Using the Sponge Stroke in Dog Massages

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Mary and I'm with expertvillage.com. Today we're going to be talking about a kind of stroke that we haven't spoken of before and it's called the sponge stroke. The reason it's called that is because you're going to take your hands and you're going to pretend like you're compressing a sponge full of water, very gently in and very gently out. Now the sponge stroke is used mostly for the legs, up at the top of the joints in the front legs, very slowly in, not too much, remember what I said about pressure, and very slowly out. Same thing with the back legs, you're going to go very slowly in and very slowly out and what this does, especially for older dogs or injured dogs, arthritic dogs, is you are pressing out from the lymph system the old and you're letting in the new. The same is also true to a lesser extent for the blood vessels but while the blood vessels have the heart pumping it, nothing pumps the lymphatic system except the muscles itself so if you have an animal that is not very active, it doesn't get much exercise, this can replace exercise to a degree."