A Rolfed™ Puppy is a happy Puppy

Rolfing A Rolfed Puppers is a Happy Puppers.

(Written in June,2017)

Sometimes life can share new experiences with you that you do not expect. I had something like that happen to me a few years ago.

I have been offering Craniosacral therapy and Rolfing™ to my Rhodesian Ridgeback friend, Mister Kane, as part of my regular petting ritual. To be clear, I’m not a dog Rolfer™. I specialize in humans and love every minute of it, but trained hands do trained work, and in the case of Mister Kane, many patting sessions looked a lot like my human Rolfing sessions. Mister Kane and I have a psychic connection. We can tell what each other is thinking. He’ll often look at me and say with his big brown eyes, “Miss Coko, you have exactly four hours to pat me then I need to take a nap… wait, make that six…” but most often, his eyes say, “thank you.”

Like most puppers, he loves a good belly rub and groans with delight when he gets love and attention. Knowing that dogs and other animals love pets and rubs, I was interested to see how an injured puppers would respond to Rolfing™. I thought it would be interesting to see if they would accept the therapy as they are in pain and even therapeutic touch could be unwelcome. I’ve seen a few videos of therapists giving treatment to animals in the wild who seem to know their intention and accept the healing with open gratitude. So, we tried!

Enter my first (unofficial) four-legged patient. He has custom braces to help his back legs gain stability on walks. I had the very great honour of working with him most of last summer and the Fall. I can share with you that it was profound. Both for him and for me. He understood the intention of the sessions, relaxing and getting comfortable in anticipation of what was to come next. Rolfing is a modality that extends beyond the treatment of humans. In both humans and animals, it extends beyond the physical and touches our emotions.

We saw a significant improvement in mobility and range of motion. I hope I can help more of our four-legged friends.Nothing makes me smile more than a happy puppers. :)