Give Your Dog A Massage

[Lexy88]

I dont know if it has been covered on here, but was just flicking through some of my old dog mags and saw the article which got me into giving Blade a massage [and I was suprised I'd never done it before - considering I'm qualified to give ET to horses! - Equine Touch is a 'strand' of horse massage].
Giving Blade a massage is the only quiet quality time I get with him - even giving him a pat is all too exciting for him! lol. Generally we are out running, out playing with the kids, training, out on the farm, playing fetch and chase... I get him to sit or lie down [he eventually lies down anyway] and just give him a good old fashioned massage, head to tail,- legs, feet, toes, chest, tummy, back, shoulders, hips, face, ears, head. He loves it and its the only time he'll stay nice and quiet and not be a big doofus and want to wrestle and play. Its also really good for him! I'm sure your dogs will enjoy it too

 

[tigerlily46514]

I need to do this more often, too. I have sort of tried massaging his back during my ever ongoing attempts to find ways to relax him as he gazes at enemy dogs. (you name it, i've tried it.) It does seem to help sometimes.

Brushing Buddy's fur sometimes has the effect you describe. Here's the funny thing, i rarely take Buddy places at night time, see, so if i brush his hair at night, he somehow knows, "I'm just getting this nice hairdo to relax.." and he doses and relaxes...often falls asleep right there and naps for hours....zzzzzzzzz

HOWEVER, i almost always brush his hair prior to taking him anywhere IN THE DAYTIME, so if i brush his hair in the daytime, well, instead of relaxed---my dog gets STOKED, excited, as if to say, "Wow, where are we going today?" ha ha!! Soon as i am done, he hops up, looks at me with big smile, and almost quivers, eager to see where we will go today!! ha ha

 

[jackienmutts]

Massage is a wonderful thing to do to your dog, and it's not only relaxing, but can be very beneficial. My girl is a reactive dog, and we went thru a Feisty Fido class a couple years ago. As part of the homework in class, we were to give T-Touch Massage to our dogs every day. Just speaking of reactive dogs here, when they react, the stress chemicals can stay in their system for a couple days (as I recall) -- and anyone with a very reactive dog knows full-well, that when they have an aggressive reaction, they are then "stomping" down the street/around the neighborhood looking for the "next victim", and can act that way for quite a while. T-Touch Massage is very beneficial in relaxing dogs and taking their stress levels waaay down. They've shown that when doing the behavioral work in the other areas plus doing T-Touch, everything just goes faster because the dogs are really relaxing, as opposed to spending so much time in that stressed-out state. My girl LOVES her massages. All I have to do is sit down on the floor and call her over and she comes and flops - and she's asleep in no time. If a reactive dog can be relaxed that much, think what it does and how great it must be for a generally well-adjusted dog! It must be like a daily dose of ZEN!

 

[tigerlily46514]

//"Just speaking of reactive dogs here, when they react, the stress chemicals can stay in their system for a couple days (as I recall) -- and anyone with a very reactive dog knows full-well, that when they have an aggressive reaction, they are then "stomping" down the street/around the neighborhood looking for the "next victim", and can act that way for quite a while"//

Yeah, well put!! ha ha!! Buddy, if he reacts to 1 dog----
FOR NEXT 20 MINUTES ------------Buddy WILL then react to ANY dog,
even his best friend!!!! (so cute, his best friend is like, "What'd *i* do???")

for next 20 minutes.....
i can set a clock by it.

Usually, if Buddy reacts, i just avoid all other dogs for rest of that walk. cuz, Buddy then has his gangsta-mode "on".

I heard it is adrenaline all rushing through their blood stream.
LIke, if you or i almost had car accident, or some other heart-pounding event, even after it is over, our hands might tremble a bit, for some time after, til that adrenaline is wore off..

I'd never thought of using massage to see if i can shorten up that 20 minutes!! GREAT IDEA!!!