Pop up exercise for dogs
Posted: Sat May 21, 2016 2:20 am
Have you ever heard of an exercise for a dog call a 'Pop-Up'?
Here's a description (based on an e-mail question I received):
"One exercise she does is a "pop up"- described as front feet on a peanut against the wall the long way, then down into a sit followed by a quick "pop up" to standing. This makes MY knees hurt, along with other body parts! But, it could be that I've just never heard of this exercise and it is actually a good one."
I'm not a fan of these. Dog stifles weren't meant for it. We can visualize that we are putting the joint now into a more 'human' orientation and asking it to load like a human knee would. However, they have found that there are some people with an exaggerated 'slope' to their tibial plateau (not unlike dogs with a higher tibial plateau angle, which makes them susceptible to cruciate tears), so adding this 'new' force and stress to the stifle joint isn't likely to be helpful.
Now especially on a TPLO leg where the flexion will still cause a bit of cranial translation (just like doing the tibial thrust technique of flexing the tarsus with the stifle flexed), the translation will be accentuated because of the pull of the quads via the patellar tendon onto the tibial tuberosity (another cranial force).
So all in all, not my favourite for a 'normal stifle', let alone one that's had a TPLO.
YOUR thoughts?
-Laurie
Here's a description (based on an e-mail question I received):
"One exercise she does is a "pop up"- described as front feet on a peanut against the wall the long way, then down into a sit followed by a quick "pop up" to standing. This makes MY knees hurt, along with other body parts! But, it could be that I've just never heard of this exercise and it is actually a good one."
I'm not a fan of these. Dog stifles weren't meant for it. We can visualize that we are putting the joint now into a more 'human' orientation and asking it to load like a human knee would. However, they have found that there are some people with an exaggerated 'slope' to their tibial plateau (not unlike dogs with a higher tibial plateau angle, which makes them susceptible to cruciate tears), so adding this 'new' force and stress to the stifle joint isn't likely to be helpful.
Now especially on a TPLO leg where the flexion will still cause a bit of cranial translation (just like doing the tibial thrust technique of flexing the tarsus with the stifle flexed), the translation will be accentuated because of the pull of the quads via the patellar tendon onto the tibial tuberosity (another cranial force).
So all in all, not my favourite for a 'normal stifle', let alone one that's had a TPLO.
YOUR thoughts?
-Laurie