14/02/2026
Absolutely! Light touch and feeling and sensing the dog is a skill. Being in tune with what’s going on under the skin and watching the dog’s reaction is imperative to a treatment that will encourage change and healing.
In canine rehab, we spend more time listening to our own judgement than the patient.
Hear me out on this one…
In my experience of working both with dogs and horses, and especially in my position of being able to watch other practitioners at work, something stands out to me as a bit of a blind spot in canine rehabilitation:
We often assume we know what the patient needs, before we’ve truly listened to what the patient is actually communicating..
The difference between input and communication
In equine practice, many therapists talk about how the horse teaches you to listen. You feel subtle shifts under your hands, you see changes in breathing and muscle softening, you notice how the animal invites or avoids contact. You learn that deeper pressure isn’t inherently better - in fact, it can often shut down feedback entirely.
We have to learn this, firstly because horses have a way of bringing us to that place (by humbling us 🤣), and also because diagnostics are not quite as readily available.
In canine practice, our default tends to be different, because our starting point is a little different.
We reach for:
• firmer manual techniques
• electrotherapy modalities
• hydrotherapy modalities
All packed into a very short span of time.
Sometimes it feels like we need to do EVERYTHING with every patient that walks through the door 🫣
And only occasionally do we check in with the dog…
(yes, I know this isn't always the case! More information around fear free handling and patient consent is shifting the approach, but we still need to think about this)
How often do we let our own expectations or owner expectations guide the course of treatment?
The subtlety of touch isn’t a lack of efficacy
Light touch - gentle, soft, minimal pressure - is sometimes dismissed in canine rehab as “less effective” simply because it feels like less from our human interpretation of treatment.
But there’s a real reason some clinicians favour gentle input (and why horses lead us to a place of gentle touch/pressure): the nervous system prioritises information over force. Light touch engages receptors that inform safety, comfort and proprioception with minimal threat 👉 giving the patient permission to regulate first, then adapt.
This doesn’t mean heavy pressure is wrong every time 🤷♀️. It means we have to be honest about why we reach first for pressure rather than presence:
• Because we were trained that way
• Because owners equate “hard work” with progress
• Because it feels good to do something
• Because it gives us a sense of control
Instead of asking:
What do I want to achieve with my hands?
We should be asking:
What is this patient actually communicating right now?
👉So what does “listening” actually looks like?
Let me know your thoughts on this.
This months Masterson Methods webinars really have me thinking about and considering the role of light touch AGAIN (because I keep falling back into the 'more' trap myself)
If you haven't watched this months webinars, comment GIFT and we will send them to you 💚
