My living room is slowly turning into a doggie gym. There's balance balls, paw pads, and target mats everywhere. On the plus side, the kid finds it extremely amusing and when I am not working with the dogs sets up intricate obstacle courses with all the equipment.
Kipling's PT this week is to build up strength on his right side by forcing him to stretch for his handshakes. After some thought I decided that the best way to do that is to teach him to paw target a stick and then just move the stick around. This turned out to actually achieve two goals:
1. I don't have to bend down to present my hand for the handshake
2. He cannot rest his paw on my hand after he lifts it, making him work harder
Feeling pretty proud of myself for figuring this out. Here's a video of the leg lifts. He's on a platform again to prevent forward creep, hip rolling, and other undesirable behaviors.
Next thing I am supposed to do is tie a weight (sock with some quarters) to his right leg and make him do leg lifts with it. I am sure he'll be thrilled!
We are also progressing towards "back paws on the disk, front paws on targets" game.
Kipling's PT this week is to build up strength on his right side by forcing him to stretch for his handshakes. After some thought I decided that the best way to do that is to teach him to paw target a stick and then just move the stick around. This turned out to actually achieve two goals:
1. I don't have to bend down to present my hand for the handshake
2. He cannot rest his paw on my hand after he lifts it, making him work harder
Feeling pretty proud of myself for figuring this out. Here's a video of the leg lifts. He's on a platform again to prevent forward creep, hip rolling, and other undesirable behaviors.
Next thing I am supposed to do is tie a weight (sock with some quarters) to his right leg and make him do leg lifts with it. I am sure he'll be thrilled!
We are also progressing towards "back paws on the disk, front paws on targets" game.
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