Higgins at Pet Rock Fest 2009
Posted by lisa on Sep 21, 2009
Last weekend I massaged at Pet Rock Fest and it was a blast. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many dogs in one place, and I got to work on some wonderful pups. I want you to meet Higgins, my new best friend.
Here is Higgins’ mom’s description of his Pet Rock experience:
We brought Higgins, a beagle-jack russell mix, to the Pet Rock Fest in Worcester. Higgins loves people but is quite shy around other dogs. As soon as we brought him through the gates of the festival, he made a bee-line to the exit… twice; he was so uncomfortable with the hundreds of other dogs around, he truly wanted to leave.
We had almost decided to take him back to the car when, thankfully, we saw Lisa’s booth offering massages and Reiki and that it would specifically help anxious, fearful, stressed out dogs. If it would help Higgins enjoy what should have been a dog mecca, we would try it. The moment he went on the table and Lisa sat next to him and started her massage, he was a different dog. He leaned into her and allowed her to work out all his worries and stress. She took her time and didn’t touch any part of him that he wouldn’t willingly give her so he felt comfortable.
After the 15 minute treatment we took him back into the milleu of barking dogs and crowds of people and he happily walked next to us, enjoying his time there, allowing other dogs to greet him without shying away and snatching toys out of every bin within his reach (it became quite expensive!). It really was an amazing transformation! Thank you Lisa for allowing us to spend a fun day with our beloved friend without worrying that he hated ever minute of it and that we would pay for it later when he would destroy our couch!
Another gratuitous picture of Higgins:
How sweet is Higgins?
I can’t wait for next year’s Pet Rock!
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Third Prettiest Dog in Brooklyn, CT
Posted by lisa on Sep 1, 2009
We went to the fair in Brooklyn this weekend to watch an agility dog demo and they were having a prettiest dog competition, so of course we had to enter. Fergus was feeling pretty mellow so I thought it was worth a shot. Here’s my boy holding up pretty well:
Pretty terrier/ husky/ briard/ deerhound/ thing
There were about 25-30 dogs and the whole thing took way too long– I thought we might have to bow out to save Fergus’ psyche. He was fine as long as we were moving, but long stationary waits were difficult. You can see here that he’s starting to get nervous:
Getting a little anxious
His mouth is still open, which is usually good, unless he’s panting. His ears are starting to point back, and his tail is down, both signs of anxiety. Shortly after this he started to pull to get out of the ring. I used some massage, Reiki, and even TTouch to hold him together. Luckily they announced the winners, and Fergus won third place! There were some beautiful dogs there, so I’m very pleased, and very proud of how well he behaved. (And I know now to never wear that outfit again. Luckily only Fergus was being judged that day.)
Congratulations to Fergus!
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Move forward… fall back
Posted by lisa on Nov 9, 2008
I have a number of elderly canine clients, and it’s very gratifying to see them perk up after a few weeks of massage and Reiki. Increased range of motion, increased energy… you get used to seeing constant incremental improvements. You might even start to think you are pretty damn good.
Then the day comes when there is no improvement. Maybe things are even a little worse than last week. The gait is a little off. Or the muscle tone just isn’t the same. Perhaps there is a simple explanation; perhaps it is a passing thing. Or perhaps… the continual improvement isn’t sustainable. Perhaps the decline is inevitable.
It’s hard moving past that sentence. I feel foolish, but I hadn’t really considered it before. I’ve held a client and given Reiki while she died, but this is different. Her ills were acute, beyond my power to affect, and all I could do was try to make her passing easier for her and for her family. When I have a dog where my therapy is working, I feel effective, like I can make a difference. I’ve got a handle on this. Then suddenly I don’t… it’s a feeling of panic– I should be able to fix it.
In school they taught us we have to learn to manage our clients’ expectations, which in the animal care world means their owners’. I think it might be more of a lesson to learn to manage my own expectations. I tell myself my session goal is for the animal to feel better going out than he did coming in. I really don’t expect miracles, though sometimes they happen. It’s this slow, steady, reasonable success that becomes addicting, that leaves a hole when it goes. Ego, I imagine. Attachment. I should let it go.
That’s too easy, too pat. If every time I saw an old dog decline I thought, “Ah, but this is life. Very sad.” I would miss those opportunities where the lost progress can be regained. Alfie is one of my early clients, from my school days. You can read his story and see a picture here. In a nutshell, he’s a nine year old border collie with a history of Lyme disease, hypothyroidism, and a frisbee spinal injury that left one hind leg partially lame. When I met him he was in a downward spiral of listlessness and decreasing mobility. He responded well to Reiki and eventually massage. I cleared out his major energy blockages and went to work trying to improve his muscle tone and his sense of where that leg is in space, so he would drag his foot less. His mood improved dramatically and his mobility increased a little at a time. I bought him a small, soft frisbee that I could throw directly to his mouth, so he wouldn’t have to jump. After each session we would have a little game as a reward. Then, about a month ago I noticed his muscle tone decreasing in both legs. His foot was dragging a little. He doesn’t like deep massage so there was only so much I could do there. My initial thought was to increase the frequency of sessions but that wasn’t workable. I tested some structural integration techniques I’d been studying, and started thinking the dark thoughts that began this post.
A couple of weeks later his owner told me that his fur was thinning and getting greasy. She had found a few sores on his skin. He was more lethargic. She was going to go to the vet to get his thyroid medication for hypothyroidism tweaked. Weak muscle tone is another of the symptoms of hypothyroidism. In the future we’ll know that it’s one of the first to turn up for Alfie and get him to the vet a few weeks earlier. In the end, his dose was doubled, his skin started clearing up, and today his muscles felt pretty good to me. During our frisbee game I saw him really fixate on the frisbee for the first time. It’s the look border collies give to sheep. I think I’m going to have to schedule a bit more time for frisbee in future sessions.
So, the lesson is… I don’t know. Fight hard to keep ground gained, but let it go with equanimity when it can’t be kept? Learn to recognize when that point is reached? I will remind myself that my ultimate goal is not to make the Alfies young again, but to make them the best dogs their bodies and health will allow them to be.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Venturing out into public
Posted by lisa on Oct 24, 2008
I will be at Pet World, in Natick, MA, this weekend, from 11am to 1pm, giving massages to benefit their Pet Shelter. There will also be a microchip clinic, also for charity. Stop by and see me!
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Article on Stress in Animals
Posted by lisa on Oct 24, 2008
The LiveScience blog has a good article by Clara Moskowitz, on how stress affects animals. In addition to all the stressors of their normals lives in the wild or in captivity, they can pick up the stress of the humans they live with. Stress has both positive and negative physiological effects in animals, and inspires a desire for comfort food! From the article
In both humans and animals, stress causes the body to release adrenaline and cortisol hormones. These chemicals cause heart rate and respiration to speed up, and suppress the immune system. Stress also clamps down on the reproductive system, reducing libido and reproductive hormones, which ultimately increases the risk for cardiovascular disease.
All these all-too-human effects have also been measured in animals.
Wilson’s subordinate rhesus monkeys, for example, have disrupted reproductive cycles, are at higher risk for cardiovascular disease than dominant females, and seem to show up with higher rates of infection and illness.
“Stress is adaptive to a certain degree, but after a while it’s really maladaptive,” Wilson said. “One of the first things to be affected is the reproductive system. Yeah, it makes some evolutionary sense that you don’t want to reproduce if you’re in danger. But when your reproductive system shuts down, you have all these secondary effects, like increased cardiovascular disease risk, which are really maladaptive.”
Read the whole article here, and remember that massage triggers the relaxation response in humans and animals.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Massage Event at WetnoZe
Posted by lisa on Oct 19, 2008
I traveled to Quincy, MA this weekend for a massage event at WetnoZe Pet Concierge on W. Elm St. What a cute place! They specialize in small dogs, so I was coated in Shih-tzus and Cavaliers at all times. The dogs really seem to love it there.
There is a nice pic of the event on their blog.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Tail Up!
Posted by lisa on Aug 20, 2008
Fergus had his first long walk in three weeks today. It was too cold for cicadas to sing, so the boys and I met their friend Sally at the conservation land and went for a long walk through the fields and a swim in the river. With no Mutt Muffs. He’s out of shape now, so I didn’t really throw the ball, just let him run with the other two dogs and swim. Fergus had his happy trot on display, and was so very happy. It did my heart good. When Fergus is happy he shares it with everyone around.
He’ll probably be sore tomorrow from all the exertion. Last time he overdid it he had a temporary limp. Luckily I know massage.
The Mutt Muffs have been a savior, but I’m very glad to set them aside now and then.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
This is ridiculous
Posted by lisa on Aug 10, 2008
This year in New England, I feel like I’m under siege by summer. My dog Fergus, is a nervous wreck. He’s lived five years without being afraid of thunderstorms, but this year, we’ve had one every other day . All summer. Sometimes every day.
He goes from room to room with every thunderclap, like he’s thinking, “Damn, it’s in this room, too, I’ll try the kitchen. Nope, here, too, I’ll try the bathtub.”
It may have something to do with his ear being extra sensitive. I say this only because he has another sudden-onset phobia: he won’t go outside. As soon as he goes out, his tail sneaks below his belly, his ears go down and he pulls like a sled dog to get back inside. Panic, is how one friend described it.
This is the dog that never smiles in the house… he’s only happy outside. Now I can’t get him to go out to go potty. It was John that figured it out. He got Fergus into the backyard, and he was okay at first. Then he’d dive under a table and tremble. He’d come out for awhile, then dive under and tremble. John linked it to the off-and-on singing of the cicadas. You know, these guys:
They make an infernal racket sounding like this:
Cidaca M. cassini making my life hard
I remember last year it bugged him, but not like this. Meanwhile, I can only get my dog to do his business when it rains (provided there is no thunder), or in the early morning before they start singing. Reiki, massage, T-touch help a bit with the thunder fear but not with the cicadas. I began to think it may have more to do with ear pain than fear.
In the end, it came to this: aviation ear muffs for my dog. I ordered a pair of Mutt Muffs for Fergus. The other dogs make fun of him, but now he will go outside.
His tail stays up; he has a happy trot. He does his business. I can’t let him run off leash, because he can’t hear my call. Still, a thousand times better. I was starting to worry about his kidneys.
I use them, too, during thunderstorms (on Fergus. They’re too small for me.). Some dogs hate more than the noise; they sense the pressure changes or the static in the air. Ferg seems to only react to the noise so far, so I thought it was worth a try. It helps, a little. The quieter claps he can’t hear at all (no jump in his muscles); the louder ones must sound not so loud. He’ll lay in bed with me until the really big ones come. I would take a picture of him in his Mutt Muffs for you, but this storm is pretty bad. Fergus is in the closet. Sigh.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Massaging at SmartPak Bark Fest
Posted by lisa on Jul 20, 2008
Our internship phase has started and we kicked it off at the SmartPak event this weekend. It’s a beautiful store for dog and horse lovers. They have a catalog business and a unique service of packaging dog/horse food, meds and supplements in daily packs for freshness and proper measurement.
Mary Francis and I manned the table on Saturday and massaged about 14 dogs between us and met a lot of interesting people and their pups. My favorite was a 15 year old bull terrier named Coco that would have laid still for me for hours. Below is Jack the spaniel, who is, in fact, sitting completely in my lap.
People were very receptive to a free massage for their dog and so were most of the pups. I used Reiki to calm a young Portuguese Water Dog named Lily that wanted to sneak away and bark at Tara, the eldery Scottie, who Mary Francis was working on.
People were mostly surprised at how well their dogs settled into it. I think that, aside from the relaxation of massage, that the feeling of trained hands on them is novel and stimulates their curiosity. It might just be worth hanging out for a minute to see where this unusual experience is heading.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Brochure First Draft
Posted by lisa on Jul 20, 2008
For our business class at massage school we had to make a brochure. This is my first draft of a tri-fold. I used it at the SmartPak event where we massaged for our intership, so I had to make clear I’m not a certified animal massage therapist yet. I’ll actually send these to the printer when I have my credentials.
On the back side are listed a number of the benefits of massage. Click the image for a pdf.
Behavior
- Massage decreases stress through activation of the parasympathetic nervous system.
- Massage decreases the heart rate and blood pressure.
- Massage lowers physiological arousal and stress hormones. This not only lowers feelings of anxiety and depression, but also enhances the immune system.
- Massage increases serotonin levels, which have a positive effect on stress and depression, and may also reduce pain.
- Massage builds trust between you and your companion animal as you spend time together and learn to read her signals. Animals that believe their humans understand and want the best for them show decreased anxiety.
Free Movement
- Free range of motion and flexibility increases significantly following massage.
- Massage elongates and softens connective tissue.
- Massage decreases soreness and stiffness by increasing blood circulation, which brings more nutrients to the muscle and promotes rapid removal of waste products.
- Healthy and athletic dogs also benefit from massage, which reduces many postural distortions. Releasing trigger points and reducing muscle tension increases range of motion and balances the gait, resulting in increased performance and improved motor skills. Therefore, massage also helps in preventing injuries.
- Massage reduces pain, increasing comfort for injured, sick, or geriatric animals.
Accelerated Healing
- Massage increases circulation, both cardiovascular and lymphatic.
- Enhanced circulation to a fracture leads to increased deposition of new bone.
- Massage applied to healed wounds helps reduce excessive scar formation in the skin and soft tissue beneath.
- Massage reduces swelling by promoting lymph circulation.
- Massage helps to gently build tone in muscles weak from disuse or illness.
- A massage session by a trained practitioner can detect abnormalities earlier, allowing for accelerated veterinary treatment.
What do you think?
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!