How to Massage your Dog

Here are a couple techniques to give your Dog the benefits of Massage Therapy.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• a Dog
• a hand

1. The way Dogs are built forces them to hold their neck up causing them to fight gravity. I love doing this first technique whenever I visit someones home who has a dog; The dog will love you after doing this. Imagine a line going right down the middle of the dogs neck down the back to the tail. Just focus on the neck for now.

2. 

   slightly left and right of that line are 2 large muscles which are almost always tight on a dog (see in Picture 2 Yellow circles). I wouldn't be surprised if Dogs constantly had headaches! With your thumbs, start off gentile and massage these muscles, when the dog is comfortable go a little deeper until you have moderate pressure. If the Dog likes it, they will push against your hand because the pressure feels good. You can tell if you are going too hard because the dog will want to get up and leave. If you are giving a good pressure and reading the dog correctly they will really like it. Make different motions with your thumbs ( circle, static ). Dont go on the side of the neck or near the ears! those are painful pressure points. Avoid the middle line of the neck as indicated by the red line also.

3. 

   another great spot are the Jaw muscles. We all know that Dogs have really strong Jaws. Bulldogs can get lock jaw because the muscles are so strong. This technique uses simple small circles on the sides of the jaw where the back ballpoint is (you can feel this on yourself too). Start off really soft! you dont need much pressure at all here. Test the pressure on yourself first ( its tender). This might put the dog to sleep.

4. 

   Last is a spot that really effects big dogs. The muscly section above the hips (NOT THE BONE) is an ideal spot for massage. Use the tame techniques as on the neck and read the dogs reactions. Older large dogs will be sore here. Increasing the circulation in this area will benefit dogs that have or are prone to hip problems. Stay off the backbone (red line)

Tips & Warnings

• use moderate pressure, not too hard!
• Read the dog, dont force it!

[kkelley89]

on 2/26/2009 Nice article! My dog will love this! 5*