The life of a professional athlete

When a professional football player becomes injured, he becomes like the sick child. All of a sudden attention to the excess is given to him to do whatever it takes to get him back onto the field. Massages, stretching, exercises, hot tubs; you name it, I am sure they get it. Just like in professional football, in the professional mushing world dogs become injured from time to time as well. It’s just like a human marathon runner: every once in awhile a muscle will be pulled or strained, or there will be sore ankle or knee.
Unfortunately, dogs cannot talk, and they cannot tell us exactly what hurts or is sore. We can often tell when a dog is sore, but being able to tell exactly what muscle is the culprit is another story. Once it is determined what exactly is sore on a dog, the standard procedure has been for a long time to lay the dog off until no sign of lameness can be seen and then stick them back into the team. Obviously there are several issues with this procedure, the first of which is the dog becomes out of shape while he is being laid off.
Here at Goose Lake Kennels we are attempting to change this standard procedure for the better. First of all, we are learning how to properly massage and stretch the dogs. Believe it or not, dogs enjoy a nice muscle rub just as much as we do. The second part we are trying is a doggy hot tub. I told my mom this on the phone the other night, and she proceeded to laugh for the next 5 minutes, so go ahead and get it over with.
In reality, though, it makes perfect sense. We swim injured dogs in the doggy hot tub for 30 minutes daily; not only is this good exercise to keep them in shape while they are laid off, but it also warms the muscles and helps them stretch out. We keep the hot tub between 80 and 90 degrees and are able to swim three dogs at time. We are far from perfecting the doggy hot tub, but we believe it is definitely a step in the right direction.