Laurie's Blogs.

Remember the blog about why dog owners post rehab questions on Facebook?  Well, I found another article that plays into the comments about the rehab professionals not being able to help their dogs get back to sport, or were unable to prescribe adequate exercises, or couldn’t adequately train the dogs and humans to do the exercises.

This article is ‘human’ because that’s where there is research about such things.  It is a look at symmetry between hamstring and quadriceps strength after ACL reconstruction and makes mention of return to sport.  Here’s the paper:

Harput G, Tunay VB, Ithurburn MP. Quadriceps and Hamstring Strength Symmetry After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction: A Prospective Study. J Sport Rehabil. 2020 Jan 24:1-8.

The part that caught my eye was in the conclusion.     Participants demonstrated a consistent increase in quadriceps and hamstring strength of the involved limb, with no notable change in uninvolved limb strength over the 6 months after ACL reconstruction. However, at 6 months after ACLR, only approximately 16% of participants demonstrated both quadriceps and hamstring strength Limb Symmetry Indices greater than 90%, the typically recommended cutoff value for return to sport.

That number caught my eye.  It fits with the cry from the dog owners to help get their sporting dogs to that point within / after rehab!  

One CANINE research paper that looked at return to sport after injury (Thomlinson & Manfredi 2018). They reported that based on a survey of 427 persons, 67.4% of dogs returned to competition post-orthopaedic injury, but jump height was lowered in 47% of cases.  Furthermore, dogs that had undergone stifle surgery had the worst prognosis for return to agility and if they did return, they were more likely to drop a class.

A second study (Heidorn, Canapp, Zink et al 2018) found that the prognosis for returning to agility competition was good for dogs undergoing TPLO – 65%.  Of these dogs, 80% returned to sport within 9 months after TPLO and the average recuperation time being 7.5 months. Of the dogs that returned, the time frame varied from 3 months to 12 months.

However, neither of these papers (and none that I could find) dove into REHABILITATION for return to sport.  So, it seems we have an untapped area of study AND a need for rehab practitioners to think about taking a canine athlete back to a competition level of strength and fitness!!!

I hope this serves to get your wheels spinning and to think about the services you offer to this clientele base!



Cheers!  Laurie