Fenzi Dog Sports Academy - CC220: Massage for Canine Athletes

Course Details

Learn how to care for your canine athlete while training, resting, or on the day of a big event. This class will focus on teaching you the skill of using your hands to work soft tissue to increase circulation, reduce healing time, and keep your dog feeling good between events and training sessions.

Canine massage can provide many benefits to any dog, but especially to a canine athlete. It doesn’t matter if your dog is young or old, massage can provide benefits that will help them recover quicker from training or big events or heal faster in the event that your dog has suffered an injury. It has had documented success in reducing stress responses, supporting the immune system, and reducing pain response. It is even more important for healthy teams to maintain healthy muscle tissue, but also to empower you to recognize any physical changes in your dog that might indicate a possibly subtle injury or weakness.

You can expect to learn what “healthy and normal” feels like, how to feel muscular tension and how to release it, as well as what to do when you feel something abnormal for your dog. This class will cover basic canine anatomy and massage techniques, as well as teaching you how to effectively assess and track your dog’s physical wellbeing. Each week will have homework that will focus on different techniques and how to apply them to your dog for the most effective results (and relaxing!).

Canine massage is not a substitute for veterinarian care but can be a fantastic supplemental therapy. Your knowledge of your dog’s body and behavior is an incredible tool to help you and your veterinarian team locate any issues if they were to arise.

Teaching Approach

Lectures will be released on a weekly basis. Each week’s lecture will have a component of general massage considerations, anatomy, specific massage techniques, and a specific homework assignment. These lectures will contain both written (concept as well as bullet point) as well as video instruction. The massage techniques and canine assessment will have detailed video to help you understand the application of the concepts we discuss. Students will work through materials at their own pace and get individualized feedback on their journey.

Feedback to video submissions of the homework assignments will be done through time-stamps as well as voice-over feedback. Written feedback will also be used to help explain concepts or answer questions.

Massage is done when the dog is comfortable. This can be on the floor (both), dog on a small raised bed or platform, or with a raised surface with the human standing. Raised surfaces can be grooming tables, table, or a massage table. I am happy to work with Gold teams to find the most optimum position to do the assignments for human AND dog.

Guest Instructor: Aleks Woodroffe

Syllabus

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Week 1:
• Fundamentals of Massage – Intent and Contraindications
• Anatomy lesson: Main Body Groups and Orientation
• Massage Techniques: Opening and Effleurage

Week 2:
• Assessing your dog before massage
• Anatomy lesson: Superficial musculoskeletal system
• Massage Techniques: Petrissage & Closing massage

Week 3:
• Working with YOUR dog
• Anatomy lesson: Deeper musculoskeletal system and bones
• Massage Techniques: Direct Pressure
• Embracing your intuitive Side

Week 4:
• Working with YOUR dog
• Anatomy lesson: Ligaments, Tendons, and Joints Oh My!
• Massage Techniques: Friction
• Whole body massage video walkthrough

Week 5:
• Stretching – active and passive
• Anatomy lesson: Common areas of tension
• Massage Techniques: Skin rolling, tapotement, and fascia
• Lumps and Bumps

Week 6:
• Reviewing your assessments
• Anatomy lesson: Sport specific issues
• Massage Techniques: “other” considerations and techniques
• Fitness and alternative therapies

Prerequisites & Supplies

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A “calm” dog is not required, but can make learning the concept of massage easier. If you have an active dog that struggles to relax, you can still work through the material, but may need to keep your sessions short and within your dog’s ability.
• A comfortable dog bed, mat, or surface that allows the dog to relax
• A quiet space without other dogs or distractions
• Tripod is recommended to capture video so that you can “set and forget” while you work your dog.

Sample Lecture

Understanding what your fingers are feeling

Your hands are excellent tools in being able to assess your dog’s muscles, but knowing what you are feeling can be hard at first! Each dog will have different feeling tissue, so familiarizing yourself with YOUR dog’s normal can be important. We call this exploration “Palpation”, which is the “art of feeling muscles for change and tension”.
• Healthy and young muscle should feel uniform and not necessarily soft, but much more uniform. It is often pliable and supple with an elastic quality and the dog has no behavioral reaction when palpating the muscle.
• Areas that are “tight” are often firmer in a section or the whole muscle and can be hard to the touch if very tight. This firmness is created by muscle fibers that are still in the constricted position. It can feel ropey or cord like and will often have a painful reaction when palpated. It is less elastic and supple and may block feeling the structures beneath superficial muscle.
• Muscle that has scar tissue, from a previous injury, is caused by collagen adhering to a part of the muscle to help strengthen it. This can create a knot, or over time more permanent scar tissue. Scar tissue feels uneven under your fingers, and often more dense/hard. Through massage, it is possible to break up some of this scar tissue, or it can also be done through other techniques like ultrasound. The scar tissue is a protective mechanism from the body to create stability in a damaged or weak muscle.
• “Older” muscle fibers that have undergone more use and micro traumas will often have a more textured feel under your fingers from small amounts of scar tissue over time. The fascia may be adhering to itself within or between the muscles, the muscles have small areas of hardening and the muscles are no longer as supple as they once were.

Using what you feel locally to help you understand the WHOLE system

As you assess heat, tension, behavioral reactions, note if it was bilaterally similar (occurring on both sides). Compensation occurs when the dog is using other muscles in order to reduce the strain and weight bearing of an area of pain or reduced stability.
For example, if there is pain in the front right limb, the dog will shift its weight during activity (or even in static positions) to avoid triggering further pain. This will result in increased muscle use, and tension for you to feel, within the left front limb. There will also be an opposite effect on the opposite back limb (left hind), which can take the weight while balancing during movement. If there is compensation like this occurring, it is common to feel increased stress through the back due to the overuse of the core to compensate for balance. The WHOLE body is affected.

Testimonials & Reviews

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A sampling of what prior students have said about this course ...

A class everyone should take. Massage is such an important tool for ourselves and our pups. The format was easy to follow and implement. Aleks is very knowledgable in in dog movement and massage techniques and it shows in her class content as well as her thoughtful helpful responses to participants questions.

I've always been interested using massage as another tool to increase well-being for my dogs. You took a specialized topic and put it in easy-to-understand terms and provided excellent examples and videos. Thank you for a comprehensive and informative class.

This was one of the best courses (inside and outside of the FDSA) I have taken. The course pace was perfect, and the written and video instructions were very clear.

I learned a lot about massage and how to apply it to my own dogs in a way that made me feel comfortable knowing how to read their response to the various types of touch. Both of my dogs learned to really love the massage at the end of the day and I feel more confident knowing how and when to apply it depending on my goals.

The written and video material was very clear. I especially appreciated the instructor's sensitivity to the dog's feelings and responses.

Well-paced with clear explanations. The interactions with the gold level students were also helpful to read. This class was extremely valuable - it allowed me to identify and begin to address a painful area my stoic dog had been hiding. I suspect that if the dogs could respond to class surveys, they'd be big fans of this one!

I greatly appreciated the clear structure of the class each week (discussion/overview topic, techniques, anatomy) and use of video to compliment the written content.

Aleks was a wonderful instructor -very clear and helpful, able to customize for each time, and gave outstanding feedback! I learned so much from this course. This course was well thought out, and I definitely consider the skills I learned to be a great addition to my "tool box".

Registration

There are no scheduled sessions for this class at this time. We update our schedule frequently, so please subscribe to our mailing list for notifications.

Registration opens at 10:30am Pacific Time.

CC220 Subscriptions

	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Tuition	$ 260.00	$ 130.00	$ 65.00
Enrollment Limits	12	25	Unlimited
Access all course lectures and materials	✔	✔	✔
Access to discussion and homework forums	✔	✔	✔
Read all posted questions and answers	✔	✔	✔
Watch all posted videos	✔	✔	✔
Post general questions to Discussion forum	✔	✔	✖
Submit written assignments	✔	✖	✖
Post dog specific questions	✔	With video only	✖
Post videos	✔	Up to 2	✖
Receive instructor feedback on	Questions All videos	Questions All videos	✖

Find more details, refund policies and answers to common questions in the Help center.

CC220: Massage for Canine Athletes

Course Details

Teaching Approach

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