What is Proprioception?
Proprioception is a combination of balance, joint position sense, and body awareness. Basically the body needs to know where its limbs and joints are in relation to each other and the environment. If it doesn’t know where to start from, then the body has difficulty moving correctly.
After injury, an operation or when pain is present proprioception is not as finely tuned and needs help to recover. Physiotherapists have many ways to help proprioception improve.
What does poor proprioception cause?
If a dog has poor proprioception then they move poorly. If recovering from an injury or operation this can slow down returning to fun daily life.
Poor proprioception leads to developing muscle asymmetry and joint strain.
Moving poorly, even when really subtle, leads to pain and risk of injury.
Old dogs or those with arthritis are in less pain if their proprioception is helped.
Athletic dogs benefit tremendously from having excellent fine tuned proprioception in order to reduce their risk of injury and to benefit performance.
How can proprioception be improved?
Physiotherapy has many ways to help proprioception including many that you can do for and with your dog.
Hands on physio helps the muscles and joints to move freely helping the information about the body sent to the brain to be sharper.
Certain types of touch techniques that you can be taught to do will also stimulate proprioception. Fun home exercises that work on deep tissue around joints are also a good source but need to be specific to your dog and their needs.
Setting up a home and walk environment that stimulates proprioception is also advantageous.
