Just looking for opinions please. Dyson has mild ED in his right leg...we are fortunate to live only 5 minutes from the coast so he has been swimming quite alot since his diagnosis.( no surgery for the moment ) He used to love running up the sand dunes but I am not sure whether to let him incase it's doing more harm than good. Thoughts please
Re: Sand dunes and mild ED Hi there,how wonderful you can get him swimming regularly ,that will be great excercise ....on the subject of the sand dunes.....we live in Dubai and now he's older all my off lead decent runs involve sand and dunes.Dexter doesn't have any hip/elbow/joint issues to date but at my first vet check up when he arrived I was told to be careful how much running I let him do in the really heavy going ,soft deep sand,it's a very unstable surface.i was really careful with him in his first year,in fact we didn't really start daily hikes out until he was well over 12 months ...Dexter does run up sandunes now buthe is very very fit ,I don't let him overdo it though and mainly keep to tracks and firm sand.....it takes it out of me to be honest on the soft stuff and I think I'm reasonably fit too ;D
Re: Sand dunes and mild ED This is interesting. I had assumed that a softer surface would be more forgiving than the impact of a hard surface.
Re: Sand dunes and mild ED It puts strain on ligaments and tendons (rather than on bone or cartilage as with a hard surface). Tendons can get overstretched, for example, and all the soft tissue has to work harder as there's no rebound effect from the surface to help convert energy into forward motion.
Re: Sand dunes and mild ED Never thought about the instability aspect... Will probably keep him on the more compact sand that's if I can get him out the water ;D. Unlike Dubai this morning the west coast of Scotland was a freezing 35oF/ 2oC 8)
Re: Sand dunes and mild ED To be honest,while still warm,this was Doobs this morning from my bedroom window it's actually worse now! Apparently a storm coming over from Saudi....... image by dexterpops02, on Flickr
Re: Sand dunes and mild ED Yes, exactly as Rachael says - my dog had a cruciate repair and my physio warned me about sand and very soft surfaces. He actually completed his recovery walking on pavement and firm tracks for these reasons.
Re: Sand dunes and mild ED Running on soft sand is exhausting and puts an enormous strain on muscles and ligaments. An Australian athletic coach, Percy Wells Cerrutty used this technique when training athletes such as the world mile record holder, John Landy. Another useless piece of information I seemed to have retained whilst sinking into my dotage!! Roger
Re: Sand dunes and mild ED I'm obviously thinking less about the sand and more about the snow. Especially this time of year, when it's starting to melt; it gets very soft and tricky to walk on. Hmmm, I wonder if you can get snow shoes for dogs Luckily, there are some tracks that are getting completely revealed now, so I can minimise their walking on the soft, heavy stuff.
Re: Sand dunes and mild ED Champion steeplechaser Red Rum built his strength on the sand dunes at Southport. I used to bump into him when walking Tammy (my first Lab) in the 1970s. Running up and down dunes is hard on the legs, but builds great leg muscles!
Re: Sand dunes and mild ED [quote author=Hollysdad link=topic=10433.msg153798#msg153798 date=1427968868] Champion steeplechaser Red Rum built his strength on the sand dunes at Southport. I used to bump into him when walking Tammy (my first Lab) in the 1970s. Running up and down dunes is hard on the legs, but builds great leg muscles! [/quote] A bit careless. You'd have thought you'd have noticed a bloomin' big horse.
Re: Sand dunes and mild ED [quote author=snowbunny link=topic=10433.msg153800#msg153800 date=1427969118] [quote author=Hollysdad link=topic=10433.msg153798#msg153798 date=1427968868] Champion steeplechaser Red Rum built his strength on the sand dunes at Southport. I used to bump into him when walking Tammy (my first Lab) in the 1970s. Running up and down dunes is hard on the legs, but builds great leg muscles! [/quote] A bit careless. You'd have thought you'd have noticed a bloomin' big horse. [/quote] Oh that's given me a chuckle! X
Re: Sand dunes and mild ED [quote author=Dexter link=topic=10433.msg153809#msg153809 date=1427970101] [quote author=snowbunny link=topic=10433.msg153800#msg153800 date=1427969118] [quote author=Hollysdad link=topic=10433.msg153798#msg153798 date=1427968868] Champion steeplechaser Red Rum built his strength on the sand dunes at Southport. I used to bump into him when walking Tammy (my first Lab) in the 1970s. Running up and down dunes is hard on the legs, but builds great leg muscles! [/quote] A bit careless. You'd have thought you'd have noticed a bloomin' big horse. [/quote] Oh that's given me a chuckle! X [/quote] LOL. Red Rum's trainer, Ginger Mc Cain, always had some treats for the horses. Need I say more?
