Laurie's Blogs.

I’m sure that all of you are on some kind of social media network.  Facebook.  Instagram.  Linked-In.  Twitter.  (Or Whatever!)  I use Facebook as a marketing platform mostly… and just a little bit of keeping up with family, friends, neighbours, and others in the canine rehab industry.  I’m on Linked-In, but I admit, I need to use it more often!  The others… I don’t get Instagram (maybe I’m too old – sure pictures are cute, but what are you promoting?  How are you promoting)?  Twitter, I tried, but ‘yuck’, I didn’t like it!  So, I’m going to talk about Facebook as a way to explain what I want to talk about.

Social media is a way to promote your services and highlight what you know and can do in order to solve a patient’s problem(s).  To this end, I have joined a number of Facebook groups.  I’m on two or three Calgary specific dog groups.  I’m on 4 or 5 local dog sporting groups, and 3 or 4 responsible dog breeders’ groups.  Beyond that I joined the Canine Cruciate Recovery Group, the IVDD and Other Back Disorders in Dogs group, the DodgersList-Disc Disease group, Canine Arthritis Support, Canine Conditioning and Body Awareness Exercises group… to name a few.  I originally joined them thinking that it might be good for marketing.  And yes, it might be!  However, it’s also good for pulling my hair out and wanting to scream into a pillow!

So, it’s not quite as simple as being able to put up a post or reply to a question with knowledge (hard earned, scientific knowledge)!!!  You see, there are plenty of folks with far less knowledge but far greater opinion who will also chime in… and try to discredit you, make you sound crazy, recommend the exact opposite of what you say, and so on.   Insert head banging here!

Quite simply, we’re not going to change that!  If ANY of us post something, there is a good chance that someone else will post something to the contrary.  BUT… we need to stand together, and we need to stand strong.  And that means all of us.  (All of us with education!) Not fragmented groups.  Not sub-facets of canine rehab practitioners.  Especially when it comes to a public Facebook page, we need to unite so that truth can be told.  Okay, so here’s the plan:

You go onto one of these groups and you see a post saying, “Find A Rehab Practitioner to help you with…”  Support that post.  Give it a like.  Maybe chime in that you agree.  I’m okay if you want to give a little advice – “Try…”  or “It could be… but if you can find a Rehab practitioner in your area that would be best!”   Sometimes the advice to just “Find a rehab person” is disappointing to the reader… which is why I sort of like to give a little bit of info along with that message.  I think it makes the reader more receptive to the suggestion.   I like to look for names of other practitioners I recognize and messages I agree with, so that I can be sure to like comments from those animal rehab colleagues.  See if you can do the same and find a trend.

Next part of the plan is the terminology you use.  I can’t stand when I see arguments going back and forth about, “See a rehab vet” versus “See a vet physio” versus simply “Find someone trained in canine rehab”.  Okay, we all have our stake in the game!!  However, a public forum might not be the place to argue.  It’s okay to say to a person that has posted that they had a sub-par experience with a rehab person, that they might want a second opinion or to try a different rehab practitioner.  (Because, lord knows, not all places are delivering the same quality of care, and there are places with NOBODY trained at all that are claiming to deliver ‘rehab’.)  So, might we use the terms Rehab Professional, or perhaps use Rehab vet / Vet physio / Trained rehab professional.  Because different countries use different titles, and different practitioners have different titles… so, why not be inclusive for all when it comes to educating the public?  And please support each other!  (Those of us that are educated that is!!!)

That is all for today!

Cheers!  Laurie