Here's a great angle of Digby walking in our water treadmill. You can see in the start of the video that Digby isn't picking his paws very far up off the floor, meaning he's not really flexing his elbows. If you watch really carefully you can see he's flexing his right elbow less than his left elbow. To help improve range of motion, our therapists can use many treatment techniques, and in this case we are gently running our fingers down the front of the Digby's legs to encourage him to pick his leg up and over our hands. We aren't forcing the movement, just gently encouraging it to help increase the elbow range of motion during walking!
There's a lot that goes on under the water!
Here you can see how we use our hands to help encourage the dogs to use their legs more effectively. We aren't forcing the dogs or moving their legs for them, we simply have our hands resting or holding their leg to help remind them to use it.
This actively encourages them to extend their legs, recruiting the muscle to perform the action and over time this helps to slowly build up muscle strength.
In this video you can see that the dog is getting greater range of motion on the left back leg (with the therapists hand on) compared to the right back leg. Then on the second swim past the camera the dog isnt using their right hindlimb, but they are using the left hindlimb which has the therapists hand on. There are more elements that come into play with this such a proprioception, muscle recruitment and fatigue however that's too much to write in one post!
Superstar swimmer Mango showing off her moves in the pool!
Here Mango is doing some tight turns around Hannah in the pool to work on powering from her hindlimbs when changing direction to help her sporting performance in agility. You can see that Hannah is using her hands to help stimulate Mango's hindlimbs during this movement, acting as a gentle reminder to power from the back legs, rather than pull herself through the movement with her front legs.
This is Spud and our therapist Hannah, beautifully demonstrating some figures of 8 and tight turns in the pool. This really works on getting that change in direction whilst swimming and uses the joints and muscles in lots of different angles allowing us to target:
💜 Lateral flexion (bending) in both directions
💜 Abduction and adduction of the limbs
💜 Explosive power in different planes of direction
These moves may be used for later stage rehabilitation cases in preparation for off lead exercise, allowing us to mimic the twists and turns of off lead play, without the impact forces on land. They can also be used for sports performance cases, for example agility dogs to mimic the quick and narrow turns on a course, and enhancing that explosive power in all directions of movement!
Part of our integrated treatment approach involves doing physiotherapy exercises in the water.
Here, Howard is performing a baited stretch exercise to work on his core strength whilst also helping to stretch out the muscles in his neck and back. Performing this exercise in the water makes it easier to do as the bouyancy from the water gives lots of support. This allows us to slowly build up Howard's strength in the water before he's able to perform the exercise on land!
Physiotherapy exercises part 4: Another important part of performing physiotherapy exercises is the owner! The owners body and hand position impact the efficacy of an exercise. In the first video you can see John pushes up into a stand and keeps his hindlimbs still in a standing position. However in the second video, when transitioning from sitting to standing John takes larger and quicker steps with his forelimbs, and once up in the standing position the right hindlimb also steps forward. This is due the handlers hand being slightly further away from John's nose, resulting in John using a bit of momentum and pulling himself into a stand using the forelimbs to assist the movement. Therefore the exercise is not as effective at engaging the correct muscles in the hindlimbs.
This is why having a qualified veterinary physiotherapist watch your dog perform the exercise, but also watch you perform the exercise with your dog, is so important! Sometimes it may require a little bit of tweaking in handler positioning to find what works for you and your dog in order to perform the exercise effectively and get the most out of your physiotherapy exercises.
Physiotherapy exercises part 3:
When performing your dogs physiotherapy exercises, it's important to watch out for signs of fatigue, and less is more!
In the video you can see on the second clip that John steps forwards with his left hindlimb once in standing as his muscles have started to fatigue and he can no longer hold the stand position at the top and maintain it. He has to reposition his left leg due to the muscles tiring. This is where we would stop the exercise as continuing would further develop a muscle imbalance as John compensates and uses his stronger limb.
Your veterinary physiotherapist will watch your dog perform the exercises and talk you through the signs of fatigue that your dog demonstrates so that you can keep an eye out for them when performing the exercises at home!
Physiotherapy exercises part 2:
The technique used when performing your dogs physiotherapy exercises is very important to ensure the exercises are being effective! This is because correct execution encourages engagement of the correct muscles to help build them!
For example one physiotherapy exercise is asking your dog to perform a sit to stand. Many owners question that their dogs move from sitting to stand every day so are naturally performing the exercise. However, when they naturally move from sitting to standing often it is with poor posture - some pull with the front legs or some may push up with just one leg from a side sit.
In order for the exercise to be effective we need them to push up equally with both legs to encourage equal balanced use of the body. Similar to how we get up and down from a chair or the sofa throughout the day, however this is very different to performing a squat exercise!
This is why we may prescribe such a simple exercise for your dogs. But the key is in the technique and HOW your dog performs them! Therefore seeing a qualified veterinary physiotherapist is important so that you can make sure your dogs are performing the exercises effectively so that you see the improvements!
Open as usual today, main roads gritted and clear and carpark looking good!
Sport Performance
After devising a physiotherapy conditioning programme during your initial assessment, follow up sessions will be undertaken by our skilled therapists and utilise our many facilities available. This may include the use of: the hydrotherapy pool or treadmill, massage, stretching, LASER, proprioceptive enhancement, and further discussion about exercise programs.
The initial 3-4 sessions will most likely be at weekly or fortnightly intervals to allow us to acclimatise the dogs to hydrotherapy and the clinic setting, as well as to allow us to fully assess the dog’s response to the conditioning programme and target fitness, strength, and endurance.
After this, the number and frequency of sessions will depend on many variables, such as the individual dog’s presentation and progression, the sport, and the owners sporting goals and will be discussed during the initial appointment.
The frequency of sessions, the workload within the session, as well as the home conditioning programme will be continually assessed and progressed to optimise performance. The rate of progression however is catered to the individual dog, as progressing too rapidly can result in injury, whilst progressing too slowly can delay meeting goals.
An initial sports performance appointment will include an in-depth verbal and physical assessment, in order to determine your dogs current starting point as well as the owners desired goals within their specific sport. Measurement markers will be taken where appropriate to allow progress to be tracked.
Following the assessment, a carefully designed conditioning programme will be created for your individual dog, with physiotherapy exercises prescribed to the owner to be performed at home which are tailored to their specific sporting goals in order to enhance strength, endurance, flexibility, agility, and speed.
Find out next week what's involved in follow up sessions when your dog starts their conditioning programme!
After! A dry floor and no cups catching all the water!
Cotswold Dog Spa Big Quiz 2021
In May 2020 we did the Cotswold Dog Spa Big Quiz so that we could have a bit of fun with all our clients during the first lockdown! A whole year later, and with lots of ups and downs, we thought we'd give it a go again!!
Your quiz master Zoe will be joined by her lovely assistant, John the Labrador, to offer you a dog themed quiz for your evening entertainment!
