The Dog’s Knees: Chapter 5- The Training Plan

This is one of several chapters chronicling our successful story of recovery from bilateral TPLO surgeries.

I should preface by saying that my husband & I are both runners.  This means that we're no strangers to creating training plans for our own events, and we felt that Penny's rehabilitation was no different.

Our approach involved a pretty solid training plan, using the guidelines provided by the vet, in conjunction with additional suggestions I found on the web. 

The most important piece of this plan was the calendar, which we maintained every day, starting with the first day we were allowed to start walks, all the way up through 12 weeks post-op.

We also made sure to build in rest days-- at least once a week we would have a day of nothing- no walks, no exercises, just a chance to rest.  This is an element that we pulled from our own training.

 

These are the things we noted on the calendar: 

• Walk duration & frequency

• Icing 

• Additional exercises 

• Hydrotherapy sessions

• Other "social" events, such as friends coming over

• "Naughty" moments (like the time Penny got past us & went up the full flight of stairs on her own- oops!)

The "Additional exercises" as noted above were broken down into 1 new exercise a week:

• 2 weeks post-op: balance shifts (leaning onto operated leg)

• 3 weeks post-op: 3-leg stands

• 4 weeks post-op: figure 8s

• 5 weeks post-op: sit-to-stands

• 6 weeks post-op: Cavaletti Rails

• 7 weeks post-op: walking on an incline/decline

• 8 weeks post-op: stairs

• 9 weeks post-op: swimming

• 10 weeks post-op: straight-line trotting

Having this much structure really made the rehabilitation process seem manageable, and also really helped make the time move surprisingly quickly!

NOTE: I am not a vet. Please work with your vet to assure that the rehabilitation plan for your pup is right for you.

Yours truly- Tigerlily