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.

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Today, I would like to shine the spotlight on The Well-Connected Dog by Amy Snow and Nancy Zidonis. We used The Well-Connected Dog as our course manual in the acupressure class at Bancroft, and I have found it to be both a great learning manual and a fabulous resource to have in your book collection, not only for treating my dog, but us humans as well.

As you saw in Amy’s guest post a few weeks ago, Amy and Nancy are the founders of Tallgrass Animal Acupressure Institute in Colorado, authors of several books on animal acupressure, and have been practicing what they teach for decades.

In The Well-Connected Dog, they explain the theory behind Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and how a diagnosis is made using the eight guiding principles. To those of us used to modern western medicine, this can be a bit difficult to wrap one’s head around, since it is such a completely different way to look at illness and its causes, but they do a great job of explaining it in ways that are easy to relate to.

Chapter four in the book describes each meridian in more depth: what it relates to (season, element, body parts, etc.), its function in the body, signs indicating that the energy in that particular meridian is blocked, the important acupressure points along it and how treating each point can help with a specific condition. There is also an illustration of each meridian and its points, so you easily can find them on your dog.

The next chapter talks about acupoints, places where the chi is closer to the surface of the body and can be treated. Each set of points is described in detail, again with illustrations to help you locate them on your dog.

Chapter six is about canine stretching, with photos and instructions for how to do a full-body stretch of your dog (which is as important for dogs as it is for us humans in order to maintain flexibility and enhance the flow of energy).

In Chapter seven, you learn how to treat specific conditions, such as Lower Back Soreness, Itchy Skin, Kennel Cough, Fear, and Shock. This chapter is set up similar to the ones above, with indicators showing an energy imbalance, how to perform each particular treatment, and which points to work (with illustrations).

Chapter three, which I would go back to after reading through the entire book, shows you, step by step, how to do an acupressure treatment on your dog, including selecting a location, preparing yourself by breathing and getting centered, observing your dog, introducing yourself and getting permission (from your dog) to do a treatment. Many of us tend to overlook such things, but they are great reminders to slow down and really connect with both yourself and your dog. I personally never work on my dog if I feel that my chi isn’t “up to par” or I’m upset or angry. I’m always afraid I will transfer bad energy to her.

As I mentioned earlier, I use this book as a reference again and again, and one thing I like in particular are the descriptions of what each point does for the dog/human being treated. It’s so helpful when you don’t have the time to perform an entire full-body treatment (which is difficult to do on yourself since many points are located on the back) to be able to zero in on one or a few points to work a little bit whenever you find the time.

I first realized the power of acupressure after I successfully treated my husband for a very persistent stomach bug with the help of The Well-Connected Dog. It sounds funny, I know, but it worked. My husband had been sick for a week, and wasn’t getting any better. I was in the middle of the acupressure course at Bancroft at the time, so I took out this book and with the help of the descriptions of what each point does, found a point I thought sounded like a good one to treat (I think it was St 36). I looked at the illustration of the dog, managed to find the point on my husband’s leg, and treated it for an hour. It definitely needed it – he almost screamed with pain when I first found it, but after that hour, he felt better, and the next day, his stomach was fine again.

In the past few weeks, I have had reason to re-visit this book to treat myself. I am going through a series of allergy treatments called NAET (using kinesiology and acupuncture) that leave me drained and zombie-esque at times. After one treatment in particular, my kidney chi was getting totally out of whack, and after looking in The Well-Connected Dog, I decided I needed to work on Ki3 and Ki7. I found the spots easily and treated them while I was sitting on the couch watching TV. I can’t tell you what a difference it made in getting through the days after that treatment. I still had a pounding headache, heaviness in my head and ringing in my ears, as well as very uncharacteristic insomnia, but after treating those points, my energy improved dramatically, and I could handle the symptoms.

I tell you all this to emphasize that anybody can use acupressure to improve both their own and their dog’s health. We did have that acupressure course at Bancroft, where I learned the basics, so I know what to look for and what an acupoint feels like, but I am in no way certified to perform acupressure on anybody. But you don’t need to be to work on yourself and your dog – once you learn the basics, you have the power in your own hands to relieve headaches, improve digestion, boost energy, etc.

I would highly recommend The Well-Connected Dog to anyone interested in giving this powerful healing technique a try. And if you have the chance to take part in one of the Tallgrass workshops (which are held all over the world, you can find upcoming classes on the Events & Workshops lists as well as on the school lists for Canada, Australia, Europe and the UK), don’t pass it up. I know that you, like me, will be amazed at how effective acupressure can be, and will find endless uses for it now and in the future.

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