Introduction To Small Animal Acupressure

Today’s post is a review of a DVD I recently had the pleasure to watch: Introduction to Small Animal Acupressure by Amy Snow and Nancy Zidonis, founders and owners of Tallgrass Animal Acupressure Institute.

I have been a fan of their book “The Well-Connected Dog” for a long time (and written about it before on this blog, click on the book title to go to that post) and I’m equally fond of this DVD. It gives you a really nice overview of the concepts of TCM and shows you how to find important points on your pet, and also how to do an acupressure health maintenance treatment.

Amy and Nancy talk about everything from chi and what it does, the history and benefits of acupressure, yin/yang, meridians, acupoints, to how to do an assessment of the dog, choose a location, ask the dog for permission and do a treatment.

The walkthrough of how to do a treatment covers opening, a simple way to select points to work on, the association points and the conditions they relate to, how to work on them (finger work techniques), and finally how to close the session.

Getting a visual overview of how to find specific points is incredibly helpful. It is described in the book, but it can be tricky to do on your own the first few times, and seeing it “live” really helps.

I loved that the entire DVD is set outside on a sunny summer day, and that other animals are allowed to wander in and out of the picture. I watched this DVD the first time after a really stressful day at work, and it was very calming and soothing. A great way to unwind while learning something useful.

This DVD is, as the name says, a great introduction to small animal acupressure and the concepts and theories behind it. I think it is the perfect companion to The Well-Connected Dog, because, as I mentioned above, the book is great, but seeing how to find the points makes it so much easier, and once you are done watching the DVD, you will want to know more, and then the book is there for you.

Update: There is now a new edition of this book available, called Acu-Dog. Read my review of it here.

And if you want to learn even more, I highly recommend taking one of their workshops, which are held all over the country (and world). Check the latest Events and Workshops listing for upcoming classes here in the US, and the school lists for Canada, Australia, Europe and the UK), for upcoming Tallgrass workshops in your country (I am in the process of putting together updates for all the lists for 2011).