It’s now been 3 months since Zen injured her right rear leg. It’s been a bit frustrating, not knowing the exact nature of the injury, but all signs pointed to a deep muscle / soft tissue injury.We had a follow exam with Dr. Schulz at the end of January. I even brought a video of Zen walking and a short run for his review. The analysis was she was not showing any signs of pain but was tight. Dr Schulz advice was, “continue with the stretches and pick up the exercise level but avoid any significant jumping” (i.e. no agility yet).

Interestingly, the physical rehabilitation has not been the tough part for me - it’s been Zen’s mild depression.

Starting about 2 weeks ago, we switched our circuit walks over to open trails in the woods. This has had a significant impact on Zen. First, the trails have sticks and leaves (and now a little snow) so Zen has to pick up her feet more and navigate more. She also has to do more balancing with all of the uneven ground. This has made a signifcant contribution to her flexability - much more than the stetching excercises were doing.

The second contribution has been Zen’s mood. She absolutely loves walks in the woods and she has much higher spirits now that we head out every day. She is eager, regardless of the cold weather we’ve been having. On really cold days, we don’t stay out as long, but the time out is still great.

Late this afternoon I saw a turning point - Zen wanted to play and was smiling. Her attention to commands was rock solid too. I had forgotten how much I missed her smile - she is so expressive.

There has been another side effect of the daily walks in the woods. With her renewed energy and playful spirit returning, Zen is much more eager to take on our training. We have not been able to work much on agility over these past three months but with some careful planning, Zen and I have been working on rally obedience. It will be fun to see how she does once we get some formal training in and try our partnership on some run-thrus. Who knows, this could be a whole new activity to add to our work together !

Working from home has turned out to be a huge blessing over this entire time. I never would have been albe to keep everything going had I been traveling. We still have a long road ahead but this weather can’t last forever and it is staying light outside longer so I know we a have gotten past a significant milestone and have a lot to look forward to (smile)

We are looking forward to see you in the near future as Zen and I get out more. No agility still for a while, but social calls for sure (grin)

Related tangests ...   Too much of a good thing is just too much   This is Zen   The weather has turned

Posted in Agility, Dogs, Zen |

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