Hi there, my name is Nicole Ashton and like many of you out there i have always been an animal lover. As I've gotten older I have developed a strong passion for giving my animals the best life possible which lead me to study and qualify in Canine remedial massage because even with healthy young dogs they have a tendency to throw themselves around and come up stiff afterwards (or they don't at the time but pay for it down the track when they're senior citizens).
We have two dogs, a four year old male Brittany named Korben and a two year old female Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever named Leeloo. We also have two cats called Silk and Zanjy, they are 10 years old and not at all impressed that they now have to share their domain but tolerate the dogs presence in the condescending way cats do. Korben was our first dog in nearly 20 years and I wanted to do it right so I did a deep dive into diet and training (how many of us have disappeared down that rabbit hole?) and Korben became an integral if challenging (Oh my was he challenging!) part of our family.
When we added Leeloo to our clan with the aim to learn agility together I realised what a high impact sport it was on both dog and handler and while I could easily deal with my own muscle strains I didn't know where to begin to even know if my dog had one so I went back into research mode and found Michelle Monk's Canine Health and Wellbeing Academy - Canine Remedial Massage course and had one of life's little Ah Ha moments.
The more I learnt, the more i wanted to learn and the more conscious I became of not just my own dogs gaits and movements but that of every dog I came across. I saw a lot of dogs that could benefit from massage - young dogs that didn't know their limits and older dogs that could still be quite sprightly if only they weren't so tight. So while remedial massage is a vital part in recovery from injury - helping maintain blood blow and deal with compensatory tightness, I believe most if not all dogs could benefit from regular massage to be as mobile as possible for as long as possible.
I am offering a service where I come to you at your house because I know how stressful it can be on some dogs to go to a new location that inevitably smells like other dogs. I can help you learn how to help your dog relax at home as well by showing you some simple massage techniques you can use by yourself.
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