Dog Rehabilitation Massage

From the perspective of canine massage and bodywork, rehabilitation is not only appropriate, it is necessary in all aspects and phases of a healthy dog’s life. “All aspects” include the holy trinity of new age wellness: everything included in the dog’s body, mind and spirit.

Probably the most apparent value of canine rehabilitation massage would be for the physical body. If your dog has any injury that affects mobility, canine massage helps his body restore to greater ROM, range of motion. Canine massage moves fluids. It increases movement and balance to cardiovascular and interstitial fluids. Canine massage increases joint flexibility. The increased blood flow acts to change internal fluid volumes and pressures. The warmth canine massage generates reduces viscosity of synovial fluid in the joints, so that the hyaline cartilage covering the ends of bones can be better lubricated to slide more easily against each other.

Canine massage increases body flexibility. All of the organs and muscles in the body are encased, sheathed, in bands and bags of a tissue called fascia. Fascia is a kind of connective tissue that contains and connects large areas of the body so that they are able to coordinate their efforts for movement and functioning. The fascia affects everything from wagging the tail to constricting the pupils.

If your dog is recovering from an injury, or a surgery, which by its definition, is a type of assault to the body, your dog’s movement will be restricted. The restriction may be self imposed, based on the levels of pain and discomfort. And/or, it may be externally imposed with crate confinement, bandaging, casting, E-collars, medications and pet owner confusion. In all of these cases, movement has been reduced.

Non- or infrequent toe touching, limping, gait deviation, digestive imbalances, reactions to medications, excessive drinking, skin and coat damage, and behavioral issues based on temporary stressors, can all be addressed – and modified — through canine rehab massage.

What happens to the body when movement is reduced? Muscles that are not used shrink and lose tone. They atrophy. Immediately. Notice what happens when you hold your breath and pay attention to your hands. Within 15 seconds of oxygen deprivation, you can notice changes to the tissues and nerves in your hands. Your fingers begin to tingle and the beds of your fingernails turn pale. In just this short time your hands changed visibly before your eyes. They became noticeably weaker and unsteady. Canine rehabilitation massage is a method to restore the nutrients in your blood to areas of the body that get starved just like your fingers did.

Canine rehabilitation massage involves touch. Experiencing touch, the dog spontaneously releases endorphins, the “feel good” hormones, into the bloodstream. Feeling good is a self perpetuating tonic. When you feel good, you want to move. When you move, you feel good. Give the “feel good and move more” incentive to a dog that has been hitherto biased toward movement restriction, and presto change-o. You’ve got a dog redirected toward the fast track to wellness. That is, rehabilitation.

Canine rehabilitation massage restores the natural home, or habitat, the condition of the body as it was originally designed to function, back to a more healthy state. Think of it as “greening” the body. Even if your dog has already morphed into a couch potato, and is beginning to sprout little roots into the seat cushions, canine massage can encourage the fluids within the tissues, in whatever condition they are in, to move. The Canine rehabilitation massage routine for manipulating limbs gently and slowly increases circulation and respiration, which in turn, increases muscle tone, joint flexibility, body awareness, and mood. So, even with a dog that is paralyzed, canine rehabilitation massage will begin its cascading effect of revitalizing the entire body.

That’s if your dog has an injury. Other factors require massage, as well. What if your dog is “un pio rotundo,” Italiano for “a little obese.” I like the descriptive proffered by Ben and Jerry: “Chunky Monkey.” While it is not classified an injury per se, the extra girth is a continuous insult on the body; burdening its ability to move and function. The extra bulk is a strain on the heart. It is a strain on the joints. It is a strain on the lungs. It is a strain on the eyes, the windows to the soul. So, by extension, canine chunkiness is an insult to the soul, which in some say is a direct connection to and a hologram of, the Universal Spirit. Did I just go there? Oh, yes, I did! This is how much value there is with canine rehabilitation massage.

Where can you find canine rehabilitation massage? Every vet school in the country is now including canine rehabilitation in its curricula. And every canine rehabilitation protocol includes some sort of tissue manipulation, massage. So, theoretically, you ought to be able to access massage therapy for your dog in every vet clinic that has a recent graduate. However, there are still some veterinarians who have not yet seen the value of massage as a separate and distinct therapeutic modality. These are the vets who have not yet experienced the benefits of therapeutic massage for themselves.

There are different types of massage training and philosophical approach. They span the range from believing that the body is a machine that produces movement in a very scientific and predictable way based on levers, pulleys, strains and counter strains. At the opposite end of the spectrum Energy practitioners promote that everything is energy (Chi, Qi, Healing touch, Reiki, flower essence, aroma, sound, light, emotional, polarity, and planetary), moving through invisible, intuitively detectable patterns that move through, over, and around the body. There are many variations and combinations of approaches between these two that include diseases and inherited potentialities, the effects of emotional stressors the dogs are processing, the environment (air and water quality), nutrition, breed, pack order and territoriality, birth order, training, empathy and karma.

One thing is clear. We can discount the simplified theory that the body is only a self contained, independent set of machines made up of levers, pulleys, and switches. This approach, based on a limited version of the Swedish Medical Massage model, is the modality that has apparently been adopted by the instructors of many veterinary rehabilitation programs. This was the modality that I was taught when I was learning human massage therapy. This approach treats massage as a component of physical therapy, with scientific detachment and easily observable and measurable results. The affected areas are addressed; while the rest of the body is ignored. It is the easiest to teach, because it does not address the creative, intuitively developed skills necessary to work with another “soul on soul” as opposed to “one on one.”

In the larger picture of massage, its true nature, the entire body is interconnected. Every part is dependent on the successful function of every other part. The tail doesn’t wag when a tooth is in pain. Massage, canine massage, is not a science; albeit it uses similar vocabulary. Massage, canine massage, is an art.

The application of massage is an art. The interpretation of massage is an art. The development of massage is an art. Knowing when to begin, when to continue, and when to stop: an art. It is only through the interpretations of the subtle nuances of movement discovered through intuitively attuned palpation, that the wider, opened-ended possibilities for change and healing are accessed. That is true massage. Anything less is rubbing.

Everyone who is trained in canine PetMassageTM practices massage as an art form. Whether it is for relaxation, general well being, or rehabilitation the approach is the same. The dog’s participation in the massage event is part of the process. The only way that we can know if we are giving dogs the physical and emotional support they need is by observing how the dog is reacting to variations of PetMassageTM techniques. True to the original intent of the word, every PetMassageTM is rehabilitative. Every PetMassageTM functions to aid the body to return to its original, natural state of grace and ergonomic use of energy.

If you would like to find someone who is PetMassageTM trained, or, you would like to learn to PetMassageTM your dog, contact 800-779-1001 or visit us at www.petmassage.com.