Saturday 24 July 2010

dogs are funny and unpredictable

Living with a dog demands that we see the funny side of life.

Today Penny had her first off-lead walk in two weeks, after a long rest to see if we could settle her scary limp. I took her up our back lane, where we weren't likely to meet other dogs and where she could walk on flat ground.



When she threw herself onto the ground and began to roll around, I was pleased to think that she was revelling in the freedom from confinement.



But wait? Why did she keep rolling in the same spot? And why was she rubbing the side of her head on the same spot?

Yep. Dog poo.

So home to carefully wash the stink off her. (We don't want to bathe her at the moment, for fear of her jumping around and undoing the good all the resting has done.)

Life consists of short walks at the moment, usually about ten minutes. So, when she set off later in the morning for yet another stroll, it seemed like a good idea to try to film her gait and see whether we amateurs could figure out whether she is favoring her left rear knee. On the video tutorial I referred to in yesterday's post, it didn't seem too hard to film a dog walking.

But Penny wasn't having any of it. Why was her human hiding in the street and filming her? She had to check it out.



We did let her walk - the plan was, quietly and sedately - up two little steps to see how she moved, but as the end of the clip shows, she took it at a fast pace, so we hope we didn't do any harm. I guess tonight or tomorrow we'll know how she's been affected.

It's exciting to see her almost back to her old self, but we do realise that if she has a cruciate ligament injury we'll have to deal with it. At the moment, it's just a matter of taking things slowly and seeing how she goes .

2 comments:

Oscar the Maltese said...

BOL! You can't trick Penny by hiding in bushes. She's on to you!

It's nice to see her walking and looking comfortable.

Love, Oscar and the gang

parlance said...

Thanks, Oscar. Yes, I felt really good that she seemed well that day.