MM massage therapy and training

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MM massage therapy and training offers holistic Canine massage therapy, Reiki and conditioning which is great for the older dog suffering from arthritis, recovering from injury or surgery or is a sporting dog wanting to improve performance

Chilli had his pre-event massage and pedicure today. Mobilising joints, working out any stress points and stretching mus...
15/02/2023

Chilli had his pre-event massage and pedicure today. Mobilising joints, working out any stress points and stretching muscle tissue. A little once over the major muscles with photizo. Mobilised his neck and tail which are very important for movement on an agility course. I think he enjoyed his spa day!

17/06/2022

Be careful today, dogs should only go outside to do bare minimum (toileting). Plenty of water available and cool mats or damp towels to lie on! A fan to keep air moving would also be good!

This is a great, discussing when and what is appropriate to train with our young dogs  by the best handlers/trainers in ...
11/05/2022

This is a great, discussing when and what is appropriate to train with our young dogs by the best handlers/trainers in the world.
With brand new dogs and handlers I tend to take a slower schedule due to the fact that the humans also need a bit of training too!

However this is only a guide and some dogs need to have an even slower schedule.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?fbclid=IwAR1_lB8jb6E-IFexKC_7DhbmvnZxaM74qT7IVstocyshApw0Z_39ffQXP0Q&v=x_NREcvS_Uo&feature=youtu.be

Featuring Dave Munnings, Zeljko Gora, Dan Shaw, Martina Magnoli Klimesova and Naarah Cuddy.We wanted to give you a rough guide into what we teach our young d...

03/05/2022

Please be aware with your young dogs that too much boisterous play can cause joint issues, although mainly genetic, rough hard play can cause things such as dislocation. Once a dislocation has occurred invariably it will continue to dislocate due to the fact the tendons have been stretched.

To help with reducing this risk, supervising play, restrict length of play and ensuring your dog can be called away. Look at the surfaces your dogs walk on such as wood and tile floors, if possible put down mats to reduce the likelihood of slipping inside. These are all particular important when dogs are under 2 years (3 for larger breeds) as there bodies are still developing muscularity even if there growth plates have closed.

An interesting reading regarding injuries in dog sports. I think what is important not to over do it keep sessions short...
12/04/2022

An interesting reading regarding injuries in dog sports. I think what is important not to over do it keep sessions short repetitions to a minimum and don’t be in a hurry to get dogs out on the competition circuit. Along with these ensuring that the dog has plenty of sleep and rest to unwind, distress and allow the dog to heal and absorb information.
With my youngest who is 2 years old I started very slowly and did very little sports training in the first 6 months and when I did in very small sessions, with the odd camp or workshop from 6months spread out over a couple of years. All the time ensuring she had plenty of rest and sleep in between. As she got older I slowly increased time. For high impact exercises and complicated movements (jumping, contacts and weaves )I left until I really need to do them, for instance jumping was kept to low height and only increased to her completion height prior to competing. Weaves not before 14months and contacts we have only started in the last 3 months when she was 20 months.

https://medium.com/.keplerdvm/prancing-heeling-and-the-age-of-amazing-trainers-d3ec8b4e7abf

Is it injuring our sport dogs?

This is a great visual for how hip dysplasia effects a dog, and how massage can help alleviate some of the compensationa...
19/03/2022

This is a great visual for how hip dysplasia effects a dog, and how massage can help alleviate some of the compensationary effects.

16/03/2022

This is Alison’s baby dog Ivy (well she 2 years old now) at her last workshop. She will hopefully be ready to compete in next couple of months. Fun times ahead!

Did you know that not only does Alison have two qualifications in agility, Agility 1st instructor and agility club instr...
16/03/2022

Did you know that not only does Alison have two qualifications in agility, Agility 1st instructor and agility club instructor. She also holds a merishia canine massage therapy diploma, completed a canine conditioning diploma with CCA and non-touch therapies such reiki and red light therapy.

She teaches agility, puppy classes and hoopers, with some of her agility clients reaching Grade 7 and championship.
She has a passion for course analysis, a holistic approach to conditioning your dog for sport both through exercise, therapies and relationship building.

As well as Alison’s therapy and training qualifications she has two degrees in life sciences and psychology and is undertaking a MA in anthrozoology (relationship between humans and other animals).

MM massage therapy and training provides all of the above as well classes, 1-2-1s and workshops with guest trainers throughout the year.
If you are interested in any of the services that Alison offers get in contact.
Photo taken by Annabel Readman

This post very eloquently explains why instability equipment is not needed for conditioning your dog and is only used fo...
30/12/2021

This post very eloquently explains why instability equipment is not needed for conditioning your dog and is only used for very specific problems.

Should we ditch the instability equipment? 🤔

For the last 18 months I have been hard at work creating a progressive conditioning plan for sports dogs. The reason it’s taken so long is because I have been extensively researching every detail to ensure it is 100% evidence-based.

As an evidence-based veterinary professional and physiotherapist, it is very important to me that there is hard science backing up every move and that each exercise is functional.

If you’ve worked with me or seen my conditioning training before, you will know that I’m not a massive fan of using instability equipment and that when I do, it is to serve a very specific purpose. In my head it doesn’t make sense to train dogs on unstable surfaces all the time when it doesn’t replicate any of the movements our dogs perform (I will cover unstable surfaces such as sand and see-saws later) and we know that the key to conditioning is in the specificity. I also like the dog to have full concentration when performing an exercise and not worrying about having to maintain balance at all times.

Balance can be broken down into three components.
1) Static/dynamic balance is the ability to maintain balance when moving steadily or when stationary, such as walking, sitting and standing.
2) Proactive balance is the ability to anticipate a disturbance and remain stable, such as recognising a see-saw (teeter) and understanding that it is going to move in a certain way.
3) Reactive balance is the body’s ability to react to an unexpected disturbance, such as a slip or fall.
Most healthy adults have good static/dynamic, proactive and reactive balance.

Reactive balance is the most relevant to us as this is generally what is needed for our dogs to recover from slipping when turning sharply or hitting the dogwalk at an angle and almost falling. This is when they are likely to sustain an injury and we obviously want to prevent that.
Reactive balance relies on good proprioception and good body awareness (I class these as two separate things- see previous blog posts). As our canine athletes will already have good proprioception, we can’t enhance this but we can improve body awareness.

When I devise conditioning programs for agility, flyball or any other explosive, dynamic sport, I focus on improving muscle strength, neuromuscular efficiency and core stability to improve overall performance.
So a few months ago, when researching the use of instability equipment (such as wobble cushions and peanut balls), I was very interested by the results from the human strengthening and conditioning studies.

Most studies looking at muscle activation use electromyography (EMG).
Electrodes are placed on the muscles and the electrical activity is measured whilst they are performing a movement.

The majority of the studies showed that muscle activation is increased when using unstable surfaces compared to stables surfaces. This makes sense because when using an unstable surface, more muscles are required to stabilise the trunk and maintain balance.
However, increased muscle activation doesn’t necessarily mean a better result.

Many muscles act in antagonistic pairs, such as biceps brachii and triceps. The main muscle performing the movement is the agonist and the opposing muscle is the antagonist. For example, if the biceps contract, the triceps will elongate. Antagonist muscle pairs help to maintain body or limb position and control rapid movements.

We also have synergist muscles, which aid the agonist muscle by fixing and stabilising it around the joint. In the example of the biceps/triceps antagonistic pair, the synergist is the brachialis muscle.
When instability is added, the agonists, antagonists and synergists all activate as a protective mechanism to prevent injury. The contraction of the agonist and antagonist muscles at the same time acts to stiffen the area being challenged.
Because both muscle groups are contracting, the agonist muscle produces a lower than normal EMG. This is because the body is focussed more on bracing itself and maintaining balance, than producing a maximum force output.

Zemkova et al. (2012) and Chulvi-Medrano (2010) studied muscle power output and force production when weightlifting on stable and unstable surfaces. They found that when the exercise was performed on an unstable surface, the performance was significantly reduced.

Furthermore, Behm et al. (2015) performed a meta-analysis on several sets of data and found that training using unstable equipment had no significant benefits to muscle strength, power output and balance performance compared to training on stable surfaces.

Anderson et al. (2014) studied muscle activation in humans whilst performing squats on a stable and an unstable surface. The unstable surface squats resulted in a 10% decrease in agonist muscle activation but they concluded that it may have some use for core activation* (although no significant difference was found).
*Reed et al. (2012) found that increasing core strength through instability training did not directly improve athletic performance.

Training often on unstable surfaces can lead to artificial stability. This is stability that only applies to working on that surface and does not translate to performance gains in your dog’s sport. That time would be better spent doing more sport specific activities.

A better approach perhaps, is to try and add instability to the movement on a stable surface. Is the exercise alone enough to produce the desired affect or do you need to add in the lifting of a single front leg for a down-to-stand transition? How about the dog performing ipsilateral stands? Or maybe we need to change the surface we train on?

Sand is classed as an unstable surface but training on sand is very different to working on a piece of instability equipment. If you’re due to compete on sand, my advice would be to train on sand. It’s all about specificity. More mechanical work is done on this surface due to the depth and softness, which cannot be replicated with equipment.

“Sand is a viable unstable surface to use in both training and rehab. Just like any surface it has some limitations. The primary downside is that the softness of the sand significantly slows everything down. It dampens the elastic response, which is both a plus and a minus. It is a plus because it develops good concentric strength response. It is a minus because it negates elastic response, so it is not real life” (Gambetta, 2012).

The extra mechanical loading required for working on sand increases the stretch-shortening cycle (for more about this, read my blog on plyomterics) and therefore reduces the maximal force output required for explosive performance. However, it does reduce the concussive forces through the shoulders when landing, so can be a useful surface for jump training.

I digress, this is not a post about sand training. Back to instability equipment!

The see-saw (teeter) is a common piece of unstable agility equipment and involves movement in a single plane. This requires a good degree of core stability and balance but as mentioned before, stability learnt on an unstable platform such as a donut or peanut, will not transfer to this piece of equipment but instead create artificial stability in all planes.

Human studies tell us that instability equipment can be a very useful tool for rehabilitating patients with neurological deficits and I certainly do use it for this purpose. There are also studies that show it can significantly benefit very young or old individuals by improving proprioception and neuromuscular communication. Therefore, it may be useful for puppies and young dogs being introduced to the foundations of agility or their chosen dog sport.

However, after looking at all the literature, it seems it is not so beneficial for elite athletes and may even be detrimental to performance.
Therefore, I still don’t think I’m going to rush out to buy some instability equipment for my conditioning training…even if they do come in very aesthetically pleasing colours.

For the full bibliography, please visit my blog where you can also sign up to receive all my blog posts direct to your email.
www.ecvetphysiotherapy.com/blog

Very important information for our puppies developing body!
11/10/2021

Very important information for our puppies developing body!

20/12/2020

Well this year didn’t quite turn out to be the year I hoped for offering canine massage therapy, reiki and energy techniques. I didn’t get to goto Belgium with my friend Karen Lawlor to help look after the Ireland team at IFCS championships and didn’t get to do all the CPD courses I wanted too! But there is always next year!!

Have a happy safe Christmas!

26/09/2020

from 25th October I will be taking massage/energy session bookings; this can be done indoors as long as social distancing between humans can be maintained.

As well as reiki and massage, I can do light therapy using photizo and Canine positional releases and muscle energy techniques

Really interesting readhttps://www.caninesports.com/blog/do-the-dewclaws
22/01/2020

Really interesting read

https://www.caninesports.com/blog/do-the-dewclaws

​As a veterinary sports medicine specialist, I work extensively with canine athletes, developing rehabilitation programs for injured dogs or dogs that required surgery due to performance-related...

05/01/2020

Well the new year has started and I’m excited to announce that I have passed my canine massage course. I am now offering canine massage therapy and reiki for dogs.
I have a couple of special offers to kick 2020 off:

Introduction session to massage and reiki £20*
A 30 min session for dogs that have never had any therapy treatments or may be a little sensitive and need a gentle introduction, even if they don’t have any issues it’s a great way to relax. Ready for when they need a full massage or reiki session

Multiple dog massage session (max. 3 dogs) £75*
A 2.5hr session for multiple dogs in one house.

* mm membership discount does not apply

To book an appointment contact alison

31/12/2019

Happy New year everyone. Looking forward to my new venture. Please feel free to contact me if you would like any treatments.

11/12/2019

In association with MM massage therapy and training I will be running a foundation canine conditioning course in the new year. This course is for any dog young or old. For dogs needing to improve performance for a dog sport (showing, agility, flyball, HTM, canicross), or to get fit after injury rehabilitation or surgery, or for an older dog to maintain movement,flexibility and strength. The foundation course is 8 weeks includes the full programme, assessment at week 1 week 5 and week 8. A researched based programme that can only be taught by a licensed Canine Conditioning Academy coach, case studies have shown massive improvement in performance, movement, flexibility and strength.
If you are interested in this programme please contact [email protected]

11/12/2019

Very excited to be sponsoring Karen Lawlor and Erin, 2020 is going to be an exciting year!!

28/10/2019

In 2020 MM Massage Therapy and Training will be offering Canine massage therapy, reiki and canine conditioning, a sister company to MilnersMutts Dog Training, our approach is a holistic one, working with the dog as a whole ensuring that they are fit and healthy inside and out! I look forward to getting your dogs fit and healthy!

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Ware

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Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

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