Barking Buddha Doga Tip of the Week: Sacrum Release

This week's tip came about because of my dog, Honey's skin condition. She's 1/2 Shar Pei and 1/2 Boxer so her skin can be sensitive because of the Shar Pei. I typically know what she's having an allergic reaction to, but I was stumped.

She was doing the typical things she does when she 's having an allergic reaction, gnawing her hips, butt and tail. I went through the usual list; wheat? no. flea eggs? no. soy? no. beef? no.

Finally through an enlightening conversation with a friend we figured out that her low back/sacrum could be bothering her and just like we would administer self-massage to a sore neck or low back she was chewing on her low back to try to relieve her discomfort.

So this is what I did to release her sacrum:

-Place both hands on your dog's low back, the sacrum is the large, flattish bone at the base of the spine before the tail.

-If you can feel it gently hook your fingers on either side of the sacrum if not just place your hands in the general area (remember intention is everything). Gently wiggle your hands forward and back as you massage the sacrum with your thumbs. If this is too much for your dogi a loving hip massage could be nice.

- It should only take a couple of minutes, dogs seem to respond very quickly to healing work so don't over do it.

- Move the work to the entire hip, by making gentle circles using your entire hand on the hip area, then brush your hands down the legs.

-Smile at your dogi (they love being smiled at) and give her a treat.

The good news is, I did this a couple of times and she stopped chewing. Let me know if this works for you.