Introduction

8Chapter 1

Medical breakthroughs by many famous historical figures have been documented over the centuries; Hippocrates, who is known as the ‘father of medicine’ and who was the originator of the Hippocratic Oath, was a documented practitioner of massage and physical therapy, developing their use through his teachings. Centuries later, Claudius Galenus of Pergamon (circa AD 129) further developed Hippocrates’ anatomical knowledge and surgical skills, and continued the incorporation of massage in his work at the school for gladiators, to aid healing and pain control. He is thought to be the first sports therapist.

shell shock were treated with massage. By 1900, the Society had acquired the legal and public status of a professional organization, and became the Incorporated Society of Trained Masseuses. In 1920, the Society was granted a Royal Charter. It amalgamated with the Institute of Massage and Remedial Gymnastics, forming the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. St Thomas’ Hospital, London, had a department of massage until 1934. However, later breakthroughs in medical technology and pharmacology eclipsed massage as physiotherapists began increasingly to favour electrical instruments over manual methods of stimulating the tissues.

A brief history of massage

Massage is one of the oldest forms of therapy. Egyptian tomb paintings show people being massaged. In Eastern cultures, massage has been practised continually since ancient times. A Chinese book from 2700 BC, The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine, recommends ‘breathing exercises, massage of skin and flesh, and exercises of hands and feet’ as the appropriate treatment for complete paralysis, chills, and fever. In India, the traditional healing system of Ayurvedic medicine also prescribes massage for a variety of medical conditions. Physicians of ancient Greece and Rome also utilized massage as one of the primary methods to treat pain.

In Europe, doctors such as Ambroise Pare, a 16th century physician to the French court, praised massage as a treatment for various ailments. Swedish massage, the method most familiar to Westerners, was developed in the 19th century by a Swedish doctor named Per Henrik Ling. His system was based on a study of gymnastics and physiology, and on techniques borrowed from China, Egypt, Greece, and Rome.

With the foundation in 1894 of the Society of Trained Masseurs, World War I patients suffering from nerve injury or

Current practice

Recently, some physical therapies used in humans have been extended to horses, yet the transfer to dogs has not been explored as fully. Therefore, little research has been conducted into muscle dysfunction in the dog. Only recently have the canine health benefits of physical therapy and massage been identified, as the popularity of sports such as ‘agility’, increases.

There are a few modern practitioners and teachers of the art of canine massage who have been responsible for quietly projecting the therapy to many through high-quality professional teaching. One who stands out is Patricia Whalen-Shaw, who practises and teaches in Columbus, Ohio in the USA. For many years, she has been developing the art and transferring her skills to many, not only in the USA, but in all corners of the globe. Many of the techniques shown in Chapter 6 have been adapted from, or taken from her book

Canine Massage – the Workbook.

With canine sports growing, it is a travesty that most of the people competing with their dogs, and their trainers, are ignorant of the basic indicators of a compromised muscular system. Due to a dog’s fundamental instinct to protect itself and maintain the security of the pack, it will not overtly inform us of a problem

until suffering from obvious physical dysfunction. Thus we will often have to ‘second guess’ muscular and myofascial disorders, as the dogs, more often than not, do not show any obvious signs.

Following an injury or strain, the body will become altered by its efforts to compensate, which then means that biomechanical changes will occur. If these are allowed to remain untreated, the somatic appearance will also alter as the body adapts to the stress; sometimes pathological changes will also become evident, and can be traced back to the initial injury. Such changes usually end up being treated in isolation rather than together; sometimes, therefore, the effects are being treated instead of the cause.

The canine body, like any living body, requires balance, or homeostasis, to thrive; without this, systems can suffer. To maintain balance, all the body’s systems have to work together. For example, pain in the muscular system can affect behaviour patterns (as any form of pain will affect behaviour), the digestive system (stress from pain can have an effect on digestion), and compromise the peripheral neurological system.

The repeated postural and traumatic insults of a lifetime, combined with the tensions of emotional and psychological origin, often lead to a confusing pattern of tense and contracted fibrous tissue. This may appear to the uninformed handler, for example, as an obvious lameness. This complexity of initial trauma mixed with compensatory factors can present an extremely misleading set of symptoms. It seems that, sometimes, the dog is shouting to us for an appropriate response to its crisis, and we seem to be unable to listen. Sara Wyche, in her book entitled The Horse’s Muscles in Motion puts it very well: ‘If it’s the body that speaks the language, then it is the muscles that supply the words’.

Mutual grooming and touch therapy is an important component of animal pack and herd behaviour. Unlike humans, who

have been conditioned to condemn touch for many reasons, many animals are aware of the power of physical manipulation to ease the soreness of muscles.This is evident when treating dogs, as they are more in touch with their bodily requirements than we are, and know what they need to ease a problem. It is, therefore, the duty of handlers to be more aware of their dog’s overall health, including awareness of its muscular system. This will, then, improve the relationship between man and dog.

The purpose of this book is to provide an insight into this subject, and to demonstrate that damage of one part of the body, no matter how small, will affect the whole. Even a small repetitive injury can have the same long-term effects as a massive acute injury. Recognition of this concept can help to prevent injury, enable the handler to know when to seek professional assistance and treatment, and give the dog the opportunity to have a long and pain-free life.

Dew of the morning,

Meet the warmth of the early sun; The colours mix as milk and honey in a bowl,

They nourish and heal; When poured, they fall as ice,

When they touch the earth, they become water,

Cleansing where they pool.

Anon (2007)

(A handler’s poem describing her experience of her dog’s treatment and subsequent return to health.)