How to Support Your Aging Dog #154

Whether your dog is aging, recovering from surgery, or simply deserves the best foundation possible, this episode explores how gentle hands-on support can help reduce tension, improve movement, and create greater ease, confidence, and well-being. 

💫 Key Takeaways

1. Many dogs develop habitual movement patterns and compensations that now create unnecessary strain.
2. Gentle hands-on support can help the nervous system feel safe enough to release chronic muscular tension.
3. Lasting improvement comes from inviting change, not forcing it.
4. Emotional safety and physical comfort are deeply connected.
5. Supporting your dog physically can also improve confidence, ease, and emotional well-being.
6. Small, thoughtful changes can make a meaningful difference over your dog’s lifetime. Listen to the episode to learn a simple, important change you can make today! 

Resources:

Grab your FREE video training to help your dog. 🐕 https://www.marydebono.com/lovedog 💥

Get Mary’s bestselling, award-winning book, “Grow Young with Your Dog,” for a super low price at: https://tinyurl.com/growyoungwithyourdog. Demonstration videos are included at no extra cost. ⬅️⬅️⬅️

Get 1:1 Coaching with Mary

🐶 If you'd like Mary's guidance on helping your dog, please click here. 

💥Learn how the Feldenkrais MethodⓇ can help improve your seat, position, and balance on your horse! Free rider videos masterclass: https://www.marydebono.com/rider 💥

All information is for general educational purposes ONLY and doesn't constitute medical or veterinary advice or professional training advice. Please consult a qualified healthcare provider if you, your horse, or your dog are unwell or injured.  Always use extreme caution when interacting with horses and dogs.

About the Host:

Mary Debono is a pioneer in animal and human wellness, blending her expertise as an international clinician, best-selling author, and certified Feldenkrais Method® practitioner. With over three decades of experience, Mary developed Debono Moves, a groundbreaking approach that enhances the performance, well-being, and partnership of animals and their humans.

Mary's innovative approach draws from the Feldenkrais Method®, tailored specifically for horse and dog enthusiasts.  Her methods have helped animals and humans:

• Improve athletic ability and performance
• Enhance confidence and reduce anxiety
• Reduce physical limitations and discomfort
• Deepen the human-animal bond

Mary's flagship online programs, "Move with Your Horse" and "Easier Movement, Happier Dogs," provide animal enthusiasts with an innovative approach that combines the concepts of Feldenkrais® with her signature hands-on work for horses and dogs (Debono Moves). Through this transformative approach, both people and their animal companions discover greater harmony, ease, and connection.

TRANSCRIPT:

Is your dog aging? Or maybe your dog is recovering from surgery. You know, maybe they had an injury, or maybe they're dealing with a congenital problem. Or perhaps you just want to give your young, healthy dog a really good foundation so that they can minimize the chance of injuries and also reduce wear and tear damage so they can stay healthy, happy and active for as long as possible.

So whatever category your dog falls into, I'd like to talk a little bit about how you can support your dog's well being over their lifetime. And one way to do that is literally by offering support. What I mean by that is using your hands in very specific ways to support the muscles to what we call taking over the work of the muscles. Now you may think, why does my dog need that?

You know, my dog, you know, the muscles know what they're doing. Well, your dog, like many, many, many dogs, has developed movement habits over time, most likely. And those habits, many of them, or some of them, I should say, could be maladaptive. In other words, they started out as a good solution to a problem. Like maybe your dog just had a slight injury, you didn't hardly notice. Or maybe you always do something from a particular way, or the dog jumps on the couch a particular way, or folds up a particular way when they're lying down.

But they develop habits of how they move and how they position themselves. And over time, those can work against them. But the nervous system wants to hold onto them because they feel familiar, they feel safe. They originally might have solved a problem for the dog. So our job is to first help the dog feel safe. And we can do that by providing help, hands on support. I was just sharing this with somebody just very recently I was working with her dog who's 12.

And you know, he's, he's got some stiffness and like many dogs, right, his back muscles were getting tight because he was compensating, right? So these, these habits are a form many times of compensations. And I helped him release those muscles by just inviting them to release. I'm not manipulating them, I'm not massaging them in the way you would normally think. It's a support, it's a hold, but it's done very specifically.

And you know, then the dog on their own can start to let go because you're, you're basically telling the nervous system, I mean, I'm saying this in simple terms, but you're telling the nervous system, look, I, I got this. I'm doing the work that these muscles have been doing. You can actually release the contraction and when it's done well, the dog is able to soften those muscles you're inviting them to release.

You're not trying to force a change. Right. Cause that can be counterproductive, but you're inviting a change. You're inviting the dog to let go, to feel differently. And what's so wonderful about this is that this often has positive benefits to the dog's emotional state as well. Because they feel safe, they can let go. They have more confidence in themselves because now their body can move more freely. So so much opens up.

So providing hands on support. And this is something I teach the specifics of in my online program. You know, easier movement, happier dogs, which is not open right at the moment, but keep an eye out for it. So if you get my emails, please keep an eye out for it. And if you don't get my emails, I'll say this real quick, go to marydebono.com lovedog. That's one word, it's all lowercase.

And you can get some free videos and then you'll be on my email list and you'll be notified. Right. Right away when we open the doors. Okay, so providing support, that is super, super important. So that is a way that you can literally support your dog at any life stage and you can help them let go of movement habits, positioning things they do that are not serving them any longer, that are working against them, that are creating more wear and tear damage.

And then with that said, there are other things you can do, of course as well. And I'm going to do a shout out here for please have something over your slippery floors. Okay, so I'm changing gears here. So I was talking before about hands on work, the debono moves approach, and now I'm just talking about a couple of like a practical thing you can do in your house.

I see so many dogs dealing with walking on slippery floors, tile, hardwood, whatever it happens to be. And that's fine if they're just walking across and they're young and they're healthy. But if they're doing any kind of running, I'm going to urge you to put down carpet runners, yoga mats, you can have a whole trail of colorful yoga mats if you want, but something or those sticky things you can put on their paws but something to give them more traction.

Because this is what I've noticed. I would, you know, I would go to people's homes back in the day where I'm working with their dogs individually. And some of the dogs were young, healthy dogs. And when they would stand on a tile floor, for example, I would notice that the inside thigh muscles, their adductor muscles would really tense up, right, to. To keep to main so they can maintain their position on that floor.

So it didn't look. If you're just looking at them, you wouldn't have noticed that they look totally fine standing and walking on that floor. But over time, that habitual contraction could actually lead to problems with their back and their pelvis, which of course then will affect the hind legs, so it can set up problem over time. So, again, so like in my house, right, we have areas that are tiled.

We have areas where it's like this laminate flooring, and we have a trail of carpet runners. Because Tony, my dog, loves to run up and down the hallway and we play with him. There's. So I want to make sure that he has traction, that he's not sliding, you know, even a little bit. I want to make sure. Because, you know, in the wild, right, you know, they're. They're moving across terrain that has more traction, that isn't so slippery.

So dogs weren't designed to walk on our slippery floors. And again, I'm not saying you have to completely cover every square inch of your house, but you find those places where you can create a path where your dog can move with greater traction, or you go to putting the sticky things on their paws or something like that. They also have ones that go on the nails, and you'll have to do a little trial and error to see what works best for you and your dog.

So those are a couple of ways you can support your dog. You can, you know, and again, to get more details on the specifics of how to use your hands to, you know, support your dog physically. Right. Which is really foundational. Keep an eye open for my program and also sign up for the free videos because you'll get started with the free videos, right. I'll give you an idea of how I teach, if you'll learn a few things and.

And then if it interests you, you can check out my program when it opens. But in the meantime, check your flooring. Make sure you're giving your dog every chance to live a long, happy and active life, because you and your dog deserve to feel great together. Thank you so much for listening. I appreciate you and thank you for loving your dog, and I look forward to talking to you again soon.

Bye for now.