How Do You Adjust a Dog? Dog Chiropractor

How do you adjust a dog? With care and specificity of course! 

From a human to a dog, there are some obvious differences in how I adjust as a chiropractor. 

Other than having to bribe dogs with treats, the obvious difference is that a dog’s anatomy is quite different from a human’s anatomy.  If I were to apply the same adjustments to a dog that I do to a human they would not be effective as the joints are angled and aligned differently.

The other major difference is the amount of force that I apply when doing animal chiropractic. 

Even a large breed dog’s vertebrae are smaller than an adult human, and if you see a toy breed, their legs and shoulders resemble chicken bones rather than dog bones. 

When all is said and done, there are some major differences when a chiropractor adjusts a dog vs. a human, but the principles of a chiropractic adjustment remain the same.  Align the spine and let the nervous system work optimally.

Animal Chiropractor For Agility Dogs

Agility competitors (both dogs and humans) have to be in great shape to perform well.

But let’s face it, the dog is the high performance athlete in this case.

If you and your pooch are competing in dog agility you know that every second counts.  

Just like in high performance human athletes there is a difference between being injured and being hurt.

Being injured usually requires time off to heal, recoup and rehab back to shape.

Being hurt usually means, playing through discomfort, but not being able to perform at optimum capacity.

The same is true in your performance agility dog.  It’s obvious when they get injured. They may go lame, or pull up and stop at obstacles.  However, when they are hurting signs may be less obvious.

The most common objective measure that a dog may be hurting is that their performance is slipping for no apparent reason. You are training hard, they are responding to you well but yet the time isn’t up to where it should be.

This is a good time to have your agility dog check by an animal chiropractor.

When joints in the spine or extremities are not functioning optimally, your pet’s performance is not going to be optimal either.

Time and time again I see agility dog’s that respond really well to getting a chiropractic check up and adjustment.  

Think of it like a tune up analogous for a high performance sports car.   

After all you would never miss an oil change with your sports car would you?

Low Back Pain in Dogs?

Determining where the root problem in a dog can be difficult.  They can’t explain to you what they are feeling and they don’t have fingers to point where it specifically hurts.

When I see injured dogs as an animal chiropractor, I am usually presented with a dog that has very common symptoms like limping or change in activity levels, but it usually comes with no diagnosis of what is happening… and I totally get why.

Full diagnostic work ups and imaging such as x-rays can cost a lot of money since your dog isn’t covered through OHIP.  Most owners are hesitant to get these tests done because a lot of the time they come back negative.

You spend your hard earned money and get no answers.

Sometimes those tests are absolutely warranted and I usually tell people right away that they need to go to their vet first and get them done instead of seeing me.

However, most of the time it is a mechanical injury such as a muscle strain, or a joint injury that is causing the pain.  This is the perfect time to have an animal chiropractor check your pet.

The bottom line is you don’t know until it is examined.  But in the meantime here are some clues that might help you determine if you should take your dog to the chiropractor for a low back issue.

Lameness - If you aren’t from the horse world, this just means that your pet is not moving normally, ie.  something is disrupting their normal gait. This could be caused by soreness therefore they would limp.  Or this could be caused by weakness, sometimes associated with nerve irritation from the lower spine.

Change in normal activity - You might start to notice your dog, avoiding normal tasks such as going up and down stairs or avoiding getting up from their bed as often as they would before.  Dogs are really resilient but if they are in discomfort they are going to avoid the normal daily activities to lessen the aggravation.

Point tenderness - If you suspect something may be going on with your dog’s low back, don’t be afraid to poke around.  Slowly run a finger down either side of your dogs low back from the ribs down and apply appropriate pressure depending on the dog’s size.  If your dog has a sore spot they will turn their head quickly, they may try to move away or their muscles in their low back will twitch. These are all an attempt to remove the pressure from the sore area.

If you find any of the above in your dog it might now be a bad idea to have them checked by a dog chiropractor.

How Do You Adjust a Horse?

How do you adjust a horse?  This is a common question I get from people, especially from people foreign to the equine world.  

I get it though, it’s a big animal and it would be tough to visualize enough power to move a horse.

The thing is an animal chiropractor doesn’t adjust horses, an animal chiropractor adjusts joints.  

A horses vertebral (facet) joints that we target are not large, much smaller than my hand.

If the force is applied specifically to the joint than the amount of pressure needed is not that much.

Is it more than say the pressure a chiropractor would need when adjusting a human? Yes.  But with knowledge of equine anatomy and working with the horse rather than against it, the amount of force need is really not that much.

So if you ever wonder how does an equine chiropractor adjust a horse, they don’t! They adjust the joint :)

Why I would never trust a regular chiropractor to work with my dog…

I never adjusted my dog out of concern that his anatomy is different than mine and yours.  I recently completed the first of five modules in a veterinary chiropractic course and let me tell you I made the right decision by not adjusting him. 

Let me give a short explanation why. 

First of all this course goes really in depth in dog and horse anatomy (we even work with and are tested on cadavers).  Let me tell you that although a spine may look like a spine the anatomy of the joints, muscles and other tissues as well as the stress placed upon them is completely different across different animals and are especially unique when compared to us humans.  So needless to say, applying human techniques to animal spines is like throwing darts blindfolded, you might get lucky and hit the board once but by no means is it a detailed systematic approach.

Secondly the health conditions, repetitive strains and traumas animals can face are not the same as what humans deal with.  The obvious is that animals are not vertical structures, they walk on four legs and the result is they deal with shear forces as opposed to compressive forces in their spines which can affect their spines differently.  Also the conditions that can present although similar to some human conditions can present differently. Finally some breeds are highly predisposed to health conditions that if adjusted by a chiropractor could potentially be life threatening to the dog. In essence if a human chiropractor applies human techniques to animals it can not only be dangerous to the animal but it is very naive for the chiropractor to think that it would be effective in the first place.

I hope that puts into perspective the difference animals and humans, as well as the type of training that goes into becoming certified to work with animal chiropractic in Canada.  If you are looking for an animal chiropractor, I will be licensed early 2018.  Also I need work with and present case studies on animals. If you have a dog or horse that you would like to get checked, please reach out to me and we will work together to help them.

In health,

Adam