Category: Common Problems ¤
  Author: Donna Fefee ¤
   Title: Desensitization w/ Justice, dremel, etc. ¤

In one of my earlier posts on this topic I was wondering about picking a 
certain spot to use for all "treatments" so that Justice would know that 
he's safe from being "molested" the rest of the time. [This is a previous 
suggestion of Shirley's, from a different discussion, I think.] I wrote:

> I guess I'm going to have to pick a certain spot to use for any and 
> all of Justice's treatments and use it for his desensitization work as 
> well? Do you have any recommendations? It's not like I have ANY locales 
> that are ideally suited.

Then I slept on it and came up with (I think!) the perfect solution.  I 
went out and bought one of those "neat sheets." It's basically a nicer 
version of a tarp, made of water-proof fabric measuring 57"x77" and is 
machine washable (but not dryable). I'm kind of haphazard and tend to 
do "treatments" just "wherever," based on lighting, electrical outlets, 
whether or not I need a sink or other raised surface, whether I want 
the dog on the floor or raised (generally on the couch, if it's Pup). 
This way Justice's "treatment area" can move around, according to 
what needs to be done, and then be put away afterwards so he'll know 
that whatever touchy feely stuff I do after that is just ME and not 
leading up to something else "mean" and "unpleasant."

So I've followed through with that part of my plan. The next is more 
of a realization or a DUH moment that all of the desensitization I've 
been doing should have been written down somewhere. Argh! I started 
out keeping a kind of a narrative "log" of how things were going, and 
I wrote stuff down in there, but that only lasted for a couple weeks, 
and I kept working on it beyond that, e.g. going over all parts of the 
dog daily, naming them, and saying "this my _blank_" [from Sue Ailsby].

Justice has had a training journal since mid-July, and this stuff could 
very easily go in there. So I'm going to start putting this stuff in 
there, so I can SEE how he's doing, and I can also see how often or 
seldom I am working on it. Just by LOGGING, I'll probably start working 
on it more consistently, and see more improvement, and, and, and....

Also, five times a day I'll remind myself, "I am not discouraged, I am 
not discouraged, I am not discouraged, etc." <BG>

Donna Fefee
Mon Sep 13, 2004