I have a 22 month old female shepherd, west german working lines. she is very high energy and needs more excercise than a normal walk or she gets really wound up, especiall now that the weather is getting quite cool. I decided to take her on bike rides...when she was younger i used to take her out but haven't in a while. i would like to get her AD eventually.

last Tuesday, I took Cassie on a ride. i warmed her up, walking for about a half mile, then started trotting. i kept her trotting at a good pace for about 6 or 8 miles. i didn't intend to go that far, but she was still trotting along easily, even when we were done, and she wasn't tired at all afterwards. i walked her 1/2 mile back again and then that was it. i thought i saw her limping on occasion but then i thought my mind was just playing tricks on me because i'd watch and she wasn't.

that night, i noticed she was limping. it appeared to be in her left front foot, she was limping pretty noticeably and kept licking her foot, about from the pastern down. after about 3 days she seemed fine. Today, I took her out again. At first I noticed she was limping again and thought about not going out, but then i decided to take it slow and see if she worked out of it (I used to have horses and a lot of the time this did the trick). after a while it didn't look like she was getting any better so i was going to go back but then she looked fine again so i continued.

after several hours, i notice she's limping pretty badly now, it's even noticable when she walks. the ride was mostly on pavement, although i tried to get her to run along the soft shoulder of the bike paths. her toenails were too long during the first ride, my mistake, but i clipped them the night after we got back. does anyone have any idea why she she might be limping? is she just sore? what should i do to help her get better, is there anything over the counter that i can give her? how can i keep this from happening again? any advice is appreciated, thanks!

Probably a combination of things have contributed to the soreness she sounds definetly sore in the pasterns and might have sore shoulders too.
- "weekend warrior syndrome" - 6-8 miles on a first time out is too much mileage all at once, scaling back the mileage and increasing gradually would be a good idea. RUNNING ON PAVEMENT IS BAD - very hard on joints such as pastern and shoulder. Some sheperds are quite long in the pastern and heavier in the front end and jolting their front end on pavement is a bad idea. You can buggar up their shoulders and shoulder injuries are really slow to recover and tend to happen again if you have done them once.

- long toenails put too much stress on the pastern and when running on pavement the dog is not able to dig or push off as he could on a softer surface. Keep them short will ensure that they don't break off and keeps the quick short

- when biking with a dog, the dog tends alter its gait to keep up with the bike unless it is front of the bike and you are matching your speed to the most efficient and comfortable speed of the dog. (old musher saying- "you can't push a rope")

When running with the dog you should stop before the dog is "done" - he should still be raring to go when you stop as this will ensure that you keep your dog high attitiude and he will want to go out next time. Dogs that are overun on a continuous basis will learn to back off in their effort, shirk, quit or get sour enough that they can blow up spectactularly. A real honest dog will want to please you but even if they don't do any of the aforementioned they will just learn to go really slow.

Don't run her until she is sound again, and try to run on a softer surface and scale back your mileage appropriately. In the meantime- try some massage with liniment (horse stuff is ok) or get some "Algyval" rub and use some leg wraps especially on her front. You can get the wraps from a mushing supplier - they are just a piece of neoprene or other stretchy material that velcros on the dogs leg and gives some compression and warmth to let the joint recover. http://www.coldspotfeeds.com has them as do others. You can also get shoulder coats that have little pockets you can insert handwarmers in to keep the shoulders warm and loose.
Are you using a Springer or just letting her run beside the bike? Bikejoring might be a better idea as you can monitor gait, proper speed etc much better if the dog is in front. Good for doing lead dog training and making them stay on the shoulder etc. Hope this helps. Sled Dog Central has a good novice area that has lots of good info and should have some stuff on bikejoring. PM me if you have trouble locating any of the above. Good luck and mush on!

Does anyone have any opinions on supplements with glucosamine or chondroitin (excuse my spelling) and the like? will that help her?

Hi. Sorry to hear about your GSD limping. I agree with the other comments that without working up to long distance trekking, 6-8 miles is way to much. The dog may have some serious pain, especially if she has pano. Dogs can still have pano (or even get it) at 2 yrs to 5 years. Most of the time you would never know it, but with heavy exercise it can become obvious that there are painful joints. What would concern me is the location of the pain. It isn't in a long bone, so I might wonder if the ankle was twisted a little or if there isn't a crack in her paw. Take a good look at her paws and see if there is any swelling around joints. Also, look at her toes to see if a nail is broken.

When our dogs have come up lame (which honestly hasn't been but two times) we give some Ascription (Malox covered aspirin--325 mg. for a large dog--1/2 tab a.m., 1/2 tab p.m.). This can help the healing and pain. Additionally, I always have sworn by DMSO as a great vertrinary tool for treating joint and muscle pain. Works great on humans as well. Talk with your vet and pick some up once you have ascertained it isn't anything more serious than overuse. You can mix it or it can come in a cream base. Be sure you DON'T exercise the dog on DMSO because you won't see her limp and you could be doing a lot more damage.

If she keeps up the limping, even with rest, I'd have it looked into. Good luck.

Well, a quick update...I took her out yesterday, for a slow ride (same distance but at a pace just quick enough to keep her from walking) and she did great. afterwards i had her do a few recalls and played fetch and she was full of energy. and the best part, she's still sound! i think it was just because her nails were too long last time. i'm also trying to keep her more on dirt paths than pavement, that should help a lot too.