Massage therapy
Increasingly the use of alternative medicine for humans is crossing over and helping to benefit the health of our pets as well. One interesting development is the use of massage therapy. Advanced massage therapy training is offered at a variety of schools, such as http://www.sanford-brown.edu/, for use on humans. Often pet massage therapists learn massage at such an institution.However, they may also learn (or continue their education) at a school intended just for massage therapy of pets. The uses of massage and alternative treatments for pets are widely varied. Massage can be especially helpful for handicapped pets, for example. A number of other resources regarding pet massage are available on dmoz. Dogs and horses are the two species most commonly mentioned regarding pet massage therapy, but we were interested to find that a book was written about massaging your pet rabbit.
Pet massage may be practiced by holistic veterinarians for health concerns, or by massage therapists at shows, obedience events, etc. for the relaxation of competing dogs. More and more pet sitters are offering pet massage as part of their services to help calm and relax animals that are left behind when their owners are away. Groomers also offer massage more and more frequently, both as a means of calming animals stressed by the grooming experience and also as part of a spa-like treatment to be enjoyed by the dog as part of his overall grooming session.
