The park & 3.5 Weeks Post FHO

Hard to believe it has been 3.5 weeks since Seppel had his surgery. Progress is kind of back to being slow. Looking at videos on youtube it is hard to tell where he's really at - I think he's doing well for the time frame, but being a chronic worrier I worry we could be behind. He uses the leg but just doesn't put a lot of weight on it. It's frustrating, but then I try to remember we are ONLY 3.5 weeks out and that we still have a long road ahead of us.

Anyway today I took him swimming. I have tried to swim him everyday, on days we don't make it to the park I will walk him instead. Hopefully I will have a pool up soon so we won't have to rely on the park.

ugh. The Park.

If your dog is a total out of control asshole I firmly believe you shouldn't bring your dog to the park or a public place with other dogs. What I mean by out of control asshole is that you CANNOT control the dog, and that other dogs and people are at risk because you have no control over your dog. If your dog is dog aggressive, but well under your control, I have absolutely no problems sharing the park with you. I have been fairly lucky in that most of the time the area I am swimming Seppel has been dog and people free. Most of our dog interaction ends up on the way to the water, or when people come up to the water.

I have no issues advocating for my dog, but it is SO uncomfortable when the first words out of a person's mouth is "My dog is fine!" or "My dog is nice!" and I have to say "Well mine isn't, he doesn't like other dogs." I mean, I shouldn't even have to say that my dog isn't friendly. People shouldn't be allowing their dogs to come up to mine. This whole thing shouldn't even be a problem. My dog is on leash, we are minding our own business, and oh, by the way, I come to the park to swim him - not have a doggy play date.

It's just so frustrating to me. Today for example a guy had his GSD mix thing running loose. He goes "She's friendly! She doesn't know how to be mean!" and I'm already like UGH so I say "Oh my dog is recovering from surgery, he's on drugs and can't socialize." Then of course the guy is asking me questions and his dog is trying to sniff Seppel. I mean Sepp was great, and I think the odds of him actually attacking a dog are very SLIM - but I don't take chances. There's no reason for my dog to make new friends in an uncontrolled situation where I know absolutely nothing about the other dog.

As we were leaving the creek I was just thinking today, WHY do people do this? I come to the park to walk my dog and to take him for a swim. I'm not bringing him to make friends with other dogs. It's wonderful that so many people have "friendly dogs" but I don't understand why they can't keep their dogs to themselves.

I just feel that I end up making myself and my dog look bad because we don't want to socialize. That the other person is thinking that if my dog isn't friendly it shouldn't be at the park. Well he's not dog friendly, but he's completely under my control, we're minding our own business, I feel like we have every right to be there.

Anyway RANT OVER.

I know this will be something we will always be dealing with. It really doesn't matter how we look, because I need to advocate for my dog and it's OKAY to tell people to leave us alone. I have every right to be there walking my dog and there is nothing wrong with telling people that they need to keep their dogs away. *deep breath*

Here is a video of Seppel walking from today:

His poor little atrophied leg!

I almost forgot, I have cut his pain medication back to twice a day. He is getting tramadol/gababpentin/vetprofen in the AM and in the PM. I've been doing this for a few days now and he seems to be handling less medication just fine. If he seems painful we will bump is back up to 3x a day, but I think 4x w/ the tramadol is a bit much and not really necessary now.