Imagine this for a moment.

You have celebrated many birthdays with your family but now you don’t move as quickly as you once did. Your joints are stiff and your muscles ache. You don’t hear so well anymore, so you keep watch to avoid any surprises, but you always feel comfortable and safe, when your Mum is close by.

One day a new person comes to your house carrying a large rectangular object. Your Mum moves the furniture in the living room and the object is erected. It smells strange and not very pleasant. Everything is out of place and you are not sure where you should be.

Before you know it, your Mum has scooped you off the ground and placed you on the object. You are terrified – you are high off the ground and you are not game to move for fear of falling. You tense every muscle in your body and hope for this ordeal to end.

This is the single reason, I don’t treat dogs on a table.

For most of my clients, being on a table would be a frightening, negative and potentially painful experience – not something I want dogs to associate with me visiting them.

Here are some other reasons, I typically don’t use a table, even for small breed dogs.

Give dogs time and space

I like to give my canine clients the freedom to move away from a treatment for a moment, if they need. As a myofunctional treatment is a different way of touching a dog, it can be unsettling for them initially and some dogs need time to process the new experience. That is OK with me.

If a dog is on a table however, they cannot safely move away from a treatment so I have effectively taken away their “flight” response to a stressful experience. The other responses (fight, fiddle or freeze) are not pleasant options for the dog, the dog’s carer and for my ability to effectively treat the dog.

Assessment throughout a treatment

Throughout a treatment (depending on the condition I am treating), I may want to re-assess the dog’s gait or range of motion. To do this, I ask the dog to walk, trot or perform some exercises. Asking a dog to get up and down off a table is not feasible particularly if the dog has mobility issues.

When I use a massage table?

While I treat most of my clients on the floor, on a raised bed, a lounge or a cushion on my lap for small breeds, I do have some canine clients that are very happy and comfortable being lifted onto a table and staying up there for a treatment. Typically, these are dogs that have been trained and rewarded from a young age to be relaxed on a table for grooming or conformation showing.

With my treatments, the dog’s comfort and feeling of security is foremost and for that reason I offer myofunctional treatments in the dog’s home. I also treat dogs from my clinic on the north side of Brisbane. My goal in treating dogs is to address soft tissue issues like muscle tension, spasms and strains which affect the dog’s movement and quality of life.

Please contact me to discuss how I may assist your dog and follow Full Stride on Facebook.

Until next time, enjoy your dogs.