It is all about SURFACE

SURFACE is everything folks. When a dog lives most of his life on a slippery surface the dog will continually contract their muscles for balance, traction and stability. The dog will rarely relax when standing and moving on a slippery surface.   This over use of the muscles will cause stress to the dog’s joints and surrounding tissue.

Many of us have more EXTREME dogs: 

• Do you have a dog that can’t get traction on a slippery floor even at a slower speed?


• Do you have a pogo dog, where the dog repeatedly jumps straight up landing on their rear legs; doing so on a slippery floor is detrimental to the dog’s knees, hips and back.


• Do you have a dog that chases a toy inside the house across a slippery floor? You can only imagine the damage that can be done in this case as the dog slides to a stop with limbs going out in every direction.


• Do you have a dog that moves with reckless abandon without any regard for safety?

Or Dogs with previous injury: 

• Do you have a dog with luxating patellae, hip dysplasia, degenerative joint disease, weak back, bad elbows, etc?


• Is your dog recovering from surgery of any limb, neck or back issue?


• Has your dog injured a Iliopsoas muscle or any other soft tissue?

How about poor habits created as a puppy when raised on a slippery floor. (These positions put stress on the knees, hocks and hips)

• Does your dog sit with his rear legs out wide?


• Does your dog stand with rear legs wide?  Creating a triangle in the back for stability is not good. These dogs tend to stand with their knees very straight.


• Does your dog sit with hocks turned out and knees turned in?

A dog should sit with his rear legs tucked nicely under him with his rear feet pointing forward at his front feet. In a stand, your dog should have front feet under the shoulders and rear feet under the hips. (there are some breed exceptions)

To keep your dog on a stable surface, put carpet runners down, or something that provides traction. If using carpet runners, make sure to put the liner underneath to prevent the carpet from moving as the dog moves over it.   In my house I have interlocking mats over my Pergo flooring to help my dogs have better traction, comfort and balance.

How about stairs? Carpeted stairs can be as slick as wood stairs. Teaching your dog to walk up and down the stairs slowly at your side is the best way to keep your dog free of injury. You can also teach your dog to back up the stairs.   Either walking forward or backward improves limb awareness and core strength if you teach the dog to put one foot on each step. Barreling down the stairs has caused injury to the shoulders, knees and backs of many dogs.

When training tricks, K9 Conditioning exercises or any other behaviors be mindful of the type of surface your dog is on.  

What kind of surface does your dog live on??? 
Bobbie Lyons

Email:   pawsitiveperformance@yahoo.com

Website: http://www.pawsitive-performance.com/blog.html

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