Animal Handling and Safety - Ojai School of Massage



Animal Handling and SafetyEach animal species communicates in it’s own unique way. Humans have a wide range of communication techniques. Animals seem to some to have a more limited range of communication techniques. As scientists study animal communication more thoroughly they are discovering a wider range of communication in animals then originally conjectured. Learning how dogs and cats communicate will help us to understand how to safely handle animals and will give us a better idea of their emotional, physical, mental and spiritual state of being. There are several excellent books out on canine and feline behavior and communication that you should make an effort to read:On Talking Terms With Dogs: Calming Signals ISBN 1-929242-36-0. There is a DVD counterpart to this book as well that is very informative. This book is one of the most important books that you can read about animal behavior. I have posted a copy of the video here: . Please watch this video. Canine Body Language, A Photographic Guide ISBN 1-929242-35-2. This is another must read and view book loaded with pictures of multiple dogs in interaction with each other and caretakers. Picture rich and very thorough. The Dog Who Loved to Much ISBN 0-553-37526-1. This book is written by a veterinary behaviorist, Dr. Nicholas Dodman. Attitudes Emotions, and the Psychology of Cats ISBN 0-553-37854-6. Another very informative book by Dr. DodmanThe Body Language and Emotions of Cats ISBN 0-688-12840-8The Body Language and Emotions of Dogs ISBN 0-688-12841-6Handbook of Behavior Problems of the Dog and Cat. ISBN 0-7020-2710-3 This is a must read book written for DVM’s by a DVM. This book is very in depth and addresses many of the behavioral problems and animal caretakers will experience with their animal companions. I have given you many of the forms that are contained in this book and worksheets that you give to your clients that will help then understand and correct these problems. These forms are in the restricted documents area of the school website at: . Please watch the Dog Behavior video series that are in the Canine Resources section of the school website as well. You can never know too much about animal behavior. Learning the language of the dog will help you communicate with them safely. Getting In TTouch with Your Dog ISBN 978-1-57076-483-7 This is another must read book by Linda Tellington-Jones that has practical TTouch solutions to many of the animals behavioral problems. The, Playground for Higher Learning section of this book should be used by all massage therapists and animal behavioral therapists. Knowing which breeds of dogs are more people aggressive will help you to become more sensitive to these breeds temperaments. There have been many studies on this so I will just give you one from the University of Pennsylvania: should understand why some dogs are prone to bite. Generally the dog is fearful that you will cause them pain or invade their territory when they become aggressive. Some dogs and dog breeds have been trained to be aggressive. Many dogs have been taken out of the litter to quickly and have not learned how to socialize with other dogs and this lack of socialization becomes a problem with people as well. Dogs like this should be taken to socialization classes to help them overcome this problem. Also you should advise all of your clients to take their puppies to socialization classes early on so that they can learn good social skills. Dogs learn from experience what type of play is to rough and how to behave in the pack. When taken from the pack to early they do not acquire these skills easily. Many dogs are territorial and will protect their space, toys, food, and people. You should always make sure that the caretaker hands the dog off to you before a session begins to let the dog know that you are a trusted person. The animal’s caretaker should be with you the first session at least to make the animal feel safe and you should not make any movements toward the animal’s caretaker that might appear threatening to the dog. Never try to wrestle a toy from the animal or try to take food away from it either. If the animal is in pain they will react to any approach to the painful area by giving you a direct look and by starting to become more vigilant as your hands approach the area. Make sure you are always paying attention to the visual queues. Pay more attention is the dog or cat starts to tense up as you approach an area. Many animals have had some type of accident or trauma to an area and will generally lie on the side that has the trauma to protect it. Animals that have hip pain for instance will not let you touch the area. Any approach to the area should be with gentle respect and an extremely light touch. The Racoon TTouch is very useful for areas like this. Past surgeries and arthritic pain will also cause local sensitivity. Generally if you are not paying attention with a dog they will use their nose to brush you away, or move away. If you are still not paying attention they will nip you a little and if you still don’t pay attention to that they will bite you and move away. Elderly animals have little tolerance to pain and deep work. Many times they will have been in chronic pain that has lasted years sometimes. Well all become irritable when we are in pain. We also have a lower threshold to any form of agitation or discomfort. Please be more thoughtful and sensitive with elderly animals. Elderly animals will be a large part of your practice. Beware of fear biters. Animals that rollover and appear to submit might just be luring you in to attack you. Cowering animals have a tendency to bite if you are not gentle and if you do not instill confidence in your sensitivity to their emotional state. TTouch tail work really helps alleviate this. There are many more reasons that could cause aggression in animals. Knowing how to and when to approach animals is very important for your and their safety. In general you should always ask the animals caretaker if there is any trigger that could make their animal aggressive. For instance is their any place they don’t like to be touched or do they dislike men, is the animal protective of their caretaker? Knowing the visual signs of approaching aggressive behavior is important as well. I have attached a few pictures to this text that are classic signs but you should also trust your instincts. If an animal starts to show signs of aggression, look away from them immediately and either freeze or slowly move away from them until the signs of aggression have been reversed. Looking eye to eye with an animal is generally considered to be very aggressive unless you are very familiar with the animal. If at all possible I like to start working with the animal by having the animals caretaker hand the animal off to me on a leash. I want to make sure that the leash and collar are secure and that the animal will not be able to slip out of the collar or harness. If the animal has a history of aggression or biting and I decide to work with them I will require a secure muzzle to be put on the animal by the caretaker. A slip collar, commonly know as a choke chain or correction collar is the best collar to use for most animals. You should become familiar with how to put the slip collar on. The easiest way to remember how to put the collar on is to face the dog, make a P for Proper by slipping one part of the chain through one of the rings, with the rounded part of the P in your right hand and the long part of the P towards the dorsum (up). Slip the collar over the dogs head and make sure the collars ring will fall down when there is no tension on the lead. The length of the chain from the eye of the ring that is cinched to the eye of the ring at the end of the chain where you attach the leash should be at least 2 inches but not more then 4 inches. For small breeds of dogs a harness should be used that the dog can’t slip out of. Bigger breeds of dogs might need a pronged collar. Never jerk roughly on a choke chain or pronged chain because you could cause a cervical vertebra subluxation. This goes for any neck color, even the cloth ones. Once caretaker has handed the animal off to you and you feel like you are securely in control of the animal take the animal for a short walk with the animal on your left side. One big problem people have with training their dogs correctly is that they talk to the dog and look at the dog while they are walking them. The correct way to walk the dog is to look straight ahead and start to walk where you want to go, don’t pay any attention to the dog, just walk and the dog will have to follow because they are attached to you through the collar and leash. If the dog sits and refuses to move then you will have to decide if you have the time to correct this behavior. If you are an animal trainer already then apply the correction, if not then suggest the caretaker get a trainer to correct this problem. Most animals will follow you when you walk and if you don’t talk to them or look at them they will follow you attentively. If the animal is not paying attention to you and is trying to go their own way, you should change direction by spinning to your right 180 degrees to reverse the direction you are going in abruptly. The dog will have to follow. Do this several times after walking a short distance and you will have their full attention. Start to make left turns after you have their full attention and don’t talk to them or look at them while you are changing directions. This original walk will let them know that you are in complete control and that you are a person with the authority to work with them now. The caretaker might learn something about how to correctly walk the dog. Making the dog sit or to do tricks is not important to you as a massage therapists but getting the trust of the animal you are working with by being firm, fair and mentally present will help you to establish a good working relationship with the animal. Learning pack behavior will also go a long way towards establishing your authority and will help you to maintain a safe working relationship with the dog. Some important don’ts:Don’t let dogs jump up on you when you approach. Jumping up on another dog is one way in which the dog tries to establish who is top dog. Don’t go nose to nose or put your face up to the animals. This is also an aggressive behavior. Never let the animal lick your face and mouth. The animal was probably licking their anus, penis or testicles a few minutes ago and you will be putting yourself at risk of getting heart worms or some other nasty parasite, virus or bacterial infection. A dog’s saliva is not antiseptic. This is an olds wife’s tale and is not correct.Don’t try to force a small dog to come out of a cowering position, try to drag it along if it doesn’t want to walk or try to stroke the dogs belly if it rolls over in a submissive posture. You will get bit at some time. Fear biters are notorious for setting you up in a position where they can bite you.Don’t try to be top dog with an aggressive dog. You can’t win in this situation. If you don’t have the training skills to deal with aggressive animals then pass on doing the massage or trying to change this behavior. Suggest that the caretaker get some help from a good trainer and give them a referral. Don’t play aggressively with animals before or after a session. Aggressive play can get out of hand and the animal will want to play next time instead of getting a massage. I like to encourage the caretaker to take their dog for a play session before coming to the massage if the dog is not to old. You should also tell them to make sure the dog has eaten and is not hungry during the massage. Tell them to leave at least and hour or two between the meal and the massage session. Also the animal should have at the minimum had a walk to encourage them to eliminate wastes before the massage. Don’t massage a dog that does not want a massage. If they keep moving away and show any signs of aggression when you try to touch them then stop trying to touch them. Generally dogs love being touched and love someone paying attention to them. This is not always the case though. Think what it would be like if you didn’t want to be touched and someone kept trying to touch you. This would be a violation of your personal space and you wouldn’t tolerate it. You would either strike out or try to move away. If you kept moving away but could not get away you would at some point have to attack your attacker to protect yourself. Create a safe environment for the dog. Make sure phones are turned off. Even the vibrating/silent ring will alarm them. Make sure that the caretaker relaxes and doesn’t fidget and move during the massage. Shut other pets out if they are going to be a distraction. Play calming music at a low volume. Shut the curtains and close the doors if possible because any movement outside will distract them. Remember that the dog is generally on high alert for intruders and any sound, movement or smell out of the ordinary will cause them to go into and alarm state. Don’t make sudden move during the massage. Change positions slowly and move smoothly from one stroke to the next. Your goal is to try to put the dog into a relaxed, unguarded state. Don’t bring them out of this state to quickly. You should learn something about the common training methods that are used for dogs. The most effective and most humane ways of training are the reward, based methods. Most living beings respond well to praise and are turned off by blame and criticism. Dogs are no different. During training if you link a desired behavioral performance to a reward then the dog will generally respond to a command in order to get the reward. If you over reward the dog will tire of the command and reward and you will no longer get a response. For dogs, food and praise are generally good rewards. You might have to change the food reward from one type to another to keep their interest. Also, give them small rewards so that they don’t overdose on the reward. Be clear on what task you want them to do and communicate this task with as few words as possible. Never scold them and never be aggressive or show disappointment with them if they don’t perform the task correctly. Clicker training is a good reward, based training method that is easy to learn.I personally don’t like the shock collar method. It might be a helpful training method for some stubborn dogs but is expensive and you can’t leave the collar on 24/7. The Confidence Method is fairly routine and easy to use but takes a lot of time to master with the dog. In general you should be able to lead a dog on a leash correctly. If you want to become an animal trainer or animal behaviorist then you should take a good, standalone course on these subjects. Agility training is also a good add on to your massage practice for multiple reasons if you have the time, money for the equipment, space and a strong desire to learn. Agility training is excellent for younger and middle age dogs that have high energy. It is also helpful to know if you want to strengthen an animal’s muscles after surgery or injury. It is a good addition to your practice if you want to make money and network for clients as well. ................
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