[alaskayorkie]

Originally Posted by Dougal&Little

I'm usually a fairly laid back person when it comes to the fur kids but we were out walking yesterday when we bumped into some fellow agility handlers (the ones with "real" dogs) and Dougal was running with "the big boys" and one of the ladies asks - does Dougal have a luxating patella?

OMG I freak out! I know that he hops sometimes - and so i got Dougal x-rayed before I started doing agility. The vet said there was a little looseness in the hip joint but he was fine.

So now I'm seeing his every move as confirmation of something wrong with his hind leg. And after a fast walk of about 4km (just over 2 miles) (our usual walk) Dougal seems quite stiff on his hind leg. It just isn't moving as freely as his other hind leg. He certainly seems worse after exercise. Does a luxating patella get worse with exercise? Is it some other degenerative disease because he's the world's biggest yorkie? Have I not been giving him enough cuddles?

I bumped into another agility lady in the park today and she's going to tell me about a really good dog chiropractor that all the agility handlers use and hopefully I can get Dougal looked at on Monday - the chiropractor only comes to Wellington once a fortnight.

But between now and then we have agility. Should I do it with the hurdles at about 15cm - 6" - or should I keep him off the hurdles? Dougal has been doing full mini height jumps of 38cm so 15cm is nothing to him. What about the contact equipment. The A Frame can put a lot of stress on the hind legs can't it? Admittedly the A frame isn't at full height, But still?

Argh sorry for the long post. I'm just so freaked out!!!

Ugh, welcome to my world. I took 3 months off because the vet "thought" Eddie had a knee problem. When the three months was over, he still wasn't sure. His advice is to continue with agility. His reasoning is that if he's got a bad knee, it's going to cause problems sooner or later whether he's doing agility or not. So why go overboard trying to protect him? He could hurt it walking down the street, just like he did originally.

Right or wrong, I've decided to do just that. If he hurts it, or favors it in class, then I'll stop and decide what to do. But I think pulling him out of agility and babying him for the rest of his life is going to diminish his quality of life, possibly for no good reason.

That said, if you're awaiting another diagnosis, I don't think it could hurt to have him go over minimum jumps and avoid the A frame altogether.

Sorry you're having to go through this. I don't think there's a "right" answer.