10 Tried & True Ways To Delight Your Dog!
Want to see your doggy smile from ear to ear? Make him grin with delight? Almost hear him say ooh and ah as if he or she were spending the day at a fabulous doggie spa with magnificent deluxe treatments that would make any human green with envy? Well, here are some of my top ten secret ways to rub, tickle, knead and massage PAWS that gets him smiling in delight or dozing off in a state of utter relaxation. I love to watch his facial expressions. His smile is infectious and is snoozing face is so peaceful. It gives me a great sense of joy to watch him so calm and unfazed by his surroundings, knowing that our bond is so strong and his trust in me so solid that he can fall into such a deep state of relaxation. So here are my top ten techniques that PAWS loves and maybe your pooch will too. Give them a try and let me know. Or, if you have some different techniques, I would love for you to share them. I am always looking for new ways to play with PAWS and so are our readers.
1. Lower – Ear Rub: An all time favorite massage spot. The ears are a very sensitive site. At the base of the ear, gently rub your knuckles (like in a noogie position – form half a fist with your knuckles sticking out.) Simply rub behind their ears in this noogie position. Sheer PAWS passion!
2. Doggies Sandwich: When your dog is lying down, slip your hand underneath him and starting at his shoulder run your hand slowly along the length of his body. The ripple effect will thrill him and he will turn over on his back so you can then run him with both hands with his whole body in between your hands. Now you have a Doggy Sandwich hand rub on both sides and a double thrill for your pooch!
3. Try cupping your hands and use your fingertips to rapidly scratch your dog on the side just below where the ribs end. Get ready to see his foot wiggle and thump in an involuntary movement from the joyous tickly feeling sensation you are delivering!
4. The Full-Doggy Body Massage: Starting at the snout, thoroughly and give a ‘professional style’ massage from head to tail!
5. The White Sock Massage: For a lovely variation of the full doggy massage simply slip on a pair of socks on your hands! The sensation is quite different for you dog because you are covering much more surface with each stroke and it feels simply delicious on their bodies. Plus, your hands look pretty silly with socks on them much to their delight and surprise!
6. The Under the Collar Scratch: Most petting and scratching skip this crucial spot that dogs love and can’t get to themselves! Most dogs fall in love with you all over again when you scratch under their collar and fall over in sheer ectasy when you rub this area for them! Talk about making them grin from ear to ear! This is definitely a moment to have your camera at the ready for!
7. The Doggie Face Lift: Using the palms of both your hands, smooth the skin of the your dogs cheeks gently back in a stroking motion towards his neck as if you were practicing seeing what he would look like if you were giving him a face lift! This action also elicits a false grin, but I assue you it feels so good for your pooch, he or she is really smiling deep down inside!
8. The Eyebrow Lift: Dogs not only have expressive eyebrows but they are quite sensitive as well. These pressure points are extremely relaxing when gently massaged. Rub their eyebrows softly in a circular motion being careful not to poke them in the eye. Gently press under the brow bone. It feels delicious and makes them sometimes drift off into a gentle slumber. PAWS tends to snore quite loudly!
9. The Foot Massage: Some dogs, like PAWS, love his toes massaged. As a large breed, he has particularly large toes and loves them rubbed. We play a nice game of ‘This little piggy went to market’ and his is snoozing in no time! He is quite the baby!
10. Another treat that PAWS loves is when he is lying down with his head on my lap, he loves the bridge of his nose rubbed. Nothing fancy — just from his snout to the top of his eyes. Easy to do while we lie together watching the latest episode of American Idol — that is of course, when he is not singing along!
Well, I hope that gave you some ideas on some of my tried and true ways to delight your dog and elicit a great ear to ear grin to soft snore!
Pawsitively Yours,
Karen Barnett & PAWS (Woof!)
About the Author (Author Profile)
Karen Barnett is the Founder of Paws4Claws, a leading online community for animal lovers and Steele Rose Communications, a boutique social media & strategic marketing public relations and communications agency. Paws4Claws: http://www.paws4claws.comSubscribe
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