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ORLANDO, Fla.
— The massage students worked diligently, following
the instructor's cues to use compression, percussion and
finger-walking techniques as their subjects lay relaxed
throughout the room.
Suddenly,
one of the clients leaped up with a great sense of
urgency. She trotted away from her masseuse and sniffed
her neighbor.
So it
goes when you're teaching a room of pet owners the
proper ways to rub and soothe their furry companions.
The group
— eight women, five dogs and a few stand-in stuffed
animals — assembled at a massage center. The class was
organized by the
Center for Animal Therapies
, a new nonprofit that instructs pet owners how to
communicate with and care for their animals.
Students
came from a variety of backgrounds, ranging from a
hospice nurse to a woman hoping to start a pet-sitting
service.
Keri Block
, a proposal analyst, brought Bailey, a formerly abused
dog whose nervous energy had started affecting the other
dogs in her house. Bailey wasn't an eager participant at
first. While the humans got started with a deep
breathing exercise, she walked in circles and wiggled
her ears.
But after
lots of stylized stroking, she lay silently on her side,
and Block could feel the calm.
"Wow,"
Block whispered as she rubbed and the dog didn't flinch.
A few
weeks after the class, she said massage has become a
routine for all the dogs at her house.
"Bailey
will try to mooch and get some more," Block said.
Central Florida
practitioners of alternative treatments for pets say
interest in their services has surged in recent years.
So much so that
Jo Maldonado
, who founded the center this spring, has had to turn
people away from classes on topics such as animal
communication and using psychology and energy to train
dogs.
"I
think the pet owners' level of consciousness is actually
changing where they're more aware of their animals'
needs now than they were years ago," Maldonado
said.
Sherri Cappabianca
, a former software engineer, said that several years
ago, people didn't take her pet massage, acupressure and
aromatherapy business seriously.
"People
would walk by me and snicker," she said, recalling
an event she did about three years ago. "Now, it's
becoming, 'Oh yes, I guess that would work.' There is
some mindset change that I am seeing."
Cappabianca,
who does house calls, just started her own publishing
company, Off the
Leash Press
, and released Healthy Dogs, Your Loving Touch:
Acupressure Massage for Your Dog in October.
Cat
Bruce, owner of PetsFirst, a pet-sitting company that
offers holistic therapies, said pet care is simply
catching up with evolving human lifestyles.
"Everybody's
turning to a holistic, cleaner lifestyle, so of course
the pets are going to come the same way with us,"
said Bruce, who also offers belly-dancing classes and
psychic readings — for people.
Maldonado
said animal-communication classes are among the most
popular at her center. But she's not the only one in
town offering to help people peer into the minds of
their animal companions.
Joan Ranquet
, a
Seattle
-based animal communicator, recently started
Communication with all
Life University
to offer certification in animal communication. She
holds two weekend sessions a year at a farm in
Osteen, Fla.
At
Maldonado's center, teachers have included a
veterinarian, a medium, a canine-behavior expert and
even a bear-response agent from the
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
, who instructs on pet safety and wildlife. Classes are
offered throughout the region — at animal shelters,
clinics, studios. Eventually Maldonado hopes to have a
permanent location that could double as an animal
sanctuary and classroom space. She would like to
incorporate more classes inspired by Native American
shamanism.
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