March 9, 2010

March 9, 2010: Week 14 and all is well

Winston is allowed anywhere in the house except for beds.  He thinks this stinks.  We figured if his leg bone was only 80% healed at 12 weeks, it's best to wait until at least 16 weeks before we risk him hopping off of one of the beds.  He's still got a lot of muscle atrophy in his left back leg, and a little bit in his right hind leg, but with any luck and a little time and some more PT exercises that will get better. 

I've started Winston (and Josie because whatever he does, she wants to do too -- especially when there's biscuits involved) back on some of his physical therapy exercises at home.  Also when we encounter people (with or without dogs) on our walks, I'm asking both my dogs to sit while the other folks go by.  I need some more practice with timing on that one.  If I give them the biscuits too soon, they'll both stand up and bark or lunge.  This is new behavior since Winston had all of his surgeries and Josie joined our family.  I think it starts with her, but I could be wrong.  I can tell that Winston isn't as trusting of people as he was before all of this.  Anyway, distracting and bribing them with biscuits seems to be working, so hopefully with time they'll just focus on me instead of whatever's going on around them.

After our afternoon walk, Winston gets some off-leash time in the back yard.  I take him out on the leash and wait until Josie has run around looking for any stray bunnies that might be in the yard, and then I let him off the leash.  So far so good with this.  He has done a few trots and a little gentle run from time to time but so far not a lot of activity and no full-out "get the bunny" running.  I won't let him in the front yard until he's built up his leg muscles a bit more. 

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