The dog’s caregiver was sitting on a sofa watching me give his elderly dog a PetMassage. He asked me how I could tell his dog was responding to the bodywork. I instructed him to watch the color of his dog’s tongue. The tongue, I told him, is an accurate gauge of his dog’s immediate level of stress and comfort. He was amazed at how quickly the tongue color can shift from dark plum to pink, and pause (to process the bodywork) at various shades in between. Think of a color range on a scale of one to seven; one being plum, seven being pinkish white. Five and a half would be perfect pink!
The dark plum, indicates that the dog is in stress. Not enough oxygen is being circulated throughout the body as demonstrated by the color of the tissues in the tongue extremity. Pale pinkish white indicates mild to severe shock. Bright pink signifies that the body is fully oxygenated and is therefore comfortable and within the margins of the healthy zone.
For those of you who are seeking ele
http://www.pinterest.com/eladyd/chinese-medicine/
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and The Natural Health and Holistic World According to Dr Akilah El
pathogeImages of human tongues.
How Chinese medicine uses the tongue to interpret your health
The tongue is one of the most important diagnostic areas in ancient medical traditions. What makes the tongue such a great diagnostic tool? Your tongue, containing water, electrolytes, mucus, and enzymes, is a very sensitive organ and its appearance changes with many physical changes in the body. In Chinese medicine, the tongue is a “map” of the internal body. Like the face, the tongue is divided into five-element zones that correspond to your internal organ networks.
Signs and symptoms
Here is what you want to see: A normal tongue should be pink, muscular without tooth marking or discoloration, and have a very thin clear coating that exhibits proper salivary secretions. Monitor your dog’s evolving health level by noticing color, shape, and coating changes in specific zones.
Tongue Color: When the color becomes deeper — going from pale to scarlet to purple — it means that there is increasing heat in the body. Heat may mean inflammation, infection, or hyperactivity of the organ network. When the tongue’s color becomes lighter — from pink to pale to paper white — it indicates cold, which can mean anemia, nic cold factor, or low energy and function of the corresponding organ network. I treat patients with low immune system function, sometimes due to chemotherapy or chronic fatigue syndrome, and many of them exhibit a pale tongue indicating low energy.
An excellent chart that shows various aspects of dog tongue colors is “The Tongue Diagnostic Chart,” chart development consultant: Michelle L. Tilthman, DVM, CVA, CCRP. Available from Wapiti Labs, Inc. www.wapitilabsinc.com
ments to measure in your research, this is data that is both scalable and documentable. For those of you who would like an easy way to check the life and times of your dogs, just observe their tongues.
A mudra is a hand or finger position that is used to channel the earth elements in a massage. The elements are air, fire, water, earth, and spirit.
TCM describes elements as wood, metal, fire, water, and air. Each element is represented and “presented” by a finger. Your little finger, for example, represents water. I memorized this elemental connection by remembering that when my daughter was a baby, I used to dip my little finger in her bath water to make sure it was the perfect Baby Bear temperature. Think of all the ways you can use this in your canine massage if the dog’s body is dehydrated, or too hot, or too dry, or swollen (too much fluid), or the circulation is out of balance, or confused, or disoriented, or… “I’ll take things that have to do with water, Alex.” You have more potential in your hands than you can imagine.
PetMassage includes the practice of myofascial release. “Myo” refers to muscle. “Release” refers to a letting go of restrictions. Fascia has the following definition: It is a type of connective tissue that surrounds every muscle, bone, nerve, blood vessel and organ of the body. PetMassage practitioners use different techniques to ease pressure in the fibrous bands of connective tissue (fascia) that encase muscles throughout the body. A breakdown of the fascia system due to trauma, posture or inflammation can create an adhesion in the fascia resulting in abnormal pressure on nerves, muscles, bones, or organs. Myofascial release is a letting go of the adhesive restrictions within muscle fibers and restoring the normal pressure that allows nerves, muscles, bones, and organs to function optimally.
There has been some very interesting work in the last 30 years with humans (bipeds) mapping patterns and networks of fascia. There are actually fascia meridians. Besides identifying that they exist and this work reveals that restrictions in myofascial structures are easily released through a gentle and non-invasive technique known as “positional release.” Positional release supports the fascia’s natural tendency … one could almost call it a “drive” … to assume its normalized position and function. PetMassage has modified this method for approaching physical and memory-based restrictions held within the body so that it can be used with animals.
It may seem strange to ask your dog, “Would you like a massage?”
Asking permission projects your intention to the dog in your hands. While your dog may not understand the words you are saying, the sounds you make, along with your breathing, heart rate, and posture, tells the dog who you are, how you are feeling, how connected and focused you are likely to be, your level of confidence, your experience, your level of comfort and safety, and your understanding of your role as leader. Permission sets the tone for the entire session.
Verbalize your request for permission out loud. Speaking the words helps your mind to focus. Your words hopefully will be louder than the other voices in your head that can be so distracting. (What voices? We didn’t say anything. You must be hallucinating. Oh, you like big words like that, don’t you? Wait. What’s that shiny thing over there? ) When your dog knows that you are sure you know what you want, he/she will be more willing to participate. The dog will be engaged as an active participator in the PetMassage, instead of a passive receiver.
Occasionally, not often, while you are massaging a dog, one of her tiny hairs will embed itself in your skin. Ouch. You may not be able to see it, but you’ll know it’s there because it feels like a hangnail or a splinter. Methods to exorcize it include pulling it out with a tweezers, applying duct tape and hoping it will adhere to the tape, coming off when the tape is ripped off.
The gentlest and most elegant methods we found were offered on the Dr. Oz show: using white, non-toxic, school glue spread on a splinter will get it out. You just put a layer on and then let it dry and peel it off. Another Dr Oz suggestion is using a ripe banana peel for splinters. Instead of a tweezers or sterilized needle, put a piece of well-ripened banana peel pulp-side down on the affected area; cover with a bandage and leave it on overnight. As a banana peel ripens, it produces enzymes which help draw out the foreign matter. The splinter will rise to the top of the skin and may even stick itself to the banana peel. If the splinter is very deep, several applications may be necessary.Voila.
While it is true that a lot of undercoat is released during a PetMassage, piling up on your table and the floor around you, stripping the hair is not the purpose of the session. Well, you may say, the dog looks and feels so much better when all that hair is removed. And, you continue, the coat is cleaner and smoother. True enough, I say; however, this is part of the grooming process. If you are a groomer, make this a separate procedure and charge for it, accordingly.
If you are not a groomer, it is absolutely appropriate to request/require that dogs brought to you for PetMassage be clean with trimmed nails. Here are just a few of the reasons:
1. You may not enjoy touching a stinky coat.
2. One dog’s kooties can be transferred to you or another dog.
3. Sharp claws create unappealing red streaks on the skin and sometimes bleed.*
4. Your practice is a professional service deserving honor and respect.
Your special gift to the dog is your focus on the dog’s soft tissue, the fascia beneath the coat. PetMassage releases the imbalances within the fascia that restrict movement, breathing, cardiovascular circulation, and the open flow of ch’i (or do you spell it “qi”).
* For removing blood from clothes, use Hydrogen Peroxide. (BONUS HINT!)
Use yoga as a method to become totally present. One of the most important postures in yoga is the mountain pose. Mountains are solid, strong and stable. We can be confident that a mountain will be there for us for a very long time. Standing tall, your feet firmly grounded, your breath resonating through with your whole body, enables you to project empowerment, confidence, leadership, and safety. When your yoga posture and breathing is maintained, the dogs you massage will feel more secure. safe and open to your presence.
Your dog feels the quality of your flow of energy, and during his/her canine massage, entrains with it. If your energy is positive, the dogs will be positive. If it is negative it will be the same with the dog. You can choose to have a more positive energy. Lead by example and raise the vibration of your energy flow with circular breathing.
Before you begin the massage, before you enter into the presence of the dog, imagine an “energy ball” of positive ch’i, radiant and pulsing, over your solar plexus. Inhale it up the front of your body. Swallow and blink as it transitions from behind your eyes, back through to your brainstem. Exhale as you follow it down the front of your spine, into the curve of your coccyx. Inhale again as it leaps forward and across, to the soft center of your pubic bone. Rising with your inhalation, it pauses, and it is released, cascading with your exhalation, down your vertebrae. Pressing forward, it rises again. Safely and joyfully it flows: up, over, down, and across — around and around — strengthening, connecting, purifying, until you sense your body virtually glowing and vibrating. Feel your fire. Feel its brilliance. Exalt! Know the pure essence of your own vital life force. This is you! This is what you are made of! Develop your energy body with this workout.
When the breath is unsteady, all is unsteady; when the breath is still; all is still. Control the breath carefully. Inhalation gives strength and a controlled body; retention gives steadiness of mind and longevity; exhalation purifies body and spirit.”— Goraksasathakam.
Yes, it is true that the dog you are helping is the product of everything that has ever happened to him, just as you are. However, not every trauma that has happened to the dog is motivating his actions and thoughts all the time. Old memories fade. Old hurts fade. Wounds heal. We all have a tendency to keep reinforcing our memories of our dogs experiences. We may be defining them with events and traumatic experiences that may no longer apply.
This is one of the most famous stories of Tanzan, from the book, Zen Flesh Zen Bones.
Tanzan and Ekido were once traveling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was falling. As they came around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross at an intersection.
“Come on, girl,” said Tanzan at once. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud.
Ekido did not speak until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he could no longer restrain himself. “We monks don’t go near females,” he told Tanzan, “especially not young and lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that?”
“I left the girl there,” said Tanzan. “Are you still carrying her?”
Singing or toning produces healing endorphins that flow through your body. Your dog’s vibration will synergize with yours. Toning can add that extra boost to your session. Just be clear that the sounds you create are for session ambience. As soon as you start thinking about the implications that the lyrics have for your life, your connection with the dog breaks.
♫ “You are so beau-ti-ful … to me…Can’t you see-ee-ee-ee-ee-eee? Yeah.” ♫
“Om” and “ahh” always work.