Identifying canine weakness and a great exercise to combat it
Do you know the most important signs to clue you in to muscle weakness in a dog when you are asking them to perform an exercise? Do you know what to look for in a dog’s face to spot fatigue?
Do you want details on an exercise that can strengthen your pets or patients, puppy, adult, and geriatric alike?
In this quick video, Dr. Laurie reviews pictures and videos to show you how to spot when a dog has some weakness and then teaches you an exercise you can immediately implement into your practice or use with your pet.
Watch the video to meet Ollie and see how his expressive face changes when pushed to rapid fatigue and learn a great strengthening exercise.
How to spot weakness in a dog
When you ask a dog to do an exercise, the body position they take can give you a good idea of where they are weak.
If their posture changes to an abnormal position, it can mean they have pain, a lack of ability to get into that position, or muscle weakness that is not allowing them to hold the biomechanically correct position.
A dog’s inability to hold a position – think of wobbling during a “sit up” or “beg,” is indicator of trunk or core weakness.
And their facial expressions can give you an idea of their level of fatigue. Looking at the eyes, ears and mouth position help you read where the dog is at mentally.
Dogs need a fitness routine
An important goal of creating an exercise program for a dog is finding an exercise that the dog struggles with. This is our area of opportunity to build strength.
An exercise like a Three-legged Stand keeps the dog in a biomechanically correct posture but challenges their balance and core muscles. This is a great exercise that can be used for dogs of any age. The trick is to do them so that the dog has to do as much of the work as possible for them.
When practicing the Three-legged Stand:
Make sure the dog is standing square so they are in a biomechanically correct posture.
Lift a limb with just one finger, don’t grab the limb, or you are doing most of the work.
Hold the position until the dog starts to wobble, counting seconds, then hold it a little longer as this is when they are gaining strength.
If one position is significantly weaker, start and end with this position (one more repetition than the other three) and continue until all positions have the same strength.
When performing this exercise on a flat surface is easy, the next challenge would be to perform it on an unstable surface, like a couch cushion or bed.
When this exercise is easy, progress to Snoopy Exercises/ Diagonal Leg Lifts.
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