Lula with her friend Jade

Lula was a Border Collie/Borzoi mix that I adopted from the Oregon Humane Society in 2007.  She had sustained a traumatic brain injury as a puppy as a result of a fall down a flight of stairs.  It caused a lesion in her brain stem that affected her movement.  She staggered when she walked and often leaned on things for support.  In particular, she had very low proprioceptive awareness of her right hind.  Though she was an active and sweet dog, she struggled socially.  When excited, she would lose control of her bite reflex and snap at the air.  Naturally, other dogs often misinterpreted her communication signals.

Two things helped this dog tremendously.  The first was the use of body bands (TTouch) and eventually a life-preserver jacket that provided just the right amount of pressure on her body that would control her tremors.  We discovered this accidentally when I took her to a friend’s house that had a pond.  Her dog was running in and out of the water and of course, Lula wanted to join.  We put a jacket on her and stayed close by, knowing the water could be a real danger to her.  But almost magically, when we put the vest on, she walked confidently and did not exhibit the same loss of control.

The second was microcurrent.  At the time, I purchased my microcurrent from Matrix Therapy Products (https://therapyproducts.net/product-category/microcurrent-therapy/).  I highly recommend their products and their training modules.

When I placed the microcurrent over her right leg and ran a protocol known as the ramping protocol, she would weight that limb fully and following treatment, she would walk straight with no shaking or leaning for an hour or two.  The benefits were temporary but it allowed us to work on strengthening those muscles during that time.  Because the device used wired electrodes, I never figured out a way to have her wear it for longer periods of time.  Today, some of the newer devices would probably have yielded even better results.