I recently had a new client today regarding her little dog. In fact the dog is my 'client'. At first he was very unsure about what I was doing to him as he constantly turn round and bite me. His muscles were very tight and it was a new experience for him. Loosening his fascia and kneading into his muscles can be quite uncomfortable in the first treatment and subsequent treatments. I knew that he wasn't trying to hurt me and for the better part, he is a very sweet dog. The poor thing suddenly loss the use of his hind legs hence overusing and over compensating on the other muscles. I'm not writing about this client as every client I see have got their records and are confidential. What I am writing about is about the benefits of therapy. Some call it massage. Yes in layman's terms I guess you could call it that but it is more than just laying my hands on the dog and stroking him. There is a certain amount of pressure that I will apply on the dog, manipulate it's fascia to loosen any adhesions in the dog's body which can be uncomfortable. There are certain strokes that I will apply and sometimes I apply TTouch on the dog when it's too painful using the stroking action. Many times I get asked, 'Do you put a muzzle on the dog if it's aggressive?'. There is one of two answers: 1. I do not muzzle the dog because it isn't a punishment and the dog will not relax as it associate muzzle negatively i.e. to stop attacking people. 2. If the dog bites and breaks my skin, I will refuse to continue any further. After all I need my hands to work on the dog.
I get asked how long is one session. The maximum time that a dog will allow me to 'massage' him/her is 30 minutes. In fact 30 minutes is sufficient to complete the therapy. Now back to the client I first mentioned, after a few minutes, he relaxed and his muscles were no longer reacting to the massage. If anyone of you think that this is easy, well, first learn up on the musculo skeletal of the dog. I do not do this blindly. I have learned about the muscles and skeleton of the dogs. When the therapy can be applied and when I cannot do it. Contraindication of when I cannot give a 'massage':
1. When there's a spinal injury
2. Cancer
3. when they are under pain killers
So the next time someone says to you or the pet shop states, we massage dogs as well as groom, ask them, what kind of massage they do then ask them, what qualification do they have.
