Dogs, dogs and more dogs!!

Can’t believe 2 days have passed since I last made a post.  I worked out I’ve been “hands on” with about 10 dogs in that time!

We’ve learnt about Trigger Point Therapy and experimented with the correct level of pressure using our play-doh before we were unleashed to try on each other.  Lots of oooh’s and aaah’s around the classroom as people hit those points!  Unfortunately dogs won’t be as accommodating so it’s crucial to go in gently and not overwork the area so they end up sore.  The benefit of massage is to loosen up the tissues so the trigger points can release and improve the movement and health of the joints.  All I need to do is think about the chronic headaches I can get when I’ve got tight shoulders, but dogs don’t stop or take headache pills like we do…they keep going!  We need to be able to deactivate these points without it threatening the dog.

We had the enormous pleasure of working on Fifty again and must have spent a good 45 mins on him, in particular to try and find his trigger points to release.  Bless him, he was so patient with us…as were Bo, Maverick and B when we worked on them in class.

We also watched Denise and Sue work on a 4 year old Spaniel who has had all his “signals” conditioned out of him so the only way he knows to tell you he doesn’t like something is by very minimal body signals so it’s really important to be able to read them.

Dr Sara Bennett gave us a talk in the evening who is a Veterinary Behaviourist.  Really interesting!  She has a practise that provides a holistic service for animals and works a lot on fearful animals and systematic desensitisation.

Yesterday we did some more trigger point work and also learnt about Myofascial release.  Again we practised on each other before we were let loose on any dogs.  3 miniature schnauzers came in for us which was a treat.

Then we went back to the Animal Care League; a couple of the dogs we had worked on last week had been adopted, yay!  Plenty more to work on though.  I fell for Mustafa, a large mastiff mix by the looks of things, he was gorgeous…good job I’m not on a boat back otherwise I may well have some companions!  Nearly got pee’d on by one of them…occupational hazard.

Following that we went back to the Chicago Canine Massage office and met Dexter and Barron to work on trust building.

Home by about 8pm…an early one :)