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Working with animals can be emotionally satisfying & powerful work, & it could make you a better therapist ...
By Karen Gaspers
Bruce Bregenzer, a massage therapist in Beach Park, Illinois, had never met anyone as bad off as Astor. An
orphan, Astor had obviously been abused. She was terrified when Bregenzer came to offer massage to the
shelter’s residents; she trembled and was easily spooked. Working quietly and gently during the course of nine
months, Bregenzer was able to help her relax and begin to trust. Gradually her fear disappeared. “Her personality
came out as a clown. She began to play with others,” Bregenzer says. Eventually she was adopted
into a family she adores.
Astor is a testament to the power of massage to transform the lives not only of humans, but of animals,
too. That’s because Astor is a dog.
Like humans, animals can benefit from massage in terms of relaxation, pain relief and emotional well-being.
“A lot of animals have issues that need attention but there aren’t a lot of people doing it,” Bregenzer
explains. “There’s a need for it.”
That need began fueling growth in the practice of animal massage more than a decade ago. Although
there are no hard statistics on the profession, legislative activity in recent years aimed at regulating animal
massage, and a surge in schools, programs and continuing education courses, point to a real trend. Further
evidence comes in the form of the Internet: just a few years ago one was hard-pressed to find much
information online. Now a search on Google™ for “animal massage” will return more than two million hits.
Animal massage encompasses everything from dogs and cats to ferrets and iguanas to horses and zoo
animals. Most therapists, however, spend their time working with dogs, cats and horses, and these animals
fall into one of two categories: companion or competition.
Companions or pets receive massages much as the average human would for overall health. Competition
or performance animals often receive what is akin to sports massage, receiving pre- and post-event
massages to enhance athletic performance much as athletes would. Massage is used on both types to
improve recovery from injury or illness, minimize disability, and manage musculoskeletal problems.
Practitioners generally employ the same techniques as those used on humans, only modified to work
within the context of animals—their language, their needs, how they respond to touch.
Therefore, understanding animal behavior, body language and genetic predispositions becomes extremely
important when assessing and treating animals.
“Species respond differently to touch,” says John Rudinger, president and founder of the school of PetMassage
in Toledo, Ohio. Cats see themselves as aggressors hunting prey, while horses view themselves as prey, and
dogs are somewhere in between, he explains. Actions such as touching the throat can be very intense and
threatening for an animal.
In addition, animals can’t verbally communicate with the therapist in the same way humans can. “Body language
and behavior are the only things we have to let us know how the animal is doing during a massage and
how they are feeling about what we are doing,” says Theresa Gagnon, director of animal programs at the Bancroft
School of Massage Therapy in Worcester, Massachusetts.
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American Massage Therapy Association®
