After a morning with horses we had an afternoon of dogs. We had a selection of young and old dogs, healthy and not so healthy. A 10yo spaniel, 8yo golden retriever, a l0yo lab, a couple of terriers, and about 10 farm dogs. Having never really been around working farm dogs it was amazing to see just how well behaved they were.
We went through articulation of the limbs again before moving on to the spine. As working osteopaths it was pretty straight forward once we had ideas on how to position ourselves and hold the dog. Stuart gave us some examples in standing, sitting and lying. While he likes treating dogs standing he explained that its sometimes just not possible and in those situations you have to work with what the dog gives you.
It was like everything just fell into place today. What we’ve been doing is exactly what we do on humans, just on dogs and horses. Once we understand body positioning and movement expectations then its about balance and tissue quality. Their muscles and joints are just like ours, except they stand on four legs rather than two. In a lot of situations they are much more simple to treat than humans as they are less complicated.