The Benefits of Pet Massage

Everyone knows that petting and scratching dogs or cats is one of the great pleasures in life, for the pets and for their devoted people. When we pet and scratch them, we can see much our fur babies enjoy it. Petting, scratching and rubbing are aspects of pet massage, but they are not the whole story.

Pet massage is substantially more and profoundly different. To understand, consider the difference between the results of a casual shoulder squeeze and the way your body feels after an hour-long therapeutic massage session.

Differences between Human and Pet Massage

What are some of the differences between the massage for a human and a massage you would give a dog or cat?

With a dog or cat, the practitioner must stay absolutely present, or else they will get up and walk away. A dog or cat will not tolerate deep pressure that induces pain.

Dogs and cats live in the moment and do not have the capacity to project into the future that relief may come after enduring discomfort. If it hurts now, it may hurt forever unless the pet does something to make it stop.

Dogs and cats use a wider, and different, range of senses than our paltry five. They are hardwired to notice sounds, movement and subtle nuances of smells. They are keenly aware of everything that is going on in the room and on the other side of the walls in the next room.

How to Begin

• Invite your pet to lie down, but don’t turn this into a wrestling match. Think calm.
• Begin by petting your pet, especially on the spots you know your pet enjoys
• Then, as you feel him relax under your hands, begin petting with long strokes of your hands to relax him even more.
• When he sighs and stretches out under your hands, you know he’s relaxed.
• Begin the massage at his head, gently moving your hands in small circles, and gradually work your way over his entire body.
• Use small soft movements with cats and small dogs, and larger movements with bigger dogs.

When you first begin massaging your dog or cat, just do it for one to two minutes; just enough to introduce your pet to it. As you begin to feel more comfortable with what you’re doing and your pet relaxes under your hands, you can increase the time. A small dog or cat massage covering the entire body might take four to five minutes. However, if you have a large dog, eventually it may take ten minutes to massage the entire dog.

Do not try to do deep tissue massage; this is not a therapeutic massage but instead is a relaxing one. Pressing hard and trying to manipulate the muscles could be painful and would cause your pet to dislike the massage and perhaps even bite or scratch you. Instead, keep the massage gentle.

If your pet has some health issues and some known sore spots, handle those areas gently. Let your pet tell you if it’s okay to massage those areas. If he flinches, pulls away from your hands, growls, meows, or otherwise shows discomfort, stop. If your pet shows discomfort and you don’t know why, call your veterinarian and have her take a look at your pet.

As you massage your dog or cat, pay attention as your hands—and especially fingertips—touch your pet. It’s hard to see your pet’s body under the hair but your fingertips can learn what’s normal.

A good way to practice this is to give your pet a calming massage until he’s relaxed. Then begin massaging again at your pet’s head, using your fingertips rather than your entire hands, and either close your eyes or look away. Concentrate on what you’re feeling. Using your fingertips work your way to the shoulders, back, abdomen, and all over your pet’s body.

As you do this, you can learn what your pet feels like. Then, should a problem arise—perhaps a lump under the skin, an engorged tick, or an atrophied muscle—you’ll notice it. You can then either take care of the problem or call your veterinarian.

Your pet may initially resist your efforts when you begin the massage.   After all, if he’s never had a massage this will be new to him. Some cats especially are anxious about anything new.

If, as you begin the massage, you find that your pet is getting tense under your hands, slow down your movements and see if that helps. If it doesn’t, stop, and let your dog or cat get up and stretch. Stretching is good for the body but it also helps the animal relieve stress.

Then, on the next day, see if your dog or cat will relax a little more under your hands. As your pet relaxes, he will learn that the massage feels good. Be patient, as introducing this massage may take some time.

When you feel that your pet is comfortable and relaxed when massaged, this might be a good time to do some grooming, like brushing or combing his coat or ear cleaning.

The Bottom Line – Benefits

• Massage relieves stress. When done regularly, it helps prevent the negative effects of stress. Dogs and cats do experience stress and although they don’t seem to hold stress in their bodies the same way we do, stress, over time, can cause deeper long-term problems that require more serious intervention.
• Massage is soothing and comforting. Who doesn’t need soothing and comforting? Consider times when your dog might need soothing or comforting.  When my Betsy was suffering with kidney disease, I gave her a long massage every night before she went to sleep.  I do think that it made her more relaxed and able to sleep in comfort.
• Massage triggers the body’s natural ability to heal itself from injury, strain, surgery and exhaustion. There are those times when we or our dog are injured, or perhaps even have had surgery. Massage is often the best therapy to assist in the healing process.
• Massage is an effective tool to detect stiffness, pain, swelling, tension and in the long run can avoid costly complications from overlooked problems.
• Massage maximizes normal function of tissues, organs and bodily systems such as digestion, absorption of nutrients, elimination and the lymph system. Simply by the stress release and relaxation that massage produces, the entire body works more efficiently.
• Massage helps muscles function more efficiently by loosening restrictions as a result of misuse or over use of our muscles. We all know the pain created when we continue to work when exhausted. One example is working out too long or too hard at the gym, or when we take longer walks after a sedentary winter.
• Massage reduces the build-up of adhesions (internal scar tissue) in the muscles that result from inflammation due to injury, surgery or trauma. Adhesions limit range of motion by shortening the muscles. We can feel adhesions as ropey areas in muscles surrounding an injury.
• Massage improves our dog’s agility whether in play or competition because of its positive effect on stretch receptors (sensory receptors that respond to the stretching of surrounding muscle tissue and so contributes to the coordination of muscle activity), tendon apparatus, muscle fibers and fascia (fascia is a network of connective tissue that surrounds body organs, groups of muscles, and nerves).
• Massage encourages relaxation of the tissues through aiding in more efficient functioning of the nerves and chemical changes in the body.
• Finally, and perhaps most importantly, massage increases the physical and emotional bond between you and your companion canine.

Massaging your dog or cat is a wonderful way to spend time with your pet. Not only can you both relax, but you can keep your pet well-groomed at the same time. Additionally, you will learn what his body feels like so you can keep track of any health problems.  Keep in mind that this should be relaxing for both of you, and it will definitely deepen the bond between you.