Proprioception and Animal Massage

What is proprioception and how does it apply to your dog?

Propriocepton is the body’s neurological ability to sense movement patterns within the joints.

There are cells in and around the joints called proprioceptors. These proprioceptors send messages to the brain about the body’s position in space. If your dog experiences an injury, his brain receives signals acknowledging the limited joint movement (because of pain or swelling). Your dog will then continue to move within this limited range. In essence, your dog’s brain has now learned a new limited range of motion and it becomes a habitual movement.

Consider a person who experiences a “bum knee” and, because of the pain, compensates by climbing stairs in a different motion so as to favour the bad leg. Once the knee has healed, the person may still find himself moving in this learned inefficient manner.

The proprioceptive system contains receptor nerves that are located in the muscles, joints and ligaments around joints. The day to day workings of this system occur on a subconscious level. When there is an injury to these receptors, the information sent to your dog’s brain is impaired.

Lack of exercise over time (due to an injury) can further hamper your dog’s ability to sense and control body coordination. Pain will also reduce movement in the injured joint. This further decreases the proprioceptive information coming from the joint.

Animal massage can  work on the soft tissues which hold this memory of movement or muscle memory.

Stretching and massage can affect the proprioceptor cells in and around the joints sending neurological signals to the brain to improve posture and range of motion. Gait analysis, which is often a component of a massage session, allows practitioners to detect postural and movement difficulties.

There is a fluid around the cells in your dog’s body which  responds to pressure by creating an electromagnetic wave. This biochemical reaction allows the nervous system to send information to the brain to enable coordination and proper movement. Perhaps this is why TTouch can be effective, because the circular movements work on a cellular level to affect change. Through massage, it is possible to access this neural exchange and interrupt the muscle memory and replace it with more efficient information. With animal massage, one can gradually work the tissues back to create normal patterns of movement and activate the proprioceptive system to align posture and increase range of motion.

(Photo Credit: David Park)