You make me smile, the funny, sweet, loving things my dogs do on a daily basis that brings a smile to my face or a laugh to my lips.
Sampson, when you balance on your bad leg to pee…..you make me very happy!
Look mom, I can balance on three legs!
The fact that your fur is growing back on that leg from the bottom up, makes me smile.
Next month Sampson will be ten years old. By all rights he is a Senior Dog. According to Pet’s Web MD he is 66 years old in human years, while Pedigree’s Age Calculator says he is 75. I’m going with Pet’s Web MD. 🙂 Delilah’s age (she is 1 1/2 dog years behind Sampson) is calculated by Pet’s Web MD as 55, while Pedigree ages her at 61. Delilah is also considered to be a Senior Dog. While Senior dogs still need daily exercise, there comes a certain age where exercise modifications need to be made.
And we apparently are there.
According to Sampson’s Physical Therapist, when you are exercising with your pet and begin to see signs of tiredness it’s too late. You should stop exercising your pet BEFORE they become tired. Since Sampson’s ACL surgery, I have really become more aware of signs of tiredness. While he seems to pant the minute we walk out the door on leash, there comes a certain point where his face sort of wrinkles up and I’ve come to realize, that is his tired face.
So we have a Senior Dog, who has had ACL surgery. Our surgeon has deemed Sampson a “slow healer” as he is not where most dogs are this far into the recovery process.
We did an 8 week course of 2x per week of physical therapy. During these sessions the majority of the therapy included cold laser treatments and the underwater treadmill. When those initial sessions were finished, Sampson still wasn’t using his leg enough for us to get exercises at home, so we signed up for another 10 sessions of underwater treadmill. These sessions are spaced out to one per week.
I’m not going to whine about the cost of these sessions because I pay the money gladly to help Sampson feel better, I will just say this, there comes a point where I can’t pick anymore money off the tree.
So what can we do?
Well Sampson needs to build up the muscles in his legs and one of the best ways to do this (besides the underwater treadmill, which has a price tag larger than some houses) is to climb hills.
We score on this since we live about 3/4 up a hill. When we walk, at some point we are going up a hill. To increase the amount of time Sampson uses his legs walking up hill, I do something I’m calling, “Hill Climbers.” What I do is shorten the distance of our actual walk, BUT two to three times during our walk when I find myself on a decent pitch I sing out, “Hill Climbers.” At which time, I turn us around and head back down the hill for about 30 paces.
We are at a good pitch right now so we’ll turn around.
When I reach the 30th or 40th step, I again sing out, “Hill Climbers” and we turn around and head back up the same stretch of hill.
Making the turn and heading downhill again.
Our walking pace is very slow, so to help myself feel like I’m really exercising, when I start back up that hill I suck in my gut and walk on my toes for those 30 to 40 steps.
You can’t tell, but I am sucking it in!
Truthfully I have to say, I think Sampson is walking better. He still compensates for his leg, but in general I feel like he is using it more, putting more weight on it and walking with less and less of a limp.
I think our hill climbers are helping.
Just because our dogs are older or not physical capable of traditional exercise, doesn’t mean we should stop working with them, it simply means we need to find a form of exercise that works for them.
So how about you? Have you made any types of modifications to your dogs exercise routine as they’ve aged? Any tips on how to help him build up his muscles?
Today we are joining SlimDoggy, Peggy’s Pet Place and To Dog With Love for FitDog Friday.
Badge courtesy of SlimDoggy
With our split walking schedule, I’ve really had the chance to observe both my dogs to see what makes them tick. When I walk Sampson he likes to sniff, BUT he’s also very much into looking around, watching for people and other dogs. Many is the time when he’s stopped to poop or pee and heard a voice or noise and stopped what he was doing to continue his walk. Sampson (the dog who gets no affection at home) regards people as the ultimate rubbie resource.
When I walk Delilah her walk is more scent oriented. Her nose is typically to the ground sniffing for something to eat, or a trail to follow to something to eat.
I on the other hand am constantly on alert, mostly for off-leash dogs. For some reason we seem to attract off leash dogs wherever we are.
Because I am constantly looking around and Delilah is not, I sometimes see things that she doesn’t see or I see something well before she does. And I’m not counting the cats I see in the windows. Nor will I point them out to her, I could see her dragging me up to every window on the street, looking inside to see if someone left food on the table.
No thank you!
So here are some of the things I’ve seen on our walks, that Delilah has not.
A cardinal that flies across our path and lights on the roof of a house.
A cat that saw us through a stand of trees and went to hide under a car. Can you see it?
A bolder cat, who openly stared at us.
She actually spotted this one after I stopped to take the photo.
And one more cat who watched quietly from the safety of the yard.
A lonely tennis ball waiting for someone to play with.
A brave and daring Chipmunk.
Okay, she did see this one too, because I stopped and had to keep moving closer just so you could see it. Then she was on high alert for the rest of the walk.
A discarded toy.
A dad playing ball with his boys.
I better put a disclaimer in here. Emma, hold on to your mom, you are not going to believe that Delilah has actually walked by this twice (TWICE) without even noticing it.
Yes Emma, it’s a WABBIT!!
How are your pups on a walk? Are they scent or sight hounds?
Follow-up Friday
There will be no Follow-Up Friday tomorrow. For the first time EVER we are participating in the Fit Dog Friday Blog hop. I am currently (if all went well) in Florida celebrating my nephew’s graduation from college, along with his daughter’s birthday.
This is Thursday’s Barks and Bytes Blog Hop hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like a Dog. This is a blog hop for all bloggers, you don’t have to have a pet blog to join, we simply as that you display one of our badges and link back to your hosts.
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