Photo by Robin FrenchI started Nick's rehab plan yesterday. Nick thinks it's stoopid. Apparently I'm supposed to do 3-4 five to ten minute walks daily. Oh, did I mention they're supposed to be reasonably loose leashed? Oopsie. Learned that this morning. I'm spending the whole walk yelling out "Whoa now!". Guess what? The Noodle ain't got no whoa (thus the cool pun of a title - yeah, I know how to spell woes). Oh well, at this point apparently we'll settle for walking quietly with only light pressure on the leash - but loose leash? Hah. He peed on the neighbor's bush, too. Nice, hunh?
We're supposed to do passive stretching too. The doctor called this morning to elaborate, and evidently he'd prefer if we do this stretching business with Nick laying on his back. Uh, hello? Tried that. I got Nick to lay down, of course. Rolled him over on his back, and yeah, that was working out just great. Next thing I know he's sprung up, spun twice, play bowed and hopped sideways three feet in the time it took me just to get up off of my knees.
Obviously that's not working out so great. I 'splained that maybe I'd just have to stretch him on his feet, and that maybe (since we have nothing else we're allowed to do) I'd train him to lay on his back quietly and let me do my thing. Maybe if I cranked on his balls he'd lay there quietly. No, probably not.
I hope Nick and I aren't like... the patients from hell. I know my regular vet isn't all that overly fond of me - but so far this guy doesn't appear to hate me yet. I think my regular vet probably cringes when she sees us come through the door, because I have a tendency to walk in there and refuse yearly vaccinations, and pretty much just not do what she wants me to do.
Anyway, I digress. For the next week we do passive stretching (hah) and quiet loose leash walking (double hah). He was quite firm about this - even when I tried to explain that on a typical day this dog covers miles at a time. He says he realizes that. Eh. Next week we increase in intensity and duration - but he says he's more interested in increasing duration. He wants me to go extra cautious here so that we don't inadvertantly re-injure the muscle, and wind up back at square one. I can respect that. After week two we'll be doing some cavaletti work, which will be fun.
Nick looked at me yesterday after the first walk like, "Is that IT?". Sorry friend, for the moment that IS it. Next week, though, we can progress to some mild hills too. It looks like maybe this will be a good exercise program for me too, so it's not an all bad thing.
Nick just wishes we could get back to normal. So do I Noodle, so do I.
Photo by Julie Poudrier
4 comments:
You think the *idea* of cavaletti work is fun now, but wait till you actually have to do it. Ha!
BTW, I know someone who has cones and spaghetti noodles just for that purpose and she'd probably even let you borrow them if you're EXTRA nice.
lol That's pretty much just what Robin said. I suppose cavaletti work is probably more fun on the back of a horse. ;) Spaghetti Noodles? Now you're talking my language. hehe
As an update... I tried my hand at getting Nick to relax on his SIDE and let me stretch his leg out - it was much more successful. By the end he'd had enough, so I'll try again tonight by going slower and doing less - work our way up. BUT, it was much more successful than last night.
The walk, at lunch, on the other hand was a bit less successful. He was all crouched like I was going to beat him - which I was seriously considering because he was pulling like an idiot. *sigh*
I feel your pain, when I had a dog going through heartworm treatment I had to do just enough walking to let the dog go potty.....
Ummm said dog didn't think that was fair and would take her slow time deciding when it was time to go potty all while dragging me around acting like she was sniffing to go potty :)
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