# Excerise for HD affected Senior?



## elisabeth_00117 (May 17, 2009)

*Excerise for HD affected Senior?*

A friend of mine has a GSD who just turned 11 years old. She has hip problems and a heart murmur (lowest grade) and is overweight big time.

She was asking me what type of excerise they should be doing.

I told her short walks around the neighbourhood or in the bush.

What other recommendations can I pass on?


----------



## jax (Feb 10, 2009)

*Re: Excerise for HD affected Senior?*

any exercise is good exercise...keeping her active in short durations a few times/day would be a good start...chat with ur vet also


----------



## elisabeth_00117 (May 17, 2009)

*Re: Excerise for HD affected Senior?*

This is my friends dog, mine is still fairly active for being 12 years old.. haha.. keeps up with Stark so that's saying something.. hahaha!

Anyways, she was told not a lot of strenous excerise with her and short walks like what I told her but she is looking for more fun things to do with her. I actually think she is a GSD mix, but she says purebred so.... I won't tell her any different..







But I know she would like to do more "fun" things with her as I think they are both bored with the walks.


----------



## M&J (Nov 16, 2002)

*Re: Excerise for HD affected Senior?*

Wading in shallow water. I have a 15 ft, 30" high pool my dogs use.
I paid $80 for it on clearance. It has a pump/filter and comes down at the end of summer.


----------



## Fodder (Oct 21, 2007)

*Re: Excerise for HD affected Senior?*

my girl is 10 with severe hd in both hips. i more or less allow her to gauge her own exercise as long as i provide the appropriate conditions. i don't let her do any jumping or climbing and no walking or running on hard or unsteady surfaces.

if walks get boring, try walking in new places (drive somewhere)

all that said, the very best exercise for them is wading as mentioned and swimming!

once she gets the dog down to a more comfortable weight - the results she sees will be amazing. 15lbs was like night and day for gia.


----------



## elisabeth_00117 (May 17, 2009)

*Re: Excerise for HD affected Senior?*

That's what I have been telling her too but she doesn't want her dog in the lake for some reason.. 

I invited her many times to go down to the lake with Stark and I but she always refuses to let her dog actually in the water, we go hiking together and such so I am not sure what the problem is... 

Thanks for your suggestions everyone!


----------

