A few months back I noticed Lola started tripping over her back feet and her left leg looked a bit weak, especially after a walk. So I started to take her on gentle walks and swimming once a week. We also took a few trips to the vets to trot up and down the waiting room for the vets to check her walk. I would prefer to her to be swimming more than walking but I don't drive and it is too far away to walk. The vet suggested keep to short walks, nothing too intense but I found out where we normally take her for a swim is full of blue green algae. It is killing off all the fish and birds in the area. DEFRA have warned dog walkers to keep dog out of the water to be on the safe side. I am now worried she isn't going to be getting the right amount of exercise. She is 9 months now and gets 2x 15 minute walks each day (suggested by the vet). Anything more than that she suffers. Her left leg actually gave way the other day :'( Can anyone suggest some low impact exercise I can do at home and I maybe do one walk? She spends plenty of time lolling about after my son in the garden and around the house which she seems fine with. I think she gets over excited and then over does it when we go out then she limps :'( I end up giving her a leg rub which seems like it helps.....
Re: Low impact exercise Poor girl Are you in a hilly area? Walking up and down a hill would be good for strengthening without hurting joints.
Re: Low impact exercise Yeah. We live at the bottom of a fairly gentle hill so we go up one to go for our walk. This normally takes me less than 3 minutes by myself but with Lola it's about double
Re: Low impact exercise Chell,have I missed or can you remind me...has she been diagnosed with anything?x
Re: Low impact exercise It's a bit hard to say without knowing what's wrong? Do you know? If you could get an appointment with a doggy physio, they can give you a range of exercises to strengthen muscle - if that would be appropriate in Lola's case. There is also a lot to be done with a programme of very short walks that build up very gradually (eg you might find that you can do many more 5 minute walks than 15 minute walks) and so on. But it all depends on what's wrong, really.
Re: Low impact exercise She hasn't been diagnosed with anything but the vets suspects it is her hip. I've been looking into physio but there isn't anything close by as we are in a really small town with bare essentials really so it's going to take a bit of research to find one I am happy with. I tried doing just 5 minute walks but the only place I can manage within the 5 minutes is a walk around the block or down to the boating marina and dogs aren't allowed off lead. If she doesn't get at least a few minutes off lead she will become really over excitable and then the bouncing hurts her. I worry she's gonna get tubby because she isn't getting as much as she needs :-[
Re: Low impact exercise When you say suspects it's her hip, do you mean he suspects something like hip dysplasia or there is something else which might clear up with rest? It might be best to go back to the vet and explain when she is limping and ask what to do for the best. You do no need to allow her to get tubby, just cut down her food. It is possible to keep a dog quite fit on short lead walks, although it's a terrible faff going out that many times a day. If her exercise needs to be restricted, then that's that, and she needs to be in a crate or pen, or confined to a small room to stop her bouncing. Your vet will be able to guide you but I understand with things like this that you should be doing as much exercise as you can without it causing discomfort. I was lucky, and had help to work out programmes for Charlie but managed to get him a lot of exercise in very short bursts. You could try a book "learning games" for ideas to clicker train - there are loads of ideas, some are low impact. And I think there was book mentioned on the site due to be published this month, "no walks, no worries". http://www.amazon.co.uk/walks-worries-Maintaining-wellbeing-restricted/dp/1845846052
