An Introduction to Pet Massage and Acupressure Therapy (Canines)

Introduction to Pet Massage and Acupressure Therapy

A man related a story about his trip to volunteer in Calcutta, India at Mother Theresa’s Home for the Destitute and Dying. He mentioned how one very ill person was crying and whimpering for hours. Everyone discussed how perhaps this man needed food, so they fed him, how he perhaps needed a drink, so they gave him water and juices; how he needed something to do, so they gave him items on which to write, color and handle; His pain or suffering seemed to completely disappear after a woman went and sat next to him and touched him. She touched him and held his hand.

That’s it! That’s all she did! That’s all he was crying out for! The touch of another person that would perhaps say: You matter! You’re important! You’re not alone! Touch conveys many things including physical, emotional and spiritual elements. Touch can be friendly and warm, sexual and stimulating, healing and recuperative, relaxing and calming, invigorating and, it can be abusive, hurtful, painful or alarming.

In Intentional Touch Animal Massage we meet a primal need and instinct. Social animals have always used touch for grooming, attention getting, instruction, comfort and more. Dogs are social animals and need to be touched. Massage in particular, is a unique therapy in that it addresses the whole body and it is not always easy to see which part of the person (or dog) it impacts the most. However, it certainly has wonderful physical restorative, relaxing, healing and stimulating results for most pets in many situations.

In this course study we will focus on massage techniques that support the nine systems of the body.

The techniques we’ll use are all Harmony APT techniques that have their similar techniques other forms of massage. Swedish massage is the most popular method of massage and certain terms used in conventional methods will be helpful to know, even though we will be using our Harmony APT terms.

Conventional Terms Used In Popular Massage:

Effleurage: A long balanced stroke

Kneading: Kneading the skin (similar to kneading dough).

Tapping: Light tapping on certain areas of the body.

Compression: A heavy pressure applied with fingers, thumb, palm or fist.

Harmony APT teaches a system called ITM or Intentional Touch Massage. In Intentional Touch Massage we use ITS or Intentional Touch Strokes.

Before we discuss the strokes, let’s look at what an Intentional Touch is.

ITM means that we have a system and a purpose in mind with each stroke we perform. A massage may feel good and it may do many things, but when we use ITM we are focusing on a body system, generally to stimulate it in some way and occasionally to relax it.

In ITM we are more concerned with all nine systems and not just muscular and circulatory functions. Where massage usually means to stimulate, relax or manipulate muscles and joints in the body by massaging the soft tissues, we expand massage to mean the following:

ITM is the use of touching techniques that focus on individual systems of the body by enhancing communication, and stimulating, relaxing and manipulating muscles, joints, electro-mechanical impulses, organ responses and circulation.

Harmony ITM Strokes (ITS)

FLITS: Full Length Intentional Touch Stroke. This stroke is different than an effleurage only in that it means we are moving from one end of the body all the way to another exit point. We always start at an end (paw, face, tail), and the stoke continues until it ends at the tip of the tail, the toes or the nose. Full length means, full length.

SLITS: Short Length Intentional Touch Strokes. This is any stroke that is less than full length. It may be a short stroke from the nose to the top of the head or it may be a stoke from the pelvis to the tibia. Any stroke that is less than full length.

CCITS: Circular Compression Intentional Touch Strokes. Using thumbs, fingers, fist or palm. This stroke is circular in motion. It may be small or large in diameter. When using CCITS along the spine you should allow the skin to move with the stroke, hence the diameter will be quite large as the skin is loose. Try this now using the index and middle finger on each hand and working from the shoulders down to the rump on each side of the spine. Use larger CCITS and then tighten the circle each time you start at the shoulders again and work down. Do this three times for practice.

AFITS: Acupoint Focused Intentional Touch Strokes: These are simply done with the use of a thumb end or finger.

There are times when all of these techniques will be used in one massage session and times when only one or parts of a massage will be used.