Canine Massage Therapy - Lifestyle Advice & Guidance -Exercise Programmes
Performance Dogs that Benefit from Massage Therapy
This is by no means an exhaustive list so do not worry if your dog’s sport or activity isn’t listed, simply contact me to find out how I can help.
Massage Therapy can be incredibly helpful in alleviating musculoskeletal pain, helping your dog to move better and allowing them to exercise correctly in order to strengthen muscles and support joint health.
It is important to remember that Canine Massage Therapy treatments should form part of a multimodal approach to treating your dog. Although, massage does provide natural pain relief, it does not necessarily take the place of pain medication or other physical treatments.
Sporting Dogs
Many dog sports, from agility to flyball, obedience to canicross, involves some kind of repetitive movements, as well as incidence of high impact. Over time, this can cause muscle strain and discomfort throughout your dog’s body, potentially leading to pain, restricted movement and a loss of performance.
Is your dog consistently struggling with the same obstacles? Slowing down or struggling to maintain a position? This could indicate pain.
Can Massage Help?
Massage therapy can release muscular tension and discomfort, relieve pain, restore range of motion and allow your dog to return to peak performance.
With all sports, there is a risk of injury. Alongside conditioning programs, massage therapy can reduce the risk of injury by maintaining your dog’s musculoskeletal health
Show Dogs
Throughout the show season, show dogs will spend a lot of time travelling and resting in crates or on benches that may limit their natural movement and ability to stretch, potentially resulting in muscle tension and stiffness. This will quickly affect their movement and ability to perform in the ring.
Standing square for extended periods of time also requires great muscular effort and endurance and may result in some muscle tension or adhesions in any areas of weakness. Many show dogs live active lives, and any injuries, sprains or strains picked up during the dog’s day-to-day life may also affect their performance in the show ring.
Can Massage Help?
Massage therapy can help reduce muscle tension, treat any adhesions and reduce overall stiffness as well as increasing range of motion, improving muscle tone and highlight any areas of weakness that can be addressed through specific exercises.
Working Dogs
Working dogs often spend a lot of time waiting in cold, wet conditions, before suddenly needing to perform their tasks which can result in muscular injury due to the sudden movement required of “cold” muscles.
This puts a large strain on your dog’s body, before you consider the physicality of the jobs in questions – sprinting, tight turns, jumping over natural barriers, swimming, sudden stops.
Can Massage Help?
Working dogs are an invaluable partner, and massage therapy can help keep them healthy and working for as long as possible, Treatments pre-, during and post-season are a great way to maintain your working dog’s muscular health.
Assistance Dogs
Throughout their lives, assistance dogs work hard to help improve the lives of their handlers. This can sometimes require long days of working in harness, and many will walk at an angle to help direct their handlers safely.
Unfortunately, many of the assistance dog harnesses aren't designed with the dogs' anatomy and comfort in mind and can be restrict the forelimb movement, resulting in muscle tension and adhesions and possible discomfort. There is also a high rate of osteoarthritis in assistance dogs.
Can Massage Help?
Massage therapy can help reduce muscle tension, treat any adhesions and improve range of motion. In addition to relieve pain and other symptoms of osteoarthritis.