mattuga
Banned
My Choc lab is 10.5 years old and showing signs of her hips weakening for about a year. We go a little easy on her compared to the past with fetching and exercise. She has always been in excellent shape her whole life through hunting or general play.
That said now that she is slowing down what degrades the hips more, time or running on the hips? If it is time then I'd like her to have good play days but if it is more a factor of how hard she works then we'd drastically slow her fetching to just keep her weight down and do a lot more swimming. I can feel her hips are not as strong but it is more of a recovery time thing for her soreness than wearing down too soon exercising.
She has been a great dog and her health is fine but I will have all pertinent health clearance for my next lab.
Any advice on how the hips age more through time or "hip use" is of interest to me in her slowing down phase.
That said now that she is slowing down what degrades the hips more, time or running on the hips? If it is time then I'd like her to have good play days but if it is more a factor of how hard she works then we'd drastically slow her fetching to just keep her weight down and do a lot more swimming. I can feel her hips are not as strong but it is more of a recovery time thing for her soreness than wearing down too soon exercising.
She has been a great dog and her health is fine but I will have all pertinent health clearance for my next lab.
Any advice on how the hips age more through time or "hip use" is of interest to me in her slowing down phase.