Day Fifty-One

A lot of updates!!! Last visit to the physical therapist Bacci did 30 minutes on the underwater treadmill! We got permission to start some recalls, sprints, and short focused heeling. I go back today for another treadmill session and we might see if we can get him to stand on the peanut ball! (Bought one last time we went.) Yesterday was the first time we did some recalls. I had him run out to a touch pad, sit, and then recall to a tug. He's not as amped up for the tug compared to the bite pillow, so I think it work. I worked him for about 35 minutes with walking, a little trotting, lots of stretching, some heeling, and then the recalls. I let him bite the tug a few times during the heeling. It was the FIRST time we did any tugging in about 2 months!! He hadn't even seen a tug! At first he was ho-hum... like he normally is without tugs. Well, after about 2 short heeling sessions with a tug reward, he started to get really excited. It was pretty warm outside.. around 80+ degrees.. so I kept the sessions short. He's SOO out of shape and I was worried about the heat bothering him. Our walks are increasing. We are doing more trotting on the leash. Hope we can continue with the recalls and we'll see what's next. Physical therapist thinks he'll have enough core body strength to return to some protection work in about 2 weeks. She wants to do a run through to see how he "holds up." I'm sooo nervous he'll start limping again, but I guess all I can do now is just slowly build him up and pray we are doing it right. The biggest thing will be staying atop his stretching and strengthening exercises. I think the peanut ball will really help. Will update after our session.

Day Forty-Two

Just got back form South Carolina and Bacci went to the physical therapist today. She said he looked really good and shows no sign of soreness!! He spent about 15 minutes on the underwater treadmill, and then we did some stretching exercises. We are going to start some strengthening exercises too. Next week if things go well, he'll have two days on the treadmill. Praying that we are now moving in the right direction and soon he'll be back to his normal self. :) So this is what we've been allowed to do...

1. Trot on leash in both directions for a few minutes every day.
2. Increase our walks by 5 minutes every other day, building up to 30 minutes.
3. Practicing getting him to sit straight.
4. Do stretches from the sit, stand, and with back legs on the step.
5. Get him used to sitting and standing (with back legs) on the squishy circle. Once he masters a correct sit, we can inflate it and make it harder.

I think that's about it for now. We go back in about 5-6 days, and hopefully we can start some of the strengthening exercises soon. Maybe sometime in September he'll be able to run again and start to do his normal stuff... I hope! I don't see how we'll ever be able to trial in October, but as long as he doesn't have any setbacks, I'll be happy!

Day Thirty-One

Well, saying some prayers... so far no signs of limping since his wall jumping incident. Went to the physical therapist today for laser therapy. He was a good boy! Tomorrow we head to South Carolina for a vacation and more REST for Bacci. Then on the 17th, he goes back for another checkup. I sure hope he's feeling better by then and ready to begin SOME kind of activity. Keep telling myself to hang in there.... I think getting away for awhile will be good for all of us! He's been soooo good just hanging in the house doing nothing. Sometimes he looks a little depressed, but then I try to change his scenery and get him out and about. He loves hanging out on the balcony, and I'm going to try and get to the park a little more frequently to do short walks. For now, however, he'll just have to enjoy our trip down south. That will be really good for him too. Poor Risa hasn't been getting to the park as much since I'm not working Bacci right now. We'll get back into a routine soon, even if it's just taking Bacci for short walks and then letting Risa run and play fetch.

Day Thirty

Bacci does for laser therapy again today. Yesterday totally, totally sucked. I took him to the park to walk around for about 15-20 minutes. Just casual walking. There is a wall next to the parking lot that raises up to the ground next to it. The wall is a couple feet high, about the same height as jumping into the back of my Xterra. Well, Bacci was walking around and peeing on everything. I took him to pee on the wall, and he jumped ontop of the damn wall! I totally freaked out and shouted, "No!" I was too late. I tried to pull on the leash to keep him from jumping up, but he made it almost to the top of the wall when he hit the end of the leash. Me pulling on the leash just made it worse, then he 1/2 scrambled up the rest of the wall. :( OMG, I was so freaking. Later when I put him in the car, he was holding up his back left leg. I wasn't sure if he was just getting adjusted and ready to move around in the crate or if it hurt him. I started crying and got him out of the car again to check his leg. He seemed to be kicking it out to the side a bit, but was not limping. I thought it looked "off" and was just balling my eyes out. I brought him right home and gave him some food, Rimadyl, and his other pills for relaxing his muscle. I haven't seen any limping tonight, but OMG, I'm watching him like a hawk and super worried and super stressed. I have to tell them tomorrow at therapy what happened. It's not like you can prevent everything with these dogs! Not when you are going weeks and weeks and weeks with no exercise! They get frustrated and want to move around, and you try to keep them at a restrained WALK at ALL times... And it's been more than a MONTH since he's done ANYTHING. It's so fucking depressing... but I just pray I over-reacted and I pray I see NO MORE LIMPING anymore. The limping the other night just psyched me out, and now this.. It was a bad day... Could hav been worse. He could have yelped in pain and totally been limping, but when in world is he going to be fully better?!?!?!?!?!