Helping a Dog Recover from a Knee Ligament Injury #9

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If you're interested in helping your dog recover fully from ANY injury (or to help reduce the risk of injury), I hope you tune in to this episode where I discuss how I helped a Labrador recover fully from his knee ligament (CCL) injury.

Key Points:

Habitual Limping: After recovering from surgery, the dog might still limp due to a protective habit formed during the injury and post-surgery phases.

Nervous System Focus: Instead of forcing weight on the injured leg, the approach focuses on working with the dog's nervous system to create a sense of safety and encourage positive movement experiences.

Building Confidence: The process involves addressing muscle tension, discomfort, and anxiety to help the dog regain confidence in using the affected leg.

Gradual Progress: Recovering from ingrained movement habits takes time and consistency.

Celebrating small improvements and maintaining a positive, stress-free environment are crucial.

Non-Forceful Techniques: Gentle hands-on work, simulated walking while lying down, and gradually shifting weight are used to encourage positive movement experiences.

Can be Applied to Any Injury or Difficulty - Principles can be applied to various injuries and improve mobility and confidence in dogs.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Hello. Today I wanna talk to you about helping a dog heal fully from a knee ligament injury. These injuries are so common with our dogs, and the, the knee ligament is the one that's often injured is called a CCL cranial cruciate ligament. But you may hear it called an ACL, that's actually an anterior cruciate ligament. We use that terminology with humans,

but a lot of people, including vets, use them interchangeably. So CCL and ACL, they're really usually talking about the same thing. So in this case, I wanna talk to you about a dog who had a wonderful surgeon. The dog had surgery that was considered quite successful, but even 10 months after the surgery, the dog was still limping and limping badly.

So in case we're just meeting for the first time, my name is Mary Debono and this is the Easier Movement, happier Dogs Podcast. And thank you so much for being here. So this dog was a five-year-old yellow lab named Sonny. And Sonny was like your typical lab, like super happy, super exuberant about everything, loved to run around and play.

He was just a super cool dog. And he tore his right CCL, so the, the right knee, so the right hind leg, that knee ligament. And of course, his people took him immediately to the veterinarian, and he ended up having surgery. And then after the surgery, despite their best attempts at doing everything that the vet said to do,

Sonny was still limping. And I mean, we're really talking like three-legged limping. So he would just keep holding that right hind leg up in the air. Sometimes he would put it down, but you can see that he was still really balancing on three legs. It would like be, it would touch the floor, but like not really support his weight.

So someone told his person, Linda, about me, and I remember going to their house and, and really cool house, and they're just super dog lovers. Animal lovers. Actually, they had horses as well. But I was greeted by a huge Tibetan mastiff, Sonny, the th the dog who was like balancing on three legs. The, he was a yellow lab and then they also had a chocolate lab.

So very, very noisy, happy household. So I start to work with Sonny and you know, I start to observe him first when I go there. And I see, yes, you know, he's definitely balancing on three legs. And, but I noticed, of course it also makes sense that his back was really tight. You could just see that,

that he didn't have that freedom in his back. And that I started to see that his right hind leg, the muscles all around it were really atrophied because he was hardly using it. And the muscles Of his left hind leg, they were larger, of course, they were also very tight. And I could see that he had a lot of tension in his shoulders because he was actually using his front end more than it was designed for,

because he couldn't power off that right hind. So, and I just wanna emphasize again that his people, Linda and her husband had taken Sonny back to the veterinary surgeon several times to make sure that there was nothing wrong with the surgery. Like with the surgical site, with the interior, you know, they did additional x-rays, did all kinds of different tests.

And the surgeon kept saying, I don't know why he is not using the leg. He should be using the leg by now. There was nothing wrong with the leg. So that's when I came in, again, this was like about 10 months after the surgery. So now this is where it gets kind of tricky because some people will think, oh,

well, what you have to do is you have to convince the dog that his right leg, right hind leg, is now healed, right? It's fixed, if you will, and it's healed. And you force him to stand on it by lifting up, say, the left hind. They try that probably a number of times because it's what was recommended to them.

I tend to not agree with that. I mean, maybe there's cases, I don't wanna say it's never a good idea. I don't, you know, I don't, I don't usually say that, but it's often not the best approach because if you think about it, the nervous system, anyone's nervous system, your nervous system, your dog's nervous system,

Sonny's nervous system is tasked with keeping us safe, okay? Keeping us safe and healthy. So the, the limping on that right hind leg had become a habit for Sonny. So in other words, his brain had figured out first from the original injury and then even after the surgery. 'cause it's very painful at first after the surgery. So his brain had figured it out,

okay, I need to protect that leg. So now, if you just take that protection away from him by holding up the left hind, what's going to happen is, yes, he may stand on the right leg, but is it gonna be a pleasant experience for him? Is it going to feel safe to his nervous system? Probably not, probably not.

And actually that can, that can exacerbate the habit of protecting that leg. So this is where you have to be really careful and I'll show you. So, so in this, in this episode, I will share with you what I did that was very different. That helps Sonny regain the full functioning of his body. Okay? But let me back up a little bit.

So the way I work is that I look at the whole dog. So in other words, it's not just, oh, okay, now his right hind is fixed, he should walk on it. That's the end of that subject, right? We just force him to walk on it. Okay? We, I just explained right why that will often backfire.

Okay? So I don't do that. But I also remember that Sonny is much more than his right knee, okay? His right stifle joint. He's much more than that. In other words, he has a whole body and mind that is part of his problem. In other words, it's not just that part. He, because he was compensating so much by favoring that right hind leg,

right? His back got really tight and like I mentioned, and his shoulders and the other hind leg. So I needed to work with all of Sonny, his, his body and his mind to help him realize that he could have confidence in his body. Again, that movement could feel good. And he didn't have to feel so fearful and protective about moving.

Now, if you were to look at this dog, you would never think he was feeling fearful because, you know, he was a happy lab, right? A happy Labrador. You know, he was still exuberant even though he didn't wanna use that right hind leg. So he was exuberant on three legs, but his internal state, his nervous system was in a protective mode.

Okay? So this is, this is important. And, you know, to help him get over that protection of, of feeling like he has to protect that right hind leg, I have to acknowledge that it was a good solution at first. In other words, his bodily wisdom, the wisdom of his nervous system said, we need to protect this right hind leg.

So I need to acknowledge that and say, yeah, that was a really good idea when you first injured it. Yes, you have to limp and get the weight off it after the surgery, yes, you're gonna limp and get the weight off it. So now to help him realize that he could have confidence in that leg, again, I have to tap into that same system,

his nervous system that is tasked with keeping him safe. And I have to communicate with that nervous system in a way that the nervous system can make sense of, okay? Not, it's not about forcing, it's not about, you know, just trying to convince the dog through those type of methods. Okay? We need to go in, in a positive way,

in a way that the nervous system will say, oh, this, I feel safe, and this feels good. Because when the nervous system feels safe, then it can learn something new. And when it experiences that movement is, you know, feels good, feels pleasurable, it will want to expand on that. Okay? So, okay, so my first order of business was,

okay, I need to meet Sonny where he is, okay. In his recovery. And start to help him feel that different parts of his body could feel better than they have felt in a long time. Okay? We're talking about almost a year here since all this started. So, but my first challenge was actually getting Sonny to lie down. Now I can work with dogs standing up and you'll,

you'll hear later in the episode, I purposely work with him standing up and I work with horses all the time, and they don't tend to, to lie down on cue. So you can work with a dog standing up. But I knew I'd have a much better chance at helping really communicate with Sonny's nervous system in a very efficient, effective way if he was lying down.

But Sonny was so excited that I was over to his house because that's how he got with guests, that he didn't wanna just lie down. So this is, I'm pointing this out because you might have a similar dog. Your dog might be like, what are you doing? I don't wanna just lie here. Maybe your dog is nervous about it. You know,

in Sonny's case, he didn't seem nervous, he was just excited, right? But maybe your dog just thinks, you know, I want you to play with me, or I want you to rub my belly. Or, you know, or maybe your dog is a little bit like, what are you doing? So I'm gonna tell you what I did to help Sonny learn to settle.

So Sonny did know the cue down. He did know that. So I would ask him to, to lie down, ask him to fur a down. And of course, you know, he would do it, but he would pop right back up, you know, he was like, okay, I'll lie down for like a nanosecond and then pop back up.

So what I, so his person gave me some, some dog biscuits and I broke them into tiny, tiny, tiny pieces. And I started rewarding him for lying down. Now, this is the thing you can get into. A crazy thing about this is that if you just keep handing over biscuits, the dog is gonna be very distracted and keep popping up and lying down,

popping up and lying down. What I needed to do was to build duration. So in other words, I would ask him for the down. At first, I gave him the little piece of biscuit right away, but then I started just very, very gradually increasing the time before I gave him the biscuit. So he started to learn to, okay,

I need to settle right to get the biscuit. 'cause he was very food mo motivated, which is, you know, usually labs are right and many, many dogs are. So that is one thing I did. Now I'll talk later too, about how you have to really watch for different signs if your dog is anxious. 'cause what we want to do is create a learning environment for the dog.

You have to think about this. This is not like physical therapy in the traditional way at all. This is actually, you are teaching the dog how they can move in a healthier, more efficient way. So it's a learning environment that we're looking for. That means that the dog shouldn't feel anxious. 'cause your brain won't learn positive things generally when you're feeling really anxious.

And, you know, we just want to create the conditions for learning. So started getting him used to lying down, but then, and this is key, I wanted to provide him with like a quick win, if you will. In other words, I wanted to use my hands in such a way that he recognized, Ooh, that feels good.

So I saw that, for example, his back was tight. I saw that his shoulders were tight. Oh, the other thing I wanna point out is this is important. I worked with his, I, I had him lie down so that the uninjured side, the unrated side was facing me so that he wouldn't feel worried that I was going to hurt him in any way.

So this is important, generally speaking. Now there's no absolutes, but generally speaking, I like to work with the less affected side first. Okay? And there's many reasons for that. One of them being that it tends to help the dog feel calmer and less worried. Okay? That's one of the reasons. There's other, other reasons as well. So he was lying down and with the uninjured side up,

okay? Which was his left side. And I started working right away with relieving the tension and the strain in his back. Because think about it, if, if you're a dog and you're used to being on four legs and you're balancing on three legs all the time, now think of what your back has to do to compensate for that. The left hind has to do more work as well.

And the shoulders, even the neck gets involved. The whole, the whole shebang. Okay? So I wanted to give him that quick win, so to speak. You know, that open door, like, okay, when I do this, this is gonna feel good. So it it, I had to be patient, okay? And you have to be patient with your dog.

Have to be patient, okay? And, you know, 'cause again, he was very wiggly and all that. But I started to more and more be able to gently support his muscles in such a way that it felt really good. Oh, and I should point out right now that this story I'm telling you is actually written in detail in my book,

grow Young with Your Dog. Okay? I'll have a link in how you can get it. You can get it either digitally, which is the lowest price point or soft cover from Barnes and Nobles and Amazon. And it's also on Kindle. So once he started to recognize that not only was he getting the food treat every, just once in a while now,

okay? 'cause I was building duration, but he was, it was also feeling good. He didn't really need to rely on the food motivation to lie down. Okay? And that can take a while. So don't, you know, don't be in a hurry. That can take a while before your dog realizes that, oh, this gentle hands-on stuff feels really good.

Okay? But that's where I was going with this. So I started working, relieving the tension all along his back. And I have, I have trainings about this too, just so you know, on how to do this. But I need to cover the, the why first. Okay? So I helped him feel that I helped him feel how his shoulders could be freer and helped him feel just more comfortable in his shoulders.

Okay? So, and then I just started very gently moving the unaffected limbs in different ways and actually worked a lot with his rib cage, okay? Helping him feel how it could move in different ways. 'cause that was gonna be very useful once he stood up and walked. Okay? So then I started doing, you know, a whole bunch of different things because this is,

but again, very gently, because this is really important to remember the brain. You get the attention of the nervous system, the brain, and all the other parts of the nervous system by doing things that are non habitual, that are novel. Okay? So, you know, a dog, for example, is used to being, you know, stroked,

right? His people were always petting Sonny, right? He loved it and they loved him. So of course, you know, they were doing that. The work I was doing felt very different. Okay? It felt good as well as petting does, but it felt also very different. And it was giving him a sense of relief. So all of these things were getting the attention of his nervous system.

So he started to process what I was doing. It wasn't being tuned out. And the other thing I did is I started, as he's lying down, moved his limbs very, very gently and slowly as if to simulate walking. Okay? So now, now listen to this 'cause this is really cool, okay? Is that you can actually simulate standing up and walking while a dog is lying down.

Okay? And I'll explain that because, and, and I'll tell you why that's so important. Because when the dog is standing, they already have all these habits. Remember we talked about that earlier, that there's that habit because oh, I'm worried about my right hind leg, so I have to protect it and I've got a tense here and put more weight on this leg and throw things off into my opposite shoulder or whatever.

That's a habit, okay? And the dog has to deal with gravity, right? And has to deal with this whole balancing act. So there's certain habits will be, will immediately come into play if the dog is standing. But if the dog is lying down, well, now those habits are not necessary. But the key thing is here. Now,

how do we associate that in the dog's brain with standing up and walking? And I'll tell you how there's a little trick, and this is, this is something that was developed not by me, but by Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, who developed the Feldenkrais method for humans. And I adapted a lot of his work to four-legged animals. I also work with humans.

So we'll get to you in a moment. But, so I've taken a lot of his teachings and adapted them to animals. So Moshe Feldenkrais had something that is called an artificial floor or a false floor. And by what he had discovered is if a person, for example, is lying down, so just imagine you're lying on your back, okay? You're on the floor or on a comfortable table,

you're lying on your back and you, you know, and somebody takes maybe, maybe like a hardcover book or some other, some other firm object and puts it against the bottom of a, of one of your feet. When your brain recognizes that sensation of something firm and flat against the foot, it starts to organize as if it's standing. So in other words,

parts of the brain light up as if to say, oh, okay, I guess we're standing up now, right? Because that's what's associated with that feeling, right? If your foot's on the ground, right? It, it has those neural connections are very strong. Oh, that means we're, we're standing. So you can actually start to introduce the concept of standing while a dog is lying down.

And again, I'm gonna repeat why this is so important. When the dog is actually standing, the dog has to deal with all kinds of things with balance and dealing with gravity. And, you know, all those habits of protection come into play. This is a way to bypass that, okay? The dog is lying comfortably down, you know, on,

on his side, right? Sonny didn't have to cope with gravity and how to balance on three legs, right? He's just lying there. But I could start to give his brain his nervous system, like the experience of standing. And I'm saying that in air quotes, it's not really standing, but I'm starting to introduce the idea of standing. And in,

in my book, I also talk about a dog named Rocky that's in chapter two. And I also detail how I did that with Rocky. He had a lot, he was an older dog that had a lot of hind end weakness, okay? And I helped him. And that was one of the strategies I used is this idea of the artificial floor.

And you can then start to play with, and again, I, this, this episode is not meant to actually teach you the hands-on work. I actually have an online program I'll be introducing very soon that will guide you through it. The book will also give you lots of really great ideas and comes with online resources like videos and things as well. So,

so with Sonny, who, by the way, he was only five years old, Sonny, I was giving him the experience of standing while he was comfortably laying down. So his brain started to feel like, oh, it's like I'm organizing for standing while my back is relaxed. Okay? That's key. 'cause remember what I said earlier? Every time he stood up,

he tightened his back and he tightened that left hin leg and he tightened his shoulders. Well, now he's getting the sort of, we'll call it a pseudo experience or a, or a practice run of standing, if you will, without having those habits brought into play. This is big, okay? This is what's going to help his nervous system feel like,

oh wow, I don't have to keep bringing those habits in. This actually feels better to not protect the right hind, okay? And that's what we want. We want something better than what he is doing. Gonna say it again, his bodily wisdom, right? The, the wisdom of Sonny, okay? Created that limp to protect him, to keep him safe.

Now I have to tap into that same bodily wisdom, right? His nervous system and say, Hey, that's no longer working for us, right? It was a great idea at first when we were first injured and first had the surgery, but now it's obsolete. Now it's actually working against us. This feels better. And the nervous system will eventually,

it didn't happen in one session, by the way. This took several sessions, but it eventually replaced that habit with something better. And let me stop here and say this applies to you too. We all have habits in how we sit, how we stand, how we walk, how we run, how we do everything, okay? How we sit at the computer,

how we drive our cars. We have neuromuscular habits around these activities. And they, generally speaking, started as a good solution, or I should say a solution may not have been the best one, but a solution to a problem we were having. Maybe we hurt our, our right foot and we started to limp. And even after the foot healed,

we kept what I call an echo of that limp. Maybe it caused our pelvis to like tilt a little to the side or tighten one side of our back or tighten one shoulder more than the other. I mean, all kinds of things can happen. It, those are habits, okay? And the best way to change them is to work with the system that created them in the first place.

Okay? And that's what I was doing with Sonny. And I do this with humans as well too. We have all kinds of movement awareness exercises that are in this book, by the way, that will help you overcome those things. Okay? So back to Sonny. So that was really cool. And again, I wanna emphasize Sonny was not the easiest dog to work with because of his friendliness and his exuberance.

Okay? So your dog may be, again, I wanna point out maybe not sure what you're doing or maybe just not in the mood to relax. The most important things are you set up the environment to the best of your ability. In other words, if your dog is otherwise healthy, it just has a lot of, the dog has a lot of energy,

you make sure that you start doing this kind of work with your dog. When the dog is at a natural downtime, in other words, the dog has already had lots of exercise, maybe has already been fed. You know, you set up the environment so that you and the dog are as successful as possible, and you bring a big dose of patients with you,

okay? And you make sure that what you're doing feels pleasurable to the dog. We want that positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is not only about food, it's about pleasurable, nice experiences, okay? That feel really good that your dog's nervous system will want to recreate on his own. Okay? So, okay, so I did all this stuff with, with Sonny,

and then it came to the point that, okay, now I was ready to ask Sonny to stand up. Okay? So I helped him stand up and you know, this was again where, okay, now let's not get excited here. But he was, he was more relaxed because the work itself can be very, very relaxing. And that helped calm him down.

Now here's the thing, I didn't want to again, just have him go onto that right hind leg. No, no, no, no. Because I that I knew his nervous system was still going, oh, we gotta protect that. We gotta protect that. So what I did instead was I fully supported him with my hands as he's standing. And then I very gently,

and, and again, I I, it's not the place to, to actually explain how to do this with your hands, but I do talk about it in the book and in the online training. We, we'll go into this in great detail, but I started working with him in such a way that I was very slowly and gently taking his weight,

like in a circle, so that in other words, I put a little bit more weight. Like I shifted his body weight a little bit more onto his left front leg. And then immediately after that, onto his left hind, and then a teeny touch onto his right hind and, but came off of it right away onto his right front and did these little circles where I could gradually expand how much weight he was getting on that right?

Hind, this is very different than just saying, oh, hold up that left hind leg, and force him to put all that weight onto his right hind, okay? This is very, very different. This is a way of telling his nervous system. Look, you can have a pleasant experience of bearing more weight on their right hind, but before the nervous system has a chance to go,

oh, we don't do that. You know, oh wait, danger, danger, we were off of it. So this is really crucial. You want to give the dog these pleasant experience, these pleasurable, these safe feeling experiences, okay? It's not about forcing anything. So we did that, and then I helped him walk around. Now again,

I wanna point out, this wasn't just so the, that was the first session, but it wasn't like he was a hundred percent at the end of that session. Okay? It was, it was not like that. He still had evidence of a limp when I left that day, okay? But I did come back, I came back several times,

and by the end of my, you know, of those several times, he had no more limp. Okay? I, but it took a while. So I wanna emphasize this. This is why it's so important that you celebrate every little bit of progress. And even, I'm gonna, this is gonna sound funny, but even progress you don't see,

okay? Like, even pro, like, you're like, I'm not sure, okay, is your dogs breathing more relaxed? These are important things to look for. I was really careful with Sonny as I am with every animal that I wasn't increasing any anxiety. 'cause again, he wasn't the type of dog that would look anxious like, obviously. But,

you know, I was looking for the, you know, the look around the eye that changes the, the wrinkles on the face. The change in breath is a big one. Just even the feel of the, of the muscles under my hands. I was looking for all the signs that we look for, you know, the set of the ears.

Like so many things we know indicate, oh, maybe the dog's getting a little nervous. You know, maybe there's some of that licking they're doing okay. Or yawning can be yawning can, there's different reasons why dogs lick and yawn, okay? But sometimes it's anxiety. So I was looking for all those, you know, signals that would tell me,

oh, he might be getting a little anxious about this. And I wanted to totally stay away from that. So in other words, I didn't wanna give his nervous system a sense of, oh, there's a little bit of danger here. So this is important when you're working with your own dogs as well, that you're really monitoring them. Are they,

you know, are they stressing about this a little bit? Okay. Or a lot you d don't want either one of those. Okay? So let me just go over the, the key points, if you will. Okay? So we have to remember that just like you, your dog can get into what we call like bad habits that affect their mobility and their freedom of movement.

And they can over time, what happens is these maladaptive habits, you know, they start, I want, I wanna emphasize they start out with a usually a good reason to, to have them, but they become obsolete, they become maladaptive, they become, you know, not helpful anymore, okay? So, and they will affect mobility, they will affect your dog's confidence in their body,

all kinds of things. So this is important to recognize, okay? And it, it, it's really crucial that we address them so they don't spiral into worse problems. Because if you think about this, let's, again, we'll stick with our example with Sonny Sonny's, right? Hind leg was the one that was injured and repaired. Now, if he kept overusing that left hind leg because he was still protecting the right hind over time,

it's very possible he would've torn the, the left CCL, the left cranial cruciate ligament, the knee ligament on the left side, okay? Or created some other problem. I mean, he was on the path to having spinal problems because of the way he was using himself to compensate for the, the limping he was doing. He was on track to,

you know, injure his shoulders because he was overusing them. Okay? So it's really important that we break that vicious cycle. I call it a downward spiral. We want to interrupt that, but we have to do it in a, in an educated way, okay? In a really mindful way that we're working with the dog's nervous system and not trying to impose our will on the dog's nervous system,

because that generally will backfire. Okay? So, and, and it's not as, as nice to be honest. So we don't wanna do any of the forced things. We want to encourage comfortable, easy, pleasurable movement, okay? This will, this will allow the dog's nervous system to say, Hey, this feels better. I want more of this.

Okay? And then we have to recognize too, that novelty, right? Touching them, supporting them in different ways will get the attention of the nervous system in a, in a positive way if it's done in a positive manner. In other words, there's lots of ways you can get the dog's attention. Like use novelty. You could use a, you know,

a, a scary noise or something. No, no, no. Don't do that. Okay? That will get the attention in a, an alarming way. We want to, to get the dog's at tension of the nervous system in a way that feels safe and pleasurable. Okay? And I did that by bringing in non habitual movements, non habitual contact,

things like that. Artificial floor, et cetera. Okay? Lots of different ways, okay? And I teach this, and then I just wanna point out that really be patient with your dog. Whether your dog is, you know, overly exuberant or tense or distracted or whatever, please be patient, okay? You are in a learning stage, your dog is in a learning stage,

and it's like, let's do this together. Let's, let's learn how to do this together, because you'll find it's so creative. It's actually really, really fun. Like, I get so much joy outta doing this because it, first of all, I love to help others, I love to help other animals, and they're humans. So that feels good.

I also feel very connected to the dog I'm working with because we are in this together. It's not something I'm doing to the dog, it's something I'm doing with the dog. So it's very collaborative and it's like you just, you, you both become very attentive to the same thing. So you have this really strong feeling of connection and communication because that's what you're doing.

You're communicating with your hands. I always say you're asking questions with your hands because we are not manipulating, we are supporting and suggesting, okay, supporting and suggesting. So it's like, ah, how does this feel? Does this feel easy? You know, you're asking questions, never forcing, okay? And you know, really pay attention to any signs of stress that your dog may be exhibiting.

Okay? And then you need to back off, you need to change something. And then lastly, celebrate progress. Now your progress might be, oh, my dog lied down, you know, for a minute, and I was able to just put my hands lightly on my dog's rib cage. Yay. That's great, that's awesome. Or maybe you didn't even get that far.

That's okay. You had the intention, or your dog was lying there and you just thought about putting your hands there. I mean, that sounds silly, but it's not. Baby steps work, okay? Baby steps work. You just be consistent and you know, again, set up your environment so that your dog's in the best state, if you will,

to receive this. And, you know, you also make sure you're well fed, that you're well exercised, that you feel good, okay? And again, we go into much more detail. I talk about that a lot in the book, how you can, you know, set up the environment. And certainly in the online course, the online group coaching program,

we'll be going into much greater detail with your individual situation, okay? And your dog, and what your dog needs. And I can help you with all that. So, okay, well, I hope this was helpful for you. I hope it gave you a different way of looking at recovery of injury. This doesn't just apply to knee ligament injuries,

okay? This can be anything, this can be some other kind of injury. This can be just addressing a downward spiral of an older dog, okay? It doesn't have to be like an acute injury. It could be, you notice your dog's back is getting tight, it's getting stiff. I see it all the time. You know, dogs start to change how they walk because the back starts getting tight,

they're still doing all the things. So many times the people don't notice those changes. But it's letting me know by just watching a dog walk or stand, that things are maybe starting in that downward spiral. Okay? So this applies really to basically every dog. Okay? So I wanna thank you so much for listening, for being here. I love sharing this info.

I wanna help you and your dog. And remember, you have your own habits as well, and we also treat you with kindness and in a way to communicate with your nervous system so you can feel better and better because you and your dog deserve to feel great together. Now, if you find this podcast helpful, please leave a review wherever you listen to the podcast.

The podcast is called Easier Movement, happier Dogs. I'm Mary Debono, and I'm so, so appreciative of you being here. Also, please subscribe so you don't listen episode, and I can't wait to talk to you again very soon. Bye for now.