Canine physiotherapy - what does a dog physio do?

To become a canine physiotherapist, your physio will have to have a degree in human physiotherapy and a Masters in Canine Physiotherapy. This means that your physio will have an enormous breadth of knowledge about the structures that make up a mammal’s body, the interplay between the different parts of the musculoskeletal system and the science behind treating injury through massage and strength training.

A canine physiotherapy session will involve a thorough examination of your dog’s body, some massage may be performed, and prescriptive exercises will be given. It will be very similar to a human physiotherapy appointment. As the owner, you may be shown some at-home massage techniques to try and will have to find time to take your dog through their exercises. Many dogs enjoy their exercises, particularly if they are treat-motivated and doing them together can be a nice bonding experience with your dog.

Your canine physio may recommend hydrotherapy, which will need to be done with the canine hydrotherapist at the clinic. They may also have skills in dry needling or laser therapy and may use these if they are clinically indicated. Your physio is also likely to recommend tweaks to the home environment and give guidance on how much to exercise your dog.

Canine massage - what is dog massage?

To become a dog massage therapist, there is no prerequisite training. The training course most canine massage therapists undertake will teach the required knowledge such as canine anatomy and the current science behind various clinical presentations and methods of treating through massage therapy. Strength training is not part of the dog massage therapist’s training, although some canine massage therapists do further training in this area.

A canine massage session will also involve an examination of your dog’s body, with a focus on the muscular system. It too is similar to its human equivalent. Massage techniques will be performed, some at-home techniques will often be given and some changes to the dog’s environment will be discussed.

Your dog massage therapist may also recommend further treatment from another specialist such as a canine physio.

Why choose DogsBody Health for your dog’s massage?

We believe that our significant experience in the human remedial massage industry gives us a greater understanding of anatomy and the science behind what we do than someone who has not had any experience working in the human massage field. Our years as a remedial massage therapist have exposed us to all sorts of clinical presentations, many of which we also see in dogs! To further our understanding of remedial massage and its interplay with other complementary therapies we have exchanged work with many types of therapists from physiotherapists, chiropractors and osteopaths, to Bowen therapists, Reiki masters and naturopaths. We’ve tried Eastern and Western medicine and liaised with doctors of both and even sent reports to surgeons and have read many more.

We have also got many years’ experience of using laser therapy with both people and dogs. In the future we may do follow up courses to use one of our other remedial massage skills, dry needling, in the treatment of dogs.

So much of what we know about canine health and your dog’s physical wellness, is derived from the human research that has come before it. To have so many years of first hand experience is invaluable to how we work with your dog. Secondly, by also having current employment within the veterinary industry, we are able to gain further experience of many clinical presentations and see the interplay of veterinary and complementary care and evaluate the results. It also means that if we come across something unusual or concerning with your dog, we have multiple vets on hand to run things by.

If you would like to make an appointment to see a canine massage therapist and discover if massage can help alleviate your dog’s pain or improve their ability to move, you can book online through our website, or get in touch via email or phone. As massage therapy is a very safe modality to treat your dog’s health and wellness, you don’t need a veterinary referral, but we do advise checking with your vet to understand why your dog may be sore or in pain as canine massage therapists are not able to diagnose. In some instances, we may refer you back to your vet for further work up.