Laurie's Blogs.

Hello most esteemed colleague,

     I look forward to watching your videos on Monday morning before my day.  Thank you so much!

     Lately I've been pondering how to best strengthen the canine shoulder to prevent these [Teres Major Strain] injuries.  I teach exercises like play bow push ups, theraband, work on and off blocks/on three legs, etc.  I'm not a fan of wheelbarrowing as it's not so good ergonomically for people or dogs.  I also work on lay-down lateral crunch while pushing up with dependent leg, wave, etc.  Of course not everyone has access to a pool or underwater treadmill.  Its tough when you have Papillons and little agility dogs as they are difficult to use Therabands on.  I have a Papillon right now that was lame recently and painful on extension and abduction of shoulder so I thought Medial Shoulder Instability (MSI).  Last year, this dog was examined by a PT who found pain on shoulder extension but did not posit any possible cause.  So I am thinking he has a chronic injury now.  You cannot see any lameness when he moves (which is constantly) right now.  But, when I watched a video of him trailing, I wonder if it is possible for this dog to have a Teres Major strain as well.  I do feel the angle of abduction is increased on the affected side.  Is it possible to have a Teres Strain without MSI?    It seems to me MSI would predispose to Teres strain as the muscle may kick in to compensate and be prone to injury?  Just a thought.  Curious.

     Any shoulder strengthening exercises for petite agility dogs with MSI?   The papillon I'm working with is a super drivey intact male, who's in constant motion.  A challenge to design exercises for him other than play bow push ups and work on the ball.  He will not lay down on his side or allow much manual therapy.  I'm trying to help him to last in agility career.  

     I hope these questions are timely and precipitate some thought…

Cheers to you too!

DTR

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Hello!!!

I'm so glad you are liking all of the videos, etc! 

Okay... so to your questions:

I see so much fewer of these Teres Major strains than I did in the past.  My thoughts are that:

1) Ever since I started finding these, I've been getting people to do stretches (shoulder extension) as part of their routine (after practice, end of day, etc)... not immediately before practice / competition... those times require ACTIVE warm up.  

2) I also think that I've seen less because some organizations have lowered the jump heights, lowered the A-frame, and NAADAC plans their courses for less of the tight turns.

3) People are actually thinking about conditioning their dogs now as compared to 15 years ago!

When trying to get little dogs to do any sort of 3-legged exercises,  put them up on 2 blocks - so that they (like the big dogs) now have an incentive to stay standing up on their feet.

I wonder whether training to prevent should include not only stability stuff (i.e. balls and pods, and stuff like that), but also dynamic stuff like 'throwing a ball' in a small space to work on acceleration / deceleration and turns (without the full speed component).  Maybe working on hills would help with strength... but do some at a walk and a couple at a trot (challenging for the human too)!  Games of 'goalie' would be good to work on that side to side motion as well!

[Oh... and the goalie game would be kicking a ball at the dog... but instead of trying to get if over the dog to make them run, you try to get them to block you... like a hockey or soccer goalie!  Could also be done with a bouncy ball - bounce onto the ground in front of them... but ensure enough space that the dog can make an attempt to intercept.]

And... I find a lot of soft tissue injuries of the shoulder have a Medial Shoulder Instability link.  Especially in the sporting dog clientele in cases where they have on/off problems or recurrent injuries.  So whenever I find a shoulder soft tissue injury, I now always look for a MSI / hypermobility.  But yes, I do think you can have a T.Maj strain that is an isolated injury as well however.

And, and... if they have access to a land treadmill, then I quite like backwards walking on the treadmill 

- all four legs on or 

- just the fronts (with rears on a platform, or ball / disc / donut

- just the rears on (with the fronts on a disc or 'pods' or hot water bottle)

Great thoughts and questions!

Cheers,

Laurie