Thursday, April 5, 2012

Ball Breakthrough and Stretches

As promised, Abbey has been going on the exercise ball even on my busiest days. I come home from school, grab my treats, grab the ball and we have at it. What's absolutely great is that Abbey is always SO amped and excited to do her ball work, and I think I have become so obsessed with this style of therapy that I might just get a disc too. Now, we did our usual routine yesterday and today, but YESTERDAY we had a major breakthrough...Abbey knows how to orient her position so that she does not fall off the ball. That's a major step for great balance and better coordination. The ball got loose at one point while Abbey was standing on it and it started rolling and instead of jumping off (the reaction that I expected) she kept moving and moving repositioning herself so that she was always on top of the ball and she was STANDING at the same time. Well, well girlie...VERY impressive. I quickly grabbed the ball so that she didn't start looking like a circus monkey, she jumped off and I gave her plenty of praise and cookies. She is also able to perform her "sit pretty" without assistance...although from time to time she still demands some if she isn't in the right spot on the ball.

I usually massage Abbey gently after ball work and do a couple of stretches, this time we did a couple organized stretches and skipped the massage part. Hind leg stretches, back stretches, we also stretch her neck. She is actually quite flexie with those back stretches and she enjoyed doing those as well. Perhaps it's because she gets cookies. I wanted to thank Pam from Pam's Dog Academy for posting the video on constructive stretches to do with the dog to prevent a sport injury.

That's all for now! Thanks for keeping up with us, there's much more to come!

1 comment:

Natasha said...

Sounds great!! I need a bit of your dedication to ball work! :)