On Nov 24th at Clareville Show Grounds for the Wairarapa Dog Obedience Club Ribbon day
$25 per person/dog combination.

Agility and fly-ball is becoming increasingly popular all over New Zealand with dog owners.  My spaniels and I love it and they will jump for fun all day.  However it is not as easy to pick up on subtle stiffness or muscle weakness as it is with horses as we are not sitting on them!  They will adapt their style of jumping or running to compensate without us telling them to 'go straight' as we do with horses. 
Massage and an exercise/stretching routine is a great way to monitor your dogs symmetry of joint motion and muscle health, as well as good bonding time.  I am running a clinic at the Wairarapa Dog Obedience Club's ribbon day on Saturday after the last classes have run.  This will be a hands of clinic with your own dogs to work through a pre exercise massage, then some stretches and exercises to help core strenght and balance.  I will go over some anatomy and why it is important to work on each region we work on.  We are all aware of the importance of hind limb strenght for propulsion but do not always think about the role the forelimbs and thoracic support muscles play in balance, control and breaking particularly when weaving and on contacts. 
So if you are interested please contact me either by my web page or Facebook page.  I will also be available on Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th for one on one consultations.  Hope to see you there.

Well we have finally settled at Totara Flats my parents farm in the Wairarapa and I am gearing up for a busy summer now it is finally here.  I will be endeavoring to post any useful information, news, articles and general updates to my services here on my Blog.  So please watch this space!
Since moving back to New Zealand from England in 2011 I have been thrilled with the reception and interest from vets and other animal health professionals in working with me.  This is really important as any physical therapy is complementary to veterinary care and does not replace it.  My time spent working Dr Sue Dyson and Dr Rachel Murray at the Animal Health Trust in Newmarket, UK, has impressed on me the importance of finding a diagnosis if possible for physical discomfort in our animals.  Lameness can range from the obvious down to a niggling poor performance that does not present as an overt issue.  There are many different reasons for a horse to become reluctant to perform at its previous level or even move up in training stages and if rest or a reduction in work does not bring about an improvement then it can be useful to have a multi-pronged approach to diagnosing the problem.  Remember that although physical therapists are trained to assess an animal for lameness and musculoskeltal issues we cannot see inside the animal itself!! Therefore we cannot say for sure what the underlying issues really is, only give you an educated assessment of the region of discomfort.  This is were working along side vets is important as together we can use diagnostic techniques such as nerve or joint blocks and image structures with ultrasound, xray, and even bone scans (scintigraphy). 
I will be posting some interested articles writen on the more obscure lameness and issues of horses and dogs and hope to start with Proximal Suspensory Desmitis as this is one of my own personal interests having ridden many for diagnostic work ups at The AHT.
And of course some more light hearted news such as when we are able to open our inpatient services here at Totara Flats Farm (although please contact me if you would like to enquire about this as we can take some now). 
Thanks for joining me at the beginnning of this stage of my adventure and please come back to follow me for more.......