4 weeks post TPLO: Rehab Phase 2

I feel like we've gotten through the first phase of Riley's ordeal. 4 weeks of strict confinement and limited activity has paid off. He is doing great. These past two days, things have changed around here. Riley is allowed a 15-20 minute walk with me and Sabrina in the morning at the park. No one is really around that early in the morning so it's perfect. I think Riley is beginning to understand that he is not allowed to run or jump. Even when Sabrina comes charging at him, he calmly stops and braces himself. I have been trying hard to teach her that she cannot go barreling into him. She loves to stalk him from across the field, then charge at him, and ending up crashing into him. I can sometimes stop her before she gets into that "zone" but, like I said, I've been trying hard and she's just a puppy. I think she is just so thrilled that her brother is out walking with her again! I have chosen some open space where there are gentle hills so that we can work on using those hind legs equally to walk up hills. I haven't yet started the figure 8's but I think I will tomorrow.

So in addition to the longer walks, Riley is also going upstairs with us every night to sleep in the bedroom again. He is still carried upstairs as the floors are too slippery for him and I don't think he feels safe on them yet. But in the bedroom, he can crawl under the bed and boy was he thrilled the first night we brought him up! He trotted right over to his usual spot under my side of the bed and poked his head under there, as if just to check that his spot was still there. Last night was the second night we brought him up and this morning we found Riley and Sabrina sleeping together in the dog bed. It was precious.

Additional exercises include sit to stand exercises, which I have to keep to a minimum because it requires me giving out treats and it's been so hard to keep his weight down. The poor dog is willing to eat anything now: cantalope, honey dew, green beans, carrots, bananas, even garlic! Things that if I used to offer him, he would just glance at before he looked at me as if to say, "are ya kidding me? What else ya got?" Now he's eating everything. Anyways, this is an exercise that is easy to do with him and I can see his progress. He is better able to get into a square sit now. That means his leg is no longer exstended staight out to the side in a lazy sitting position, meaning he's more comfortable with his knee in flexion. Yay!

In 5 more weeks, we will be taking Riley and Sabrina to a cabin in Maine for the holiday week. Wouldn't it be wonderful if he could play off leash in the snow by then?