program in physical therapy techniques with Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, an Israeli physicist, athlete and master of martial arts. Dr. Feldenkrais developed his method of body movements while recuperating after being hit by a bus. He was severely crippled and only given a 50/50 chance of ever walking again. He did recover and has helped many people through his techniques now known as "Awareness Through Movement" and "The Feldenkrais Method of Functional Integration." His work is based on non habitual movements and the belief that a human can learn after experiencing something only once. He believed that repetition is just habitual movement and is not necessary for learning to take place.

Linda soon incorporated non habitual movements and intuitive touches in training the horses. The Tellington -Ttouch was then developed. Linda has since started training programs for teaching people how to use the Tellington Ttouch in horses, llamas, dogs, cats, birds and other animals. Linda and her sister, Robyn Hood travel all over the world teaching workshops and working with animals. The TTEAM (Tellington Ttouch Every Animal Method) organization was formed to promote the welfare of animals and to educate people. There are now TTEAM instructors and practitioners worldwide.

I first saw Linda at the Delta Society Conferences a few years ago. I was amazed to see her take a cat that was very upset, from a bundle of nerves, and turn him into a mass of purring fur in a few short minutes. I was working as a vet tech at the time and wanted to learn how to do this, so that I could handle some of our more difficult patients. I applied some of Linda's Ttouches to our clients and was amazed at our results. The animals were calmer and more willing to cooperate with us. I had to learn more; therefore, over the years, I attended many more workshops and training sessions.

Work With Birds: My first bird experience with Ttouch was with my daughter's Parakeets. The three of them were very happy with each other, but panicked when it was necessary to handle them. I was hoping to make it a little less stressful for them when nail trimming came around. I stroked Snowy with a feather and slowly introduced some of the Ttouches all over her body. We had several short sessions the first day. On the second day, Snowy flew right onto my hand and pushed her little body into my fingers. She had a change in attitude from that day on where she was much friendlier, flying over to us to seek our attention. I then started working with the other two birds with equally good results.

The next bird I encountered was Charlie, a naked Cherry Headed Conure. Charlie's owner had died, and he needed a good home. I was his transportation and temporary housing on his way to live with a friend in Maryland. The relatives of the deceased did not care for birds and had gotten tired of caring for him.

I was speechless when I first met him. He, on the other hand, was quite verbalóand I'm sure he was cussing at me in "Conure." He paced, tapped his beak on his cage, tried to bite me, bit at the air and cage, and then just bit himself repeatedly until he drew blood. He had only a few feathers on his wings, but full feathering on his head; and I had a difficult time resisting the temptation of laughing at this naked little tyrant, as he looked like a naked Cornish game hen! He was thirteen years old, and he had been plucking his feathers since his owner had died four years earlier.

I could not send him to his new home in this condition, so off to the vets we went. The vet could not find anything physically wrong with Charlie. His diagnosis of chronic feather picking did not have a good prognosis, so he came to live with us.

After his first month quarantine, we moved him into the living room so that he could watch us. He gave a repeat performance of our initial meeting, every time a family member entered the room. I tried some Ttouch, by stroking Charlie with feathers and found out quickly, that feathers are foreign objects, especially to feather picking birds. He attacked and panicked. I then waited for him to bite the bars on his cage or hang on the side; then I did a few quick circles (massage circles Ed) on his beak and feet with my fingers. His screaming and aggressive behavior started to subside a few days later. Charlie became Chuck. He soon allowed me to handle him, and I continued to do the Ttouch all over his body. His self mutilating behavior disappeared, but his feathers never did come back.

One day, Chuck fell in love with a friend of mine. It was mutual, and he went to live with Vickie. Vickie had a small day care center, and Chuck loved the kids, particularly enjoyed the sing alongs and mealtime. I had mixed feelings about his leaving; and even though I really missed him, I was happy he found a home with a caring person.

Chuck taught me a lot. Until I had met him, I only tolerated birds, and had never really considered having one as a companion. Chuck's behavior brought me to a greater understanding of birds and people. I don't think I could have rehabilitated Chuck without the magic of TTEAM and the Tellington Touch.

Since Chuck, I have worked with a variety of birds, from Finches to chickens. Some have been injured; others have had behavior problems. Ttouch has helped many of them recover and change inappropriate behavior. It is a wonderful tool to have at your finger tips

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