Hello, and welcome to the Animal Training Academy Making Ripples podcast show. The show where we share the stories of the ripple making extraordinaires with behavior nerd superpowers who make up the Animal Training Academy membership. I'm your host and one of the happiness engineers at Animal Training Academy, Shelley Wood from Drop Your Jaws Dog Training in Cape Girardeau, Missouri in the United States. We're absolutely thrilled and grateful to have you here with us today.
Make sure you go ahead and hit that subscribe button so that you don't miss a single episode. This show is brought to you on behalf of the Animal Training Academy membership. So if you like the conversations in these episodes, then we want to invite you to continue them with like-minded people in the ATA membership, which you can find out more about at www.atamember.com.
Within the membership, you can get access to twice monthly live web classes, the back catalog of previous web class replays, plus a huge library of videos and projects to help you problem solve your training challenges. And we're a sociable bunch with an exclusive private Facebook group and forums area. It's like a Netflix social media platform for animal behavior geeks. In this episode, we are excited to introduce Dr. Daniela Zerr.
Dr. Daniela Zerr is a behavioral veterinarian from Nuremberg, Germany. She graduated in veterinary medicine in Hanover in 1999. The following year, she obtained her doctorate and at the same time passed her exam as a Tellington T-Touch teacher. After 18 years as an employed veterinarian, she opened her practice for veterinary behavioral therapy in 2018. Sometimes she struggles with the fact that there are so many exciting things in this world.
That's why her professional life is divided into many different areas. Behavioral medicine consultations for pets, zoo consultations, writing books, teaching seminars, and T-Touch for you, people with special needs. She has been certified by Linda Tellington Jones as a T-Touch for you instructor and a T-Touch instructor for companion animals.
Together with Katja Kraus, she has developed the T-Touch and Click Dog and Cat Trainer course, which includes Tellington Touch training with positive reinforcement and a technique called Leading to Balance. Daniela loves teaching in many different countries and getting to know and support people and their animals. Next year, she is planning numerous activities to celebrate 50 years of T-Touch and her 25 years as a veterinarian and T-Touch teacher. Welcome, Daniela.
We're so lucky and excited to have you here with us today. Thank you very much, Shelly, for having me. I'm looking forward to it. I am looking forward to it as well. Before we get started on the really good stuff here, I'd love to give you an opportunity to correct my pronunciations of my name and your partner who you developed the program with her name. Actually, you did very well. So my name is Daniela Zuhl and Katja's second name is Kraus.
But it sounded pretty perfect, actually, when you said it. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate that generous interpretation of the way I said it. I feel I was probably off the mark a good bit, but thank you. And thank you for giving us the proper pronunciations there as well. And I am super excited to talk to you today.
We haven't had anybody on the show who has talked about T-Touch very much before, and I don't know much at all about it myself, except for the little that I chatted with you about the last time we got together. So really excited to dive into that, but also all the other wonderful experiences that you have in the animal and behavior world.
And I thought it was funny when I was reading your bio, just really quick here, when you mentioned that there are, you know, you struggle with the fact that there are so many exciting things in the world, and I don't know. And then I continued to read what you're doing, and I thought, well, I think you're doing pretty good with tackling a lot of those exciting things. So we are excited to hear more about them.
So could you start us off today by sharing your story with us and telling us how you started working with animals and lead us up to how you're spending your days today? When I look back how I started to work with animals, and especially with positive reinforcement, I think I was deeply influenced by three women. And one, obviously, as for many of us, was my mother, because I was lucky enough to grow up with animals.
But in addition to the usual species, I was already enthusiastic about reptiles when I was a very, very small child. So at the end of the 70s, aquatic turtle were very easy to get, but information how to keep them was very rare. So all my friends had these turtles, and they all died in the first year. But my survived because my mother was looking for husbandry information and made sure that they got a properly equipped aquarium and got the right food and so on.
So I think she really taught me from the very beginning that we have a responsibility for the creatures we bring into our life. And maybe these turtles have been also a reason why I got interested in veterinary medicine, because at that time, it was nearly impossible to find a veterinarian who could help me when they had some issues. And as a child, you don't know if it's really bad or if it's something minor, and then you go to a vet and they say, well, I don't know, too.
And then I was very lucky again when I started studying veterinary medicine, that in my university town in Hanover, there was one of the first reptile-only practices in Germany, or I think actually in Europe. And Dr. Renate Keil was not only a passionate veterinarian, she was also an excellent teacher and really generously shared her wealth of experience with us as students.
And with her, I experienced what a careful handling technique that takes into account the body language of the animals can make a big difference. And she would never say I trained animals, but I experienced reptiles that came when she called them, that tortoise that were giving paws and iguanas that recognized her not being in the clinic for many months, coming back, leaving the cage and saying kind of hello.
So at that time, I already learned that these animals that were called stupid at that time had much more learning capacities than most people thought. So I'm really grateful that I learned so much from her regarding animal welfare and handling. And also maybe I got passionate about teaching during that time too, because it was just a big honor to learn so much from a teacher like this. And well, my own turtles had a very long and I would say happy life.
And then actually, already when I was still a teenager, so before vet school, the third woman who has deeply influenced me is Linda Tellington-Jones. I think she was extremely ahead of her time with her statement that she said behavior problems usually arise from fear, pain, discomfort or misunderstanding in communication. And I'm very happy that I had internized her principles long before I started working with animals professionally.
Because if you think about how animals were usually treated in the 80s and 90s at university, I just learned how to hold an animal, how to fight with force to make medical procedures possible. And I never practiced these tools at university because I already had so many other techniques to help the animal to cooperate. That is wonderful that you had so many profound influences on you from such an early age. I loved hearing about your mom.
And I wonder when you were talking about your mom and how she taught you the importance of and the importance and responsibility of caring for these other creatures who we bring into our lives. Did she have a strong background with animals and or reptiles as well? No. She grew up with some animals too, like dogs and common pets, but reptiles were totally new to her too. Okay, wonderful. Awesome.
That's really cool then that she just still imparted that to you, the importance of caring for animals like that. And I loved hearing that reptiles were some of the first animals that you worked with I don't think that that's common, you know, that's not the most common thing in the circles that I am in anyway. So it's really cool to hear that those are the first animals you started working with and you learned right away about their capacity as well.
And the other thing that really struck me was that when you were talking about the influence of Linda Tellington Jones, and I believe you said, so please correct me if I get this wrong, but I believe you said that she said most behavior problems arise from fear, pain, discomfort, or a misunderstanding in communication. Yeah. And that really stood out to me because I don't know that that's the way that we, and when I say we, I mean the whole collective we out there in the wide world.
I don't know if that is the way that we always approach behavior problems as thinking immediately. Is this coming from a place of fear, pain, discomfort, or a misunderstanding in communication? What do you think? Is that the common cultural way that behavior problems are approached where you are? I believe this way of thinking is still too rare. It's becoming more and more common.
And I think we become better in recognizing signs of pain and signs of discomfort because we learn more about body language and also more about how animals communicate. I'm just wondering, I'm not sure about the English name, but you can help me, I think. A species with really long, like a hedgehog, but a big species, so a lot long needles. Like a porcupine maybe? Porcupine, that's it. So let's think about a porcupine.
Porcupines don't see well, but they are really good with smelling and hearing. So if you don't know that they can't see well, you may think they are stupid because they don't react to the visual cues as you expect them to do. And this is obviously the impact of seeing or hearing very obvious big things. But on the smaller scale, quite often we just misinterpret how animals see the world. Yeah, that's really interesting that we do see the world very differently than animals.
So yeah, that's a good example of that. And maybe I add one aspect. The first big part of the Tellington Tea Touch method is not about doing something. It's about observation. So Linda originally worked mostly with horses. And you know, there was a time where everybody wanted to be a horse whisperer. And I really like that she always said it's not about whispering to the horse. It's about listening what the horse is telling you. Very good. I really like that.
That it's not about always about doing so much, but about listening and observing. And I think that's a really nice segue into talking a little bit more about Tea Touch. So you got involved really early on with Tea Touch and have been doing it for how long now? Did you 25 years? Is that right? If 25 as a certificated teacher and 35 years altogether, that's when you notice that you're getting older. That's a lot of experience. So what attracted you to Tea Touch?
And maybe just share a little bit about your journey there too and how that's evolved. Yeah, it actually started when I was a teenager. And we worked with horses who had back pain. So at this time, we did a sport where the horse gallops. And it's not so common in English speaking countries. So the horse gallops in circles and you jump onto the horse. And up to three, usually girls, jump onto the horse and do different kinds of gymnastics.
So there's a big tendency for back pain for these horses, obviously. And I loved these horses and I was looking for help. And at the time, there were no physiotherapists, craniosacral, osteopathy, or whatever you can think of therapists in the horse world. So I found this first book from Linda Terlington Jones, started to read it and started to do very gentle, precise movements on the back of the horses. And they enjoyed it and they improved. So I became really, really interested at that point.
And then when I started at the university, we had a chance to listen to some of her... So she was visiting at university and we had the chance to listen to some presentations. And then I organized a student group who was inviting, telling T-Touch teachers to teach the students. And this is how we started. And then it moved from horses to dogs and also cats and later on to zoo animals too. And for me now, it's not only a way of training.
And for me, it's also a way of sharing my life with animals. And it influences how I see other living beings. So I'm not only talking about animals, also about human beings too, because different details I can use in every interaction. So when I do a Terlington, T-Touch has very gentle, but precise movements with your hands. So this is the kind of body work. But we also have special leading exercises, things to give the animal a specific sensory input, like with elastic body wraps.
And the way I think about it, I can use... Let's say I want to teach, I don't know, a nose target. Then I can transfer the aspects I look at when I do Terlington T-Touches also to this training. Because the first thing I do is I look at pressure. And this means when I put my hand on the animal, how much pressure does the animal like? But if you look at the training session, you can also say, is there anything that is putting unwanted pressure on the animal? So what can I do to make it easier?
And then it's about tempo. How fast do I move my hands? But also in the interaction, how fast do I move? How fast I change from one step to the next and so on. And there are nine elements that are kind of always in my mind when I interact with somebody. So you said that UV-T-Touch not only is a way of training, but also a way of sharing your life with animals, and it influences how you see them as a living being.
And then you just mentioned, I think, that there are nine things that are always in the forefront of your mind whenever you're interacting with an animal. Do I have that right? Yeah. Nine elements. Yeah. Okay. So I want to ask about those nine elements in just a second. But well, I guess now would be a good time to kind of talk about that too before I ask this next question that I have. So what are the nine elements? Okay. When we talk about the body work, the first element is a basic circle.
And this is that we move the skin in circles so we don't slide over the skin. We move the skin in circles. Then we have the pressure. We have the tempo, how fast we move. And then we have a pause. And a pause, if you think about training again, is something that's quite often underestimated because it's so important when we give the animal a pause, how long it is and what we are doing in the pause.
So is it just we make a step backwards or do we give a total break or are we just spending time sitting together or whatever? And here it's also the little pause after any one and a quarter circle. And then the next aspect is connection. So usually when we have the hands on the body of an animal, he keeps a connection. If you think about shy animals, it's very good when they know where your hand is and where it will go next. And also it gives a nice feeling from front to tail.
So it's really increasing body awareness. And then it's breathing or let's say mindful breathing. And the most important thing, I think when we work with animals is that we continue to breathe. And next is body position. So how can I organize my body in a way that it feels comfortable for the animal? So no unwanted pressure, but also that it's good for my body because it doesn't make sense that I bend in a way that I have back pain after training or something like that. And then it's intention.
So what's my intention doing, whatever I'm doing at the moment. And I think it's always good to take a little bit time to think about that before we start an interaction. And last but very important is the feedback. So whatever my intention and my plan is, I have to be flexible to change it depending on the feedback of the animal. Thank you for going through those nine different components there. And they all make total sense to me.
And I can see where it would be helpful engaging with an animal, whether training or just engaging with an animal to embrace all of these ideas for interaction with them. But also there are nine of them and that's a lot for me to hold in my brain. And I don't have any experience with T -Touch at all. So I can imagine that for you, it's just become a way of life over all of these years.
But for somebody like me, who's brand new to the concept, maybe doesn't have a T -Touch practitioner in the area where I live, where would you recommend or would you, is there somewhere that you would recommend maybe kind of starting with trying to teach oneself these ideas and beginning incorporating them in their lives with animals? Yeah. So I would say if there's no teacher nearby, go on the internet.
There are many great YouTube videos and there are books in, I forget, I think in 15 or something languages about telling T-Touch. So you always have a chance to get basic information. And then I would say start, just start with one simple T-Touch. For example, just put your hand on the chest of your animal. Imagine a clock and just imagine that you start at six o'clock, follow from nine to 12 to three to six and a little bit more to nine. So you move the skin in a one and a quarter circle.
And then you make a little pause. You can listen to your fingers, how the tissue under your finger feels like. And then you move a little bit and you can do the same movement. And usually when we focus on a one and a quarter circle and that's enough at the beginning, remember gentle and moving the skin in a one and a quarter circle. We cannot think about, do I want to have lunch or which problems I had with my boss today. So for sure, we are really with our animal and listening to the moment.
That's beautiful. Yeah. And maybe then when I do the pause, I also remind myself to do a long, relaxing exhale. And then I, usually the animal is really with me and enjoying the time with me. And when I'm too stressed to do this, we all know that we want to be relaxed and happy when we work with our animals. But there's daily life too.
And if I'm too stressed to do something together with my animal in a good mood, I can do some t-touches on my own chest to balance my parasympathicus and sympathicus nervous system first. And quite often when we do that, our animals approach and say, now it's more fun to be near to you. And then we can start together doing something. I love that. And I love what you just described about if you're too stressed, you could do some t-touch on yourself first.
But I really love the part where you were talking about doing the t-touch on the animal and how you can't think about all of these other stressors at the same time. And just thinking about that, the idea of that connectivity and that mindfulness and awareness and togetherness that it sounds like t-touch would bring when working with others.
One thing I was wondering about t-touch was it sounds like, do I have it right that it's something that one can use as an intervention, but also something that one can use as prevention or even just a part of daily life. Is that right? Yeah, that's totally right. So the idea is that we have a cell to cell combination that helps to balance the body. And by balancing the body, you also balance the emotions. And this is good for improving health, but also as a preventional tool. Very good.
Wonderful. Thank you. What are some things that you find it to be most beneficial for thinking of like intervention kind of work? As a veterinarian, when I think about health, I really like ear t-touch. So this is just a gentle stroking of the ear. And because you have acupuncture points in the ear, you can influence the whole body. And the great thing about that, it's very easy to teach. It takes like a minute and it can make a really big difference in emergency situations.
Because if you have, let's say a horse that collics or a dog that got bitten and is getting blood pressure problems and so on, on the way to the veterinarian, the ear t-touch can make a very big difference. And I have seen several potentially life-threatening situations in animals as well as humans where you obviously do all this other things you learn as a first at treatment, but ear t-touch quite often makes a big difference.
And you actually did an excellent job of just leading me right into the next question that I was wanting to ask about. And that is something that we kind of chatted a little bit about the last time that we talked. But I immediately, when I started thinking about touch and pressure and those kinds of things, my mind immediately went to acupuncture. And I was wondering, does t-touch rely on some of those same pressure points as acupuncture? Is it similar in any ways? Is it completely different?
Yeah. So as the ear, there we use acupuncture points, but not in a way that we put pressure on specific points. We just stroke the whole ear and helps the system to balance. Usually when I work on the body, I don't need any knowledge about meridians or specific acupuncture points. Sometimes I follow meridians, but that's nothing that's a must to do telling t-touch. And our main focus are not specific points. Our main focus is every little cell in the skin.
So I want to help any animal to feel as comfortable as possible in their body. And let's say you have an animal with chronic pain, then quite often our tendency is to focus so much on the painful area. But from my perspective, the most important point is to remind the animal how many pieces in the body still feel good and what a good job they are doing. Because when we are sitting here and talking, all these cells in our body do a very good job. Otherwise we would be dead.
So even if I have a difficult health situation, there are still so many cells that work well and it's good to put the focus on the things that do a good job, helps the animal to feel comfortable. And then obviously I can start working on painful areas to help to release the pain. But bringing only focus on the area where already lots of focus is doesn't make so much sense from my perspective. Thank you. And thank you for all of that that you have shared so far about t-touch.
And this is the 50-year anniversary of t-touch. Is that right? That's right. And you said that there are different events planned for that. Are there going to be events in your area? Are you going to be a part of a lot of fun stuff related to t -touch? Yeah, so it's actually a worldwide celebration.
So we will celebrate on a very local scale and also on the bigger scale, meaning that we plan to publish just many, many little pieces on the social media so that people can join online and practice on the animal. And we have in every month, we have a special theme we will focus on and we will have in different regions. One region per month will have special events. And also in Germany in March, we have the Equitana. That's the biggest horse ferry, I think, in the world.
And if everything goes well, Linda Telling Jones will come and we will have a big celebration there too. Awesome. And I hope you'll keep us updated as to some of the things that you have going on in the ATA group during the year. And could you tell us in your veterinary practice, are you able to incorporate t-touch with some of the behavior animals that you're working with there? And what kind of animals are you working with? Do you have the opportunity still to work with any reptiles?
Are you working all with cats and dogs? What do you kind of have going on in your professional life today? Yeah. So in my behavior veterinary practice, I usually see dogs in the clinic and cats online or with house visits. But I also see behavior cases from zoos, sometimes private owners too, but in these times, mostly zoos. So when I prefer to go there as a preventive part too and offer training and telling t-touch to zookeepers to improve the relationship between them and the animals.
But I also get appointments. Let's say you have some zoo animals that's showing stereotypic behaviors or things like that. Yeah. And in these groups, we also have reptiles. They are not my most common clients to say, but from bearded dragons to crocodiles, I'm lucky enough to have a chance to work with them from time to time. Good. I'm so glad that you still get to get your reptile fix. And it sounds like probably no day is ever quite the same for you. Is that right in your words?
Pretty much right. Good. Good. Keep it interesting. I love it. Could you share with us now, Daniela, about a training-related challenge that you have experienced? And tell us a little bit about how you worked through it and some of the things you learned from it. Yeah, for sure. So I think one of the biggest challenge I was struggling in the last years was actually my own poodle, Lua, who is resting next to my feet now.
And she came to us from an animal shelter and we knew that she showed some insecurity regarding being outside and a pronounced fear of men, including my partner. So that was a challenge we knew about and we already had ideas how to work with that. But they forgot to tell me that she also had pronounced separation anxiety and already in the shelter. And just after a few days after her arrival, she began to panic as soon as she was separated from me.
And this combination of fearful regarding my partner and really panic when I left really turned our lives upside down. And from my experience with my patients, I knew that even with a very comprehensive behavioral health treatment, it's unpredictable how long it will take to help her to feel safe and self-confident. So what helped me to go through this time was an evening ritual. And I would like to share that because I think it might be helpful for some people who listen.
So what I did is every evening when we were kind of ready to bed, I sat with Lua and I gently and slowly stroked her body with my hand. In Tellington T-Touch method, we call this Noah's Marsh. So we are kind of doing long lines like you can imagine all the animals in front of the arch over the body of the animal. And doing that, I focused entirely on her, feeling her coat and the underlying tissues under my fingers.
And during the stroking, I told her everything that was good during that day and thanked her for cooperating and for doing one step forward regarding her fears and so on. And this helped me to realize and appreciate all the small and large successes that we had. And I think it helped her also a lot. I love that. And it reminds me back to what we were talking about earlier with the T-Touch and that connection there and that mindfulness.
And I love that you're also incorporating in this evening ritual that you have with her a piece of gratitude, it sounds like. Which reminds me of something else that you talked about about T-Touch earlier when you were talking about touching on parts of the body to remind dogs or not just dogs, but to remind individuals who may have an area that's hurting them that some things still feel good. So I'm reminded of that as you share this ritual with us as well.
How long has your dog been with you now? Two and a half years. Wonderful. And how's she doing with her separation anxiety? Oh, very, very good. So she can be alone at home for four hours and sleeping when I look at the camera. And she's good with a very well-selected dog sitter when we are away for a few days. And also, let's say when I go to vacation, I couldn't leave her in a hotel room when I just arrived. But if we are at a place for a few days, I can also leave. And I was very proud.
I was teaching last week in Munich and took her with me. And this was the first time that I could ask her in the breakfast room to rest next to the table when I got to the buffet and get my food. And she could just lie there and was still a little bit more watching where I go, but was doing good. And at the beginning, she would scream. What beautiful progress you've made with her. And with your partner, she's doing much better. Oh, they love each other.
But I can tell you, I always say in the household, everybody must feel safe. So there were times where we discussed that if it's not improving in the way we imagined, I will rehome her to a female -only household. And I think it's important that we keep in mind that this sometimes is also an option. I am so glad that you shared that. First of all, I'm thrilled that it's working out well with her in your household, that she and your partner love each other now.
And it sounds like you've made incredible progress with the separation anxiety and in all areas of her life. But I do think what you just said is really important to remember that that's not always the way that things end up going, even when we try to the best of our ability. So it is important to keep safeness for everybody in the forefront of our mind and understand that there may be different paths to success for individuals, depending on the situation. So thank you for sharing that.
And I know you said, I believe you said at the beginning anyway, but could you tell us her name again? It's Loha. So it's like the Hawaiian Aloha, just without the A, because it also means welcome. Loha. Beautiful, I love it. Thank you. And I want to add that I'm really thankful to Marlena DeMartini because her protocol of desensitization really helped us a lot. Awesome, thank you. Yeah, Marlena has created some content with Ryan before for ATA and she is just absolutely wonderful.
So yeah, thank you for giving her a shout out. And I'm glad that her work has helped you. And Loha, Loha, Loha, Loha. I had it right the first time, thank you. All right, could you share with us now about a training situation that you are proud of and or that you have found reinforcing? Actually, it's not a specific behavior or situation. It's a specific moment. And the moment I think is when something changes in the animal's eye and trust flashes up.
So whether I'm working with a shy wild animal or with a dog like Loha with a difficult past or maybe a human who can't speak, when communication is established and the other person gets the impression that we are reliable in what we do, then I think there's a moment where we get the special look. And I'm pretty sure you know what I'm talking about. And in T-Touch, the second T stands for trust.
And I think for trust to develop, we have to be reliable in every interaction and adapt to the individual. So not only in a situation where I have training in mind, but whenever I'm in another person's field of perception. So I think regardless of the method we work with, for me, the crucial aspect in every interaction is with all kinds of living beings is to be clear and reliable. And then we get this trust.
And I think this moment when I see, especially in an animal maybe that hasn't had so good experience, there is this special glimpse in the eyes. I cannot, I don't know what's the right word for that. But this is the greatest moment for me. You got, I think that was the right word, a special glint in the eye.
Yeah. Can you think of an example from your life, a story of an animal or a human, an individual you have been working with and you saw that piece of trust flip over, that glint of trust in their eyes? As one situation is actually with a human. This was a young autistic man who wasn't speaking, but he was able to write. And we were working with telling him body wraps because he was quite often hitting his head on the table. And we asked him if he wants to try a body wrap on. And he said, yes.
And we just gently wrapped him. And I don't know what his body was telling him about the sensory input, but you could see that the whole face changed. And this was the first time he looked at me before it was just looking somewhere. And there was this, wow, that was good. This is a situation I have very clear in my mind. And if I think about animals, I think there are many, but I think especially, for example, I remember a shelter cat.
I have been working in Portuguese shelters for many years before the pandemic hit. And quite often you have these not very healthy, tiny, half-wild kitten who are kind of in the corner. And what we quite often do then, obviously it would be much too much if you try to touch them with your hands. So what we quite often use is that we use extended arms like big ones and start a little bit to play with one and do some little circles on the body with the other end.
And you just play a little bit touching, a little bit playing and so on. And at one point, this kitten, you could kind of see the kitten was, the body tension was kind of melting and she was leaving her corner and giving me this look. Thank you for sharing both of those stories with us.
I'm reminded again, it's just a theme that everything you've shared keeps coming back to me, a theme of connection and that special look of trust, of understanding that you can depend on one to be reliable and clear is another to me, just really great example of connection, just connecting with another. So thank you for sharing that with us.
I'd like to give you now an opportunity, I think we've covered a lot of ground here, but is there anything that I haven't asked you about yet that you would like to share with everybody before we wrap up, anything about TTouch or anything else that you have on your mind that you would like to share with everybody before we wrap up?
Yeah, just because of the time of the year, I would like to bring up New Year's Eve because it's so stressful for so many animals and because it's stressful for the animals, many people get stressed also. And sometimes when we get stressed, we have a tendency to keep it away and then it's there. So I would like to invite everybody to sing when you listen to this episode, how are we doing at New Year's Eve? What can I do for my animals to make the situation better?
And keep in mind that establishing Tellington TTouch and Tellington body wraps makes it easier for many animals. Also a safe haven, a place where the animal is really comfortable. And if your animal is really fearful or anxious, make sure that you talk to your veterinarian early enough about anxiolytic medications too.
Because it's really bad when people show up at the last day of the year and the animal is already in panic because then also the medication doesn't work as well as if you start early enough. Well, thank you for that. Unfortunately, this episode, fortunately or unfortunately, I don't know, but this episode will be coming out just probably right after New Year's Eve. Ah, okay. But you know, after New Year's, it's before.
So the perfect time to start a training program is in January, because after that you forget how bad it was when it was bad. So I have extra slides in my presentation. After New Year's Eve is before New Year's Eve. I love that. After New Year's Eve is before New Year's Eve. And that's exactly right. I think we think about these big events
here in the U.S. It's the 4th of July is a really big one where there are lots of people set off loud explosive kind of fireworks and a lot of animals have a problem with it. And you hear people start talking about that or in late June, usually mid to late June, when if we really want to work on the problem. Obviously there are things we can try to do last minute to help make things better. But to get started before is better.
So yes, after New Year's Eve is before New Year's Eve for people who are struggling with that. And I would imagine also after New Year's Eve that folks are having some challenges with maybe stress having been related from the holidays and just the kind of cumulative impact of stress. Yeah. So good time to be thinking about these things and a good time that a lot of people spend goal setting and thinking about how they want to spend the coming year.
So maybe folks like me can make it a goal to keep our eyes tuned out or tuned in for all that T-Touch is going to have going on for the 50th anniversary and a goal to learn more about T-Touch and how we can use that to impact our own lives and the lives of the individuals we live and work with. And you've inspired me to do that today. And I'm sure you've inspired me. I'm sure you've inspired our listeners as well. So thank you for that.
And thank you for everything that you've shared with us so far today. Before we wrap up, could you share with us how folks could get in touch with you if they want to learn more about your work, what you're doing, if they want to sign up for anything that you have to offer? How can folks get in touch with you? So if you are interested in getting help with individual animals, you can send me an email.
And my website, unfortunately, is only in German because I mostly teach in German-speaking countries. But I also teach seminars in English-speaking countries. I have to think about legs last year. I know that I will be in the Tuscana in spring. That's exciting. So you can look at my website and email me. And also, I will offer some websites with general information about TTouch. If you go to the American website, you can get a list of teachers all over the world.
So let's say you are in India or South Africa or somewhere else, you also have a chance to find a teacher nearby, maybe. Awesome. Thank you. And thank you again, Daniela, for everything that you have shared with us today. From myself, on behalf of ATA, on behalf of everybody listening, thank you for everything you've shared with us and for taking time out of your busy day to be here with us. It was a pleasure. We do, of course, appreciate all of you tuning in as well.
And if you have enjoyed this episode and are interested in carrying on the conversation about working with the animals in our lives in the most positive, most fun, and most choice -rich ways, then as mentioned at the start of this episode, the Animal Training Academy community is waiting for you. Head on over to www.atamember.com and click on the membership button in the main menu to learn more about what members are describing as the Netflix social media platform for behavior geeks.
That's it for this episode, though. Thank you so much for listening. You'll hear from us again soon.