1. It Reduces Stress and Anxiety

Massage is proven to reduce stress and anxiety, which is a huge plus for any dog and especially helpful for pups that are easily stressed or worried. Just like humans who experience anxiety, anxious dogs can benefit from a consistent, reassuring routine. Incorporating massage into your dog’s routine can provide a comforting form of relaxation.

2. It Decreases Pain

The act of massaging muscles stimulates the release of endorphins, which helps to alleviate pain. If your dog has spent a long day running, playing or swimming, this exertion can lead to soreness and stiffness in the joints and muscles. Massage will help to relax those muscles and release tense areas. Dogs with conditions like arthritis will also appreciate massage for this reason. If your dog is recovering from a painful injury, discuss canine massage as an option with your veterinarian.

3. It Improves Circulation and Lymphatic Flow

Massage increases circulation and lymphatic flow, which in turn benefits the entire body. Good circulation ensures your pup is getting a healthy supply of blood, oxygen and nutrients to their brain and other organs, and keeps their skin and coat healthy. Improving the flow of lymph fluid helps carry metabolic waste away from their muscles and internal organs. All this means your dog will have a better chance of avoiding certain health conditions like hypertension (high blood pressure) and edema (an excess of watery fluid collecting in the cavities or tissues of the body).

4. It Assists in the Recovery Process

Canine massage can be a wonderful form of therapy for animals who are rehabilitating from an injury or surgery. Your vet may refer you to a massage therapist to help your dog along in the recovery process. Plus, it’s not only the injured area that can benefit from healing touch; it’s helpful to take a holistic approach to massage in recovering dogs. For example, in order to compensate for an injured leg, over time a dog will have put excessive stress and strain on many of the other muscle groups throughout the body. Therefore, their whole body can benefit from massage during the recovery process.

5. It Helps You Identify Potential Health Issues

Another added benefit of regular canine massage is that the massage therapist becomes familiar with your dog’s body and can better recognize what is normal and not normal. This allows them to identify any trouble spots to alert the veterinarian for further investigation. Early detection is one way that regular massage can add to the length and quality of your dog’s life.

Massage can provide relief from every ailment based on stressors and stress. 

These can include physical traumas, autoimmune system failures, chronic and acute diseases, hip dysplasia, structural deformities and weaknesses. Some specific ailments massage helps with are stiffness, soreness, imbalanced movements, arthritic conditions and post surgical rehabilitation.

Any issues that reduce movement, whether structural problems or those resulting from injury, can be helped by massage. 

Illness or injury, overexertion, lack of exercise or the aging process can all lead to circulation issues that will affect maximum efficiency of movement. 

Massage can be a valuable component of any therapy. Muscles are compensatory. For example, if there is a problem in the hips, a dog will adjust their weight forward to ease the strain behind. As a result, the front end becomes over-worked. A full body massage will help restore balance in movement and comfort.