Dog Massage for Arthritis: Neck Massage

Video Transcript

"The next thing you are going to do is massage the neck muscles, again by holding this area stiff, holding one leg out of balance with the other. If you think about it with yourself if you hold one shoulder up higher than the other it is likely to cause some stiffness and tension in the neck and so you are actually going to want to massage up through the neck area as well. And by doing this you also catch a section of the bladder meridian that is particularly good for the front legs so again you want to do both sides, you can do deep finger massage and again you see how much that skin is moving. A dog's skin is very loose and you want to go down the sides as well, do a really good job along both sides of the neck so the neck moves freely and that will help free up the shoulders as well. Quite often you will see the dog hold his head slightly askew if there is a lot of tension in the shoulders and the neck so this will be one more way to ease that whole area and they usually like this pretty well and they think that is a pretty good deal so you won't have a problem doing it."