Nice To Meet You All!

[gailrobinleclaire]

HI, I live in massachusetts with my family (husband, 2 teenage girls) and (1) 9 yr old newfy(Cosmo) & (1) 5 month old Border Collie(Princess "Belle").
Belle's front left leg was broken on the growth plate shortly after she was born. She joined our family at 6 weeks old and she is under doctors care for her leg. It is now beginning to bow but does not seam to cause her pain. I would like to teach her agility and would like any feed back as to anyone's experience in working with active dog breeds with bowed leg.
Thank you

 

[bekah1001]

Welcome! Awe poor Belle

 

[ambara]

Welcome!

I'd be very cautious about doing agility with Belle because it's impossible to know if she is in pain or not, dogs don't usually show signs of pain until it's quite bad. Also agility is really demanding on the body and can even cause problems on it's own so for a dog that isn't in a perfect physical condition... I don't know. I don't really do agility with Hauru because he's back legs are crooked and he's right elbow isn't perfect either. I just don't want to risk him getting worse or having any pains because of my actions. On the other hand I do let him run and jump around as much as he likes but I just feel that agility is a different matter than him moving on he's own accord. If you decide to do it, at least always be very pedantic about her warm ups etc. I feel like lot of people don't take these things seriously enough so I'm sorry if I come across preachy

 

[sara]

I dont have any experience with working breeds with bowed legs specifically, but here's my thoughts on the subject. Until she's fully grown, I would avoid any strenuous exercise, like agility or flyball. you want to make sure her leg wont be made worse.

Until then, you can teach her tricks that dont put stress on her front legs, which is most of them. the more she's used to learning new things, the easier it'll be to teach her agility later on. you can get a jump start on some agility by teaching her to walk across a plank, drop on recall, that sort of thing. You could get involved with Canine Freestyle, which is relatively stress free on joints, depending on the tricks you choose.

Keep her busy and her mind active, and you shouldn't have an issue with her.

 

[karleee]

Welcome!

 

[Dodge]

Awww,your poor pup,you must ve gone through some heartache while she was healing ))hugs((
A very warm welcome to you,I would suggest the same as Sara,even with healthy pups you should not start agility untill at least a year old (so I ve been told,had a mad thought when dodge was a pup that it would be a good idea to set up agility course in my friends garden as ours was and still is far to small) because of the bone and joint development (dont quote me on this,never got into it properly,I just didnt chance it)
Have fun teaching her,looking forward to pics and a chat

 

[Lexy88]

Welcome to the DTA Sorry to hear about Belle. It isnt recommended to start teaching agility to dogs until theyre a certain age, well, the height stuff anyway - so no jumping, dog walks, teeter totters, A frames etc and fast work like running and weaving wouldnt be recommended to a young dog with an injury either. In our country [NZ] dogs have to be 18mths before theyre allowed to start the agility obstacles. Belle is only young and has a lot of growth and maturation to go through so I would stick to quiet work like tricks and obedience until she is older and a vet has given her the 'ok' to go ahead with agility type work. Good luck