Day Fifty-Nine

Well, almost exactly 2 months since we started our rest!! Things are FINALLY moving along! Bacci has been doing the underwater treadmill twice a week to build endurance. We are returning to our normal training activities at home; however, we are keeping them shorter and spreading them out over different days. We've been doing some sprints, heeling, retrieves, recalls, and ball work on the peanut ball. I still need to add some small jumps, walking/jogging up hills. I also want to do more back end awareness by having him walk through ladders and such, but I have no equipment and need to build or buy it! In the last week to 10 days, I've seen his endurance building. I'm also doing some light jogging (with walk breaks) with him. Been documenting our training so that I can keep track of progression, rest days, and any set backs that he might have. For example, the other day he was doing send aways to a place mat and running back to his tug. When he went to circle around to come back to me, his back right leg slid out from under him. I took it easier the rest of the session and didn't do any hard sprints. He seems ok, but it did scare the mess out of me. Supposedly we can do some bitework in about a week. I'm kind of nervous about that. He's just not working at the intensity that he does with bitework... I don't know.... I'll have to talk with Petra about that next week. Anyways, so far I've been seeing progress. I'm trying to keep up with his massages too. Will post updates later this week. We'll see if we actually do get to do the bitework on Sept. 11th.

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?!?!?!?!?!

Day Twenty-Four

It's been a frustrating couple of days. On Thursday Bacci went for some laser therapy. He did really well! The vet was feeling him all around, his groin, back, etc., and he didn't seem to be flinching or anything. She wasn't doing it rough or anything, but before he would have been twitchy just to have somebody messing with his sore spots. She did laser on both sides and spent about 10 minutes on each side. He was looking good! I brought him home and a few hours later he wouldn't stand on his back right leg!!! It's been the back LEFT leg for about three months, but this time it was the RIGHT leg. As usual, like all of the other times, he was laying in his crate sleeping. He was like that a few hours. Then when he sent to stand, he was holding his leg about 3 inches in the air and was whining. I've never seen him whine before. I was so freaked out and soooo upset. I just don't get it. FOUR WEEKS of COMPLETE rest doing everything the vet and physical therapist said, and now the RIGHT leg is bothering him? I know it was sore before now, and the left was feeling better. However, for MONTHS he's been limping on the left leg and not the right. Then I wonder if slipping on the stairs did it. :( But that was before laser therapy, and he was fine during treatment, He didn't show any usual sore spots. He didn't act extra tender anywhere. I was crying after he did this and was extremely upset the rest of the afternoon.

I keep reminding myself that months of sore muscles and pulled muscles can't be fixed over night. If he really did have issues with his muscles back in November, we are looking at maybe 9 months of sore muscles. So I guess 3-4 weeks of rest shouldn't be expected to completely heal him. I've heard of some dogs needing 6 months to heal from this type of injury. I't's just so damn depressing and it's hard to imagine him being 100% back to normal again. I took him to the park today and walked around the baseball field where we usually train. The more I walked around, the more I got depressed thinking that it's been ages since we've been able to do any kind of training. Patience....patience....patience... but I just want to cry right now...

Grrrr!

Coming upstairs right now to go to bed and he *ucking slips on the stairs!! He better not have made it worse!