Have you ever grabbed something out of the wardrobe like a coat or jacket, in a bit of a rush after perhaps not wearing it for a while; you throw it on and rush out of the door, except when you go to open the door you feel a resistance under your arm and think to yourself, ‘Oh no the wretched jacket has shrunk in the wardrobe again!’ You are now late and cannot change and all day everything you do holds a little restriction, you are just not feeling comfortable and preventing you from extending and moving in a way that feels free and comfortable. However you can still function but if you were required to run fast or jump it would not be easy. Some dogs feel like this every day, not because they have put on weight but because their skin is tight over their body.
The dogs’ skin should be loose over their body, as should ours! (some looser than others of course, breed/type dependent) but whether they are a tight skinned sight hound to a loose skinned hound or gun dog their skin should be supple and loose and lay over their body comfortably. If a dog has a problem or tight skin it is not necessarily visible to the untrained eye and the only way of finding out is by gently lifting their skin over their back and shoulders.
So why does a dogs skin become tight or indeed adhered/stuck? The skin and the underlying tissues are designed to be fluid and the skin, the fascia (that is the white spiders’ web like structure) and the muscle below have an interrelationship with each other, therefore to function well they have to work together. If these structures are over worked, typically by a repetitive strain i.e. over doing an exercise/activity/action they can become stressed and these structures can become dry (rather than their natural slimy and slippery appearance and feel) and because they are being constantly stressed they either can dry out and/or stick together through the healing process through perpetual inflammation. Most tissue can do this; it can adhere to the adjacent structure/s to gain strength and stability that it is lacking through damage or on-going injury, a typical case is shin splints.
To check your dog and assess their skin flexibility and mobility it is important that you do this gently and with compassion as to lift skin off structures it has adhered to can feel like ripping an Elastoplast off raw flesh – and that is sort of what you would be doing, so take care! The best way of initially assessing is just moving the skin with the flat of your hand over your dog’s body, if it seems to move easily then you can progress to performing some skin rolling. Skin rolling is the most wonderfully relaxing technique for both giver and receiver! It can also become quite compulsive! This is how you can perform this technique – Extract taken from ‘The Complete Dog Massage Manual’ published by Hubble and Hattie
Skin Rolling ……it is strongly advised that this technique is practiced on a human candidate before applied to your dog.
Using both hands gather a small roll of skin between your fingers and thumb (obviously number of fingers depends on size of dog). Very gently roll the skin walking your fingers in any direction over the dogs back or shoulders; your thumb is passive and just maintains the rolling wave. It should be a smooth action that is reminiscent of a wave rolling down or across the dogs body. It can be applied in any direction, the more changes of direction the better. Much care must be taken if the skin is tight or does not feel loose to the touch, skin rolling over skin like this will feel extremely tender and uncomfortable.
A dogs skin should flow easily with this technique (with differentials depending on breed), it the skin does not flow it is a good indication of a underlying problem and it would be advisable to continue very carefully and sympathetically, it is amazing how quickly this technique can positively change the elasticity of the skin.
Where can it be safely used? Over the neck, shoulders and back, take care over the pelvis and over the ribs. Not really suitable for legs.
Be careful not to pinch the skin or dig in your nails – if your dog is not happy receiving this technique please stop and get professional advice.
This is one technique that is so versatile and not only can really ease and improve mobility but also can help (as mentioned) with identifying if there is an underlying problem or issue.
It is also a technique that can be used in all situations, i.e. it can help a show dog reach and fulfil movement, and it is great on puppies (perhaps over 6 months old). It is great for veterans and arthritic dogs and they generally have huge compensation issues, in fact in most situations.
The other positive effect is that you are effectively giving the skin a ‘flush’ of blood and by releasing any adhesions can help to improve capillary blood flow to the skin therefore can help the look of the coat and the dogs general appearance. (The photo showing the tight skin, the poor the quality of the coat is evident).
See if you can give your dog the invisible and yet profoundly more comfortable new over coat!
If you would like to discuss this or any affects you have felt as a result of this please do not hesitate to ring or email Julia Robertson on Julia@caninetherapy.co.uk or 0845 3751767. www.galentherapycentre.co.uk
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