Hello, I am opening this thread because I want to share a story and wanted to see wether or not others have had similar experiencies.
7 years ago I adopted a 3 year old female dog, medium sized, beautiful, very well behaved, neutered (shelters in my country neuter them as soon as they are adults) and, sadly, extremely skittish. We are not entirely sure of her past but a few scars on her body and her behaviour lead us to believe she was misstreated by people.
The first few months were tough, while she let me take her on walks and was comfortable enough to let me be near her, she didnt enjoy being touched at all, petting was extremelly challenging for her, constantly afraid of my hand, braced herself for contact etc. and, while she tooked it, it was heartbreaking to see. I tried possitive association with treats and stuff but instead of associating touch to something possitive, she associated endure something unpleassant to reward which was not what I wanted for her.
Half a year has passed and now wenever I go to sleep stays with me, laying on a carpet I placed beside my bed, during the night she leaves to her own bed, one night I challenged my luck and tried to scrub her belly and noticed she had some sort of crust arround her nipples (she was a mum right before she was reascued so I guess its related to that) so I decided to try and clean her. It must have been relieving for her because at this point she seemed to not only tolerate but kinda enjoy me scrubbing her belly, kind of like a guilty pleasure XD
In my head I though "maybe if I proved her with more actual positive physical stimuli instead of trying to associate a treat to physical contact her attitude towards being touched might change" (and being the a 20ish male guy I was back then "positive physical stimuli = masturbation" XD) so one night I tried her rubbing her vulva just for a second to gage her reaction, and surprissingly she didnt seem bothered, so I kept going and shortly she started humping my hand. After 10 or so seconds she stood up, tail wagging and licking my hand.
The very next day I noticed a big change on her attitude towards physical contact, she didnt seem afraid of me or my hands anymore so these "encounters" happened once or twice a week for a while. After a year living with me she no longer had any problem with me touching her and sometimes even came for me to get her ears scratched. (at some point or encounters started turning me on aswell, so... thats also there)
At the end, keeping an open mind about sexuality and the feelings of my girl helped us stablish a better understanding. We now see each other as a member of our family or pack and it helped her to enjoy being touched like most dogs do. Also, it changed my opinion on zoophilia as a whole, so long as no one is forced, its not the decay of human morale or animal abuse that some people see it as.
Any ways, if you have read the whole thing thank you very much, I hope it was at least not too boring. And, have you had similar experiences? has anyone else tried sexual contact as a ways to treat trauma?
7 years ago I adopted a 3 year old female dog, medium sized, beautiful, very well behaved, neutered (shelters in my country neuter them as soon as they are adults) and, sadly, extremely skittish. We are not entirely sure of her past but a few scars on her body and her behaviour lead us to believe she was misstreated by people.
The first few months were tough, while she let me take her on walks and was comfortable enough to let me be near her, she didnt enjoy being touched at all, petting was extremelly challenging for her, constantly afraid of my hand, braced herself for contact etc. and, while she tooked it, it was heartbreaking to see. I tried possitive association with treats and stuff but instead of associating touch to something possitive, she associated endure something unpleassant to reward which was not what I wanted for her.
Half a year has passed and now wenever I go to sleep stays with me, laying on a carpet I placed beside my bed, during the night she leaves to her own bed, one night I challenged my luck and tried to scrub her belly and noticed she had some sort of crust arround her nipples (she was a mum right before she was reascued so I guess its related to that) so I decided to try and clean her. It must have been relieving for her because at this point she seemed to not only tolerate but kinda enjoy me scrubbing her belly, kind of like a guilty pleasure XD
In my head I though "maybe if I proved her with more actual positive physical stimuli instead of trying to associate a treat to physical contact her attitude towards being touched might change" (and being the a 20ish male guy I was back then "positive physical stimuli = masturbation" XD) so one night I tried her rubbing her vulva just for a second to gage her reaction, and surprissingly she didnt seem bothered, so I kept going and shortly she started humping my hand. After 10 or so seconds she stood up, tail wagging and licking my hand.
The very next day I noticed a big change on her attitude towards physical contact, she didnt seem afraid of me or my hands anymore so these "encounters" happened once or twice a week for a while. After a year living with me she no longer had any problem with me touching her and sometimes even came for me to get her ears scratched. (at some point or encounters started turning me on aswell, so... thats also there)
At the end, keeping an open mind about sexuality and the feelings of my girl helped us stablish a better understanding. We now see each other as a member of our family or pack and it helped her to enjoy being touched like most dogs do. Also, it changed my opinion on zoophilia as a whole, so long as no one is forced, its not the decay of human morale or animal abuse that some people see it as.
Any ways, if you have read the whole thing thank you very much, I hope it was at least not too boring. And, have you had similar experiences? has anyone else tried sexual contact as a ways to treat trauma?