Acupressure to help your dog

I wanted to describe to you two acupressure points that you can do on your dog:

One for pain and one for anxiety. You can do these really simple things at home. You don’t need to know anything about acupressure to do these points.

These two acupressure points can help relieve your dog from either pain or anxiety.

The first acupressure point for generalized pain is called the aspirin point. With acupressure, you use the pad of your finger. Traditional acupressure uses the thumb. But, you can use your finger instead if it’s more comfortable. Don’t use the fingernail, make sure you use the pad of your finger on the point that I’m going to talk to you about. You only need light pressure, you don’t have to jam it in there, and let your dog tell you if you use too much pressure. If your dog reacts and pulls back or tries to get away, then you’ve gone too far. Just stop, settle down, and try again with a little less pressure.

Some dogs don’t like constant pressure. They prefer a little motion. So, you can do little circles, like a massage, in that area. You don’t hold the points for super long, sometimes 60 seconds is enough, sometimes even less than that. What you’re doing is you’re holding it until you see a change in your dog, some sort of release. So a sigh or a yawn, any relaxation signal, tells you that you’ve released the point. Then, you can let go and let the body do the rest. As with all energy work, this unblocks and allows energy to flow. Once you get the reaction from your dog, the work has started. It will continue for 24 hours.

Acupressure points for your dog

So, as stated above, I’ll first describe the aspirin point, which is for generalized pain in any part of the body. Some people don’t know anatomy. So, I’m not going to use anatomical terms. I’ll just try to describe where the area is. If you look at the back leg, you have their paw. Then, you go up to the point where the leg bends.

After that, it starts to go up to the thigh. Right at this part, it bends if you slide your hand in there. If you feel around, you’ll feel the bone ends. Then, it becomes a tendon. It’s squishier, and you can feel a bone on the front part of the leg. If you slide your fingers in there, you’ll feel right above where the two bones join. There’s this really thin, fleshy area. You can’t feel any muscle or tendons in there.

That’s the point right above where the two bones meet in that fleshy kind of thin area where you want to press in. Just press in, and hold and while you’re doing this the one thing you want to do is be in a very calm, relaxed state. So take some deep breaths in and out, really relax yourself, and that will help calm the dog.

Another helpful thing is to keep your other free hand on the dog. Then you can feel their reactions. You can feel if they’re letting go, if they’re starting to relax into it. After that, you just watch your dog. Look for any changes or release in them. Very often, it will only take 10 to 60 seconds to get a reaction. Once you have a reaction, the work is done, and you can let go and let the energy move and continue to work on its own.

The anxiety or fear point

Next, I want to discuss the point that you can use for fear or anxiety. If your dog fears something like fireworks, or if they have general fear or anxiety, you can use this point to help them. This point is called kidney 27, and it is located on the chest. If you look at your sternum, slide your hand towards the center, and then underneath you have your ribs. The point is a little indent between the sternum and the rib cage. There is one on the left and one on the right. With your dog, you’ll feel that area on them using what you felt on yourself as a reference. When you find the sternum and rib cage, you should feel a little indent there. That’s where you want to put your finger.

Again, you can hold it in place or do little circles and massage if your dog doesn’t like that. Then, relax, breathe deeply, and wait for a reaction or release from the dog. You can do either side. You don’t have to do both sides at once. But, if you want to, you can hold both sides at the same time. This is because there are two points on each side. If you have an anxious dog, they might be moving a lot. It might take extra time, and you might have to come back to it. Let them go, let them relax a bit, and then come back later. Give them time to get used to the sensation.

I hope these two points help you. You can use them with your dog if they have pain or anxiety. It will help them get quick relief.

Would you like to recognize the signs of pain in your dog? Download this list of dog pains to better understand yours.

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