Carry A Dog

Given that our dog Solo lost the ability to walk at the start of the year and it was ‘touch and Go’ for her for a while, we were then told she would need a lot of Rehab and short walks and some specialist equipment to get her moving again. We started to accumulate items for her recovery and though this is a rather unusual list we have been asked a number of times about some of the items – like, where to get them, what is best and do they really work, so today we are sharing our findings with you on ways to carry a dog and to help a dog walk when they aren’t able to do it themselves.

So first off Solo our Springer Spaniel got bitten by a Tick last year and then over Christmas started to show symptoms. Basically she got an infection in her soft tissue and the connective nerves in and surrounding her spine – resulting in a loss of bone density. Therefore she lost the ability to feel her lower half.

After long courses of antibiotics and VERY expensive scans and treatment and long bought of Hydrotherapy she is today, mostly back to a normal healthy dog, she still walks a bit odd and get tireder than she would have, but thankfully she’s back to be a pest and a manic pulling machine.

However every so often she gets a little too tired and needs to be carried for a bit, then when she is recharged, she sets off again at brake-neck speed! She is still having Hydrotherapy weekly and is in recovery but still needs help and can still do with therapy and if you would like to help her you can still support her via her Go Fund Me.

Back in January, Solo being the lively Springer Spaniel relied on a harness, collar and lead, normal Dog Walking equipment, the only specialty in these were the extentable lead was the longest we could find – over 10m to allow her to walk ahead of everyone (and we mean everyone) and Julius K9 Harness with her official badges as our Emotional Support Dog on the sides (this is a genuine thing, not just a gimmick).

But then with the diagnosis and the idea of her never walking again it was suggested we buy her a wheelchair.

Dog Wheelchair For Back Legs — from Amazon

We set about trying to get her to fit in it, this was not easy and having to carry her and the wheelchair down 30+ stairs every time was not looking like fun, but outside and in the chair she was tentative and clumsy, she may have got used to it in time, but she habitually walks right next to the wall or road and so kept banging into and snagging at the side of the path. It was also a little basic, just a few poles, some trolley wheels and the minimum of foam for padding, it would need a lot of personal adaptations to pad out for the dog. In all we would say it was…

We were then advised to not use the Wheelchair because she could just get lazy and not bother walking, so that was instead replaced it with

A Filfeel – Hip Harness – From Amazon

To aid her walking, the first one was stupid, designed by someone who had never seen the back end of a dog, it had holes in the wrong places and four leg holes for two legs and was sent back immediately.

Then replaced by the Mikki. This version is basically a nappy with straps, 2 leg holes and velcro wrapped her hips up like a superhero dog, the straps to hold her were clearly made for the vertically challenge of us – So Bob was fine!! – But we had to extend it for Ash to hold the dog’s backside up and allow her to walk.

At first it was only a 2-5minute walk a day, but quickly she started to move better and further, but she still couldn’t manage more than 10 minutes and had to be deposited in a carrier after that.

This hip harness was ok to start with but after a few weeks she started to hunch up and her spine started to form a hump, plus the foam started to stretch and after a month or so it wrapped around her back and the velcro barely overlapped. So we improvised and this was something that needs to be made. It was also super expensive at £58.98

With the hip harness on the back legs and the Julius Harness on the front and chest, the extended straps of the nappy pulled along her back, through the carry handle and then up to the person walking her, made her not hunch and straightened her back and made her walk better and straighter. But still only for shorter distances – up to 15minutes a day.

Plus she needed boots on her back feet, these were various, we were given a pair by the vet and though they seemed basic they proved pretty good, they were basically thick balloons that were really hard to blow up! They lasted about 3 months before she wore them out by the constant dragging of her back feet and we tried to buy more, then discovered that even via eBay they were anywhere from £13-36. So in all they were good, simple but far too expensive

We also got her the Aussie Fireman’s Dog’s Boots with rubber soles, these are tough as a Outbacker’s skin in midday sun, but she pulled her feet out of them as quickly as she could, because she walked like she was in treacle in them. though they are resilient they are odd for a dog to wear and so they remained unworn and got a…

So started carrying her, in bags of all sorts, sports bags, luggage bags and even a Tote Bag with holes cut out the bottom for her legs to dangle, this last one actually worked the best, but carrying her 15kg dog on one side was a pain in the back and hip, literally.

So we went to the next option, a Rucksack.

The Red one – Happy Hachi

She needed to face forward so that she didn’t struggle and so her front paws were on the carrier’s shoulders and so she would be leaning into the body and not away. This bag was better and helped this problem a bit, but not the desire to be on the floor, she was facing forward and so leaned in, but she still spun down and around, doing a Dabbing action to lean to one side at all times and causing hip problems that Bob is still suffering from today. The red bag eventually ripped also and was sent back, replaced and then we gave up in favour of the next.

The Black one – Woolala

By Febuary we were ready to return to our walk the CMHoL (see the page and posts for details), but with a dog unable to do long walks, we shortened the sections and set off using the black bag until the disaster.

And so it was back to the drawing board and the next one.

This was a strange bag, the dog was put in, with her legs sticking out much like the Tote Bag and the straps were by her back, so she would hang in the bag on our backs (Bob’s mainly as she’s the strong Gym Bunny) and would by carried, watching the world go by – Yeah, sure! What actually happened was she would lean away from the person carrying her and strained our spines, then she spun in the bag and twisted to see over our shoulder to where she was going and when that didn’t work, she leaned over and down to look under our elbows at the road ahead and caused absolutely agony in the lower back, shoulders and hips. Until that is that she realised that if she used her bodyweight and whipped from side to side and threw herself down to the side she could slip out and fall to the floor. A few attempts at this and the side of the bag ripped completely open.

Next came

The Caravan!

This was getting ridiculous, the best option we found was a kind of cat box, but it a larger size, the square shape meant she was on a solid base and could poke her head out the top and see where she was going, most dogs and cats in these simply curl up and go to sleep and we have seen a number of smaller versions around with sleeping occupants, but no, not Solo, she had to be watching at all times and so she would sit up.

But the shape of the base and the hip support strap meant it gave extra padding at the base of the spine and hips. That is until the baseboard inside the carrier snapped and the dog was sat in a loose bag, like a bag of badly packed shopping in a rucksack, except the shopping keeps wriggling and twisting!. We got a replacement base from the makers and all was good again, but then that snapped and the sides also started to pull and the straps/hip support started to stretch and it wore on the wearer’s Coccyx and bruised the hips.

Now three base boards in, we made the third out of plywood and foam it’s still better but after four months we are glad that Solo is better enough that she has been able to walk a lot more and not needed to be carried every time. But if we do have a long journey or day out, the Caravan will still be pulled out unless we can find a better solution. That is until she destroys it.