Identifying, Preventing and Treating Muscle Pain in Dogs.
What I Thought Vs. What I Learned. –by Joann Rechtine
Bree, a 10-year-old German Shepherd, had problems with her back legs for years but never exhibited clearly recognizable signs of pain — limping, lameness, whimpering, etc. She did seem a
mutilation, resistance to perform an activity, disobedience, being naughty, or being too well behaved," Robertson teaches. In addition to learning how to recognize the subtle ways that dogs show pain (especially chronic pain), I learned how to recognize and help with gait, mus- cle, skeletal and chronic pain issues, including how to enhance stability and core strength in the dog by using appropriate exercises. By learning about the basic science areas of
skeletal and muscle anatomy and the principles of exercise physiology and movement, we could bet- ter understand how a dog moves and what can happen when a muscle is not working properly or when the form of the dog is off. While one will not come away from this
four-day session being trained as a canine massage therapist, students learn simple massage techniques for their own and clients’ dogs, how to exercise a dog correctly and safely and how to keep a canine athlete healthy. Emphasis is placed on the impor- tance of muscle stability and core strength in all movement and exercise and how this can prevent injuries and pain from occurring at all. After completing this course, I could see that
Julia Robertson with Maggie and Molly.
bit stiff at times, but nothing more that would indicate she was in pain. At least, that's what I thought. Then I took a four-day course by Julia Robertson of Galen
Therapy Centre in England. Julia has spent her entire life caring for animals. First she started as a Veterinary Nurse, moved on to Canine Massage, Exercise Physiology and then opened her own center of Canine Myotherapy. She is leading the charge in teaching people how to recog-
nize the signs of a dog in pain, and to encourage them to get the correct preventive and restorative care. Julia is responsible for taking everything I thought I knew
about dog pain and tossing it out the window. While there are overt signs of discomfort that include the aforementioned limp- ing and whimpering, there can also be the licking of an area, or exhibiting lameness, and a whole host of more subtle signs can be present when our dogs are in pain. Dogs who are in chron- ic pain often show these subtle signs quite frequently. “These can be as diverse as aggression, suppression, lack of play, self-
64 THE NEW BARKER
Bree was showing pain in many subtle ways. She was cranky and got aggravated with any dog who got close to her, especially a young dog who could throw her balance off with quick movements. She did not want to play as much and would balk at
doing certain exercises that she had previously done with ease (I thought she was being defiant and misbehaving). Learning how she showed her pain allowed me to care for her better by preventing any situation that might cause her pain. And I could apply my newly-learned massage methods to help alleviate her pain when I saw that she was hurting. Bree has since passed, but in her last months, she could be more comfortable because of what I learned from Julia Robertson.
U Y
Julia is bringing her message to the United States and will be teaching in St. Petersburg, Florida January 26-29 2017. If you cannot attend the whole four-day course,
Julia will be doing a two-hour lecture on Friday, January 27 at 7PM at The Dog Training Club of St. Petersburg. Reservations are required for both. For more information contact Joann Rechtine at
jrechtine@gmail.com or 585.905.8281.
www.TheNewBarker.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104
