I love small animal physical therapy. I arrived in this profession by accident, seizing on an unexpected eureka moment in 2007. And my life became something far better than I could have ever imagined.

I was sitting on my sister’s living room floor watching Oprah. Ashley’s Doberman, Diesel, was scratching his shoulder so hard he made a bald spot. He threw himself into my lap, a Doberman-dying for immediate attention and relief. I wasn’t particularly paying attention to what I was doing. Oprah was interesting. My hands started doing what they do every day. As I had him in a full latissimus dorsi stretch, Ashley came around the corner from the kitchen and wrinkled her nose at me, “What ARE you doing to my dog?” I wrinkled my nose back, finally paying attention to what my PT hands did every day, “Um…I’m stretching your dog.” She huffed. Diesel stayed in full stretch position. I turned back to Oprah. And then Ashley said the thing that changed the trajectory of my life, “He’s had every kind of body work, and no body’s every done anything like THAT.”

By the next weekend, Ashley and I converted her bedroom into a photo studio complete with my massage table, a ladder precariously perched on her bed, and shop lights hanging by huge nails on the walls. We invited everyone we knew with dogs to come to our photo shoot which included chips, salsa, and beer. I stretched the dogs. Ashley took the pictures.  And a few weeks later, we had a homemade book titled “How to Stretch Your Dog.” We farmed it out to our friends and veterinarians to see what they thought. They loved it! On a Friday, we submitted it to Dogwise Publishing. We received the form response email, “Talk to you in 90 days or never.” Five days later, we had a contract.

This is how my life changed.  

For me, when I stepped into the unexpected, amazing things happened. I learned to communicate with another species. In learning to speak dog, I have become a more compassionate and empathetic person. As a physical therapist, every day I experience how inextricably linked we are to our dogs. These gentle souls love us without hurting us, expand our horizons, help us appreciate the small things, and remind us that a sun bath really does make a bad day better.  

From the outside, small animal physical therapy might look like a profession, but for me it is a soulful expression of who I become when I surrender to the moment when a hurting pet chooses to let me heal them.  An unbreakable bond is formed in this therapeutic relationship. It is the bond that has a pet excited to come to the hospital, to pull towards me when they see me, to howl with happiness when I haven’t seen them for a year. This special bond starts with an invitation, “Dear doggie, I see your pain and your fear, and I promise there is no need for that here in my hands.” Every minute after the invitation the promise is kept.

Keeping my promise to the pets is why I’m so passionate about building efficient resources. I can’t be in healer head and body space if the clinic is not running smoothly. When the team is rested, relaxed, supported, and playful, this is when we do our best work. To keep the team in this space they need to feel confident in treatment plan development and execution (Treatment Protocols) and the clients need to feel confident in the continuity of care (GoGoCharlie). When these things happen, great rehabilitation happens. When great rehabilitation happens, we make the world a better place.

Here's to keeping promises and making the world a better place,