Nov
27
Moving on…
So, Ticket is almost at 10 weeks post surgery. She continues to amaze. She’s been running/sprinting in the backyard (her favorite sprints involve the ChuckIt), with no ill effects. I’ve started some Salo jump grids, where I have noticed what appears to still be some weakness in her rear. Or maybe not weakness, maybe just difficulty going from complete flexion of her knee in a sit, to powering off that knee over a jump.
So, I went back to more strengthening exercises. I’ve been doing sit to stand exercises, and work on the peanut ball, to try to strengthen her rear and core muscles a little better. I’ll try some grids towards the end of the week and see how she looks. Video is a wonderful tool for this, since it’s really hard to figure out what’s going on in the moment. Ticket did her first piece of contact equipment ( a low teeter) today–thank goodness she remembers her 2o2o. I’m planning on introducing her to a low dogwalk this week (to make sure she knows where her back end is and it’s not slipping out from under her), and also restarting her on the aframe, also at a low height. I plan on doing quite a few reps on the aframe over the next several weeks prior to resuming competition, since I never really got it where I wanted. Hopefully this step back will help her. I’m also planning on adding some straight-line drills this week–accel decel, maybe some lead out pivots.
My goal is to have Ticket up to full-height equipment, and on full-height jumps by the middle of December, so we have a several weeks before her first trial to work on handling and getting our groove back. I expect to run courses at a lower height for a bit at first, since she won’t be used to that, but hope to move her up quickly. I don’t like doing a ton of jumps at lower height.
So far, Ticket is right on schedule. I’ve been lucky that she’s had NO setbacks in the entire post-op period. She’s never ended up lame, though I do think I’ve managed to push her to the point of fatigue on that leg, which is ideal in controlled amounts. It’s scary to add back real agility though. I still won’t let her run in the yard with the other dogs. I try to stop her every time she and Trip want to zoom around the house. Doing anything outside on wet grass is a big NO. I know she’s not made of glass, and at some point I have to just let her be, but I can’t help trying to protect her as much as I can. At least for now. I’m sure the more we do together, the more confidence in that knee I’ll get. SHE has complete confidence in it, and doesn’t understand why I won’t just let her do what she wants. 🙂
On an unrelated note, Trip has her first show in several weeks next weekend. Her first show after the dental cleaning/extraction and rest. It’s USDAA, so I entered the tournaments and a couple of other classes. The other classes are for fun only–hopefully Trip will fly and prove to me that whatever was wrong with her is a thing of the past. I just want my happy little girl back. 🙂 Hope that will be the case…
