Whether in amateur settings or high-level competition, sporting dogs are true athletes! Just like in human sports, an entire team works tirelessly to ensure these companion animals are in peak condition on the big day.
Among these professionals are canine massage therapists. Sybille Leblanc, a canine massage therapist based near Carcassonne and specialized in supporting sporting dogs, shared her expertise on how to prepare these athletic companions.
Collaboration: The key to proper preparation
When it comes to preparing a dog for sports, one of the first questions to ask is: who should be part of the team? Sybille Leblanc is a strong advocate for collaboration between professionals. In fact, she works closely with both veterinarians and osteopaths, as well as mushers.
Several veterinarians who specialize in physiotherapy provide clinical insights that are valuable for a massage therapist, helping to ensure optimal follow-up for the dog. These two professions complement each other: while the veterinarian focuses on treatment and rehabilitation, the massage therapist can concentrate on preparation and physical conditioning.
Sybille primarily focuses on massage, having completed the Equiphysio training program.
In these collaborations with veterinarians, information exchange is crucial to maintain the dogs’ mobility. Understanding the dog’s history is essential to adjust movements and exercises according to any past conditions or injuries (tendinitis, fractures, etc.). Sybille always works based on prescriptions and follows the indicated protocols. In return, her observations as a massage therapist contribute to a successful synergy.
No step should be overlooked by the team of professionals surrounding the dog, from training to recovery (nutrition, physical condition, prevention, etc.).
Furthermore, communication with dog owners is also crucial to understand how the dogs function and work, regardless of the sport they participate in (canicross, caniVTT, etc.). A set of best practices has been developed by the Société Centrale Canine and can be shared with owners.
Sybille is also present at major events, such as the Grande Odyssée, a legendary race that gathers many mushers and international athletic dogs each year for a multi-day race. She works ahead of the event to provide preparatory massages and follows up with post-effort recovery massages.
An increasing amount of bibliographic data
Improving a dog’s athletic performance involves analyzing the results of scientific studies and field research. However, in canine sports, data on physical preparation for dogs are still limited, especially when compared to equine sports. “We are just getting started”, said Sybille. Increasingly, veterinary studies and theses are emerging, so there is still much work to be done on the bibliographic front.
Knowledge gained from working with sport horses is also being adapted for dogs in their physical training. For instance, Sybille incorporates exercises like water walking, proprioception work, and mobilization exercises, always in coordination with the veterinarian. She explains that when a dog comes for its first session, it takes more time because the animal must get used to the movements and manipulations. Therefore, one should not judge the results based on the first session alone: “It’s a gradual process; dogs become more and more accustomed to us and our techniques.”
Using connected tools
As a massage therapist, Sybille has equipped herself with connected tools to gather accurate and individual data for her work. She is notably equipped with the Tendiboots™ Canine tool.
She explained, “I place the sensor before the massage and after the massage.” This allows her to quantify what she observes during an evaluation of a dog. “I was looking for measurement tools for dogs, and I came across the Tendiboots™ sensor. The sensors also help confirm my observations, allowing me to draw correlations with what I see”, she added. She regularly uses this tool, both on the dogs she treats during sessions and on her own dogs.
"My dog does canicross, and with this tool, I was able to realize that he had propulsion issues, which limited his strides. The results were eye-opening."
As part of her graduation thesis, Sybille also had the opportunity to use this tool to make comparisons between six dogs that were massaged and six dogs that were not massaged before the same physical effort. When she used the Tendiboots™ tool, she observed improvements in the following parameters:
👉 Number of strides: This parameter is important because a reduction in strides decreases ground impact, thus reducing the risk of injury for the dog. Her study highlighted a reduction in the number of strides in dogs that had been massaged beforehand.
👉 Average speed: Sybille observed an increase in average speed in the dogs that were massaged, as measured by the tool in her study.
👉 Improved limb forward swing speed (swing speed): Sybille noted an improvement in the speed at which the dog's limb moved forward during the stride in the dogs that had been massaged.
In addition to the connected tools, Sybille was also able to observe, through palpation, better recovery in the dogs that had been massaged.
Sybille Leblanc is a certified canine massage therapist with the Equiphysio training. To find more about her, feel free to visit:
