Another big milestone

On Friday, we removed the enclosure that has surrounded his bed for nearly six months. We've kept him confined at night ever since his first injury because we did not want him to try to jump onto our bed in the middle of the night. He'd slept in our bed ever since his puppy training was complete, but our bed is pretty high off the floor, and he could have hurt himself trying to make the leap.

He's still not quite ready to jump up onto the bed, but we're strengthening his back legs with work on stairs, hills and the playground equipment at our local park. The surgeon says he'll try when he's ready, and he's no longer in danger of hurting himself by trying. We are looking into building a step for him, and getting a ramp for the car. That will help mitigate the premature arthritis he's likely to develop.

It was nice to remove one of the last vestiges of his confinement, giving him the choice to sleep where he wants, and go get a drink of water in the middle of the night.

Sometime later this month, we hope to reinstall the dog door, so he can get outside whenever he wants.

You can see the fur regrowth on his right rear leg in the photo at right (click on any of them for larger versions). His left leg looks even better; they only shaved part of it for the second surgery in December.

This is the playground equipment we're working his leg muscles on...