Proactive Dog Care: Spotting Early Signs of Joint Problems Before They Escalate #48

Learn how to spot the subtle signs of injury and arthritis in dogs before they become serious problems. Discover key movement patterns to watch for, understand your dog's natural behaviors, and become a proactive advocate for your dog's joint and mobility health.

Resources:

Grab your FREE Movement Detective guide for pet parents. 🐕 https://www.marydebono.com/movement-detective-guide. 💥

Join our free Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DogHealthAndVitality

Get Mary’s bestselling, award-winning book, “Grow Young with Your Dog,” for a super low price at: https://tinyurl.com/growyoungwithyourdog. Demonstration videos are included at no extra cost. ⬅️⬅️⬅️

All information is for general educational purposes ONLY and doesn't constitute medical or veterinary advice. Please consult a qualified healthcare provider if you or your dog are unwell or injured.

About the Host:

Mary Debono is a pioneer in animal and human wellness, blending her expertise as an international clinician, best-selling author, and certified Feldenkrais Method® practitioner. With over three decades of experience, Mary developed Debono Moves, a groundbreaking approach that enhances the movement, well-being, and connection of animals and their human companions.

Mary's innovative approach draws from the Feldenkrais Method®, tailored specifically for the canine world. Her methods have helped dogs and humans:

• Improve athletic ability and performance
• Enhance confidence and reduce anxiety
• Reduce physical limitations and discomfort
• Deepen the canine-human bond

Mary's best-selling, award-winning book, "Grow Young with Your Dog,”  offers a unique opportunity to experience the benefits of Feldenkrais® while learning her signature hands-on work for dogs. This approach has helped dogs and their people move with ease and confidence. Visit https://www.marydebono.com/you-and-your-dog.

TRANSCRIPT:

Hi. Welcome to Easier Movement Happier Dogs. I'm Mary debono, and today we're diving into something that every dog parent needs to know, and that is how to read your dog's subtle signals about pain and discomfort before they become serious problems. This is super important. I'll tell you why. Just recently, I worked with this lovely golden retriever named Max. His person noticed something kind of small. He had started taking an extra second before jumping into the car.

Just that tiny hesitation, but she noticed it. Most people would have missed it, but because she caught it early, we were able to help Max before his early arthritis became debilitating. And I'll say here right at the get go, it's so important. It's essential, actually, that you are working with your veterinarian every step of the way. Okay. This isn't a do it yourself kind of thing. What we're going to talk about today, though, is how you, as a proactive pet person, can notice things.

You can train your eye to notice things so that you then can contact your vet and have your vet check out the situation to see if it's a problem or not and what to do about it. Okay? So that's what we're going to be exploring today, how to become a movement detective for your dog. And just so you know, I've created a comprehensive PDF guide that I'll tell you about later in the show, but you'll want to get your hands on that.

And it's absolutely free. Okay, so here's something to remember about dogs. They're kind of hardwired to hide pain because, you know, if they were in the wild, showing weakness would make them vulnerable to predators. So a lot of times our dogs are, you know, have aches and pains and things are bothering them and they. We don't really notice it because they compensate for it. Right. So even though our dogs are very comfortable, they're lying on the couch with us and doing all that things, in many ways, they still have those ancient instincts.

So they could be masking discomfort until it becomes more severe, and then they can't help but reveal it. But we want to notice things before they become a big problem. And that's why noticing subtle changes is so important. So your dog has certain movement patterns the way you do. And what you'll start to do is to notice what is normal for your dog and then look for small changes.

And again, I'm going to step you through how to do that, because really, your dog's body is constantly telling a story. And I'll go so far as to say your dog's movement is constantly telling a story. We just learn, you know, we just need to learn how to read it. Okay, so let's look at some key patterns that can tell us a lot about your dog's comfort level.

Um, like for example, I always notice how a dog sits. Okay. Now you may notice if you have a puppy that puppies often sit in what people call a sloppy sit. Like the haunches are off to one side or one or both legs are sticking out at odd angles. You know, it's like all over the place kind of thing. But most adult dogs, healthy adult dogs, will do what we call a square sit.

That means their back is relatively straight and their hind legs are tucked up neatly underneath them. There isn't one or both off to the side. Now, if a dog has some kind of problems going on and it could be, and again, here's where your vet is essential because it could be a back problem, it could be a hip problem, it could be a knee problem. I mean, there's a whole host of reasons why dogs will have a sloppy sit.

Adult dogs, right? So start to notice when your dog sits, how does he or she sit? Is it square and balanced or are they shifting their weight to one side? Are they sitting in a way that their legs are splayed out? And in the guide that I mentioned, I actually show you photos of what to look for. Okay, now the second thing to notice is how your dog is walking.

Now that may sound strange. It's like my dog is walking. I don't know. Well, a typical kind of like normal walk is a distinct four beat gait. That means each of your dog's legs are moving independently. Now sometimes you have to kind of like slow it down. And this is where I'll, I'll, in the guide I tell you how to, you know, do a little slow motion video for, of your dog if you have difficulty seeing it.

And it's harder to see if you have like a short legged dog, like a doxy or a corgi, but start to notice. Do the legs move independently when the dog is walking? For example, the normal 4 beat walk is left hind, left front, right hind, right front, okay? And then starts over again, the left hind, et cetera. Now with that set, and so you may notice, okay, my dog does that.

Oh, but, but sometimes my dog doesn't do that. Sometimes my dog, one side of the, you know, of the body moves as one. So both right legs and both left legs will move together. Now I will say for some dogs that is normal, especially longer legged dogs. So you have to see what's normal for your dog. Some dogs do what we call, that's a pace when they're both legs are moving, you know, on the same side at the same time.

An amble is when there's just a tiny difference between the legs on each side. And again, some breeds do that normally. Okay. Now this is what's important to notice if your dog changes what they're doing. So for example, what I often see in my practice is dogs that have always done a four beat walk and then as they've gotten older, they suddenly switch to pacing. Okay. Which I, in my experience have often seen that correlated with spinal stiffness, maybe some spinal arthritis or stiffness, you know, in the back.

It could be from various causes. Right. But that's something again, that, you know, you want to bring up with your vet. And I've helped a lot of dogs with that, by the way, to overcome that. And they go back to walking with a four beat walk. Okay. So that's really, really important to notice the changes. And thirdly, watch their play behavior. It's not just about whether they're playing, but how they're playing.

Are they as enthusiastic, you know, with, with their favorite games as they used to be? Do they get up differently after resting? You know, does a hard kind of play session wear them out and maybe have them be a little bit achy? So these are things to start to notice. And again, my guide is actually takes you through a seven day, kind of like movement detective challenge where I give you something specific.

It takes only a couple of minutes to do like literally two minutes to do each one. And then it gives you, you know, you'll, you'll learn how to just kind of, you know, note your observations and keep track of them over time. Okay. Because again, this is something that you want to notice over time. And it's good to have a digital record of it either like a physical record as far as writing it down, but even videos and things like that.

Okay, so let's talk about just creating a simple daily observation routine. Again, just needs to take a couple of minutes. Watch how your dog gets up from their bed in the morning, observe their first few steps of the day, notice how they navigate that first trip outside. And again, I want to emphasize documentation is crucial here. And that's why I created the Movement Detectives Guide for Pet Parents to help you recognize the early signs of injury or arthritis in a dog.

Okay. So you're going to Want to get that? So let me tell you right now how to get it. Well, the link will be in the description of wherever you're listening to this. This episode, okay? But It's Mary de Bono.com forward/movement detective guide, and there's hyphens between movement detective and detective and guide. So Mary de Bono.com Movement Detective Guide with hyphens. Okay? And again, the link will be in the description.

And the other thing I'm going to say is, I want to emphasize that I said in the beginning, but I'm going to say it again. It's important to notice how you know, notice your dog, notice what changes. This doesn't mean that you become paranoid, okay? But it means that you start to pay attention. And I cannot tell you how many times, for example, I've noticed things about other people's dogs, whether they were friends dogs or clans dogs, that their people didn't notice because they weren't trained.

Their eye wasn't trained to notice little changes in movement, the way my eye has been trained. Okay? And so it's so important to do that. And then when you notice something that seems off, take it up with your vet. Like, trust your instincts. Even if you seem. If you think it's silly or something like that, it's really important to run it by your vet. And if you're not happy with what your vet says, get a second opinion.

I have. I have helped my clients with this so many times where I've noticed something, and sometimes the vet doesn't think it's relevant, but it is. And we, you know, we. We persevere and then the dog gets treated. So this is really important because there's a lot of things that when you catch them early, you can avoid them becoming a serious problem. Okay? So that's all we're doing here.

Again, it's not about being paranoid. It's about looking at your dog in a way that, like, oh, wow, look at how my dog is moving. Like, in a happy way. Like, not in a way that you're trying to find a problem. You're just noticing differences. And this is. Again, I'm saying a lot of things are important, important because they are. You're not looking with fear in your eyes or fear in your heart.

You're looking with curiosity. And it's. You're not judging. You're just saying, oh, that's interesting. Okay, the way my dog is sitting today, that's interesting. Or the way my dog is, you know, climbing up on the couch or into the car or on the bed. Oh, that's interesting. And you make a note of it, you notice it. And again, you're going to track changes over time, but you do it with this feeling of biological optimism, with love, with curiosity, and with care about being a proactive member of your dog's healthcare team.

Okay, so again, I'm going to really encourage you to download that guide because it'll walk you through everything and there's some photos there to look at and there's even more things than what I mentioned in this episode. And again, it's like a seven day movement assessment challenge. And then you can do it every once in a while, you know, maybe, maybe every couple of months or whatever feels right for you.

Okay. And this way you'll keep track of things and you'll be able to track changes over time. Okay, so again, go to Mary de Bono.com Movement Detective Guide. And there's hyphens there and it's all lowercase. Okay, all lowercase. And again, it'll be in the description. So let me know how it, how it goes for you. Let me know what you notice. Maybe you have questions about what you're observing with your dog.

Remember, you know your dog better than anyone else. You are their best advocate and with the right tools, you can become an expert at reading their subtle signals. So thank you so much for joining me here and I look forward to hearing from you. Bye for now.