It’s now just over a week since our visit to the doggy physio and Beanie is noticeably more stable on her feet and growing in confidence when jumping. She received a pretty thorough back massage and stretch during the session and we’re continuing this at times when Beanie is receptive; basically this means nabbing her after a play session but before she gets settled under a blankie in a way that says: “Do Not Disturb Unless Food Is Involved”. Perhaps more importantly we were also given exercises to help counter any little imbalances / weaknesses that Beanie has developed.

The first of these involves regular slow walks along a course with obstacles that make her lift her feet cleanly. To achieve this I created an adjustable agility “ladder ” using PVC pipes and rope; as long as we get her to walk slowly to heel she does this quite well. The same cannot be said for The Bigglet; I’ve given him a few goes on the ladder so he doesn’t feel left out, but he usually makes a spectacular mess of it then proudly requests a biccie as a reward.

Just now the pipes are on the ground, but in a day or two I’ll raise them up a bit, making it more like the “cavaletti” arrangement used for training horses.

We’re also including short figure-of-eight weaving sessions around our legs. Both Beanie and Biggles are great at this; the challenge is to get them to do it slowly so that all limbs are working fully and no parts of the gait movement are being skipped.

The final prescription is for frequent wading in water. I do this near the end of our regular beach runs, taking the pups into the sea until the water is around Beagle belly height, and walking them slowly through it for a hundred yards or so. I have to say that this is not a popular exercise, especially given the freezing cold weather we’re having right now; Beanie gives me a really hard Clint Eastwood look throughout the session, and Biggles keeps trying to sneak back into shallower water. I keep telling them they should be grateful because they get a biccie once they’re back on dry land. What do I get? Cold wet feet and a big serving of diddly-squat, that’s what.

Although it wasn’t on her list of recommendations I reckon our recent walk up Haylie Brae at Largs would also have met with the physio’s approval; part of the walk involves going up a steep stepped section that really gets the those rear legs driving and lifting, and the walk is easily extended by further grassy inclines.

Sometime cattle can be seen wandering around on Haylie Brae, and that can be a concern for dog walkers. On this occasion there were no cows to be seen, but on our way back down a group of sheep had gathered at the bottom of the steps. It goes without saying that those same sheep were long gone by the time we’d made it down to the bottom.