This workshop is ideal if your dog participates in a sport such as agility, hoopers, Gundog work, Canicross, obedience, Flyball, Showing, Working Trials, or if you just have an active dog.

On this one-day workshop you will learn how to improve your dog’s performance, promote longevity, and reduce the risk of injury with the aid of massage.

As well as learning about your dog’s anatomy, you will learn:

• Pre-event warm up - a pre-event full body massage to enhance your dog’s performance, improve range of motion (ROM) and reduce the likelihood of injury and fatigue

• Post-event cool down - a full post-event cool down massage to help remove the metabolic waste products of exercise to reduce stiffness and delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS)

• Spot subtle signs of muscular injury in your dog so that you can catch an issue before it becomes a problem

 Please visit the shop to find out more about the venue and dates.

These workshops are for self-interest only. They do not qualify you to treat other people’s dogs.

Who is the workshop suitable for?

• All active dogs

• Dogs that participate in agility, hoopers, showing, working trials, obedience, Flyball, Canicross, and all types of sports.

• Gun Dogs

• Sled Dogs

What you will learn:

How Pre and Post Event Massage helps to enhance and prolong your dogs sporting life and how it helps to reduce the likelihood of injury. The science behind massage and its applications in sport.

Tutorial 1 – Canine Anatomy Fundamentals

• How Pre and Post Event Massage helps to enhance and prolong your dogs sporting life. The science behind massage and its applications in sport.

• How To Locate Bony Landmarks and Why Its Important Before Starting Any Massage Routine

• How To Locate Your Dogs Main Muscle Groups  You’ll be working with your own dog to do this!

• How To Spot Subtle Signs of Muscular Injury In Your Dog

• How To Spot Signs of Performance Injury so you can catch an issue before it becomes a problem

Tutorial 2 – Applied Massage

• I show you how to massage correctly and confidently by applying a set number of techniques that work on different fibre directions and layers of muscle to improve their ability to lengthen and contract.

Tutorial 3 – The Pre & Post Event Massage Routine Practice ….and an added bonus…

• The Pre Event Canine Massage – Learn How To Apply a 5-10 minute Full Body Pre Event Massage to improve performance and reduce the risk of injury

• The Post Event or Cool Down Massage – Learn How To Apply a 5-10 Minute Full Body Post Event Massage

• Maintain and Gain at Home:  Learn how to mix up your massage techniques from earlier in the day with this little added bonus, a relaxation inducing massage beneficial for the body and the mind.

More about pre- and post-event massage for dogs:

A Pre Event massage does not replace a warm up for your dog but compliments it. It prepares the body for high intensity action or sustained long events.

The purpose of the pre-event massage is not to treat tissue as would happen in a remedial sports massage with a Canine Massage Guild Practitioner. Instead it is the skilled application of a set range of massage techniques to address the specific areas which accrue stress and fatigue and to prepare the muscles by loosening them to promote better range of motion. Importantly it helps to significantly decrease the chances of muscular injury, mainly the strain which can cause lameness and in some cases is the reason for a dog having to retire from their sport. The massage does this by bringing flexibility, warmth and length to the tissue to enable its efficient lengthening and contractive states.

The pre-event massage brings many unique benefits to a dogs performance and we appreciate that all dogs are individuals. Thats why all dogs at the workshop will be offered a free muscular health check to highlight areas of muscular issue that could be contributing to performance issues and muscular discomfort when some of the techniques are applied. We never force the technique upon the dog so we ensure that the routine is adapted to meet their individual needs.

We will also be spending some time discussing which muscle groups accrue the most stress during a specific sport. This way you can tailor your routine in the field to address your dogs specific stress points.

The post event massage is typically given anywhere from 30 minutes up to 24 hours after the end of activity. It helps to aid in the recovery of exercise and sport by improving circulation, reducing muscular tension and and inducing the parasympathetic, or ‘rest and digest’ response. Its other primary benefit is helping to shift the metabolic waste products of exercise that trigger mild inflammation 24 to 48 hours later due to micro fractures in the muscle cells. This is felt as a pain signal, and in turn soreness and stiffness. Post event massage helps to reduce soreness and pain when the correct set of massage techniques are applied.