Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Good News...

Ruby had her first UWT (underwater treadmill) session last Wednesday, Feb. 17th and Teri saw her for the first time as well. Ruby only did 10 minutes, you could tell it just exhausted her but she did great & Kris and Teri could see how she was compensating for her front right limb. She was also flipping her left wrist slightly. Kris showed me some isometric exercises to do with her as well, some stretching and told me how to better incorporate the hill work we'd been doing.

Over the weekend, I upped Ruby's walks on the flat to 15 minutes and kept the hill work to 10 minutes. She's allowed to do some supervised off-leash running but I have to stop it as soon as it gets too wild. She definitely has more energy and really enjoys her walks. She's back to trying to pull me along and striding out very nicely. Also no limping...very happy with her progress. =)

We went back to Kris' for another UWT session on Monday, Feb. 22nd. She was very excited to be there, barking at us to tell us "Let's get this party started!" Kris increased her time to 15 minutes and upped the speed a bit. Ruby did great again. This time not "cheating" and really using all her limbs evenly. Kris showed me some more exercises to do with her and said that she's really pleased with her progress. Her elbow didn't swing out after her UWT workout and her wrist isn't flipping anymore. She thinks Ruby may still be able to run at the Loves Park trial coming up in three weeks and she'll definitely be ready for Nationals.

We head down to Kris' again tonight for another UWT workout and she's going to put her at a slight incline this time. It will work her hind end more but will also make her reach forward with her front legs and really use them correctly. We'll also decide tonight about Loves Park & see what Dr. Herlihy thinks as well.

No comments: