Monday 23 February 2015

Bully Olympics and a website!

Some of you will already know that I received my official certification in canine massage therapy last week.  I’m not kidding, I literally wept with joy when I got it!  I cannot begin to explain how I feel right now….both the Auckland Canine Massage website and the Facebook page (with nothing on it so don't go there yet!) are live.  I have business cards and flyers and I am ready to go!!!  It is all coming together J 

So does this mean I’m going to stop my blog? Definitely not!  I am very much hoping that my future clients will be happy for me to talk about their stories and I know there will be many more learnings to share.

Last week I met up with Becky, who was the person who set me off on this journey in the first place.  Becky is moving back to the UK in March and will finish her course there at the Canine Massage Guild.  Even for just a morning it was awesome having someone in the same country to talk to about this work; we need more Certified Canine Massage Therapists in Auckland (and NZ in general).  I’m not afraid of competition…the more of us there are, the more good work can be done!
Having said that I had a great skype last week with Scott in Dallas as we discussed a number of canine related matters.  I’m so pleased I took the course I did, the communication between both instructors and students is excellent despite the obvious time and distance challenges.

What else can I say? Well it was a first for me when I attended the Bully Olympics out at the NZKC grounds at Ardmore.  I have never seen so many Bull Terriers in one place at the same time.  Such wonderful manners from the majority and as a group pretty chilled out animals, allowing their handlers to dress them up in all sorts of fancy dress getups lol.  


They also did some agility, egg and spoon racing (no, the dogs were not the ones carrying the eggs) and bobbing for apples.  Unfortunately Stanley who was a previous client of mine – see blog post from Nov 21st – didn't go home with a prize but he looked like he thoroughly enjoyed himself!  A great morning and lots of fun.


And the Aggie saga continues…..last week the physio thought there was something wrong with her paw… in yesterday’s session her paw was fine….. hmmm.


Wednesday 11 February 2015

Countdown to a major milestone

In 17 days Auckland Canine Massage will officially be open J  
A massive thanks to the extremely talented Ani who has worked tirelessly on developing my logo, business cards, flyers etc.
Check out the final logo design below…..it makes me very happy!!!



I've been spending a lot of my time working on my website and with a bit of luck that will be live by this time next week together with the Facebook page, so watch this space for more updates!  
I can’t believe my dream of working with dogs is actually going to come true.  It was less than a year ago that I first discovered canine massage was a “thing” and wow, so much has happened since then. 

In between developing all the things that a business needs I've carried on seeing Aggie, Mischa, Kingston, Mako and Maggie.

Yesterday I was out with D’for Dog training on another of their Wild Wednesday Walks.  Stunning day again out at Whitford Forest with 6 dogs.  I never get tired of watching how they interact, I learn something every time.  Paula made a really good comment that whilst we may not always be able to hear it, as they are running around they are communicating with each other constantly.  When you stop to observe their body language and really look at them, they are and it’s fascinating to watch.


And finally an update on Asha….thankfully her lump was benign and having spent about 10 days sleeping with the cone of shame on and having no proper walks, she is now back to full health and exercise.  I’ve scheduled her in my diary for a regular weekly massage J

Monday 2 February 2015

Aggie becomes an acupuncture pro!

Aggie is a 6 year old stumpy tailed cattle dog – Red Heeler for those who are familiar with the breed.


Aggie is massively ball focused, she LOVES them.  Since around Oct 2014 however, ball chasing has been out of bounds.  Following some major limping Aggie was taken to the vet where she was diagnosed with arthritis in her hips.

I first saw Aggie for massage in early December following this diagnosis.  I watched her gait and it was clear she was limping at the front, and on palpation she had tight bicep, quad and glute muscles.  She was on minimal exercise but had started hydrotherapy.

She went back to her normal vet at the end of December who said the issue wasn't with her hips, it was her shoulder.  So hydro stopped and she started having 10 min controlled walks.  She looked like she was getting a bit better, but then a major digging spree in the garden meant she was lame again.

Meanwhile massage continued – sometimes with treats, sometimes without depending on her mood ;).  She loves her raw food diet so a massage session often entails a frozen kidney or bone in a Kong to keep her focused.

By mid Jan she was back at the vet who suspected bicep tendonitis and a further specialist consultation confirmed it.
Since that diagnosis Aggie has had 2 physio sessions, 4 laser sessions, another visit to her normal vet, and 3 more massage sessions.

In yesterday’s physio session Aggie was an absolute star and relaxed enough for the physio to perform acupuncture – at one point she had 7 needles in.  It didn't seem to particularly bother her and in fact she got quite sleepy.  Acupuncture will help her enormously because it gets in deep in the muscle to release trigger points.


Massage is complementing these other treatments, in particular I have been using cross fibre friction on the origin of her bicep which she doesn't seem to mind at all, working on releasing trigger points, and general relaxation to aid recovery.


Aggie is still not playing with her beloved ball but she is having her 10 min walks, she’s also doing home physio exercises and stretches and is slowly but surely improving.  Go Aggie!!!