Laurie's Blogs.

A new dog taping book has hit the market (in English)!  Traute Schmidt and Yvonne Müller of Switzerland have crafted a lovely book with great pictures and descriptions to empower canine rehabilitation practitioners and dog owners alike to use kinesiology tape to achieve therapeutic goals.

While the book acknowledges that references to support KT taping in dogs is sparse, it never the less provides a plethora of information and applications that can be tested and used clinically.  (Now, we just need to get more canine studies out there!)

I have always likened taping on dogs, to taping overtop of clothing.  Is it likely to be as effective as taping directly to skin (as in a human) or to an animal with ‘tighter skin’ (i.e. a horse)?  Maybe not, but does it need to be?  That is the question we can’t answer.  However, as an adjunct therapy tool, there is no harm in trying it!  

The book has chapters that discuss the basics of kinesiology taping, how to tape, tapes to support mobility, corrective tapes, taping for lymphatic drainage, nerve tapes, proprioceptive tapes and more.  Two things stood out to me, 1) the circumferential taping, which I do think can have an effect on limb positioning, etc. and 2) and the taping tension that is greater than what is ‘typically’ taught (i.e. some taping methods shown use 100% stretch in the mid-section of the tape. I believe this makes sense in an animal with hair.)

Check out some of the pictures from the book… (My apologies for the shoddy pictures of the pictures, but you get the point!)

So, if you are like me, and simply can never have enough textbooks, then here’s where you go to get this one!

Find it on at Amazon.  The authors are Traute Schmidt and Yvonne Müller and the full title of the book is, Taping Dogs Successfully.  

So, that’s it!  Just a little shout out for a new book on the market!

Until next time, 

Cheers! Laurie