Front Matter

Chapter 8 Therapeutic Exercise 191

Wobble board technique: Place the weakest
legs on the board, whether the thoracic or pel­
vic limbs or, in small to medium sized patients,
all four limbs. The rehabilitation therapist can
control the patient using a harness if needed
and should try not to let the dog lean on them
for support. The rehabilitation therapist applies
nonrhythmic movements to the board, forcing
the patient to react to maintain balance.
Wobble board progression: Feet that are not
on the board can be placed on an elevated and/
or unstable surface (disc or noodle), shifting the
weight onto the weak limbs on the board. This
increases the difficulty from simple balance to
balance accompanied by strength. When multi­
ple reps of this exercise are too easy, the patient is
moved to a more challenging unstable surface
such as a ball or to more difficult land exercises.

Weaves

Goal: Walk through the pattern of poles in a coor­
dinated manner (good body posture) and make a
tight pivot turn at each end of the pattern.
Technique: Use a minimum of six traffic
cones set 18 to 48 inches apart, depending upon
the patient’s size and current level of ability
(more closely placed cones are more difficult).
The patient should walk alternately to the right
and the left of the cones with the handler stay­
ing outside of the pattern. The patient should
pivot tightly around each end pole to work on

balance while making sharp turns. To improve

flexibility or proprioception on one side of the

patient, use an odd number of cones. This

causes the patient to have to turn in the same

direction around each end pole. Agility dogs

should not do this exercise because it might

interfere with their performance of the weave

poles by training a similar but different skill

that should be performed more slowly than is

required in competition.

Progression: More tightly spaced cones, step­

ping over poles when walking beside the cones,

faster reps.

Proprioception

Progression: Once the patient can navigate each

of the proprioceptive activities, proprioception

can be further improved by having the dog per­

form multiple different exercises in a circuit. This

can be further advanced by having the dog per­

form multiple repetitions of the entire circuit.

Balance and weight shifting

Goal: Improve balance and isometric

contraction.

Balance beam

Technique: Using the planks described above,

the patient is asked to walk along a plank with­

out stepping off.

Figure 8.15 Trotting in a zigzag pattern up and down a hill enhances proprioception as each step is at a different
height. Source: Photo by Whitney Rupp.