8 weeks after TTA surgery

Another milestone! We have reached 8 weeks post op by which point the bone should have healed. 

The simple instructions from our surgeon to just add 5 minutes on to our walks each week seem to have worked well. He walks very well with no limp. Yesterday we had a trip to Cuerden Valley Park and enjoyed a wander through tall grass and more uneven footpaths. No problems at all. For the past week or so he has had supervised access to stairs and has no problem getting up or down. He's a little slow, but then he his 10, and being slow means he has to bear weight on his leg. He has also been off lead a bit in the garden, but only after other exercise, so the risk of some explosive outburst is reduced.

When standing he still generally has more weight on his good leg, but much of the time he stands more normally, and is happy to cock his leg from time when we are out, with all his weight on the bad leg. 

Our surgeons instructions took us up to 8 weeks so now it's a case of being sensible. We will have plenty of on lead walks, with more hills and steps, really just continuing to build up the duration. We'll also introduce some intermittent walking and jogging. I read some seemingly good advice along the lines of master the walk, then master a quick walk,then master a trot, then master a run - only moving to the next when the dog really has each nailed perfectly.  

It seems a long time ago now that we were trying to cope with the return of a poorly dog from surgery, and particularly the sleepless nights. Our downstairs setup with the pen and mats have meant we had no incidents of slipping on the floor or jumping on the sofa whilst our back was turned. Getting your house ready for the return of a dog from surgery is probably the best advice I'd give for anyone who is taking their dog for an op. 

Fingers crossed it will all be progressively better now 👍