The Healing Power of Touch

Sylke's experience with paralysis has taught me many things. One of the most important is that the power of touch can be extremely therapeutic, in body, mind and heart. Through her experience, Sylke has become the dog I knew she could be. Her heart finally opened completely and she became the sweet loving dog I knew she could be. She needed me for her basic needs and to tend to her needs I had to touch her a lot. She needed me and learned people could be totally trusted and relied on and I learned a lot about the nature and heart of the dog.

But it also taught me how physically therapeutic touch can be. I firmly believed had I not massaged and worked Sylke's body regularly, she would not have experienced the recovery she did. I educated myself on massage and accupressure, but also followed my instincts on how to apply both to Sylke's body. I now use both on all the dogs. It relaxes them immensely and they have learned in a very peaceful, relaxed state of mind it is good for me to touch every part of their body. It has even helped Trinka, who was so nervous about being handled, to realize being handled is a good thing.

When I massage Sylke I start at her head. I massage her temples with my fingers, rubbing the top of her head at the same time with the heel of my hand. I lightly ciricle my fingers over her eyes, which she particularly relishes and then run my fingers down her muzzle, massaging as I go. I massage the base of the ears, such as I would if I instilled medicine in her ears. I now have no problem instilling drops in any of the dogs ears because they find the massaging so pleasurable. I use not only my fingers but my whole hand when I massage. I use my touch to feel the muscles underneath - the larger muscles I gently press with my whole hand, following the contour of the muscle. I use my fingers to press gently and massage the depressions of the muscular structures. Accupressure taught me this. I work down each leg, gently pulling each leg from the foot while grasping the entire leg with my other hand and massaging the muscles down towards the foot. With each foot, I apply accupressue between the toes, massaging in a circular pattern with my fingers, spreading the paw. There is a depression behind the main pad of the paw that is particularly pleasurable for the dog to have massaged in a gentle, but firm circular pattern. Massaging the legs and paws has been a great help too when it comes to cutting toenails; the girls are so accustomed to being handled all over while they are totally relaxed.

Along the back I run my fingertips down the back on either side of the spine, being careful not to put direct pressure on the spine column. I place my fingertips on either side of the spine and pressing gently draw my fingers down over their sides, I follow this with my whole hand down the sides.

The back legs are interesting because there are such big defined muscles. I use the heel of my hand on the large muscles following the contour of the muscle and gently massage in all the depressions between the muscles with my fingers. When I massage the rear legs in particular I use one hand to gently pull the leg forward and slowly back in a gentle range of motion exercise. This gently stretches and flexes the muscles while I massage, again massaging all the way to the toes and between them. I learned reading about accupressure that massaging the depression between the toes and the main pad on the hind legs stimulates the nerves in the lower spine; I used this massage a lot on Sylke during her recovery.

I even massage the tail, wrapping my hand around it and squeezing gently and running my hand from the base to the tip. And I do not neglect the tummy. While dogs can be pretty ticklish on the tummy and under the rear leg, when they lie on their back, I put both hands open and flat on either side of their tummy and very gently massage the soft belly, I would like to think it helps stimulate their internal organs. I then run my hands to their inner legs and massage up the muscles on the inside of the leg, while gently pulling the leg up with one hand.

I will tell you, massage like this instills trust in you with your dog. It teaches them to allow you to handle them anywhere on their body. It so totally relaxes them because it feels so good. While Sylke was on steroids during her recovery, I firmly believe had I not employed touch in the forms of massage and accupressure I don't think she would have had such a remarkable recovery. I firmly believe working her body in this manner relaxed her to allow healing as well as stimulated injured nerves to encourage their healing. And it also helped Sylke to finally completely open her heart to me and become my totally trusting loving friend that she is today.

Sylke's New Year

It has been bitterly cold here for quite some time. The cold is really hard on Sylke and causes her some weakness in her rear end. But it doesn't stop her from enjoying the snow. After a fresh snow she is first to barrel through the snow and she absolutely LOVES to roll in the snow. She's a very smart girl, she seems to know when the cold is getting the best of her and she asks to go in. She doesn't stay out too long, but then neither do I.

She is still the same smart aleck dog she was before her injury - she loves to wrestle, but she also loves to snuggle with me!