CC430: Helping Dogs Thrive: Massage for Performance Dogs

Prerequisites and Supplies

• Good observation skills. But working on them will be part of the course and I will be very active with feedback.

• Poles and cones (cavalettis). These will be useful for assessing your dog in movement. See Note 1 below on how to make them.

• Optional: A dog anatomy application for your phone or computer to refer to. I use an iphone and the application I sometimes use for quick reference is called Dog Anatomy: Canine 3D. Also, an anatomy book, if you are interested, such as Color Atlas of Veterinary Anatomy: Volume 3, The Dog and Cat by Stanley H. Done  BVetMed, PhD, Peter C. Goody PhD, and Neil C. Strickland PhD OR Miller's Anatomy of the Dog by Howard E. Evans PhD and Alexander de Lahunta DVM PhD.

Note 1: If you don’t want to purchase a set of cavalettis, you can create the poles with mop and broom handles or agility jump poles and painters tape. Rest them on top of cans at various heights (tuna cans are the lowest height, other than the ground which is also an option, and big cans of tomato sauce are the highest). 

This class is for dogs of all ages.

Note also that puppies and young dogs are less likely to spend a lot of time under your hands. However, they will benefit from massage and shorter sessions are fine.

If your dog is recovering from an injury you’ll need to work with your canine rehabilitation professional or veterinarian first. I’m a small animal massage practitioner, so I will assume your dog is healthy enough to benefit from this work.

Contraindications for massage include:

• Open wounds

• Cancer (check with your veterinarian)

• Fever

• Broken or fractured bones

• Acute muscle injuries

• Chronic muscle injuries (check with your veterinarian)

• Shock

• Epilepsy

• Infectious Diseases

• Pregnancy (check with your veterinarian)

• Infections of the skin

• Recent surgery

• Any disease, e.g. diabetes (check with your veterinarian)

If you have any questions or doubts, please check with your veterinarian before doing massage. There is no way that I can cover all of the contraindications for massage.

Training Philosophy

My training philosophy, for all animal training, is centered on the following principles:

• Ensuring safety for dog and handler from physical and psychological harm.

  • No forcing

  • No threatening

• Empowering both the dog and the handler to have control, i.e. a choice in participating.

• Making desired behaviors easy for your dog, i.e. setting your dog up for success.

  • Change the environment as needed

• Reinforcing desired behaviors.

• Finding the joy! Seeing it in your dog’s face!