Mostly I am very pleased with Terra's progress. Her walking is very good. We are now doing walks up to 30 minutes, on the flexie but extended out to about 10 feet. She can do some jogging. I know that if I let her off the leash at this point, jogging would become a full out run.
Here is a recent video clip of her walking
Here's an angle of her walking from the side of the injured leg
Pretty happy with the progress, she walks very easily. There is a slight hitch in her step. That could be from some latent weakness which according to the book, is normal. May be hard to see in the video but the paw on her surgery leg is slightly turned out when she walks which is something we need to work on
In the pic below, you can see that Terra is extending her repaired leg. Again, very normal but the idea is to have that leg "squared" up to her body as is the other one
The exercises called puppy squats, where I have her sit then quickly sit, are designed to help her with this issue. The version that seems to work best is when I have her go tight up against a wall on that side of her body and do the squats. That forces her to tuck in that leg
This week we've added a couple of new exercises. While walking I have go up and down a curb, in an S formation, as we walk along. That's easy to do in our neighbourhood where we have no sidewalks. I'm also doing hill work which is exactly as it sounds: On a tight lead, I walk her up and down a steep hill and also walk her laterally across the hill. Another easy thing to do in our area. Just a couple blocks from the house we have streets that dip down into the Humber Ravine
So at this stage we are doing several exercises: Leash walks, figure eights, puppy squats, curb work, hill work. It's like one of those multi sport events in the Olympics. I have an athlete who can manage the task. It's the coach I'm worried about.
The coach needs beer
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