I hope you all had a fantastic summer with sun and relaxation! I ended up taking a bit more time off than I had planned, but with summer almost over and a crisp fall feel in the air, it’s time to get back to work. 
Today’s review is long overdue, but here it is finally! “A Dog Lover’s Guide to Canine Massage” by Jody Chiquoine and Linda Jackson is a workbook for dog owners who want to learn the basics of massage for use on their own pets.
Linda and Jody have been teaching canine massage therapy for many years, and this book was originally developed as a guide for people attending the trainings. Encouraged by their participants and by requests from others, Linda and Jody decided to turn their class guide into a book.
“A Dog Lover’s Guide…” is divided into 8 chapters. Each has lots of photos as well as one or several worksheets where you can record your own observations. The authors suggest reading through the entire book first, and then going back to the beginning and start learning the techniques, and I agree that it’s a good idea. This is how the book is broken down:
Chapter 1 talks about canine body language, what to look for, and how to handle massaging shy, fearful or dominant dogs.
Chapter 2 covers the benefits of massage, do’s and don’ts, contraindications and how to go about 
getting your dog used to receiving a massage (not every dog immediately takes to it).
In Chapter 3, each massage stroke (10 in all) is described with photos and instructions for how to try it on both your dog and yourself.
Chapter 4 gives you the basic anatomy of dogs and how their bodies compare to ours.
In Chapter 5, you learn how to stretch your dog, an important technique for many reasons. It not only increases you dog’s flexibility and range of motion, it also helps him become more aware of his body, lessens the risk of injury and improves coordination.
Chapter 6 shows you how to do an entire massage routine from head to tail, and also how to prepare yourself before beginning the massage (breathing, relaxing and communicating with your dog). This chapter ends with a step by step list of a full body massage sequence. I like that a lot, I would suggest copying it and putting it near the spot where you normally massage your dog.
Chapter 7 is FAQs. Chapter 8 talks about the different dog breeds and has seven terrific tables (one for each group) with a short description of each breed’s heritage, their typical stress areas and where they need massage.
The authors make comparisons between dogs and people throughout the book and instruct you to practice each massage stroke on yourself as well; something I think is really helpful. You can learn from reading, but doing and experiencing something yourself is where the real learning takes place in my opinion. I also found the worksheets to be very useful. For some reason you take more time thinking about something when you have to put it down on paper, and putting things in writing helps make sure you “got it”.
I really do like this book and I think it’s a great introduction and basic manual for anyone interested in learning to massage their own pets.
Related posts:
- AMG Book Review – The Well-Connected Dog The Well-Connected Dog by Amy Snow and Nancy Zidonis...
- AMG Book Review – Stretch Your Dog Healthy by Raquel Wynn Stretch Your Dog Healthy by Raquel Wynn Personal trainer...
- Acu-Dog – A Guide To Canine Acupressure Today’s post is a long overdue review of the...
- Getting In TTouch With Your Dog – Book Reivew Getting in TTouch with Your Dog: An Easy, Gentle...
- Animal Massage Guide Guest Post Series: Jody Chiquoine Today’s guest post comes from Jody Chiquoine, the founder...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
[...] When her Newfoundland Zowie was traumatically injured, Jody, a registered nurse for 34 years, used her expertise in rehabilitating people to help Zowie back to health. Inspired by this experience, Fitter Critters was born. In addition to her Masters Degree in nursing, Jody is a Certified Canine Rehabilitation Therapist, a member of the American Canine Sports Medicine Association and certified in canine massage. She also helped design and introduce the first American Red Cross Pet First Aid course in Berkshire County, and offers instructor courses as well as pet first aid courses to the general public. She is a founding member and current president of Northeast Pyr Rescue (a Great Pyrenees rescue organization). She recently co-authored “A Dog Lovers Guide to Canine Massage” with Linda Jackson (read our review). [...]
[...] Degree in both Education and Oriental Medicine. Her most recent endeavor was co-authoring “A Dog Lover’s Guide to Canine Massage” with Jody Chiquoine (Jody will tell us about her canine rehab and hydrotherapy business in [...]
[...] Massage – Deep tissue or Swedish A massage technique that focuses on the deeper layers of muscle tissue, releasing the chronic patterns of tension in the body through slow strokes and deep finger pressure, thereby removing toxins, while relaxing and soothing the muscle. It is both corrective and therapeutic. Massage Case Study – Gus the Cat The Basic Massage Strokes Massage For Rabbit Digestion Massage Case Study – Suffering Samoyed Massage Case Study – Dog with Epilepsy Book review – A Dog Lover’s Guide To Canine Massage [...]