fourleg.com

I saw a dog yesterday ( 35 lb- M/N hound x) with a history of pulling up short of a jump if he does not have much speed going into it. He also carries the alternating back legs in a neutral position vs fully flexed or fully extended when clearing the jump.

Her agility instructor said he lacked rear end propulsion.

I do agility too and so had him do straight and bended jump grids at 8 inches ( he usually jumps 16 inches) and a longer line of jumps at 16 inches. He definitely could do full height easier when he was approaching at full speed vs the grids with shorter distance in between. The dogs have to jump in collection in grids in a way that they don't when the jumps are spaced out more in a straight line ( they run in extension)

Anyway, the only thing I could find was he was very painful on palpation of both sartorius muscles- like try to bite me painful. His iliopsoas muscles were not tight or painful and I could find nothing else obviously wrong.

I treated him with laser and tried to work on the trigger points with my hands .

I am trying to convince her to buy an Assisi loop so she can treat him at home more frequently.

I am going to recheck in one week to see if I missed anything as well as re-evaluating.

I had to do the whole exam with him standing- he fought big time side lying so I could not show her how to do any stretches at this point. He may be too painful just now to do them anyway.....

Wondering what else if anything I could do. I told her to walk him backwards on the flat and we may progress him to backing up uphill..

I like active stretches as part of a fitness program for my own dogs and for performance dogs and I usually suggest jumping over a long jump which is low and long vs jumping high over a typical agility jump. Anything else?

Thanks for any help- I will probably cross post on the vet rehab group if you see it there!!

Hi Carole,

I did see it on the VetRehab group. I still have it in my inbox because it was a question I wanted to think about and help you with. So, I'm glad you posted it here. (Because at least here, I'm a bit more obligated to respond... even if I'm busy!)

Okay, so, my first thought was that we can't necessarily lump these two things together into being the same cause / issue. The inability to jump grids and the sartorius trigger points.

The Grid jump issue could be lack of body awareness / lack of ability to collect. (Which maybe goes with the fact that the dog is a hound... or is that an inaccurate perception on my part!)

Maybe the sartorius trigger points are from overusing sartorius because the dog isn't collecting / using the abdominals or iliopsoas adequately, and sartorius is doing more than it's fair share of the workload. Maybe.

I'm not sure I can see it working in the reverse order (i.e. tight sartorius / MTrPs in sartorius CAUSING the jump-grid issues.) Trigger points tend to arise BECAUSE of something versus spontaneously for no reason.

So... I'm thinking you need a multi step / multi-prong approach.
1. Rx Sartorius: Stretches (you and/or the owner can do them in standing with the dog over your knee. Trigger point release (as tolerated). And your idea of walking backwards - flat and then uphill is a good one!

2. Work on the core / coordination / body awareness / purposeful movement. Check for a pelvis drop with a 3-leg stand/1-leg slide & test on flat, on wobbly, and on inflatable. Maybe go back to some basics: i.e. jump from a sit or a stand (over a jump or up onto a platform) - from a stable surface, then from a squishy surface (i.e. foam).

3. Check for other issues that could be impacting. I am finding tight diaphragms on so many of the sporting dogs and in conjunction with so many of the iliopsoas strains. I'd look for it anyways. Check / really poke at L4 - L6 - just to see if there is any potential irritation of the femoral nerve. (Not that this sounds like a femoral nerve case... but I'd throw it in as something to look for given the targeted findings on the sartorius.)

That's where I'd start anyways!

Please keep us posted!

Cheers,

Laurie