THE IMPORTANCE OF CANINE MASSAGE

By Jonathan Rudinger, RN, LMT

Everybody loves a good back rub. When shoulders, knees or wrists feel tight and sore, applying pressure and rubbing them, always helps us feel better. When we experience trauma or emotional hurt, it helps to just to be held. Most babies need to be held and rocked to relax enough to fall asleep. Massage is one person using touch and the intention to help comfort and nurture another. Accepted as an integral part of our culture, massage is one of the bases of our humanness.

Several studies compared infants who have received touch with those who haven’t. These comparisons clearly show that those who have not had the benefit of nurturing and gentle touch imprinted on their early developing psyches, had smaller statures, reduced socialization skills and depressed immune systems. There is even a term that is used to describe the condition: stress dwarfism.

Long ago, we accepted the power of massage for helping us humans deal with stress and imbalances. We have been massaging each other for hundreds of thousands of years. Now, we are using massage to comfort and help our pet animals. It is about time.

The benefits that dogs, in particular, get from massage are many. You’ve read about or heard them all before; otherwise, you wouldn’t be interested enough to be reading this article. (It is always easier to preach to believers.) To review, first of all, massage, increases and balances the circulation of all body fluids. This includes blood, lymph, cerebral spinal fluid, interstitial fluids, cellular fluid, saliva, urine, synovial fluid, the fluid lubricating the eyeballs and even the oily wetness on your dog’s nose. That’s a lot of fluids! Dogs are water cooled and water heated. It is the function of the appropriate movement of water that controls the temperatures throughout their bodies, including core temperatures, organ temperatures, and a range of skin and superficial muscle temperatures. Hot spots, for example, are areas under the skin where the temperature is warmer that the surrounding tissues.

When a dog gets sprains or strains, his body sends additional fluids to the traumatized area to help. Once there, the swelling from the extra fluid increases pressure, and creates heat. Any movement in the area puts pressure on the nerves and is painful; so the body naturally immobilizes itself for a while so that it can heal.

Dogs, like humans, have the innate ability to heal themselves for most conditions. The normal wear and tear of muscles, tendons, ligaments, skin and fascia that dogs have from romping and playing and napping, keep their bodies in a constant state of self maintenance. Dogs, like humans, are social animals. They thrive with touch and atrophy without it.

Difference between petting and massage

Petting is scratching and rubbing your dog’s body and, of course it feels good to him. It may appear similar to massage, however, the impact is substantially – profoundly -- different. The best illustration of the difference is the way your body feels after a professional hour long massage session and a casual shoulder squeeze by a coworker. The shoulder squeeze gives some relief; the full body massage can change your life. PetMassageTM accesses and supports the actual energy within the tissues and helps initiate subtle changes to get the body to function more optimally. It is used to support the intuitive self healing, abilities of animals. Massage is the use of knowledgeable, compassionate touch, fascia releases, understanding and the use of open body-language communication.

Cheryl Schwartz DVM, author of Four Paws Five Directions, the best book I’ve read that teaches about the uses of Traditional Chinese Medicine for dogs and cats, writes, “Massage is the touch of the physical and energetic body with a healing purpose.” The energy body that massage affects is this energy within the tissues. It is the invisible god-stuff called “Ch'i” that emanates from acupressure points and flows subcutaneously throughout the body via the meridian pathways. The Ch’i is also in the blood as it flows through the body supplying to every cell its necessary nourishment and removing waste products. It is the autoimmune system. It is in the air that the body breathes. The quality of the air, the depth and rate of respiration, the other influences in the air, all affects your dog’s immune system and the way he lives and operates within his body.

The energetic body is really what we access with massage. It is within and around the dog. The energetic body retains the memory of everything that has been experienced or thought or even mistakenly projected, such as fears and phobias. The energetic body retains muscle memory. It defines the way dogs hold their bodies and move their bodies. It also determines the way dogs respond to other dogs, how well they can digest their foods, and how they relate to people and to their environments. In other words, it is the substrate or matrix from which dogs experience their lives. The energetic body includes the genetic -- or cultural memories that would, for instance, cause a 9 month-old Newfoundland puppy who had never been swimming before to break away from his owners to plunge into a cold river and swim and rescue a child that had fallen through the ice several hundred yards away. Massage connects with this substrate. It has the capacity to support what is functioning well and release hidden, restraining energy-memories that could be the root causes of diseases and inappropriate behaviors.

Dogs understand what your intentions are by interpreting your body language and the way you touch them. Dogs use your touch to enhance their awareness’ of their relationships with the spaces around them by internally palpating their own bodies. They evaluate you and their spontaneous and potential relationships with you. PetMassage™ works with the dog’s body, not on the dog’s body. The difference between massage and rubbing/petting is intention with technique.

We care deeply about the quality of the food our dogs eat. We groom them ourselves, or pay someone else to groom them for us. We make sure they get the best health care available and lots of exercise. Dr. Michael W. Fox, DVM in his book, Healing Touch describes how important touch and massage are for dog’s well being and quality of life. He states that “…you could almost call it an essential of health care, like grooming, feeding, and exercise.” This perception accurately projects the importance of massage. Now we understand that for them to experience their optimal quality of life possible, they NEED massage.

PetMassage™ is not only important, then. It is crucial for the well being of your dog. Let’s elaborate on the benefits. Consider your connection -- your relationship with your dog. Special? Right. Unique? Right. Right? Right.

Our relationship was built on trust, shared experiences, support, and unconditional connected ness. And that is just on the physical level that we can see, hear, feel, smell and feel. Our intuitive selves are busy chatting away; sharing wisdom, love, even images through dreams and psychic experiences. Just as a wave is the entire ocean manifesting itself as a wave, there is a larger, deeper, wider, multifaceted universe that is the substrate for the one we know through experience and limited perception. This is the universe of the intuitive. It is beyond time and space. Yet, you and your dog are standing in it, you, with your two feet, him, with his four. Your inner voice, your unconscious is in perpetual communication with your dog’s inner voice. Because of your relationship, your bodies not only talk to themselves they help each other as guides and mentors. As part of its main function, the specialized touch of massage is an effective enhancer of deeper levels of connectiveness.

With massage, your dog becomes more comfortable in his body. He becomes more flexible and more sociable. He metabolizes his food and water better. He metabolizes his experiences and social interactions more optimally. He enhances his trust and loving relationship with you. I know that the following phrase has been used so many times that it has lost its meaning. The mass media has a way of trivializing important concepts with inane repetition. I will write it anyway: With massage, your dog becomes healthier in his mind, body and spirit. That’s important.

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Jonathan Rudinger, RN LMT is the the founder of PetMassage™ and has been instrumental in developing the field of animal massage for people at home and at the professional level since the mid-1990’s. He has facilitated over 100 week-long canine massage workshops at the PetMassage™, Ltd. in Toledo, Ohio and created home-study courses for thousands more pet owners. Recognized as an authority on massage for pets he has been interviewed on the FOX Pet News Show, National Public Radio and many of the other major radio and television networks and cable networks. His work has been featured in Whole Dog Journal, Dog Fancy Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Massage Magazine, Animal Wellness Magazine, Massage Today and Massage Therapy Journal. The practice of PetMassage™ is included in the new TouchAbilities Massage Therapy textbook. For additional information visit him at www.petmassage.com or call 1-800-779-1001