My late Jilly had a lst degree LP in each knee so I never had her to any tricks of any kind to increase her usage of those bad joints in any way that wasn't just an everyday part of her daily living activities. She was taught to come, wait, stop and stand in place and not to dart out the door (which she wasn't the least bit interested in anyway) but other than that, I had her do no extra things other than our walks outside and normal play. She lived to be 13 and never had a limping session or any trouble walking, jumping or any problems with the knee catching or popping. She never bit at or seemed to have any special trouble in her knees but with that diagnosis, I was very careful of how she lived her life to avoid stressing those little knees. I don't know if that helped her knees or not but I just couldn't ask her to do things that called for her to do extra bends of her knees in doing tricks knowing she had a mild case of bilateral patellar subluxation.
__________________  Jeanie and Tibbe One must do the best one can. You may get some marks for a very imperfect answer: you will certainly get none for leaving the question alone. C. S. Lewis |