Video Tour of PetMassage Classroom

Video Tour of PetMassage Classroom

We just posted a new video on our new YouTube channel. It’s the Tour of the PetMassage classroom.

I invite you to view the video. Here is its transcript:

Intro

Hi. I’m Jonathan and I’m here with Camille and Ilaria. We’re going to give you a tour of the PetMassage classroom.

Lecture table

We just finished a Foundation level workshop. This is the manual that we use during the workshops. This is the table where we have our lectures and our discussions. That’s about 40% of the class – maybe 35%. The rest of the time is spent working with dogs, hands-on, at the tables. We are going to show you the tables in just a minute.

Credenza with dog models

During our class we talk a lot about the skeleton. Where bones are attached muscles, are attached, to bones, the ligaments, the fascia. And how the skeleton is hanging within a bag of fascia. This is Bones. Bones, would you like to say hello? Hello. That’s Bones.

We also talked about the bony landmarks of the dog: ie, the point of the shoulder, the tip of the ear, the placement of the scapula, the width of the first cervical vertebra. We use this model for that. There are also acupressure points that we refer to during the class. It’s all part of the lecture.

Library case

We make a lot of references to other textbooks in our class. This (12 inch) group is books and videos that we have created here at PetMassage. We are happy to note that they are being used in other animal massage schools all over the world. We also have medical textbooks, rehabilitation books, books on acupressure and all sorts of things related to canine massage.

Charts

These are the charts that we use and publish. These are charts used in vet tech schools, and veterinary schools. We have the Contours and Bony Landmarks of the Dog, Dog Joints and Ligaments, The Skeleton of the Dog: Dog Bones, Superficial Muscles of the Dog, and Chakra and Energy Levels of the Dog. The chart on Canine Acupressure Points is one that we refer to but don’t publish.

Crates

When students come to us, they often bring their dogs with them. These are the crates for the dogs where they can lounge between their spa treatments.

Business cards

This is one of several bulletin boards that we have. It displays brochures and business cards from students who have come to PetMassage from all over the world and returned to their homes to create businesses massaging dogs. That’s very exciting. I love that one. It’s so clean…a simple paw print.

Framed Magazine articles

I’m excited to share this with you. This was our first national exposure. Dog Fancy magazine from the year 2000. PetMassage has been teaching Canine Massage for over 20 years. It talks about methods of massage, different pressure points; it’s a sweet little article. The editor chose to use a photograph of a person sitting on the floor. It wasn’t me. I do almost all my massages with dogs on tables. I don’t think the body mechanics are great when a person is sitting in the floor. And that’s what I teach.

Here are some other framed pieces. Here’s one from Dog Fancy Magazine. One day someone called us and asked us if we saw the article in Cosmopolitan magazine. I hadn’t heard about the story. Evidently, Cosmopolitan figured out that Canine Massage is a “Cool New Career” for young women! I love it.

Breathe sign

Breath is so important in canine massage. We use awareness of breath in every aspect of massage. Did you know that if you lock your knees you stop breathing? When you lock your knees, it cuts off your connection to the ground. So it’s important to keep breathing and keeping soft knees.

Tongue diagnostic chart

We use this tongue diagnostic chart in our class as well. It’s important to notice the shape, color, texture and hydration of the tongue. It’s a good indicator for the amount of stress our dogs are experiencing.

Map

This is one of the favorite parts of the tour and we hope it’s one of the favorite parts of your tour of our classroom well. It’s the Maps. We have two maps here. One is the World map and the second is the map of North America. All these little pins show you where people have come from, traveling to Toledo, to take their PetMassage for dogs hands-on training. These are people from Canada, United States, South America, South Africa, France, England, and Italy. We have people from the Asia area; from Taipei, from Singapore, from Japan and Korea. We just recently had someone visit us to study for a week from Australia.

Speaking of United States we’ve attracted students from every state. It’s very exciting. Each one of these little pins represents someone who has traveled here following their dreams. Each one of these pins represents a dream. Each one of the students who comes here loves dogs. And with a one-week workshop, we give them the skills to massage dogs and start a business. Our Foundation Level workshop includes the massage skills, of course, and dog handling skills. There’s also a short (easy to follow guide to starting a canine massage) business course. So, students can get started with their canine massage business.

Water dispenser

It’s important to stay hydrated. We always have filtered water available for students and the dogs. And especially for thirsty people who are giving YouTube interviews. Sip. Oh, that’s much better.

Certificates credentials, and accreditation

Here are some certificates and credentialing for us and for our school. This one is important. This is the PetMassage Scope of Practice. If we are going to have credibility as a vocation we need to have a set of posted limitations about what we can and cannot do. Here, you see that the first thing we do is: no harm. That’s really important. Also, you can see that we are very careful not to make any kind of diagnoses or treat specific conditions/concerns. It’s important to have a Scope of Practice. Here we have a Mission Statement. It defines what it is that we do. So, we can remember why we are in business.

And, the most important of all of the certificates are these two certificates for our two teaching assistants: these are for Camille and Ilaria, our two boxer teaching assistants. They earned these certificates.

So this is the school. This is the classroom where you will be coming when you take the hands-on modules of your Foundation level and your Advanced level training. In a recent Foundation level workshop, out of five students, four people signed up immediately for the next available Advanced level training. It’s the part two of the series of two parts of training. It fills in all the gaps. It gives you a more complete education.

Close

Thanks for taking the tour of our PetMassage facility. I hope you liked what you saw. If you like this YouTube video, please subscribe to our channel. We will be releasing a new video each Tuesday at 2pm. The channel is PetMassage Training and Research Institute.